Strollerderby
Breaking News: Lunatic Researcher Trashes ‘Baby Einstein’
Speaking of babies’ brains wasting away…Dr. Dimitri Christakis did a study on babies who watch the Baby Einstein videos and he came to this conclusion: I would rather babies watch ‘American Idol’ than these videos.
He says that children in the 8 – 16 month range who watched these videos instead of being read to knew about eight less words than the children who were read to.
Sure, but what about those kids who watched the videos AND were read to? Did you quiz you sample children on Beethoven symphonies or works by Monet? Can they count to five? Did their parents get any laundry done? Where are those statistics?
I’m not sitting here trying to say that watching Baby Neptune is going to replace being read to, or that it will make your kid a Rhodes Scholar. But I AM saying that I loved Baby Crack Einstein and a lot of times it was the only thing that kept my babies from screaming. Hell, a lot of times it was the only thing that kept me from screaming.
Seriously Dr. Christakis? American Idol? That only says two things to me. 1) You were never a stay at home parent and 2) You have crappy taste in music.
(I’m sure Dr. Christakis isn’t really a lunatic. I was just trying to trick you into reading my post.)
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19 Comments
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAnother study has fueled the ongoing debate between the warring factions of parents over the value of so-called enrichment videos on promoting language skills and fostering infant development. On one side of the divide there are the parents who subscribe
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWhile I'm withholding all judgment on the program's effectiveness (having just acquired it, I haven't yet made my 15-month-old a guinea pig), the five-DVD Your Baby Can Read! system carries a slight misnomer, as the program covers not just
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amEugene is right. You can read the study here – http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/5/473. The study did not appear in the Journal of Pediatrics but the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine back in May 2007. And it didn’t conclude that watching TV (with or without the parents) affected baby’s language development. However, that’s the opinion (not backed by research) of Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis, who also believes watching TV causes ADD/ADHD.
This is more a case of lazy journalism and the press’s love of hysterical headlines that freak out parents more than anything.
(I posted about this at http://mamarant.blogs.com/a_mamas_rant/2007/08/the-real-scoop-.html if you’d like links to the interviews, studies, etc.)
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWell the only reason you might want 35 of the videos is that you get bored watching them too.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI followed some articles that Dr. Dimitr Christakis did which was the bases of this article. Unfortunately Dr. Christakis has not refined his method of research and this is a rehash of his claim on how the increase of TV watching is causing an increase occurrence of ADD. There are so many holes in his article that it is amazing that the public media ran with it to state TV is Bad for Babies! The recent interview with Today had clearly stated … moderation (which applies to everything in life) and to watch WITH the baby (not to leave the baby by themselves).
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amPingback from The Filth and the Fury
mnijtnc commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThis study is just silly. Reading *anything* is always going to result in a greater vocabulary than watching anything on television. Duh.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amProof that PBS is educational: this morning, my boy (24 months) pointed at the t.v. when Sesame Street was on, and said, “Y!”
I turned around and there it was, a bright yellow Y on the screen.
I have been reading to him and doing letter puzzles with him since he was tiny, but Sesame Street is teaching him too.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAmen. Everything in moderation. And stop believing everything you read – especially from those who have some money to be made by your buying MORE and MORE of their products. I have one video (yes, the VHS tape) of a Baby Einstein from 1999 and my 3rd child still enjoyed it in 2006.
Does someone really need 35 (yes, that is 35!!!) DVDs in the new baby eistein gift set. TV can be very useful and educational but you can only take that so far — in the end you DO have to interact with your kids if you expect them to be normal, never mind a genius!
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amWhen I heard this story on NPR, they were saying that the fast “refresh rate” of the different scenes kept the children interested and just when their interest was about to wane, the scene would change and they would be hooked again.
The NPR story used this fact to claim that Baby Einstein leads to higher rates of ADD and ADHD.
They also lectured that children should not watch ANY TV before they are two; the only way to accomplish that is by making the parents watch no TV until their kids are two.
Honestly, I’m of the school of thought that everything should be consumed in moderation (including Baby Einstein).
firstfeeding commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI don’t know, I was raised on a diet of crappy TV and managed to get into Harvard Law School, where I was surrounded by other students raised on diets of crappy TV (some of whom were out-and-out geniuses). I think how smart you are and whether you are able to turn those smarts into something useful depends on a lot more than what TV fare you happen to waste time watching during a misspent youth.
Whit commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAnyone that watches American Idol, with or without a toddler, is dumber for it. If they read books they would be smarter.
See, it sounds stupid that way too. I don’t need studies to tell me that reading to my kids is the way to go. Still, I let them watch Baby Einsteins a couple of times a week. It’s fun for them and safer than much of the content they would find on TV, specifically the trainwreck that is Idol.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI knew this was going to happen. A recent study reveals that the brains of babies who aren't exposed to large amounts of educational videos (with cheesy classical music), electronic toys with flashing lights and beeping, and a constant array of "enrichment
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI use it as a chance to narrate for the baby – “The train is going in a circle” “The green tree is next to the car” etc etc – any exposure to language/syntax/semantics is good – and he’s distracted by the tv and hangs out for more tummy time.
firstfeeding commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amThe point Christakis is making about American Idol, is that watching anything with your parents is better than being plopped alone in front of a TV. Here’s the quote in context:
“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
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAnd my own comment illustrates the danger with our sound-byte culture. One could make the same argument about PBS’s kids programming that I make about Baby Einstein: that it claims to be educational, when it probably isn’t. (I could thus, pretty fairly, be labeled a hypocrite.)
The essence is the same, however: whether your kids are watching PBS or Baby Einstein, as long as you realize that TV, like sweets, should be used as sparingly as possible and contains no nutritional value, then I wouldn’t presume to criticize a parent who uses either. I would, however, hold a “Brain Candy” marketeer in contempt.
And, yes, the “worse than American Idol” quote is just silly. But the point is that all TV is equally bad at early developmental stages.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amTwiggle is right on. Personally, I hate Baby Einstein, even though PBS’s kids programming keeps my family sane. My beef with Baby Einstein is that it sells itself as a great educational tool, even though research suggests otherwise.
There’s nothing wrong with a pacifier, but I think anyone selling one as “Suck for Smarts” should be shut down.
GoonSquadSarah commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI am not claiming that the videos make kids smart. I actually don’t believe that. I just don’t think they make them stupid, unless of course, you use that instead of traditional teaching.
I’m mostly just giving the guy a hard time because he would rather have his kids watch “American Idol”.
Yikes.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amSure there’s nothing wrong with grabbing a few moments while kiddo is zoned by the TV…
But don’t expect the video to make your kid smart.
Feeling a bit defensive there?
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