Why no TV until at least three
Both my wife and I love to watch TV, especially Netflix. Now that we are parents that has drastically changed. Binge watching a season now is a thing of the past. When we read one of our favorite parenting books, Brain Rules for Baby, one of the brain rules is to have no TV until three. As parents, we had a decision to make. We decided to follow the rule of no TV until at least three and here is why. The rule came from this audiobook or the paperback version. And this book. Two of my favorite parenting resources.
Learning without TV
The unfortunate truth is babies and toddlers do not learn from TV. The claims by children’s TV shows about being educational is unsubstantiated. Entertaining yes, educational no.
The best thing you can do for your child to help them learn and develop is to give them the opportunity to play, touch, grab and hear. TV gets in the way if they are watching TV that is time better spent playing and learning.
Play games that are appropriate for their age. They don’t have to cost anything. As they get older using their imagination is great for improving their executive function. Modelling social skills and behavior can be done through games and fun. One of my son’s favorite games is peek-a-boo which is great for learning object permanence.
Give them the opportunity to touch different textures, such as crinkle paper, your soft sweater, wood toys …etc.
If you have an older infant, you may have noticed they LOVE to grab things. My son will see our dogs toys and army crawl as fast as he can to get to it so he can put it in his mouth (even though he is surrounded by his own toys). While we don’t let him do this with dog toys due to the dog slobber (gross), we do have a vast array of different toys with different textures for him to play with. This is important developmentally, babies learn with their mouths. It also is good for teething.
Talking to your baby from day one is a fantastic thing you can do for them. Hearing a large number of words on a daily basis helps them develop a better vocabulary later on. Tell them what you see, hear or are doing. It doesn’t have to be super interesting or relevant. As a person that is not very verbal, this has been a bit of a challenge.
Family Time
Since my son was born and especially now that he is more aware and will watch TV if it was playing. We have moved from watching TV while eating dinner to finally using the dinner table (after wiping off the dust). While a transition it has been worth it. This was something we decided to prioritize when my wife was pregnant.
Summary
Some people may go for limited TV instead. We decided against that because it is too easy to just watch one more episode or for a baby to get sucked in and prefer the TV rather than playing. Giving up watching TV and playing with my son instead has been rewarding and fun.
