Wow! We mostly limit our daughter (3.5 yrs) to kids music - Laurie Bertner, TMBG, For the Kids series, Dan Zanes, etc - or classical and jazz. She's a pretty sensitive kid and picks up on things pretty easily.
I also worry about her little brain (a little background here - I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology and teach general and developmental psych at a local university). Brain research shows that neural pathways are created pretty easily at this age and they just build over time. I really would prefer her to not have any neural pathways associated with some of the themes glorified by some of the music and other media out there (wanton sex, violence, strong language, etc) until she's a little older and has more processing power. And there is no way that I would allow her to watch adult television or movies - many of those images, even those in commercials, are just too much for a young brain to handle in my opinion.
I don't want her to think the types of behaviors portrayed in much of the media today are in any way acceptable, so I limit her exposure to them now. When she's older, she'll have plenty of chance to see/hear/experience these things and we can talk about them at that time. Young children are primed and ready to learn about the world, so I'd prefer to use my fully grown prefrontal cortex - i.e. adult judgement - to help my daughter learn the stuff that I think will be helpful rather than harmful to her in the long run.
This has been a very interesting thread...
Traci
I also worry about her little brain (a little background here - I have a Masters in Clinical Psychology and teach general and developmental psych at a local university). Brain research shows that neural pathways are created pretty easily at this age and they just build over time. I really would prefer her to not have any neural pathways associated with some of the themes glorified by some of the music and other media out there (wanton sex, violence, strong language, etc) until she's a little older and has more processing power. And there is no way that I would allow her to watch adult television or movies - many of those images, even those in commercials, are just too much for a young brain to handle in my opinion.
I don't want her to think the types of behaviors portrayed in much of the media today are in any way acceptable, so I limit her exposure to them now. When she's older, she'll have plenty of chance to see/hear/experience these things and we can talk about them at that time. Young children are primed and ready to learn about the world, so I'd prefer to use my fully grown prefrontal cortex - i.e. adult judgement - to help my daughter learn the stuff that I think will be helpful rather than harmful to her in the long run.
This has been a very interesting thread...
Traci
