At dinner the other night, my 2-year-old daughter turned to her father and said, with a big smile, "You go away!" A bit surprised, he asked "Now where did that come from?" Without missing a beat, she replied, "From my mouth." And indeed it did, along with a slew of other words, exclamations, and pronouncements that added a lot of color and fun to our dinnertime discussion (as always). She's at that exciting stage when language has really opened up for her, and she can ably express her needs and opinions, as well as make the occasional "joke" (which is what she was doing with her father).
Although quite chatty now, she wasn't an early talker. I clearly remember the worry I felt when her doctor expressed mild concern over her lack of words. As a parent, it's hard not to obsess over such developmental milestones, and you do what you can to help your child learn and grow.
One tool many parents turn to are educational DVDs for babies and toddlers, some of which focus on language. However, a new study suggests that such tools do not actually help young children learn new words or improve their overall language skills.
The study focused on the Baby Wordsworth DVD, which is part of the Baby Einstein series. It uses puppets, videos of children and parents, pictures, sign language, text, and speech to help children learn 30 words, which include common objects and rooms in the house.
Ninety-six children aged 12 months to 24 months participated in the study, and half watched the DVD regularly for six weeks. Parents were told to use the DVD as they would any other type of children's media, allowing them to decide whether they would watch the DVD with their child.
Every couple of weeks, the researchers tested both groups' knowledge of the 30 words featured in the DVD by showing the children pairs of pictures and asking them to point to the one showing the word. The parents were also interviewed about their child's use and understanding of these words.
At the end of the study, there were no differences between the groups in overall language skills, or in the numbers of words understood, words said, or pictures identified.
In an intriguing offshoot of the study, the researchers also asked parents about their child's DVD-viewing history. They found no link between children's language skills and how often they watched DVDs in general. However, they did find that children who had first watched a Baby Einstein DVD at a very young age lagged slightly in their language development. This supports previous research that found children exposed to baby DVDs in the first years of life have lower language abilities between ages 7 months and 16 months.
Researchers can't yet explain these findings but offer a few theories. It might be that parents who are concerned about their child's poor language abilities are more likely to use educational DVDs early on, or perhaps that parents who use these DVDs early are less likely to read to their child or do other things that promote language development. Another possibility is that early viewing of these DVDs may somehow impede language development.
What you need to know. The makers of the Baby Einstein DVDs state that their products are not designed to make babies smarter, but rather to provide parents with tools to expose their children to the world around them. But no doubt many parents purchase these DVDs in the hopes they will advance their child's learning and development. This study suggests that the Baby Wordsworth language DVD doesn't meet these expectations.
However, there is one thing known to boost a child's learning and language skills: time spent playing, reading, and talking with an attentive adult. Screen time just can't compete with quality face time.
—Sophie Ramsey, patient editor, BMJ Group
ConsumerReportsHealth.org has partnered with The BMJ Group to monitor the latest medical research and assess the evidence to help you decide which news you should use.
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