Baby Einstein gives evidence...

-Baby Einstein gives evidence that
Early Childhood Television is related to Autism Epidemic-

I was walking with a friend, months ago, and among the topics we discussed, we landed briefly on the Baby Einstein video-learning products. I had probably mentioned to my friend that my sister, who had recently married, was pregnant. As we walked, my friend, whose name is Steve, said something to the effect of, “Did you here about those Baby Einstein videos, that they’re showing little kids and infants? Well, they’re not working, in fact they gave a bunch kids Autism.” So I listened, and gave a concerned call to my sister in Virginia, and told her what my friend had said. I didn’t give the Baby Einstein warning much thought afterwards and thought briefly that maybe too many facts crammed into a kid’s brain and not enough freedom for creative exploring could have something to do with the Baby Einstein and Autism correlation. But here is what Time magazine reported in August of 2007:

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.

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University
of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent
watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new
vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products
had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age
at which language skills are starting to form. "The more videos they watched,
the fewer words they knew," says Christakis. "These babies scored about 10%
lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos."

And the other day, my girlfriend Claire reminded me of the Baby Einstein videos and that reminded of what my friend Steve had said about Baby Einstein videos causing Autism for children, and how that would be putting a child in front of t.v. even more than usual. Again here is what the Time magazine article from August of 2007 reported:

As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that
baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. "There
is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better," he says. "But
that's not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation." His group has
found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention
spans later in life. "Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation,
and view that as normal," says Christakis, "and by comparison, reality is
boring."

He and other experts worry that the proliferation of these products will
continue to displace the one thing that babies need in the first months of
life — face time with human beings. "Every interaction with your child is
meaningful," says Christakis. "Time is precious in those early years, and the
newborn is watching you, and learning from everything you do." So just talk to
them; they're listening.

My friend Steve’s warning, from months ago, suddenly made a lot more sense and I think that word of mouth will be a very important tool for, Lord willing, Autism prevention, and creates quite an interesting discussion about the possible connection between early childhood television watching and the current Autism epidemic.


Citations from:

"Baby Einsteins: Not So Smart After All"
By Alice Park

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1650352,00.html