Television can be a major stumbling block to children in their developmental years, hindering the growth of reading skills, verbal abilities, and thinking skills. God has given each child the special ability to create images in his mind as he reads. Television can also impede his thinking and verbal experiences, and in many instances can attack the value system taught in the Christian home. Reading, on the other hand, will train your child's mind to think and to develop concentration skills. Reading also enhances comprehension, expands speaking and writing vocabularies, and reinforces basic grammar and sentence structure skills.
Television influences the quality of reading material a child selects.
Instead of reading great classics, the child hooked on television prefers more simplistic fare. The very nature of television makes it less stimulating to children than reading. Since television requires little concentration, it has a negative effect upon a child's ability to comprehend what he reads. The failure to develop concentration skills will lead children to read words but not understand what the words are saying. Comprehension is always impaired when children have difficulty concentrating.