Not So Brainy Babies

By: Clare Sullivan
Posted In: Opinion

If sitting your baby down in front of the TV and popping in a DVD of Baby Einstein to provide some educational entertainment while you tackle chores around the house seems too good to be true, it is.

Titles like Baby Einstein, Baby Galileo, Baby Shakespeare and even Brainy Baby with its original motto, “a little genius in the making,” lure unsuspecting parents to purchase these “educational enrichment” videos and substitute them for interactive playtime.

According to a new study in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers at the University of Washington found that videos designed to stimulate young minds like those previous mentioned may actually impede language development. In a survey of the video-watching habits of 1,000 families, the DVDs fared worst out of the several types of programming studied. For every hour that infants eight to 16 months spent watching the baby DVDs, they understood six to eight fewer words, out of a set of 90, than infants who did not watch.

Lead author Frederick J. Zimmerman, the university’s associate Professor of Public Health and Pediatrics, insisted that parents need not panic. What they must do is learn to regulate the time they allow their infant to watch and not allow the DVD to go into automated replay; a feature on Baby Einstein DVDs. “Parents are getting a very mixed message here,” Zimmerman said. “They are hearing loud and clear from marketers of these products that they can be very educational. But, in fact, there’s no scientific evidence.”

A baby’s brain is constantly sorting, analyzing, accessing and memorizing at a steady pace all through the first year and nearly as rapidly during the second and third years. Therefore, connections are made between parents and caregivers during playtime when babies think and move their bodies.

Shows that are educational have a specific educational agenda. In other words, they have learning objectives for every segment of the show. Take “Sesame Street,” for example. If they decide that a particular segment should teach the child the letter J, they will design it from the ground up with that learning objective in mind. Then they test it with real children to see if they do in fact learn to recognize the letter J. And if that does not work they trash that segment and start again. Baby videos claim to be educational, but they do not go through that process; they do not develop learning objectives, nor do they go through rigorous testing.

The publisher of Baby Einstein is fighting back against what it says is blatant misrepresentation. The claim that Baby Einstein “would have a noticeably detrimental effect on language development” is not borne out by the findings of the university’s own research, according to a Walt Disney press release. Disney CEO Bob Iger slammed the university’s press release as “deliberately misleading, irresponsible and derogatory”. Furthermore, Iger’s press release says the actual study does not distinguish between different baby TV productions and criticizes the notion that babies’ TV exposure time should be limited. It also attacks the university’s press release for mentioning Baby Einstein’s “marketing claims,” without identifying exactly what claims it refers to.

Many studies, including the new one about baby videos, show that a daily dose of reading helps with language development. It does not take a degree in rocket science to realize that babies need the social interaction that comes with reading; the pointing and labeling, the back-and-forth conversation. Children left alone to watch objects flashing on the TV screen are not getting that.

Yet in real life, not every minute of the day can be filled with reading, especially to babies who might rather put the books in their mouths. Sometimes parents watch along with their babies. Sometimes they use videos to get a quick break, to take a shower, clean out the cat’s litter box or steal a look at e-mail messages. Taking care of babies and toddlers is hard work. While videos are not the perfect answer, I can tell you from personal experience, they have kept exhausted mothers and stressed out babysitters from going off the deep end.

So just go easy on video flashcards and do not be misled into thinking they are going to turn your child into a genius..