You wouldn't put your dog in front of the TV to learn new tricks, so why expect your kids to become geniuses by watching TV?A study mentioned in Time Magazine by Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Christakis at the University of Washington, notes that language development may actually be delayed by watching Baby Einstein DVDs.
"The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."
I can say honestly I failed here. My children had almost every Baby Einstein ever made and they loved them. But too redeem myself, my dog has never watched a dog training video...yet.
For more resources on kids and television, check this out.
4 comments:
My child watched some Baby Einstein videos, but generally wasn't interested in them. With our next we want to use sign language videos - I've heard good things about a few.
Ours doesn't get much TV, and what she does get it targeted for little children - and her vocabulary and animal/person recognition has risen considerably with what little TV she does get.
Thanks for the comment, Jeff.
My experience with baby sign language demonstrates not too expect too much. Some take to it and others just aren't ready. Many kids will just need the ever important "milk", "mom", "play", and "cookie."
Inicdentally, I think this study is trying to convey that working directly with your daughter in baby sign would be better than using a video. There is just something about human contact that accelerates learning.
Good luck....tell us about it if you do.
Been awhile since I've been here. I would agree that working directly with your child will produce better results than expecting a video to teach them, but I also believe that a video can reinforce ideas that you've helped implant.
Ours is nearly two now. She uses 4 and 5 word sentences - though they may not be grammatically correct.
"Want daddy some socks please" is a good example - meaning she wants daddy to put on some socks please, not to get her some. ;)
She doesn't watch alot of TV, compared to what I know some other kids her age watch - but she got her share of Baby Einstein and still gets her share of Treehouse - when she asks for it.
I don't believe her vocabulary or language development is delayed at all by what TV she's watched.
I will keep you updated how the next one turns out, if we do pursue baby signs more fully.
Thanks for the comments, Jeff.
I think the article is mostly a crock. If you use Baby Einstein as a learning tool instead of purely dumping your kid in front of it, I can't see how that would not be helpful.
Keep up the great comments!
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