Today's Hot Topic (4/15): Should children have televisions in their bedrooms?
TV in bedrooms linked to lower test scores
BY KRISTA CONGER
Want to improve your child's standardized test scores? You might want to start by booting out the television that likely occupies a place of honor in your youngster's bedroom and booting up a computer elsewhere in the home.
A new study by researchers at the School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University indicates that third-graders with televisions in their bedrooms perform significantly worse on standardized tests than their peers without. Conversely, those with access to a home computer earn higher test scores. The differences persist regardless of the amount of time the students reported spending on homework.
"This study provides even more evidence that parents should either take the television out of their child's room, or not put it there in the first place," said Thomas Robinson, MD, director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and associate professor of pediatrics.
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Do your kids have a television in their rooms? (How old are your children?)
Do you think it matters much one way or the other?
Do your kids have a television in their rooms? (How old are your children?)
No. Before we got married we dicided we would never put a TV in the kids room. They won't have a computer in their room either. But we have both a TV (no cable hooked up to it, only DVD player) and 3 computers in the toy room. Ages are 12, 7,5,&4
What do you think about this topic? Do you think it matters much one way or the other?
Actually I don't think much of it.
My kids won't have a TV in their room. I don't even have a TV in my room. We don't have cable. We watch a family movie once a week. That works for us. We talk, play games, read...all of that old fashioned stuff. It may sound boring, but I think it makes for smart children and a strong family.
My son has my old stereo in his room but no tv.
I don't believe in having tv until you are responsible enough. I was 8 when I had my own tv but it wasn't connected to cable or satellite. I watched movies, and bougt blank vhs tapes to record my favorite tv shows. I rarely used it though.
I don't think children should have tvs in their rooms if it's hooked up to cable or satellite. Maybe just for playing dvds and whatnot. I know with a blu ray or regular dvd player you can make a cd with mp3s for them to play if you would like them to listen to songs and stuff too. But definitely no cable/satellite.
I'm a pro-choicepro-optionsSingleStay at homeWelfare bummin'unemployedPart-time schoolin' Universitydisposable diapering 'cause it's easier than cleaning shit off clothSelective vaccinating 'cause I said soex-formula feeding 'cause I was just too damn lazy to breastfeedNon-circumsizing but don't give a shit if you cut your son's pludegive my kiddo pop once in a pink moonCIO since my kid was old enough to roll overCANADIANABORIGINALMAMA
Ok I must be a horrible Mother then, because both of my boys have TV's, VCR's, DVD's, and Computer's with full internet access in their rooms!! BTW they are both on the "A" Honor Roll, my oldest has been since he was in the 1st grade~he is now a freshman in HS and is in all honors courses, he also is taking his first yr of Jr. College at the same time and has already recieved several scholarships for college...my youngest is only 7yrs old and has been moved from the 1st grade to the 3rd grade because he too is following in his brothers footsteps. As for do I believe that having these items in the their rooms makes for failing or less of a score on testing~Ummm NO! It really depends on the parenting styles, the parent involvement and the environment in which the child is raised.
No tvs in the bedrooms here.
I don't plan to ever put one in there. I suppose when they have jobs they can buy their own.
I guess I just don't understand why a parent would want their child sitting in a bedroom watching tv. Children need to be interactive with the family. If they are going to be watching tv, they should be doing it with the family.
Do your kids have a television in their rooms? (How old are your children?)
My boys are 8,8 and 11. The twins do have a tv in their room. They are only allowed to watch it on the weekends though. We don't have cable at all. They do have an X-box that is also of course a dvd player. It's in their room b/c my oldest doesn't want them in his room and it's all of theirs. They are doing fine in school. Jacob, my 11 year old, is on A-B honor roll. The twins are doing fine.
Do you think it matters much one way or the other?
Honestly I don't think much of standaridized tests. I hated them and sucked at them and my boys pretty much do the same. My oldest can do pretty good on them, he usually scores above average. But they make good grades for the most part so I really don't think it matters. It just depends on the child and the family I guess.
Quoting christina0607:
No tvs in the bedrooms here.
I don't plan to ever put one in there. I suppose when they have jobs they can buy their own.
I guess I just don't understand why a parent would want their child sitting in a bedroom watching tv. Children need to be interactive with the family. If they are going to be watching tv, they should be doing it with the family.
This is why we never allowed TVs in the girls' rooms. They are now grown, 24, 22, and 18, with the 18 yo a senior in hs and the only one at home. We also only own 3 TVs - one in the family room, one in the basement, and a small under-the-counter TV in the kitchen. We have basic cable, but no premium channels.
We allowed the girls to have stereos in their rooms, but no computers. The computer is in the family room where either I or my husband could look over a shoulder at any time to see what website was being accessed. We also never allowed the girls to have land phones in their rooms, until they were driving and then were allowed to have cell phones. I would then scan every cell phone bill to see when they were using their phones. My oldest and youngest were caught a few times abusing their cell phone priviledges by talking after bedtime on school nights and the punishment was turning their phones over to me when they went to bed for a week.
This makes me sound like a nazi-mom, but I'm old-fashioned enough to believe kids have access to way too much adult-stuff and it was just easier to monitor and control it with only 3 TVs, one computer, and two parents on patrol. ; )
My boys will be 3 next month and no tv in their room. I will never put one in their room either. My parents allowed my sister and I to have a tv in our room when I was about 11 yrs. old. I was def. a tv bug and would totally skip doing homework to watch mindless tv. My parents really didn't monitor our tv watching that much. It's not that they were bad parents they were just really busy with four kids. Especially four kids who played four different sports. I just feel like the kids should watch tv with the family and have family time. As for computers, they will never be in their room. I want to monitor that full time. The internet is a scary place for kids to be using unsuperivsed. My parents never allowed computers in our room alone. We had one in an open area where everyone could see what you were doing on it.
Yes my soon to be 6 year old does but hardly watches it ,she is a outdoor girl.
All of my kids have televisions with cable in their rooms (they are aged 16,9 and 7). They only watch after their their homework is done, so I don't see what the big deal is...
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on Apr. 15, 2009 at 12:44 AM