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Babies & Television
Baby DVDs Singled Out
A well-known 2007 study by Zimmerman, Christakis and Andrew Meltzoff appeared to point the full finger of blame at baby DVDs for slowing children’s cognitive development.
According to the University of Washington press release announcing the study, for every hour per day spent watching certain baby DVDs, infants understood on average six to eight fewer words compared with infants who had never watched the DVDs.
Critics have pointed out flaws in the study’s design (for more on this, read Steven Milloy’s Baby Video a No-No?). Whether or not the study’s findings are reliable, it is important to note the potential displacement effect taking place here – that is, that time spent watching baby DVDs could replace more beneficial time spent communicating with parents or caregivers. This is not the same as saying that “Baby Einstein makes babies dumb,” as gleefully reported by some in the media.
Contrast this with a 2009 study by Marie Evans Schmidt and Michael Rich, which concluded: “Television viewing in infancy does not seem to be associated with language or visual motor skills at 3 years of age.” In other words, the researchers here found that watching TV neither helped nor hampered babies’ language development. This is important considering that in this study, all types of TV content were included.
Conclusion
The age at which you introduce television into your child’s life will depend on your personal views as parent. For some, the best choice will be to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation to save television for when a child has reached his second birthday.
For many others, the television will be a fun and educational tool in their baby’s life. Remember to be careful with its use, and to participate in watching with your baby. Take time to select and vet content. If your child is under 3, it would be safer to avoid noneducational TV all together. Whatever the age of your child, set reasonable daily limits to give your child enough time to be active as well.
Most importantly, use your child’s reactions to gauge which TV programs, and how much of them, are appropriate. If ever in doubt, switch it off!