Baby DVDs/Videos and Their Effect on Language Development in Children

Danna Orovitz

University of California, Davis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

Media,particularly facets advertising to increase learning in infants, has become a resource that is employed by many families around the world with hopes of expanding their children’s vocabulary and language skills. DeLoache et al. (2010) conducted an experiment that tested the effectiveness of symbolic mediaand parental interaction on children’s language development. Zimmerman et al. (2007) used a survey to determine the positive or negative association that media of all types had to vocabulary abilities.Both studies highlighted flaws in the design of baby DVD’s and related media and how there is a disconnect in representing information from media to reality. Datafromthese scientific studies have shown that these forms of media do not increase language development and that parents tend to overestimate how much their child is learning from these popular DVDs. These studies do show, however, that children who engage in social interaction with caregivers have better language development and vocabulary skills. Overall, the results suggest that children under the age of 2 should view limited amounts of exposure to infant DVDs as social interaction has shown to be much more effective in fostering normal language development.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby DVDs/Videos and Their Effect on Language Development in Children

Baby DVDs, worldwide, have been widely advertised to help children learn and develop their vocabulary. Many parents consider language skills important and are very likely to utilize these DVD’s, particularly in situations where they view their child’s language abilities as low, in hopes that their child will reap the advertised benefits. Unfortunately, the videos are often limited in the words and syntax in which they are presented, as well as being full of flashy images and bright colors that could distract the child instead of promoting learning. Normal language acquisition is also largely contributed to social interaction with a caregiver but if the child is watching too many videos, they might not have enough social influences that they need to develop language normally. DeLoache et al. (2010) conducted an experiment where infants were exposed to target words via a DVD or through parent teaching. The DVD was used in order to test how much children internalize information when presented with symbols (pictures, video, and models) while parent teaching involved learning through joint attention and social interaction. Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff (2007) investigated the association between infant television watching and early vocabulary size for children under the age of 2. DeLoache et al. (2010) did an excellent job of carrying out their experiment in a natural environment in order to ensure a maximum potential of learning from the DVD. Zimmerman et al. (2007) had several limitations to their study including the possibility of causal inferencesdrawn from their results, only one area of language development (vocabulary) was considered, and the sample was not representative of the world’s population as a whole. Given these limitations, the study suggests that future studies be conducted in order to better reaffirm the risks and benefits that media has on language development.

DeLoache et al. (2010) conducted an experiment where infants, 12 to 18 months of age, were extensively exposed to a popular DVD, renowned by parents,with goals of measuring the possible comprehension of the target words through the use of symbolic media.The DVD depicted several scenes of inside and around a home, focusing on naming common objects within the home environment (e.g.,x. table, spoon). In order to create a more naturalistic environment, the study took place in the infant’s homes and in conditions that were similar to those of regular routine. The experimenter visited the homes of the selected families on three occasions in order to give detailed instructions, test the children’s knowledge of the target words (initial and final knowledge), and to view the daily journal entries that parents were requested to complete detailing their child’s experience with the video.

Within this experiment, there were four conditions to which the children were randomly assigned in order to test several possible natural parent/child interaction styles. It is important to note that the experimenter that visited the homes had no knowledge to which condition the children had been assigned. The four possible conditions were as follows: DVD plus parental interaction, DVD with no parental interaction, parental instruction with no DVD, and a control condition. In the first condition, the children were exposed to the DVD over the course of four weeks and the parents were asked to watch the video along side their child and interact with them in whatever way seemed natural. In the second condition, DVD with no parental interaction, parents were instructed to let their children view the video alone for the same amount of viewing time as the children in the first condition. Parents could reside within the same room but were asked to refrain from actively watching the DVD with their child. In the parental instruction with no DVD condition, parents, in lieu of the DVD, were presented with a list of the target words that were featured in the video. The parents were instructed to, in the most natural way possible, teach the words to their children over the course of four weeks. The control condition took into consideration the level of normal vocabulary acquisition absent of any form of intervention and children were shown neither the DVD or had any parental instruction.

To test the children’s knowledge of the target words, the experimenter conducted trials based off their initial knowledge. On the first visit to the home, the children were tested on the target words in order to create a personalized set of unknown words that they were retested on at the final visit. The children were presented with two images that included a target image from the video and an unrelated image (distractor). When the experimenter named the target image the child was asked to point to the image they perceived as correct. The final test, while similar to the design of the initial test, contained two separate trials. The first trial was identical to the initial test but the second trial presented the words and images in the opposite order. The words could only be considered learned if the child could identify the correct image in both trials.

The results from this experiment showed that when words were learned through parent interaction without the video, more words are learned. This suggests that social interaction and joint attention plays a huge role in facilitating children’s learning. The children who extensively watched the DVD, with or without their parents, demonstrated no more progression in vocabulary than the children who were in the control group. Excerpts from the parent’s journal entries detail how attentive their children were to the DVD and how they seemed to enjoy the program yet the results suggest no increased level of learning from watching the video. This lack of learning could be attributed to theories and scientific findings that children often neglect to consider information that is presented through symbols within media. Children of the age tested in the experiment (12 to 18 months), often struggle to fully comprehend the representations of objects and situations they see through media and transfer that information to the world around them.

The experiment conducted by DeLoache et al. strongly focused on creating an experiment that would foster the best possible learning environment. Instead of conducting the experiment in a lab where children might feel nervous or scared, they carried out the tests within the infant’s home where they would feel most comfortable. By including the four possible conditions of interaction levels, the results found can apply to a wider range of children’s day-to-day experiences. Another strength of this study was its attention to the opinion of the parents regarding the effectiveness of the DVD. It was found by examining the parent’s journal entries that the parents who enjoyed the video more, assumed that their children were learning more from it and vice versa. The parents who believed that the DVD was increasing their child’s vocabulary, could easily be misinterpreting the “word spurt” that naturally occurs in children around 18 months of age. The disconnect between symbolic media and reality is a topic that needs further study in order to determine exactly where the disconnect happens and how it can be prevented in order to create media programs posses characteristics that foster learning.

Zimmerman et al. (2007) conducted an investigation through detailed phone surveys to study how programs such as baby DVD’s distract from learning and are associatedwith poor language development in children under the age of 2.Parents were asked questions about how much time their child actively watched television on weekdays and weekends and of what category. The four categories of television programs considered in the survey were children’s educational and non-educational media, DVDs/videos designed for babies, and mature (adult) programs. Parents were also asked questions regarding the amount of time they spent interacting with their children through activities such as reading together, and listening to music and stories. Demographics that were considered in the survey were family size, age of the child being surveyed, parental educational achievement and income, ethnicity, and what kind of care (daycare or otherwise) that the child had been receiving. This study used the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) form to establish scores for the children’s language ability based off the answers from the survey. These scores were able to separate the children into different ability levels 1 and 2 based on the national age/sex averages. Level 1 contained infants less than 16 months of age and was determined by the amount of words that the child understood. Level 2 ability was determined by the amount of words spoken by children who were 17 to 24 months old.

This studyfound that there is a positive association between parent/child interaction through reading and storytelling in both children in level 1 and 2. However, children who had their parents watch television programs with them did not seem to have higher CDI scores. Out of the four categories of media, DVDs/videos designed for infants around 8 to 16 months of age, had the largest negative association to a lower vocabulary level. The other categories of media were found to have neither a significant positive nor negative association to language ability. Zimmerman et al. (2007) proposed several explanations for this negative association found with infant DVDs and why it was specific to children aged 8 to 16 months. During a child’s first years of life, development is happening quickly and extensive exposure to baby DVD’s could hinder this development.Many characteristics of baby DVD’s, such as the flashy images and fast scene transitions, fail foster learning and merely distract and hinder normal development. Another explanation is the possibility of external factors (such as parents who lack the motivation or neglect to engage with their children), which could result in a higher amount of viewing time of the DVDs in order to keep the child occupied.

The study by Zimmerman et al. (2007) had several limitations that must be considered when viewing the results. This study did not manipulate a variable in order to scientifically test whether or not exposure to baby DVDs had real impact on development though the information found is intriguing and will serve to inspired future studies on this topic. Because of the lack of manipulation the explanations presented could be considered casual correlations though by retrieving the data in such a non-intrusive way, the study was able to get realistic insight into the types of media and the actual average times spent watching media that children watch. Another limitation is that vocabulary was the only area of language development that was tested. Based on the data found, slow vocabulary was specific only to younger children (8 to 16 months) who were shown baby DVDs and the negative association seemed to disappear once the children became toddlers. This study also limited itself by excluding families who did not meet the educational and/or incomerequirements, which could be an initial predictor of high/low vocabulary development. Regardless of these limiting factors, this study opens the door for further studies that could discover what attributes of baby DVDs is behind the negative association and if the present associations have any long term effects on these children in the future. Follow up studies could also gather more evidence to support the casual inferences that were made in this present study regarding the negative effects baby DVDs seem to impose on young children.

The studies conducted by DeLoache et al. (2010) and Zimmerman et al. (2007) used very different methods in their experiments. DeLoache et al. (2010) manipulated variables to test the effectiveness of infant DVDs based on their advertised benefits. Zimmerman et al. (2007), in contrast, used a survey to document the negative or positive associations between sources of media and vocabulary development. Regardless of the methods chosen, both studies came to the consensus that DVDs/videos designed for infants, had no benefit on language and vocabulary skills in infants. Both studies also found that parent interaction, in lieu of media, has the greatest positive effect in language abilities and that parents put too much trust in the advertised benefits of baby DVDs that were considered in the two studies. Based on the results found, children develop greater language skills when engaging in some sort of social interaction and joint connection with caregivers. Media, in particular baby DVDs, seem to offer no positive gains in vocabulary and language development to children under the age of 2 due to their design featuring bright colors and flashy imagery, and due to the fact that children often struggle to understand the symbols presented in media. In order to reaffirm the results found in these two studies, future studies must be conducted concerning possible long-term effects of extensive exposure to media and the specific aspects of these infant DVDs that create an environment that results in negligible learning.

In the world today, people are often quick to utilize media in order to aid in education, as a filler of time, etc., in replacement of interacting on a social level with other people. This lack of social interaction and increase in media viewing in the form of infant DVDs plays a significant role in the slower acquisition of normal language skills in young children as seen in the studies analyzed throughout this essay. These popular videos do not live up to their advertised qualifications and parents should be advised that extensive exposure could hinder their children’s budding language skills. Possible long-term effects stemming from the viewing of infant DVDs and other categories of media need more research in order to determine how influential media can be on language development. As the world creates more and more facets of media, questions must be asked about how this will affect current and future generations, at what stage ofdevelopment will these effects be most substantial, and how to combat any immediate and/or long term negative effects.

 

 

 

References

 

Deloache, J. S., Chiong, C., Sherman, K., Islam, N., Vanderborght, M., Troseth, G. L., . . . O'doherty, K. (2010). Do babies learn from baby media? Psychological Science, 21(11), 1570-1574. doi:10.1177/0956797610384145

 

Zimmerman, F. J., Christakis, D. A., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2007). Associations between media viewing and language development in children under age 2 years. The Journal of Pediatrics, 151(4), 364-368. doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2007.04.071

 

 

 

 

 

 

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