As most parents of small children will reluctantly admit, nothing can occupy a child quite like television. Unfortunately, the scientific evidence suggests that using the boob tube as a babysitter has its price: the more time babies spend sitting in front of the screen, the more their social, cognitive and language development may suffer. Recent studies show that TV-viewing tends to decrease babies' likelihood of learning new words, talking, playing and otherwise interacting with others.

    A new study published Monday in the Archive of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine adds to that evidence while introducing an intriguing new perspective. Many studies have suggested that television impedes learning by inhibiting youngsters' ability to interact with others, and according to Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a University of Washington pediatrician, that effect may be compounded when parents get drawn into TV-watching too.

    Christakis reports that when babies get caught up with what's playing on television, their parents are equally likely to get distracted, which limits their exchanges with their kids. It's a three-way interaction, with TV affecting both children and their parents, and the parents' detachment further impairing their children. For the first time, Christakis' group even quantified exactly the degree to which TV-viewing can cripple parent-child communication: for every hour a television was turned on, babies heard 770 fewer words from an adult, the new study found. Conversational exchanges between baby and parent dropped 15%, as did the overall number of vocalizations made by children.

    To document each "vocal event," Christakis outfitted 329 babies and children, ages 2 months to 4 years, with pager-sized recorders on their chests that recorded every audible sound either the baby or any adult made over a 16-hour period. Each child wore the monitor for one randomly assigned day a month for up to two years. In addition, the recorder captured sound from a television whenever it was turned on within earshot of the baby. Specially designed software then coded all audible sounds made or heard when the TV was both on and off.

    Christakis argues that regardless of what is playing on the screen — whether it's baby-friendly content or shows geared toward adults — television by nature is a passive medium that hampers rich social interaction. Even when parents and children interacted actively while watching TV together, the net effect of having it turned on, for a few minutes or hours, was a drop in vocalizations. On average, the study found, when the TV is switched on, youngsters spend more time in silence and solitude than they do in active social interaction. "At minimum, the findings should give parents pause," says Christakis, noting that in 30% of American households, the television is on most of the day, regardless of whether anyone is watching.

    That's especially true when it comes to DVDs and videos marketed to enhance infant development; many claim to work by encouraging parents and babies to engage and interact with each other as they watch. But the new study shows the opposite effect: whatever the programming, the ultimate outcome of television noise is to inhibit verbal exchanges. In earlier work, Christakis also documented that baby DVDs and videos may even contribute to adrop in language acquisition in infants. That's partly why the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television-watching for babies under 2.

    One major weakness of the study, however, is that it fails to determine a specific association between programming content and infant development. Because the recorder documented only the sound of the television and not the content of what was playing, Christakis can't say for sure whether kid-targeted programming could actually lead the youngsters to vocalize, talk and interact with their parents more. "It is possible to put on the TV and really engage with a child verbally," says Christakis.

    But given his previous findings on the issue, his hunch is that television probably isn't the ideal medium for promoting real interaction between parent and child. If it were, he argues, then the net effect of having the TV on, whether in the foreground or in the background as noise, would have been richer and would have led to more sustained exchanges and conversations.

    Nothing, it seems, beats the most basic form of bonding — a good old-fashioned one-on-one powwow, even if you're only trading coos and gurgles.

    雖然大部分小孩的父母都不愿意承認，但沒什么其他東西像電視這樣占據小孩子的時間了。很不幸的是，科學研究表明利用顯像管電視作為小孩的“保姆”要付出代價：孩子們坐在電視機前的時間越長，越容易影響他們的社會交往、語言和認知能力的發展。最新的研究發現收看電視會導致孩子們學習新單詞、新對話、新游戲和其他與別人交流技巧這些可能性的降低。

    周一發表在《兒科和青春期醫學檔案》上的新的研究在介紹一種新視角的同時也為這一發現增加了進一步的證據。許多研究表明，電視通過抑制青少年與其他人的交流從而阻礙其學習能力的發展，根據華盛頓大學的兒科迪米特里.克里斯塔基斯博士的研究，如果父母也沉迷于看電視，可能會加劇這種效應。

    克里斯塔基斯報告說，當嬰兒被出現在電視上的節目畫面牢牢吸引時，他們的父母同樣也可能會分心，這限制了他們與孩子的交流。這是一個三方面的互動關系，電視影響兒童和他們的父母，父母的脫節進一步損害到自己的孩子。第一次，克里斯塔基斯的小組甚至精確量化收看電視到底在何種程度上破壞親子之間的溝通，這項新的研究發現：電視每打開一小時，嬰兒從成人聽到的單詞少于770個。孩子與父母間的談話減少了15%，同時孩子總的發聲量也減少。

    為了記錄每個“聲音事件”，克里斯塔基斯為年齡在2個月至4年的每一個嬰兒和兒童配備了尋呼機大小的錄音機，將其放在他們胸前，在每天16小時的時間內記錄嬰兒或成人的任何一個聲音。每個孩子在每個月隨機選擇一天進行聲音記錄，為期兩年。此外，當電視機被打開時，錄音機將在嬰兒的聽力所及范圍收錄聲音。然后由專門設計的軟件編碼電視打開和關閉時搜集到的聲音。

    克里斯塔基斯說，不管是屏幕上在放什么節目——無論是嬰兒性的內容或面向成年人——電視的性質是一種消極的媒介，它阻礙了豐富的社會互動。即使在家長和孩子們在看電視時積極互動，但只要電視打開，無論是幾分鐘或者幾小時，其凈效果都是使得發聲行為減少。研究發現，平均而言，當電視打開時，年輕人比他們進行積極社會互動時花更多的時間處于沉默和孤獨狀態。“至少，這個發現可以使父母們暫停”克里斯塔基斯說，值得注意的是，無論有沒有人在收看，30%的美國的主婦們都習慣一整天將電視打開。

    當涉及到那些名義上為了提高嬰幼兒的發展而銷售的DVD和錄影帶時這個現象尤其如此；很多提議都鼓勵家長和孩子在觀看節目時進行接觸和互相交流。但新的研究表明這具有相反的效果：無論節目是什么，最終結果是電視的噪音抑制了口頭交流。在早先的工作中，克里斯塔基斯也證明，嬰兒DVD和錄影帶甚至可能導致嬰幼兒語言習得的降低。這就是為什么美國兒科學術委員會不鼓勵2歲以下的兒童看電視的部分原因。

    然而，這項研究的一個主要弱點在于它不能確定具體的節目內容和嬰兒發展之間的聯系。因為錄音機記錄的只有聲音而沒有相關的電視節目內容，克里斯塔基斯不能肯定針對孩子的電視節目是否可以真正引導孩子們發聲、說話和與他們的父母進行更多交流。“有可能可以在電視上放針對兒童的節目，真正提高兒童的口頭表達，”克里斯塔基斯說。

    但是，鑒于他以前在這個問題上的研究發現，他的直覺是，電視也許不是促進父母和孩子之間真正互動關系的理想媒介。他認為，如果是，那么無論是在前景或背景噪音，開著電視的凈影響將是豐富的，將導致更持續的交流和對話。

    看起來，沒什么可以打敗最基本的感情紐帶形式——一個很好的老式的一對一的“討論會”，即便你交換的只是那些喁喁細語和咯咯聲。