I wanted to have an interview with a parent of a small child to give them a change to voice their opinion about the effects of media.
I sat down with Tracey who is a mother of a two year old little girl Morgan. Tracey is also an assistant principal for an elementary school. I began by asking her a couple of questions.
#1. What is your concerns about the effects media has on your child?
Her response: " I am very aware that media has a huge impact on my daughter. Children are like little sponges, they absorb everything they see,hear,or read. When Morgan watches a program she picks up on everything they say and then she later runs around the house quoting it."
#2. How do you determine what Morgan is allowed to watch?
Response:" I look to see if it has an educational background or not. I need to know that what my child is watching is appropriate for her age. I also watch out for commercial, because some commercial on television are not suitable for young children."
She also went on to say that Nick channel has no commercial so she allows her child to watch that channel and feels safe knowing that no adds are going to come on.
She likes to find good shows that instill math based or school subjects that teach her daughter how to count and solve problems. At the age of two her daughter Morgan has already picked up on foreign languages in Spanish and Japanese. These is from her watching shows like "Dora", that teaches children how to say words in Spanish.
She also considers Baby Einstein a great video to watch, Einstein plays classical music and shows bright colors and shapes. She does have concerns about parents who allow their children to watch anything they want. There are even some Disney movies that have content for middle school up to teens and these are not necessarily good for small children to watch.
Tracey said that Morgan already knows how to work an Ipad and has her own games that she can pull up and play. She does monitor and limits the time Morgan can spend playing games and watching T.V. Music shows have taught Morgan how to play on the drums and encourages her to sing and dance around the house. Another thing Morgan likes to do is open digital books on the Ipad and has her mother read them to her.
What I have concluded from the interview with Tracey is monitored media is great. It is teaching children at an early age how to use their minds. Yet, I also discovered that children are progressing a lot faster now and it is important that parents con sensor what their child is absorbing.
Don't let your little sponge get filled with dirty water, let's keep it clean. :]
Your interview was good and to the point. I really liked how you explained each way Tracey monitors the media intake...it was very understandable. I really liked the little sponge bit at the end! So cute!
ReplyDeletep.s. The videos were good too! Especially the iPad one. Whoa.
Kids really are like sponges! I never thought about it like that. The media definitely has a shocking effect on our society. It's almost like the media changes us rather than us changing the media.
ReplyDeleteGood interview and analysis! Also, good selection of videos and images to really make us think. You might embed (rather than linking to) videos to make them show up as a window on the screen. Also, I recommend proofing your copy to eliminate a couple of errors. Nice work!
ReplyDelete