The Journal of Pediatrics at the University of Washington recently published a report titled "Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years." Among its conclusions were the following: "among infants (age 8 to 16 months), each hour per day of viewing baby DVDs/videos was associated with a 16.99-point decrement in CDI score in a fully adjusted model (95% confidence interval = −26.20 to −7.77)." Infants who watch TV don't develop language as well - fancy that! Not good news for believers in the Baby Einstein series of DVDs. And so...

Bob Iger of Disney sent the Univesity of Washington a letter [pdf] "demand[ing] the immediate retraction of an inflammatory and misleading University of Washington press release that misrepresented research data about Baby Einstein." UW President Mark Emmert offered a less vitriolic reply. Disney says they/it "stands by its request" and "is currently exploring next steps in this matter."

My next step in this matter? Not buying any Baby Einstein DVDs, for one.