Let's Hear it for TV!

Is television really one of the worlds biggest evils? Are our children really losing when they watch it, quite a bit? There are times when I would love to unplug mine. While my teen-aged daughter is in a phase where all she wants to watch on our instant play feature of Netflix is anime, my sons are addicted to Spongebob Squarepants. Once in a while, I want to scream if I hear one more idiotic, "Huh?" from an anime cartoon or Spongebob's laugh, but I do have to say that it is not all bad. I am always hearing people say how television is not good for children, but I have to disagree. I have found that it can be a useful tool in helping me to teach my children.

I don't know about other parents, but when I try to help my daughter with anything that she has to learn, I drive her crazy. Then she returns the favor. This has been the case since she was very small, and I was trying to teach her the alphabet and numbers. I finally thought about it, and since she loved Sesame Street, I looked into many other educational cartoons. For example, Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer were only available if I could have afforded cable, but bless them! They and other shows produced video tapes (and later DVD's), and I was able to purchase them and have other family members buy them as birthday and Christmas gifts. That was something educational that we could do together without the inevitable battle of wills that had been occurring before. Now, my daughter actually is looking for Japanese words and meanings, so she's learning something from her anime fixation, too.

When my boys came along, I did the same thing. However, things are different with autistic children. My sons are both autistic, although they are very different in both personality and diagnoses. One thing they have in common is the ability to memorize anything they see and hear, especially from the television. I still do not have cable, but we are big fans of the sales on DVD's. Also, thanks to our Xbox 360, we can watch many instant play options on our televisions. Our much used and abused DVD's can take a rest, since Blues Clues is on the menu.

The DVD's still get used. It is thanks to a Sesame Street DVD geared to potty training that we were able to get the idea to stick with our older son when nothing else would work. It is thanks to Calliou on Netflix that both boys now call me "Mommy" instead of a multitude of other things. I also have to thank Spongebob for his fixation with the "Crabby Patty" because my son now eats cheeseburgers. Believe me, texture issues can be a booger with autistic kids. One gets tired of chicken nuggets, fries, macaroni and cheese, and pizza or making different dinners for the kids. Don't get me wrong, I always try to get new things to be tried and have had more success, but Spongebob saved the day in getting my older son to try something new without a struggle. He has even widened his range with some other foods!

I do get a kick out of watching them reenact their favorite cartoons, and I find being called "Mr. Mommy" quite funny. (Thank you, Mr. Krabs.) Also, since we had not been as careful as we should have been about what we watched and the language contained within (no more Resident Evil while they're awake), we were having some issues with swearing from the boys. Spongebob cartoons helped to eradicate that problem, too. Now, we hear things like, "barnacles" and "fishpaste" instead of the dreaded words that nobody wants their children to say. Calliou's manners rubbed off on the boys, as well. I hear a lot of "please" and "thank you," now, too.

Another thing that I have noticed is that my sons are more likely to make up games and engage in imaginative play, which is something I am told that autistic children do not tend to do. Sometimes, I can watch them start with something that they saw on television and take it to a different place. They are also playing together a lot more, and that is a big step for them. Social skills are something on which they have to work daily, so it is a joy to see them play together and have so much fun. Also, thanks to Blues Clues, they are very interested in sitting down with me to look at and read books. As a book-lover, nothing could make me love a show more than that!

I do have to point out that I do not discount how much they are learning from their schools. We are so fortunate to live in an area that has wonderful special education programs, and the occupational and speech therapies are fantastic, too. They are so supportive, and we have learned so much from them, as well as our own reading and research. Our boys have benefited from these people and help they are giving, so much. I could never express my gratitude enough, but as a useful tool in the home, I have to give some credit to the television.

Basically, my experience is this: I would never use the television to do all the work, but it is a helpful tool. We have seen many of the benefits, and we have dealt with the drawbacks. I guess, we basically fought fire with fire, there. What we broke with television in the language area, we fixed with television. With care and guidance, it can be used to further education, and I sincerely believe it has done so, here.

Source: Personal Experience