Baby Einstein

I guess it's part of our culture's quick fix mentality, sitting infants in front of the television and hoping videos like "Baby Einstein" will make them smart. However, a new study says this actually reduces their vocabulary:

"The results surprised us, but they make sense," added Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of UW's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and a co-author of the study. "There are only a fixed number of hours that young babies are awake and alert. If the 'alert time' is spent in front of DVDs and TV instead of with people speaking in 'parentese' — that melodic speech we use with little ones — the babies are not getting the same linguistic experience."

I've also read that it's not a good idea to put babies under two in front of the TV. From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged.

Basically, these two blurbs are saying the same thing: babies need social interaction as much as possible during alert times for solid brain development. That means less TV babysitters and more one-on-one time.