Watching TV with your kids isn’t ALL bad!

by Sharon Weisz
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Let’s face it, it’s 2015 and it is impossible to avoid all screens all the time unless we place our children in a bubble, in which case they will still find out about the “Bubble Guppies”.

So what can we do to maximize the social and learning benefits that our children may gain from screen time?  Here are some ideas to keep in mind when watching television with your little ones:

  1. PREDICT – Ask your child “What do you think is going to happen next? How do you know?”
  2. THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS – Ask your child what a particular character is thinking and how that is making him feel. Help him along by using a variety of words aside from ‘happy’ and ‘sad’. You can use negative words, such as disappointed, frustrated, upset, and hurt as well as positive words, such as excited, joyful, or pleased
  3. PROBLEM AND SOLUTION – Talk about the problem in the story and how it was resolved.
  4. RETELL THE STORY – Have your child explain to you, a sibling, or a grandparent what happened and help him along. You can use words like, “First, then, and last/at the end”.
  5. MAKE IT PERSONAL – Ask your child if he has ever felt that way or been in that type of situation and what he did.
  6. CHANGE THE ENDING – Ask your child to make a different ending to the show. This will encourage creative and flexible thinking.

Keep in mind that many children may have trouble expressing these types of ideas and/or may not wish to participate in this type of question and answer period.  If your child falls into any of these categories, you may take the pressure off by simply making comments periodically throughout the show.

You can use phrases like, I think, I wonder, I remember a time when, Imagine if… These types of sentence starters may actually invite your child to speak rather than force him to answer if he does not wish to do so.

Be careful not to say too much as this may take away from your child’s enjoyment of the show, particularly if this is his downtime at the end of the day.

Here are some COMMENTS you can make throughout the show:

  • PREDICT – I wonder what is going to happen next.
  • THOUGHTS I wonder what Billy is thinking.
  • FEELINGS – That would make me feel ___.
  • PROBLEM-SOLVING – Wow, Billy came up with a great solution to the problem. (define the problem)
  • RETELL THE STORY – Purposely retell the story to another person in your child’s presence. It may seem as though he is not listening, but he may surprise you one day when he tells you a story about something that happened at school as you have shown him how to retell a story.
  • MAKE IT PERSONAL – Tell your child about a similar experience you had to the one in the story. Kids love to hear stories about their parents when they were younger.
  • CHANGE THE ENDING If I made this show, I would have ….

 

Good luck and happy screen time!

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