I have always believed that plunking a baby down in front of a tv is the easy way out for parenting. Rather than interacting with the baby, a digital image is now used to distract their attention from the human presence. Now comes more research reinforcing that “educational” DVDs that purport to enhance infants’ language development actually can be detrimental to their lingual development.
As a former international marketer, I consider the creators of the Baby Einstein DVD series brilliant in their choice of name branding. Once you can hook the brand loyalty, you can get away with a lot in terms of your product. In an age of having to have the best of everything, many of today’s parents think they are getting their baby on the fastrack to brilliance through purchasing a guarantee that their baby is the next Einstein. Or perhaps they are attempting to compensate for their lack of one-on-one interaction in their baby’s development.
These parents are buying an illusion without considering the actual implications of having a developing brain subjected to visual and audio content which can stimulate that little brain and neurological system in undetermined ways. This study focused on the babies under 16 months.
Another area I think needs research is the effect of watching DVDs in a moving car. I have to believe that there is some effect from focusing on a embedded screen with moving images while the periphery is rapidly passing by. We are going to have a generation of children who have never looked beyond the screen in front of them whether at home or on the road.
August 27th, 2007 at 9:19 am
[…] I slammed the baby videosthat are supposed to produce the next Einstein, questioning the effects of video images on the neurological development of infant brains. However, I have a completely different opinion on programs that are being developed for the older adult’s cognitive abilities as is discussed in this NYTimes article. Although the benefits have not been scientifically proven (yet), recent research in neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change in response to information and new activities — shows that brain cells and new pathways continue to develop throughout life. A 2003 study found that people older than 75 who danced, read, or played board games or musical instruments faced a lower risk of dementia. […]