Saturday, August 11, 2007
baby videos
My friend (and maybe yours), Derek Holt, told me about this article about Baby Einstein and other such videos and their possible effects on infants. While I confess to owning the entire Baby Einstein collection, we do limit Lewis' TV viewing, and see the pros and cons of this type of thing. Anyway.....just wanted to post the link HERE, and would love to hear any comments you all might have about the article and/or your experience with baby videos. At 13 months, it's extremely difficult to tell the effect DVDs could be having on our boy for good or bad. He does get super excited when we put one on though, and once he's glued in it's virtually impossible to steal his attention from the screen. Those of you with older kids may have more insight into this issue. If so, please share!
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6 comments:
Moments ago, Taylor was watching children's TV on my laptop, though I switched to music just before checking your blog. :) She typically watches a couple of hours of TV in the early, early hours of the morning, and maybe an hour or so later in the afternoon when she and I are both tired and it's not yet time for Daddy to get home. And her vocabulary isn't huge at 16.5 months. Is the TV watching the reason? I don't know. I hope not. She wakes up around 6 am each morning and goes to bed at 8 pm. She naps for about an hour and fifteen minutes once a day. So if my math is right, that's just under 13 waking hours that she and I spend together every day. Even with the TV, that's about 10 hours of "face time" we spend together each day. So I don't know. I feel guilty about the TV breaks she and I spend together, but they're always PBS and she seems to learn a lot from them. She dances to the music. She knows the character's names. I can have a Sesame Street book out, and she can point to the correct characters when I say the names. She became interested in eating bananas after watching kids on Sesame Street and Curious George eating them. We don't really watch Baby Einstein or anything. I like kids' shows that I can get into the plot with! My parents have a Sesame Street music DVD with all the classic songs, and Taylor stands up and dances (changing her dancing style per the type of song) for the ENTIRE thing....about an hour. So I don't know. Some days she seems to need as much of a Calliou break at 4 in the afternoon as I do, and it lets us both rest enough to get back to the fun of playing. I hope that these little breaks aren't delaying her language. This article isn't the first time I've heard she shouldn't watch ANY television. I try to be a good parent, but I look back and think "did I watch TV as a young child?". And the answer is yes. I don't know for sure how young, but I know there weren't any studies telling Mom not to let me, and Sesame Street was a big part of my childhood, so I'm guessing I watched it at Taylor's age. And I was a kid who blew away standardized tests my entire school career, particularly when it came to vocabulary. So I just don't know. I wonder about this every day. I try to do the best job I can. Sometimes it's hard to fill 13 hours without a little help from Big Bird or Calliou. And I can honestly say that she learns from the shows, so it's not mindless time. - Sarah
One more thing! So many studies of this sort, and even ones dealing with things as serious as SIDS, strive to pinpoint a cause and effect relationship. If the numbers show that kids who watch TV have a slower developing vocabulary, then they feel they have a clear cause for the effect. But I question what other factors are there that such a study ignores. Does that make sense? I mean, imagine the possible differences between the parents who let their children watch a lot of TV versus those who let their kids watch ZERO television. There could be a lot more going on there than simply a couple of hours of TV every day. They didn't study what the parents in either set did during the remaining hours of each day. Anyway, just another thought to those of you who, like me, might be feeling guiltier than perhaps we should. :) - Sarah
My kids watch TV. This week, since Joel was born, they have watched a lot more then normal. (We've also had a fever going around) My opinion on these studies is....uh...WHATEVER!! First of all, I'm not convinced children's shows have been around long enough to really do a complete and acurate study. I mean really, shouldn't they be testing these kids now, in elementary school, in high school and beyond?! In a normal times of our life the kids are allowed to watch an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon (sometimes they watch more and sometimes they watch less). I guess everything to an extreme is bad, but I'm still going to let my kiddos watch TV!
Well, I think these studies don't take into factors many other things such as the amount of time parents DO spend with their kids. I let my son watch Baby Einstein as a baby/toddler and he actually learned a lot of words from them (especially when he was 15-18 months old). He is bilingual and he is doing great as a 3 year old with his vocab in both languages.
Anyway, I think it is not just the TV watching, it is the entire environment in which a child is raised. If they are still read to in their "mommy time" and have lots of discovery play then there shouldn't be any issues. I actually read "another study" that was condemning TV for kids in general, but it stated that TV that is designed like baby videos, educational shows etc.. that are a slower pace (not regular cartoons for older kids) actually do not overstimulate kids in small doses.
Anyway, my 3 year old watches Sesame Street and it is helping him TREMENDOUSLY with his numbers and alphabet. When I'm in the kitchen and he is watching, I hear him in there counting with them etc... We mostly only watch PBS in our house (Clifford, Curious George, etc..) and I haven't seen any problems with him being overstimulated. When I turn it off, we can still sit down and read or do our letters workbook and it is fine.
I don't want to sound like i'm justifying my choices as a parent, but I do think that "studies" can be really over-rated and not all inclusive of all variables in a situation. And, I have seen the results via my own personal experience. I think each parent has to make a choice they can live with.
Heather
I am Carrie Powell's mom(I hope I don't embarass her with my comments)and have to confess I enjoy reading this 'blog'. The insights are incredible from you young mothers! You are all doing a WONDERFUL job mothering your children!
I had to make a comment on this 'TV' subject. As Carrie will agree, I have always been quite anti-TV! I am old-- the first TV arrived at out house as I moved out to college!
My issue has been watching our society get less and less creative as the years go by.. No one seems to be able to 'entertain' themselves anymore unless they are watching something on a screen! I noticed this change in the years after my own kids got thru their TV deprived childhood and I babysat kids in our home for about 10 years. It seemed like all children wanted to do was watch TV-few were interested in playing creatively with blocks, cars, baby dolls. It just seems like, as a whole, our society has more and more difficulty being creative with simple things anymore.
Sorry this is longer than I wanted to make it, but one last thing!! A book I just read that was interesting --Buy Buy Baby by Susan Thomas--makes some provocative points.
Always praying for you mothers--Linda Peterson
Thanks for all your comments on this one! It seems like we hit a nerve, and probably because we all want so badly to be good mothers, and a lot of us probably feel like we're treading water a lot of the time. The consensus seems to be moderation. Television can be okay as long as it is balanced with real interactive play.
Carrie's mom makes a great point that our generation seems less creative with our "play" time. I have seen it with grown-ups my own age! When we get together with various friends watching TV or movies is often a favorite theme, but one that saddens me because I so desperately need adult interaction. It seems a waste to sit in a dark room, quietly, as a group, when we could enjoy it just as much individually.
On the flip side, I still remember things I learned from Sesame Street! I hope to teach Lewis how to play creatively, while allowing some short breaks for TV. We'll see how it goes. Again, thanks for sharing your opinions!! I learned something from each of you.
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