MR46772

Student Number: **__46772__**

** Media Response 1 **


 * Step 1. **


 * Julie Aigner-Clark **

The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1996 by stay-at-home mom and former teacher Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in suburban [|Alpharetta, Georgia].

Karen Hill Scott has had a wide-ranging career in the field of child development, blending university teaching, research, consulting, and public service. She co-founded Crystal Stairs, one of California's largest non-profit child development agencies, is an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Public Affairs and the UCLA School of Management, and is President of her own consulting firm. Hill Scott's consulting practice has two divisions: children's media and institutional consulting. Hill Scott's academic career has focused on child development, public policy, program evaluation and family functioning. In the public policy arena, Hill Scott translates research into action. She chaired the California Master Plan for School Readiness (2002) and subsequently completed the widely praised Los Angeles Universal Preschool Master Plan (2004). Subsequent to these efforts she developed a web-based preschool portal, http://www.plan4preschool.org, that serves as a search engine, digital library, and wiki like interface for statewide planning in every county in California. In 2008, her firm completed both the Orange County and Fresno County Master Plan, two strategically located counties for preschool development in California. Fresno is promoting a PreK to 3rd grade approach to early education. In the children's media area, Hill Scott is a premier consultant to the television industry having provided content consulting on more than 1,000 episodes of produced children's television. Her projects have won several awards, including commendations from Action for Children's Television, the Humanitas Award, and Emmy awards. With other institutional consulting, Hill Scott has worked with corporations and organizations on innovations in early education and work-family balance. Dr. Karen Hill Scott received her M.A. and Ed.D. Degrees from UCLA, where she received Danforth and Chancellor's Fellowships and was named Outstanding Graduate Student for the School of Education. A resident of Los Angeles, she is married to T.V. Scott, an ophthalmologist, and has four children. She was also a State Commissioner for the California Children and Families Commission from 2000-2003, and received the Tom Bradley Alumnus of the Year from UCLA in 2007.
 * Karen Hill Scott, Ed. D.**

=1. The effects of infant media usage: what do we know and what should we learn? =
 * Step 2. **

Acta Paediatrica
[|Volume 98, Issue 1,] pages 8–16, January 2009 By: Dimitri A Christakis Abstract The rise of infant TV viewing began in the late 1990s and has become an increasingly common occurrence. Today, over 90% of children begin watching TV regularly before the age of 2 years in spite of recommendations to the contrary. This article reviews what is known about the effects of infant TV viewing on multiple domains of child development including language, cognition and attentional capacity as well as directions for future research. Conclusion: No studies to date have demonstrated benefits associated with early infant TV viewing. The preponderance of existing evidence suggests the potential for harm. Parents should exercise due caution in exposing infants to excessive media.
 * Step 3.**

1. I firmly agree with the article written by Dimitri A Christakis published in Acta Paediatrica in January 2009 not only because he is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) but his comments are supported by published studies recognized by the professional body.

2. The Baby Einstein Company claims to improve language and cognitive development in babies and toddlers because of the educational value of their products.

The company should not make general statements about the improvement in language development when in fact there was not any mention of a study conducted with relation to the use of their products.

3. a. The company’s claim is not supported by any study. b. Media producers market their products as having developmental benefits for young viewers. Despite the slim body of research on learning effects from infant-directed television and DVDs, teaching appears to be an implicit goal of many media producers. c. The following researchers published an article in Psychological Science (A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science) on November 2010 titled Do Babies Learn From Baby Media? [|+] Author Affiliations 1. 1University of Virginia2. 2Vanderbilt University
 * [|Judy S. DeLoache] [|,]  [|Cynthia Chiong] ,  [|Kathleen Sherman]  ,  [|Nadia Islam]  ,  [|Mieke Vanderborght]  ,  [|Georgene L. Troseth]  ,  [|Gabrielle A. Strouse]  and  [|Katherine O’Doherty]

Abstract
In recent years, parents in the United States and worldwide have purchased enormous numbers of videos and DVDs designed and marketed for infants, many assuming that their children would benefit from watching them. They examined how many new words 12- to 18-month-old children learned from viewing a popular DVD several times a week for 4 weeks at home. The most important result was that children who viewed the DVD did not learn any more words from their month long exposure to it than did a control group. The highest level of learning occurred in a no-video condition in which parents tried to teach their children the same target words during everyday activities. Another important result was that parents who liked the DVD tended to overestimate how much their children had learned from it. They concluded that infants learn relatively little from infant media and that their parents sometimes overestimate what they do learn. d. Knowing the product itself, the people who used the product before and its response/performance to them is important to make sure you get your money’s worth. e. Here are some information a consumer should know before buying a product: 1. If possible read some related articles or consumer reviews about the product. 2. Date of manufacture and expiry date. 3. Name and address of manufacturer. 4. Claims of the product. 5. Precautions, side-effects and limitations