Are educational videos and scheduled activities preferable to free play for young children?
We now know that early learning sculpts the brain in important ways. This has led to an industry of selling products that promise to increase babies’ IQs and learning abilities. But there is no scientific evidence that any product on the market does that. This situation has led to much confusion among parents and much frustration among developmental scientists. There is no dichotomy between early educational activities and free play. In the first three years of life, free play is an educational activity. Driven by their own natural curiosity, infants solve problems for the pure joy of learning about the physical and social world. If you watch babies’ faces as they build block towers and see gravity in action, it’s obvious that they’re learning. People are the favorite playthings of young children, who are drawn to faces, voices, colors and movement. Through play, kids learn about others’ goals and intentions — what makes people tick. A baby is like a little scientist running experiment
