Reading suffers when TV rules, research shows

By RENEE KIRIONA

Children who live in homes where television is on most of the time have more trouble learning to read than their peers, researchers say.

The findings in a United States study on children up to 6 come as concern grows about poor literacy levels among New Zealand children.

The US report found that children spent up to two hours a day watching television, playing a video game or using a computer.

That was roughly the same amount of time they spent playing outdoors and three times as long as they spent reading or being read to.

The Green Party is worried that similar TV viewing times have been reported in primary-school children here.

About one-third of US children aged 6 and younger have TVs in their rooms and a similar proportion live in homes where a TV is on most or all the time.

The Kaiser Family Foundation and Children's Digital Media Centre in California found that in "heavy TV households" - where a third of children under 6 have their own TVs, or a television is on most or all of the time - 34 per cent of children aged 4 to 6 could read, compared with 56 per cent in homes where the TV was on less often.

The report said 27 per cent of 4 to 6-year-olds used a computer each day. Those who did spent about an hour at the keyboard.

Among children in that age group, the report said half had played video games and one-quarter played several times a week or more.

Reading, however, is still a regular part of children's lives. Almost 80 per cent of children 6 and under read, or were read to, on any given day.

Still, the report said, children spent only 49 minutes on average with books in a day compared with two hours and 22 minutes in front of a TV or computer screen.

In a typical day, 24 per cent of boys played video games compared with 8 per cent of girls.

"Watching TV is far inferior to playing with toys, being read to or playing with adults or talking with parents," said Dr Henry Shapiro, chairman of developmental and behaviour paediatrics at the American Academy of Paediatrics. "Watching TV without a parent is a junk experience, especially for young children."

The Green Party's broadcasting spokeswoman, Sue Kedgley, said the amount of television New Zealand children watched was a huge concern.

The MP, who headed last year's TV Turnoff Week campaign, wants a new broadcasting policy for children's programmes to be an advertisement-free zone.

"I'm not saying watching TV is totally bad, but if kids watch too much they can become addicted, which usually leads to them having less active lifestyles."

Auckland reading expert Brian Cutting said it would be disastrous if preschoolers, especially babies, were watching too much television.

But the medium could be a powerful tool for learning if used properly.

"Turning off the TV in this day and age is just not realistic, so all we can do then is to ensure there are more educational programmes."

In the late 1990s Mr Cutting produced The Magic Box television programme, which taught children how to read.

He and Ms Kedgley agreed that parents could prevent their children from becoming "couch potatoes" and poor readers by discouraging them from watching too much TV, reading with them at least once a day and encouraging them into activities that involved more play and imagination.

New Zealanders aged 5 to 14 spent between 127 and 171 minutes a day watching TV, according to a survey last year by Nielsen Media Research.

The same agegroup spent the least time reading each day - 10 minutes - according to the 1999 Time-Use Survey by Statistics New Zealand.


STUDY FINDINGS

* Children 6 and younger spend about two hours a day with a TV, video games or a computer.

* 48 per cent of children 6 and under have used a computer; 30 per cent have played video games.

* 90 per cent of parents set rules about what their children can watch and 69 per cent control how much time their children can watch TV.

* Children with time-related rules spend about half an hour less a day in front of the TV than other children.

* 68 per cent of children under 2 will be in front of a screen for an average of just over two hours a day.

* 36 per cent of children 6 and younger have TVs in their bedroom.

* 65 per cent of children live in homes where the TV is left on at least half the time, even if no one is watching.

* 36 per cent live in homes where TV is on always or most of the time and are less likely to read.