Cartoons are a popular form of entertainment for everyone, especially for kids. Many kids have fantasized about princesses, queens, knights, superheroes, and so on after watching classic animated movies like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Frozen, and so on. However, cartoons have both positive and negative impacts on child development. Want to know about them? Scroll down to know more.
1. Cartoons Help in Learning
Kids learn by watching, either from parents, teachers, or cartoons. By watching cartoons, kids know numbers, rhymes, shapes, and colors from early on. Kids even learn about good and bad manners from their favorite cartoon characters. However, not all cartoons are qualitative and educational. That is why parents must make age-appropriate cartoon selections for their kids and watch along with them, if possible.
2. Cartoons Can Help in Language Building
Watching cartoons in your native language can improve your kids’ language skills. They can even help in improving pronunciation as well as diction. Listening to animated characters speak different languages, like English, French, etc., helps kids develop linguistic abilities. Apart from language, cartoons help expand imagination while working as a stress buster for kids.
3. It Encourages Violence
This is one of the major adverse effects of watching cartoons. Animated shows, which are full of violence, can make kids violent too, especially the younger kids whose brains are still developing and processing new things. Watching such shows might also make kids think that violence is the right way to deal with others. They may even start applying the same violent methods to deal with their friends at school or in playgrounds. Thus, parents need to watch what their kids are consuming and whether or not it is affecting their behavior.
4. Can Promote Unruly Behavior
In many cartoons, some characters either lack empathy or disrespect their parents, friends, and teachers. Kids might mimic these characters in real life, posing a great challenge for parents and teachers to teach them discipline in real life. Other than behavior, many cartoons include foul language, which kids might use in daily life without knowing or understanding its consequences or meaning.
5. Cartoons Promotes Sedentary Lifestyle
A sedentary lifestyle is not suitable for a child’s development. Long hours spent in front of the screen might lead to obesity, eye issues, poor eating habits, or other health issues. Moreover, kids interact less with their peers or family while watching shows. This hampers their social skills development, which might get worse with age. Parents should encourage their kids to play outside with friends, help around the house, or talk with them.
Agreed, one can not completely stop kids from watching cartoons. But parents can limit their screen time and check the content of the show to ensure positive child development.
You can also read Tips To Control Screen Time For Good Mental Health Of Kids
