When you're a new
parent, your home fills up, almost instantly it seems, with
stuff for the baby. I remember the day my wife and I brought
our first child home from the hospital. Before the place
was ready for him, we had to have a crib, diapers and a
diaper pail, baby-safe toys, a changing table, little blankets
and tiny clothes, stuffed animals, powder, baby shampoo,
and dozens of other things to make sure we could begin to
provide our little boy with a healthy, happy life in his
first few years.
After our second and third child were born, the baby stuff
multiplied. We got baby monitors, a Johnny Jump Up, cardboard
and cloth books, a bigger diaper bag, new sippy cups, and
dozens more items to help give our little ones a safe, smart
start. We were like all parents. We wanted what was best
for our kids.
These days, many parents include media on the list of must-haves
for their babies and toddlers. DVDs just for baby and children's
programming for the footsie pajama set are a fixture in
many homes. The thinking behind a lot of these programs
and products is noble: the images on the screen are supposed
to help babies and toddlers learn.
I have long been an advocate for high-quality children's
programming. Over the years, I've spoken with hundreds of
parents who describe important family moments watching kid-safe
shows with their kids. In fact, research has shown that
kids over three really do learn from shows like Sesame Street.
But a growing body of evidence tells us that TV isn't that
great for tots under two-years-old.
The latest study on this subject comes from researchers
at Wake Forest University who wanted to know if babies 22
months and younger were more likely to learn words from
the Teletubbies or from an adult who was in the room with
them. The results were overwhelming. The tots who were taught
a new word by Tinky Winky couldn't identify the object associated
with the word later on, while the babies who learned the
word from an adult in the room could easily connect the
word and object.
Language acquisition is an absolutely vital skill for babies
while their brains are in a critical state. And it's still
not clear exactly how kids pick up words and learn to use
them. Here's what we do know: talking to your baby one-on-one
works better than anything else. That's one of the reasons
the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents keep
kids away from TV for their first two years.
I'm realistic. I know that some parents will continue to
put their babies in front of the screen. Even then though,
we can't let that crowd out our one-on-one time with the
little ones. If we help them learn the language ourselves,
we give something more important than almost all the material
items we provide. But if we turn on the TV to teach our
babies how to talk, we're not giving them the right stuff.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute
on Media and the Family (www.mediawise.org).
His latest book, No: Why Kids - of All Ages - Need to
Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It (Free Press) is
available in bookstores.
Our
media culture is changing how kids learn.
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