A Study Of How Cartoons Influence Children’s Mental Development

Children’s mental development mainly refers to the psychological maturity and intellectual growth of children. It is restricted by human innate physiology and influenced hugely by human social environment. In the current information age, the cartoon culture propagates more conveniently and have very profound influence on children. In the lower grades of primary school, children are lack of social experience but good at imitating, which means their mental development is at a critical juncture. Cartoon films not only have beneficial effects but also disadvantages to children. So, the study of children’s mental development has important practical value.Children in lower grades of primary school are the main research object of this study. At first, related cartoon research of both home and abroad scholars are reviewed. Then, some main concepts for this article are explained and illustrated. Based on psychology theory mainly, the author analyzed the reasons why children like cartoon films. After visiting a lot of children and their parents, the author got a general idea of the present situation and analyzed cartoons’ influence on children’s mental development. Through the analysis of voice, image, language and plot of cartoon films, the article tries to find out the advantages and disadvantages. There are three major external factors affecting children’s growth,which is family, school and society. So in the end the author stood in three different educational points to put forward some suggestions about cartoon film and television education, among which some of the specific family education advice is emphasized, in order to cooperate the three parties and to weaken the negative impact of cartoon film and television. The final aim of this study is to create a green cartoon environment for children.