Aug 8, 2007 10:14 am US/Eastern
Study: Brain-Boosting Baby Videos May Not Work
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UNDATED (CBS4) ―
DVDs and videos aimed at giving infants a head start in language learning may actually slow it down, a new report states.
According to the Journal of Pediatrics, infants between the ages 8 and 16 months who spent an hour immersed in baby DVDs and videos, such as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein", comprehended between six and eight less words than babies who didn't watch them.
The makers of the videos have sold hundreds of millions of dollars' worth to parents aiming to put their babies on the fast track. Unfortunately, it is all money down the tubes, according to Dr. Dmitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Christakis and his colleagues surveyed 1,000 parents in Washington and Minnesota. They determined the babies' vocabularies using a standard set of 90 common baby words, including mommy, nose and choo-choo.
The researchers found that 32 percent of the babies watched the videos; of those, 17 percent watched more than an hour a day, according to the study.
The videos, which are designed to engage a baby's attention, hop from scene to scene with minimal dialogue and include mesmerizing images, such as an active lava lamp.
Christakis said children whose parents read to them or told them stories instead of showing them videos had bigger vocabularies.
"The most important fact to come from this study is, there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos, and there is some suggestion of harm," lead author Frederick Zimmerman, an associate professor of health services at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, said in a prepared statement. "The bottom line is, the more a child watches baby DVDs and videos, the bigger the effect. The amount of viewing does matter."
Co-authors of the study added that infants need sufficient "awake or alert" time with people speaking "parentese" - melodic speech used with babies - as opposed to inactive time in front of a TV. If not, babies are getting insufficient linguistic exposure.
"Parents and caretakers are the baby's first and best teachers," noted co-author Andrew Meltzoff. "They instinctively adjust their speech, eye gaze and social signals to support language acquisition. Watching attention-getting DVDs and TV may not be an even swap for warm social human interaction at a very young age."
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children younger than 24 months.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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