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Generation: TV baby

The effects of 'edutainment' products for children under 3

By Tina Benitez -- Gifts and Dec, 10/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Karen Foster's children are 15 months, 3½ and 11 years old. Her 3½-year-old daughter loves to watch Dora The Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! on television. Sometimes her 1 year old even gets pulled into watching if his older sister is in front of the tube. Foster doesn't mind her children watching television at such a young age as long as it is in moderation. In fact, Foster has even developed her own activity-based DVD series, AthleticBaby. The Dallas-based company produces sports-themed videos for ages 10 months to 2 years old.

But the effects of such videos—or “edutainment” products—which usually incorporate the television or computer to enforce early developmental learning for young children, came under attack by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) this past April when Sesame Workshop released a series of videos, Sesame Beginnings.

While there are no documented studies at press time that state that these products specifically for children under the age of 3 can negatively impact early development, the AAP contends that such edutainment products requiring young children to view television can stunt a child's early development skills.

But for a worldwide industry with a market worth $1.7 billion in 2005 from companies like VTech and LeapFrog, according to In-Stat, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based marketing research firm, the prospect of such products actually harming children could be detrimental to sales of this expanding category of play. Yet according to the same research, the edutainment toy segment is expected to reach $5.5 billion by the year 2010.

Rosemarie Truglio, Sesame Workshop's vice president of research and development told Playthings back in April that she doesn't consider the series an edutainment item, because the DVDs are meant to be used by parents and children to learn how to perform various, basic developmental activities together.

“It's very different from everything else in the marketplace. We're not making learning claims,” she says. “The effects [of the DVDs] are not with the baby directly. The educational impact is on adults watching. They are learning songs and activities to use during the routine moments of baby life. There are no claims on the viewing affect on the child alone.”

Moderation, of course

Foster tells Playthings that she understands the different perspectives on the Sesame Beginnings DVDs (which portray different activities acted out by classic Sesame characters on screen and designed to be viewed by parent and child together) as well as other video-, television- or computer-based educational products. She also understands that parents are actually looking for this type of entertainment for their children.

“I believe in today's society it is a reality that parents use this kind of media with their very young children,” she says. “And as a result of that reality, I believe that it is better that they watch something that has the purpose of motivating them to be physically active than not. My personal experience as a mother is that there are times when my children under 2 are entertained by TV, which can help me get something done, even it's for a few minutes.”

But the reality is also that moderation isn't really the case in most households, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, N.Y., which found that 61 percent of America's children under 2 watch television or videos, and 43 percent watch every day; nineteen percent of children under age 1, and 29 percent ages 2 to 3, had televisions in their own room.

Most pediatricians who spoke to Playthings believe that television is not necessary for early development, but reading, playing with toys and interaction are. “Television is not necessary for kids under the age of 2,” says Dr. Donald L. Shifrin, chair of the National Committee of Communications for AAP. “We know they are watching and [we] should encourage something else. A number of manufacturers want them to watch something with better content, and it's a great spin. We want to enlighten parents not to believe the factors in that marketing strategy.”

Shifrin adds that companies should not state that their products will make children up to the age of 3 smarter, because there is also no solid research to support this claim. “We'd love to see research done on this. Companies are not stepping up and saying yes, we have research looking at youngsters. We need long term research. Does it help make kids smarter in kindergarten? We have no idea.”

Educational interaction

More interaction is behind the Magiq DVD from Tiny Love, Garden Grove, Calif., which features an activity-filled DVD and a plush doll for interactive television play for babies aged 11 months to 2 years old. The game can be played with a parent or without. “We aren't aware of any empirical studies that have proven television is harmful for children under the age of 3,” says Mercy D'silva, director of sales, Tiny Love. “The child development experts that help guide Tiny Love in the creation of new products do believe that active participation is more challenging and effective in encouraging children to learn than is passive observation. This applies to any toy, not just television.” She adds, “Tiny Love believes that children develop on their own, with or without developmental toys. The products we make are meant to enhance the seven stages of development that every child experiences: the senses, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, object permanence, language and communication, cognition and emotional intelligence.”

And with or without educational videos or computer games in tow, parents can even look to regular television programming now with the addition of BabyFirstTV, programming targeted for ages 6 months to 36 months old. The network started this May and shows figures like trains and ducks moving on the screen to different sounds; there's even a program on the network for sign language.

Sign language for pre-verbal infants is something being incorporated into learning products as well, like the new V.Smile Baby Infant Development System from Vtech, Arlington Heights, Ill., so infants can communicate with parents or caregivers. The company recently held a live webcast presenting the V.Smile System, which incorporates sign language lessons along with sounds, shapes, animals and other activities for early learning. Each system plays Baby Smartridges that include five games with different lessons and three age-graded play modes.

During the webcast, Julia Fitzgerald, vice president of marketing for VTech, and Laurie Honza, director of product development, were joined by the pediatricians who consulted in the V.Smile development. One of them, Dr. Goodwyn, commented on how the sign language activities can help with early communication before speech, and—despite popular belief or concern—would not discourage a child from learning to speak. “When babies can communicate, they're less frustrated,” she says. “When parents can understand, they're less frustrated. It promotes a good parent-child relationship. When babies use baby signs, the number of positive interactions increase, and negative ones decrease. For emotional development, kids can label feelings with signs, identify their feelings, then communicate those feelings to other people.”

“More parents are embracing television and media to help in educating children,” states Fitzgerald. “We're trying to offer an alternative to passive TV time. Is it realistic to expect mom to sit down to V.Smile Baby? Absolutely. Moms want to spend as much time as possible with baby. Parents have to balance active and down time. We're trying to give an alternative that will be engaging and fun to a child. The interest of parents in having appropriate content for infants is growing by leaps and bounds.”

Computer comfort

Gali Bar-Ziv's, president of Imaginative Minds, the U.S. distributor of the Comfy Easy PC, told PLAYTHINGS that technology has to be introduced to children while they are young, now more than ever, and products such as his Comfy Easy PC do just that. The easy-to-use key pad, which allows infants to play games on the computer, introduces kids to the concept of using a keyboard later on. “I think that, in this day and age, not exposing children to technology is a mistake,” he says. “Children should play outside, play with blocks, have their parents tell them stories, but also interact with technology. The computer is a tool and as such it will enable children to get comfortable with a machine that they are likely to use in the future.”

Foster says that AthleticBaby DVDs will never be more than 30 minutes long and there are plans to release a product line tied to the series that features more interactive play next year. “At the beginning of each DVD I speak to the parents and caregivers, talking about the importance of play time—energetic play time, outside play time—the importance of parents to be active with children. It's all about energetic play, helping kids develop healthy routines. It's moderation, in all aspects of life, not just television.”

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