Channel A’s *Parenting These Days—My Precious Child*, led by Dr. Oh Eun-young, ended its season after six years. It was June 26.
When watching parenting-advice programs like this, it can feel like they are telling our own family’s story, making us stop to watch—and try following the advice on screen exactly as given.
But actual consultations do not begin with advice.
3-line summary
1. Parenting consultations begin with assessment, not advice.
2. Developmental screening is conducted six times starting at 9 months of age.
3. Free service points are available in every neighborhood.
What the Broadcast Format Determines
This is not meant to blame television. It is about how a medium’s format determines what it can and cannot contain.
Time is compressed. When footage shot over several days is reduced to a few dozen minutes, what remains are the most striking scenes. Periods when nothing happens disappear in the edit.
There is a camera present. Even with an observational camera, the family knows it is being filmed.
It ends within one episode. A broadcast needs to show a complete story. So the presentation of the problem and the change that follows fit within a single episode.
When these three overlap, they naturally leave one impression: that there is one cause and one answer.
In Reality, Measurement Comes First
Korea has an official procedure used to assess children’s development: the infant and toddler health checkup.
It is conducted eight times from 14 days after birth through 71 months of age. From the third through the eighth checkup—that is, six times after 9 months of age—it includes developmental assessment and consultation.
The tool used is the Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants and Children (K-DST). It examines six areas.
| Area | |
|---|---|
| Gross motor skills | Fine motor skills |
| Cognition | Language |
| Social skills | Self-help |
There are eight questions in each area, with different questionnaires used for each age-in-months range. The test is divided into 20 ranges.
Screening and Diagnosis Are Different
The answer is in the name: it is a screening test.
Screening is not a process for determining that “this child has a problem.” It is a process for determining whether a closer look is needed.
Some parents are alarmed when they receive the health-checkup results, but that paper is not a diagnostic certificate. It is closer to a signpost showing whether to move on to the next step.
This is where it differs most sharply from television. Broadcast programs show families who have already been judged to need counseling. The preceding step—measurement—rarely appears on screen.
Why the Questionnaire Has Six Areas
There is a reason development is not scored as a single number.
Children develop in different sequences. Some children speak late but are quick with their hands; for others, the reverse is true. If these are combined into one number, they cancel one another out and nothing becomes visible.
When the six areas are separated and examined individually, which area is lagging becomes apparent. A child whose overall development is delayed and a child who is delayed in only one area are in entirely different situations, and what to do next also differs.
The same logic explains why age ranges are divided so finely into 20 groups. Even among two-year-olds, what a 25-month-old and a 35-month-old can do differs greatly. If one questionnaire is used to assess all two-year-olds, it will be off in one direction or the other.
It is also worth knowing that parents fill out the answers. The person who sees a child every day knows more than someone who observes the child for a few minutes at a hospital. At the same time, answers can easily be affected by the parent’s mood or memory that day, which is also why this test remains a screening tool rather than a diagnosis.
Where to Go
You may think of a hospital first, but there is a service point before that.
It is the Childcare Support Center. There is one central center, with separate centers in each city, county, and district. Their work is broader than you might expect.
- Expert consultations (in-person and online)
- Parent education programs
- Toy and book lending
- Hourly childcare
- Play-space operations
Most services are free or cost very little. You can find the center for your area through the Central Childcare Support Center website.
Programs vary by region. Even programs with the same name may offer different services, so you need to check your local center.
How to Use Broadcast Programs Well
That does not mean broadcasts are useless. The issue is how they are used.
Take away principles, not cases. The child on screen and your child are different children. But an explanation of “why the child responded that way” can be applied elsewhere.
Take away questions rather than solutions. What the expert asked the parents is often more useful. If you think about what those questions were trying to confirm, you can make the same checks in your own home.
Remember that it does not end in one episode. The fact that a broadcast ended in one installment is the result of editing, not the pace of change.
There is one useful standard for avoiding confusion when viewing parenting information: Is this being said after measuring, or after watching?
The former is counseling; the latter is reference material. Both are needed, but they belong in different places.
References
- Hankook Ilbo Dr. Oh Eun-young’s signature work *My Precious Child* ends after six years (June 25, 2026)
- National Rehabilitation Center Health and Rehabilitation Information Portal for Persons with Disabilities Infant and Toddler Health Checkups
- National Institute of Special Education Korean Developmental Screening Test for Infants and Children (K-DST)
- Central Childcare Support Center Website
This article summarizes systems and general information and is not a medical assessment or recommendation for any individual child. If you have concerns, please seek care from a pediatrics and adolescent medicine department or a specialized institution.