TV Found to Have Negative Impact on Parent-Child Communication and Early Literacy...

Kasting Connections' Perspective:

After reading just the summary, it's just seems common sense that direct interaction versus passive watching would stimulate the cognitive and language skills growth in children, especially when children are in a very important stage of development.

If you take the time to read further, the study focuses on maternal responsiveness, or quality of responses that a mother provides to an infant when they interact. 

     "Mothers who are responsive to their infant's communication promote a positive
     self-perception or the child as well as fostering trust in the parent. Positive responses
     help the child learn that they can affect their environment," said Nathanson. "However,
     if maternal responsiveness is absent, children learn that their environment is
     unpredictable and may become anxious, knowing that their bids for attention or help may
     be ignored."

Mothers gave better quality language skills when reading a book with their child than when watching television.  This finding supports the brain research about quality early language helps develop quality language in the child. 

The other important evidence is to realize that children need to be stimulated, intellectually and emotionally, in order to make gains in their lives.  Education starts at home.