Getting the tv watching under control seems to have improved DS2's behaviour a lot

[lingle]

I'm not anti-tv at all and I suppose this is just in case anyone else is wondering whether turning it off can ever make a difference to difficult behaviour.

DS2's tv watching was out of control. I'm too embarrassed to say how much tv he was watching at 2 years old. He was very focussed when he watched, looked forward to his favourites and could concentrate on them for hours. He memorised scripts and scenes. He screamed when we turned it off. Everything that involved having the tv off was a battle. I used to spend two hours coming home from nursery just to avoid the moment we got in the house when he ran for the tv.

He's now basically stopped watching tv and I've noticed that he's much calmer, happier and more connected to his immediate environment and interested in his toys and other people. He has language delay and now there are many of those calm quiet moments each day that you need when you are trying to do the DIY speech-therapy techniques.

We started by trying to find the times he didn't actually ask for tv ie first thing in the morning, then extended it to all morning (so poor DS1 missed his Saturday morning tv because DS2 doesn't understand days of the week yet). Then we went on holiday for two weeks and pretended there was no tv there. Life was so much more pleasant that when we got home DH got out of the car first, went into the sitting room, unplugged the tv and turned it to the wall.
I never thought we could do it but I'm so glad I did. I guess some kids just get too drawn into it for it to be healthy for them (only some, of course. my friends can have it on all day and their kids are just fine. And unlike mine they can talk lots and lots!).

[fatzak]

That's really interesting Lingle. I know that my two DSes watch far too much and I need to sort it out. Mornings are the worst, it's just so easy to let them watch TV whilst we get ready for work and school. In fact, will really make an effort from tomorrow to stop it!

[RaggedRobin]

lingle, i could be you! our son (2.9) sounds exactly the same. we have been reducing the amount of tv and noticing big improvements in language. we go back to SALT in october and i feel much more positive about the progress he has made.

he wasn't interested in shared activities/reading etc, but now we have story time every day and he is coping much better with questions/turntaking and converstaion skills. still have a long way to go though.