Babies need to see as much of the outside world as possible during the first year of life. A one-sided and limited range of impressions can be very detrimental to later life. Mothers do this naturally. They pick up babies, point to objects and name them for the child. Babies learn through feeling, movement and interaction, not by looking at moving images. If you want to teach your child something, do things together. Don’t put your baby in front of the TV.
Shape recognition: the importance of the first year of life
The Indians in the South American forests are often used as an example. As babies they almost exclusively see vertical shapes (tree trunks). Later, some of these Indians experience difficulty in recognizing objects with horizontal shapes.
Brains in development
Many abilities are already present in the brain at birth, we call this predisposition or heredity. But these abilities can only develop if they are tapped and the underlying idea of a program such as Baby Einstein is based on the idea that this talent is better developed if a child is exposed to information before the first year of life. The theory is that information recorded during the first year of life is permanently recorded in the brain so that learning pattern recognition, logical reasoning, speech and motor skills will be easier and faster in later life.
Baby Einstein
Baby Einstein is a range of multimedia products and toys specializing in interactive activities for children from 3 months old. The product has nothing to do with the scientist Albert Einstein, although the manufacturer would like to make it seem that way. Why is a mystery. Albert Einstein only started talking when he was three, he did not like going to school as a child and was certainly not seen as intelligent. Until he was five, his mother assumed he was mentally retarded, so comparing a baby to baby Einstein isn’t really a compliment.
Baby Einstein Company
In 1996, the Baby Einstein Company was founded by American housewife and former teacher Julie Aigner-Clark. In 2000, this company’s turnover was ten million dollars. In 2009, former housewife Julie was named Entrepreneur of the Year.
Consequences of following the Baby Einstein program
The University of Washington (2007 study) surveyed 1,008 parents with children between the ages of two and 12 months and found that children who followed the Baby Einstein program had a 17% smaller vocabulary. Daily reading or telling stories did have a small positive effect on vocabulary. The effect of following baby Einstein has not been scientifically proven and, well, children can still watch so much television, why would we park babies in front of the television?
Other baby learning programs
Baby Einstein Company has now had successors such as Your baby can read and Muzzy, with which they would learn another language by watching cartoons. The latter program has tapped into a large target group because the program is suitable for infants up to children aged 12 years.
To play
Babies learn by doing, experiencing, playing and not by passively watching a moving image in a rocking chair on which things appear that they can barely perceive and certainly will not understand. So let your baby look at his hands and put them in his mouth. Sing him songs and play tickle games. He learns much more from that than from television.