Anybody else sort of switch gears when it came to how they are going to handle tv and commercialism?
I discovered, over time, that letting ds watch kid appropriate shows and getting some of the branded toys seemed to help him socialize a lot better. It also helped the therapist a lot because it gave him more social references with language, instead of just staring blankly when somebody said "is Dora happy or sad?" or "What is Goofy doing?" and just gave them a lot better variety to work with to help reinforce different things. It helped when he was with other kids because if they were acting out something that he was familiar with, he was able to participate at least to a degree.
Open ended toys generally do not inspire nearly the social interactions because they don't have 'rules'. He likes some open ended toys, but he doesn't really play with them in an open ended way like typical kids do (where a block becomes food, or a wall, or car) unless he is shown a specific way to play with them. Once he is shown that it can 'represent' something specific, he can sometimes continue to play like that, but he would never see a blue playsilk and think "oh, it can be water" like my dd probably could.
The closest he gets to that open-ended type play is to make patterns out of the toys.
Creative in it's own way, but not what people are aiming for when they get the really cool waldorf/montessori/natural toys.
I noticed that his language definatly saw improvement when I stopped limiting tv too. For a while, he watched tons of tv, although that really slowed down a LOT after a while. When he ramped up his tv viewing though, he especially liked videos that he watched over and over again, and would pick up some scripts and they basically became social stories for him. (I was very careful about *what* he saw, just not about how often he saw them). I honestly think tv was a much easier medium for him to learn from than the unpredictibility of the normal world, the way typical kids pick up language and behavior.
I was wondering if anybody else had this experience. It is just really hard on me on many levels because it isn't how I envisioned parenting at ALL, but it seems to meet his needs better than my ideal vision of what I thought was the *right* way to parent. I feel like such a fraud sometimes, but, contrary to all the studies on the negative impact of this stuff, it just seems to be the opposite for us in reality.
I would love to hear others thoughts on this. I know this is probably one of those "I can't believe this is on MDC" type threads, but that is why I put it in SN, because the SN status of my child is directly relevant, and the needs of my child seem to be in direct conflict with NFL ideals and I am struggling with it.
I discovered, over time, that letting ds watch kid appropriate shows and getting some of the branded toys seemed to help him socialize a lot better. It also helped the therapist a lot because it gave him more social references with language, instead of just staring blankly when somebody said "is Dora happy or sad?" or "What is Goofy doing?" and just gave them a lot better variety to work with to help reinforce different things. It helped when he was with other kids because if they were acting out something that he was familiar with, he was able to participate at least to a degree.
Open ended toys generally do not inspire nearly the social interactions because they don't have 'rules'. He likes some open ended toys, but he doesn't really play with them in an open ended way like typical kids do (where a block becomes food, or a wall, or car) unless he is shown a specific way to play with them. Once he is shown that it can 'represent' something specific, he can sometimes continue to play like that, but he would never see a blue playsilk and think "oh, it can be water" like my dd probably could.
The closest he gets to that open-ended type play is to make patterns out of the toys.
Creative in it's own way, but not what people are aiming for when they get the really cool waldorf/montessori/natural toys.I noticed that his language definatly saw improvement when I stopped limiting tv too. For a while, he watched tons of tv, although that really slowed down a LOT after a while. When he ramped up his tv viewing though, he especially liked videos that he watched over and over again, and would pick up some scripts and they basically became social stories for him. (I was very careful about *what* he saw, just not about how often he saw them). I honestly think tv was a much easier medium for him to learn from than the unpredictibility of the normal world, the way typical kids pick up language and behavior.
I was wondering if anybody else had this experience. It is just really hard on me on many levels because it isn't how I envisioned parenting at ALL, but it seems to meet his needs better than my ideal vision of what I thought was the *right* way to parent. I feel like such a fraud sometimes, but, contrary to all the studies on the negative impact of this stuff, it just seems to be the opposite for us in reality.
I would love to hear others thoughts on this. I know this is probably one of those "I can't believe this is on MDC" type threads, but that is why I put it in SN, because the SN status of my child is directly relevant, and the needs of my child seem to be in direct conflict with NFL ideals and I am struggling with it.
:
Now I just have to figure out how to get my NT kid to stop watching as much as my ASC one does.
Its our ace in the hole (since he weaned) for soothing him when facing an unpleasant task. Put on something with music like the wiggles ***shudder*** and he's golden through anything from blood work to allergy testing.
:
