Listen to baby lullabies or watch a baby video which is better for your child?

A University of Washington study suggests that baby videos may hinder infants’ language development. The university survey, published in the Journal of Pediatrics, found that watching an hour of baby videos a day was associated with a 17-point decrease on a language assessment test in children 8 to 16 months old. This means that those children knew about six to eight fewer words out of a list of 90 than other children that age.

The mother who launched the Baby Einstein child video empire said they were never designed to make children smarter, but make them happier by exposing them to beautiful things like art, music and poetry. The company was named after Albert Einstein because he embodied a love of the arts, simple curiosity, and a passion for discovery!

A recent university press release said parents who want to help their baby’s language development should probably limit the amount of time spent watching “Baby Einstein” and other baby videos.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no television for children under 24 months.

On the other hand numerous studies have shown that hearing complex sound patterns helps develop the brains of babies, and music helps improve children’s ability to reason abstractly, by strengthening the neural firing patterns of the brain.

The term “Mozart Effect” was first used in 1991 by French researcher Dr. Alfred A. Tomatisin. In 1993 a study showed that students who listened to 20 minutes of Mozart before a test performed better than those who listened to other music or sat in silence. Claims have since been made that, pregnant women who listen to classical music will make their babies smarter. However there is no direct evidence to support this.

But it has been shown that one-year-old babies can remember music they were exposed to up to three months before they were born. Dr. Alexandra Lamont of Leicester University in England said this provides new evidence about the influence of nurture in early child development.

If a mother, pregnant or not, listens to classical or any other relaxing music she is more likely to be relaxed. And, if the mother is relaxed then her baby will probably be relaxed, and a relaxed baby is a happy, calm and healthy baby.

You should be aware however that the visual sense takes over very quickly, and children who have been exposed to too much visual stimulation fail to develop a sense of imagination. Exposing your baby to a wide range of baby lullabies and other music will soothe them while complementing and enhancing their neurological development.

Most studies say the same thing, if you want to provide the best environment for your baby, keep videos and other electronic visual stimulation to a minimum, and expose them instead to a wide range of music. Not just baby lullabies but classical, jazz and music from different countries and cultures as well.