Triumph? Certainly this is a case in point that if you amass enough people, change can occur in our society. But what did we really accomplish in this situation? Did we stop another greedy corporation from earning another buck… probably. Are we going to make any kids in the world smarter by trying to stop parents from purchasing of these DVD’s… that’s a big maybe in my mind. Dr. Bonior boldly states the concluding phrase, “despite research that showed they (Baby DVD’s) did more harm than good”. One of the most drawn upon studies on the subject matter was a telephone survey done by the University of Washington, which when you read their own conclusions they state, “Conclusions: Further research is required to determine the reasons for an association between early viewing of baby DVDs/videos and poor language development”. (http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2007/0817/20070817_071817_Zimmermanetal__Associations_JPed07.pdf)

Usually, I have to point out how when Dr. Bonior paraphrases a report/article she really is voicing her expert personal opinion as opposed to reporting the actual content. This is a unique occasion where she accurately reports what others have stated, but clearly Dr. Bonior (among others) has failed to remember the first thing you learn in a statistics class, which is statistics show correlation not causation (ironic and disappointing since Dr. Bonior has actually mentioned that in her column before). Admittedly, I have only casually read over the study, but the report offers up three explanations as to why there is a correlation. I was not surprised in the least to read that two of the three explanations offered up by the University had to do with the parents and only one explanation actually targeted the content of the DVD’s in question. Am I the only one that thinks the real problem here is the involvement of parents and not necessarily the DVD itself? Although I do agree with Dr. Bonior when she so eloquently wrote “it doesn’t mean they (families) deserve to be duped into thinking that they're benefiting their child by plopping them in front of the TV”, I feel sorry for any kid whose parents think that using t.v. in lieu of any amount of parent interaction is a good idea.