Learning Success Strategies - TV or Not TV
Unfortunately, an important learning process is not handled by TV and may actually be inhibited when relying upon a monitor or TV screen to supply the tools for learning.
If your child cannot see well, he won't be able to read well.
If your child cannot read well, she's going to have a hard time in school.
Vision is more than merely focusing upon specific patterns of lights and darks making up letters and words.
The eye is a complicated mechanism that depends upon coordinated muscles to accomplish accurate delivery of information to the brain for processing.
Try this experiment, "cross your eyes" while reading the following sentence: "In the park, the dog barked at the frogs in the bogs and the bees in the trees.
" Without thinking about what the words mean, what do you actually see ? Some of the letters are blurred making it difficult to identify the letters and the words.
And, maybe the letters jumped around or wiggled a little, requiring a concentrated effort to slow them down --which could muddle your understanding of the sentence.
Even when you uncross your eyes and the letters are clear, imagine what some kids might make of this sentence if they cannot tell the difference between the 'd' or 'b' or the 'p'.
What could this sentence possibly mean to a kid when the very words he's trying to connect don't make sense because look-alike letters are mistaken for each other? A child's developing vision requires a series and combination of muscular and perceptual skills.
TV or monitor screens may provide intellectual information, but may not include enough physical "exercise" or interactive involvement to provide adequate development of eye function or important eye movement patterns.
What's a parent to do?
If your child cannot see well, he won't be able to read well.
If your child cannot read well, she's going to have a hard time in school.
Vision is more than merely focusing upon specific patterns of lights and darks making up letters and words.
The eye is a complicated mechanism that depends upon coordinated muscles to accomplish accurate delivery of information to the brain for processing.
Try this experiment, "cross your eyes" while reading the following sentence: "In the park, the dog barked at the frogs in the bogs and the bees in the trees.
" Without thinking about what the words mean, what do you actually see ? Some of the letters are blurred making it difficult to identify the letters and the words.
And, maybe the letters jumped around or wiggled a little, requiring a concentrated effort to slow them down --which could muddle your understanding of the sentence.
Even when you uncross your eyes and the letters are clear, imagine what some kids might make of this sentence if they cannot tell the difference between the 'd' or 'b' or the 'p'.
What could this sentence possibly mean to a kid when the very words he's trying to connect don't make sense because look-alike letters are mistaken for each other? A child's developing vision requires a series and combination of muscular and perceptual skills.
TV or monitor screens may provide intellectual information, but may not include enough physical "exercise" or interactive involvement to provide adequate development of eye function or important eye movement patterns.
What's a parent to do?
- Use the TV as a learning tool sparingly.
Read books and play games that require reading.
- When reading to your children, invite them to creatively participate in the story.
Not only are you promoting the value of togetherness, you're non-verbally instilling the value of reading.
- The physical process of moving their eyes in a variety of motions provides the opportunity to "train" their developing visual system to work optimally.
Encourage your child to alternate looking at the words sometimes and looking at the pictures. - Using your finger to point to the words as you read them suggests the habit of reading from left to right as well as suggesting that the symbols (words) on the page have precise meaning.