Behind the Music...
Mozart Not In Tune with How Babies Learn and Grow

–Everyday Play is Key to Cognitive Development; Child Development Experts Sing eebee Praises–

Parents take note. No scientific evidence exists that links the exposure of infants to Mozart with an increase in their IQ. In fact, the original 1993 study connecting listening to Mozart with an increase in spatial reasoning ability was based on a sampling of 79 college students—not babies. In 1999, the findings of that study were officially refuted in the two top scientific journals, Nature and Psychological Science.

“The notion that every infant needs to tune into classical music to have brain cells turned on is yet another myth about the way in which infants learn and grow,” says Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., author of the award-winning book Einstein Never Used Flash Cards and advisor to new infant learning property, eebee’s adventures™. “ All sorts of music as well as other types of early sensory experiences are important for an infant’s development.”

According to Hirsh-Pasek, myths such as the Mozart Effect are a result of a cultural climate in which parents are driven to give their child any competitive advantage. The effect of this atmosphere, according to Hirsh-Pasek, is that parents fill their child’s day with academics, most of which focus on memorization rather than natural play experiences through which the child will learn broad sets of conceptual, as well as life skills.

“Current research confirms that babies are born wired to learn. In fact, we have 30 years of research showing that children learn best through plain and simple play,” says Hirsh-Pasek. “Children are scientists. They need time to explore, and sometimes, that's even more important than getting the right answer. If we want to build a generation of creative problem-solvers, we must allow our children—from infancy on—to explore, experiment and play.”

It’s All About Play...

eebee's adventures ™ is based on the concept that it’s the everyday, teachable moments during play which build the foundation for future learning.

• “When children play, they’re in a particular state of mind. They are more relaxed. They are more focused. They let one act set the stage for the next act... We often hear experience is the best teacher, but it’s not, really. It’s reflection on experience that’s the best teacher and it’s these little ordinary moments. What you’re doing is, over time, you’re helping the child to see, ‘Oh, here it is again. You know…last time I did that, I had this problem, and now I remember’ and yada yada yada… So, I think that’s how they build over time and develop intelligence.”

George E. Forman, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor,
University of Massachusetts and CEO, Videatives, Inc.

• “Play is the work of babies. Babies need opportunities to explore their environment through play... If situations are set up in which kids are encouraged to play, that’s how they’re going to learn things. They are going to experiment, try things out. They are going to look at things in different ways, and we need to allow them time to explore and follow their lead, rather than say, ‘ok, now it’s 8 o’clock and it’s structured academic time.’”

Deborah Linebarger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

• “Children learn through play. Play equals learning... A six-month-old’s play is not what you’d expect. It’s sticking your hands into a sink and getting them wet and realizing that you can make a puddle somewhere else in the room. Six-month-old play is crawling on the couch and feeling what the texture of the couch is and the different kinds of fabric. Six-month-old play is finding an object under a towel. Six-month-old play is peek-a-boo.”

Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., Director of the Infant Language Laboratory,
Temple University

Behind the Moments…

Grounded in the latest infant research and early education practices, every aspect of eebee’s adventures™, from staging and props to parent interaction and the design of the puppet itself, is carefully attuned to the ways in which infants actually learn.

Among expert insight and review:

• “I think the features that distinguish eebee’s adventures, or set it apart from other kinds of media, are the attention to the curriculum that it has and making sure that the practices that both the play partner and eebee do are both evidenced-based practices, meaning, there’s research that says this is what babies do and there’s research that says when parents do this or when adults do this, these are the kinds of outcomes that you can have. So I think that when you take that sort of formative evidence-based approach to making something, it’s a much better product than sort of slapping some things together that are visually appealing.”
  
  “...Most people would say, well, that’s just an everyday thing. Well, in those everyday situations, where a child is doing what comes naturally, that’s when learning occurs .”

Deborah Linebarger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

• “These ordinary moments, and a lot of times we don’t recognize that the curriculum is embedded in these ordinary moments—pouring sand, tearing paper... As an educator, [eebee] had a lot of curb appeal, because I could almost recognize from a distance that this is going to do more than attract children to watch, but it’s going to get them to ponder and to wonder.”

George E. Forman, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor,
University of Massachusetts and CEO, Videatives, Inc.

• “eebee has this wonderful creative quality that babies really do have. eebee knows how to laugh, eebee knows how to explore, and, I would imagine that, when I put on the eyes of a child, that eebee would just make me smile... eebee shows us all how we can slow down the pace of our lives and recognize the magic and the miracles in what we have everyday around us... Kids love it. They’re engaged.”

Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., Director of the Infant Language Laboratory,
Temple University