All those high-achieving parents convinced that “educational” videos would turn their baby into a little Lisa Simpson blazing her way to Yale just got some bad news.
Their baby may turn out to be Bart.
A new University of Washington study has 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 study co-author Dr. Dimitri Christakis. “These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos.”
Who’s most unhappy about this? Disney’s Baby Einstein empire. (“Trusted by parents” states the Web site). The entire premise of this company contradicts the American Association of Pediatrics’ recommendation that any TV prior to age 2 is detrimental. Of course, studies have shown just 6 percent of parents are aware of this recommendation.
I am in no way a child literacy expert, but these Baby Einstein videos always struck me as phony science. Where’s the proof that having an 8-month-old baby look at a picture of a Picasso on a TV screen will turn them into a Mensa member?
So, for what it’s worth, here’s Kid You Not’s foolproof guide to improving your baby’s language skills:
1. Take your baby to the library.
2. Pick out a nice picture book.
3. Sit with your baby and read the book.
4. Repeat as often as possible.
5. Count number of TVs in house. If it exceeds the number of kids’ books, there’s a problem.