New Study Emphasizes the Importance of Quality Kids Programming
You might be interested in a new study published this week by the journal Pediatrics which emphasizes the importance of the quality of kids programming and further substantiates the value of educational media. The study found watching a snippet of a SpongeBob cartoon negatively affected 4-year-olds’ attention spans while watching a more realistic PBS KIDS cartoon, Caillou, did not.
University of Virginia researchers divided a group of 60 4-year-olds and randomly divided them into three groups. One group watched a 9-minute clip of “SpongeBob SquarePants,” a second watched a 9-minute clip of “Caillou,” and the third drew pictures for 9 minutes instead of watching television.
Immediately afterward, the researchers tested what psychologists call “executive function” in the children, and found out that the PBS and picture-drawing groups performed equally well on the tests; the SpongeBob group scored significantly worse.
You can find an MSNBC.com article on the study here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44460161/ns/health-childrens_health/
Or, go here for the original study: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/09/08/peds.2010-1919
