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Vancouver Sun Article
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lugnet.loc.ca.bc
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Date:
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Tue, 5 Dec 2006 19:17:42 GMT
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5217 times
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Found Via the VLC Web Site.
Babies need building blocks, not TV, research finds
Sarah Schmidt
CanWest News Service
Friday, November 10, 2006
Forget all the media products for babies on the market and go for the classic
building blocks, suggests a new study linking playing with blocks with improved
language acquisition in toddlers.
The Child Health Institute at the University of Washington released results
Thursday from a six-month clinical trial showing middle- and lower-income
children 1.5 to 2.5 years of age who engage in block play scored significantly
higher on an internationally recognized scale measuring toddlers’ language
development.
The team of researchers, led by pediatrician Dimitri Christakis, also found on
any given day these children were more than 80 per cent less likely to watch
television than children in the control group, who did not receive blocks.
Noting “an increasing number of media-based products are making unsubstantiated
claims they can make children smarter, more literate, or more musical,” the
study takes direct aim at companies like Walt Disney’s Baby Einstein Co., which
markets a line of DVDs for newborns and toddlers.
“It’s a critical period in a young child’s development, and everybody is trying
to optimize that development,” Christakis said in an interview.
“Parents are inundated with messages that are totally unsubstantiated and
totally ungrounded in cognitive theory. This study tried to demonstrate
experimentally that there are particular toys that do help cognitive
development. The burden should be on toy manufacturers to prove their claims.”
The study included toddlers from 175 English-speaking homes. They were divided
into two groups. The first group received two sets of building blocks, a pack of
80 blocks and a pack of specialty blocks that included people and cars. Their
parents received suggestions of things to do with their child and blocks, such
as sorting by colour and stacking them.
The parents completed diaries over the six-month period to keep track of the
frequency with which their children played with the blocks, engaged in other
types of play and watched television.
Montreal-based MEGA Brands provided the blocks and funded the study; the company
was not involved in its design or analysis of the data.
“We want to make sure there’s authentic research and supporting data about
developmental play. The claims that are made on some of these products, it’s too
much,” said Vic Bertrand, executive vice-president and chief operating officer
for MEGA Brands.
Children in the control group did not receive blocks, although some already had
them in their home. Fifty-seven per cent of children in the intervention group
had block play reported in their diaries, compared to 12 per cent in the control
group.
The key finding indicates playing with blocks leads to a statistically and
clinically significant increase in language acquisition. The study found the
children from middle- and lower-income families in the intervention group scored
15 percentage points higher on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development
Inventories, which measures toddlers’ language development.
The study’s television viewing results were also good news, said Christakis,
whose previous research on watching TV in early childhood associated it with
language and cognitive delay as well as attention problems.
“I’m not anti-TV, I’m pro child development. Television can be a good thing if
used appropriately. But at this age, there really is no benefit,” said
Christakis, co-author of Elephant in the Living Room: From Toddlers to Teens,
What the Latest Science Tells us About the Effects of Television on Our
Children’s Development.
His position is consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics, which
recommends no television for children under the age of two. (The Canadian
Paediatrics Society does not make any recommendation related to age and
television.)
Mary Frances MacLellan-Wright said she doesn’t believe the marketing pitch by
companies such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby, which claim their DVDs can
stimulate cognitive development. And as a big fan of blocks for her three-year
old son, Alistair, she finds the new study’s results interesting.
But the Edmonton mother also introduced baby videos to her son when he was about
nine months old.
“It isn’t helpful for kids, but it gives mothers a 30-minute break,” said
MacLellan-Wright.
As a toddler, her son watched the occasional video -- slow moving and not
over-stimulating.
“It lets him just chill out. His day care is just so stimulating, he needs some
down time. It’s not going to change his life academically and it’s not going to
hurt him.”
With the completion of the language acquisition study, MEGA Brands plans to
commission a national study looking at block play, special reasoning and kids’
attention spans.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006
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