When Luke was first diagnosed, we cut out TV altogether. That
lasted for about 2 months. Then my parents came to visit, I had a
baby, and now Luke is allowed to watch maybe 1-2 hours per day, but all
EDUCATIONAL to some extent (e.g., Baby Einstein or Sesame
Street). He used to shut out the world when he watched, but now
he's open to things arund him, so I don't mind. besides, as
Mark-dad wrote, I need the occasional break so I can give little Andrew
some personalized attention too!
I think especially if you use TV as a means of engaging with your child or as a teaching tool, it's not a bad thing at all.
we found that a video of signing nursery ryhmes worked wonders for jack really helped and because he liked them i could get him to join in with me signing the songs later in the day at the minute we are having a problem with a dvd about colours he knows how to put it on and if we are not careful he would have it on constantly the past 2 days have been really really rough so i have let it go a little bit anything to try and calm him,not sure what is going on with him weather it is because of school hols or is he sickening for something i guess we shall wait and see what develops.But to get back on topic i agree with what others have said if you can get something out of the shows he is watching then it is worth it we do try to make jack "earn" his videos by doing a puzzle or a activity that he doesn't like ie most things at the minute or since we are having major throwing issues at the moment he has to pick up what he has slung around the room he gets very aggitated by this but we are sure to be quick at rewarding him with his chosen video i think overall tv/video/dvd can be constructive if it is managed well(was actually one of his therapists that got us the signing tape)
Elliot is also very echolalic and memorizes everything whether it's a show, book, movie, or all the typical parenting things we say - which I really have to watch... he remembers everything I say! Lol. I've struggled with the same thoughts about how much TV is too much. I agree with most of you that if it is a show he likes, that I feel he is also learning from, then I let him watch those. There are only a few, but right now it's Blue's Clues, The Wiggles, and Sesame Street or Barney. He doesnt watch these every day, but I have Tivo, which is nice because when he wants to watch a show I can put one of them on. Blues Clues is very repetitive so he does a lot of scripting from that, but because of the format of the show, I can use it to interact with him afterward. Like he kept saying "Red and white make pink" for awhile, so we then mixed play dough colors together to make pink, paints, etc and showed him how other colors combine too-which of course, now he has memorized, lol. He also recites a lot of the songs and drawings for "put it in the notebook" but likewise, I can now get him to draw more by pretending something is the handy dandy notebook. Much better than him just lining up the crayons or markers which he usually does. It's also so cute, when I walk back in the house after checking the mail every day, he sings, "We just got a letter, we just got a letter..."
The Wiggles I think are nice for him learning to imitate movements in the dances, and obviously he memorizes the songs. The nice thing about Sesame Street/Barney/or even Out of the Box is that it shows real kids interacting with each other, and they aren't repetitive so harder to memorize and yet he likes the characters, and there's a lot to learn from them. Has anyone seen "Between the Lions" on PBS? It's a show about reading, and I've just sort of started introducing it to him, and I think he likes it because he likes letters so much. And now it sounds like my son does nothing but watch TV! It's usually maybe 2 or 3 shows a day, separated for down times, and because we do lots of other enriching activities during the day I think it's okay. Like everyone else has said, it's all about balance. I'm certainly not going to stop going to the library because he memorizes all of those books in a couple of days too.
Rachel
Hi Sally,
my 3 y.o. son Nicky also has autism but is not echolalic (he seldom talks and when he does, it is only a few words here and there - we use sign language). He is also a great fan of the TV and when watching the same videos over and over, he actually takes different positions around the television set to watch his favourite mocies. He can either do it from the side and then move frontwards, or from far away and then moving closer, etc... (you get the picture).
He also figured out how to rewind his tapes, so now we can watch the same scenes repeated over a hundred times.
As he is so taken with his videos, I decided to include myself in his play and use this opportunity to try and engage with him, by participating with the action on the screen. So far, so good, I have been able to connect with him few times and redirect his attention to something else other than the TV.
For instance, he loves the dancing scenes in Beauty and the Beast; so we start dancing together and move out of the room at the same time (the TV is still plying in the background so he hears it) and then we start rolling on the floor and hug. By doing this, it has helped him a lot with his sensory issues and he does not recoil so much anymore when being touched. It also helps reduce his TV time by quite a bit. Try it with your daughter - look for opportunities in the movie to create a game and slowly move out of the room - by stimulating another sense, she might be distracted from being visually stimulated.
Which of the Leap Frog videos do you recommend? I have been using Baby Einstein when Nicky was younger but he's not learning from them anymore.
Take care,
Josée (Nicky's mamma and proud to be!)
Oddly enough, when we started to suspect PDD/Autism in our 34 mo. old son, we *stopped* being concerned about TV! We were afraid that the TV was the cause of the echolalia, but then we realized that if he wasn't echoing TV dianlogue, he'd just be echoing us, books, etc. (all of which he does, as well).Just wondering what some of your opinions/stances are on letting your asd kid watch tv or videos. My dd doesn't watch any tv shows (she used to watch Dora but thankfully that has passed) but she does watch/request plenty of movies - Mary Poppins, Dumbo, Lady and the Tramp, Winnie the Pooh, Leap Frog videos, etc. etc. On the one hand, it seems okay because she will engage while watching them and make comments on the movie (although they are the same ones over and over and in predictable places in the movie!!) like "Lady is a girl" "there's the train". I can ask her questions and engage her sometimes. And she seems to generalize some of the lines from movies to the appropritate context or use them in pretend play (right now she carries a stuffed dog around with her and pretends he's Scamp from Lady and the Tramp II, she crawls around on the ground a lot with him. I think she's pretending he's her friend and she's a dog or something! I was actually worried about her being sick or showing new behaviors for a few days before I figured it out because it never occured to me her crawling around on the floor/lying down, licking her food, whimpering, etc. was pretend playing like a dog. She's never done pretend play before, let alone to that imaginative degree!) From the Leap Frog videos, she learned how to sound out words and write out her name!! It is also of course a way for me to get a break.
On the other hand, she is highly echolalic and so she does the scripting thing from movies all the time, day and night. She only wants to watch the same movie or two for weeks on end and sometimes she wants to watch it over and over, back to back (which I don't really let her do but I have let her watch the same movie 2x in the day). She also zones out with it and I think I've noticed that the more tv she watches the less engaged she is in general. But then she's echoing the whole movie all day anyway, so is it better (more engaging) to let her echo it or actual watch it. Right now I'm trying to limit her movie watching but it gives her such pleasure and seems harmless....but I don't know. How do you guys handle tv watching, especially with echolalia??
I know with Jeffrey he watched Sesame Street. I even recorded some episodes on vhs for him. That show helped him learn his abc's and numbers. Didn't help with his talking though. He didn't regain his speech until around the age of seven.
Tammy
My 3-year-old DS who has mild ASD isn't too interested in the television. Now and then we use some of the Baby Einstein videos to help him settle down before a nap or bedtime. He likes the "themed" ones; Baby Galileo is about the sun, moon, stars, planets, etc.; Baby Neptune is about water, oceans, sea creatures, etc.; Baby Newton is about shapes. He liked some of the Playhouse Disney shows when he was a baby (Rolie Polie Olie and Stanley, particularly) and occasionally would watch Sesame Street, but now he doesn't really sit and watch them. My 22-month-old is turning into a couch potato. He likes all the shows on Noggin and throws a tantrum if we turn it off; we are trying to cut back on the TV watching for him. My 3 y/o knows the shows on Noggin - he can name most of the characters and sings some of the songs they play in between shows, but doesn't watch for more than 5 minutes before losing interest. I think it depends on how you use the shows and the content of the shows for the child's benefit. If you use it as a babysitter at hours at a time, then it serves no benefit. But, if you put it in his routine and use it as a learning tool for basic cognitive and social development, then I think it can be very powerful and beneficial in the long run for the child and you. I liked Josee's example in throwing herself into the situation while her child is watching TV. We participate in the shows too, for example, in Dora or Blue, they will ask questions and we (adults) respond and try to get our daughter to respond (regardless if the answer is correct). During this time, it isn't her just watching TV...it is her, us and the TV interacting w/ each other.We had some parents here use videos of themselves drawing a house etc (close up of their hands and the paper) to teach their child some simple skills. There is research that that is an effective therapy tool.