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ADVICE FOR PARENTS
Family is the first placewhere children learn to be a
good follower of themedia. Parents should outline the
programs that their children canwatch, magazines they
can read and the Internet sites they can access; they
should guide their children on thismatter. Experts say
that children engrave everything in their subconscious
between the ages of 0 and 6 andmake these things a
part of their personalities after awhile; therefore, com-
mercials should be kept away fromchildren’sworld.
WHAT TODO?
●
You can organize a family meeting about the TV
programs you all watch, discuss the good and
bad sides of them and decide whether you will
continue to watch them.
●
As parents, you can give priority to informative
programs on television and become a role model
for your children.
●
You can decide on “a day without television” each
week and spend time with your children on that
day by playing games at home or outdoors and
reading a book. Thus, you can show your children
that you are not a slave of the colorful screen, by
spending a day without it.
●
You can choose printedmedia instead of visual me-
dia and buy informative and thematicmagazines for
your home.Thus, nothingwill be readily served, as
on television, and your childrenwill choosewith their
own interest andwonder.The point you should pay
attention to is choosing the right comic books and
magazines among themany located in themarket.
Pedagogue Didem Küt emphasizes
that keeping children away from tele-
vision is not possible in today’s world
and it is more appropriate for parents
to become role models and create a
platform for discussion about watc-
hing programs with their children ins-
tead of prohibiting television. We asked Küt to describe
the right approaches that would help solve the biggest
problem for most parents: “How should we treat our
children regarding television?”
Move together
Children should be encouraged to watch informative
and educational programs and films as these help them
to discover themselves and support the development
of their personalities. However, besides these positive
effects, children should be protected from spending a
huge amount of time in front of the television instead of
playing games and communicating with family mem-
bers. They should be protected from becoming a slave
to the television. Moreover, it is known that programs
and films containing pornographic and aggressive
content cause negative identification and behaviors for
children whose impulses are already difficult to control.
But children cannot be protected from the negative
effects of television by orders, directives or pressure.
Children should learn from their parents that the tele-
vision can be turned off from time to time. Parents who
spend most of their time watching television cannot
educate their children sufficiently and appropriately.
Sometimes, children cannot be prevented fromwatc-
hing inappropriate programs. In this case, it is beneficial
for parents to watch programs with their children so
they can evaluate together by talking about the good
and bad sides of programs.
Protect children fromviolent programs
Actions, heroes and protagonists in programs and
films that children can watch should feature predomi-
nantly positive chracteristics. Children who regularly
watch aggressive, violent and horror movies will be-
come distanced from realities, problems and troubles
of the world and the society they live in and unde-
restimate them. This alienation will sometimes make
them inclined to violence and sometimes numb their
humane and pity sentiments.
Watch the time
Children shouldn’t sit continuously in front of the tele-
vision for long periods of time. It is a fact that children
whowatch television all the time have concentration
problems, move around frequentlywithout thinking, and
are easily confused. It has been proven that watching
television for 10 hours or more in aweek affectsmen-
tal activities negatively. Also, it has been revealed that
childrenwhowatch television until late hours have sleep
disorders and this problemaffects their performance at
school, decreasing their participation in classes. Children
shouldn’t watch television for more than an hour a day
and parents should decidewhat kind of programs their
childrenwill watch.
DON'T GIVE ORDERS TO YOUR CHILDREN
PEDAGOGUE’SOPINION
FILE
Pedagogue
DidemKüt
ARTICLE
yesilay.org.tr
22
YEŞiLAY
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October-November-December 2015