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Laura Rowley Money & Happiness

Laura Rowley, Money & Happiness

To Raise Baby Einsteins, TLC Will Suffice

by Laura Rowley

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Posted on Thursday, August 30, 2007, 12:00AM

In 1997, the year my first child was born, both Time and Newsweek ran bold cover stories on the amazing development of a baby's brain from birth to age three. The stories were inspired by a White House conference on the importance of stimulation in the earliest years of life -- an event aimed at increasing federal support for early child care.

I eagerly pored over both issues, seeking the practical implications of the research. Knowing my daughter was a "sponge" in the earliest years of life, what could I do to give her a neural leg up in that precious zero-to-three window?

TLC for Profit

As Susan Gregory Thomas reports in her new book "Buy, Buy Baby: How Consumer Culture Manipulates Parents and Harms Young Minds," lots of American parents (like me) went shopping.

"The goals of the conference were laudable, but the lasting legacy was the fear that if parents did not adequately stimulate their children by the time they turned three years old, the circuitry of the brain was effectively closed," says Thomas.

Although the conference emphasized that nothing other than ordinary, loving care was needed for cognitive development, the video, educational, and toy industries co-opted the word "stimulation" -- and, as Thomas reports, a $20 billion-dollar business was born. A host of formal toddler classes and companies such as Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby, and Baby Genius rode a profitable wave of parental anxiety.

Bad for Baby

Between 2003 and 2006, Thomas reports, the number of videotapes and DVDs aimed at babies under two on Amazon.com grew from 140 to 750. Sales of so-called "educational" toys rose 50 percent between 2002 and 2003 alone. Even the grandfather of kiddie media -- Sesame Street -- got in on the game with a video series for zero- to two-year-olds called "Sesame Beginnings."

Meanwhile, a growing body of academic research was indicating that television and videos are harmful to children under age two, and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a strong recommendation that this group not be exposed to such media at all.

Parents think babies are getting something out of "educational" videos because they're riveted by the activity on the screen, says Thomas. But researchers say what's really going on is an "orienting reflex" -- the neural response to new, startling information. It's what happens when you hear a loud noise: The brain scrambles to figure out the cause and location; whether you've experience it before; and whether it requires a flight-or-fight response.

Inhibiting Language Skills

But a baby who's watching a video gets caught in an endless orienting-reflex loop. Thomas cites other studies that have linked early television watching to attention deficit disorder -- even autism.

A study published this month in the Journal of Pediatrics found that DVD watching by children age 8 to 16 months hinders language development.

For every hour a day spent watching baby videos, infants in that age range understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who didn't watch them. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood coalition filed a formal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over DVDs marketed to babies.

An Expensive Waste of Time

Thomas suggests marketers play to the insecurities of Generation X -- latchkey kids with divorced parents, raised on lame after-school television designed to push toys (think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

"Once this generation came into its own as parents, marketers noticed two things: They have a deep and abiding fear of abandonment that they transfer on to their children, and they were comfortable with television as a babysitter," says Thomas. "Toy and video companies needed to convince Generation X mothers that their products would basically be maternal surrogates in their absence -- providing the same kind of value and nurturing and care."

Although I'm part of Generation X, I wasn't a latchkey child; in fact, my dad died a week before my parents' 50th wedding anniversary. Still, I carted my oldest daughter to music class at nine months and French at age two-and-a-half.

By the time I had my third child, however, I realized that formal toddler classes were largely a waste of time, and the money for them was better invested in a 529 college savings plan. My youngest got just as much out of informal playgroups and unstructured time in the park, and she preferred the basics -- blocks and balls -- to talking gizmos with candy-colored lights.

Branding Starts Early

Among the most intriguing research cited in the book is a study conducted by Dan Anderson of the University of Massachusetts, with groups of children watching "Teletubbies." Anderson cut the program into nonsensical segments and, in a separate experiment, ran the soundtrack backwards. The 2-year-olds were distracted by the mixed-up shows -- they knew something was wrong -- while children younger than 24 months were oblivious to the changes.

But babies of all ages who watched the video excelled at one skill: character recognition. Although the story was meaningless to the youngest, they could still identify the characters Lala and Po. And as Thomas points out, "the only other scenario in which children encounter these characters are ones in which the characters are selling them something. This is their first introduction to branding."

According to a 2003 study, two-thirds of mothers reported that their toddlers asked for specific brands before the age of three.

Materialism Triumphant?

So what's the harm? I expect when I buy my four-year-old new sneakers, she'll undoubtedly zero in on anything featuring Dora the Explorer. And in a year, she'll think Dora is for babies and move on to something else.

Thomas worries that, at least on a philosophical and psychological level, something darker is going on -- a triumph of material lifestyle over deeper values.

"When there's an attachment [to a brand] ingrained from a young age, you can't separate that from a feeling of happiness and love," she argues. "We're creating a nation of impulse buyers -- we don't think about what it is we're buying, we just know we need to buy more. My generation feels more kinship with the person who also bought a Volkswagen Touareg than how he voted in the last election."

Wider Response Required

Thomas argues that more research is needed on the impact of media on children ages zero to three, as well as greater restrictions on advertising to children. She also advocates paid child leave, so that parents can spend more time with their babies. (The United States is the only industrialized country that provides no paid child leave; 163 countries give mothers paid leave on the birth of their children, and 45 countries offer it to fathers.)

"All of the experts with whom I spoke said the best possible thing you can do is just hang out and enjoy being with your child," Thomas says. "You need to have time, and time is the one thing we as Americans don't have. So in addition to personal response -- turning off the television and deciding not to do that class -- there needs to be a political response."

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68 Comments

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  • Sandy - Monday, September 3, 2007, 7:06PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Like I always said, Capitalist and Business oriented people can even sell there mother to make money. They don't care if a product is really good or bad. All they care is, I have a product and I need to make a market for it.

  • Dana B - Monday, September 3, 2007, 6:37PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    "Although I'm part of Generation X, I wasn't a latchkey child; in fact, my dad died a week before my parents' 50th wedding anniversary." I just have to comment on this...this statement implies that there is some connection between being a latchkey kid - in other words, the child of working parents who spends time alone at home in the afternoon - and being the child of divorced parents. My parents just celebrated their forty-first anniversary, but when we were young my sister and I were latchkey kids because both our parents worked and after I was ten or eleven we stayed at home for the couple of hours between getting home from school and my mother getting home from work. If Ms. Rowley was not a latchkey kid, it's because her mother didn't work or they had other childcare arrangements and she wasn't alone at home, not because her parents were married and not divorced.

  • Bardia N - Monday, September 3, 2007, 6:12PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    Interesting article, even though your conclusions aren't supported by the facts. Nevertheless, it is a good topic worth discussing. The one point I'd like to make is that the article (and none of the comments so far) make any reference to the internet as a competitor to TV. What good is it to say "I got rid of my TV) when 2 year olds are online watching youtube? This is an internet article after all, so the oversight is even more glaring.

  • ROCKY - Monday, September 3, 2007, 1:26PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    YES, THE FACT IS THAT BIG CORP ARE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE INSECURITIES OF PARENTS. OF FUTURE COMPETITION THEY WILL FACE.

  • Clayton - Monday, September 3, 2007, 12:14PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    The data referenced in the story was from PHONE INTERVIEWS of 1000 parents. Come on! Anyone who has ever had a stats class knows this study carries no weight. Just do your job as parent and monitor what your children are doing, watching etc. I agree that television should not be the cornerstone of a childs education but to make claims based on limited data and research is irresponsible.

  • K - Monday, September 3, 2007, 9:43AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    Nice article, although this information has been known for quite a while in what westerners (in my opinion derogatorily)call "the Third World". In any case, what I found curious is your apparent inference that discussing the last election is somehow less materialistic and shows "deeper values" than discussing the VW Touareg (or any other car for that matter). Whatever happened to spiritual ideas and God (regardless of how you conceive of Her)? Or even silence for that matter, if you think discussing spiritual matters is too much for 2-3 yr olds? (Not that discussing the last election would be any less). The opposite of "materialistic" would be "spiritual", not an different kind of materialistic, which is what discussing "who you voted for in the last elections" instead, would be.

  • Don - Monday, September 3, 2007, 7:41AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    It's about time! Thank you for this article. I don't know if employers would go for paid leave but what an investment in the future of our children. Parents would have to agree to spend the time with the child and without the television or the so called educational media.

  • sharan - Sunday, September 2, 2007, 6:19PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    SAY NO TO TV

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Sunday, September 2, 2007, 6:28AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Great article. Glad it gets shared with Yahoo Finance users, which can probably all afford these DVDs and reconsider spending more time with their kids. Parents can't be substituted by anything and the more time they spend teaching their kids about life, the more intellectually and emotionally strong they end up! Check out www.edukey.net if you'd like to read more related articles.

  • 4 right - Saturday, September 1, 2007, 10:24AM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Great common sense information. Obviously not motivated by commercial interest.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 11:25PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    My wife and I have always considered Baby Einstein and the like to be utter nonsense and a consumer fad. How can you expect a baby or toddler to process meaningless pieces of information in a worthwhile fashion? A picture of a ball and playing with a ball are very different sensory perceptions and learning experiences. I'm not surprised that watching these videos might lead to autism. We know a couple personally whose child has autism and they had that kid glued to videos from the first week. We are raising a world of mindless video addicts and materialistic children. Shame on us! Spend time with your kids, and play with them. Turn off the TV, and read to them. Instead of watching the sunset on Baby Einstein (sheer idiocy!), take them to the park. Even our 4 year old can only watch 30 minutes per day, if she earns it by doing math or writing --- and she is very good at those already without going to preschool. I'd like to think it has something to do with the time that we spend with her. Here's the key to successful parenting: TEACH your children, don't try to foist it off on someone else, especially the TV. All right, I'm off my soapbox now ;-)

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 6:36PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    I read there was an international study that correlated intelligence of the children to intelligence of the parents, regardless of income or ethnicity. So if you want a smart kid, you need to be smart yourself and get a real smart mate. And then hope, because its only a correlation not a guarantee. Your little one may turn out to be a dullard regardless of your best efforts, thats the way nature is.

  • Dhamodharan K - Friday, August 31, 2007, 6:26PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    This is the kind of articles new parents are expecting in quality circles. This may be a small writing, but it speaks of how the society is tilted towards opportunitism than good values. An advanced society like ours should be sensitive to this type of issues and act immediately and propagate this kind of message to thousands of new parents who may otherwise end up in spending and instrument to create a society of superflous values rather than deep values.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 5:42PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    I like the article, happy to see it on yahoo finance!, a mainstream forum. I like the policy bit at the end as well, we need more such articles to result in any concrete changes. All parents should be given the option of spending time with their kids. Spending quality time with kids in my opinion is an act of patriotism because you are helping raising a great bunch of future citizens. In fact I would go the extent of saying our week should be downsized to 35 instead of 40. This would greatly help those parents that find pleasure in the company of their kids. Those of us that would like to work longer hours always have the option of doing so.

  • GovindS - Friday, August 31, 2007, 5:15PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    This is just marketing. And in America marketing is very aggressive. I find it amazing parents go crazy on providing their kids with almost everything or else they feel guilty. My advice "Do not worry". The only thing you really want is your kid to think objectively. I was a very poor kid, no toys, few books and the only thing which helped me was the ability to think through things. If you feel your kids can make sound judgement then you have done your job. TV, computer etc doesn;t matter. Your kids needs to know that to be successful in life they should be interacting with folks and helping them on whatever their needs are whether it is cleaning their rooms, helping parents, later a job, a relation, etc. In America, it is difficult as parents don;t spend quality time with kids esp. when they are in middle school. As I said it all depends on sound judgement, how much you have and how much you incorporate in your kids. By nature you cannot but by nurture you can.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 4:50PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Thank you Laura for an excellent article! Turn off the television and spend time with your kids. Two simple but powerful ways to improve our personal lives, the lives and relationships of our families, and in time, our communities. A article!

  • Shyamla - Friday, August 31, 2007, 4:45PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    This arcticle is sensationalist, at best, and dangerous at worst. Based on 2-16 month olds recognizing 4-6 words less than their peers, the author implies that DVDs are harmful to learning. That would presuppose that the ONLY type of learning is language development related, and that differences in language skills highlight deficiencies in neural development. What is equally if not more likely is that other areas were developed in preference to language, as the DVDs in question are non-verbal in nature. Much of learning is non-verbal - music, pattern-recognition, logic and mathamatics being a few examples. Turns out many very gifted people (Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman being a few of the notables) were significantly slower in verbal development but quite obviously one of the worlds best known minds. I am no fan of TVs or DVDs as a substitute for emperical learning, but the research does not support the conclusions the author passes off as fact. I can't comment on the actual research itself but I would love to know how they deal with systematic biases in such studies - however, to conclude that they are harmful is a heck of a stretch. Kartik.

  • Swedish Steel - Friday, August 31, 2007, 4:32PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    Parents, don't let your kids watch Dora!! There is some serious mind control going on there. It will ruin the country if a generation grows up watching Dora.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 3:08PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    Life and child-rearing are zero-sum activities. One cannot have everything and, if one studied Einstein's life more closely, few parents would wish his life on their child. We work harder and longer for more income, better neighborhoods, bigger houses etc, then look for ways to compensate for the holes in the fabric of life that such pursuits create along with justifications for our use of such compensations. Automatic child-educator/entertainer tools provide just such compensations and justifications - as long as we judge them only at the level that they were promoted and don't look too deeply into their numerous side effects and opportunity costs - i. e., values of missed opportunities. The author is right in condemning over-use and misleading promotion, fair in citing some downsides, but woefully inadequate in hanging proposed political action on what appears to be pseudo-science at best. "Orienting" responses, "fight or flight", and "orienting-response loops" used in this context of human cognitive development are wholly outside their domains of definition and empirical basis and seem more an attempt at fanciful post hoc story invention than any credible science of which I (a research scientist in those areas) am aware. I don't expect journalists to understand the nuances of behavioral-, developmental- and neuro-science, but I do expect them to know enough not to endorse - by their selection and promotion - one theory over others or, if others are not mentioned, to know, at least, that others probably exist. Yes, more research is needed, but first a thorough assimilation of everything that is already known is required in order for that research to be useful and not further misleading.

  • Nathan - Friday, August 31, 2007, 3:08PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Great article! Although Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was indeed awesome and not lame.

  • HR Dir - Friday, August 31, 2007, 3:05PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    As a new gen x/y mother, I was a latch-key kid who spent way too much time in front of a TV. I survived, but I want more for my kids - it's ironic that my mother bought my kids $150.00 in educational videos... which my children NEVER watch. Go fly a kite - literally! BTW, I admit that I spend money on baby / todler swim classes - but let's be real, it is for MY amusement! ...and the kids like splashing around in the pool with me.

  • sanjais - Friday, August 31, 2007, 2:37PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    Thank god for media reporting that is actually based on medical research rather than populism and corporate driven misinformation

  • John H - Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:58PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    I'm learning more from the fantastic comments than from the great article.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:52PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 1/5

    I have exposed my 2 babies, 3 & 1 1/2 yrs, to all brainy baby and baby einstein series of dvd's. My 3 yr old knows more spanish than I do and has inspired me to learn the language. My 1 yr old sings songs and can count. I love these dvd's and so do my children. I believe TV is only evil if you park your child in front of it and have no interaction with them what so ever. Babies listen to their parents, teachers and elders, especially when you hold them, talk to them in a loving manner, you'd be amazed at the attention you get.

  • jca111 - Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:36PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 2/5

    I don't watch much TV and I don't let my child watch very much but I always find these TV is evil articles annoying. TV can be good or bad depending on how it is used. I let my baby watch a DVD series called Your Baby Can Read. She started watching at 8 months and was reading by 10 months. At 2 and a half she can read on her own. So, I can't agree that babies can't learn from TV. It seems that a lot of this reasearch is actually finding that plopping babies in front of the TV with little adult interaction is bad. It is not the TV but the lack of interaction that is the problem. I do agree with paid maternal and paternal leave. Children are this country's future. They should be given the best start possible. Bigshot executives should take a little less for themselves and give more to the parents raising this country's future workforce.

  • Glenn - Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:16PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    I raised my first family 20 plus years agoand they all turned out fine so far.My new wife and twin boys just turned 1 yr. 8/28 and her being a first time mom we purchased at least 50 learning dvd's.Funny though the doctor has only mentioned reading books!!!!!!

  • Michael - Friday, August 31, 2007, 1:02PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    Good but long time due. I've raised 6 children. 4 of them in US. Got interested in the issue as early as mid-70th. By early 80th it was well known that watching TV inhabits speach development. The effects were well studied for all children till age 5 (not 3) and watching TV was found harmful for all of them. Another interesting effect was described in mid-90th (if only in Russian studies). The thing is: when You watch real events You are free to focus on what You find interesting. Watching TV/Movies/ADs etc. You actually give up Your free will and follow the focus imposed on You by the filming operator. As a result (excesive) watching TV causes cognitive disorders to all ages, but especially to children and teenagers. It inhibits independent thinking, the development of personal responsibility. It is very likely one of the factors that created the effect of "teen forever", we see today (especially in USA). IMO it's good this article is here, but it's too little too late.

  • Drew - Friday, August 31, 2007, 12:55PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 5/5

    I've often joked upon seeing the most ridiculous new product that "parents will buy anything." After having my own kids, I understand wanting to do what is best for your child and looking for anything that will give them that edge. I think I have found it! I cancelled my cable, started spending more time with my kids and started bringing home lollipops when I get home from work. I even turned it into a game where they have to guess what I brought them from work (hint: it's always lollipops). I think the most important thing is time and interaction. I don't have to get a $30 DVD or a $200 toy, a .02 lollipop lets them know that I love them and was thinking about them while I was at work. We also have the luxury of my wife staying home with the kids. Love, time and interaction. I wouldn't have it any other way.

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 12:47PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 4/5

    I'm glad someone is finally trying to reach a wide audience. Anyone who is interested in reading a good book on this subject should check out "The Plug-In Drug" by Marie Winn

  • Yahoo! Finance User - Friday, August 31, 2007, 12:29PM ET  Report Abuse

    • Overall: 3/5

    Let's separate the wheat from the chaff. The findings about children's learning and behavior may seem obvious to some, but they certainly merit inquiry. The point of research is to test supposedly "obvious" assumptions. However, I agree with Rowley's detractors that she inserts a bunch of political recommendations at the end that are not supported by any reasoned argument. I think most of us can agree that Rowley identifies the problem well. The solution is another matter.

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