(Baby News) Background TV is distracting at playti...

A new small study has found that television, even when only on as background noise, has a “small but real” affect on the way young children play. Researchers found that when playing in a room with a TV on — they used Jeopardy, a program they thought the children would have little interest in — children tended to stop playing and watch the TV now and then, shortening the intensity and length of their play. This finding is in conflict with former studies that found that young children don’t pay attention to TV that they don’t understand. A lot of parents really like to have television on as background noise during the day, however, to listen to as they go about their activities. This study isn’t broad enough to prove that, but plenty of research has gone into how TV affects children. Heh, I knew from the time my daughter was 8 months old that kids pay attention to TV even if it’s boring or they don’t understand it. read more

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Dolls with special needs cause controversy- Baby N...

They were just kids playing with dolls, doing what kids do, even if those kids had diagnoses that other children didn’t — Down’s syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy. With the best of intentions, I believe, they made dolls with Down’s syndrome, including a heart surgery scar, dolls who have been through chemo, bald and with a catheter port, dolls in wheelchairs, dolls with leg braces. Other parents think that the dolls are a good idea, but need a little tweaking — fashion dolls who have special needs but still wear trendy clothing or action heroes who still save lives despite their own personal hurdles, for instance. The parent who posted that children play however they choose with their dolls, using imagination etc, so it isn’t really all that necessary that the dolls be made to portray special needs– was very eloquent. I remember reading a while ago that they did a study where they put a bunch of dolls of different races in a room and then looked at whether children would play with a doll of their own race or a doll of a different race, the argument being that most dolls are caucasian and therefore kids of different races are feeling left out. I know that American girl dolls do make wheel chairs and crutches for their dolls, but I am not aware of a company that makes accessory for their dolls that may need braces, orthotics, hearing aids or prosthetic limbs. read more