So-called educational toy companies are riding this wave… with a clear objective: to accelerate learning of colors, shapes and animal names. The advent of electronics has opened up a whole new world of possibilities: toys are now often enhanced with multicolored lights and bright sounds to capture children’s attention. Toys are a new educational tool, preparing toddlers for school. When upper-class families give toys to their children, they are demonstrating their intention to create an environment conducive to stimulating intellectual learning, » explains Sandrine Vincent, sociologist and author of Le jouet et ses usages sociaux (1). We can see that three times as many children from higher social classes receive educational toys as those from lower social classes: 42.1% versus 14.6%. « A lucrative marketing trend. « Marketing doesn’t just take advantage of a pre-existing wave: it creates it. A kind of ‘alternative’ school is developing out of the commercial toy and game market, » observes Wilfried Lignier, sociologist and CNRS research fellow, author of The little nobility of intelligence. A sociology of gifted children (2).

But what is the real contribution of these toys? It’s hard to say, as little research has gone into this question in depth.  » Generally speaking, and according to constructivist theory, being actively involved in learning facilitates assimilation, » explains Célia Hodent, a doctorate in psychology from Université Paris Descartes in Boulogne-Billancourt.  » So-called educational toys are unlikely to make children smarter. But they can accelerate the acquisition of a concept. « Sylvie Bannelier, Vtech Product Development Director for Europe, adds. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, an American developmental psychologist, encourages the use of less structured toys – such as a ball or a cardboard box – which children are free to use as they wish. According to her, it’s not the toy that commands the child, but vice versa.

Intensive, orchestrated (over)stimulation

What’s more, while not always effective, so-called educational toys are not without risk. On the occasion of the tenth Semaine du son in January 2013, specialists denounced the damaging effects of these electronic toys on our babies’ hearing health. According to Christian Hugonnet, acoustical engineer and professor at the École Nationale Supérieure Louis-Lumière, these toys  » play false  » and emit compressed, loud and undifferentiated sounds, the opposite of real musical sounds, giving toddlers a poor spectrum.

This desire to accelerate children’s learning is not new. As far back as the 1960s, Glenn Doman, physiotherapist and founder of the Institute for the Realization of Human Potential in Philadelphia, proposed teaching babies to read as early as 10 months, work he presented in his book How to teach your baby to read (3). The principle is as follows: show the child a word written in clearly identifiable capital letters on white paper, while reading them in a loud, clear voice, after having grouped them into several categories such as colors (blue, red, green) or animals (dog, rabbit, fish). According to Glenn Doman, a child who shows an ability to learn is a child who is already capable of learning to read. Edward Zigler, a former American psychologist, child development specialist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale, believes that this early, intensive program of stimulation for an average child is a source of unnecessary stress, making parents feel guilty for never doing enough for their offspring.

If the Americans excel in this early stimulation of their compatriots in The Asians are not to be outdone. Teachers at Singapore’s Baby Jumper Gym have devised a brain stimulation program for babies designed to develop both intellectual and physical skills, using techniques that simultaneously stimulate the right and left hemispheres. Their secret? Multidisciplinary sessions: teachers subject children to a series of activities involving music, arithmetic and learning a foreign language, before tackling motor exercises.

Baby TV, a devastating tool

From this wave of early stimulation have emerged television programs for toddlers (4). Among them, the DVDs of the Baby Einstein brand, bought by Disney four years after it was founded, are a great success. Sales are estimated at $200 million a year, so much so that one in three American children aged between 6 months and 1 year has already been exposed to such a video. The products are christened with promising names such as Baby Mozart, Baby Galileo and Baby Van Gogh. However, following complaints from parents and U.S. associations about misleading advertising, Walt Disney was ordered in 2009 to remove the « educational » mention from its media and to reimburse all customers dissatisfied since 2004 with the price of the DVD, i.e. $17. Because no, these so-called educational DVDs (5) or TV programs don’t make their budding viewers any smarter – quite the contrary. The Collectif Interassociatif Enfance et Média (CIEM) confirms this on its website (6): « The very idea of these channels seems to run counter to everything we know about a baby’s psyche: it will turn him into a spectator when he should be becoming an actor, making him passive at a time when he is honing his capacity to be active ». As a result, the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) prohibits French TV channels from explicitly targeting babies. At the same time, the organization requires distributors to display the following off-screen warning:  » Watching television (…) can lead to developmental disorders in babies, such as passivity, language delays, agitation, sleep disorders, concentration problems and screen addiction.  »

Tablets for babies: fun or danger?

More recently, baby tablets have made their appearance, specially designed for babies and intended to contribute to their learning development. In 2011, 1.5 million Vtech tablets were sold in France. This figure doubled in 2012. At the same time, Vinci Genius markets touch-sensitive tablets to  » stimulate small children, expand their knowledge and educate them « . All in three levels: curiosity, confidence and aptitude. A real marathon. But a safe marathon? It’s hard to say, as these tablets have not yet been the subject of scientific studies. But that hasn’t stopped the French Academy of Sciences from promoting their use for babies, in a controversial opinion (7).

If children are passive in front of the television, they are active in front of a tablet, argues the Académie des Sciences. A point that Bruno Harlé, child psychiatrist in charge of the inpatient unit for children aged 6 to 13 at the Centre Hospitalier Le Vinatier in Bron, Rhône-Alpes, and co-founder of the website neurosciencefictions.org disputes: « The distinction between active and inactive is specious. The tablet remains a screen. Yet the damaging effects of massive exposure to screens on children’s attention and behavior are well known. And they can only be reinforced if this exposure begins in the first few months of life. He continues:  » Tablets, like television, bombard children with stimuli and get them used to a high level of intensity, as if they had to do more and more to get their attention!

Before the age of 3, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against any intrusion of screens into a child’s life.

At the same time, the authors of the Académie des Sciences opinion state that « from a postural point of view, as early as 6 months, babies are capable of sitting alone – or with a little help – in front of a tablet ». Laure Deslandes, a nursery nurse and director of family and multi-accueil crèches in Carrières-sur-Seine, Île-de-France, disagrees: « No, not all children are capable of sitting up on their own by the age of 6 months! All early childhood professionals strongly advise against keeping a child who has not yet fully acquired the ability to sit on his own seated, all the more so when it comes to forcing the child to sit up. stimuli screen. It is essential to respect children’s natural mobility and their choice to direct their attention to particular details in their environment.

His majesty the baby

Although these so-called educational tools are far from proven, they continue to multiply. How can we explain such motivation to accelerate babies’ intelligence? This craze seems to be rooted in our societal values. Individual performance, once sidelined in favor of the collective, has gained in importance in increasingly elitist societies. Large families have given way to smaller family units, where great importance is attached to each child’s education. « Some parents feel the need to fulfill themselves vicariously, by passing on to their baby goals they themselves have failed to achieve. As these parents are connected to the prevailing social discourse, they will pass on the goals it promotes. A successful child is a successful parent », analyses Tereza Pinto, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, doctorate in psychopathology and lecturer at Paris VII University.  » Our competitive world values precociousness, performance and speed, » asserts Chantal de Truchis, early childhood psychologist and author of L’éveil de votre enfant: le tout-petit au quotidien (8).  » Some parents, often because of their own educational trajectory, have little confidence in mainstream schools to pass on the skills needed for their children’s social success, » suggests Wilfried Lignier.

From the very first hours of life, babies are subject to the challenges set by adults.  » Pushed to extremes, this race can be a source of anxiety for the child, at the risk of blocking his or her learning, » worries Tereza Pinto. « Roger Lécuyer, professor of developmental psychology and researcher at the Cognition et Développement laboratory at the University of Paris-V, director and co-author of Psychologie du développement du nourrisson (9), regrets: « By over-stimulating a child, we unfortunately teach him that stimulation comes alone, and therefore to be passive . Chantal de Truchis testifies to this climate of intensive stimulation:  » One educator told me that at the crèche, we prepare them for kindergarten. In kindergarten, we prepare them for first grade. But when will they really be themselves? « . It’s time to play our joker…

(1) La Dispute, 2001.
(2) La Découverte, 2012.
(3) Glenn and Janet Goman, How to teach your baby to read, Square One Publishers, reprinted 2005.
(4) See interview with Harry Ifergan, « Pas de télé pour les moins de 3 ans », Le Cercle Psy n°1, June-July-August 2011.
(5) See Justine Canonne, « Les DVD éducatifs: des effets contre-productifs? », published online at www.le-cercle-psy.fr
(6) See www.collectifciem.org
(7) Avis de l’Académie des Sciences, L’enfant et les écrans, Éditions Le Pommier, 2013.
(8) Albin Michel, reed. 2009.
(9) Dunod, 2004.