Thursday, February 17, 2011

Pro-Social


Today in class we discussed Pro-Social television for children.  As a child, my mother never really let me watch much television so I never really grew up knowing who Barney and Big Bird were.  As I get older and I babysit kids I watch these shows with them and realize that some of the shows they watch aren’t exactly the best for them.  A little girl I babysit loves spongebob, but from her constant watching of this show she says stupid all the time.  When I try to get her to watch other shows that could be better for her she calls me stupid.  I made the connection in class that children really do know what they are watching.  I have been watching the television show Backyardigans a few times and this show is definitely better for children.  In this show they focus on Pro-Social behavior and they want the children that are watching to imitate them.  I believe that Pro-Social shows are definitely better for children than shows that have no meaning like spongebob.  On a different note while watching the sesame street clip today I saw that having positive role models even in muppets can really enhance a child’s self esteem.   

1 comment:

  1. I see what you are saying here and I agree. A lot of the behaviors that they exhibit seem cute at the time but I can see why a person would not want their children to grow up saying the things that they see on TV. It seems that if you put a cartoon on people just assumed it is good. I remember when I was in the 3rd grade I had my mom tape an episode of south park she watched the introduction and preceded to tape. Soon after when she came in on my brother and I in the third episode she realized that this is nothing for kids to watch. I think the parents just need to take an extra five minutes to investigate shows before they let theirs kids become babysat by the TV.

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