Albert Einstein famously did not begin to speak until he was 3 or 4 years old. And then, by most accounts, he didn’t make much sense until he was 9.
That tidbit of information apparently went straight over the head of Julie Aigner-Clark, the genius behind the “Baby Einstein” video empire, which she sold to Walt Disney Co. five years ago.
The baby videos are in the news because of a University of Washington study that suggests such videos may actually hinder, rather than foster, language development in children between 8 and 16 months. The UW press release summarizing the study carried the headline, “Baby DVDs, videos may hinder, not help, infants’ language development.”
The Walt Disney Co. objected not to the study, but to the press release, which it felt misrepresented what the study was about. Disney demanded that the UW retract the press release.
“Goo-goo gah-gah,” Disney demanded. Oh, wait. It just sounded like that for a second. Disney demanded the university retract what the company believes to be “an inflammatory and misleading press release, which was developed to gain media attention, and contradicts and distorts the study’s own carefully limited and hedged findings.”
Parents, whatever you do, don’t let your children grow up to talk like that.
A press release designed to gain media attention! Say it isn’t so.
The researchers said the press release did, in fact, factually summarize their findings.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found that watching an hour of baby videos a day was associated with a 17-point decrease on a language assessment test in children 8 to 16 months old. It said that meant those children knew about six to eight fewer words out of a list of 90 than other children that age.
The researchers acknowledged they couldn’t say for sure what was causing those decreased scores without further study.
A University of Iowa professor recently released an unastonishing assessment of how babies learn to talk: They start jabbering after they’ve mastered enough easy words to tackle more of the harder ones. Then a snowball effect happens, and the babies are talking like crazy. The key to reaching this “word spurt,” says Professor Bob McMurray, is talking and reading to a child a lot. No videos required. In fact, the American Academy of Pedriatics says babies, and children under 2, shouldn’t watch TV at all.
The Web site for Baby Einstein states that its products, which also include books and puppets, aren’t designed to make babies smarter.
The company was named after Albert Einstein because he “embodied a love of the arts, simple curiosity, and a passion for discovery.”
We’re waiting for Disney’s latest, “Doublespeak, Doublespeak.”
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