What do children watch mostly on the television? Cartoon movies, without any doubt. Children like to watch cartoon movies on the TV even before they start to speak. Do you know why? I think it is because of the funny and weird figures of animals and humans that appear in cartoons. Not only that, but the bright and varied colors the cartoon characters are painted with also play an important role in attracting children. But is it good for children to watch cartoons on the TV?
I remember reading an interview with a young man who ranked high in the Civil
Services examinations sometime before. He told the interviewer that he was very fond of watching cartoon movies on the TV when he was a child. It was the cartoon movies that helped him in a big way in learning English, especially spoken English. And even as a grownup he liked to watch cartoon movies occasionally.Nowadays children watch TV more and read books less. When we were children, there was no TV and so watching TV was out of the question. So we read books more compared to our children. The main argument against watching the TV is that it leaves nothing for the child to imagine. He can see the different characters before him. He need not imagine the appearance of a character or any situation in the movie. But when reading a book he has to imagine how the different characters will look like. He
has to imagine a place or a situation described in the story he is reading. So the imaginative power of the child increases by reading books.Very small children may not be able to read lengthy stories or books. But they will be happy to watch the TV, especially cartoon movies. Watching cartoons will improve their language. As most of the cartoons are in English, watching them will improve their English. They will learn to understand from the conversation between others. Their vocabulary will improve. They will learn how to pronounce different words. Their spoken English will greatly improve. These are definitely advantages of watching cartoons.
But there should be a limit to everything. The time period for which children watch TV should be properly regulated by parents. There should be time allotted for reading books. You cannot prevent children from watching TV entirely. It will only do more harm than good. A balance should be arrived at between watching TV, reading books, studying etc.
By the by, do you like to watch cartoon movies? To be frank, I do. I love to watch ‘Tom and Jerry’ or ‘Mr. Bean’ with my children occasionally. It is big entertainment, don’t you think so?
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