'Baby Einstein' Creators Say Negative Study Was Full of Flaws
Filed under: In The News
Credit: Amazon
Kids -- and moms and dads -- were drawn to the 30-minute videos featuring classical music, shapes and objects, and sales topped $17 million when the creators sold the franchise to Disney in 2001.
But, the Denver Post reports, a University of Washington study bashing the products, a major lawsuit and a slew of bad press tainted the "Baby Einstein" name. Now, Julie Aigner-Clark and Bill Clark are getting some redemption, according to the newspaper.
The couple, who live outside Denver, forced the university, which paid them $175,000 for legal fees, to hand over the original research, which proves the study had several flaws, the Post reports.
The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 2007, claimed "Baby Einstein" actually made a child's vocabulary worse than kids who did not watch the videos, according to the newspaper. Headlines world-wide screamed that "Baby Einstein" made kids dumber.
The Post reports that a UW spokesman says the school stands behind the study, but the Clarks found correspondence in the research that showed parts of the study were changed without proper notification, fewer subjects were used than originally planned and concerns had been raised over the way the findings were analyzed.
After the study was released, Disney originally demanded a retraction, according to the newspaper, but in 2009, the corporation began offering refunds.
The Post reports Clark decided to keep fighting for the document! s, in pa rt, because his wife had cancer and he wanted to save her reputation. He tells the newspaper he's continuing his fight, asking the National Science Foundation and other groups to investigate UW's actions.
Meanwhile, Aigner-Clark, is now free of cancer, the Post adds.
"I never doubted what we made was really good," she tells the newspaper.
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