Baby Einstein Smarts

Can Baby Einstein make my baby smarter? Many companies claim to sell “smart” baby products and parents often feel that if they don’t buy these products for their child, they are depriving their child of an opportunity to get ahead. But should they feel that way?

The History of the Product

The Baby Einstein company designed a series of videos ostensibly for parents to enjoy with their baby. According to their website, the videos were developed with the intent of fostering parent-child interaction and were specifically designed to promote exploration and discovery.  Parents are instructed to watch the videos with their child and take advantage of the opportunity to point to objects on the screen and talk with their child.

What the Experts Say

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under the age of two should not watch any television.

In a recent study conducted at the University of Washington, researchers found that despite the recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics, 40% of babies regularly watched videos by the age of 3 months and that by the time they were 2 years old, nearly 90% of the babies spent between two and three hours a day watching television or videos.

Researchers found that videos may be more harmful than helpful. For every hour per day that a child spent watching videos, six to eight fewer new vocabulary words were learned as compared to children who did not watch videos. The negative effects of watching videos were most pronounced in children aged 8-16 months, the age at which language skills surge. Language development may actually be delayed in children who watch videos.

The Alternative

Face-to face interaction is the ideal way for children to learn. No video, however educational, can replace the human interaction that is so crucial to learning and development. Interestingly, the same researchers found that babies learn a language faster and better from interacting directly with a person compared to watching that same person speak on a video screen.

Resources:

www.aap.org

www.babyeinstein.com

www.time.com