I finished listening to the first part of The Hurried Infant, a discussion and critique of children’s “edutainment.” Creating a baby registry while I was pregnant, I could not avoid the lure of Baby Einstein and the vast amount of similar brands. Just like formula, cribs, playpens, and Bumbo seats I thought, “I don’t know how Vivian could survive without it.” Somehow I researched the topic of the media’s effect on children by reading numerous books, articles online, and the AAP’s as well as other countries’ stances. With the opinions of various authors and experts who bring a lot of research to the table and the testimonials of Baby Einstein-y customers and sale representatives, this radio broadcast is informative and refreshing. They even discuss the government’s role in brain focused studies.
Some good points that are presented:
-The Mozart effect, which is what most of these products are based on, studied college students. This kind of test result has never been replicated with infants.
-While it is true that brain synapses are most rapidly formed before the age of three, there are no studies that show the benefits of overstimulating your child with television. More synapses doesn’t necessarily mean more intelligent.
-For each hour a child spends in front of a TV in a day, it averages from 6 to 8 less words in their vocabulary.
-A child will learn significantly less from media resources than they would from face to face interaction. This is commonly referred to as “video deficit.” A common example is that a child will not learn a foreign language from television.
-Before the age of 3, each hour of television adds 10% more to the chance of ADD at the age of 7. The quick flashing images of television reduce a child’s attention span whereas singing and reading expand it.
-Children will learn to depend on television long into adulthood because they have never learned to entertain themselves and neither did their parents.
-Our culture has learned to value the brain more than any other aspect of human nature. More children despise school and have uncontrollable emotions. Raise the whole child, not just his brain.
As stated in “The Hurried Infant,” in 1970 children began to watch television around 4 years old. Now, children are exposed to television when they are as young as 4 months old. A wonderful analogy was made when someone stated it was like the parents were outsourcing themselves to “edutainment.” Products like “Your Baby Can Read” really annoy me. Just because a baby can associate a pattern on a flash card or TV screen to an image, it doesn’t mean the baby has any comprehension whatsoever. So, what is the point? They’ll have to learn how to read again. They need to learn what a letter is, how vowels sound, how to form a sentence, and most importantly they need to be ready and interested.
Also, in a Waldorf viewpoint, the life force/energy of a child under three is concentrated into physical development. By forcing a child to read, you are moving the center of his life force and thereby hindering him. We need to rethink the values we are bestowing upon our children.
Happy we are raising Vivian in a tv-free home,
Michelle
