Word Learning From Baby Videos

Abstract

To examine whether children between 12 and 25 months of age learn words from an infantdirected DVD designed for that purpose. Design: Half of the children received a DVD to watch in their home over the course of 6 weeks. Setting: All participants returned to a laboratory for testing on vocabulary acquisition every 2 weeks. Participants: Ninety-six 12-to 24-month-old children. Main Exposure: Baby videos. Main Outcome Measures: Parent report and observational measures of vocabulary acquisition related to words highlighted in the DVD; parent report of general language development; and parent report of children's media use. Results: The age at first viewing of baby DVDs was related to children's general language development. There was no evidence of learning words highlighted in the infantdirected DVD independent of parental intervention. Conclusions: Researchers should continue to examine whether infant-directed media are effective in teaching infants and toddlers content and consider the cognitive factors related to whether very young viewers should be expected to learn from a DVD.

A Review of the Literature on the Relationship of Music Education to the Development of Socio-Emotional Learning

“…In a study of children aged 12 to 25 months, N = 96, using substitution for busy parents with small children, music recordings made specifically for children were played for 6 weeks. The findings confirmed that active parental participation is crucial to fully realize the musical, communicational, and social benefits of musical experiences during early development (Richert et al, 2010).…”

Investigating the association between children’s screen media exposure and vocabulary size in the UK

“…With respect to screen media and language development, our findings support prior work and add to the converging evidence for no direct relationship between general television viewing and language development (Richert et al, 2010;Robb et al, 2009). However, it is important to note that we did not consider individual television program categories (e.g., educational vs. entertainment) which have shown both positive and negative effects, respectively, on language development in prior work (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2014;Vandewater, 2011;Zimmerman et al, 2007).…”

Exploring minority language input sources as means of supporting the early development of second language vocabulary and grammar

“…For example, Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff (2007) found that exposing young children to television was associated with adverse effects on cognitive development, although Ferguson and Donnellan (2014) found contrary effects from reanalyses of the same data set, while Chonchaiya and Pruksananonda (2008) concluded that children who started watching television younger than 12 months of age for more than 2 hr a day were approximately six times more likely to show language delays. Similar findings have been found in relation to infant-directed media such as the Baby Einstein series, which has been linked to lowering vocabulary scores (Richert, Robb, Fender, & Wartella, 2010). Consequently, the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that children limit television viewing to 2 hr per day, and that children under the age of 2 should not watch television at all, although Ruangdaraganon et al (2009) report no association between time spent viewing television and delayed language development.…”