Do you think no TV might be a bad thing?

[IcouldstillbeJoseph]

DS is 2.6. Had grommets in at 18mo because of hearing loss & ear infections due to glue ear.

His speech has been affected (he was mute until 18mo) and we are currently skint paying for private speech therapy as the NHS waiting list was so long.

Anyway, at the first appointment the speech therapist was pointing out the perils of TV. I have to admit that I'd been becoming reliant on it as I had a 2 week old baby at the time. So when I came home, DH and I agreed no more TV for DS for a long while. It has gone surprisingly well and he is getting better at entertaining himself etc. the only time we have had it on is a DVD when he's poorly.

But if we go to someone's house now and they have the TV on he's absolutely obsessed with it. I'm wondering whether 'cold turkey' was too much? And I'm also wondering whether some TV is actually worthwhile - to show things we wouldn't normally see?

Just as an aside - I've only done the no TV thing as his speech was so bad, I wouldn't have considered it otherwise...

iPlayer (or similar) provides the benefits without the drawbacks, IMO.

Posted too soon.

Meant to add: You can be far more selective as are not tied to broadcasting times.

We don't have a TV at home and haven't had one for a long time.
The dcs watch stuff in the iplayer.

One dc would get glued on the TV whenever he can, the other just walks away unless it's something that really is interesting him.

Tbh, his reaction is more likely to have something to do with his temperament rather than going cold turkey too hard. Especially as he still very very young

Re whether it's worth watching TV...
Have a look at the programs yourself. Ask yourself if they are just time fillers or if they do bring something.
I found some are actually quite good, but most are just time wasting stuff (and also carrying not so appropriate message across).
I also found that by using the iplayer, my dcs choose what they want to watch and stop when there is nothing worth. Incl the one that could get glue on the TV when we are staying with family.
But all this has become true when the dcs were older (Not before 5~6yo). Before that TV was amusement that could have been achieved in other ways except it meant I had to be involved and I prefered to have 30mins of peace and quiet

Agree about being selective YES.

Can I ask what the SALT said re TV?

We got rid of tv ( still have actual tv for games console which doubles as DVD player) when dd was 9. She will watch LOADS of tv given the chance. TV /video games are on pretty constantly at 3 of her 4 best friends houses.

However, while I encourage them to play a board game or go outside instead, I don't overly mind as DD spends enough time away from it at home.

I feel its extremely important for kids to get bored and entertain themselves :)

She said that because he had been so hearing impaired for so long (the extent of his hearing loss was underestimated they now think) that he finds it hard to listen to more than one thing at a time.
So, I thought I was doing the right thing by watching TV with him and chatting to him about what was going on. However, she said it was better to not have it on at all.
She also recommended no radio too.

I think it's better not having TV or radio on at all.

I have a hearing loss (from birth) and I find background noise really hard to deal with. If I'm out somewhere where there's a TV, I often find myself watching it and concentrating on it - not because I like it, just because it's irritating to have it going on in the background, and I can't tune it out.

DH likes the radio on in the morning - the second he goes out the door, I switch it off so I can hear the DC properly.

So it is more the fact that having some noise in the background is going to make things difficult for him.

Do you think 1/2 hour of TV would make such a big difference, esp if he watches it in a quite environment to avoid distractions for him (so he can follow the cartoon properly)?

There are 2 issues there.
The noise reduction to support your ds
whether it is a good idea for a child that age to watch TV at all.

You might want to discuss the first one with your SALT and see what she says.
And discuss the second point with your DH, incl the fact that you might want TV for very short periods to help at whatever time it's really needed.

That's interesting BumbleChum...

Bumble I have no hearing loss but TV has the same effect on me lol.

We don't have any TV on in the daytime at home at all, usually. My DC are 5, 3 and 2. The two older ones get to watch a film on DVD at the weekend occasionally (about once or twice a month) and sometimes watch the Ipad with DH for fifteen minutes before dinner (maybe once a week or less). That's a personal choice, because DH and I don't think zoning out in front of TV is particularly beneficial, especially for under-2s (and until a couple of weeks ago, we always had an under-2).

But, I have found that left to their own devices, with no expectation of TV, the DC entertain themselves very well while I'm doing other things. It does sometimes create mess, admittedly, but I think they get so much more from that kind of pottering, imaginative play than they would from TV.

As they get older, they'll get to watch more. Who knows whether this approach will have benefits, but I don't think it has any cons.

Just as a point of interest, there is nothing worse for me than someone chatting to me (even 'about the programme') when I do watch TV. It's totally distracting, and I can't follow them and the TV, so always miss some of either. DH doesn't get that, because he is from a large family and has been trained in the art of listening to eleventy different things simultaneously. Plus, I don't really enjoy watching TV without subtitles.

I think the biggest thing you can do that will benefit your DS is to talk to him a lot, lots and lots of conversations. My mother did this with me (my hearing loss was diagnosed at 2.5 - before that my speech was poor and unintelligible. My mother developed a very clear speaking voice (the kind that needs no microphone to be heard on a stage, without any type of shouting) and spent the next couple of years in constant conversation with me.

It paid off very well for me. I think she is still exhausted from it though

Again interesting! DS often says "talk to me mummy!" And likes to hear general chat about what we did yesterday, what we will do tomorrow etc.

There have been studies showing that the hearing children of deaf (sign language user) parents do not learn spoken language from TV or radio - only from having contact with hearing people who speak to them. I think that for all children, conversation is critical, but for children who have hearing impairments (or in your DC's case, the brain adjustments that come from hearing impairment?) it is even more crucial.

What saved my mother from mental collapse was books - she read to me a lot, and by about 3.5 I was reading myself (I think the hearing loss drove me quicker to reading, because I was so delighted at finding there was no barrier to understanding written words). So, once I could read fluently, she got hours and hours of peace (but spent a lot of time changing books at the library).

Reading a lot is good if you have a hearing loss, because a wide vocabulary helps with the 'guesstimating' what people have said :)

Oh - and if you do go for some TV for your DS, think very carefully about what programmes. Avoid the very 'busy' modern ones, with loads of noise, and funny voices, and lots of cutting across each other.

Go for more old fashioned ones, with a clear voice (often just one narrator) and ideally where you can see the speaker's face when they're talking. I used to like Blue Peter and John Craven's Newsround (old gimmer)

Yes, we read loads and loads. It's amazing how much more he wants to sit still and listen now he can actually hear what we're saying!

There have been studies showing that the hearing children of deaf (sign language user) parents do not learn spoken language from TV or radio

YY.
There is nothing better than talking and reading to children at that age. regardless of hearing problems.

I have to say, because I struggled sometimes with my 2dcs when they were little and this 1/2 hour of TV just before bedtime was a life saver for me, I would tend to say 1/2 isn't that much of a problem, esp if the TV and radio is never on the rest of the time.
But you will know how much difference a no TV rule has on your ds and how much leeway you actually have, should you need it.

Really interesting thread! Agree with fascination for tv being a temperament thing. We don't have a tv. DC1 is glued to the screen when we visit other people and the tv is on. DC2 only watches when interested in the content.

Thank you - sympathy to a fellow glue ear parent. It's hellish.

WouldBeHarrietVane Fri 12-Jul-13 14:49:09
"I don't think you can have too little tv until it becomes a social thing ie a way of bonding with other children about popular programmes - maybe at 3 or 4."

This. And I would put the age even higher: 3yos aren't really socially aware enough to feel out of it if they haven't seen Peppa Pig. That need to be part of a group I'd say is more age 4-5 upwards.

We didn't have one until dd was about 7. She is very far from obsessed with it, in fact spends more time reading than watching. Ds who was 4 when we bought it is more dependent on it. I can see the benefits now they are older, but for toddlers it is really about the convenience of the parent.