Baby Einsteins - Not So Smart After All | Autism PDD

My grandson's developmental Ped told my DD not to let Nate watch the Baby Einstein videos. He said they were harmful. Fortunateoly my DD only let him watch on a rare ocassion and he never watched TV.Baby bumble bee vids really sparked words and understanding them with Sarah..never watched the Einstien's dvd...I also think she learn so much with all the repetition of Barney and Sesame street..maybe nt kids it is different but Sarah had to be shown and taught things over and over before she would model it...the only regrettable videos she watched was teletubbies which didnt teach her anything that I can think of except "BIG HUG!"

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.ht ml?cnn=yes

Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All

By Alice Park

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team 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 Christakis. "These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

It's not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won't be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn't help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development. "Babies require face-to-face interaction to learn," says Dr. Vic Strasburger, professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They don't get that interaction from watching TV or videos. In fact, the watching probably interferes with the crucial wiring being laid down in their brains during early development." Previous studies have shown, for example, that babies learn faster and better from a native speaker of a language when they are interacting with that speaker instead of watching the same speaker talk on a video screen. "Even watching a live person speak to you via television is not the same thing as having that person in front of you," says Christakis.

This growing evidence led the Academy to issue its recommendation in 1999 that no child under two years old watch any television. The authors of the new study might suggest reading instead: children who got daily reading or storytelling time with their parents showed a slight increase in language skills.

Though the popular baby videos and DVDs in the Washington study were designed to stimulate infants' brains, not necessarily to promote language development, parents generally assume that the products' promises to make their babies smarter include improvement of speaking skills. But, says Christakis, "the majority of the videos don't try to promote language; they have rapid scene changes and quick edits, and no appearance of the 'parent-ese' type of speaking that parents use when talking to their babies."

As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation, and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is boring."

He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to them; they're listening.

I have seen that article. I was kind of shocked, but at the same time understood it. I have watched them and couldn't understand how the kids and baby's got anything from them. The one movies that I think work is Baby Bumblebee. They do a lot of repeating the words and showing different pictures. I think that the repetitive nature of the movies are what catches the kids and their learning. If you want to just try the Baby Bumblebee out, I would look at your local library.My son just loved those Baby Einstein videos. There was one that had doors
close open and shut. Can you imagine the stimming that went on? Any way
we did realize quite early that it was not a god thing for our child. It took a
while to wean him off of it. Interesting article thanks for posting it.

My youngest (NT?) son has always loved the Baby Einstein series, but I don't think he started watching it until a year or a year and a half. I remember it was the first tv show that made him laugh.

The Baby Mozart video includes an info for parents segment that tells you to watch the video WITH your child and talk about what you see, and that's what we usually do at our house with all tv. I don't necessarily watch closely, but I follow along and make comments and questions.

I don't think it's realistic to tell parents NO screen time before age 2 (especially if the child has older siblings), but I was surprised by the figure for 3 month olds.

I can see how the Baby Einsteins and similar videos could potentially "do more harm than good" in the majority of NT children...but in visual learners and kids on the spectrum I would think they may work better than the parent telling the child or talking about the object w/ the child. Ali started watching Baby Einstein videos between 11-12 months old. It was one of the few things that got her to stop screaming for about 20 minutes. She seemed to learn from them. I would use them again....heck, I even enjoyed them on days when I was stressed...they were calming.

I haven't read the study, but I could easily draw a different conclusion than the one that seems to be being made: kids who tend to have a high motivation to watch these videos are likely to be socially less inclined then those who would wander off and not stare at these videos for hours on end. In other words, the group that watched a lot of these videos could have innately lower social drive then the kids who did not watch these videos because the latter group's lack of interest discouraged their parents from putting the videos on, while the former group's intense interest encouraged their parents to put the videos on.

The girls watched way to many of these videos when young. It was one of the few things that would occupy them long enough that we could catch a break. My NT nephew and my son didn't have as an intense interest in watching these things, so they didn't.

fred39302.2517939815

[QUOTE=WIMomOf2]He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to them; they're listening.[/QUOTE]

Another issue not addressed in this particular article is the fact that research shows the value systems portion of our brains basically turn off when watching TV - we absorb positive and negative value images equally without any distiguishing - it's active interaction and discussion that places those images in the proper value category. That's one of the arguments against the violence in video games, etc. And it's as valid here as there.

Both learning videos and entertainment (TV or video) have their place when used appropriately. I think, however, that the main crux of any "anti-TV watching for infants" argument or the "anti-violent video/TV argument" is the same. Children require one-on-one parental involvement more than anything else. That gets quickly minimized or completely lost in the shuffle of work, obligations, day-care, etc. All too often, parents use the TV (or videogames) as a baby-sitter in order to get "more important things" done in the few hours they have at home with the children outside of work (or for SAHPs, to accomplish the household chores or have a few minutes of mental peace). All of us have busy lives, and many get totally caught up in the busy-ness, much to the detriment of our children overall, but particularly to our infants and young toddlers - that's when that one-to-one interaction is the most crucial for any child - spectrum or not.

Hope pediatricians hand this out at all the well-baby appointments!

We allowed no TV until Cole hit 12 months, then 9/11 happened and we had Fox News on nonstop!

At 18 month, we liked the Maisy 30 minute tapes since he knew the character from all his books. We also allowed 30 minutes of Disney or Rolie Polie Olie as an alternative.

He spoke 500 words by age 2, and I think the story book reading - constant - any my attention to language development helped. Not the TV!

I agree with Fred.

If Ozzie's not fixated on TV he's fixated on sorting laundry in eternal pile after pile or opening cupboard doors; he visually fixates. Because, that's who he is and what he's attracted to. Not that it's good for him to do any of those activities for long long periods but the TV doesn't always cause the behaviour.

Just like tulips don't cause spring.

My autistic son, Zach, doesn't like the videos (he's scared of the puppets). However, my older son, did like them. I didn't show the videos that often and I haven't used their other products. I can understand the problem of parking your kids in front of the videos. But you frequently have that problem with any tv show. Many of the videos it suggest to parents to interact with your children while using their products. Aside from videos they offer other products. I would like to try the music.

sprianne

My brothers and I did not watch tv bec of my parents messed up religious belief/ amish way of life. I didn't have tv until after age 5 yrs old. When I got to live with Gran. I talked real early. My 1 brother had speech therapy and special ed. My middle brother had LD.

See...I think ANY childrens program watched too much or all day TV watching can have a negative affect on ANY child. NT or Not. I mean....That's just kinda common sense. If your not interacting with your child then how can they effectively learn anything...especially language? Especially back and forth language. So this article or all the news reports is not news to me and it's also not specific to baby einstein.

Karrie

Well yes, my twins watched more tv than they should have the first couple of years. Like Fred, it was truly a survival tactic. They weren't like typical twins that could be fed at the same time, etc. I had to do a lot of 1:1 care with each of them, so while I was taking care of one, the other was parked in front of a Baby Einstein dvd. Not one of my prouder moments, but it was a difficult period in my life....non-stop care reigned in my household and mom needed a break every now and then.

However, I have one NT girl, and one mildly affected asd boy. Both watched the same amount of tv......my daughter never had any language delays. She talked right on time, and once she started she never stopped[QUOTE=fred]

[/QUOTE]

that is what we wanted to say

I have to say, I (nor the kids) had never seen a BE video until last summer when I spent a week at my sister's. She would put it on for my 1 year old niece to keep her occupied while dinner was cooking, etc. I'll never forget coming downstairs with my sister and finding my niece, my two boys, my 13 year old nephew, my dh and my bil all sitting silently in the family room staring at the TV at the BE video. It was like to whole lot of them were in a trance!

My kids watched a variety of videos when they were younger (probably too many in hindsight). There were many times the whole family was dancing along with the Wiggles, or screaming out the location of the clues in Blue's Clues, or laughing at Elmo. But I NEVER saw anything put my kids in a trance in front of the TV like the BE video did last summer. It was eerie. Throught the week whenever it was on the TV we all felt ourselves drawn to it. Like, you'd be talking to someone but your eyes would just automatically migrate to the TV. It was hard not to look at it. Maybe I'm nuts, but there was definitely something different about the BE videos than the videos my kids watched when they were babies. I'm not going to judge good v. bad here, this is just my observation (limited though it is).

Our pediatric opthamologist gave us the most compelling reason not to
watch TV before 2.

It was about visual development and processing. I'll have to search my
files
for it.

I don't know anyone who actually believed that baby einstein videos were
going to make their kids smarter That's ridiculous. Interaction with
people and the enviornment is what drives infant development. Parking
any kid in front of the TV for extended periods of time is a bad idea.
Letting your kids watch TV to the exclusion of other activities is a bad
idea.

But, I put J in the exersaucer and popped in a baby einstein almost every
day after the age of 8 mo. So I could take a SHOWER. I have no regrets
about that. And I do not believe he was harmed by it in any way. You
parents know that personal grooming when you have an infant takes all
of 10 minutes, on a particularly good day. That just reminded about something. Anyways bec of hubby job we had to get together with another family. The wife was bragging about owning most of those dvd's. She has 3 kids. The funny part, I almost felt bad for not owning any of those dvd's BUT not now. I wish I knew her e-mail address

. I remember her MIL bragging to and saying her grandkids were smart as whips. Gotta love the social bonding.
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