TV Isn’t ALL bad.
Let me tell you right now that television is a big no-no if you want to reach your child. Whether neuro-typical or on the spectrum. This is my son’s Occupational therapist pet peeve. I agree with her and I try to limit television as much as I can and I have been fortunate that my son is good once I hide the remote.
Now that I have put in the disclaimer.
I credit a lot of my son’s words, play and actions to television with a particular bias to the Teletubbies and the Wiggles. I nearly cried the first time I realized that he was reacting and responding to something that he saw on Teletubbies. The Wiggles introduced singing to him and he is such a singer. He never followed the dancing or actions but he would sing the songs with me after and it would make my heart sing 🙂 Fast forward five years and I did cry to see my son dancing to the Wiggles. It was silly of me because I have seen him perform fearlessly and wonderfully at school concerts and plays before…. but to see him dance the Wiggles was amazing simply because it was something I had been trying to get him to do for years.
So like with everything else I am here to attest that television can be used to your advantage when it is used in small doses, because it just may be the one thing that gets your sweet child moving.
( Now he is inspired by Yo Gabba Gabba, deal or no deal, family feud, catch 21 and Iron chef. oh and even though he is nine Wiggles still makes is top ten lol)
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Where would we be without Discovery channel and other animal documentaries?
Although television should be watched in small doses, it does have its advantages. Your son for example, has benefited from it. Many shows for children do promote communication wellness and teach children the alphabet, numbers, how to read, do mathematics and much more. Thank you for sharing your sons success. I write blogs at http://www.myspeechtherapycenter.com regarding communication wellness and awareness. I invite you to visit our site for free parent resources!
The PBS show Between the Lions taught Josh to read by the time he was four. Cyberchase had him doing basic algebra concepts about the same time. If it wasn’t for VeggieTales, Winnie the Pooh, and Shrek, I wonder if Josh would have ever started talking. His first “conversations” were quoting entire scenes from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day… and expecting me to know all of Tigger’s lines while he quoted Pooh’s. He was about three when he started doing this. It took about a year before his “conversations” were his own words. He’s now eleven, less and less often do I have to ask him, “Josh, who are you quoting now?”
It isn’t like all he did was sit around watching TV either. He would see something once and could quote back almost the entire show. I talked to him all the time too. Telling him what we were doing, where we were going, what things were, etc.