In modern parenting, TV shows have played a huge role in our children’s lives. We know amount of screen-time matters, but what about the TYPES of shows are children are watching (especially our young toddlers)? I welcome Dr. Cara Goodwin (@parentingtranslator) who is a clinical psychologist, mom, and who translates the research on child development and parenting in an easy to understand way for parents to chat all about the types of shows our kids watch.

We discuss:

• Are certain popular shows like Cocomelon and Ms. Rachel for Littles okay for kids?
• Based on the research, what are young children learning from television?
• Are watching sports with children okay?
• How can a parent balance the research we do (and don’t have) to make screen time decisions for their children

Find Dr. Cara Goodwin on Instagram @parentingtranslator or visit her website parentingtranslator.org

00;00;01;02 – 00;00;22;12

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Research really only tells us what happens for the average child. What happens to those children? There’s always exceptions. And that’s why it’s so important to trust yourself as a parent. Because even if research said this is what happens, it doesn’t mean every single child. That’s why research is just kind of a guide for us, and not necessarily like the end all be all for parenting.

 

00;00;22;13 – 00;00;43;15

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So I definitely think when parents say that to me, I would say, well, it’s possible. I’m not saying that it’s completely impossible that you’re one year old has learned from this show, but what the research shows is that most children under three tend not learn from videos. And even if they do learn from videos, the learning doesn’t seem to be as deep.

 

00;00;43;15 – 00;00;54;26

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So even if they’re commentating a word, they’re not generalizing it to other situations, which means they don’t really have the word as a communication tool. It’s more just kind of parroting the word.

 

00;00;54;28 – 00;01;16;20

Dr. Mona

Welcome back to the show. Thank you for joining me as I welcome another amazing guest onto this podcast. Remember to leave a review and share this podcast so we can continue to have another great year of this show. On this episode I welcome Cara Goodwin. She is coming on to talk about our certain TV shows harmful for Your child.

 

00;01;16;22 – 00;01;30;24

Dr. Mona

She is a child psychologist mom of three, who translates the research on child development and parenting in an easy to understand way for parents to apply and use. Thank you so much for joining me today, Kara. Thank you so.

 

00;01;30;24 – 00;01;32;01

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Much for having me.

 

00;01;32;04 – 00;01;48;05

Dr. Mona

I am so excited. I discovered your platform on Parenting Translator on Instagram about, I would say last year, and I know you’ve been doing what you do for a while. And I’m like, how did I not know about this account? And that’s kind of the beauty of social is that you end up finding all these amazing accounts and you’re like, wow, this is incredible.

 

00;01;48;12 – 00;02;08;19

Dr. Mona

The information that you provide is so useful. And like I said, you’re basically taking all of the research out there that we do have on child development, parenting, anything parents are asking and just allowing parents to see the information out there so that they can make the best choices for their children. Tell me more about yourself and what prompted you to start to do this, especially on social media?

 

00;02;08;22 – 00;02;29;00

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be on your podcast. So I am a child psychologist and a mother, as you mentioned, and I was a child psychologist first. And then when I became a mother, it became clear to me, you know, I’d be talking to my other parent friends at the playground or whatever, that we’d be talking about a problem with our kids.

 

00;02;29;00 – 00;02;46;16

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And I would say, well, you know, about like, the research on this topic. And they would look at me like, what are you talking about? I just realized that there was a real problem, because I’ve spent a lot of time doing this research and being involved in the research world, and also as a psychologist, communicating this research to parents.

 

00;02;46;16 – 00;03;04;11

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And I realized there was a huge problem, that there’s all this research that all this money and time and effort goes into, and then it’s not reaching the people that really need it. And, you know, as parents, we don’t need the research to take a few years to get to us. Like we need the information that’s going to help us immediately.

 

00;03;04;13 – 00;03;17;15

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So my goal is really to take all this research that’s coming out every day, and to break it down for parents and explain how it can help you and help you to make decisions in your everyday lives.

 

00;03;17;18 – 00;03;32;21

Dr. Mona

Well, I love it because like you said, there is a lot out there that people probably don’t even know exists in terms of research and being able to tweeze through it, go through and make sure that it’s easy to understand for parents is such an art. So again, I just love what you’re doing and how you do it.

 

00;03;32;21 – 00;03;40;27

Dr. Mona

And even when I read, I’m like, yes, yes, this makes sense. And, you know, understanding the research and obviously how we apply it clinically is such an art. So that’s awesome.

 

00;03;40;29 – 00;03;42;04

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Thank you so much.

 

00;03;42;05 – 00;04;08;18

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And we’re talking about TV shows, which I think is such a great topic. You know, I’ve talked about screen time on my YouTube channel, on my platform and, you know, in so many different ways in terms of the recommendations surrounding the hours of screen time, you know, no screen time under such and such age. If you’re looking for all that information, everyone, you can get that on my YouTube channel and I have some blogs about that, but I invited Kara to talk to me about certain TV shows being harmful.

 

00;04;08;19 – 00;04;31;16

Dr. Mona

Notably, I think it was last year or the year before. There was like a viral trend about how Cocomelon, the very popular animated cartoon show, if you will. It’s harmful and it’s like crack for children. And I know that that terminology is strong. Obviously, we want to make the best choices for our children, so there are a lot of TV shows out there, and so many of them are obviously geared towards children.

 

00;04;31;18 – 00;04;40;05

Dr. Mona

What does the research tell us about the quality of shows our kids are watching? Does it matter? What should we look out for and where can we start from there?

 

00;04;40;08 – 00;05;02;20

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah. So we do have research showing that the quality of shows matter. So there’s a really interesting study where they had parents not change the amount of time the children were watching and screen time, but just change the content. So more educational content. And they actually found better outcomes in the children just by randomly assigning children or parents to change the content.

 

00;05;02;20 – 00;05;36;03

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So content really does matter. And what the research suggests you’re looking for is something with educational or social emotional content, something that’s bringing in either academic concepts or teaching your children’s social and emotional content. Well, we don’t have evidence for yet is that some of these shows that have kind of been villainized, like cocomelon or particularly harmful. There’s a lot out there about, you know, that I see on social media about the pace of television shows, you know, fast pace for slower television shows.

 

00;05;36;06 – 00;05;57;07

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And I think that’s a big part of the argument against Cocomelon. But there’s really mixed research on whether the pace of the show matters, and the more recent research suggests that it maybe doesn’t. So that’s kind of an evolving area, but we don’t have any research yet that these fast pace shows are harmful for brain development in any way.

 

00;05;57;10 – 00;06;31;02

Dr. Cara Goodwin

There is research, as I said, suggesting that you want to look for educational content shows that have social emotional content, like some examples of shows that have been found to be that beneficial in the research are Tiger super. Why a lot of these PBS shows, actually and Dora the Explorer and other shows where it seems like the characters are interacting with your child, that can be beneficial because the more a show feels interactive and responsive to a child, the more a child is likely to learn from it.

 

00;06;31;04 – 00;06;52;29

Dr. Mona

Oh, I’m writing all of these down because I love it. We start to a handful of shows. Daniel Tiger is one of them, the ones you mentioned, but it makes sense also from a developmental perspective that we always talk about screen time being a vehicle of an activity in an ideal world, we would watch screens with our children, especially the younger that they are because of Covid, pointing things out when they smile at something, we smile.

 

00;06;52;29 – 00;07;13;22

Dr. Mona

Also, it’s like a family event and it’s really great for their development when it’s a family activity. And so I think a lot of the things that we have to kind of realize is, like you said, the quality, I agree, does play a role, and it’s a lot of it is the parents looking at what that show may be doing to their child, like for using Cocomelon, I’m going to use that as an example again.

 

00;07;13;24 – 00;07;32;08

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Some parents will tell me that after they turn off Cocomelon that they feel like their child has a meltdown. And I say, well, what about other shows? Because at that age, if it’s like an 18 month old or a two year old, any change in what they want to do, right? You set a boundary and you had to turn off a TV show could make them dysregulated.

 

00;07;32;08 – 00;07;51;04

Dr. Mona

So is it that it’s normal regardless of the show? Is it that you truly believe it’s always happening with Cocomelon? Because even if the data says, okay, it may not be an issue. If you feel like your child doesn’t do well with a certain show, you can as a parent decide, okay, it’s not working for my kid. You know, every children’s brain and everything is built differently.

 

00;07;51;09 – 00;08;14;23

Dr. Mona

But it’s such an interesting thing and I think it’s such an important conversation. And I can see why the Daniel Tiger and Dora, you know, when they’re talking to you, instead of just talking to each other or just kind of repetition sounds, it feels more involved and also helps that development because there is somewhat of an interaction, even though it’s not fully reciprocated interaction like with a caregiver, there is some sort of pausing happening.

 

00;08;14;27 – 00;08;29;22

Dr. Mona

There is some sort of, you know, like they ask a question, there’s a pause, and then the child is kind of thinking about it. So I can see how those shows like Daniel, Tiger and Dora, that kind of engage with the viewer a little bit can be better in terms of developmental things that can be beneficial for the child.

 

00;08;29;25 – 00;09;05;16

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes, definitely. And I think, you know, some of these strategies that you mentioned, like watching with your child, interacting with your child, you know, research finds that that actually does enhance learning during the TV show. And I think it’s also important to keep in mind that age is a big factor. So a lot of research finds that children 36 months and younger aren’t going to learn very well from any sort of video media, you know, whether it’s TV show or YouTube video, whatever it is, they just aren’t going to learn as well from that kind of video format.

 

00;09;05;19 – 00;09;33;27

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And as children enter preschool so as they get beyond age three, it is possible for them to learn from television shows and especially like these higher quality shows that we’ve been talking about. It is possible for them to learn academic concepts, social emotional concepts, to learn new words. But it really is up until age three that you see what we call this video deficit, which means that it’s hard for them to learn from video.

 

00;09;33;29 – 00;09;55;10

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And, you know, I just get so many parents that tell me that they swear that their children are learning so much from TV at such a young age. And I’m talking, like you said, under three. Let’s even go under two infants. I’ll have infants in my office, parents of children under one who tell me, you know, I swear my child’s learning to speak because we watch whatever TV show that they’re watching.

 

00;09;55;10 – 00;10;21;13

Dr. Mona

And if you’re listening to this conversation with Kara and I and you’re like, yeah, this was me, and I swear it works. I’m not saying, you know, we have to also respect the research, obviously, that we’re talking about that. Yes, we don’t prefer screen times under one. It’s not something I gravitate towards. And like I said, a lot of what you think may be beneficial could be the fact that, like we talked about already, that since you’re watching it with your child or engaging with your child just by being a social event, that’s how you’re developing the language.

 

00;10;21;20 – 00;10;26;12

Dr. Mona

I’m going to go towards the very popular show Miss Rachel. Is that the name of the show? Am I right?

 

00;10;26;15 – 00;10;27;15

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes, yes.

 

00;10;27;18 – 00;10;40;17

Dr. Mona

Yes, Miss Rachel, for littles, it came out and became popular once. My son was a little older, like I think it was around, but I didn’t really hear about it until he was like two, two and a half. And so by then we didn’t really use it for language development because he was already doing well with language development.

 

00;10;40;23 – 00;11;03;09

Dr. Mona

But like a lot of parents on TikTok and Instagram are showing that show to their children under one and they swear that my child start to say hi and bye and all of that. Do you have any thoughts about that show in particular which is not an animated show? It obviously is a person talking or is obviously. I’m sure it’s too early to know any research behind that type of learning style that she portrays.

 

00;11;03;11 – 00;11;24;02

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah. So first of all, I would say that, you know, parents are always commenting on my posts when I post this and they say, well, you’re wrong because my child did this. And I’m like, well, research really only tells us what happens for the average child, what happens to those children. There’s always exceptions, and that’s why it’s so important to trust yourself as a parent.

 

00;11;24;02 – 00;11;57;05

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Because even if research says this is what happens, it doesn’t mean every single child. That’s why research is just kind of a guide for us and not directly like the end all be all for parenting. So I definitely think when parents say that to me, I would say, well, it’s possible. Absolutely. Not saying that it’s completely impossible that your one year old has learned from this show, but what the research shows is that most children under three tend not learn from videos, and even if they do learn from videos, the learning doesn’t seem to be as deep.

 

00;11;57;05 – 00;12;28;08

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So even if they’re writing a word, they’re not generalizing it to other situations, which means they don’t really have the word as a communication tool. It’s more just kind of parroting the word. So there really is a video deficit for most children under three. And that’s not to say that it’s not possible. Miss Rachel is a really interesting example, and my youngest is two and a half, and I was also like on the old side to really I haven’t really done it with my children, but I hear from parents of infants, it’s a huge phenomenon.

 

00;12;28;10 – 00;12;51;09

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And what she uses are a lot of techniques that, you know, we child psychologists would use to promote language development with kids. And that’s, you know, really kind of getting in their face, making eye contact, speaking in these slow, I hate to say it, but kind of annoying voices that were used with babies, you know, it is it’s called parenting use and it’s very effective.

 

00;12;51;09 – 00;13;15;16

Dr. Cara Goodwin

It is. And so the techniques that she uses are what we would use in real life. So I think that’s great. But what we don’t know is whether that translates to learning on video. And the research we have suggests that it probably doesn’t. I do think it’s very useful, though, in terms of teaching parents techniques that they can use with their children.

 

00;13;15;16 – 00;13;45;24

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So, you know, I think if you want to watch Miss Rachel with your child and then you learn some techniques and how you can interact with your child in a way that promotes language development, I think that is great. And I think, you know, it’s also very common for children, especially around H1 and H2, to have these kind of like amazing burst of language development and a lot of times parents will attribute that to, oh, well, we just started watching Miss Rachel or oh, we just started watching such and such show and they use a lot of language.

 

00;13;45;24 – 00;14;18;11

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And I think it’s important for parents to know that sometimes these language births just happen and they’re not attributable. We have no evidence that screen time would cause or even help children to learn language in any way. So to realize that it’s possible that this show is helping language development. But if you are concerned about your child’s language development in any way, like child psychologist and other experts in the field would really not suggest using a TV show as your first approach.

 

00;14;18;11 – 00;14;32;01

Dr. Cara Goodwin

You know, increasing your in-person interactions and also seeking an assessment from early intervention services or your local speech language pathologist would really be the most research backed approach.

 

00;14;32;03 – 00;14;55;24

Dr. Mona

Oh, I completely agree with that. And you mentioned something really useful about the parenting that happens, right? Especially for our younger toddler baby, let’s say like a nine month old through a 14 month old, right? They’re parroting, which means that they’re repeating and looking at patterns a lot. That’s how a lot of their development is going. And so when a parent says, yeah, they’re starting to mimic the sound or mimic the lip movement, a lot of it, like you said, could just be that temporary parroting.

 

00;14;55;24 – 00;15;20;14

Dr. Mona

But it’s not something that technically is going to stick if they’re learning it from video versus with the repetition with a parent in front of them. And so, you know, another thing that parents will often tell me, and I want to really just explain why this is not something I love, is they’ll have a younger child, let’s say a kid under three or even older that says, my child is so smart that they know how to get into the phone and like, swipe and get to the app and all of that.

 

00;15;20;14 – 00;15;40;24

Dr. Mona

And they boast about that. And I think that’s awesome that children are smart, but they know it because they are very good mimics and operators. Right? They know the motion and they can do that because they’ve done it hundreds of times or, you know, they’ve seen you do it. And so that’s awesome that they do that. But it’s like obviously they can do things in other ways too, like other play activities and stuff like that.

 

00;15;40;26 – 00;15;57;22

Dr. Mona

And so it’s really important to kind of understand that. And then the other thing I have to say about screens is especially I go back to that toddler baby age and, you know, you have a two year old now. But I remember when our son Ryan was like 11 months to 16 months. His attention span is very, very low, right?

 

00;15;57;22 – 00;16;14;28

Dr. Mona

They can’t focus. And that’s normal for a toddler that age. And so parents in my office will say, well, look, the only way he focuses is if I stick a screen in front of him at that age right there, child. And I say, I get that that’s going to keep their focus. But is that the type of focus we want to keep for that child?

 

00;16;14;28 – 00;16;37;29

Dr. Mona

Because are they actually, like you said, absorbing anything that’s actually learning? Or is it that they’re just seeing images move. Right. And so I always like to give a little bit of a warning that, hey, I think it’s awesome that our children are focused, but do we want to keep the focus on something like a screen? Obviously if y’all are doing that, I get why you’re doing it, but trying to understand that it’s not something we want.

 

00;16;37;29 – 00;16;51;03

Dr. Mona

We don’t want to, like have the screen as it’s like, hey, this is the only way my kid is going to focus. Because developmentally, it’s very, very common that your child is not going to focus at that age and it’s going to need some other engaging activities. You know, besides screens and all that.

 

00;16;51;05 – 00;17;13;00

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes, yes, young children at this one day to age range like you’re talking about, move on from activity to activity very quickly. Yeah. Because their brains really thrive in different kind of cognitive stimulation as they can get. So because their brains kind of thrive with those kind of changing environments, they are going to bounce from one activity to the next.

 

00;17;13;00 – 00;17;27;21

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And that’s what’s normal for our children’s brain. Development is getting all sorts of different kinds of real life stimulation. And I totally understand, you know, as three kids and I understand how difficult that like one year old age is.

 

00;17;27;23 – 00;17;28;05

Dr. Mona

Oh my.

 

00;17;28;06 – 00;17;29;15

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Extremely extreme.

 

00;17;29;15 – 00;17;31;16

Dr. Mona

It’s 24/7 supervision needed.

 

00;17;31;16 – 00;17;48;18

Dr. Cara Goodwin

And you know, I understand, but I think it’s important for parents to think about when they use a screen. What would I be doing instead? You know, if you’re turning on a screen. Because the only other option I have, I’m about to lose my mind and the last option I have is screaming my head off. Then like, turn on a screen.

 

00;17;48;18 – 00;18;09;20

Dr. Cara Goodwin

That’s the right choice if you need to make dinner or like, take care of another child and you just need the baby to be safe for five minutes. While you do that, turn on a screen. If an option is having, high quality social interaction with your child or even your child, just having some independent play time, that would be a better choice.

 

00;18;09;20 – 00;18;23;08

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So just kind of thinking about what would I be doing instead, rather than how can screen time help my child? Because we don’t have any evidence for young children that it does promote development or learning in any way?

 

00;18;23;11 – 00;18;40;25

Dr. Mona

Yes, I love that. Especially what you said about the if it means peace for you. I agree, I rather have that ten minutes to yourself to just breathe, take a sip of water if it just gives you a mental break and, you know, going back to like what I see on TikTok and Instagram about Miss Rachel, a lot of moms really love her.

 

00;18;40;25 – 00;19;02;28

Dr. Mona

Like I never watched her shows, but I imagine like when they put her on, the parent also feels super relaxed, super calm, like it is a break for everybody. And like you said, there’s no judgment about needing a break as a parent because we all need it, especially when everything’s overstimulated and if it calms the mood for everybody, that actually can be hugely beneficial to to, you know, being able to not be overstimulated, overwhelmed.

 

00;19;02;28 – 00;19;17;17

Dr. Mona

So I love that you said that. So do you think with all this I know we only talked about like these two kind of shows that are kind of out there. But of course there’s so many. Do you think parents should be avoiding certain shows altogether with the research that we have at this point, or is it just depends on the situation?

 

00;19;17;19 – 00;19;47;09

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah. So the only shows I would say that parents should avoid altogether are shows that are developmentally inappropriate for your child. So, you know, adult TV shows, which often I think a lot of parents will put it on in the background thinking the child isn’t even really paying attention. But there’s a lot of research linking that this kind of background adult television to negative outcomes, because it really does, even if we don’t realize it interrupts the interaction between parent and child.

 

00;19;47;11 – 00;20;08;06

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So I think, you know, making sure that it’s developmentally appropriate. Obviously, if it has educational content, like I mentioned, that’s better. We really have no evidence that any of these shows cause harm to children’s brain development or, you know, even worse, I’ve seen out there that some shows can cause autism or ADHD.

 

00;20;08;21 – 00;20;09;11

Dr. Mona

Gosh.

 

00;20;09;14 – 00;20;30;22

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah, we have absolutely no evidence whatsoever that any screen time causes autism, ADHD or any other sort of neurodivergent. So and I think that can cause a lot of shame for parents with children who are neurodivergent. So I just want to make sure that’s out there that we have no evidence that screen time causes those conditions.

 

00;20;30;25 – 00;20;51;02

Dr. Mona

100%. And also, like you said, it’s shameful. It’s stigmatizing. It just is something that should stop. And it’s happening so much on social and it makes me cringe. I’m like, what are we talking about here? And as you all know, if you follow my platform, I know the show, especially ADHD, autism, these are all neurodivergent conditions and they’re basically the way our brain is wired is different.

 

00;20;51;02 – 00;21;12;20

Dr. Mona

It doesn’t mean that it was caused by something you ate, something you watch things like that. It’s just how our brain works and that’s why it has no effect. And how do you feel like a parent can know if they need to make changes with their screen time usage? You know, we didn’t really talk about quantity of screens, but is there something that you would say like, hey, this is kind of when we have to reevaluate our quantity, quality, things like that.

 

00;21;12;26 – 00;21;34;20

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah. I think, you know, it’s really hard to say because every child and every family is so different. And I think parents need to really think critically about their own family’s needs and their own child’s response to screen time. You know, if you’re watching TV every morning, for example, and you notice that your child tends to be moodier.

 

00;21;34;23 – 00;22;00;14

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah. The days that you watch TV versus the days that you don’t, and you realize that maybe watching TV first thing in the morning, like, isn’t what’s best for my child. So just being aware of how your child kind of responds to screen time and also being aware of your own needs as a family, you know, I think there are some out there that can do zero screen time with no stress, and I think that’s amazing.

 

00;22;00;14 – 00;22;24;00

Dr. Cara Goodwin

But I think for some parents they need that afternoon break either for their own mental health or because they’re working from home, or they have important tasks to do around the house, and to be aware of using screen time as a tool for you as a parent, but not as a way to entertain your child or stimulate your child or teach your child.

 

00;22;24;01 – 00;22;43;18

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Because children really should be playing with material objects, real life toys, and having real life interactions. And we want to maximize that as much as possible. So seeing it more just as a tool to kind of balance the needs of your family and not something that is needed for your child’s development.

 

00;22;43;28 – 00;23;07;18

Dr. Mona

I love how low judgment you are in the situation, because like you said, it’s such a nuanced answer, like you just did perfectly that every family is so unique. You mentioned that you have multiple children, and so maybe if you have one child, you may have more resources and screens or reality as much as if you have multiple children and need that sort of, hey, what can we put here while I’m getting, like you said, dinner on the stove or having to take a moment for yourself.

 

00;23;07;18 – 00;23;27;15

Dr. Mona

So every decision that a parent makes, like you said and what you’re doing, Cara, is getting the research, understanding, benefit, risk, situational circumstances so that parents can make that best choice for their child. And going back to one question I had, so you talked about the parental shows, right? Like meaning adult style shows. What do you feel about sports?

 

00;23;27;21 – 00;23;41;20

Dr. Mona

I have this question come up a lot that, you know, my I’ll be watching sports and we know will be engaged and stuff and then my child will be there. Maybe they’re under two. Under one. How do you feel about a child being around when a family is watching sports activities on television?

 

00;23;41;23 – 00;24;00;06

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah, we do have sports on in our family on the weekends sometimes, and I have thought about it and there really isn’t any research that I know of on this topic. And there should be, because I think it is very common for parents to put on sports, especially in the background and in my experience in my family. And like I said, there’s no research that I know.

 

00;24;00;07 – 00;24;20;23

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So this is just based on my own experience, is that there seems to be more interaction with a sports fan, less distraction. Yes. It’s not like you’re following a story. It’s more just kind of like you’re glancing occasionally. And of course, you know, it would always be better to have no distraction from your children. But unfortunately, that’s not the world we live on.

 

00;24;20;23 – 00;24;40;21

Dr. Cara Goodwin

You know, our phones are distracting us, but laundry machine is beeping like there’s a lot of things going on in our environment that distract us from high quality interactions with our kids. But I would say, you know, if you do choose to, if you are a family that chooses to turn on sports with you when your children are awake and around, try to involve them, you know, interact with them.

 

00;24;40;21 – 00;25;03;08

Dr. Cara Goodwin

I think that’s a great time to teach math and numerical skills. Like who’s winning? So if they have a five and they have 47, which team is winning? Which one is more, you know, stuff like based on your child’s developmental level, of course. But if you can bring your child into it and teach them about something that’s a passion for you, I think that could potentially be a bonding opportunity for families.

 

00;25;03;08 – 00;25;10;04

Dr. Cara Goodwin

So I think that there are some benefits, but that would be a really interesting research study and hopefully I’ll see it soon in the future.

 

00;25;10;06 – 00;25;25;17

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I completely agree with you that although there is not a research study which like we talked about, there’s not going to be a research study on every single decision you make as a parent. So, so much of it is taking what we do know. And like I said, applying it to what your circumstances are, what you know about child development and your understanding.

 

00;25;25;17 – 00;25;42;14

Dr. Mona

And I think that’s reasonable, right? There’s not going to be something for everything. But I agree that even though there is not research right now, because it’s such a social activity, and going back to that family activity of screen time, right. The fact that there is talking to the TV, oh no, you know, you’re supposed to make that Twitch standard or whatever, right?

 

00;25;43;01 – 00;26;00;09

Dr. Mona

As you can see, I’m not I’m not a big football fan. But all that is so useful because the child is seeing you engage. And maybe that adult is turning to the baby or child and talking to the child, like, did you see that? Did you see that touched down? You know, like there’s interaction there. So it’s not just like turn the TV on and there’s no interaction.

 

00;26;00;09 – 00;26;16;28

Dr. Mona

There’s no join to tension. It’s actually a very interactive experience. And you said it perfectly, especially as a child, older Ryan, when we watch sports, because my husband’s more of the sports person when there’s someone crying like, you know, if a team lost and I see them crying, you know, it’s an emotional education. Like, oh, see Ryan, they didn’t win.

 

00;26;16;28 – 00;26;38;14

Dr. Mona

So they were sad. But you see at the very same time they’re someone’s crying because they’re happy. So tears can be for happy tears, but they can also be because we’re sad. And he’s like, oh mommy. Yes, they’re sad. Oh, but they’re happy. And it’s like I said, there are so many learning opportunities, so we should have completely vilify screens like we’ve talked about this whole episode and especially with sports now, you know, safety things.

 

00;26;38;14 – 00;26;55;25

Dr. Mona

I think people already know this. Like if you’re drinking and if you’re not really attentive to your children, if you’re getting kind of rough, you know, getting angry, you kind of want to model that a little bit, you know, like seeing how you are. But if it’s like a one time thing, very joyous. It’s like a celebratory thing.

 

00;26;55;28 – 00;27;16;07

Dr. Mona

I think it’s reasonable. But I do see a lot of anger around the Super Bowl. I think, you know, this, that there is actually a lot of anger issues, that happen and I don’t want children to be in that sort of environment, around sports. And if parents are getting a little too into the sports, I want to protect our children too, from the anger that can happen if their team doesn’t win.

 

00;27;16;09 – 00;27;21;23

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes, that’s definitely a good point. Yeah, it’s a great a great opportunity to teach about sportsmanship.

 

00;27;21;23 – 00;27;38;09

Dr. Mona

And yes, good losers. Good losers. You know? Yes. And sometimes parents are the best example of that and I understand. But we kind of have to model these things for our kids if we want them to learn it in the future. So just little things for sports, sports, sports and our kids. Okay. This is such a great conversation.

 

00;27;38;09 – 00;27;51;11

Dr. Mona

I’m going to have you on the podcast again because I just again adore you, adore your information and just love everything you’re putting out there. But tell my listeners again where people can find you, your platform on Instagram and everything else that you have to share.

 

00;27;51;14 – 00;28;14;06

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yeah, so I share free resources for parents translating the research on parenting and child development into information you can use in your everyday life. And I do that on Instagram at Parenting Translator. I have a newsletter on Substack, which is also parenting translator, and my website is Parenting translator.org. And I have recently gotten on TikTok to add parenting trends.

 

00;28;14;06 – 00;28;15;08

Dr. Mona

Oh very good.

 

00;28;15;08 – 00;28;16;18

Dr. Cara Goodwin

I starting up with that.

 

00;28;16;20 – 00;28;20;25

Dr. Mona

Well, Kara, thank you so much for joining me. This is such a great conversation.

 

00;28;20;28 – 00;28;23;06

Dr. Cara Goodwin

Yes, I love talking to you as well.

 

00;28;23;09 – 00;28;41;03

Dr. Mona

And for everyone listening, I am sure you love this conversation. To make sure you show Kara some love by leaving a review, calling out this episode and what you loved about it. Make sure you share it on social media and tag me, PedsDocTalk and Parenting Translator, which is her account, so that we can see how much you love this episode.

 

00;28;41;07 – 00;28;59;09

Dr. Mona

And I cannot wait to invite another guest next week onto the show. Thank you for tuning in for this week’s episode. As always, please leave a review. Share this episode with a friend. Share it on your social media. Make sure to follow me at PedsDocTalk on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel, PedsDocTalk TV.

 

00;28;59;11 – 00;29;00;14

Dr. Mona

We’ll talk to you soon.