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Autism: the Role of TV & Electronics
Does your child prefer television, video games or anything on a screen over board games, crafts or outdoor play?
Do you notice your child stims more and has more sensory issues the more they sit using an electronic device?
If so, you're not alone; not by a long shot. If you continue allowing your child to use electronics, you're not alone either. I do hope that what I'm about to share starts to change your mind and then change your actions.
Simply put, many children become overloaded when watching television, playing video games or sitting on a computer screen for any length of time. In my home, it takes about half an hour and my son Ian starts stimming and acting 'goofy' as we lovingly describe it at home.
He'll first start moving his entire body in odd motions; slamming himself against the couch while sitting on it. He'll begin to move his hands, but he flaps them by his waist not by his face, and then he'll start to act out the scene on TV.
He short circuits at this point and if this scenario isn't prevented, or stopped immediately (by removing the input and redirecting him to an activity requiring movement and focus) he will remain in that state for hours if not the rest of the day.
We've tried, together with Ian, to come up with ways to prevent this and still allow him to watch an entire movie or play a game for longer then twenty minutes, but we've been unsuccessful. As of this writing, we have to limit visual input from electronics of all kinds; including hide the remotes, games, chargers, cameras .... we have to do this for him - not because we're anti-gaming/TV/PC (although I am to some degree).
I watched a video online the other day and it was of a child standing a few inches from a TV screen, which was displaying cartoons and a bar scrolling throughout the screen from the TV's age and condition. This kiddo rocked back and forth so fast, I expected smoke; he blinked his eyes at a pace so rapid it seemed physically impossible. He began to make a clucking sound and then he began repeating it. All the while, the mom recorded on, laughing away in the background - yikes.
If your child stims off TV or electronics, like it or not you have to limit it. Understand it is visual input and stimuli you're considering, not the entertainment value of it. All kids, including my own twho would prefer being still and hooked to a screen if given the option, would benefit from spending more time using their body and brain instead.
Goodness knows, we have plenty of things we could be working on with our children. On that note, I'm now done with electronics and off to help Ian practice tying (eventually shoes, but we're starting with a bathrobe tie).
What do you think - am I making a big deal about this? Do you relate, experience the same? How do you prevent or manage it? Talk about it in the forum with others.
Do you notice your child stims more and has more sensory issues the more they sit using an electronic device?
If so, you're not alone; not by a long shot. If you continue allowing your child to use electronics, you're not alone either. I do hope that what I'm about to share starts to change your mind and then change your actions.
Simply put, many children become overloaded when watching television, playing video games or sitting on a computer screen for any length of time. In my home, it takes about half an hour and my son Ian starts stimming and acting 'goofy' as we lovingly describe it at home.
He'll first start moving his entire body in odd motions; slamming himself against the couch while sitting on it. He'll begin to move his hands, but he flaps them by his waist not by his face, and then he'll start to act out the scene on TV.
He short circuits at this point and if this scenario isn't prevented, or stopped immediately (by removing the input and redirecting him to an activity requiring movement and focus) he will remain in that state for hours if not the rest of the day.
We've tried, together with Ian, to come up with ways to prevent this and still allow him to watch an entire movie or play a game for longer then twenty minutes, but we've been unsuccessful. As of this writing, we have to limit visual input from electronics of all kinds; including hide the remotes, games, chargers, cameras .... we have to do this for him - not because we're anti-gaming/TV/PC (although I am to some degree).
I watched a video online the other day and it was of a child standing a few inches from a TV screen, which was displaying cartoons and a bar scrolling throughout the screen from the TV's age and condition. This kiddo rocked back and forth so fast, I expected smoke; he blinked his eyes at a pace so rapid it seemed physically impossible. He began to make a clucking sound and then he began repeating it. All the while, the mom recorded on, laughing away in the background - yikes.
If your child stims off TV or electronics, like it or not you have to limit it. Understand it is visual input and stimuli you're considering, not the entertainment value of it. All kids, including my own twho would prefer being still and hooked to a screen if given the option, would benefit from spending more time using their body and brain instead.
Goodness knows, we have plenty of things we could be working on with our children. On that note, I'm now done with electronics and off to help Ian practice tying (eventually shoes, but we're starting with a bathrobe tie).
What do you think - am I making a big deal about this? Do you relate, experience the same? How do you prevent or manage it? Talk about it in the forum with others.
2 Comments
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Comment by Amber_K on April 4, 2009 at 11:39am -
Nicole said:
Back in the early days of the diagnosis, my son could watch programming for hours. As many of our young children do, he loved the Teletubbies and Baby Einstein. I bought a whole crate of VHS tapes on ebay for him. (Nowadays a lot of people have access to these on DVR). But soon he got very upset about "Tubby Bye-Bye." He couldn't stand the separation anxiety of it all, I guess. Then I bought a crate of Elmo's World and Brainy Baby tapes, so on. The tapes were so calming to him, we eventually bought some DVD's and a portable player for outings. This was wonderful! The last round of entertainment purchased for him was "I Love Toy Trains" (particularly the music DVD set), "Real Trains for Kids 1, 2" and "The Alphabet Train."
But, all good things come to an end. For the past year he has been growing bored. He had seen all of his VHS/DVD's one too many times. He would throw the tapes as a stim. I hid the DVD's because they were way more expensive to replace and I had to deal with my own anger when he ruined any discs. He ruined several VCR's and we went through two old TV's--when he would get mad he would push the TV into the wall which would make the player fall off as well, so we got smart and put newest TV in a different spot.
Now he must request a DVD. Otherwise, we watch TV. This is not something that we had done much of previously. He would not "allow" us to watch TV. He would make lots of noise and we would miss too much of a show. We didn't work very hard to correct this as we are not big TV watchers. However, now that my husband is coming home after 8:30 p.m. four nights a week, it has fallen to me to entertain my son from the time he gets home from school until the time he goes to bed. So we do puzzles and watch TV, mostly re-runs of sit-coms that I've never gotten to see before. He seems to understand that the shows are entertainment for me and not for him. (The one thing that bothers me about watching TV with my son is the commercials for horror flicks). Once in a while, he'll walk over to the TV and put his face too close to it or he'll stim on the credits rolling at the end of shows. When he is tired he walks over and turns off the TV. Then I tuck him into bed and read to him.
TV has moved from being a babysitter to being a calming routine for him in the evenings. I don't think this is a bad thing. I mean, it's practically a patriotic pastime to be a couch potato during prime time. We're no different than most of America. So, why not? Prior to being TV watchers, we would take our dog for a walk in the evenings. This became a huge problem because if my son fell asleep in the car on the way home then he wanted to spend the entire night in the car (tantrums, screaming all night, wearing down the battery in the car) It was such a giant problem for us that it forced us to seek out a child psychiatrist and look at medication. So, hey, a little TV watching instead of experimenting with more medication works for us.
Computer/Video games are a whole nother topic worthy of a separate reply.
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© 2009 Created by Amber_K on Ning. Create Your Own Social Network
my son broke three tvs this year because he shorts them out by turning them on and off. I think it is common for kids to love tv though. I mean we did a lot of watching cartoons when we were little.
We now have one tv set in our finished basement and we lock the door to get down there so he can't go down without us. He zones out and doesn't get hyper like your son does but he will lose eye contact and look like he has glassy eyes after too much tv or a few movies.
It is hard. Some parents get to use the tv as a babysitter when they have to cook or take a shower and I can't do that so sometimes I wish the whole tv thing would just go away.