by Jennifer Geitenbeek

Created on: October 27, 2010   Last Updated: November 08, 2010

Thirty years on and I can still remember the theme song to Sesame Street, Play School and The Flintstones, and yet I haven't seen a couple of them in years! Yes, television does have an impact.

What children watch on television can have a profound affect on them. Bright colours, songs, rhymes and movement attract all young children. Take a program like Bear in the Big Blue House, or The Teletubbies. You have brightly coloured characters dancing around singing and playing and laughing. Young children are drawn to them, they become fascinated.

If you have ever sat and watched young toddlers whilst they watch Play School or Sesame Street, you will see that they will try to mimic what they see. Educational programs can help to teach your child through play, actions and colours without the child being aware of it. From how to use their voice, to perfecting their fine motor skills as they copy what they see. It is for this reason that television programs that children watch are only the ones aimed at their age group. Your child can learn to recognise colours, letters of the alphabet and even their numbers.

What about scary movies? Have you ever had a teen have a nightmare after watching a scary movie? Or suddenly start sleepwalking? What about those kids that no-longer want to go down to the other end of the house without having all of the lights on? If television did not have such an affect on children, none of this would happen.

Children, and young teens, get ideas from watching television. Both good and bad unfortunately. Children have been known to commit heinous crimes, copying what they have seen on television, and it doesn't stop there. How about the amount of kids that sustained serious injuries trying to do something that they saw someone else do on television? Now, not all of the blame can be placed on television programming, simply because somewhere there should have been a parent supervising, but, would these children have had the idea to do these things without first seeing them happen on television?

Unfortunately, prime time television means prime time ads. These commercials are often far removed from what we would like our children to see. An advert showing something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer has no place being shown whilst Dorothy the Dinosaur is on, but it does happen. Even the most vigilant parent can be caught out.

Not all of it is bad. Children can learn that no matter who you are, what you look like, whether you are able bodied or not, you are still a person.

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