Walking through stores you will see all kinds of products targeted towards helping your child grow and learn. From the more traditional wooden blocks to DVD’s and CD’s that make a promise to have your baby talking, signing and possibly even reading.
Knowing what works and what doesn’t can be hard. We all want to help our children grow and progress in life. The question we have as parents and caregivers is, what really works and which products are just trying to grab our money.
Interactive dvd’s and cd’s For Babies
Many recent studies have been done on educational dvd’s and cd’s with some interesting results. Several of these studies showed that this form of educational media gave no benefit to a child’s language skills. A few of these studies actually found that they can effect your child’s development in a negative way.
It was shown that for every hour a baby or toddler was sitting in front of the screen watching, that they learned on average around six words less than children not watching the programs.
Interactive Video Games
You really can’t walk anywhere anymore without seeing phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices. This includes all the interactive systems that are geared towards children.
You can find plenty of information out there that will tell you these portable systems really do help. With games that assist with learning colors to how to read there is a wide variety. However is your child sitting in front of a screen any better than them touching and interacting with the real world around them.
There is still quite a bit of research to be done to find out if these systems help our children or if the people that make them are just playing on the fear that our children will be left behind.
Take into consideration that the methods that worked for decades still work today. Giving a child a toy that lets them use their imagination and learn from trying things out, is still a great way for them to learn. Toys like wooden blocks, duplo, puppets and other staples provide your child with a starting block that can let their imagination and hands on learning skills take off.
Baby Sign Language
A newer product to the learning market are baby sign language dvd’s and cd’s. The aim of the product is teaching your child sigh language so they can communicate with you without having to know how to talk.
Recent studies by the Universities of Ottawa and Waterloo in Ontario, Canada showed that baby signing had no significant impact on a child’s language development. Very few children who used baby signing had advanced language skills and those who did lost the advantage by age two.
From these studies we can learn that our children will still learn best from watching and listening to us on a day to day basis. Talking to our children, letting them listen and encouraging them to talk back to us about every day things is still the best way for your child to learn.
Keep in mind each child is different and it is possible that some of these interactive learning experience can compliment traditional learning skills. However as the studies show, children that don’t have access to the learning devices will not be left behind. As parents and caretakers we can let go of the pressure to spend our money buying these products and have fun interacting with our children.
Walking through stores you will see all kinds of products targeted towards helping your child grow and learn. From the more traditional wooden blocks to DVD’s and CD’s that make a promise to have your baby talking, signing and possibly even reading.
Knowing what works and what doesn’t can be hard. We all want to help our children grow and progress in life. The question we have as parents and caregivers is, what really works and which products are just trying to grab our money.
Interactive dvd’s and cd’s For Babies
Many recent studies have been done on educational dvd’s and cd’s with some interesting results. Several of these studies showed that this form of educational media gave no benefit to a child’s language skills. A few of these studies actually found that they can effect your child’s development in a negative way.
It was shown that for every hour a baby or toddler was sitting in front of the screen watching, that they learned on average around six words less than children not watching the programs.
Interactive Video Games
You really can’t walk anywhere anymore without seeing phones, tablets, laptops and other portable devices. This includes all the interactive systems that are geared towards children.
You can find plenty of information out there that will tell you these portable systems really do help. With games that assist with learning colors to how to read there is a wide variety. However is your child sitting in front of a screen any better than them touching and interacting with the real world around them.
There is still quite a bit of research to be done to find out if these systems help our children or if the people that make them are just playing on the fear that our children will be left behind.
Take into consideration that the methods that worked for decades still work today. Giving a child a toy that lets them use their imagination and learn from trying things out, is still a great way for them to learn. Toys like wooden blocks, duplo, puppets and other staples provide your child with a starting block that can let their imagination and hands on learning skills take off.
Baby Sign Language
A newer product to the learning market are baby sign language dvd’s and cd’s. The aim of the product is teaching your child sigh language so they can communicate with you without having to know how to talk.
Recent studies by the Universities of Ottawa and Waterloo in Ontario, Canada showed that baby signing had no significant impact on a child’s language development. Very few children who used baby signing had advanced language skills and those who did lost the advantage by age two.
From these studies we can learn that our children will still learn best from watching and listening to us on a day to day basis. Talking to our children, letting them listen and encouraging them to talk back to us about every day things is still the best way for your child to learn.
Keep in mind each child is different and it is possible that some of these interactive learning experience can compliment traditional learning skills. However as the studies show, children that don’t have access to the learning devices will not be left behind. As parents and caretakers we can let go of the pressure to spend our money buying these products and have fun interacting with our children.
Thomas Learning Centers provides NECPA accredited preschool and childcare at the most affordable rates in the Denver Metro Area. Check us out at http://www.thomaslearningcenters.com , click on the offers below, drop in for a visit to get to know more about us. We’d love to meet you!
Call 877-938-1442 for general info
Lakewood 303-237-0917 or Westminster 303-427-883
It is hard being a parent, you want to give your children your time and attention but you also have things that you need to get done. Televisions and computers can seem like a good way to keep kids busy while you get these things done, but is excess screen time doing more harm then good and will not help them with their preschool readiness skills.
Thomas Learning Centers- Tips for Parents 
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