How does television affect childrens dramatic play?

Question

How does television affect childrens dramatic play?

Answer 1

They'll start to enact what they see on t.v. My kids play "American Idol" these days for example.

Answer 2

It's strictly an idea generating device. Unfortunately it is also a motivation killer. Roll play would be it's main focal point if there is limit to it's use. If used properly and sparsely it can assist in teaching students to be idea developers, which is by far the best use. In other words they are given an idea and then they must take it from there, get creative, think out side the box (yeah I know, I hate that phrase too)!

Answer 3

In our house, TV is just a tool like any other item. My kids can watch what they want, when they care to. They are highly imaginative, and TV can give them a springboard to mimic and then expand their own ideas, the same as plays, books, movies and songs. I wouldn't say that they suffer because of it, I wouldn't say that they'd suffer without it. It's another aspect of our beautiful world.

Answer 4

TV can work in two ways.

One, is that it can limit a childs imagination

Two, is that it helps a child learn.  I baby sit a boy who is almost 2.  He watches the baby enstien videosmaybe three times a week and loves them.  He already knows his numbers up to 10, the entire alphabet, can identify 10 different shape, and knows some colors.  Watching the videos did not change how he plays at all.

Answer 5

I am an Early Childhood Education major and I have done a paper on this topic.

TV is never really positive. It can have all kinds of consequences for children, and has even been correlated with ADD in some children. It has the worst effects on children under the age of 2, who should not be exposed to any tv at all.

As concerned with dramatic play, it kills their creativity. Instead of using dramatic play to learn about the world (becoming doctors, teachers, their parents, dog, etc.. in order to understand) which is very beneficial, they typically spend much more time imitating tv characters, which can be very harmful. There is a great book out on the topic of violence in the media affecting children's play, called "The War Play Dilemma."