2006年VOA标准英语-Study: American Parents Using TV as an Electron

By Melinda Smith
Washington
20 June 2006
 
Watch Kids and TV report

Television has become such a major part of life that many American parents use it as a babysitter, and that has child psychologists concerned.  A new study shows that almost one-third of families have TVs in children's' bedrooms, and the number of television programs geared toward infants is growing.  VOA's Melinda Smith has more on the recommendation of how much TV should be allowed, and at what age.

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Children watching television
  
Katie Weaver¹ has her hands full.  Four children in her kitchen ... two of them are hers ... all of them are under the age of six ... and thirsty at the same time.

It's enough to get on the nerves of any adult.  Like many of the 1,000 parents surveyed in a Kaiser Family Foundation study, Katie admits she sometimes uses TV as a pacifier when her children are overly-excited ... and it usually works.

Katie Weaver  
  
"I don't use it as a babysitter because they don't watch enough or long enough for that, but if they are very hyped up ... sometimes I'll use TV to calm 'em down," she said.

While there has been some concern that watching too much television fosters obesity² in children, the long-term effects of parking a very young child in front of the 'tube'  are not clear.

Child psychologist Stanley Greenspan is worried that some parents are taking the easy way out. 

Stanley Greenspan  
  
"A lot of them are two-parent working families, so we're talking about having very little time with the children, and if that time is used in front of a screen, rather than interactively³ ... it's compromising the way these children are learning to pay attention ... the way they're learning to problem-solve ... and most importantly, the way they're learning to think and use language," he said.

Katie Weaver's two children - five-year-old Andrew and three-year-old Daisy -- watch an average of an hour a day, five days a week.  It is the same for friend Jack⁴ and brother Carter who are visiting. 

In the survey, parents of children much younger ... up to a year old ... report viewing averages of an hour per day. For kids one to two years, it's close to an hour and a half.

Greenspan believes babies and children under the age of two should not be watching at all and he's worried that some parents are concealing⁵ the real truth.

"If anything, it's an underestimation, because people would be aware that for kids under one, it's not the greatest thing in the world, so they would tend to ... if a kid's watching two hours, they might say an hour ... so I think what we're getting is a minimal⁶ estimate," he said.

  
  
Television programming for very young children has been increasing.  Yet one researcher involved in the Kaiser study says there is still no evidence that children up to the age of two learn anything of value from television. Katie Weaver says her kids have too much physical energy to sit and watch television for very long.  In warmer weather, they're more often outside.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

3 interactively   

adv.交互式的；互动

参考例句：

• Do you instinctively think interactively and are you savvy across multiple media? 时常用交互式方式思考并灵敏地使用多媒体吗？ 来自互联网
• Use Chat to communicate interactively with someone on another computer. 使用“聊天”与其它计算机上的用户进行交流。 来自互联网

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 concealing   

v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Despite his outward display of friendliness, I sensed he was concealing something. 尽管他表现得友善，我还是感觉到他有所隐瞒。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• SHE WAS BREAKING THE COMPACT, AND CONCEALING IT FROM HIM. 她违反了他们之间的约定，还把他蒙在鼓里。 来自英汉文学 - 三万元遗产

6 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。