Posted on 05/08/2007 7:47:54 AM PDT by Sopater
We’re pretty good about not having the tv on when our 12 month old is in the room. Although Mr. elc does like to cuddle up with her every now and then and watch the Simpsons.
But we do purposely put on her Baby Signing Times dvd. It has been amazing. We’ve been working on signs with her ourself, but she’s learning the ones from the dvd much faster. Probably because we don’t sing cute little songs when we sign with her.
Perhaps its a little strong to say that the companies “foist” this material on parents. We’re all free to choose. The parents can choose to either watch or not, either buy or not. If they don’t consider themselves to be free and believe that this material is being ‘foisted’ on them, then they deserve our sympathy or perhaps even pity.
Sorry, but in that study, they didn’t even study children who watched tv versus those that didn’t. They looked at the autism rates in 2 states - California and Pennslyvania I believe - and compared that to cable subscription rates and precipitation rates in those states.
To me, that just does not demonstrate a causal relationship. There could be any other number of variables coming into play.
Once we got to 10th grade, we used the dual credit system since we're very close to a couple state U's. But for the high school diploma, we had to jump through hoops. I actually thought we'd have to resort to the GED (since he had earned enough credits for an AA during HS, but couldn't get an AA without a high school diploma...it was like a catch-22.)
It finally turned out to be easier than they had led us to believe. We just had to sign an affadavit, get a letter from the Homeschool Office of our public school system saying we were enrolled as homeschoolers, and then present a transcript. Since most of the classes were taken at the college, the transcript was easy.
But on his college transcripts it says "HS diploma, homeschool"...on yours they'll be an actual school that awarded the HS diploma and I think that can be helpful.
I do agree a lot more study is needed.
But I would add that I live very near a large Amish community. They don’t have TV. I know lots of them. I have never heard of an Amish kid with autism. I am sure there are some but not nearly at the rate as the general population.
Up until a certian age our sensory signals are still developing. Overstimulation could very well cause damage.
And I’ve heard people make the same argument about the Amish and vaccines.
The Amish are a very homogeneous group (genetically). That plays into the autism factor much more than television or vaccines.
That said, I do agree that sensory skills and brain development under the age of three is crucial. It is why we do try very hard to limit television for our daughter and we choose to delay many of her vaccines. Not because we think they cause autism, but because they can interfere with brain development.
Is that Tom Terrific?
“My son is fifteen months old, and he’s never watched television. My wife and I read to him, play games with him, and take him outside”
I did that with my children and I always got compliments on how well they played. They didn’t complain about not having anything to do or being bored. They had the imagination to make everything into something fun. They are teenagers now and sometimes drive me nuts with their antics. ;-)
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Yep, and Manfred the Wonder Dog.
And Clyde Crashcup and his assistant Leonardo (much better than the Chipmunks that the Crashcup cartoons feel in bewteen).
I disagree. My 3 year old is past the Baby Einstein stage but he really enjoyed them when he was younger. I don't think it is harmful to expose your kid to a few little puppet shows and some classical music. It's not like he didn't touch, feel interact and explore also.
My son is not a couch potato. He has all the wild energy of a 100% boy. If we had forced him to watch Baby Einstein and never interacted with him ourselves, that would be child abuse. But it was just one additional thing he was exposed to that seemed to be mentally stimulating.
From what I've read the founder of Baby Einstein sold the company to Disney then she started working with the creator of America's Most Wanted on a series of videos aimed at keeping teens safe. It was the teen videos that got her honored by Bush, not the baby ones.
In that case, I will gladly stand corrected.
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