how interested is your toddler in TV/videos? how long is their att. span? how much do they...

[ellemenope]

I am curious about how much or how little your toddler is interested in TV. DD seems overly-interested in TV. I need a reality check. Is this normal? Is this because her exposure to such media is limited? Or, is it personality?

She is loosely TV free. I can count the number of programs/videos/movies DD has seen one hand (well a six fingered hand, lol):

A few episodes of Seseme Street at 13 months
Babies (in movie theater) at 22 months
Chipmonks squeakqual while on a cruise at 23 months
Toy Story 3 (in movie theater on her birthday) at 24 months
A couple of episodes of Caillou at 26 months
Ponyo at 27 months

She is still obsessed with elmo, talks about those four babies, and can give me the detailed plots of every movie and Caillou she has seen. She sat through every movie without moving, glued to the screen for the entire length of the feature film. Is this abnormal for this age?

I know a little girl abouth the same age who will not watch TV for longer than a couple of minutes and the parents are upset and think she might be ADD because of this. This sounds absurd to me. I am worrying about the exact opposite. DD seems so easily drawn into screens. Even when we walk by a TV on CNN she gleans stuff from it and asks questions. (DD sat and watched the Chilean miner rescue for about a half hour totally understanding, as much as a toddler can, what was going on.) Even when she was 9 months old she was getting stuff from the random TV images she would see and want to talk/sign about it.

We had hoped that by being TV free she would rely on her own imagination and learn to entertain herself. And, she has. She has one of the best imaginations I have ever heard of. She can play by herself with her toys for long long periods of time indulging in pretend play, up to an hour at a time, without interruption.

But, we also hoped that by being TV free she would not be so obsessed about it, which is not the case at all. Is this normal?

How old is your toddler and how interested is he/she in TV? How long is their attention span for TV? Would your toddler sit and watch say Chilean miners being rescued?

[KempsMama]

We are not T.V. free, in fact we are probably T.V. addicts. DS1 is 2.5 and he's got his favorites that he will sit through-15 minute cartoons mostly. He won't sit through a movie at home, but will in the theatre, and he can tell you all about Toy Story 3 which we saw in the theatre when it first came out.

Mostly he plays with his toys and barely pays attention to the T.V. However if something he likes comes on, like a car commercial, he sits down. Then he goes back to his toys.

[la mamita]

i think it's normal for TV free little ones to be really fascinated with TV when they do see it. we have always been TV free and mostly movie-free, but when i did start letting my DS watch movies around age 2.5, he was soooooo obsessed with it. like, let me watch for hours on end, sob when the TV is turned off, sit down and watch my parents old film noir movies with them even though they are SO boring and have nothing of interest for a toddler, etc...it is a big motivator for me to really really limit his TV watching. but now that he's 5, he's started realizing that after spending a lot of time watching TV, he will be in a bad mood for a while and he's started saying "i get bored" watching TV (his dad lets him watch unlimited TV every 2 weeks or so when he watches him...), so i feel good seeing him recognize his own behavior and understand why i limit TV/movies at our house.

i was raised TV free as a kid and i would also do similar behavior on holiday at relatives' houses where they had TV: watch for hours on end with my sister and have a hard time turning the TV off. but that was a few occasions per year and now that i'm an adult and can choose to have TV or not, i am still TV free, prefer to be that way, and don't have the same obsession with TV watching when i do do it.

[sapphire_chan]

When I was 9 months old, my parents got rid of their TV because all I would do is watch it. And I wouldn't respond when they tried to talk to me. And I wouldn't play with my toys. And it didn't matter if it was something actually possibly interesting to a baby or if it was something utterly boring like a commercial for a personal injury lawyer.

I have always had a hard time breaking off from screens. I'll still find myself sitting through an entire video and then think "wow, I didn't enjoy that at all, why did I spend that time?"

I definitely have ADD, as does dh.

Otoh, dd is very clear about what she wants to see, will even reject stuff she likes if it's not what she wants right at the moment. When she's watched what she wants to see, she moves on. We both initiate conversations about what she's seeing.

As for getting stuff out of it, she tends to learn things best from observing other kids and television children seem to be as effective as real children. In some ways worse, because they aren't right there for her to see on all sides. In other ways better, because the TV kids will do things over and over as many times as dd wants.


Now, this is all media we can control like DVDs and Youtube. We don't have any regular commercial filled TV in the house. The times where we've been around regular TV and a commercial came on, she was hypnotized. Same thing with the very flashy cartoon show (I think it was Spongebob) that happened to be on.

[Kmama2]

My 12 month old gets excited when we turn the tv on... but within a few min he is done with it and no longer captivated by it. The tv is off 99% of the time. I only put it on a few times a week if I am desperate to make dinner without little people hanging on me or if I need to shower. But yeah the toddler is only good for maybe 3 min of it. My 3 year old will sit still and watch it as long as its on which is why we dont put it on much.

[Daffodil]

We don't have TV, and DD only occasionally saw it at other people's houses when she was a toddler. When she did see it, she just wasn't very interested. She might watch for a few minutes, but never really got drawn in, even if it was something that seemed like it ought to be interesting to her. It wasn't until she was 3 or almost 3 that she first began to get interested in some videos.

DS is 3 years younger than DD, and she had started watching occasional videos by the time he was born. He was interested in them starting as a baby. I remember when he was 11 months, I took DD out trick-or-treating and left DS home with DP, and DP said he kept crying and looking for me and couldn't be consoled or distracted by anything - until DP tried putting on a video. Then he calmed down right away and watched it. As a 2 year old, or probably even younger, he would happily watch a whole kids' video - something like My Neighbor Totoro or a Land Before Time movie - but I think he would have gotten bored with the Chilean miner rescue. He seemed to get a lot out of the videos he watched - understood the basic plot and remembered lots of details.

[zinemama]

I think it's totally normal for a toddler to become obsessed with television/videos. (Just the way adults do.) That is one of the reasons we don't have a TV.

[ErinYay]

V has been exposed to plenty of tv/ video games in the 11 months since she was born, but likes 3 things, and 3 things only:

Little Pim Japanese (amazing language videos- she has one 30 minute DVD and will watch it intently and babbles back to the screen)
They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science
TMBG Here Come the 123s

She'll chill out to old Mr Rogers that I put on when she's up at 6 and I want to doze a bit more, but doesn't particularly care about it. Any of the 3 above titles bring this monster smile to her face and she gets super excited if I ask if she'd like to watch one of them.

Otherwise, she only looks at the tv during the opening credits of anything. It's pretty weird, but during ANY opening credit theme song, she's unreachable. After it's over, it's business as usual.

I think part of it is a temperament thing- she's just not into tv (yet.)

[YayJennie]

We don't have a TV, so my 19 month old son really isn't exposed to TV at all. But we did watch Babies as a family on the computer a few weeks ago, and he sat for that pretty well. But most of the time, he's not the least bit interested in TV. He'll watch a few minutes of a youtube video here and there, but I don't think he would sit for a whole episode of anything. However, we have a 19 month old friend who loves TV, and will sit and watch shows and movies all the time, even though his mother doesn't really encourage it or watch that much TV with him. I really think it's an individual personality thing more than anything. I wouldn't worry.

[dawncayden]

My 18 month old will watch for 10 minutes while his 4.5 yr old brother is watching his morning show.
My older child was obsessed with tv, just like I am, so we have strict rules about how much is allowed.
For me, I'm only allowed to watch tv once the kids are asleep, after I've done cleaning up in the kitchen.
For 4.5 year old ds. He is allowed to watch one tv show in the morning. With 18 month old ds, we don't have a set amount, as he only seems interested for 10 minutes.
If we didn't have these set times in place, we all could easily watch tv ALL DAY, it is horrible. So for our family, this is what works well for us.

Also, when I say 'tv' it's not cable, it's what is on our Apple TV or Netflix...I'm soooo not into commercials

[physmom]

DD is beyond obsessed with TV. We're not a TV free family but we don't let her watch it all day either, which would certainly be her preference. We have the Cat in the Hat movie (the old cartoon from the 70's) and she could probably watch that on repeat ad nauseum if we would let her.

Honestly, we've seen no affect on her imagination/pretend play. She started at 9 months and now will sit down and play a lot with her dolls or her dollhouse. She's also constantly pretending she's different animals (well, normally dinosaurs).

As to how much she gets. Well, we really have to be careful. When she was younger we used to watch TV shows at night sometimes because she'd go to bed so late. We had to nip that in the bud because one day we realized that she had just hit DH after a character on the show did the same thing. We had thought she wasn't paying attention but boy were we wrong! So she just gets to watch kid shows (or the biggest loser if she's still up because she loves all things to do with exercise). She'll participate with the shows and answer any questions for shows that break the 4th wall. I'm pretty sure she picked up sequential counting from a Dora episode that counted to 9 because it was during that episode that I first heard her count to 9 in order. I'm not saying it's the best thing in the world for her and I often wish we'd put it on TV less but it doesn't seem to be the great evil that some make it out to be.

ETA: We didn't allow any TV before she was 1. She did get some slight exposure at other people's houses and then she was stuck to the screen like glue. We had gotten a Baby Einstein DVD in the mail with a parenting magazine when she was well under 1 and we popped it in the DVD just to see what it was like and I swear she didn't blink the entire time! After that we deemed it baby crack and didn't like how zoned out she looked so we threw it out.

[hildare]

we're basically tv free.. we have a dvd player in a cabinet in the bedroom, which we only watch videos on after dd, 1 yo, is asleep.
when she's been at restaurants or other people's houses where tv/movies are on, she is entranced.. like.. "whoa what is that thing?"
so i would say the limited exposure makes it a novelty.

[carmel23]

My toddler does not watch any television. But then he is 10 months.

That said, I think it is very common for 3 year-old through 4 year-olds to become obsessed with television. I just explain to my kids that I want them to have happy memories, and learn how to play. That there is plenty of time to watch tv when they are older. It seems to work, fine.

We have one night a week when we have movie night, other then that, it is off.

[thehighernest]

DS (19 months) is very interested in certain movies/shows -- not everything catches his attention. He definitely watches too much of it: there's no good excuse of it, but goodness knows sometimes I've just been completely cooked and we've watched something together.

I've tried some baby sign language videos and he's not so interested: but put on Toy Story and the kid will watch the whole thing no problem. Don't ask me what it is about that movie.

In general, he seems very emotionally attuned to visual images (in books, too). He laughs at incongruities (an elephant wearing a bathing suit, a hot dog car) and cries during sad parts (we watched a Handy Manny episode once where they were getting rid of a noisy rooster, and he totally broke down in tears when he saw the other characters become sad).

It's probably going to be something we really need to monitor more and more now and as he becomes older. I can definitely see how it could become (or may already be) a problem.

In terms of attention span, it seems he can pay attention to anything for a long time in the right setting (say, a puzzle at school), but at home, aside from a certain movie or two, his attention span turns to crap. I think we really just have too much of everything. Even though I've tried to keep a mostly Montessori environment at home (rotating books, toys), we've still accumulated TOO MUCH: too many movies, too many books, too many toys. I think it's time to really get rid of more stuff!

[mamazee]

My older dd has never been very into TV. She's 8 now, almost 9, and if she DOES watch a show, which is really just in bad weather, the little one (not quite 2) is glued to the screen. And if we notice, someone will say "Baby Zombie!" and we'll turn off the TV. Two different kids, two different temperaments. She knows the names of TV characters, has only seen Yo Gabba Gabba maybe twice, and not whole episodes, but recognizes them every time she sees one of the characters anywhere. My older one will watch Sponge Bob sometimes, and the little one very clearly will say "Sponge Bob!" when she sees a TV. And yes, she knows Elmo. I hate it.

[foodymama]

We were not and currently are not TV free. However, TV time has drastically dropped since DD was 18 mo.

When DD was 18 mo. we did some house renovating. We have a TV in our main living space with satellite TV and there was another TV with just a DVD player being stored in DD's room. MIL came to our house to care for DD while DH and I renovated. And DD loved that MIL had shows just for her on both TV's that she could run back and forth and watch whichever one she wanted! After our renovations DD was very demanding about having both TV's on so DH and I decided to go TV free for a while to get her out of that habit. It was not an easy transition.

DD would still sit in front of the TV all day long if I had it on but during the week there is no TV unless DD or I are sick. DD is allowed to watch TV on the weekends but that is the only regular time for it.

It really does depend on the child though. My nephew is 4 mo. older than DD and my grandmother has babysat him from the time he was 6 weeks old. She has TV on 24/7 and always put kids shows on for him during the day and he couldn't care less. There is nothing on TV that keeps his attention.

[red and lulu]

dd (15 mo) doesn't seem to care about the tv much at all, and she's not really exposed to it much. we don't have cable, but we have a dvd player and netflix. when she was a newbie sometimes i'd watch a movie at night while she nursed and slept on me, but by the time she was a few months old i stopped doing that. she has always been obsessed with the computer, and tvs in public sometimes captivate her. my mom watches her frequently now and insists on having the business channel on in the kitchen all day, but dd doesn't even acknowledge it. my mom also plays her sesame street videos on you tube occasionally, but frequently dd doesn't sit for more than a minute. she'd much rather bang on the keyboard.

there have been 3-4 instances where i've been at the end of my rope with her and i tried putting a movie on to see if she'd just chill and sit down. hasn't worked once. i think, in general, this is a good thing. but in those moments, i wish she would veg for a minute!

[shanniesue2]

we will put in a movie in the morning while we're getting ready for work... and aside from the time he spends eating breakfast, DS will pretty much stay engaged with the movie the whole time. We also usually watch one or two movies over the weekends. We don't have cable/dish or a converter box so we don't get TV.

He does have his favorites, will request a specific movie, and knows story events and characters in his favorite movies.

I don't give credit to the movies for this, but I will say that he is also highly verbal, plays well with other kids, and is assertive without being aggressive.

I will also add that sometimes, we really have to coax him into his playroom b/c he'd rather watch a movie and we've said no. So there is that definite down side.

We probably let him watch too much... but that morning time is so rushed for us (we both have to be out the door before 7 AM) and DS will rarely sleep past 5:30... he's usually up by 5:00. And putting in a movie just seems to be the only way for us to be able to get everyone ready, out the door and at work on time.

[Skippy918]

My son loves the Curious George cartoon. We only let him watch one episode in the evening and it's usually while we're getting dinner ready. Of course after the episode is over he asks for more, but we suggest other things to keep him occupied, like playing with blocks or other toys.

[ellemenope]

Thanks for all the replies. I feel a bit better. I should say that she does not regularly beg for TV because it is just not in our routine. But, if it is on when we are out she is so easily sucked into it. It is mesmorizing to her.

She just seems to love it and get so much out of it. The few things she has seen mean so much to her. I guess it is just her personality. It is just something I had not seen at all in my circle of moms. I have been waiting over a year now for DD's peers to show interest in TV like DD did at 13 months.

Oh, and my freind mentioned to me today that her DD (the one who would not sit still for any program) has taken to Dora. They tried everything and got a winner. She sat for the whole half hour (or how ever long that show is.) They are thrilled.