Do you find Thomas and Chuggington good for your Auties?

[nappyaddict]

Supposedly they help kids with ASD because by personifying the trains - something commonly of a very high interest to Autistic children, and an object they find easier to relate to than people, probably because they move in a very predicatable and repetetive way - it helps them approach and understand learning to read faces and recognise and understand emotions.

Do you think Roary does this in the same way?

ds has no interest at all - he enjoys nature/animal programmes (Penguin Island atm) - but the vast majority of children's TV programme hold no interest for him (though he occasionally asks to watch Something Special, it was a definite favourite when he was completely non verbal & just learning to sign).

We've done quite a lot of pairing of more 'age appropriate' interests for the sake of social stuff - he knows who's who in Toy Story, Star Wars, Scooby Doo, Bugs Life, Bob the Builder etc but it he usually wants to watch his animal shows.

He can build a Brio track & will play for half an our or so - usually acting out accidents involving animals - the trains aren't very interesting.

SM Does DS like to play with trains or other vehicles or is he not really interested?

for emotions we just do constant labelling - 'ds is cross', 'look dd is sad' etc he can now (unreliably) recognise happy/sad/cross in himself and other members of the family (doing the same with tired/hungry/thirsty/hurt etc). He wouldn't tolerate any formal programme but enjoys assigning emotions in his play (starfish is scared lobster is chasing etc) - it's like all thing isn't it, finding something that is reinforcing for the particular child.

DS loved Thomas when he was younger (he's now 11 but grew out of it much later than most NT kids). He was very keen on transport in general and loved going out on steam trains, playing with Brio, the Tomy sets and watching Thomas videos and reading the books.

I think it was more to do with collecting/categorising the different engines rather than the personification though. He'd play for hours with his Brio and line up all the engines. He would play in exactly the same way if he was given cars or toy animals to play with so I'm not sure the faces were a big factor for him.

There is a whole DVD like this espeically designed for ASD kids. Transporters

It's kind of like Thomas but every episode is about an emotion, and the trains have actors faces.

Wasn't it developed by Simon Baron-Cohen at the Autistic place in Cambridge? (He is the cousin of Sasha Baron-Cohen)

With my DS Thomas comes and goes (but always comes back). He's not that fussed by Chuggington.

At the moment he's loving 'Help I'm a Fish' film which we Sky + the other day.

My boys just love stuff with wheels. They're just as taken by Peppa pig as by the episode of Thomas that usually follows it and, anyhow, usually end up watching CBeebies when those are on five (DS1 insists five is booOOORINGGG!) because they enjoy zingzillas and are more obsessed with numberjacks than anything else! DS1 used to act out scenes from nj on his way to school.

I should fish out their Brum DVD, because that actually has them in stitches and DS1's recently developed an interest in vintage cars (just like his grandad!)

It frustrates DS - he is happy when the trains are moving but if they stop then he starts to cry.

He still gets extremely excited over the Ninky Nonky though, and the only toy he actually plays with is his wooden Ninky Nonk.

DS watches Chuggington and is moderately interested in Thomas books, but I must say they never really rocked his boat the way Pingu, Shaun the Sheep and lately Bob the Builder do. Bob has machines, but in the way of facial expressions (or indeed most else) they are a bit crap.
But hey, the kid now knows the difference between a screwdriver and a spanner, and talks about 'going to work' - my mother thinks that's him sorted out for the future.

Heh! DS2 is often singing "booo ba bii-uh" (yes, he's actually progressing with his attempts at speech :o:o:o) and is night garden mad. He finds the ninky nonk hilarious and loves doing makka pakka's dance.

Anyone else think makka pakka might have ASD?

Maybe...

I thought Dr Who was supposed to be ASD too.

I haven't seen any of the current doctor. I only watch if DH s watching and he wasn't fussed about the last series with the new guy.

My DS has been a fan of trains and cars from the older baby stage.
Thomas and Chuggington are favourites of his, but so is Disney Cars. In fact anything with wheels on is of his interest, on the tv, toys, books, and real vehicles.
What i have found useful is the Thomas and friends asd website, they have games about emotions amongst others, we have played these many times and he has got better and better with his answers.

Makka Pakka definitely (the collecting stones is a giveaway).
Dr. Who not sure. The Tasmanian Devil probably has ADHD.
Also (I don't know how many people will be familiar with this though) Arnold the little pig from Kipper is non-verbal (but can ride a bike) - ASD with very good gross motor skills?

I love Arnold.

And you've just reminded me about the big Kipper phase that DS1 had, around his 2nd birthday. He wouldn't go to bed without his "Pipper!" story and would sit shouting out the names of the drop caps on each page as we read to him! I even ended up doing a massive Kipper cross stitch for him when I was pregnant with DS2.

ds has asd, had toban thomas after he became obsessed. would wake screaming thomas names. although I do thimk thomas helped no speaking ds to talk. once thomas was banned we noticed huge turn around in learning.
I have found keep mixing it up lots of different viewing options. has worked for us. saying that I can say ds has shown no interest in watching tv since we bought activity draws 2months ago.

DS1's Big Interests have been the same since he was two - Singing Kettle (we have 10 DVDs now!) and Doctor Who. Luckily I share the DW one! He actually got even more into it this year with Matt Smith.

Never been into transport programmes at all, he just likes telly tbh, doesn't much care what's on it!

Just adding a :) because Tiny Pop (shudder) has actually started scheduling episodes of Kipper!

:):):)

(OK, bracing myself for a full morning of Tiny Pop, because DS1 allowed DS2 to watch a load of channel five this morning, without complaint that "Five is booOOOORRRRIIINNNGGG!!!" - it's a deal we have that saves me from a whole day of cbeebies!)

My ds was very big into Thomas, still enjoys the prog now and occasionally plays with the trains, we have the transporter dvd which is excellent- would defo recomend.I think these do help with emotions.

Now he is into Doctor Who (I think the new one is asd) and after seeing the film he is now obbsessing about Toy Story.

His imaginative play is good if you look on a superficial level, but if you look closely it is all copied from t.v. He can only play with character toys that come with their personality already established by film or t.v. If I give him other imaginative toys like imaginex he doesn't know how to play with them as there is no corresponding t.v show and so he cant imagine a personality for them.

I did at first read the title as Aunties and wondered about my grown up sisters watching episodes of cuggington in secret

sumum I think most of DS' imaginative play is copied from TV too, but I'm just glad that we've progressed on to some sort of imaginative play TBH.

I think he also copies it from stories we have read together.