SpongeBrain?

I didn’t need a scientific study to know that my children don’t respond to all animated shows the same way. But now I’ve got one. Research published in the medical journal Pediatrics Monday indicates that fast-paced animated programs have different—read: negative—effects on young viewers compared to slower-paced ones.

Researchers at the University of Virginia divided a group of 60 4-year-olds into three groups. One group watched nine minutes of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, one group watched nine minutes of PBS’s Caillou and the control group drew pictures with crayons. Afterward, researchers tested the children’s “executive function” in several different areas, including problem-solving, paying attention and delaying gratification.

Turns out the young SpongeBob viewers were the worse for their short exposure.

Specifically, they experienced measurable impairment in the executive function tests, while children who watched slower-paced Caillou tested at the same level as those who’d been drawing and coloring.

University of Virginia lead researcher Angeline S. Lillard said of the results, “We found that young children who had just watched SpongeBob SquarePants were handicapped in what you could say is their readiness for learning. This included their ability to think and concentrate.”

The study pointed out that images on SpongeBob changed every 11 seconds—more than three times as quickly as those on Caillou. Lillard speculates that young minds may struggle to keep up with that pace. “When children have to process a lot of information very quickly, it is difficult to process because it’s unusual. In [the SpongeBob episodes] a lot of things are happening that can’t happen in real life. We think it leaves them mentally exhausted—at least for a short time.”

Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, George Adkins Professor and director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at the University of Washington, wrote an accompanying commentary. He cautioned that while the study’s sample was small, it still constituted a “significant contribution to our knowledge of the effects of media on children.”

Those raising young children need to be thinking about what their kids are watching, he said, in addition to how much TV screen time they’re getting. Said Christakis:

Parents need to focus as much on the content and quality of the show as on the quantity. … It's not that we can't process these shows, we do, but it may come at a cost—a short-term cost, so we can't concentrate immediately afterward. … Connecting fast-paced television viewing to deficits in executive function, regardless of whether they are transient, has profound implications for children's cognitive and social development that need to be considered and reacted to. 

As Lillard points out, this research serves as a reminder for parents to pay close attention to what their children are watching … and how those images are influencing their behavior. “See if the child is having difficulty functioning at their normal level. If they are, [parents] should be careful when they allow their children to watch such shows,” she counseled.