With the growing popularity of DVD series focused on improving the development of babies, like Baby Einstein, the question about the effectiveness of these DVDs to actually help a child’s brain development has not been well studied. The theory behind the DVDs is that by plopping your kid down in front of the TV, they’ll learn cognitive skills — focused mostly on language — faster than other kids.
So researchers at the University of California at Riverside designed a randomized controlled study to find out. In the most rigorous study done in this area to-date, the researchers set out to determine the value of a DVD called “Baby Wordsworth” (a part of Disney’s Baby Einstein series), which is designed to teach toddlers new vocabulary words. The researchers assigned a group of 96 babies aged 12 to 24 months old to watch the DVD for six weeks, and compared their results with a control group of babies who did not watch the DVD.
A group of 30 target words highlighted in the video were used to measure how much the DVDs helped the babies learn the words, as measured by the babies’ parents. At the end of the six weeks, babies who watched the DVD “Baby Wordsworth” knew no more words than those who hadn’t watched the DVD.
“We found that over the course of six weeks, the children watching the DVDs didn’t learn any more words than children not watching,” noted the authors in the study.
In fact, the researchers found that the younger the baby started watching a Baby Einstein DVD, the lower the language score — the opposite effect of what you’d expect. Baby Einstein is marketed as a way to help introduce your child to a world of sights, sounds and experiences in the world around them. Simply interacting with them with books, toys and your actual home full of objects would also seem to work just as well.
This study is in keeping with the past research that has looked into the effectiveness of these DVDs and educational videos and found them wanting. Past research has also shown that, for the most part, these DVDs simply do not work to help give a toddler a “leg up” in their educational development. In fact, in past studies, infants who watch educational DVDs actually learned fewer words and scored lower on certain cognitive tests than babies who did not watch the DVDs.
Baby Einstein claims they don’t market their DVDs to help make babies more smart (although at one time in their history, they did market the increased developmental skills brought about by their videos). Yet I suspect many parents purchase these products — in part, because of the name — thinking there’s some basis that the DVD will somehow help their child be smarter or learn more quickly.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has long recommended that toddlers under age 2 not watch any videos or television. Previous studies suggest that time in front of a TV or computer screen might actually hurt a child’s development rather than help it. For example, some research has found that children exposed to baby DVDs in the first years of life have lower language abilities between ages 7 months and 16 months.
This most recent research seems to support the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation — as do we — in that making an exception for an educational DVD will have no beneficial effect. While you’re not likely to permanently damage a child by putting him in front of a DVD or TV before age 2 from time to time, they should not be used in lieu of play-time with your toddler or as a babysitter.
The study was published in the online version of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
Reference:
Richert RA, Robb MB, Fender JG, et al. Word learning from baby videos. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Published online 1 March 2010.
12 comments
Don’t forget that in anticipation of a class action lawsuit, Disney is offering refunds for all Baby Einstein videos purchased since 2004 (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/education/24baby.html). That’s probably a pretty good indication that they’re useless.
“…in past studies, infants who watch educational DVDs actually learned fewer words and scored lower on certain cognitive tests than babies who did not watch the DVDs.”
To be fair, this is less likely due to the direct impact of the DVDs themselves, rather the decrease face-to-face contact the infants have with their parents.
In most cases, increased infant television watching correleates negatively with parent interaction (at least anecdotally)
Its possible these videos do have a positive impact, but maybe only when combined with parent interaction along with the DVD viewing
pretty soon all baby educational videos will come with a “warning, may not actually teach your child anything” sticker
I watch Baby Einstein type videos with my son, but I sit with him and talk to him about what is going on. I am starting to rethink the whole thing though. I hope it isn’t too late.
Not to worry at all. If you sit with your child and point to the objects on the screen while naming them, it’s just as good as reading a regular book. These baby Einstein studies are already beginning to be replicated and they are finding more positive information on it. Keep doing what you are doing!
My daughter is 22 months old and has been watching Baby Einsteinn since she was 6 months old. I know she has learned lots of vocabulary from the DVDs and points out things in everyday life from the things she’s learned in context. The sign language she learned from the DVDs have helped out a lot when we couldn’t understand what she was trying to say.
As someone with a background in working with preschool age children, I can say that I gladly use baby Einstein products with my toddler. I think it’s important to remember that there is nothing harmful about baby Einstein videos despite what some scary research is saying. Classical music and puppet shows with simple educational imagery is anything but harmful. That said, I think that the makers could certainly do more to capitalize on their products educational value. For example, doing more pointing to objects in the picture so toddlers know which item is being named would be helpful. I think things like this would greatly improve the educational content. But Moms can sit with their babies and point to the screen just like they are reading the digital book together. The concept of digital board books for kids is an excellent idea and as these products become more well known, they will be improved over time. I’m glad baby Einstein products are available and hope to find new and improved versions on the shelf one day! In the meantime, I will enjoy the collection that I have. 🙂
Just a question on the study that was done regarding the Baby Einstein videos and the result of a possible speech delay in toddlers: “Six years after this study, how many of those children that were assessed, had a speech delay not because of the videos not offering enough stimulation in the area of the brain related to speech, but due to a developmental delay, learning problem, ADHD or Autism? If doe example the stats 6 years ago was that 1 in every 100 children had autism, if the sample group was 25 000, it would be that 2500 in that group would have been autistic.
My son has all the videos and has watched them over 3 and 1/2 years, he could and can correctly identify the animals and objects in the videos and even understood the concepts like the cow gives milk. But he has a speech delay because he is Autistic. After 10 months of speech therapy he can now verbalize what he sees.
Obviously, the results of studies cannot be applied to any one particular child, whose language environment and total development is more important than a screen or DVD. If a parent uses screen time as interactive time (in order to talk about notions not immediately present in the house or apartment), vocabulary will indeed increase. How else is a 2.5 year old going to know much about cheetahs?_ Or, in another case study I’m doing, clowns?
Digital media can introduce ideas (children can play piano, children can play drums, children can play tambourines…)
There’s inspiration to be had, for various kinds of dances and songs. I’ve seen 3 year olds be completely disinterested in trying a piano keyboard until they’ve seen another child play one (on video).
In a case study I’m currently conducting (linguistic anthropology), a 3 year old has learned 30 or more Spanish words, with no Spanish spoken in the home. From a youtube. This week, I’m observing her with a Native American language, which is truly fun. I was surprised to see how many dog breeds she can identify (we may not have a complete list yet; all from youtubes).
But adults and children around her are also interacting with the audiovisual material, it’s not just screen time, it’s dancing, playing and talking time.
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