Baby Einstein

Baby Einstein is a line of multimedia products and toys that specializes in interactive activities for children aged 3 months to 3 years old. Subjects such as classical music, art, and poetry are prominently explored. These products are currently made by a division of the Walt Disney Company, marketed under the slogan, "Where Discovery Begins".

While popular with many parents who desire to provide an early boost to their children's cognitive development, products of this sort find little support among experts in the field of early childhood education, who emphasize the crucial role of "hands-on", experiential learning through exploration and manipulation of the child's physical environment.

In August 2007, researchers at the University of Washington published a study which found that the use of Baby Einstein DVDs/videos correlates to smaller vocabularies in children 6 to 18 months old. The Baby Einstein Company and its parent, the Walt Disney Company, have taken issue with the findings of the study. (see below)

Contents

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* 1 History

* 2 Complaint to FTC

* 3 Controversy over effects on language development

* 4 References

* 5 External links

[edit] History

The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1997 by Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in suburban Denver, Colorado. Aigner-Clark and her husband, Bill Clark, invested $18,000 of their savings to produce the initial product, a VHS/DVD video called Baby Einstein, later sold as Language Nursery.

The original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music, stories, numbers, and words of many languages. This first video was popular with some parents, and Aigner-Clark eventually convinced a national retailer to test-market the video in six of its stores.[citation needed] Eventually, the video was marketed across the United States. Other videos followed, some featuring the Clarks' two daughters, Aspen and Sierra.

Baby Einstein became a multi-million dollar franchise; its revenue grew from $1 million in 1998[1] to around $10 million in 2000.[2] Aigner-Clark sold a 20% stake in the company to Artisan Entertainment in February 2000 and sold the rest to The Walt Disney Company for an undisclosed amount in November 2001.[3] The franchise is named after and pays significant royalties to the estate of deceased physicist Albert Einstein,