I

t has been seen as a way forward for many parents who are just too busy really to spend quality time with their children. A whole host of products has been launched on parents that have either been guilty of wishful thinking or have simply been duped; but now it seems the truth is coming out and it really is not all that surprising.

Disney is a world famous name that is readily associated with all things good for our children. Disney movies have been a part of children's life growing up for decades and the Disney Television Channel is filled with good and wholesome programming. Something has changed though.

Disney is offering a refund to people that have bought the Baby Einstein videos. In America this is seen as an almost inevitable step to avoid problems. The American Academy of Pediatrics maintains recommendations that children under the age of two years old do not watch television screens.

Also, the American Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood holds with a study that indicates that there is a link between exposure to television at an early age and later attention span problems. All of this added weight to the refund situation surrounding the Baby Einstein videos.

In short, we could describe the situation as one in which deceptive advertising was giving the impression that simply by sitting a child down in front of a television screen and pressing play on the video machine the child was, quite magically, going to become a genius. Of course, there has been no evidence to support the idea that this could really happen and would we really believe it if there was?

But, although we should be naturally skeptical about such a product idea, it is all too easy to believe in such an easy way forward. At the press of a button the "techno-teacher" would take care of it all but, of course, it simply is not that easy.

For one thing the lack of direct human interaction that videos and television screens leave has to be a problem. Small children need direct stimuli and there is just no better stimulants to thought and brain activity than interacting with another human being. A small child learns just by looking into another human being's face and so too entering into mimicry. Certainly a robotic kind of learning can happen from interface with a screen and some video recording but this is limited and limiting and a child really is not getting the right or sufficient stimulation from such a tool.

There perhaps is the key point: these educational videos are just one tool in a whole range of educational tools that we might use. However, depending on them to miraculously create geniuses out of watching children is neither very likely or really sensible and recent refund policies suggest an open recognition of this.

So there may be some negativity now around Baby Einstein videos but this should not necessarily make us entirely negative to these types of products and the ideas that motivated them in the first place.

Although any scientific proof may be sketchy at best, there is certainly general acceptance that music is a highly effective stimulant to our brains and this is particularly so for the growing and developing brain of a small child. So, the baby genius type products that include "soundtracks to help thinking" may still be seen as effective.

Indeed it is perfectly possible to see this in action. Many therapists working with children with learning difficulties and disorders do actively use music and sound therapy to help these children address their problems and the soothing and calming affects this can have are often immediately obvious.

Learning tools and educational devices are, then I believe, beneficial in some respects but we must have realistic expectations of them. Expecting a single device or tool such as a video to do all the hard work of stimulating and truly teaching a child is not a realistic expectation. Many very useful and stimulating programs can and have been produced but they have to be used as part of a "steady and balanced diet" for a child's development.

Take another well respected and indeed world famous television-based learning program as an example of the positive impact screens and programming can have: the Sesame Street television program is achieving the quite amazing landmark of 40 years of productions and literally millions upon millions of children have over those years had Sesame Street as part of their "developmental diet".

Again, though, realistic expectations have to be considered. I do not think that anyone has ever claimed that Sesame Street was going to make a child into a genius but instead it has consistently been acknowledged as a good and fun way of helping children learn their ABCs and start getting into some early mathematics. As such Sesame Street has worked.

So can we really make geniuses from using learning tools such as television programs and videos? I suspect the honest answer is no not really, but these things can help. But most importantly, we need to find time for our children. The television screen is not the answer.