10/26/2009

in

Educational movies may actually be detrimental to its youngest viewers.

Lindsey Weedston

Walt Disney Co. has recently announced that refunds will be issued to anyone who bought "Baby Einstein" movies in the past five years after it was discovered that they actually impair language acquisition in very young children.  
  
A study done at Washington University found that infants from 8 to 16 months learned six to eight fewer words for every hour of "Baby Einstein" they watched, writes the [San Francisco Chronicle](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=50315).  
  
"These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos," said one of the lead researchers.  
  
Disney had already dropped any claim that the videos were educational, but in light of this evidence that they may actually impair intelligence, the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood threatened the company with a class-action lawsuit.  
  
Although Disney is offering the refund, General Manager of Baby Einstein Susan McLain wrote Monday that they are not admitting that their videos are ineffective. According to [Newsweek, McLain also believes that the noise made by the CCCF was just a "baseless publicity stunt."  
  
Customers can receive full compensation for up to four videos, reports](http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/10/26/baby-einstein-is-dead-long-live-baby-einstein.aspx)[Times Online](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6891273.ece). They can also be exchanged for other Baby Einstein merchandise, or a 25 percent discount coupon. No receipt is needed.