 Thursday, August 9, 2007CommuterMom: EntertainmentA study was released stating that children 8 – 16 months who watch videos such as “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” have a smaller vocabulary. 6 – 8 fewer words than children who don’t.
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3 comments:
Be careful what you read - things are not always what they seem. Do the math from the study....32% of the children would be 320 out of 1,000 and 17% of those would be 54 out of 1,000. Now the numbers aren't as convincing.
My personal opinion - watching educational type programs with your little ones is beneficial. Both my 3 year old and 1 year old gain a lot of vocabulary from these types of shows with my interaction.
My 5.5 and 1.5 year olds and I watch Sesame Street together now; all 3 of my children have been early talkers, but the youngest "counting" to 20 and reciting the ABCs before the age of 2 indicated to my husband that what we were doing with her certainly didn't hurt!!!
Personally, I don't believe a very limited amount of TV is terribly harmful at any age, as long as it's age-appropriate and doesn't lead to a pattern of more and more TV. I did read an interesting comment from pediatrician in one of the many articles on the topic. He said he isn't so concerned when he hears that a child is watching 20 minutes of TV because it gives a harried parent the chance to take a shower or make a quick meal. It's when he hears that they are deliberately turning on the TV or popping in Baby Einstein because they think it's an important tool for their child's educational development, that it concerns him. The lesson I take from that is this: if it's a valuable tool to help you get things done (or get a few more minutes of sleep), a limited amount of TV isn't terrible; but when proactively trying to work on your child'd development, don't kid yourself -- there are better tools than TV.
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