Study: Real life trumps TV for toddlers

Toddlers learn better from real-time interactions with a person on video than they do from just watching a recorded video.

Those involved with the study postulated toddlers learn at an increased rate when they feel they can socially interact with the person on-screen, as was the case with the real time video.

This other article from the New York Times reports on the same study in more detail. From the NYT article:

Developmental psychologists say the Vanderbilt research offers an intriguing clue to a phenomenon called the “video deficit.” Toddlers who have no trouble understanding a task demonstrated in real life often stumble when the same task is shown onscreen. They need repeated viewings to figure it out….

Child-development experts say the deficit confirms the age-old wisdom that real-life interactions are best for babies. Parents can be assured, they say, that their presence trumps the tube….

…[P]sychologists stress that in-person connections with parents are by far a child’s best teacher. No word yet on whether that includes those moments when harried parents are so distracted that TV characters are more responsive than they are.