The boobtube debate

Baby Einstein has stopped tagging its products as “educational.” Critics and experts have long been warning parents about the dangers of letting young children watch television. Is it really that bad? I still let my son watch his videos, though. Do you?

I doubt anyone really noticed, but last February 2008, Baby Einstein has stopped making educational claims about its DVDs and videos. A quick look at their website shows a redesign that has totally obliterated statements that claim any educational value to the Baby Einstein videos. According to a news article by the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood,

Gone are claims such as the description of Baby Wordsworth as a “rich and interactive learning experience that … fosters the development of your toddler’s speech and language skills,” or that Numbers Nursery will “help develop your baby’s understanding of what numbers mean.”
- Disney No Longer Marketing Baby Einstein Videos as Educational (via CCFC website)

Instead, the semantics now play a big role in marketing the products by describing the brand as “developmentally appropriate products for babies and toddlers” and that the video line (among other electronic products) are intended for “interactive” purposes.

This policy change should ring a warning bell for parents. Most of us use videos such as Baby Einstein to placate the guilt of having to put our two-year old toddler in front of the television so we can get some rest, get some chores done, or simply get the child to stay one place, thinking, as my husband put it once, at least there’s something to learn there, unlike other cartoon shows like Sponge Bob.

Our son was not exposed to any television show or video for his first year. When he turned one, we started making him watch Baby Einstein because, first, he seemed to take to the shows quite well, the shows seemed to have a vision and purpose, and lastly, at the very least he can be exposed to some classical music.

Apparently, there have been many jabs at this “genre” of shows, mostly that they are misguiding parents with the claims of educational value. Google search lists several articles that feature experts countering the claims. One such article says that in a study published in  the [U.S.] Journal of Pediatrics,

researchers found that, among babies ages 8 months to 16 months, every hour spent daily watching programs such as “Brainy Baby” or “Baby Einstein” translated into six to eight fewer words in their vocabularies as compared with other children their age.”
– Study faults ‘Einstein’ videos for infants (via The Boston Globe)

While in another article, we read,

“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.’”
– Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All (via Time)

Thankfully, I have not observed any great lapses in development in my child. Not with language nor with focus or attention span. In fact, according to my latest Babycenter email newsletter marking Matthew’s 30th month, we’re to expect him to become “increasingly good at matching words with the objects they describe. You can model for her the bigger vocabulary and more complicated sentence structure that she will soon grow into using. She can name a few body parts, some colours and even a friend or two.” Well, the boy knows most of his body parts already, can identify his friends and family, identifies colors and shapes, knows his letters and numbers. He speaks in almost-complete sentences (minus some prepositions and the interchanging “my” and “your” nowadays).

Did my son’s admirable development occur because he is allowed to watch his Baby Einstein videos? Add to that his collection of Dora the Explorer, Go Diego Go, Little Einsteins, Maisy, and Thomas the Tank Engine? Maybe. And maybe not. In fact, sometimes I feel very guilty about how much time he can spend in front of the television if I don’t stop it.

I would say what helps is that we talk to him a lot. (Okay, Armand would say that I do the talking and Matthew talks a lot because I talk a lot—but that’s not the point.) And I try to compensate the passivity that normally results from watching videos by discussing things with him and applying the concepts in the real world. What did Diego do? Where did the star go? Did Rocket fly fast or slow? And Matthew readily answers me in detail. He struggles to find the words sometimes, but he tries really hard.

Perhaps it’s because we don’t depend on educational videos, or other “educational” toys, to teach him things. We read, we play, he accompanies me on my errands. We take him out on trips so he sees more than our traffic-congested highways. We find a way for him to play with his peers and to discover things for himself. If I’m lucky, he tries to help in the house, mainly because it’s play to him, like when he waters the plants or “fix” the bed.

So maybe the videos won’t make him a little genius. I never expected that. But sometimes we do use what we can, and these videos can come in handy. Just don’t make them crutches. And while I don’t count on it, maybe the kid can pick up some values, like the day he decided to “help Mama clean up like Rocket!” You bet he can watch that episode several more times.