Baby Einstein videos make babies smarter
| Baby Einstein videos make babies smarter | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Baby Einstein DVDs and similar videos boost infants' brain development and make them smarter." | |
| Domain | Education & Learning |
| Tactic | Pseudoscience / Junk Science |
| Era | Historical |
| First seen | 1997 |
| Origin | Marketing of the Baby Einstein series, founded in 1997 and bought by Disney in 2001 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-30 |
| Further reading: books on Education & Learning | |
The Baby Einstein videos, which showed infants toys, music and shapes, sold millions of copies with names suggesting genius-building, such as "Baby Mozart" and "Baby Shakespeare." Many parents believed screen time could give babies an educational head start.
Research found no such benefit, and Disney offered refunds.
What the evidence shows
- Vocabulary study. A 2007 study by Frederick Zimmerman, Dimitri Christakis and Andrew Meltzoff in The Journal of Pediatrics found that infants aged 8 to 16 months who watched baby videos knew fewer words on average than those who did not. The company disputed the study.
- Refunds. In 2009, after pressure from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Disney offered refunds to parents who had bought the DVDs over the previous five years.
- Pediatric advice. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises avoiding screen media for children under 18 to 24 months, except video chatting, and stresses that young children learn best from interaction with people.
Why it matters
Products that promise to make babies smarter appeal to parents' hopes. The evidence points to talking, reading and playing with young children instead.
Sources
- Frederick J. Zimmerman, Dimitri A. Christakis and Andrew N. Meltzoff, "Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years," The Journal of Pediatrics, 2007.
- The New York Times, "No Einstein in Your Crib? Get a Refund," October 23, 2009.
- American Academy of Pediatrics, "Media and Young Minds," Pediatrics, 2016.