The ubiquitous ‘researchers’ have found that babies who watch the enormously popular ‘Baby Einstein’ or ‘Brainy baby’ videos learn fewer words than babies whose parents read to them or tell them stories. It might have something to do with the fact that watching a lava lamp will chill you out, but it won’t necessarily increase your vocabulary. But that’s just me.
‘Baby Einstein’: a bright idea?
For every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as “Brainy Baby” or “Baby Einstein,” they knew six to eight fewer words than other children, [Hmm, 6-8 fewer words. But what’s more important–how many words you know or the type of words you know?–ed.] the study found…Unfortunately 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 and determined their babies’ vocabularies using a set of 90 common baby words, including mommy, nose and choo-choo.
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…”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.
American Idol? I vote for Jeopardy!
