jbie
10-08-2007, 09:46
Parents tricked by Baby Einstein
Baby development videos like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby are little more than snake oil and can actually slow a toddler's learning, a new study has found.
For every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants aged eight to 16 months understood an average of six to eight less words than those who did not watch them, the study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, found.
For toddlers aged 17 to 24 months, the DVDs had neither a positive nor negative effect.
The lead author of the study, Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor of health services at the University of Washington, has called on parents to limit their childrens' exposure to the material.
"The most important fact to come from this study is there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos and there is some suggestion of harm," he said.
In a paper published in May, the same researchers found about 90 per cent of US children under the age of 2 and as many as 40 per cent of infants under three months were regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos.
Dr Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood coalition, accused sellers of the baby development DVDs of "false and deceptive marketing".
"Not only is there no evidence that baby videos do any of the things the baby video industry claims they do, but these media may actually be undermining the development of the very skills they claim to foster," she said.
Dr Linn has filed a formal complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission over the DVDs.
The American Academy of Pediatrics already recommends children under the age of 2 should not watch any television.
The researchers behind today's study surveyed 1,000 families with a child born in the previous two years, asking them how many of a list of about 90 words, including choo choo, mommy and nose, their child understood.
Parents were also asked how often they read books or told stories to their kids, and the researchers found daily storytelling was associated with slight increases in language skills.
They said the baby DVDs were ineffective because they had little dialogue, short scenes, disconnected pictures and showed "linguistically indescribable" images such as a lava lamp.
"I believe the onus is on the manufacturers to prove their claims that watching these programs can positively impact children's cognitive development," said Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrics researcher at Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and a co-author of the study.
Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, said parents and caretakers were the baby's first and best teachers.
"They [parents] instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition," said Meltzoff.
"Watching attention-getting DVDs and TV may not be an even swap for warm social human interaction at this very young age. Old kids may be different, but the youngest babies seem to learn language best from people."
Asher Moses
August 8, 2007 - 12:33PM
To view the entire article, click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/08/1186530417099.html (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:ol%28%27http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/08/1186530417099.html%27%29;)
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i guess it makes sense... my baby einsteins seemed strange to me, very random images that had little or nothing to do with what was being said/ what you hear.
i guess ones like playschool are better, where it's a single scene, people playing with toys, while talking to you about what they're doing and asking you to play too....
Baby development videos like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby are little more than snake oil and can actually slow a toddler's learning, a new study has found.
For every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants aged eight to 16 months understood an average of six to eight less words than those who did not watch them, the study, published in The Journal of Pediatrics, found.
For toddlers aged 17 to 24 months, the DVDs had neither a positive nor negative effect.
The lead author of the study, Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor of health services at the University of Washington, has called on parents to limit their childrens' exposure to the material.
"The most important fact to come from this study is there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos and there is some suggestion of harm," he said.
In a paper published in May, the same researchers found about 90 per cent of US children under the age of 2 and as many as 40 per cent of infants under three months were regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos.
Dr Susan Linn, co-founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood coalition, accused sellers of the baby development DVDs of "false and deceptive marketing".
"Not only is there no evidence that baby videos do any of the things the baby video industry claims they do, but these media may actually be undermining the development of the very skills they claim to foster," she said.
Dr Linn has filed a formal complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission over the DVDs.
The American Academy of Pediatrics already recommends children under the age of 2 should not watch any television.
The researchers behind today's study surveyed 1,000 families with a child born in the previous two years, asking them how many of a list of about 90 words, including choo choo, mommy and nose, their child understood.
Parents were also asked how often they read books or told stories to their kids, and the researchers found daily storytelling was associated with slight increases in language skills.
They said the baby DVDs were ineffective because they had little dialogue, short scenes, disconnected pictures and showed "linguistically indescribable" images such as a lava lamp.
"I believe the onus is on the manufacturers to prove their claims that watching these programs can positively impact children's cognitive development," said Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrics researcher at Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and a co-author of the study.
Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, said parents and caretakers were the baby's first and best teachers.
"They [parents] instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition," said Meltzoff.
"Watching attention-getting DVDs and TV may not be an even swap for warm social human interaction at this very young age. Old kids may be different, but the youngest babies seem to learn language best from people."
Asher Moses
August 8, 2007 - 12:33PM
To view the entire article, click on: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/08/1186530417099.html (http://javascript%3cb%3e%3c/b%3E:ol%28%27http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/08/1186530417099.html%27%29;)
---------------------------
i guess it makes sense... my baby einsteins seemed strange to me, very random images that had little or nothing to do with what was being said/ what you hear.
i guess ones like playschool are better, where it's a single scene, people playing with toys, while talking to you about what they're doing and asking you to play too....