Do you feel that watching a lot of videos/DVD's is good, bad, or neither for your ASD child? We've all heard about various studies about how more than two hours per day of TV is a bad thing. Also, there are those detractors from Baby Einstein who say that children who watched a lot of those over and over have fewer words in their vocabularies compared to their contemporaries.
Well, my feeling is that the Brainy Baby 123's video taught my kid to count. It is a very repetetive counting video, and my son loved it! He stimmed on it, but the information stayed with him. On their website you can get VHS format for $4.95 but the DVD's are like $17.
He also loved some of the Sesame Street counting videos. Alphabet videos have been great for him, too. Now he is very into trains. Not Thomas because that has too much of a [boring] storyline, but real train videos. It took him a while, but now he is into the Alphabet Train. He loves the Real Trains for Kids (1 and 2) videos and I just got a couple of I Love Toy Trains for him to try. We have been through Connie the Cow, Bear in the Big Blue House, lots of Sesame Street and Elmo's World, and Little People phases. He still loves Baby Einstein, but now I usually play those when I want to calm Wyatt down and put him in the mood for sleep--so videos with more images and fewer words are good for that. When he was really little we did BooBah and the Teletubbies, but he couldn't handle Teletubby Bye Bye (he would get so upset), so we stopped. He still likes his dancing BooBah doll though.
I am horrible. My TV is
I am horrible. My TV is almost always on. I try to keep it on music, but Michael loves to have tv on. He reacts to things, and I keep hoping it will help his speech. Sadly my son loves things like Reba, and Star Trek. He loves Patrick Stewart. So I am one of those who is horrid about not limiting tv. But without something for his attention to be grabbed by he is a monster and gets bored so easily.
My hypothesis is that, while
My hypothesis is that, while lots of TV might not be the greatest thing for typicals, I believe that ASD kids reap lots of benefits from TV. I think that TV holds the power to keep the attention of our kids, which is really amazing (for both moms and kids).
Also, since most ASD kids are incredibly visual learners, I feel that the combination of music and images As Seen on TV is not only educational but healing. I am a huge fan of Music Therapy. I wish it would become mandatory in the school setting: Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Music Therapy. Sadly, they don't even teach typical elementary school kids Music these days.
The idea (and research) behind music therapy is that music is processed on both sides of the brain. When you pair music with language it is catchy--more memorable--think of ad jingles that you can't get out of your head. In other words, music can be used effectively to encourage language. I should really learn more nitty gritties about it, but I have been lazy about doing the reading. Maybe I will try to post some articles somewhere on this site.
Yeah, I know, I am sort of equating TV with a low dose of music therapy. What I am really trying to say is that I think we parents of ASD kids should feel NO GUILT WHATSOEVER for leaving the TV on.
Also, realistically, if we didn't have the TV on, we would all probably go insane. I'm sure you can relate to trying to get something done like making dinner and washing up, only to be interrupted 17 times by a spilled juice, hunting for an old towel and cleaning solution to clean up the juice from the carpet, snapping the same toy back together six times in four minutes but the final time takes 10 minutes and by that time some other mess has been created. If we did not have videos and TV, I don't know what I would do.
P.S. That is so adorable
P.S. That is so adorable that Michael likes Captain Picard. What do you think is the draw there, the funky outfit, the bald head?
I am not entirely sure.
I am not entirely sure. Michael has odd likes sometimes. He loves Jennifer Lopez, and other various stars. The only way I can tell is he will sit still through entire scenes or music videos with certain people. But I have all but one of the Next Generation movies and Michael loves them. I know it is horrid since they are not G rated, but there are days I can only bear so much and relent for a moment of his attention grabbed.