Educational Video Does Not Improve Children Language Skills

Giving a baby brain stimulation via educational video show did not provide any benefits for children language skills. New research conducted the University of Miami Miller, School of Medicine, United States, said that parents who are trying to support infant development by providing educational video to introduce new vocabulary, most likely will not achieve anything.

The study even found that kids who start watching a video at an early age in fact have lower language skills. “The children in this age is a little scientist who was exploring the world, find out how things work,” explained the doctor from University of Miami Miller School Of Medicine, United States, Dr. Jeffrey Brosco.

“They drive around to see the visual object from different sides. They dropped the goods to see what happens,” he continued, as quoted healthday.com site.

These children, said Brosco, are active learners. They had watched the video was not at all to promote active learning and social engagement. Therefore, these impressions could not improve the child’s language proficiency.

According to the researchers, the lack of social interaction while watching a video is probably the main reason for stating that the child’s development is not progressing as she watched the TV screen, as a conclusion of this study.

“It’s been widely known since long that social interaction is an important activity for children learning to interact well with parents, teachers and older brothers,” said Rebekah A Richert, the main author of this study is scheduled to be published in the May issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

More than once including research at the University of Washington, that this type of educational videos can impede language development or the absorption of new vocabulary for the baby. Due to these results, one of the creators of the Baby Einstein series filed a lawsuit against the university because they are considered to obstruct the will and demand of the consumers.

In a new study that involved 96 infants aged between 12 and 25 months. Half of the participants are allowed to watch the Baby Wordsworth DVD (one of the Baby Einstein series) at home five times in two weeks, for six weeks.

Infants are then tested in the lab every week to see if they’re learning the words they have seen in these educational DVDs. Parents and caregivers were also asked to report on the progress of their children.

The researchers found evidence that the video does not increase the absorption of the language for babies, but not too inhibited. But, if the baby from early age has begun to watch the video, then the lower the overall language development. However, the investigators added this may be related to other characteristics of the child at home.

“It is indeed not include any side because there are families that play educational videos for 1 month in a row, but is not balanced with a lot of talking directly with children,” said Brosco.

“There are many reasons why it could happen,” added Richert, who is an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, United States.

“We asked parents why they were showing the educational video is from an early age,” he continued. In essence, it is clear Brosco, interaction with humans and the environment seems to be a key direct learning tool for children, not just by watching on TV.

“Social interaction seems the most important activities for children in the first few years of life,” added Brosco was the father of four children of this. And, Briggs agreed that opinion. “We know that from the first days of infancy when the infant and early childhood, social interaction is absolutely an ideal way to learn,” he said. Rather than spend 30 minutes or more going to the store to buy the educational video, parents should take the time to talk with their children about what they see and observe the surrounding environment.