Infants exposure to TV delays brain development

BEIJING, June 2 (Xinhuanet)-- A new study says constant television in a household reduces attentional and cognitive development in kids.

A new study says constant television in a household reduces attentional and cognitive development in kids.（File photo）

"Audible television clearly reduces speech for both infants and their caregivers within the home and this is potentially harmful for babies' development," said University of Washington professor of pediatrics Dimitri Christakis, who led the study.

The study involving 329 children looked at infants aged two months to four years old. The children wore a small, business card-sized, two ounce digital recorder on random days monthly for up to two years. A specially designed vest with a chest pocket held the recorders at a specific distance from the mouth, and captured everything the child said and also heard during continuous 12 to 16 hour periods.

The recorders were removed only for naps, baths, nighttime sleep and car rides. A speech identification software program processed the recorded files to analyze sounds children were exposed to in their environment, as well as the sounds and utterances they made.

Measurements in this study included adult word counts, child vocalizations, and child conversational turns, defined as verbal interactions when a child vocalizes and an adult responds to them vocally (or vice versa) within five seconds.

The study found that each hour of audible television was associated with significant reductions in child vocalizations, vocalization duration, and conversational turns. On average, each additional hour of television exposure was also associated with a decrease of 770 words the child heard from an adult during the recording session. This represented a seven percent decrease in words heard, on average. There were significant reductions in both adult female and male word counts. From 500 to 1,000 fewer adult words were spoken per hour of audible television.

"These results may explain the association between infant television exposure and delayed language development," Christakis said.