To use or not to use infant DVDs?
A few days ago, my mom's friend was urging me to start my 3-month-old son on infant DVDs. They did wonders for her own grandchildren, she said. She attributed the kids' ability to recognize shapes and colors, as well as their capacity to use three-syllable words, to Baby Einstein and Little Einsten. My mom's friend is just the latest among a number of people I've spoken to who say that infant DVDs are great for building babies' brain power.
On the other hand, for many years, doctors and researchers have been discouraging television-watching among very young children. The Japan Pediatric Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics both say that children under the age of 2 shouldn't be watching television at all. A Japanese study attributed too much TV-watching to an impairment in children's ability to develop interpersonal relationships. A University of Washington study found that babies who watched infant DVDs had lower vocabulary comprehension than those who didn't. The researchers also found that children who watched more TV had shorter attention spans later in life due to overstimulation.
As a matter of fact, Waldorf educators prohibit students from watching television until a certain age (6 or 7 years old, I think), and the French government has banned TV programs that target children under the age of three.
What do I think?
I think that among all the activities you can do with your child, TV- or DVD-watching ranks pretty low. As a friend of mine put it, "Why show your kids a video of an apple? Why not just give them a real apple to hold, to touch, to smell?" I completely agree with that. And on the topic of vocabulary, I think that the best way for a child to learn vocabulary is not through DVDs, but through parents and caregivers who constantly talk to babies face-to-face.
On the other hand, I understand why it's difficult to completely ban TV for children under the age of 2. My own son, at 3-months-old, has recently started to show a interest in the TV screen, gazing at it when it's on (especially when Playhouse Disney is on!). It becomes tempting, then, to let the TV entertain him for a few minutes while I need to do something like take a shower, or check e-mail, or squeeze in some work. And I guess that all things being equal, it's better that the baby is spending those few minutes in front of the TV watching something like Baby Einstein or Brainy Baby rather than, say, Wowowee.
So as much as possible, the TV is going to remain off for my baby. But during those times when I find myself needing to resort to the flat screen just for a few minutes to temporarily distract my son, it might as well be a Brainy Baby DVD instead of something else.
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I think that keeping our kids away from the screen is probably the ideal situation but will be less and less feasible in the years to come. Not only do we have TV in our bedrooms but we also have laptops and portable media players. My newborn son is gonna be looking at a screen whichever way he looks and I bet that by the time he turns six or eight, much of his media consumption will be electronic rather than print. So will it really be feasible to keep them unplugged? Maybe the better answer would be for us parents make sure that their screen-viewing experience is as positive and as educational as possible, and to supplement that screen-time with real human interaction.
I've read that while kids today may have lower attention spans, they have greater capacity to process multiple stimuli. It's no surprise that the TV generation can "study" while listening to music, typing e-mail, and SMSing with their friends -- all while having 6-7 websites open on their laptops.
Who's to say which is more important when looking at the characteristics that will define the great leaders, managers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow (which we all hope our sons and daughters will become)?
Hi Rowie, I actually did not let my son watch TV or videos in his first year. Experts recommend zero TV viewing for the first two years. I actually tackled this issue in my blog before (see my link)... and do you know that Baby Einsteins had to remove "educational" from their labels? I think, at three months, babies have much developing. Talking to them, keeping eye contact, exposing them to the world and different experiences may be fine for now. (In fact, keeping that act up as they grow older is not as easy as it sounds).
hi r! i found it a little interesting that you had two anonymous "pro-TV" posters on this post, while some other entries don't have any.
i can understand, though--i am not a parent but i'm really intrigued and bothered by this issue as well. i plan to be come a parent within the next decade, and having grown up in a household where, even though tv was unregulated, most of my family members prefered other things (reading, listening to the radio, playing outside), i'm worried about what my child will be missing. sure, the second anonymous poster has a point about the greater ability to process multiple stimuli, but i'm not so sure that that's a good thing altogether.
i'm afraid--and i have no scientific basis to back me up, just anecdotes and observations of my friends and my students--that a shorter attention span is the least of my worries about tv. what about the appreciation of so many simple joys--reading a terrific work of fiction, dwelling on a work of art, or a beautiful sunset--anything that requires you to focus on experiencing the here-and-now, without looking for the next episode, the next bigger, bolder, brighter thing? i feel that--the irrepressible urge to move on, switch channels, or skip the dvd to the next track--happening even to myself when i watch tv.
that really bothers me, to have entire generations of children growing up thinking that the constant search for bigger, bolder, brighter is a good thing.
We were born to interact with people and the world, and TV is really a one way activity, even if we occasionally shout, scream, and make comments while watching our favorite programs.:)
I remember my young cousin who had trouble picking up the language skills in the beginning (growing up in an english, spanish & Filipino household) because she spent a lot of time being educated by children's programs. She knew the words but could not say them because of the limitation of the mouth movements of the cartoon character. However, I understand what my aunt had to do, keep her child stimulated and educated while she was working in the next room. It wasn't a total waste of time, now she's smart as ever and very precocious speaking 2 languages (English and Filipino).
I'd like to think that my child (and anyone else's child) will be curious about the world and would want to explore and discover what's beyond the crib, the home, the gate and, in the future, the other side of the ocean, rather than choose to sit in front of the TV for long periods.
Perhaps, as parents, we can always strike a balance between TV education and real life interaction.