Not sure where, if anywhere, i’m going to send this. I’m looking for some feedback and ideas of where else to take the article.
If ever at your apex of boredom, browse the various baby shower gift registries by way of websites like amazon. Sure enough, somewhere within the pacifiers and diaper requests you will find a petition for some from of a “make my child a genius” toy. Companies like Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby, LeapStart, Learn Baby and others have consumers sapped into believing that their child can deviate from their average IQ simply by way of listening to Johann Sebastian Bach during their sleep. Parents who otherwise spend their entire lives consumed with tabloids and reality TV are somehow convinced they need only fill their child’s room with vast amounts of toys which count to 10 (in two languages) in order to set their child’s inner, creative, genius mind a-soar. I cringe every time i see a “your baby can read” commercial. Who cares if your child can read by two, if they never read again past 22!
At best, such educational media is probably ineffective, yet, at worse, it may even be harmful. Educational media “gives parents a false sense of reassurance that their children are learning, says Michael Brody–chairman of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s committee on TV and media–yet, “There has been no good scientific evidence of the value of smart baby products.” Thus, it’s not that such educational videos and toys are harmful, it’s that parents are choosing to substitute these videos for interaction.
Can we imagine if other primates attempted to teach their young by way of ‘Baby Smart-Monkey’ videos? Such younglings would surely be in a lacking state, but this is exactly what some parents are doing. These do-gooders are laboring under the misapprehension that learning is learning, or simply, that as long as numbers and letters are radiating from toys and T.V., they are parenting. Such a reality is ridiculous! Is it even worth mentioning that your child needs you. It needs interaction, to play, to mimic, to be engaged.
According to Stanley Greenspan, MD, author of Building Healthy Minds and a clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School in Washington, D.C, newborns to preschoolers need the following kinds of interaction with a caregiver to enhance their intellectual and emotional growth:
- Taking part in activities that exercise multiple senses at once. An example would be a newborn baby following mommy’s face and finding her voice.
- Engaging in activities that build intimacy and trust. Infants experience this when they play with their mommies and daddies.
- Establishing two-way communication. This could happen in the following scenarios: The baby smiles, and daddy smiles back; the baby vocalizes a sound, and mommy vocalizes something back; the baby reaches for something on mommy’s head, mommy smiles, takes it back, and puts it back on her head, and then baby reaches again.
- Acting as a joint problem solver or scientist with a caregiver. For instance, a toddler could take a parent or day care worker by the hand, asking to help search for a new toy. The little one sees a toy up on the shelf, asks to bring it down, and the caregiver picks him up to help him get the object.
- Creating imaginary worlds, especially at 18 months to 2 years old. This is a chance for kids to develop their creativity. In order to do this, they need to be able to play “pretend,” such as going on trips or out to dinner with a parent. Toys such as dolls, trucks, houses, action figures, and houses do well in promoting make-believe environments.
- Participating in activities that help promote logical and reality-based thinking. A child, for example, asks to go outside. The caregiver asks why, and the child responds with something like, “Because I want to play.”
Yet, sidestepping the issue of the child needs. What possesses parents to believe that Einstein toys will make their child an Einstein? An exaggeration you say? Than I ask you to find me a parent whose flustered with their childs learning progress. I dare say there isn’t one. All toddlers are geniuses I suppose!
If reading is far removed from you and your spouse’s life, you may almost bet that your child will probably find reading taxing! If you want your child to love reading, than start reading! Prove it! read children books to your child, read your books aloud to your child. Spending an hour watching some doltish program while your child with your child and explain why your laughing!
In fact, if you want to see a true baby Einstein, read Einstein’s writings on ethics and politics. There you will uncover a babies intellect!
Even more comical, many parents won’t be outdone by competing parents. They go beyond buying boxes of toys that count to 10 and insist on consuming vast’s amount of their child’s time per day waxing the ABC’s and 123’s. The insanity!
Our entire structure of educational production is warped into a competing memory game. Students of public school history spend hours parroting the names of states and capitals. Students of public school math must pretend that calculating devices don’t exist. Science class is it’s a race to see whose trivia can steal Ben Stein’s money.