Coco melon is a very popular American YouTube channel as well as a streaming media show that mainly airs animation videos of original children songs and traditional nursery rhymes. The channel is so popular such that it is currently in second position in terms of most views globally and has the most views in the US. The channel’s content is made up of videos about babies as well as adults and animals who typically interact in portrayal of daily life. The popularity of Coco melon was spurred by the pandemic which caused an increase in terms of the hours spent by children and parents at home due to COVID 19 protocols. A report published on the Washington post by Mary Graham (2022), this is a show that has a good production value that is accompanied by songs as well as highly colorful dancing characters. In fact, the writers use their own experiences with their children and other family members to generate activities which are then turned into the Coco melon episodes (Graham, 2022).
Even though there lacks sufficient academic research regarding the impact of recent streaming shows for children such as Coco melon, there are researchers who have expressed their views regarding the potential impact of these shows on children’s developmental growth. For instance, a research published on “The List” website indicates comments drawn from the show’s creators which suggest that they seek to ensure that the content is fun and engaging for children as they focus on producing shows on relevant topics (2021). In another research undertaken by Imaniah et al., (2020) it focused on the impact of Youtube shows for kids, including Cocomelon and the potential adverse effects, suggesting that it might limit a child’s developmental growth in the aspects of cognition and communication. According to this report, one of the researchers opined that shows such as Coco melon tend to be hyper stimulating such that it gives kids’ brains a hit of dopamine due to the screen time and this means that the stimulation levels are higher if the screen time is also higher. As a result, this causes the children to experience symptoms that include addiction and withdrawal and also cause them to feel dysregulated accompanied by a general discomfort in the course of daily life (Imaniah, 2020). If kids watch these shows for longer hours, then their brains do not function in the optimum manner and this might impair their expected developmental growth.
During the pandemic, there are certain effective interventions that can be utilized to minimize the screen time and help to reduce the risk of the adverse effects on children with autism spectrum disorder. These are critical interventions that should be utilized so as to ensure that children develop in a healthy manner without being subjected to the potential negative impact of addictive screen time. The first intervention is that there should be limited screen time specifically for children aged less than two years of age. This is a critical period in a child’s developmental phase and they should not be exposed to more than one hour of screen time per day. In a research focusing on the “the good, the bad and the ugly” of children’s screen time during the COVID 19 pandemic, Korhonen (2022) suggested that it is increasingly important for parents to maintain more stringent control in terms of ensuring that children are not exposed to high screen times. This is especially important during the pandemic were most parents were experiencing lethargy and anxiety as well and therefore predisposed to allow children to watch more television. Korhonen (2022) suggests that parents should be guided by the limits provided by the World Health Organization which suggests that there should be no screen time for children aged under two years of age and that children aged 2-4 years of age should only be exposed to an hour of screen time.
Another effective intervention is for parents to ensure that there is a daily interactive play for children, that is accompanied by parent engagement. Steinhardt, et al., (2022) found that the pandemic has resulted into negative effects on the mental health of parents during the pandemic and also exacerbated parenting challenges thus adversely affecting parent-child functioning. According to this research, the pandemic contributed towards a less enriching outcome for children activities which are often initiated by prints when the child is aged 0-3 years. As observed, it is imperative to reiterate that parents have a crucial role to play in promoting effective child development and it is important for parents to create supportive and enriching learning environments which will promote the social-emotional and cognitive development of a child. Even with the unprecedented demands caused by the pandemic on parent-child interactions
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