- Today's obsession with making money carries a hidden
cost for the young.
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- Busy parents who leave small children with televisions
and computer games every day may do so unaware of what these ``lifeless''
devices can do to their child's development.
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- Benjawan Buaphuenhom, 39, became worried when ``Nong
Foil'', her 22-month old son, showed no interest in speaking. Worse, he
barely interacted with people around him.
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- ``When he was one, Nong Foil called for `mum' and could
utter the name of our neighbour, but then he stopped talking altogether.
He did not speak or respond when we called him or told him to do something.
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- ``He would just point at things and utter a meaningless
sound.
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- ``It seemed like his development had been arrested,''said
Ms Benjawan.
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- Sensing that something was wrong, Ms Benjawan took her
son to a paediatric neurologist who found that television and computer
games had hindered the child's development.
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- Nong Foil's parents had their own business, and spent
most of the time working at their home office. Near them, Nong Foil was
left to play alone with English-language computer games, or watch TV, his
attention taken by music videos and English-language programmes on UBC.
-
- Sansanee Chatkupt, a paediatric neurologist at the Creative
Brain centre who took care of Nong Foil, said small children who spend
a lot of time in front of TV tend to have slow brain development.
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- ``The way the parents brought up Nong Foil was wrong.
He was given everything in the modern world _ TV, computer, and toys, but
what he didn't have was someone to talk to him, to teach him a human language,''
said Dr Sansanee.
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- Television could never develop his language skills, since
the boy was too young to understand the meaning of spoken words, and was
easily confused.
-
- After being advised by the doctor, Nong Foil's parents
took a different approach. The television and computer were turned off.
His parents spent more time with him.
-
- Two months later, when they returned to the doctor, the
boy could speak more than 50 words, and was interacting with people.
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- Today, Nong Foil is two years and four months old, and
he has normal brain and physical development. He is smart, cheerful, able
to talk in longer phrases, and quick to learn things around him.
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- Dr Sansanee said the number of children who come to her
with similar problems is increasing. Most are aged 2-4 years. Social changes
are a contributing factor, with many parents obsessed with work and money.
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- The American Academy of Paediatrics is against children
under two years' old watching television. Television could affect a young
person's mental, social and physical health, the academy said.
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- Dr Sansanee said no research has been done on how television
could affect children younger than two, but paediatricians knew that toddlers
needed interaction with older people to thrive.
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- Watching television cannot stimulate development and
would result in physical health problems.
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- For children older than two, Dr Sansanee urged parents
to limit television viewing to less than two hours a day. ``Small children
can easily learn a language when they are taught directly by people. They
learn from their senses: what they hear, what they see, how they feel,
and how something tastes.
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- ``For example, when we teach them the word `water', we
must show them how to pronounce the word and what water is like.''
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- Dr Sansanee urged parents to talk as much as possible
with their children, especially when they are young. ``There is a study
which proves that children who live with talkative mothers will have better
brain development than children with quiet mothers,'' she said.
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- http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/24Oct2001_news03.html
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