Myth 7: It’s bad for your baby to be stuck in front of the TV or computer screen.

This is not exactly a myth. We agree that it is bad for a baby to be stuck in front of the television – and by “stuck” we mean left to watch TV without adult supervision.

Using the TV as an “electronic babysitter” is fairly common, and while the tendency to do so is understandable, the practice should definitely be kept to a minimum.

But this is not the only form that TV can take in a child’s life. When parents carefully select programs to show their baby – and above all, when parents sit down with their baby to interact with him over the program shown – then babies can learn a great deal with the help of television.

(For more on making TV use safe and beneficial for babies, go to Television – Good or Bad?)

As for the computer, it’s pretty clear that a baby can’t use it by herself! Indeed, one advantage of computer-based learning over DVD-based learning is that it necessitates parent involvement.

Some have argued that seeing and hearing things on a computer is inferior to seeing real objects and hearing a parent’s voice. Once again, the two are not mutually exclusive. The computer is a tool – it is not meant to replace showing your child real objects or speaking numbers aloud. Indeed, during lessons we encourage parents to repeat each number and function (“plus,” “minus,” etc) that their child hears off the TV or computer.

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On to myth number 8…