Multimedia News Release - Sony Wonder and every baby inc., Explore Play in New Infant Development DVD Series Designed to Enrich a Baby's Natural Learning Process
eebee's adventures™: the First Infant Learning Program to Focus on the Real Developmental Skills that Lay the Foundation for All Future Learning
- Concept Grounded in Latest Research on How Babies Learn and Grow; Offers Parent Opportunity for More Active Role and Real-Time Insights into Child's Development -
PRNewswire
NEW YORK
09/29/2005
What to Expect When You're ... a baby? Certainly not infant learning videos that actually reflect the way in which babies learn ... until now. Sony Wonder today announced a partnership with every baby company, inc., to deliver eebee's adventures™: the industry's first infant learning property designed to playfully engage, delight and support both infants and their parents through the exciting process of building the real, basic skills of infancy.
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/eebee/22780
eebee's adventures™ focuses on the foundations for learning -- those new and emerging behaviors that form the basis of a wide range of important -- and complex -- social, physical and cognitive skills. The products respect that a baby's learning experience should not start with the alphabet, counting or other academic skills, but rather with the idea that every baby learns by doing.
eebee's learning adventures are based on real foundational skill-building games and activities such as rolling a ball, crumpling paper, or scaling a pillow mountain. Unlike many current infant videos that simply focus on displaying moving objects or situations beyond the child's experience, the content in eebee's adventures™ is authentic to the baby's own world.
The new DVD series features real babies, parents and a baby-like puppet named eebee exploring a range of everyday objects such as balls, blocks, containers and paper. Each of the playful "adventures" is about 10 minutes in length and centers on eebee and the babies discovering new ideas about themselves and the people and things around them.
Based on the latest child development research, the "eebee" concept was created by Stephen Gass, a leader in the field of children's media, educational innovator Don Burton, and a panel of expert advisors specializing in early childhood development. Designed to encourage a baby's innate curiosity and provide parents with insights into how and what their child is learning, the videos are choreographed to spark real-world explorations and interactions -- both during and after viewing -- that provide the intuitive experiences necessary for the successful development of academic as well as life skills.
eebee's adventures™ is crafted to help parents recognize their baby's developmental milestones as well as participate in the learning process. DVD bonus features include on-screen developmental tips, "play-by-play guides," behind-the-scenes commentary from early learning experts that feature insights into the benefits of each "eebee moment," and ideas for taking eebee's adventures from the screen to the playroom floor. Additional background and parenting information is available on the project's web site, http://www.eebee.com/.
"While there are many infant videos that claim to be educational, we saw a need for a product that invites parents to have fun, [that] truly meets babies where they are developmentally in a warm, playful, and essentially human way, and [that] helps them to learn and grow together," said every baby company president and co-creator, Stephen Gass.
eebee's adventures™ will launch with three DVD releases targeting six-month-old to two-year-old children:
* Exploring Real Stuff: eebee and playmates explore a range of materials
and everyday objects (developed for babies aged six months and up)
* All in a Day's Play: The many teachable, unplanned and unscripted
learning moments that fill a baby's day (developed for babies aged six
months and up)
* Figuring Things Out: What happens when a child's newfound motor skills
support his/her natural curiosity and interest in making things work and
achieving goals (developed for babies aged 12 months and up)
eebee's adventures™ will be initially sold through amazon.com and SonyMusicStore.com.
Babies' Eye View of Their World
eebee's adventures™ is shot from a baby's visual and developmental perspective. The action is simple, but exciting from an infant's point of view. The pace is gentle, but true-to-life active.
Each adventure is careful to show viewers the adults and children in the video when they are speaking and the things they are speaking about. By showing the context for an action and employing other research-based techniques, such as reframing an idea and repeating a process, eebee's adventures allows infants to focus on the ideas behind the actions and the words that describe them.
"Although listening to Mozart can be calming, and watching moving images drift across a screen might be mesmerizing, meaningful learning requires an actively engaged child," says eebee advisor, Dr. Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Director of the Infant Language Laboratory at Temple University and author of Einstein Never Used Flashcards. "eebee is the 'every baby', who, like a scientist, experiments to learn about the world. eebee's adventures™ is designed to naturally invite infants into that learning process. It lets babies be babies- these incredible beings who are wired to learn-and recognizes that it's playing with ideas, not memorizing them, that leads to understanding and growth."
The Play's the Thing
eebee's adventures™ brings to life "eebee moments" -- everyday, teachable moments during play which build the foundation for future learning. Among the many "eebee moments" spotlighted in the videos:
* Making "music" with a spoon and bowl, which teaches baby that objects
can be tools to accomplish a goal -- the foundation for complex problem
-solving abilities and creative thinking
* Paper play, which helps baby explore ideas such as parts and whole, more
and less, bigger and smaller -- the foundation for conceptual
understanding of mathematics
* Filling and dumping containers with little objects, which helps baby
explore relationships between objects and predict outcomes -- the
foundation for understanding patterns and symbol systems like numbers
and letters
* Pouring and scooping cereal, which lets baby explore the properties of
materials and experiment with ideas such as cause and effect -- the
foundation for a deeper understanding of the physical world of objects
* Rolling balls and sliding blocks, which encourage baby to test
hypotheses and draw conclusions -- the foundation for developing innate
scientific, logical thinking skills
Sony Wonder is the children's and family division of SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.
About SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is a global recorded music joint venture with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of local artists and international superstars, as well as a vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is 50% owned by Bertelsmann A.G. and 50% owned by Sony Corporation of America.
About eebee's Creators
Trained as a child psychologist, Stephen Gass is an innovator in the field of children's media. His experience includes over 20 years in the design, development and distribution of learning products, including computer software, online applications, toys, games, books and video. Don Burton has been creating educational innovations for consumer markets for more than a decade. He has developed strategies for video, print, online and kit product lines. He is also a founder of Parent Partners, one of the first online sites exclusively focused on child development and parenting issues, as well as A- Ha! Learning, play, explore and learning centers for infants and toddlers.
The team of expert advisors who guided eebee's development includes:
* George E. Forman, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor, University of
Massachusetts, and CEO, Videatives, Inc., is a well-known author of
books on Jean Piaget and early childhood education, including The
Child's Construction of Knowledge, co-authored with David Kuschner and
Constructive Play, co-authored with Fleet Hill.
* Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., is the Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz Professor
in the Department of Psychology at Temple University, where she serves
as Director of the Infant Language Laboratory. Her most recent book,
Einstein Never Used Flashcards: How Children Really Learn and Why They
Need to Play More and Memorize Less, (Rodale Books) won the prestigious
Books for Better Life Award as the best psychology book in 2003.
* Deborah Linebarger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Annenberg School for
Communication, University of Pennsylvania, has conducted research for
the past 10 years examining the impact of media use on the development
of young children.
* Diana (Dee) Smith teaches in the Early Childhood Program at the
University of Vermont, and is Head Teacher with the Campus Children's
Center's Infant/Toddler Program.
Video: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/eebee/22780
SOURCE: Sony Wonder; every baby company, inc.
CONTACT: Tamara Jacobs, +1-770-971-0677, tamarajacobs@elsix.com