As parents we’re under increasing pressure to purchase baby media devices and give our little ones a head start.
Despite the marketing hype and claims of many baby DVD products, there’s an absence of research to substantiate their claims that these devices offer any educational advantages to infants. In 2007 Disney, the owner of the Baby Einstein DVDs, was forced to offer a refund on their baby DVD range after the Federal Trade Commission found that their website and packaging claims were not supported by research.
The research actually tells us that babies learn less from TV and touch screens than from live demonstrations because it’s difficult for them to understand how information depicted on a screen relates to the real world. This is called the ‘transfer (or video) deficit’. Research has shown that babies and infants learn half as much and recall it for much shorter periods of time when using touch screens.
Now before we fret or worry that we’ve exposed our baby to TV or other screen time in the first two years, rest assured that a little bit of technology is unlikely to be harmful. Small amounts, of around 15-30 minutes/day is likely to be fine (30 minutes is for children closer to 2 years, than for newborns). I simply encourage parents to limit the time children under two years spend on screens. And don’t feel pressured to prematurely introduce screens.
Studies have shown that baby media doesn’t provide educational benefits to infants, despite marketing claims that suggest otherwise. In fact, there’s some evidence that suggests that DVDs may in fact be detrimental to babies’ language development. For example, a study by Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff found that for every hour per day that babies aged 8–16 months watched baby DVDs, they knew on average six to eight fewer words than babies who didn’t watch them. The baby media, DVDs and videos, also had no effects, positive or negative, on toddlers between 17 and 24 months of age. So marketing claims that such products will boost language weren’t actually grounded in research.
Baby DVDs are not a teacher in the living room.
Many baby media products have a narrative, or story format. Child development research tells us that infants aren’t able to understand narratives until between 18–22 months of age so many educational DVDs aren’t actually developmentally appropriate.
Now before panic sets in because our child has watched or uses baby DVDs, let me provide some reassurance. Just because our little one has watched these DVDs it doesn’t mean we’ve failed or messed them up. It’s highly unlikely that small doses of these videos and DVDs are harmful and as part of a balanced range of learning experiences, it’s unlikely that these products will adversely affect young children.
In fact, the average length of time spent watching a baby DVD is reported to be 9 minutes, so it’s unlikely that a couple of minutes here or there will cause long-term problems or adverse effects. But if we do choose to use Baby DVDs, we must use them sparingly and use them knowing that they’re not going to ‘teach’ our infant. And when using the DVDs we need to try, where possible, to watch them with our infant and discuss with them what they’re seeing on-screen and help them to connect it to their real life experiences.
Just don’t be duped into thinking that baby DVDs and media are educational or will boost your baby’s IQ or language. This is simply not the case – and there’s no clear evidence to support any benefits of baby media. So don’t feel pressured to introduce them to your child.