Forget what I told you about L getting smarter. Apparently, this is not something I need to worry too much about. Recent discoveries lead me to believe the poor child is seriously cognitively challenged. Or, since he’s the only 3-year-old I’ve ever had, maybe they’re all a little stupid? The source of my concern: he can’t follow a plot.
In the last couple of weeks he has watched the movie Toy Story at least 10 times. He can’t sit through a whole movie, so he watches 20 minutes here and there, but he’s seen it. A lot. (If he was in your house, you’d put him in front of the TV too, I swear!) He loves the movie, so I figured he was following the story, at least a little. But he’s not. He has no clue what is happening. I have no idea what he is gleaning from the movie, but what he doesn’t know includes: that toys come to life when no people are around; that there’s a mean kid next door; that the mean kid is mean to toys; and that there is a character named Woody. So, what exactly is he getting from the movie? Is he just transfixed by flashing lights? No wonder he has no attention span for TV!
So, you tell me. Is he stupid? Surely 3-year-olds elsewhere can “get” a movie like Toy Story?
I found that to be true for the twins too (not being able to follow the plot), even though they sat mesmerized by the t.v. screen. When I told them the story, in the easy to understand 3, 4 or 5 year old story telling version I used, before playing the movie, they got much more out of it. They would be waiting for the parts that struck them in the story and ask me (usually at the wrong times), is this when Pinocchio becomes a donkey, boy, actor or whatever. I told them the whole Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Mary Poppins, and so on. They can listen to the stories and follow them. Maybe it’s more distracting watching the movies. By the way, when I had L here last weekend, I told him the story of Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs (stretching it out to fill our drive to and from visiting great grandma L), and he was very interested and asked appropriate questions. I would tell it to him again before showing him the movie just to refresh it so he could follow the movie.
I think he’s many things, but stupid is not one of them.
It is just the age. Both of my kids love movies and TV, but rarely sit through a whole program. Boys are just active. My boys tend to get into everything. There are days I “wish” they would sit in front of the TV and sit still and be quiet for a few minutes. BTW, I love your posts, they crack me up. Nice to know other people are challenged daily by their kids too
Mine decided to pee on the floor last night b/c he was mad about going to bed. GRRR. Luckily they are cute and do funny things that make me laugh every day. Kids, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
actually, I’ve read several books that say TV increases attention problems. Count the seconds between camera shifts and scene changes sometime – on adult shows its only 5 seconds at most, on kids tv its less than one second on average. read ‘making the terrible twos terrific’. i’m too lazy to get up and look up the author right now…
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