Editor’s note: The following article first appeared in the 2016 Winter issue of the Journal Whole Child (http://publications.catstonepress.com/i/763890-winter-2016/15?). It is re-printed with kind permission of the IL ASCD. To educate is, in short, to set out to create and sustain informed, hopeful and respectful environments where learning can flourish. It is concerned not just with […]

Standing in the middle of an elementary school classroom in Great Britain for the first time, I was forced to consider the homogeneity of my educational upbringing in the former Czechoslovakia.  As a Soviet nation, a communist ideology pressured (pushed) its requirements and restrictions on society as whole. Under the ideological blanket that covered the […]

Editor’s Note: In 2014, Mimi Larson successfully defended her dissertation in early childhood education. Her empirical research was done in a preschool classroom of the Concordia Early Childhood Education Center. Her research has been presented at two national conferences: the National Association for the Education of Young Children in November 2015, and the Children’s Spirituality […]

We all share a desire to be valued, a desire to matter. When we speak of people who are in need, let us speak not only of their need, but also of what they love, what they resent, what wounds their pride, what they aspire to, what makes them laugh. Because if we do, then […]

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children younger than twenty-four months of age should not be exposed to television. It also suggests that children twenty-four months and older only be exposed to two hours of screen time per day (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). At the time the AAP made these recommendations in 1999, there was limited research on the effects of television on young children. The suggestions were made based primarily on research done on older children (Anderson & Pempek, 2005). Since then researchers have asked themselves: what are the effects of television and videos on young children?

This article will explore research findings on the effects of television and video on young children. It will explore the effects of both foreground and background television and video. This article will also address how exposure to television and video at a young age affects language acquisition, play, and the ability to stay focused. The article concludes with a theological reflection, including suggestions for parents and Christian educators.