Media Review: Baby Einstein

Book #53

Book Image:

Bibliographic Citation: 
Baby Einstein. (2007) Baby Einstein: Discovering Shapes. United States: Walt Disney Video.

Age Group:
Baby to Toddler
 

Genre:
Fiction
 

Awards:
Here is a link to a full awards list: Baby Einstein Awards

Topics/Issues: 
 Early Development, Shapes

ELS promoted: 
Letter Knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary
 

Format: 
DVD

Author/Illustrator sites:
 http://www.babyeinstein.com/home/

Categorization Tags:
E Baby Einstein
 

Annotation: 
Baby Einstein introduces a variety of shapes paired with words and music.

Reactions/Observations:

Baby Einstein is a line of early development products by Disney. The line includes DVDs, music CDs, and board books. I evaluated part of their DVD collection. The DVD is primarily a slideshow of images based on a theme with classical music composed to appeal to the baby ear. The sample DVD I previewed was about shapes. An upbeat rhino hand puppet draws different shapes. Each drawing is followed by real life images of items that are the same shape. Dialogue is few and far between, but the imagery continues to change providing the child with a wide variety of shapes.

Parents often bring Baby Einstein to the desk inquiring about its usefulness. If used as intended, meaning the program was watched by both parent and child together, Baby Einstein has the potential to be a great learning tool. The program serves as an enjoyable way to share time together with music and visual stimuli. By allowing for the parent to name the images shared throughout the program and listening to the music, parents are able to promote vocabulary and phonological awareness.

By far, Baby Einstein was the least favorite of the media sources reviewed. Although the DVD boasts promotion of parent child interaction and exposure to the world around the child, there was little inspiration for interaction throughout the program. The lack of dialogue was disappointing. Children could benefit from labeling the collection of images, but the program misses this opportunity to build vocabulary too. It leaves the task of object identification and vocabulary building to the parent. Also, this series was the only early literacy source that required purchase. Unfortunately the program was not worth the money spent. Research (Arnold, 2007) further supports this observation by demonstrating that Baby Einstein is no better than its competitors. If used as intended, Baby Einstein still serves as a great resource.This series is ideal for 0-24 months. After 2 years, the content may be too simple to retain the child's interest.