Should I show my six month old educational videos?
My baby look excited when watching videos about addition and subtraction.
I wonder if I should show video on counting first, then addition, and subtraction.
Should I show him educational videos, like
I thought it's a good thing to teach him how to count from young.
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Do not show videos to infants. The current consensus in the scientific community is that for small children, the effects of screen time are overwhelmingly negative. There are few, if any, positive effects.
REFERENCES:
For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting.
American Academy of Pediatrics Announces New Recommendations for Children’s Media Use: services.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2016/aap-announces-new-recommendations-for-media-use/
The developing brain and screen time
Excessive media use in children has been associated with a number of undesirable health outcomes, such as reduced sleep (Hale & Guan, 2015), increased obesity, and language and social emotional delays (AAP, 2016). However, the effects of media usage on brain development and health outcomes are not fully understood at this time. ...
For young children, the best way to teach higher-order cognitive skills (including attentional and emotional control) is through parent-child interactions, unstructured and social play (AAP, 2016). Letting toddlers use or view media on their own should be avoided. In older children, more research is needed to understand how specific periods of brain development relate to media use.
Media use in childhood: Evidence-based recommendations for caregivers: www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2019/05/media-use-childhood
The fact is, the amount of TV a child should watch before the age of 2 is zero.
TV can lead to hostility, trouble focusing
For decades we have known of the connection between hostile peer interactions and the amount of kids exposure to television. The linkage used to be controversial (maybe aggressive people watch more TV than others?), but we now see that it’s an issue of our deferred-imitation abilities coupled with a loss of impulse control. [...]
Another example comes from a study that looked at bullying. For each hour of TV watched daily by children under age 4, the risk increased 9 percent that they would engage in bullying behavior by the time they started school. This is poor emotional regulation at work. Even taking into account chicken-or-egg uncertainties, the American Association of Pediatrics estimates that 10 percent to 20 percent of real-life violence can be attributed to exposure to media violence.
TV also poisons attentions spans and the ability to focus, a classic hallmark of executive function. For each additional hour of TV watched by a child under the age of 3, the likelihood of an attentional problem by age 7 increased by about 10 percent. So, a preschooler who watches three hours of TV per day is 30 percent more likely to have attentional problems than a child who watches no TV.
Just having the TV on while no one is watching — secondhand exposure — seemed to do damage, too, possibly because of distraction. In test laboratories, flashing images and a booming sound track continually diverted children from any activity in which they were otherwise engaged, including that marvelous brain-boosting imaginative play we discussed. The effects were so toxic for kids in diapers that the American Association of Pediatrics issued a recommendation that still stands today:
"Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers (e.g., child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills."
Current research projects are addressing the potential effect of TV on grades, and preliminary work suggests that it affects both reading scores and language acquisition. But after age 2, the worst effects on kids brains may come because television coaxes kids away from exercise, a subject we will examine when we get to video games.
TV aimed at babies not so brainy
What about all those store shelves lined with educational videos and DVDs? They certainly claim to boost cognitive performance in preschool populations. Such boasts inspired a group of researchers at the University of Washington to do their own studies. [...]
The products didn’t work at all. They had no positive effect on the vocabularies of the target audience, infants 17 to 24 months. Some did actual harm. For every hour per day the children spent watching certain baby DVDs and videos, the infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them.
Disney demanded a retraction, citing deficiencies in the studies. After consultations with the original researchers, the university held its ground and issued a press release saying so. After this initial flurry of activity, there was silence. Then, two years later, in October 2009, Disney made what amounted to a product recall, offering refunds to anyone who had purchased Baby Einstein materials. Responsibly, the company has dropped the word “educational” from the packaging.
(p. 207-210)
Medina, J. (2010). Brain rules for baby: How to raise a smart and happy child from zero to five. Seattle: Pear Press. www.amazon.com/Brain-Rules-Baby-Raise-Smart/dp/0983263302/
Too many stimuli can be harmful to a baby. Here's a few articles 1, 2 - or just google overstimulation and check for yourself.
In general it is not recommended for children below 18 months to have any exposure to "screens" of any kind, be it smartphone or TV or console 3, 4. Google "screen time for children".
Worrying about IQ at the age of 6 months is a mistake in my opinion. Your child right now requires care, peace, love and closeness. At around 12 months or so you may try to, very gently, encourage him to play creatively, build or invent - with blocks, duplos, etc. When he's over 2yo - then, maybe, you can start working on counting.
Be warned thought, that while your 2+ yo child may learn to count to 10 or 20 quite easily, the abstract concept of addition or subtraction will still elude him for a while.
Just to add some context to the reasons why screen time is bad for babies, and to reasurre you that this isn't some "old people think technology is bad"...
Developmentally, under 18 months babies don't equate what's on the screen to real life equivalents. That means they can't learn effectively from screens; they need physical stimuli and social stimuli, neither of which is available from a screen.
Language is one of the most important things they learn in the first few years, even when they can't talk. For the most part, they learn by overhearing conversation, as well as directed words to them of course. Having screens on means you don't talk as much - so the no screen time for baby includes you! TV conversation doesn't teach them nearly as effectively (if at all!) as people around them talking.
A baby is developing their attention span, and if you want to encourage your baby to develop a longer attention span, screen time is a definite no-no. Even educational videos or activities tend to very quickly bounce between one thing on the screen and another - it's good practice from a video producing standpoint, but unfortunately it's terrible for your baby's attention span.
This is covered in detail at HealthyChildren.org, where I got most of this information, and I found this kind of information extremely helpful to be very familiar with when I had children at that age - in particular the language development part, which I didn't think about until I read about the number of words you say - nearly a thousand per hour! - and how many I say when the television is on (nearly none other than "where is the remote"!).
Picking up on your last point, perhaps illustrating your goal: I thought it's a good thing to teach him how to count from young you won't teach a child that at such a young age whatever you do. That's not to say you can't get off to an early start - you need to communicate with your baby for a good start to their intellectual development, talking, singing etc.
More appropriate would be to read books with numbers in to (i.e. with) the child. Many are sequential (i.e. counting). As an example, one my daughter enjoyed was 1 2 3 to the zoo (I couldn't face the whole video, but it appears to show the book quite well); others have more words.
Another thing is to sing counting rhymes. This distracts everyone on car journeys, for example.
Do some research into the developmental stages of childhood. There are lots of studies out there.
I would think that in a typical household it would be virtually impossible for a baby/child to have zero exposure to screens. Parents and siblings regularly have televisions, computers, tablets and phones in front of them and even if a baby isn't actually watching the content on these screens, they are still exposed to them.
If you are going to show educational videos to your baby, do it sensibly. Sit at least 5-6m from a screen and limit the duration of videos and the frequency.
Perhaps a better idea is playing audio to your baby. There are lots of educational songs and rhymes out there. Counting songs, vocabulary songs, colours, the alphabet, the seasons and weather, times tables, foreign language etc.... Also playing rhythmic type music and classical instrumental music is very good for children. It gives them exposure to sound variation, pitch, timbre and perhaps most importantly beat, which is linked to counting and timing. Also children who have early exposure to music often thus become musical themselves and there is research that strongly links musical aptness with mathematical ability. Not always, but people who are good at music are often good at mathematics too. A balance between processive and logical thought and creativity.
When your child is older, say 3, 4, 5, 6 years old, there are some wonderful educational videos made for children.
Books are by far the most important tools for learning and enjoyment.
A CHILD WHO READS, SUCCEEDS!!!!
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