Television's Impact on Children's Reading Skills: A Review of Research

THE AUTHORS discuss the hypotheses that explain why television might influence the child's development of reading skills positively (facilitation hypothesis), negatively (inhibition hypothesis), or not at all (no-effect hypothesis). Although the evidence is not unequivocal, most of the research supports the inhibition hypothesis. However, television's relation to reading achievement is complex; the magnitude and direction of the relation are influenced by a number of conditions. Heavy viewers, socially advantaged children, and intelligent children tend to be most vulnerable to television's inhibition effect. In addition, the relation is sensitive to the type of television content watched. The authors evaluate the utility of the five research approaches used in the past, and suggest directions for further research.