I am not a huge fan of children’s TV; we try to limit it in our house as much as we can. BUT there are plenty of times that it has been a true gift — long road trips, airplane rides, and the occasional Mommy Sick Day.
There is one show in our house that has always been off-limits though — and now aside from the fact that I think it’s irritating and crude, turns out it could be harmful, too. A new study shows that watching just 9 minutes of SpongeBob SquarePants can cause short-term memory and learning problems in 4 year olds.
In the study, some 4 year olds watched the show, while others were shown the slower-paced Caillou, and others were asked to draw pictures. They then immediately took mental-function tests and those that watched SpongeBob SquarePants scored measurably worse than the control group who didn’t.
Previously, long-term effects had been studied and showed that TV viewing in younger children had attention problems.
Although more research is necessary, researchers said that just watching one 22-minute episode could be harmful.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a child-development specialist at Seattle Children’s Hospital who wrote an editorial accompanying the study published online in the journal Pediatrics, said the bottom line is that parents should know that fast-paced shows like SpongeBob SquarePants may not be appropriate for younger children.
What do you think? Is SpongeBob SquarePants allowed at your house?
