something special dvds

[bigcar]

My dd3 has just been diagnosed as deaf, and having just started signing with her thought these dvds would good to get for her. They cost £17.99 on the bbc shop site. I know I can get them a lot cheaper on ebay but why are they so much more expensive than all the other kids dvds which seem to be about £12.99 or cheaper! And why do they not come up when you view the childrens section, i only found the something special dvds by doing a search. AIBU to think the bbc is disciminating against special needs kids or have i missed something really obvious?

i love that show, my kids loved it (not deaf) and after a while picked up sign language quite well.

this should be made compulsory viewing in all primary schools.

re: price, i've found that very popular DVDs the companies just make more expensive. same with red dwarf DVD. epsiodes 1-4 are £11.99 and the more popular 5-8 are £18.99.

it's crap!

Non chart dvd's are always more expensive.

I think the BBC's position on this is that it's educational not entertainment, and because they sell fewer of the educational DVDs the per unit price is higher. In this case I think it's total tosh as it's a very popular programme and they would sell loads if it was reasonably priced.

Do you have Freeview? If you can get Cbeebies then I would recommend recording it from there. I have loads of them on the hard drive of my dvd recorder and they are always a great standby for amusing ds.

"Sounds like stupid discrimination based on expected sales to me (always comes down to money). "

that's not really discrimination though is it?it's more just an unfortunate fact of economics.
i wouldn't blame the company making the dvd's (unless it is a state company) and perhaps the government should subsidise the dvd's so that they are priced the same.
agree that they should be the same price, just a question of who should foot the bill. imho it should be the state.

My hearing kids love it too, surely it should come under the same section as the other kids programmes!

It's because they are classed as Education rather than Entertainment so made and distributed by different bits of the BBC in smaller quantities. There's an official statement about it from the BBC somewhere (although that dates from a time when IIRC they were selling for a lot more than £17.99 each they have come down in price since people started complaining).

So proud when ds signed 'car' yesterday. But out of interest how do non hearing children understand what Mr Tumble is doing, given that the little girl's voice is off screen?

isn't Something Special a programme that uses Makaton aimed at SN children? I know little about this, but if there are major differences between Makaton and BSL, then maybe it would be less confusing long term if she just watched the CBeebies programmes that have signing for deaf children?

OK, just googled, and the signs in Makaton are based on BSL.

I'll get me coat.

bigcar, make your point on the cbeebies message board. Basically go to the cbeebies homepage, click on the link 'for grown ups' & there's the board.

Tissy, you are right.

SS uses Makaton as its supposed to be easier for children with learning diffoculties to grasp. Its adapted from BSL and you will find that some signs are the same or very very simialr.

SS is really for children with SN as far as i am aware.

I think that BSL is what uyou are suposed to sign with a deaf/hard of hearing child.
(based on the fact that MIL fosters and their current baby is somehting like 70% deaf and they have been told to use BSL rather than makaton)

phew

Thanks onetiredmummy, i didnt realise you could do that! Yes something special is mainly for sn kids but dd3 is only 16 months, the signing on the other cbeebies programmes is too much for her to take in, Justin only does the basics which suits us no end at the moment! She really likes the songs. As for the mr tumble bits, he is against a very plain background, which allows her to focus on whats happening as she also has poor eyesight.

I looked at getting DS a Something Special DVD last Christmas as he loved but I was put off by the price too! I just Sky plus his favourite programmes now.