My DD is 3 years old with delayed echolalia. Back before we got our autism diagnosis, her speech therapist's advice was to limit screen time to 1 hour per day to discourage the echoing/parroting in favor of free play that encouraged original speech. Okay great. But now we have this autism diagnosis, and DD's special interests-- while they seem to change every couple months-- always center around music. And she absolutely LOVES watching video clips of Disney songs, musicals (Greatest Showman… read more
Both of my kids speech therapist tried that back in the day lol 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂...was usually my response. This stuff comforts our kiddos it's like someone taking a relaxing bath after a long day they like their videos and devices and I say let them as much as they want...as long as ur making time for exercises and socialization and sensory play screen away my friend, screen far far away...that's my honest opinion therapist only know as much as their degree let's them the rest is instinct and experience they are there for support YOU are the expert on ur kid...it's difficult in the beginning because you want to do everything right eventually you learn the balance of what's standard and what works for ur kid.
Do not limit it... if it helps with speech and understanding and learning- let her watch as much as she wants to. Change the speech therapist if she gives you a hard time. Find someone who will let your daughter learn at her own pace and time. Interactive learning is stressful for our kids and they learn much better from animated cartoons than human beings because no social clues are involved. My daughter used to love animation when she was younger now is into pre teen shows so no it won’t limit your child to only seeing animation.
Go by your instinct. You’ll figure out how many hours are OK for your child. It’s different for all. It also differs based on the day of the week or her mood that particular day . My daughter was pretty much all that you describe about your child at that age. There was no set limit, I just made sure other important activities weren’t left out. I can’t begin to tell you how much she learnt from those shows. Daniel Tiger will always be MY hero! Peppa pig was another favorite, her first sentences were scripting with a British accent. I do not think scripting ( parroting as you put it) is necessarily a bad thing. My daughter used to script a lot in the right context and situation. She was able to communicate and get her point across which gave her confidence and pride. She does not script anymore. She’s 7 now and we still do intense ST but half the time she annoys her brothers by not giving them a chance to talk at the table.
When describing DD, it sounded like my 6yr old son. I'm glad you asked because I had the same EXACT question and it still hadn't been answered.
I ended up letting him have the screen time but tried to keep it as educational as possible intermixed with games and movies and sensory things like play-doh.
He did like and learn many of the same shows as DD. I still use Daniel Tiger to help him calm down "what would Daniel do? Count from 5 to 1" It has helped in that it's not just something mommy is telling me to do. So far he seems to be keeping on track with school. He is still way into music. He still has problems with focus because he is always playing some music in his mind. I'm a 100% single mom so sometimes i just need the physical/emotional break from the tantrums and what he is watching goes unsupervised. When DD starts to figure out how to get into different apps and changing channels, you will have to keep an ear out cuz she will be finding all sorts of of twisted things that come up along with the seemingly harmless search she may enter.
P.S.check out Kids Learning Tube on YouTube. My son learned all the planets and all their moons, different states and different things on nutrition by the time he was 4 1/2.
@A MyAutismTeam Member
Mike drop! Couldn’t have said it better!