The edutainment industry is a booming business- from shows to toys to flashcards there is everything and anything out there to make babies and toddlers smarter in the parental market.
Beginning with the Baby Einstein Boom, products flooded the market to improve a baby's mental aptitude and abilities. Just plop Junior or Princess in front of the flashy puppets singing and showing famous art and musical compositions and they will be smarter. (not to mention mom will get five minutes of quiet without feeling like a "bad mom" because this is "good for them" right?)
After Baby Einstein came Brainy Baby and hundreds of other DVDs, toys, video games, and other items have flooded the marked preying on a parent's insecurities and want to make sure their kids have and are the best.
But there is no research to confirm the giant promises these companies are making to parents everywhere- in fact some early research is even showing that increased watching of these videos might stunt language and developmental skills rather than improve them. Though screen time in general is not recommended for children under two at all, these DVDs are being hawked to parents to babies barely out of the womb.
Have an older kiddo? A toddler need not worry there are plenty of edutainment opportunities for mom and dad to spend their money on. Game systems like Leapster and V-Flash advertise themselves as learning game systems- not all like the mindless gaming machines...right...
Then there are the gaming edutainment websites such as ABC Mouse, Funbrain.com, and BrainNook to name a few.
A multi-million dollar industry built on the idea that babies and toddlers are in need of higher education, rather than free play, fun and old fashioned pretend.
Two of my cousins have their own child now and whenever their kids bored or want to play, their parents resolve it with some piece of technology. For my niece, Serena, my cousin will ask her if she wants to play on the computer and she will play one of the educational games but in the sidebars the advertisements are visible. Most of the time whenever my nephew, Louie, who is a little younger, starts to get very hyper, my cousin will give him her ipod touch and he gets all wide eyed. And the games that he play have the 30 sec ads and pop ups. I don't want to tell my cousins how to raise their child but I think they can benefit more from creative play. Interestingly about a year ago a teacher took out all the toys from a classroom and brought in some cardboard boxes and egg cartons leaving more room for imagination. The kids enjoyed this so much they didn't ask for the original toys back. The kids also began to exhibit better positive behavior such as negotiation, leadership, and creativity skills.
ReplyDeleteHeres the video: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/21/pete-kaser-teacher-replaces-toys-cardboard-boxes_n_2171135.html