Baby Geniuses
Does Baby Einstein really make kids smarter?
by Adrienne Martini
June 11, 2007
Some moms still aren't sold, however.
"I have tended in my life to be an overachiever, but over the last few years I have been trying to take a more Zen-like approach," says Karen Heidrick vanWisse, whose daughter is ten months old. "I want my child to enjoy her childhood and not be stressed about accomplishing this or that milestone. I firmly believe that children birth to three years do not need more flashcards, they need more love and security and attention. I sometimes sound Pollyannaish, but I really do think love is the answer, even to questions of intelligence — it is the foundation of everything — when we feel secure, we think better and learn better."
Russo agrees. "If we're saying that this product can increase your IQ by this many points, it's outcome-oriented," she says. "I directed a preschool and I had parents come in and say, 'I send them here to learn, not to play. My daughter says this is a house and it doesn't look like a house. You need to teach her how to draw a house.' And I'd say, 'If she says it's a house, it's a house.'"
Essentially, Baby Einstein, BabyPlus and the LENA system are building their bottom line by preying on A parent who is engaged enough to buy a smarter baby product is probably already giving their child the attention he or she needs. parents' well-intentioned desire to do all that they can to ensure their kid's future success. But no matter what we do to improve the odds — including everything from genetic modification to classical music CDs — the reality is that it is almost entirely out of our control. Which isn't to say that you should completely ignore your baby — but a parent who is engaged enough to buy a smarter baby product is probably already giving their child the attention he or she needs.
Thirty seconds of conversation with my eloquent now-five-year-old daughter proves that neither the Baby Einstein videos nor her repeated viewings of The Little Mermaid and Shrek have done her intellect any harm. The houses she draws look still nothing like houses, but I don't care, so long as the stick figures inside them are smiling.
©2007 Adrienne Martini and Nerve Media
About the Author
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Adrienne Martini has written for the Austin Chronicle and Cooking Light. A former editor for Knoxville, Tennessee's Metro Pulse, her first book is Hillbilly Gothic: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood. She chronicles her adventures at www.martinimade.com. |
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