zlacker

This is sad. You have relegated your child's cognitive development to a cheap electronic device. He's supposed to be communicating with you and learning how to communicate with people, not crappy electronics designed to gather your info to sell you stuff.

>>jbob20+(OP)
I appreciate the criticism, but I really don't feel that my child's cognitive development has been devalued in any way due to his occasionally being able to communicate with the Echo. The vast majority of his communication is with other people - which he loves participating in. I'll concede that these devices do probably attempt to sell us stuff, but up to this point, I have not seen anything from the Echo that I would consider nefarious or that seems like it might cause harm to my child's growth. In fact, my experience is that the Echo is basically harmless, especially compared to the behavioral problems that I've seen in children who watch TV or Youtube extensively (which I do not allow).

>>jbob20+(OP)
So a child should never read a book? nor watch an educational video? Alexa and other assistants are just tools. Tools can be used against people, yes, but they also can be used to improve people's lives. This particular example doesn't mean that the parent will delegate all his parent duties to Alexa. Don't get me wrong, I think I get your point, but should I stop using knives just because they can be used in dangerous ways?

>>elboru+1i
A book provides multisensory learning through sight, touch sound and smell. Alexa being voice controlled provides only auditory stimulation and is going to be the least good tool for the job. http://faculty.ucr.edu/~aseitz/pubs/Shams_Seitz08.pdf