Baby Einstein

In any given day, 8-month-old Anthony Esposito can be found clapping his hands, dancing, and chiming in to tunes pealing from his collection of videotapes. The Staten Island, N.Y., infant is apparently a big fan of the Baby Einstein series, with titles like Baby Mozart, Baby Shakespeare, and Language Nursery making regular rounds in his family’s VCR.

Across the country, in Alameda, Calif., 17-month-old Lauryn Nakamura seems to be equally riveted with her Baby Einstein products, says her mother, Lilybell. The Baby Einstein line of videos, DVDs, flash cards, software, books, CDs, and educational toys has captured the attention of many infant households. This week alone, Amazon.com’s top toy sellers include teaching materials such as the LeapStart Learning Table, Bake-A-Shape Sorter, Learning Drum, and Hug and Learn Baby Tad.

The Kaiser survey found that children 6 months to 6 years spend an average of two hours a day with screen media, mostly watching TV and videos. “There was anecdotal evidence of the trend toward younger and younger kids using media, but there had not been any national documentation of it,” says Vicky Rideout, vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Genius of ‘Baby Einstein’
Many thanks to Lisa Guernsey

I know I shouldn’t admit to playing baby videos for my children, but allow me to embarrass myself. “Baby Mozart” was part of my first child’s life when she was all of 3 months old. The report conjured images of 8-month-olds strapped into bouncy chairs, forced to watch an endless loop of video flashcards while listening to the tinkling of classical piano.

Videos are indeed being shown in many households with young children. And yes, some parents mistakenly believe that the videos are going to ratchet up their children’s I.Q. But watching hours and hours of baby videos is not the norm.

Only 17 percent of 384 babies in the survey were put in front of videos for an hour or more each day. The average baby watched only about 9 minutes a day. Television time, in contrast, seemed to have no effect, good or bad, on babies this young.

Child advocates wish those numbers were higher, but even so, it’s clear that most babies’ routines are not dominated by videos.

Over the past two years, I’ve examined the research on how videos, television and other media affect young children and interviewed scores of parents from many walks of life, and I’ve learned that it helps to consider what I call the three C’s: content, context and the individual child.

Baby Einstein series

Most video content is nearly meaningless to babies less than a year old. What matters is context and the child’s developmental needs.

Parents who think about context make sure that videos don’t become a substitute for happy moments of interaction and play. Many studies, including the new one about baby videos, show that a daily dose of reading helps with language development. Sometimes parents watch along with their babies. Taking care of babies and toddlers is hard work.

We’ll provide you about the guide of Baby Einstein video in the future. While waiting, check other article about Baby Teething in the previous post.