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Description
Over forty years of research has been accumulated in regards to the effects of television on young children. Numerous studies have focused solely on amount of time spend watching television, content, cognitive development or pacing. Currently, researchers have become more concerned with the connection between content and pacing and how it effects a young child's development. The pace at which television moves at is extremely different from the slow pace of real life and it takes away from social interactions that are vital to a successful development. This study contributes to the body of research by examining four current popular children's television shows on two dimensions, pacing and learning concepts. An anonymous survey was distributed to parents at two university child care centers in San Diego County in order to find the three most popular shows for one to three year olds and three to five years. The survey also aimed to find out the top learning concepts parents feel are important for their child to learn at their perspective age. Results from 110 surveys revealed Sesame Street, Curious George, Cat in the Hat Know a Lot About That! and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse were the most popular shows watched and that Cooperative Play with Peers was one of the most important learning concepts for parents. Samples of five episodes from the current seasons were watched and the number of cuts was recorded to determine the pacing. The same five episodes were then watched again to record the number of learning concepts presented. The major findings of the study consisted of the current viewing habits of young children, the average cuts per of the shows, the relationship between number of cuts and number of learning concepts and the average amount of times the important learning concepts for parents were presented in an episode. On average, children 1 to 5 are watching 0 to 60 minutes of television daily. For most popular shows they are watching: Sesame Street averaged a cut every 7 seconds, Curious George averaged a cut every 4 seconds, Cat in the Hat averaged a cut every 5 seconds and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse averaged a cut every 8 seconds. When looking at the relationship between number of cuts and number of learning concepts, a positive correlation was found, meaning that as learning concepts increased so did the number of cuts. Lastly, many of the concepts parent felt were important for their child to learn, were not presented in the shows. Cooperative Play with Peers was presented, on average, three times an episode. These results support the current trend in research regarding the quality of children's television. A fast paced show, such as Curious George, has the least amount of learning concepts, especially ones that parents value, but is one of the most popular shows from one year olds. The relationships between pacing and learning concepts will be important for future research studying the long term effects of television on young children's development and learning.
