You'll probably get smarter answers than mine, but as a parent of two kids under two, I get bombarded with this crap on a regular basis. I feel that it's bunk, but if someone else has some better research I'll be glad to stock up on some Mozart. Here's one thing I found with a quick search:
Don't you just feel cultured when you tune in to a classical music station and take in an opera or a symphony by a great composer like Mozart? Baby Einstein, a company that makes DVDs, videos and other products for babies and toddlers incorporating classical art, music, and poetry, is a million-dollar franchise. Parents buy the products because they believe that exposure to great art (like Baby Mozart DVDs and CDs) can be good for their children's cognitive development. There are even classical music CDs designed to be played to developing fetuses. The idea that listening to classical music can increase your brainpower has become so popular that it's been dubbed "the Mozart effect." So how did this myth start?
Can listening to music by this famed composer make you smarter? In the 1950s, an ear, nose and throat doctor named Albert Tomatis began the trend, claiming success using Mozart's music to help people with speech and auditory disorders. In the 1990s, 36 students in a study at the University of California at Irvine listened to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata before taking an IQ test. According to Dr. Gordon Shaw, the psychologist in charge of the study, the students' IQ scores went up by about 8 points. The "Mozart effect" was born.
A musician named Dan Campbell trademarked the phrase and created a line of books and CDs based on the concept, and states such as Georgia, Florida and Tennessee set aside money for classical music for babies and other young children. Campbell and others have gone on to assert that listening to Mozart can even improve your health.
However, the original University of California at Irvine study has been controversial in the scientific community. Dr. Frances Rauscher, a researcher involved in the study, stated that they never claimed it actually made anyone smarter; it just increased performance on certain spatial-temporal tasks. Other scientists have been unable to replicate the original results, and there is currently no scientific information to prove that listening to Mozart, or any other classical music, actually makes anyone smarter. Rauscher even said that the money spent by those states might be better spent on musical programs -- there's some evidence to show that learning an instrument improves concentration, self-confidence and coordination.
Mozart certainly can't hurt you, and you might even enjoy it if you give it a try, but you won't get any smarter.
Bottom line--if a parent wants to do "some scientific ****" on their child's brain, it's better to read to them and share some TV and computer time with them. And, if they want all the bases covered, they can do that while listening to Mozart!
Bottom line--if a parent wants to do "some scientific ****" on their child's brain, it's better to read to them and share some TV and computer time with them. And, if they want all the bases covered, they can do that while listening to Mozart!
That's kinda the impression I got from it. You're not doing the kid any favors by setting him down somewhere and blasting him with symphonies while you go and do other things. Same thing with the 'Baby Einstein' video crap.
Actually spending time with them, helping them through the learning process while fostering good communication and interpersonal relationship skills?
Now, that's something different, isn't it?
I do have to confess...edutainment software did absolute wonders for my vocabulary, geography, and general knowledge skills. However, I was already 8 or 9 before I started though. There's simply no substitute for human interaction during the pivotal stage of infant development. (and this from someone who doesn't have kids - but knows a bad parent when he sees one.)
I like Baby Einstein...you won't necessarily get smarter because it's Mozart, but complex sounds, colors, and other stimulation is important for early development.
So the fact that it's Mozart isn't important...it could be Slayer and have the same positive effect. In fact, I prefer Slayer (throws up the horns).
Personal anecdote: I was born before the Baby Einstein/Mozart series became popular. However, when I was four, I used to love playing Windows Solitare on my parent's computer because of the ending animation when you won, where the cards would bounce all over the screen. I'm still a techie to this day.
If those babies grow up to be classical music fans and don't have the sense to hide it, then they will probably be outcasts in high school, and because of that they may end up smarter. It would be easier to just dress them funny though.
My mother was a professional singer. Mozart's music was a large part of her repertoire. She sang, including doing public performances, while I was "on the way". She also had the radio playing on the classical music station virtually all day.
Another personal anecdote: I had a girlfriend who liked to , harumph, you-know-what to the strains of Ravel's Bolero. No babies resulted from this practice; would Mozart (Horn Concerti?) have made a difference?
Another personal anecdote: I had a girlfriend who liked to , harumph, you-know-what to the strains of Ravel's Bolero. No babies resulted from this practice; would Mozart (Horn Concerti?) have made a difference?
I like Baby Einstein...you won't necessarily get smarter because it's Mozart, but complex sounds, colors, and other stimulation is important for early development.
I always wonder...how did Einstein get so smart without baby Einstein? That stuff overstimulates, and judging by studies done with TVs (that big box with complex sounds and colors) can actually be harmful to the child's development in the first two years. My wife and I limit our kids a bit, they have a few of those types of toys, and we keep the video game/tv/pc/etc. watching to about an hour a day.
There is, however, this strange thing I've heard the provides a good bit of stimulation from complex sounds, colors, and other stuff, doesn't cost a cent, and it's been shown to be beneficial in many ways. It's called "outdoors"
There have been some pretty interesting studies done on young children and music. "Mozart makes you smart" may be a myth, or at the very least a gross oversimplification, but there's a lot going on in developing brains when kids listen to (or make) music. Any music, not just classical. Classical's not the only kind of music that has complexity and texture.
Music can be used to teach, too. Rhythm can help to coordinate gross and fine motor sequences, the combination of rhythm and melody with lyrics can reinforce language structures and phonological awareness ... and who hasn't used songs as mnemonic devices? I still hum ABC to myself whenever I have to alphabetize something.
I like Baby Einstein...you won't necessarily get smarter because it's Mozart, but complex sounds, colors, and other stimulation is important for early development.
Physically manipulating objects that are colourful and textured and make interesting noises is better, though. Active participation is better than passive observation. Integrating tactile-kinesthetic modalities is better than limiting the sensory involvement to visual and auditory. And that's without considering the importance of social interactive learning.
Baby Einstein videos are quite possibly better than other things baby might watch on the TV, but I've also heard of studies that found educational DVDs to do more harm than good, supposedly because they took time away from physical and social play. If you need to put the baby in front of the TV while you make dinner or grab a half-hour of me time, a Baby Einstein video will do the job. Kids seem to love them, at any rate.
My mom went through a classical phase when I was about six or seven. She played a lot of classical music, her theory being "it's time you sorry bunch of (rule10)s got some culture." Didn't help. I'm still a heathen.
IMO the most important thing is to spend time with your children. Read to them, take walks, play one on one with them and don't use the TV and video games as a babysitter.
Baby Einstein videos are quite possibly better than other things baby might watch on the TV, but I've also heard of studies that found educational DVDs to do more harm than good, supposedly because they took time away from physical and social play. If you need to put the baby in front of the TV while you make dinner or grab a half-hour of me time, a Baby Einstein video will do the job. Kids seem to love them, at any rate.
It's all in how you use them. Both of my sons loved the Baby Signs series of DVDs teaching sign language, especially the older one. When he would watch them, he would practice the signs along with the DVD. He was more interested in watching the DVD than working with us. You can see the results below from when he was 15 months old (to be fair, we also did the signs with him outside of the DVDs)
I'm a weekend-warrior musician. My older son loves music and watched lots of concert footage when he was very young. He likes to see people perform - he's not interested in MTV-style music videos. He still gets into it, but his brother is less interested. They both get into the Brainy Baby Music DVD and loved the Barney episode about music. He can name a wide variety of instruments by sight and several by sound alone.
In fact, I stretched a rubber band and plucked it. He said, "That's like a banjo!" Speaking of which, did you hear about the guy who left his banjo in the back of his unlocked car? When he returned there were three more banjos there.
Zane, my older boy (little over 3), picks his own CDs to play. He can tell you if the music is Jazz, rock and roll, classical or kids music, even if it is music he has never heard before. While we never officially told him what a march is, whenever he hears any type of march, he marches (my wife taught him that using a little Hungarian diddy). It's amazing to me how his little brain can do that.
The Baby Genuis series has a bunch of sing-along stuff for kids. Both of our kids love them and do the various body movements (think "Wheels on the Bus"). Zane has a pragmatic speech delay. When he was younger he was more willing to try to sing than to try to talk (despite excelling at sign language). We used to sing Happy Birthday at dinner every night because it encouraged him to speak (he's not much of a singer, though).
The Monkey Doos have an exercise DVD. Both kids love doing the exercises with the woman hosting it (she's great). I'm not about to hop around like I'm on a pogo stick, but the woman and kids on the DVD do it, so little Zane and Tibor get into it. Sometimes we go through the exercises without the DVD.
If we had just plopped the kids in front of any of these DVDs without first sitting with them and teaching them that the DVDs were trying to teach them something, it would have been a waste of time. After the first couple of Baby Signs DVDs, both kids knew that the DVDs were teaching them new signs, so they didn't need us. When they saw the Barney episode on music for the first time, they already knew that Barney was teaching them about music. BTW, I hate Barney, so we've only seen a couple of episodes.
Like with any tool, it's all in what you do with it. Educational DVDs offer a richer teaching environment compared to brain candy stuff like Pingu or Pooh.
I always wonder...how did Einstein get so smart without baby Einstein? That stuff overstimulates, and judging by studies done with TVs (that big box with complex sounds and colors) can actually be harmful to the child's development in the first two years. My wife and I limit our kids a bit, they have a few of those types of toys, and we keep the video game/tv/pc/etc. watching to about an hour a day.
There is, however, this strange thing I've heard the provides a good bit of stimulation from complex sounds, colors, and other stuff, doesn't cost a cent, and it's been shown to be beneficial in many ways. It's called "outdoors"
Is that your boy in your avatar? Playing the timbale?
I agree 100% about the outdoors (although it can actually be indoors here more often than not). Marcello and I have a Saturday date. When he gets up ('cuz I'm like old and stuff and wake up about 6) and sees that I'm not in my monkey suit to go to the office, he begins to get antsy, 'cuz he knows we're going for our cappuccino. (Shhhh! He thinks it's cappuccino - he actually gets to eat the bagel and sip some water, but he likes to think he's a suave sophisticated man about town.)
He loves going out and the little eyes are zooming all over the place absorbing everything, laughing and babbling the whole time.
Someone sent us a Baby Einstein DVD with the comment that it was her son's favorite at Marcello's age. I sent her back a PM. "Marcello's favorite, too. Thank you so much." Yeah, it's his favorite square object (the case) to pull out of his toybox and bash on the floor or table to make noise.
Baby Einstein is cool - within limits. Then again so are a lot of the segments of Baby First TV.* But that's it - we don't let me watch stuff all day and aren't buying any baby-sitting DVDs like the Teletubbies' crap.
*If anyone was to be able to find me an actual stuffed animal of Harry the Bunny, Marcello will love you forever. He loves him some Harry the Bunny.
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