|  |
How the Media Influences Learning and Social Skills
Dr. Alvin Poussaint, a clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Media Center of the Judge Baker Children's Center, says that one long-term effect of watching too much television is that children can become very passive.
 |
"It's not interactive, and that's not a good way to promote learning," says Dr. Poussaint. Kids get the message that they can just sit and be entertained. |
|
Children will think activities other than media experiences, particularly school, are boring if there's not a high level of stimulation and entertainment-focus. |
|
He says media may also interfere with creativity. Children are not engaging in their own skills, imagination or fantasy, because they're getting their entertainment passively from a TV screen. |
|
If children are watching TV instead of talking to others, they may not develop social skills. Dr. Poussaint says they might not be learning language the way they should: to speak it, not just to hear it. |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| Can the media have any positive influence on your child? |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
