Neuroscience
Last Tuesday's Times reports on a study by Vanderbilt University researchers suggesting that interactive television can actually be good for children's development. Earlier research showed that 3-5 year olds who watched Blues Clues "score better on tests of problem solving than those who haven’t watched the show."
What about younger children? It turns out that live interaction between babies and an adult is best for babies' learning, and only a few babies learn from traditional or "Television 1.0"-type interactions. However, the Vanderbilt research "... showed that 24-month-olds are more apt to use information relayed by video if they consider the person on the screen to be someone they can talk to." TV 2.0 anyone?
September 5, 2006
Health / Mental Health & Behavior: When Toddlers Turn on the TV and Actually Learn
NYT
By LISA GUERNSEY
Should babies and toddlers be exposed to television at all? Is there any chance that they could actually learn from the screen?
original research
Young Children's Use of Video as a Source of Socially Relevant Information
Georgene L. Troseth, Megan M. Saylor, and Allison H. Archer
Child Development
Volume 77, Number 3. Page 786 - May/June 2006
- 10 Surprising Things Babies Can Do
Human infants are helpless. At first they can't even support the weight of their own heads. Crawling and walking take months to master. Compare this with the sprightly newborns of other mammals, such as kittens and foals, up and about within an hour...
- Why Babies Probably Don't Like Dubbed Movies Either
If I presented you with a silent video of someone speaking – do you think that you'd be able to tell if they switched from English to French? Remarkably, between the ages of four and six months, babies can tell. However, it's a skill they lose...
- One-year-old Babies Predict Other People’s Intentions
Babies as young as 12 months already have a rudimentary understanding of other people’s intentions. That’s according to Terje Falck-Ytter and colleagues who observed babies’ eye movements as they watched a video presentation of a person picking...
- People Are Better Teachers Than Teletubbies
In this bit of startling news, Toddlers learn their first words better from people than from Teletubbies.But the initial comparison (discussed in the press release) wasn't between live Teletubbies and live people, or between televised Teletubbies...
- Cognition In Babies
Newsweek's cover story for Aug 15 is all about "Your Baby's Brain". Reads like a literature review lite on cognition in babies -- fascinating, and simple enough for non-scientists to understand. That's the way I like my cognitive science!...
Neuroscience
TV 2.0 for babies?!
Last Tuesday's Times reports on a study by Vanderbilt University researchers suggesting that interactive television can actually be good for children's development. Earlier research showed that 3-5 year olds who watched Blues Clues "score better on tests of problem solving than those who haven’t watched the show."
What about younger children? It turns out that live interaction between babies and an adult is best for babies' learning, and only a few babies learn from traditional or "Television 1.0"-type interactions. However, the Vanderbilt research "... showed that 24-month-olds are more apt to use information relayed by video if they consider the person on the screen to be someone they can talk to." TV 2.0 anyone?
September 5, 2006
Health / Mental Health & Behavior: When Toddlers Turn on the TV and Actually Learn
NYT
By LISA GUERNSEY
Should babies and toddlers be exposed to television at all? Is there any chance that they could actually learn from the screen?
original research
Young Children's Use of Video as a Source of Socially Relevant Information
Georgene L. Troseth, Megan M. Saylor, and Allison H. Archer
Child Development
Volume 77, Number 3. Page 786 - May/June 2006
- 10 Surprising Things Babies Can Do
Human infants are helpless. At first they can't even support the weight of their own heads. Crawling and walking take months to master. Compare this with the sprightly newborns of other mammals, such as kittens and foals, up and about within an hour...
- Why Babies Probably Don't Like Dubbed Movies Either
If I presented you with a silent video of someone speaking – do you think that you'd be able to tell if they switched from English to French? Remarkably, between the ages of four and six months, babies can tell. However, it's a skill they lose...
- One-year-old Babies Predict Other People’s Intentions
Babies as young as 12 months already have a rudimentary understanding of other people’s intentions. That’s according to Terje Falck-Ytter and colleagues who observed babies’ eye movements as they watched a video presentation of a person picking...
- People Are Better Teachers Than Teletubbies
In this bit of startling news, Toddlers learn their first words better from people than from Teletubbies.But the initial comparison (discussed in the press release) wasn't between live Teletubbies and live people, or between televised Teletubbies...
- Cognition In Babies
Newsweek's cover story for Aug 15 is all about "Your Baby's Brain". Reads like a literature review lite on cognition in babies -- fascinating, and simple enough for non-scientists to understand. That's the way I like my cognitive science!...