Babies with books, Part I

We here at Wordcandy HQ try not to get too upset over statistics about the dwindling popularity of reading, but this survey, featured in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, is pretty ugly. The researchers did a telephone survey of over 1000 parents of 2- to 24-month-olds, attempting to determine the "television-, DVD-, and video-viewing habits of children younger than 2 years". Here are their results:

By 3 months of age, about 40% of children regularly watched television, DVDs, or videos. By 24 months, this proportion rose to 90%. The median age at which regular media exposure was introduced was 9 months. Among those who watched, the average viewing time per day rose from 1 hour per day for children younger than 12 months to more than 1.5 hours per day by 24 months. Parents watched with their children more than half of the time. Parents gave education, entertainment, and babysitting as major reasons for media exposure in their children younger than 2 years.

Ugh! Look, we don't judge anybody for snatching an hour of sleep while their kid zones out in front of PBS, but if you're that worried about Junior's mental development, READ to the kid. It's a great way to bond, it's good for their little brains, and--best of all--it doesn't have an annoying theme song.