I’m not a parent. I do not pretend to understand how daunting and stressful the job of raising children can be. Nor do I claim to be an expert on teaching. I have never taken any classes in education – the closest I have ever come is tutoring high school science. Is this why I don’t understand the Baby Einstein phenomenon? Am I too far removed to appreciate these videos? If the results of a 2007 University of Washington study are correct, then perhaps in this case it is better that I am removed from the situation.
The study conducted by lead author Frederick Zimmerman showed that for every hour infants spent per day watching baby DVDs – like Baby Einstein – they understood six to eight words fewer than those infants who did not watch the DVDs. What’s more, toddlers who watched the DVDs showed no positive or negative effect in their vocabularies. Are these DVDs really just marketing?
The majority of parents want what’s best for their child. What do they think is best? Apparently it is exposing them to classical music and high art. Undoubtedly, the parents who buy these DVDs have heard that exposing your child to Mozart and Van Gogh makes them smarter. But there is a problem here; simply exposing your child to this sort of stimulation doesn’t necessarily mean they will be smarter. Certainly it is better to actively involve the child in the learning process; play the piano instead of just listening to it, draw instead of only looking at pretty pictures. After all, we don’t praise adults for being couch potatoes; we don’t assume they are smarter for watching a Beethoven documentary.
If in the end there is a potential detriment to infants, and no benefit to toddlers, who watch these DVDs isn’t it better to put the money that would have went to new DVDs into music lessons or art supplies? Again, I am no parent but I’ve always been a big proponent of learning by doing. Now excuse me while I go download some music, I can’t be bothered to learn to play it.
Via Guardian
