A recent study, The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on Young Children’s Executive Function, took 60 four year old children and randomly assigned them to watch either the fast paced and hectic cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants or the slower-paced PBS cartoon Caillou or to draw pictures.

Experts have long felt that exposing children to TV, especially quickly moving kids programs, are linked to short-term attention and learning problems.

After the children in the study had been exposed to either watching TV or engaging in imaginative drawing for 9 minutes they were given a mental function test. Those who had watched SpongeBob scored considerably worse than the others.

This study has leant weight to previous research that has linked TV watching with long-term attention problems in children, but more importantly it has also highlighted the more immediate problems that can occur after very little exposure.

University of Virginia psychologist Professor Angeline Lillard, lead study author, said parents should realise that young children are compromised in their ability to learn and use self-control immediately after watching such fast-paced shows – but SpongeBob should not be singled out.

The researchers suggested that children’s cartoon shows typically feature 22 minutes of action, so watching a full program “could be more detrimental.”

Dr Dimitri Christakis, a child development specialist at the Seattle Children’s Hospital has said that “We found that watching television before the age of 3 increases the chances that children will develop attentional problems at age 7.”

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Pediatrics 2011, online 12 September