Dr Skouteris maintains that co-viewing (parents watching the videos with their children) and repeat viewing of videos facilitate children's understanding of the storyline. With a greater level of understanding, children are more likely to pretend to be characters, recite lines, and sing songs from the video, all of which make watching a video an active rather than passive experience. Co-viewing has the added benefit of providing close family time where parents can make a point of discussing the various themes presented in the videos and answering any questions children might have.To further understand the impact of Disney videos on early childhood development, Disney has commissioned a phase two study to be conducted by Dr Skouteris, the results of which will be available in mid 2003.Disney is committed to bringing its special type of magic to Australia's youngest generation. The Walt Disney Collection titles are the epitome of healthy viewing and will bring entertainment and delight to both young and old alike.

Disney videos promote positive social messages by showing children the importance of honesty, trust, loyalty, fairness and friendship. Dr Skouteris found that when watching Disney films, the majority of children recognise the difference between good and evil and value certain characteristics such as bravery and a sense of humour.Repeated viewing of animated Disney videos (five or more times) was also found to be an extremely common and positive experience. Repeat viewing is associated with greater enjoyment, greater appreciation and understanding of the storyline and children wanting to partake in more frequent pretend play.

Disney Videos - Developing the imagination of our youngest generation:

The study, called Our Children's Media Diet: 'A Mother's Perspective', was led by Dr Helen Skouteris, an expert in Developmental Psychology from LaTrobe University's School of Psychological Science.The study found that Disney videos encourage children to be 'active viewers', frequently incorporating events and characters into their 'pretend play'. Pretend play is one of the most essential activities during childhood. Through pretend play, children develop language skills, imagination, creativity and the ability to take another's perspective.Dr Skouteris says that videos such as Winnie The Pooh titles, Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins are very popular with young children and provide them with a fun and magical experience. "Films such as these are easy for children to interpret, are entertaining, and most importantly, encourage behaviours such as pretend play, singing and character role play," says Dr Skouteris.

BY: Rehab mousaad

Television Violence: A Review of the Effects on Children of Different Ages

Children of different ages watch and understand television in different ways, depending on the length of their attention spans, the ways in which they process information, the amount of mental effort they invest, and their own life experiences. These variables must all be examined to gain an understanding of how television violence affects them.Infants (children up to 18 months old) can pay attention to an operating television set for short periods of time, but the attention demands a great effort and infants are usually more interested in their own activities. Even when they do pay attention to the television, infants likely miss most of what adults consider to be program content. They experience it primarily as fragmented displays of light and sound, which they are only intermittently able to group into meaningful combinations such as recognizable human or animal characters.No research has focused specifically on how violent content affects infants, but there is some evidence that infants can imitate behaviour from television when that behaviour is presented in a simple, uncluttered and instructional manner.Children do not become full-fledged "viewers" until around the age of two-and-a-half. As toddlers, they begin to pay more attention to the television set when it is on, and they develop a limited ability to extract meaning from television content. They are likely to imitate what they see and hear on television.The viewing patterns children establish as toddlers will influence their viewing habits throughout their lives. Since toddlers have a strong preference for cartoons and other programs that have characters who move fast, there is considerable likelihood that they will be exposed to large amounts of violence.At the preschool age (three to five years old), children begin watching television with an "exploration" approach. They actively search for meaning in the content, but are still especially attracted to vivid production features, such as rapid character movement, rapid changes of scene, and intense or unexpected sights and sounds.Because television violence is accompanied by vivid production features, preschoolers are predisposed to seek out and pay attention to violence—particularly cartoon violence. It is not the violence itself that makes the cartoons attractive to preschoolers, but the accompanying vivid production features. With this preference for cartoons, preschoolers are being exposed to a large number of violent acts in their viewing day. Moreover, they are unlikely to be able to put the violence in context, since they are likely to miss any subtlety conveyed mitigating information concerning motivation and consequences. Preschoolers behave more aggressively than usual in their play after watching any high-action exciting television content, but especially after watching violent television.Elementary school age (ages six to eleven) is considered a critical period for understanding the effects of television on aggression. At this stage, children develop the attention span and cognitive ability to follow continuous plots, to make inferences about implicit content, and to recognize motivations and consequences to characters' actions. However, they are also investing increasingly less mental effort overall in their viewing, and it is mental effort that determines whether children will process television information deeply or merely react to it in an unfocused, superficial way.By age eight, children are more likely to be sensitive to important moderating influences of television content, and will not become more aggressive themselves if the violence they see is portrayed as evil, as causing human suffering, or as resulting in punishment or disapproval. However, they are especially likely to show increased aggression from watching violent television if they believe the violence reflects real life, if they identify with a violent hero (as boys often do), or if they engage in aggressive fantasies.At ages 6 to 11, elementary school children still watch cartoons but also begin watching more adult or family-oriented programming than they did when they were younger. They also develop a surprising taste for horror movies, perhaps deliberately scaring themselves in an attempt to overcome their own fears. However, to the extent that they are desensitizing themselves to fear and violence, they are also very likely becoming more tolerant of violence in the real world.During adolescence (age 12 to 17), the middle school to high school years, children become capable of high levels of abstract thought and reasoning, although they rarely use these abilities when watching television, continuing to invest little mental effort. They watch less television than they did when they were younger, and watch less with their families. Their interests at this age tend to revolve around independence, sex and romance, and they develop a preference for music videos, horror movies, and (boys particularly) pornographic videos, which deal with these topics, although usually in negative ways.

BY: Fouziah Muohsen

Most kids plug into the world of television long before they enter school. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF):
two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs
kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.
As kids get older, too much screen time can interfere with activities such as being physically active, reading, doing homework, playing with friends, and spending time with family.
Of course, television, in moderation, can be a good thing: Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on public television, grade schoolers can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news. No doubt about it — TV can be an excellent educator and entertainer.
But despite its advantages, too much television can be detrimental:
Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.
Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.
TV characters often depict risky behaviors, such as smoking and drinking, and also reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes.
Children's advocates are divided when it comes to solutions. Although many urge for more hours per week of educational programming, others assert that no TV is the best solution. And some say it's better for parents to control the use of TV and to teach kids that it's for occasional entertainment, not for constant escapism.That's why it's so important for you to monitor the content of TV programming and set viewing limits to ensure that your kids don't spend too much time watching TV.

Violence:
To give you perspective on just how much violence kids see on TV, consider this: The average American child will witness 200,000 violent acts on television by age 18. Kids may become desensitized to violence and more aggressive. TV violence sometimes begs for imitation because violence is often promoted as a fun and effective way to get what you want.
Many violent acts are perpetrated by the "good guys," whom kids have been taught to emulate. Even though kids are taught by their parents that it's not right to hit, television says it's OK to bite, hit, or kick if you're the good guy. This can lead to confusion when kids try to understand the difference between right and wrong. And even the "bad guys" on TV aren't always held responsible or punished for their actions.

Teaching Good TV Habits:
Here are some practical ways to make TV-viewing more productive in your home:
_Limit the number of TV-watching hours:
-Stock the room in which you have your TV with plenty of other non-screen entertainment (books, kids' magazines, toys, puzzles, board games, etc.) to encourage kids to do something other than watch the tube.
-Keep TVs out of bedrooms.
-Turn the TV off during meals.
-Don't allow kids to watch TV while doing homework.
-Treat TV as a privilege to be earned — not a right. Establish and enforce family TV viewing rules, such as TV is allowed only after chores and homework are completed.
-Try a weekday ban. Schoolwork, sports activities, and job responsibilities make it tough to find extra family time during the week. Record weekday shows or save TV time for weekends and you'll have more family togetherness time to spend on meals, games, physical activity, and reading during the week.
-Set a good example by limiting your own TV viewing.
-Check the TV listings and program reviews ahead of time for programs your family can watch together (i.e., developmentally appropriate and nonviolent programs that reinforce your family's values). Choose shows that foster interest and learning in hobbies and education (reading, science, etc.).
-Preview programs before your kids watch them.
-Come up with a family TV schedule that you all agree upon each week. Then, post the schedule in a visible area (e.g., on the refrigerator) so that everyone knows which programs are OK to watch and when. And make sure to turn off the TV when the "scheduled" program is over instead of channel surfing.

BY: Manal Farhan

Children are mainly exposed to television, television violence and television culture at home. Thus parents play a vital role in helping children to make sense of what they see on the television. These days television influences the lives of young children and it is only going to get worst with each passing year. It is very challenging for young children to make choices of what programs they should watch. Because of the lack of experience they need more help from adults.

Pulling children away from television programs is a challenge.

Children's media are designed to get attention and keep it.

Some Horrifying facts about media violence in children's lives:

1-By the end of elementary school, the average child will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 other violent acts in the media.
2-Children's cartoons and action programs average more than 20 acts of violence per hour, compared with 5 acts per hour during prime-time hours.
3-The sale of Mighty Morphin Power Ranger products (based on the extremely violent TV show) surpassed $1 billion in 1994.
4-More than $3 billion of products related to the Star Wars movie have been sold worldwide.
5-In one survey, more than 90% of teachers thought the Power Rangers led to increased violence among the children they taught.

By: Maryam Jlbaukh

In our society , it is extremely important to pay attention to what influences childern .One of the biggest influences Saudi childern may have is the television.It is possible for childern to be pulled into the television realistic world of voilence with sometimes devastating results .The impact of television violence on childern behavior has been anissue for manyyears.violent programs on talevision lead to negative behaviour by childern and teenagers who watch those programsThere can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive be havior, crim and violenc in society. the evidence coms from both the laboratory and real-life studies. television violence affects youngsters of all ages.genders, at all socioeconomic levels and all levels of intellig ence. the effect isnot limted to child ren who are already disposed to being aggressive and isnot restricted to this couutry.the fact that we get this same finding of arelationship between telenision niolence and aggression in children in study after study cannot be ignored.the casual effect of television violence on aggression, even thaugh it is not very large, exists.we have come to believe that avicious cyde exists in which television violence makes childern more aggressive and these aggressive children turn to watching more violence to justify their own be havior.Many psychologists believe that children who are heavy viewers of violence on television may lose the ability to emphathize protest and to become distressed by real life acts of violence in general and to denytv,s contribution to youth violence.

BY: Khlowd