An article on Baby Einstein and how (surprise!) it's detrimental to child development

[conuly]

Well, duh.

Edit: An article from last year on the same subject, proving that this isn't really news.

Comments

Stuff you probably already know...

[(Anonymous)]

Well of course the videos themselves are detrimental. That's because most parents put on the video, see that the kid is watching it, and leave them to their own devices whilst they go do other things. The second article you linked to put it perfectly:

"She had a native Mandarin speaker play with a group of babies while speaking Chinese for 12 sessions of 25 minutes each over a four-week period. Later she tested the babies and was able to demonstrate that they recognized Mandarin sounds. But when she repeated the experiment with three control groups—one set of babies that saw the Chinese speaker play with babies on video, another that listened to an audio recording of the Chinese woman playing and a third that had no exposure to the Chinese speaker—none seem to perceive Mandarin sounds. Apparently, the presence of a living, breathing human was essential."

The fact is the videos alone do not have the ability to make your kid smarter... You do. It's the way you interact with them and how you treat them. For instance, I had HUGE doubts about showing my son the Baby Einstein videos. I didn't think it was worth it. But now (and we didn't show him the first video until he was almost two.. so maybe a year ago? I'm not absolutely sure of the timeline.) he LOVES them. And because of us watching the videos together and me talking to him about them, like "oh, there's a cow!" or "Look, another baby!" or "Look at the colors/animals/numbers/body parts!" he now knows all the essential animals (cow, horse, tiger, frog, etc), numbers, and the names of his body parts (eyes, nose, hands, mouth, etc). Would he have learned all that without watching a video? Probably, but the video catches his attention and he actually watches the puppets and interacts with the video. If I had just been reading books to him, he would have lost interest too quickly and his attention span would have been gone. Does that mean that he is a visual learner? Who knows....

I certainly don't think that the videos are perfect, but they are good. I don't think my son will get into an Ivy League school just because he knew how to watch a video when he was two. It's unrealistic for parents to think that.

I will also say that my son does watch a fair amount of animated movies. I'd rather him watch Finding Nemo and Thomas and Friends DVDs than mindless shows on TV plus the commercials. But on the other hand, he knows his limits. He knows when he has had enough TV or movie and goes to play with his toys. The only downside to this is that he is VERY independant and likes to play by himself. So while I try to interact with him and his toys, it doesn't always work. But he does let me in on his video time. I take all the interaction/teaching time I can get. And if that means popping a DVD in and letting him watch it, then ok. I can deal with that.

Oh, and I know this isn't what the articles are about... but places like www.starfall.com and the toddler games you can find on Fisher Price's website and the site www.uptoten.com are wonderful. They have helped with Galen's speech development and letter recognition. But again, that's another situation of myself or his father sitting there with him playing the games and teaching him as we go.

Anyway. I've rambled enough.

Stuff you probably already know...

[fieryminge.livejournal.com]

Well of course the videos themselves are detrimental. That's because most parents put on the video, see that the kid is watching it, and leave them to their own devices whilst they go do other things. The second article you linked to put it perfectly:

"She had a native Mandarin speaker play with a group of babies while speaking Chinese for 12 sessions of 25 minutes each over a four-week period. Later she tested the babies and was able to demonstrate that they recognized Mandarin sounds. But when she repeated the experiment with three control groups—one set of babies that saw the Chinese speaker play with babies on video, another that listened to an audio recording of the Chinese woman playing and a third that had no exposure to the Chinese speaker—none seem to perceive Mandarin sounds. Apparently, the presence of a living, breathing human was essential."

The fact is the videos alone do not have the ability to make your kid smarter... You do. It's the way you interact with them and how you treat them. For instance, I had HUGE doubts about showing my son the Baby Einstein videos. I didn't think it was worth it. But now (and we didn't show him the first video until he was almost two.. so maybe a year ago? I'm not absolutely sure of the timeline.) he LOVES them. And because of us watching the videos together and me talking to him about them, like "oh, there's a cow!" or "Look, another baby!" or "Look at the colors/animals/numbers/body parts!" he now knows all the essential animals (cow, horse, tiger, frog, etc), numbers, and the names of his body parts (eyes, nose, hands, mouth, etc). Would he have learned all that without watching a video? Probably, but the video catches his attention and he actually watches the puppets and interacts with the video. If I had just been reading books to him, he would have lost interest too quickly and his attention span would have been gone. Does that mean that he is a visual learner? Who knows....

I certainly don't think that the videos are perfect, but they are good. I don't think my son will get into an Ivy League school just because he knew how to watch a video when he was two. It's unrealistic for parents to think that.

I will also say that my son does watch a fair amount of animated movies. I'd rather him watch Finding Nemo and Thomas and Friends DVDs than mindless shows on TV plus the commercials. But on the other hand, he knows his limits. He knows when he has had enough TV or movie and goes to play with his toys. The only downside to this is that he is VERY independant and likes to play by himself. So while I try to interact with him and his toys, it doesn't always work. But he does let me in on his video time. I take all the interaction/teaching time I can get. And if that means popping a DVD in and letting him watch it, then ok. I can deal with that.

Oh, and I know this isn't what the articles are about... but places like www.starfall.com and the toddler games you can find on Fisher Price's website and the site www.uptoten.com are wonderful. They have helped with Galen's speech development and letter recognition. But again, that's another situation of myself or his father sitting there with him playing the games and teaching him as we go.

Anyway. I've rambled enough.