Cartoons and Kids – A Positive note Duglas Joseph, (Coordinator of Landway News in UAE).
Reporter: News Desk 17-Jan-201910,936

My six year old daughter loves to watch cartoons. Before I think about, whether it is good or bad for her to watch cartoons, the visible advantages catch my attention. I was surprised to find her ability to speak English and the way she express her emotions and ideas in a lucid manner. Even before she learned the alphabets and words, she started to converse in English thanks to the various life situations shown in the cartoons. Also I found her imagination skills blossomed and she creates her own version of stories having humans, animals, fairies and princes as characters. The billion dollar question of whether cartoons beneficial or not, brings a plethora of arguments on both sides. Now kids watch YouTube cartoons using tabs and mobiles unlike the olden days, when T.V and CD players were the source of entertainment. However 24X7 cartoon channels like Pogo, cartoon network, Disney and Discovery kids, still attract children.
Before I attempt to drive home certain benefits of watching cartoons, let me take an anticipatory bail that, watching cartoons in moderation can be a good thing and on the other hand excessive time spend before cartoons really undermine the benefits.
# Improve speech and vocabulary
Through cartoons kids are able to learn new
vocabularies related to different occasions hence improve their speech and use
of vocabularies in writing which is of great benefit in education. As I
mentioned in the beginning of this article, I have found that, the versatile
situations portrayed in cartoons such as a birth day party,
at beach, a picnic, in a bus, at play round, at a festival,
in a shopping mall etc. would help kids to catch appropriate
words and sentences to express themselves in similar situations.
# Makes
children happy
If carefully monitored by parents, to avoid
unwanted stuff, cartoons are a good source of entertainment. Children like
sounds, colours and fast movements depicted in the cartoons.
# Enhance imagination and
creativity
Cartoons help to develop the imaginative and
creative skills in children. As I mentioned in the introduction of this
article, I have observed that, my daughter makes her own version of stories,
having characters such as humans, supernatural people, animals and birds.
# Effective in School
teaching
Many schools in kindergarten and primary classes use cartoons as
tool to teach students. Instead of a monotonous and tiring atmosphere, cartoons
create more relaxed and enjoyable learning environment.
Infant, toddlers and preschoolers learn so many thing from cartoon. By
watching cartoons, children at every age
learn so many things, they start knowing difference symbols, words and many
other gestures, they also know their meanings.
# Aware of
the social life:
Through cartoons kids familarise with
social situations and they are able to grow with the knowledge of interacting
well with people in the society. They will get a picture of a birthday party, a
marriage ceremony, a school classroom, a picnic place, a beach and a shopping
mall. The social value of cartoons are invaluable. I surprised to find my
daughter’s description of things that are required to arrange before going for
a picnic. I am sure, she picked it from
one of the cartoons that she watched.
# Foster
parent- children relationship
Another benefit of cartoons is that, it can foster
parent – children relationship, when they enjoy an interesting cartoon film
together. Kids will be very happy if you
spend your valuable time to watching a funny cartoon with them. When you watch
film with your kids, you can explain the meaning of a word, you can laugh with
them on a funny scene, use the opportunity to teach values such as cooperation,
tolerance, forgiveness, honesty etc.
In short, parents and teachers can use cartoons as an effective
tool for education, entertainment, imagination and creativity booster and
language development. However parents must be vigilant to protect children from
cartoon addiction.