I've been trying to tell you!

Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They don't get that interaction from watching TV or videos. In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development."

READ THE REST from Time.com

Here's my personal story: One day we got a call from our phone company and internet provider and they were wondering why did I not choose the full package of phone/internet and cable TV. I was standing in the kitchen and the children were here and there around listening in (they are so drawn to adult conversation....ever notice that?). Claire, who was 16 at the time caught on and she came and stood near. I answered the telemarketer by saying we didn't choose cable TV because we didn't have a TV. There was a remarkable pause on the other end of the line. I thought I heard his teeth drop. "You don't have a TV?" he asked. "What do you do then?" Here's where Claire couldn't help herself. She shouted so he could hear "WE READ, WE READ!!!" I told him he should try it but he said "I just don't think I could".

At a conference I attended this past July, David Gentile presented a session on Media Vilolence and How it Affects Children. He said that in America 99% of people have a TV. That's more than those who have telephones and running water. 26% of 2 to 4 year olds have a TV in their bedroom. And the article above says that 90% of 2 year olds are spending 2-3 hours daily in front of the TV.


If you do read the rest of the article quoted above you'll see that what I've been telling you in class that's missing from TV is the contingent response provided by another live human being is the crucial link to learning. The actual moment of learning, the spark, happens when you react to your baby's action. If the baby taps on the TV screen the TV just can't react! Even a computer can't react in the complex way a human face and human voice and human touch can.

Hugs,
Yvette