baby Einst*ins, or homer simps*ns?
From the L.A. Times:
Less TV, more baby talk, study finds
Infants that watch such educational series as 'Baby Einstein' have smaller vocabularies than other children, researchers say.
Parents hoping to raise baby Einsteins by using infant educational videos are actually creating baby Homer Simpsons, according to a new study released today.
For every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old watched such popular video series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew six to eight fewer words than other children.
The makers of the videos sell hundreds of millions of dollars worth each year to parents aiming to put their babies on the fast track, even if they are still working on walking.
Unfortunately — doh! — it's all money down the tubes, according to Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Christakis and his colleagues surveyed 1,000 parents in Washington and Minnesota, determining their babies' vocabularies using a standard set of 90 common baby words, including mommy, nose and choo-choo.
The researchers found that 32% of the babies watched the videos, and 17% of those watched more than an hour a day, according to the study in the Journal of Pediatrics.
The videos, which are designed to engage a baby's attention, hop from scene to scene with minimal dialogue and include mesmerizing images, like a lava lamp.
Christakis said children whose parents read to them or told them stories had bigger vocabularies.
"I would rather babies watch 'American Idol' than these videos," Christakis said, explaining that there is at least a chance their parents would watch with them — which does have developmental benefits.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under 24 months.
The Brainy Baby Co. and Walt Disney Co., which markets the "Baby Einstein" videos, did not return calls from the Los Angeles Times.
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i've always thought that television aimed for babies was a crock.
and great, that totally gets rid of my guilt for not being able to afford those dvds! woohoo.
nolan watches sesame street and that's it, and he plays and dances while it's on, he doesn't just sit and watch.
interesting, thanks for posting.
we have the old skool sesame street dvds,and they're great and interactive.
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu
dragon knows dragon
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu
dragon knows dragon
... for reinforcing my belief that we can raise a baby in our TV-free home.
Bring on the books!
(Though Sesame Street will be allowed and encouraged on DVD once she's older, for sure!)
but I will tell you one thing. My friend who plopped her kid in front of the t.v. A LOT has the MOST articulate 2.5 year old I have ever heard. The kid ennunciates every word and has an amazing vocabulary.
Who the hell knows? My kid speaks Spanglish...
Walking around an
early spring garden-
going nowhere.
-Kyoshi
Duh.
This reminds me of a nursing bra that I heard of that had some specially paterned lining on the inside...probably black and white...to "stimulate" the baby. Sooo....there's money to be made even in convincing moms that the inside of their freakin' bra is better for their baby than the conection that comes from baby and mom looking at each other's faces. What a world.
a little peace and quiet. Chatter chatter chatter....is all I get. Man, the kid TALKS too MUCH!
.
I am swisterland...switzerland? fuck it, I am swiss.
Does this mean that the founder of Baby Einstein just used the "Einstein" name to hoodwink parents into thinking her inane videos of spinning tops would make their babies smarter? It's all just a trick?
Shocking.
And to think that George W. Bush called her out as a national hero during the State of the State address.
before i rented one of those damn dvds. i thought maybe it was a useful tool i was overlooking, so i put one on the netflix. i watched part of it with dd. i was like wtf? and then it scared her with all the disjointedness, so that was the end of that for us. if i'd've known w thought they were a good thing, i could've saved us the trouble, though, 'cuz anything he approves of is bound to suck maggot tush.
"if i pass for other than what i am, do you feel safer?" ~ lani ka'ahumanu
dragon knows dragon
I always like this sort of thing, though only because it reinforces beliefs I already have and I am kind of closed minded on the tv and baby/toddler thing. I don't do it. My husband and I do watch some dvd's but we have no tv and our son doesn't watch anything (except the occasional 15 sec video of himself from our digital camera)
Did you all see the results of this study today?
"Foods Tastes Better With McDonald's Logo, Kids Say
"Kids don't just ask for food from McDonald's," Robinson said in a prepared statement. "They actually believe that the chicken nugget they think is from McDonald's tastes better than an identical, unbranded nugget."
Further research revealed that one-third of the children ate at McDonald's more than once a week, and more than three-quarters had McDonald's toys at home. In addition, the children in the study had an average of 2.4 televisions in their homes. More than half the kids had a TV in their bedrooms.
"We found that kids with more TVs in their homes and those who eat at McDonald's more frequently were even more likely to prefer the food in the McDonald's wrapper," Robinson said. "This is a company that knows what they're doing. Nobody else spends as much to advertise their fast-food products to children." It is estimated that McDonald's spend more than $1 billion dollars per year on U.S. advertising."
The fact that many people have their babies watch TV is quite alarming in itself, to me.
I fell off that high horse right away 
He's 1 1/2 and he already owns like 3 dvds
I am swisterland...switzerland? fuck it, I am swiss.
I was on a REALLY high horse before Dee. She has a baby Einstein video and two teletubbies videos. The TTs are in Dutch and her baby E she watches in UK and American English and Dutch (we alternate). She's 16 months old and has over 50 words in three distinct languages. Is this lower than average? how many words do kids know by this age? Anyone?
Perhaps it's because we also read to her and speak a lot with her?
That's the trouble with these studies. How do we really know what causes these delays? I think we have to recognize that all children develop at their own pace and that the only thing kids really need to develop is the attention and interaction of their parents, not a DVD.
my DS watched Sesame Street very early on. He watches very little TV at 2.75 but he does watch it. sometimes he needs the quiet and so do we. Really. But Baby Einstein has always bugged the living shit out of me.
but it seemed so stupid to me. tv is tv. and it doesn't expose the child to anything they wouldn't encounter in the 3D world.
funny aside, my dd was never one to talk back to the tv. even in shows where it was expected like blues clues or dora. i was a little disappointed about that, i thoought she was missing out on somehting. i would say, "he asked you a question" and she would look at me as if to say "you can NOT be serious... it's a TV!" but the kids who did participate like that seemed to be having so much fun.
"All persons, whether living or dead, are entirely coincidental." Kurt Vonnegut
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until i had a toddler! i never thought i'd let my kid watch tv, but here we are and she does. not alot, but she certainly saw elmo banging on his piano before the age of two. *hangs head in mock shame* sometimes mama just needs a break.