Friday, May 1, 2009

Increasing their vocabulary with the TV

Liam is trying to say longer sentences, other than just saying help or water please.
He knows there are more words to go in his sentences and he tries to find them. On the days he is focused I see that he learns a great deal of words from the TV. OK, experts say that kids should not watch more than 2 hours of TV a day, but here in our house my kids are actually learning from the big tube.
They learned to express feelings, Kevin loves to sing along to tunes in his favorite cartoons and even his favorite TV commercial (freecreditreport.com tell your friends, tell your dad, tell your mom...) Go figure!
After finding all his hidden eggs on Easter Sunday (empty of course, I did not buy gf/cf candy for that) Liam looked in his basket filled with animal shaped eggs and said: That is swell! I don't even use that word!
Our TV is always on when the kids are home, however, I am not encouraging anybody to keep their kids in front of the TV. Every child is unique so you have to find your kids interests and use in in their favor. Kevin loves flash cards and we use it to teach him sight words.
For Example: I read once that a mother wanted to teach her autistic son the alphabet, but every time she tried he would have a bad tantrum. She noticed that he liked to sit in front of her washing machine and see the clothes spin while washing and drying. So She wrote the letters on wash cloth, one for each letter and threw it in the washer,when it was done she asked for his help to put it in the dryer, but at the same time showing him what was on the wash cloth. It worked! He learned the alphabet, the numbers and even words. She used his self stimulatory behavior in his favor.
Find what they like and use for them.