Photo credit: striatic

If you fret about the amount of time your kids are spending with TV, an easy way to turn this to a positive (instead of lowering the “no more TV boom”) is to sit and watch with them. Yes, I know you wanted to “get something done” while your kids watched, and this tactic does defeat that purpose. But at least you get an enjoyable rest period, and you can feel good that your child is learning more.

According to David Dutwin, Ph.D., author of Unplug Your Kids (Adams Media, 2009), studies show that only half of parents usually or always watch TV with their children.  (The older the child, the lower the percentage.) Yet, some studies have shown that watching TV with a parent more than doubles what a child learns from a program. Dutwin says scholar Robert Abelman suggests these strategies to maximize learning during parent/child viewing:

• Discuss what is real and what is not. Real versus fantasy is obvious to adults but not to kids. Separating fiction from nonfiction is a major learning objective in the primary grades. For older children watching a show in which a character dies (from violence), this is a good place to stress that in real life, when someone dies they’re gone forever (unlike when an actor dies on a show).
• Underscore consequences. What happens as a result of what that character just did? You can draw parallels to the child’s life.
• Provide motivations. Talk to your kids about why characters do what they do.
• Verbalize acceptability. When a television character is doing something that you’d like to reinforce in your child, call attention to it.

Your kids may not know they’re learning more with you alongside, but I guarantee they’ll be thrilled to share TV time with you.