Tuesday, October 27, 2009

How Can Watching TV Be Advantageous to Kids

By Alissa Leigh

While growing up some of us only had limited TV channels. Besides, cartoons weren't on 24/7, so instead, we could only watch them during the morning before going to school and during Saturdays. Nowadays kids have a wealth of options with numerous TV channels for kids that run nothing but cartoons and kid shows all day, all week.

On the other hand, the good news is that nowadays, programs do go beyond math and reading teaching, delving into social interactions that aid kids learn how to build friendships and get along with each other, encourage problem solving in the world around them and gain new ideas on how to deal with new, unfamiliar situations.

When kids watch the right TV shows content, it can be beneficial for them. The following tips offer ideas on how to do that:

Promote finding talking points: Parents accompany their kids watching shows can be able to use the program's topic as a talking point. A character lies, steals, cries, fights, helps others or cooperates. Try to your children what happens when someone lies or steals. What can a person do when she's upset? These will help provide chances for families to discuss what happens when you do the right thing and how the character went about solving a problem.

Tie show with research: You kids may have learned a new word or a program's topic amazed them. Use the chance to go online to do research and get more researching skills. They can look up for various definitions and check the local library's catalog for books on the topic for further reading. Like for example, a show covers a variety of music genres is a chance for kids to go online and listen to songs from the related genres and learn about the history of the music.

Discover culture: Watch the news, documentaries, historical programs and music. More TV programs explore different cultures in terms of history, music, food and more.

Solve problems: Characters often face challenges and work to overcome them. Parents can use these problems as a way to talk to their kids about their experiences.

Learning good social skills and teamwork: The frequent theme is friendship which teaches how to work together, play fair and understand other people's feeling - something that would boost a child's emotional intelligence.

Remember to balance the TV time with physical activities, reading, playing with non-electronic toys and going outside. Kids also learn from parent behavior.

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