re: Babies and TV Study: TV and Language Development

I checked out the study Dr. C mentioned (about size of vocab related to TV viewing) and it's a correlational study. That means that the study only demonstrates that as one thing goes us (i.e. time spend watching TV) the other tends to go down (baby's vocab). The important thing to note here is that THIS IS NOT A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP -- meaning that the study does NOT establish that watching TV *causes* developmental issues. It is VERY likely that this is a spurious relationship -- meaning that there is some other third variable that is related to both TV watching and vocab that is responsible for the change in both. Think about it -- might there be a relationship between the "type" of parents who plunk their kids down in front of the tube every chance they get and a diminished vocabulary? It is very likely that it's something more like "time spent with baby" that's the true variable here. Time spent with baby is related to both vocabulary and TV watching.

Just a caveat about the study. Personally I think it's like everything else - moderation is the key. Also keep in mind all the things we scientists have vacillated on in the past (such as the healthfulness of eating eggs...) ;).

Posted by SweetieBabe    Thursday, January 17, 2008 9:05 AM