Baby Babble

Baby Babble is a video created by two speech therapists in order to help babies and toddlers talk. It's a godsend for us, because the twins are a bit delayed in talking. They do talk, forming words, sometimes sentences (mostly Camille), but on the whole they should be talking more than they should be. Part of it is probably due to the fact that Mommy and Daddy are reserved themselves; but we'd rather they be like their grandparents, who are pretty outgoing.

At first glance I thought this was just another Baby Einstein wannabe, cashing in on the huge media craze; indeed, when I first watched it with the kids, it seemed like a cheap imitation, using obviously home-made sets, and public domain music. Not surprising, given that Baby Einstein is now owned by Disney, and thus has a budget that allows them to hire celebrities like Marlee Matlin; the folks who made Baby Babble probably just had a video cam and some editing software. Heck, I might be able to put together something like it, using something like Adobe Premiere.

However, all that doesn't matter if the content itself is good. And it is--the girls were entranced, repeating the syllables and words in the video. There's also a great guide for parents at the end, which tells you how to "speak" to your babies and toddlers to help them along in their quest to talk.

Baby Babble may not be as polished as the Baby Einstein series, but it's well worth the purchase.

BOTTOM LINE:
Rating: 4 out of 5. Production values are somewhat low, but the content well-worth it.
Bought at: Clever Shoppers (on-line)