Most child advocacy groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have recently warned against the dangers of children watching too much television and suggested children under the age of 2 should not watch at all. But before your throw your TV set out the window, let’s look at what exactly everyone is being warned against.

Experts argue that television can be a negative influence on impressionable young minds because of early exposure to excessive violence, inappropriate content and unregulated advertising. The key word here -- “television” – is actually used not to describe your physical set, but the programming readily available on it. To condemn the actual television set would be like blaming your refrigerator for childhood obesity. The refrigerator only stores what you put in it. Likewise, your television is merely a vessel. Used correctly, the television is one of the most powerful learning tools a parent has at their disposal.

One of the reasons the television is an amazing complement to your household learning environment is because it's multi-sensory and most importantly to a baby's brain development, ever changing. Introducing babies and children to things that have multiple uses is one of the cornerstones of gifted mind development. A rattle is just a rattle. It will never be anything else. But a box can be a container and a boat and a car and a house and a building block and so on. This ability to "think outside the box" leads to better analytical, creative and even social skills.

Your television set has the potential to lead your small child into other worlds, stir their imagination and inspire them perhaps even better than books, because its dynamic display of moving colors, shapes, sounds and spoken language are better suited to their short attention spans. The miracle of television is that it can breathe life into a still picture. You have the ability to use your television to broaden your child’s horizons, introducing them to the world beyond their backyard.

So, how do you harness the learning power of your television?

Use Only Pre-Recorded Content
First and foremost, the only way to guarantee your child is exposed to only age-appropriate material is to use prerecorded content, i.e. an educational DVD specifically created for your child’s age group.

There is currently no suitable on-air programming for children under 2, and most preschool programming is tainted with unregulated commercials. I’m astounded that programs like “Blue’s Clues” can air with adult-centric commercials for weight loss pills and debt consolidation. A video of “Blue’s Clues,” however, is commercial free.

Watch With Your Child
Like any educational resource, television is most effective when used *with* an adult caregiver. One of the most important things for a child’s healthy development is for their caregiver to hold them, hug them, talk to them and interact with them. Watching television together can be a tremendous interactive experience. Hold your child on your lap, or snuggle up next to them while you talk about the lessons you’re both viewing together. Ask them questions about what they see, what they anticipate might come next, why they believe things happened.

Of course, every parent needs a break now and again, and you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you allow your child to watch without you sometimes. But you should *always* watch everything you play for your child at least once yourself. There is unfortunately a lot of garbage masquerading as “educational” videos on the market. Don’t just blindly trust the packaging. Watch for yourself.

Having watched just about every tape ever made for babies and toddler, I can attest that it can be mind-numbing to sit through some of them. But ask youself, “Is this the best program for my child then?” The best children’s programming is made with adult viewers in mind as well, to promote co-viewing and family bonding opportunities. If you find yourself wondering what in the world your baby could be learning from shabby puppet shows and annoying sound effects, you might be right in thinking: “Nothing.”

Hallmarks of Quality, Educational Content
Besides your own common sense – is the program teaching your child anything? -- there are certain qualities you can be on the lookout for to determine if your child is really benefiting from an educational tape, or just being mesmerized by an onscreen lava lamp.

High production quality
Simply put, how does the video look overall? Does it look like the production company spent time and money on the presentation, or does it look like something your brother-in-law shot in his basement?

If you wouldn’t stand for lousy homemade production quality and cheap computer animation effects in your own programs, your baby shouldn’t have to either. Good quality educational videos look like good quality educational videos. If the production quality is outstanding, chances are the company spent just as much time in pre-production, working with educators and medical professionals, researching the subject and planning the best program possible.

Safe, non-dangerous content
This sounds obvious, but watch closely. Many so-called “educational” tapes are made by media professionals, not educators or physicians, and include unsafe content. Sure, a close-up of a candle onscreen is pretty, but do you want your baby lulled in real-life by fire? One popular baby tape shows characters digging a bottomless hole and then jumping into it, forever disappearing. Not exactly what I want my adventurous two-year-old to see.

Soothing, not startling, presentation
Many parents mistakenly believe that for a program to be effective, their child needs to be hypnotized by it. In actuality, the best educational programming allows your child to be their natural, active selves: they watch, they wander, come back, engage, get distracted by something right in front of them, start watching again.

Small children have short attention spans. Good educational programming tailors its presentation to that attention span in nonabrasive ways – for example, with quicker editing and an interesting soundtrack.

Programming that purposefully demands a small child’s undivided attention is actually incredibly harmful. One popular series uses startling sound effects – trash can lids dropping on concrete, balloons popping, tires screeching – to make sure babies don’t dare look away from the screen. These sounds are not only the unnerving equivalent of snapping in an infant’s face, they actually act as Negative Reinforcement, conditioning children, like tiny Pavlov’s dogs, to never look away from a television for fear of punishment. No doctor or educator in the world would endorse this Operant Conditioning (and none has).

Fully orchestrated music
Almost every baby tape on the market uses classical music and cites the “Mozart Effect” as proof of their educational worth. However, all classical music is not created equally. The merits of the “Mozart Effect” exist because of the mathematical qualities and varying complications in the movements of fully scored orchestral music.

One company takes classical music and runs it through a computer, removing 90% of the instruments, variations and musical richness. The result is a tinny melody that sounds as if it were played on a music box. Music boxes are fine, but educationally stimulating baroque music, they are not. For this company to tout the benefits of their music box creations as “specially engineered for small ears” is basically the equivalent of removing all the vitamins from orange juice and labeling it “extra nutritious.”

Realistic promises
Don’t be fooled by the hyperbolic marketing claims on the video box. The more outlandish the claim, the more unlikely it is that the program is truly educational. No single DVD can “raise your child’s IQ” or turn them into a “genius.” Look for programs that tout stimulation, creativity and exposure to educational concepts.

Used appropriately with the right content, television can enrich the life of viewers of any age. Just make sure the exposure is age appropriate, guided by you and, most importantly, part of a loving learning environment you’ve created in your home.

Dr. Pamela Reber, M.D., pictured left with granddaughter Savannah, is one of the country's leading pediatrician/neonatologists. Mother of five and grandmother to nine, she's triple-board certified in neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric emergency medicine and pediatrics, and holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA). She currently practices in Orlando, Florida.