Moderate Discrepancy

The moderate discrepancy hypothesis talks about a child’s attention span when it comes down to television and the different activities that they may experience in life. It goes on to talk about how children pay more attention to things on television that they can relate to, or that they have been exposed to in life. While this process applies differently to each child at different ages, it has come to be understood, that the older the child, and the more they are exposed to, the more complex things they may watch on television and understand.

The moderate-discrepancy hypothesis, states that young children pay most attention to television content that is only moderately discrepant from their existing knowledge and capabilities. Among infants, relevant auditory and visual features (e.g., applause, visual surprises) particularly attracted their attention.

If you turn the television on Monkey See, Monkey Do, that will attract them, because there is a sufficient amount of visual surprises as well as clapping and other sounds that infants may be used to hearing. Infants are very selective in what they pay attention to, because they look for things that depict or depart what they know.

Toddlers and preschoolers like to watch programs that have familiar content and situations that “hit close to home.” In other words, most toddlers would like to watch shows like Barney. This show depicts friendships, families, singing, dancing, as well as educational incentives that gets a child involved, and if anything like my family, reminds a child of the things that they do with mamma and other family members. Children are drawn to what is near and dear to their hearts. My daughter is in the toddler phase and absolutely loves music and dancing, her favorite shows right now include Barney and Dora. These shows not only keep her entertained with the music and the

Older children predominantly allocate their attention to television content