It turns out that if you want your child to learn to speak better, you don't want to sit them in front of a TV to watch Sesame Street or other educational TV shows. I have verified this to be true after spending many hours interviewing a Speech Language Pathologist. She remains emphatic that parents can do harm by using Sesame Street as a long term babysitter and she often hears these parents ask "Why doesn't my child know how to talk?"
There is some logic that says 'get smarter by watching' but in reality... we improve our skills and knowledge by doing.
Writing vs typing - which helps you get smarter? If you are a highly skilled typist, you can almost do two things at once. Your fingers have memorized the keyboard and they fly on their own, even when having a conversation.
When you sit down with a pencil (or pen) and paper and begin to turn your thoughts into new concepts to conquer the world or change the community, your brain works differently.