Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Baby Einstein Discussion
I keep seeing posts for Baby Einstein and it reminded me of this story about a study that came out maybe a year ago. The story stuck with me tainting my image of BE....even though I'm sure that BE has spent way more money developing their product to be educational than this study has, and that there could be 20 studies discounting it...but it's still made me not buy BE stuff off a registry,
What are you thoughts? I know a lot of you are teachers and Chrissy and Shannon are speech pathologists , I'm really interested in what you think of this too?
Time Magazine Article: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html
excerpt:
The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front
of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting
smarter than the neighbor's kid. In the latest study on the effects of
popular videos such as the "Baby Einstein" and "Brainy Baby" series,
researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good.
And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.
Boston Globe whole article: http://tinyurl.com/2zvtwm
Excerpt:
In a study published yesterday in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers found that, among babies ages 8 months to 16 months, every hour spent daily watching programs such as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein" translated into six to eight fewer words in their vocabularies as compared with other children their age.
Re: Baby Einstein Discussion
Time article = way to long to read. Boston article = great.
I skimmed, but I have to appreciate the part about babies needing to be read to and getting face time rather than sticking their kids in front of a tv all day.
I'm surprised 1 hour a day could be harmful....I mean sometimes my kids have nothing to do because I can't entertain them 24/7. Is giving them something worse than giving them nothing?
I have to say that if people solely rely on just using Baby Einstein to educate and entertain their kids well then they probably wont develop as quickly as the next child.
I personally don't see any harm in letting them watch the occasional Baby Einstein or what not. The triplets I nanny for do watch brain candy to take their bottles. Yes for their bottles. It was the only way the mom and I could get all three to lay and take them at the same time. Any ways, they are not the worst things in the world to watch. Their is a lot about the five senses which I think is good. However we combine that with talking to them as individuals (not as babies)...we always use our regular tone with them. I hope that makes sense. And I/we read to them all day long. Hmm what is my point, I think I got lost...
Bottom line..I dont think the video itself is harmful. I think its how the parents parent as well? Wow I really hope I don't get flamed I think it sounds good in my head and maybe its not coming out right.
I've seen that study before and was surprised with the outcome! My daughter is 16 months old and she watches tv. Saturday mornings we put the Disney channel on for her as she roams about the house playing. How much of that time does she actually spend watching it.. probably very little. She likes the songs and is constantly dancing about the room when Little Einstines or Mickey Mouse Playhouse comes on. But thats about all she watches during the week. I also don't think the act of watching tv is harmful.. its when you plop your child infront of the TV and thats all he/she does all day, everyday. Babies and toddlers need interaction from each other and adults!! = )
Nothing, I mean NOTHING is better for your child than having you sitting down every day and talking, playing and reading to them. That goes right on up though the kids I have and beyond. The best readers (and subsequently best writers) are the kids who were exposed to books and encourged to read. The best readers in my class have the best communication skills, the largest vocabulary and are the best spellers. (Though some suck at math. You can't have it all I suppose!
)
And as teachers, we know which children work with mom and dad at home and which are plopped on front of a TV.
This statement: "The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew," is stating the obvious. Of course they know fewer words- they are spending too much time in front of a TV and not enough with humaninteraction. Of COURSE they will know fewer words if nobody takes the time to work with them! I don't think it is because of the video they know fewer words.
Some stupid video is not a substitute for QT with Mommy and Daddy. I am not opposed to someone allowing thier child to watch TV, but it should certainly be limited to certain shows and never used as a babysitter.