The Battle of the Television...and Babies

I was reading this article that concludes that babies and TV don't mix. In fact, its research states that babies' development scores at 14 months are 1/3 less than others who don't watch. OK, let's all panic. Whatever.

Right in the middle of the article is this paragraph, which I'm cutting and pasting:
But what about "good" TV, like Sesame Street? The researchers didn't find any pluses or minuses when compared to non-educational programs designed for small children, like SpongeBob SquarePants. Earlier research by some of the same scientists, most of whom are at New York University School of Medicine-Bellevue Hospital Center, has found that parents whose children watch non-educational TV programs like Spongebob SquarePants spend less time reading to their children or teaching them.

I'm taking issue with this, because my first child watched Baby Signing Time DVDs from about 6 months on. He can hear, but we had seen the benefit of them with my first niece. Like her, he LOVED them. Honestly, we did too, except for the catchy songs constantly running in our heads. Our son had very few tantrums. I'm pretty sure it was because he could communicate with us. It was a beautiful thing.


His vocabulary when he started talking was amazing. He was using complete sentences. I'm not trying to gush about my child, but I really think the sign language helped develop his language skills. We'll use the dvds with our little girl, too.

I think the signing dvds are different, because they are designed to be interactive, not passive television. You can interact with your child as you watch. Anyway, my two cents coming from my own family research laboratory. :)