Another day, another study showing that “educational” programming for babies isn’t. The latest research, which came out yesterday, shows that infants between 1 and 2 don’t pick up any language skills from Baby Wordsworth, a DVD in the Baby Einstein series. The paper adds to a huge body of evidence that, with very few exceptions, TV shows and videos are at best no help in teaching anything to young kids.
I have an 11-month-old, so I’ve spent the past 11 months—scratch that, 20 months—being inundated with messages about how best to raise a child. Also, before my daughter was born, I made an extensive study of Baby Einstein and other supposedly enriching media for infants as part of a cover story for our Japanese edition. The story isn’t online, but here is what it said about the DVDs:
They probably don’t harm kids, per se, unless they’re used at the expense of parent-child interaction. But that’s the problem—too often, they are serving as the latest variation on the “electronic babysitter” ... Every developmental psychologist interviewed for this story had harsh words for [Baby Einstein]. All of them pointed out that it isn’t interactive—it bombards young kids with images and sounds but doesn’t give them feedback when they respond ... Rather than plop your baby in front of a DVD—even an educational one—psychologists say it’s far better to read to him.
By Mary Carmichael © 2010 Newsweek, Inc.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment