Child's understanding of television programmes

Abstract

In the last decade, we have witnessed an unimaginable progress of the electronic media. The television takes the first place by its availability, importance and popularity, both with adults and with children. It has become the focal point of family interaction and is progressively taking on a key role in the process of children's socialization. Various research has proven that children begin watching television as babies and that toddlers are already accustomed and constant viewers. During their development, they become increasingly competent to understand and to use the television media, while the differences in the perception of television contents are mainly conditioned by the period of early childhood. The process of preschool child's understanding of media information goes from concrete to abstract and on two levels at the same time: understanding of formal features and understanding of content. Both levels have important role in child's understanding of the world, what could be observed in forming of gender stereotypes, where, as researches show, the television has a special influence.

Keywords

• preschool children
• television
• cognitive development
• gender stereotypes