Nursery World - Baby IQ DVDs give 'no benefits', study finds

Watching DVDs aimed at boosting children's IQ has no proven benefits, suggests a new peer review study.

The study is published in the journal Acta Pedatricia this month. It looks at past research into the effects of DVD and television viewing on young children's language and cognitive development.

Its author, Professor Dimitri Christakis of the Seattle Children's Research Institute, warned, 'Parents should exercise due caution in exposing infants to excessive media.' He said too much TV viewing has a 'real potential for harm'.

Professor Christakis has spent 11 years researching the effects on children's development of watching TV programmes and infant DVDs such as 'Baby Einstein' and 'Brainy Baby'.

He hoped the study might raise parental and professional awareness of the relatively new phenomenon of IQ-boosting programmes, and said that manufacturers relied on parental testimonials rather than scientific evidence to sell infant DVDs, without any robust evidence to prove they are beneficial to an infant's brain.

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