Watching TV with your child can boost their cognitive development

Spending time watching T.V. A British research team from the University of Portsmouth, on the south coast of England, performed a meta-analysis of previous studies, finding that while a young child could be harmed by too much screen time alone, having a parent watch with them is beneficial. Researchers warn that TV time should not replace other social and learning activities, and that too much screen time still does carry harms, but there are ways to turn it into a more beneficial activity. Children can benefit from watching TV with their parents if the adults in the room explain things to them and use it as an opportunity to practice conversational skills, a new study finds 'Weak narrative, fast pace editing, and complex stimuli can make it difficult for a child to extract or generalize information,' Dr Eszter Somogyi, from the psychology department at Portsmouth, said in a statement. 'These differences in the viewing context play an important role in determining the strength and nature of TV's impact on children's cognitive development,' Somogyi said.