"Educational" television programmes aimed at the under-twos do nothing to stimulate them and could actually stunt their development, according to new guidelines on the subject.
Paediatricians say there is "no evidence" that television programmes for the under-twos, marketed as educational, actually help them intellectually or socially, because they simply cannot understand them.
Watching television merely gets in the way of activities that such young children do understand, and do benefit them - most notably free play and engagement with other people.
DVD products such as Baby Einstein are marketed squarely on the premiss of educating babies and toddlers, while there are numerous British-made programmes, such as In the Night Garden, aimed at the age range.
While it is not presented as specifically educational, the popular BBC programme includes simple repetition of numbers and phrases that could be regarded as such.
Researchers said that children under two learn nothing from TV but watching too much can slow their speech development, making them behave badly.
They said parents were too quick to accept the educational value of a TV programme without actually checking if their children will learn anything from it.


据英国《每日电讯报》10月17日报道，根据有关儿童早期教育的最新准则，针对两岁以下儿童设立的"教育"节目并不能刺激儿童智力发育，事实上反而会阻碍儿童身心发展。

儿科医生说，没有证据能够表明，现在市场上销售的针对两岁以下儿童的教育类电视节目能够促进儿童智力和社会性的发展，因为孩子们根本看不懂这些节目。

看电视只会妨碍儿童参与那些他们真正能够理解并对他们有益的活动--特别是自由地玩耍和与他人的沟通。

类似于《小小爱因斯坦》这样的教育婴儿和学步儿童的DVD产品正在市场热销，同时还有大量英国制作的电视节目，比如《花园宝宝》，针对的是幼龄儿童。

BBC虽然没有特别地播放专门教育类的节目，但风靡的一些类似于简单的数字和短语背诵节目也可以看作是这一类。

研究人员说，两岁以下的儿童从电视上什么也学不到，看太多电视节目只会减缓他们语言能力的发展，使他们表现糟糕。
他们说，父母太容易接受电视节目的教育价值，根本没有仔细检验他们的孩子是否真正从中学到了什么。

• actually [´æktʃuəli] ad.事实上；实际上 (初中英语单词)
• engagement [in´geidʒmənt] n.婚约；雇用；受聘 (初中英语单词)
• behave [bi´heiv] v.举止；表现；举止端正 (初中英语单词)
• stimulate [´stimjuleit] v.刺激；服兴奋剂 (高中英语单词)
• educational [,edju´keiʃənəl] a.教育(上)的 (高中英语单词)
• repetition [,repi´tiʃən] n.重复；背诵；复制品 (高中英语单词)
• squarely [´skwɛəli] ad.成方形地；正直地 (英语四级单词)
• socially [´səuʃəli] ad.社交上；社会上 (英语六级单词)
• notably [´nəutəbli] ad.显著地；著名地 (英语六级单词)
• einstein [´ainstain] n.爱因斯坦 (英语六级单词)