Video Baby Brain Boosters May Not Create Einsteins

For infants ages eight to 16 months, every hour of daily baby DVD/video viewing was associated with a nearly 17-point decrease in scores on an assessment of communication skills, according to a report in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

No adverse effect was seen in children ages 17 to 24 months, reported Frederick J. Zimmerman, Ph.D., of the University of Washington, and colleagues.

The 17 point figure "corresponds to a difference of about six to eight words for a typical child out of the 90 included on the [communication assessment]," the authors stated.

The study was intended to fill a void in the understanding of language and communication development in childhood, the researchers noted.

Several television programs have demonstrated educational value when viewed by children between the ages of two and five, they said, but there's been no demonstrated benefit in children younger than two years. And heavy viewing between infancy and three years has been associated with various developmental problems.

But a paucity of evidence has not stopped producers and marketers of DVDs or videos for babies from making claims of benefits. As an example, the authors stated that about three-fourths of the top-selling infant videos on one popular website made explicit and specific educational claims.

In the current study, the investigators surveyed 1,008 parents of children ages two months to 2 years. Survey topics included questions about children's viewing of television and DVDs/videos.

The parents also completed a short version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), a standardized assessment of language development in children.

Toddlers ages 17 to 24 months had a mean CDI score of 49.28, similar to the national average, according to the investigators. Children ages eight to 16 months had a mean CDI score of 61.19, which exceeded national norms.

Dr. Zimmerman and colleagues then performed a regression analysis that adjusted for various forms of parental interaction, media exposure, and multiple sociodemographic variables.

The results showed that each hour of daily viewing of baby DVDs/videos was associated with a decrease of 16.99 points in the mean CDI among children ages eight to 16 months (P<0.01).

Positive influences on language and communication development were daily reading and storytelling, which had significant associations for both age groups (P<0.05 to P<0.01).

The reasons for the adverse effect of media viewing on language and communication development are unclear and require further study, the authors concluded.

They pointed out that the study cannot determine causality and that there are several potential reasons for the association in addition to deleterious effects of baby DVDs/videos on early language development.

For example, they noted, it's possible that parents who are already concerned about their child's language development turn to baby videos for help.

Or, they said, it's possible that "those parents who have their children watch a heavy dose of baby DVDs/videos are those who are less motivated to actively promote their children's language development."