Her first word was backpack: The Dora Conspiracy

If you have kids and Dora the Explorer has not invaded your household, please let me know your secret. A.'s first exposure to Dora was through a simple book. She had never even seen the cartoon and she was captivated. Evidently the child psychologist designed character with big brown eyes charmed my daughter to love and idolize it instantly. Actually I used to only jokingly say that psychology was used to design these characters. Then I started believing it. Then I researched it and confirmed it. Meet Daniel Anderson, professor and consultant, who is changing the world our children live in. (He's only one of many people that helped created Dora among other popular characters.)

Now I'm not saying this is bad, but at a minimum, it is pretty scary and worth a moment of thought. Indeed Dr. Anderson's Senate Committee testimony states that kids who have watched certain shows such as Sesame Street have gone on to do better in school than those who didn't. Surely the end goal of the producers of today's new shows is typically not to make our children smarter but to please Wall Street and ultimately their own pocketbooks. We are fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.

If creators of TV shows can influence our children to do good things and become smarter, why can't they also be using their psychology tricks to make our children ask to buy their licensed products? Parents are the ones that have the money and are ultimately the ones responsible, but sometimes the influences are difficult to detect or deter. What seems harmless and happy on the surface may in fact be quite harmful. Subliminal influences are a hidden enemy. Consider it food for thought.

In our household, we've had the following Dora products: videos, books, a doll, a talking Dora swimming pool, yogurt, potty seat, disposable placemats, and Dora's Backpack. I'm probably leaving out another half dozen things. But my word, A.'s just 2 1/2! There's still time for more. Dora has generated over $3.5 billion in retail sales since 2002, and yes, we've helped out!

In fact, the very first thing that A. pointed at and asked me to buy her in the store was Dora yogurt. She had eaten it before, so she was recognizing not only Dora, but a familiar product. (As a plug for the product, it has a child friendly consistency that makes it clump together and not be runny and messy like the standard yogurt. I'm sure the sugar content is distressing, but hey, it's a dairy product so I can't complain too much.)

So were my wife and I surprised when E. chose to say backpack as her first word? Well, I'm stretching it just a bit. It was not her first word, but it was definitely in the first 10, and I'm betting even the first 5. Dora wears a purple backpack (affectionately known as Backpack) who holds Map, who helps them find their in every episode. Backpack has its (her? his? Ambiguous I guess like BackPat?) little song that gets E. excited and exclaiming, "Backpack, backpack" in her scratchy little voice.

Yes, I know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies under age 2 should not watch any TV. Well, when her older sister insists on watching Dora on a daily basis, it is hard to keep E., who is one year old, away. Now E. doesn't sit and stare at the TV. She's normally playing and doing other things while A. watches. But when a snazzy song comes on or she hears Backpack, it definitely gets her attention.

Let's see, why don't we analyze E.'s vocabulary and see if we can detect any influences from Dora and TV? She can say bye bye, dah dah, ma ma, milk, book, baby, banana, and backpack.

Hmmmm. One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others? Did you guess which thing just doesn't belong? If you guessed this one is not like the others then you're absolutely...right!

(How appropriate to end with a Sesame Street song. Her father must have grown up watching that! I don't know how smart he is, but he sure does have a nice collection of Sesame Street toys.)