How Can Children Learn To Read?

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

“I hate it, I hate it, I hate it” I used to tell my mom when she used to ask me to read or write. I remember at times when I had to go to school I used to cry and scream and just did not want to go. I used to get bad grades and couldn’t read and was not a fluent writer. I used to struggle and cry while I watched the other kids do it easily. While growing up reading and writing were my worst subjects and I used to hate them I struggled in them.

Television plays a very important role in everyday life. As children grow and develop, they can be influenced by what they see and hear.

Television can affect learning and school performance if it exceeds the time kids need for their crucial for healthy physical and mental development. Most of children's free time, especially during the early development years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports. Research has shown that children's exposure to television during the preschool years is predictive of academic outcomes during adolescence. The most notable lesson about this

In the article, the latest study concerning the effect of the prevalent videos like "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby has been illustrated in details. The researchers have come to realize that the video program can do more harm rather than helping such infants. They argue that that, watching video or television can delay the language development of the toddlers. Another numerous evidence has suggested that passive screen was sucking not only help the toddlers but interfere with their language development.

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

Kirkorian and associates exercised experimental control by limiting the amount of television exposure participants would receive within the given time of their interaction. Similarly, by controlling the environment (using a lab setting), the room size and available play item within the environment and the angle to assure direct tv exposure, allowed for stronger assessment across variables. The Researchers implemented a varied sample with regard to education level. Lastly, as each parent was allowed to choose their own programming to their liking, thus filling in gaps where “dislike for a program” may cause false positive results within the parent’s responsiveness and quality.

In elementary school the one subject I always would struggle with was spelling. At the end of every week we would have a spelling test based on a set of words that came from a vocabulary or spelling workbook. On Mondays at the beginning of class we would receive the previous week’s test and examine the words for the test that week. I would always study and would try a million different methods, even coming up with my own unique methods to study. No matter what process I used my grade would always end up being poor. My mom would always be on me about doing better on the test but nothing would come about from that. So, my mom decided to get involved and attempt to raise my grades.

“It matters little what else they learn in elementary school if they do not learn to read at grade level (Fielding, Kerr, & Rosier, 2008, p. 30).”

amount of child’s media viewing to < one hour/day. The study used a random number function with equal numbers and all participants received materials and newsletters according to their groups. The intervention group (n=34) received communication about the effects of TV on health (outcome expectations), encouragement to the parents’ confidence (self-efficacy), and strategies to modify the TV viewing (volitional control). In the control group (n=32), the parents were asked to promote their child’s safety in several areas, such as play. Case managers facilitated the target behaviour change, working with primary caregivers through phone or email. Parents completed a time diary of activities for 24 hours at baseline and at four months and received

Reading is a skill often taken for granted but it is essential in order to progress in life. For a child being able to read well helps them learn new things, give ideas and enables use of imagination. National literacy trust (2015) suggests that children’s early language skills can have a major impact on a child’s development of literacy skills. Five-year olds with poor language and literacy have a higher risk of underachieving at age seven and beyond. Reading skills encourage more opportunities in life and it can affect a child’s wellbeing if they do not achieve this effectively (Finnegan,2015).

With the advancement in technology it has become common for infants, toddlers, and young children to be exposed to electronics such as televisions, computers, and videogames for hours at a time. Environmental factors affect children in significant ways. The effects the media and screen time children are revealed to influence their physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Television and media can both hinder and encouraging their growth. It is important for guardians, caregivers, teachers, whomever has a child they look after or care for, to make accommodations to construct the best possible environment for children to flourish in. At such a young age, these young humans are like sponges, they absorb much of what surrounds them. Because of this, the importance of trying to make it possible that they are mainly witnessing things helpful to the development of the child and thereby, benefiting them later in life.

Children start to learn about and experience reading and writing in infancy, particularly when they start familiarising themselves with print media. From an early age children are able to read and recognise signs such as fast food logos, ect. (Alleyne, n.d. p.2) In addition, when young

Reading – the ability to represent the sounds of language by written symbols has existed for approximately 4000 to 5000 years and is inarguably one of the most fundamental and wonderful technique humans have ever developed. However, despite much effort and funding dedicating to wide literacy development, even now in America for instance, 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level (National Center for Learning Disabilities). In order for the entire population of today’s society to have proper reading skills, scholars and educators around the world realize that literacy movements need to focus on much earlier stages of human development. Researchers in the education field have reached a consensus that reading is crucial in childhood by revealing supporting evidence from studies focused on children aged 0-6 years, 6-12, and young adolescents. Many interesting findings also include that reading proficiency of children is critical because it can reflect society’s criminal and economical status. Moreover, modern studies show that the importance of childhood reading cannot be fully explained without mentioning the environment where children are raised, as the environment greatly affects children’s reading proficiency.

There is no doubt that when it comes to American youth television is one of the biggest influences by far. Many parents would love to say that their child does not watch that much TV but in reality they are spending a lot of time watching television or using media in some way. “The study by the Kaiser Family foundation shows that children ages 2-8 spend an average of 5 ½ hours a day “consuming media” kids 8 and older spend even more time in front of the tube nearly 6 ¾ hours a day” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005 ). Astonishingly, more time is being spent with media then doing homework, studying or even spending time with family. A child’s retention of what