David Dobbs
Science

TV and infants, the (overdue) review study

Someone finally did a review study on TV — including “educational DVDs” — and infants. Among results that should not surprise … Watching TV programmes or DVDs aimed at infants can actually delay language development, according to a number of studies. For example, a 2008 Thai study published in Acta Paediatrica found that if children […]

Someone finally did a review study on TV -- including "educational DVDs" -- and infants. Among results that should not surprise ...

Watching TV programmes or DVDs aimed at infants can actually delay language development, according to a number of studies. For example, a 2008 Thai study published in Acta Paediatrica found that if children under 12 months watched TV for more than two hours a day they were six times more likely to have delayed language skills. Another study found that children who watched baby DVDs between seven and 16 months knew fewer words than children who did not.

is at least one that shocks me, anyway:

29 per cent of parents who took part in a survey of 1,000 American families published in 2007 said they let their infants watch TV because they thought it was "good for their brains".

Where do they get these ideas? Successful marketing.
Along with the Scientific Blogging write-up, you can find more at the Telegraph and Canada.com. An earlier story examined a 2000-infant study that showed links between TV watching at 2 and ADHD at 7.