Since the early 1990s American infants and toddlers have increasingly watched television, including "baby videos" and TV programs that have been made for them. Little is known about the impact of watching television on infant and toddler behavior, including their play with toys. Nearly all theories of human development assert that toy play is important for cognitive, social, and physical development. While it is well known that television influences play and play themes in older children, nothing is known about its impact on toddler toy preference and play. From one point of view it can be supposed that TV has little effect on play because toddlers can understand little of what they see on TV. From another point of view, television may have a substantial effect because it may influence toy preference and it has been claimed to place the child in a passive mode of cognition and behavior that transfers to other activities following viewing. Toys directed at very young children, moreover, are frequently based on or are branded with television characters. Such licensed products are expensive, so presumably the manufacturers believe that very young children positively respond to this branding. Nothing is known about the age at which children begin to prefer toys based on television characters or how TV viewing influences play at early ages. This research examines the effect of television on toy play by 1- and 2-year-old children and consists of three types of studies, all conducted in a laboratory playroom. The initial study determines at what age children develop preferences for toys based on television series. The research also determines whether toy play following TV viewing is different from toy play following a book reading session with a parent. Specifically, the research examines play episode length, focused attention during play, and play maturity following TV viewing. Second, the research determines whether television character behavior influences toy preference and the type of play in which very young children engage. Children will be shown TV segments in which the characters engage in prosocial behavior such as sharing, hugging, or taking turns, or in which characters engage in aggressive and antisocial behavior. The question is whether very young children show preferences for either prosocial or antisocial television characters and if so, whether their play differs based on what they have watched. Third, the research examines the role of program comprehensibility and program type (emphasizing construction activities or emphasizing character interactions). If very young children are affected by content, then play should emphasize preference for construction toys after watching the educational program that features construction activities. On the other hand, they should prefer play with toys based on characters after watching the entertainment story-based program. If they actually have some sequential and linguistic understanding of the programs, their toy preference and play activity should be much less pronounced after watching reduced-comprehensibility versions of the TV programs (created by putting shots in random order and making dialogue run backwards).
In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under 2 years of age not watch television. Several studies since then have reported that TV viewing by very young children is associated with slower cognitive and language development as well as attention deficit symptoms. It is not known, however, what factors produce these associations, or even whether the relationship is causal. Nevertheless, despite the warning flags raised by these studies, recent surveys have indicated that TV viewing by American infants and toddlers has steadily increased. The present research adds important information about possible mechanisms of television influence where nothing is now known. Does television influence play behavior in very young children? If so, what is the nature of the influence? Play is thought to be developmentally important and also constitutes a large portion of very young children's waking time. Knowing whether and how television influences play may help provide one plausible mechanism by which television, in a cumulative fashion, exerts an influence on development.
