Have you used tv to help your kids learn to read?

@ersmommy1 (12588)
United States
January 6, 2009 10:53am CST
There are programs on that encourage reading. Like PBS's Word World. Or even Superwhy is a good one. Do you think these shows are helpful tools. Or do you avoid them?
1 person likes this
10 responses
• United States
7 Jan 09
There are two minds on this issue. One says that the programs are obviously helpful in exposing kids to words, spelling, vocabulary, and other ideas. The other says that time in front of a TV is never as good as time with a parent working on this issues. Both are true and balance between them needs to be found.
1 person likes this
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
6 Jan 09
no, not really. We do not have television. I take a different approach to teach them how to read. I am really happy with the "modern curriculum press" plaid books as well as the old dickand jane books
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@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
13 Jan 09
I think they are very helpful that is why I let my little sister watch them and try to keep her away from Spongebob and other not to good cartoons. I think if we are going to let them watch television that it should be atleast education as it can be. Lucky she like Superwhy and word girl and Dora and even Diego which teaches her about animals.
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
6 Jan 09
Not any specific shows really, but when my son was having trouble reading started making him watch television and movies with the captions on. It really seemed to help. He would sometimes read along out loud with the subtitles and sometimes he would read to himself.
1 person likes this
• United States
13 Jan 09
I think education tv is most helpful but moderation is key. Even a few hrs of educational tv can be too much stimulation as we all are so addicted to tv and other media outlets. One needs to rember to try to turn it off and read a book.
@tinkerick (1257)
• United States
6 Jan 09
PBS, Disney and Nick Jr have some wonderful children's programs. Many of them do help them learn to read and do simple math. My son really caught on with numbers and was very good at basic math even before he started school. Even today he is still ahead of the other kids as far as that goes. However all my kids were slightly behind in reading. Unfortunately we did not spend as much time reading to them as we should have and even with the television programs they were a bit behind. However, it does also depend on the child. One is still getting assistance at school. One is excelling and is in advanced Literature. The third is doing just fine. The way each individual child absorbs, retains and processes what they are taught can be very different. So what works for one child may not work as well for another. I think some of the reading deficit is also due to short attention spans. As the one who is getting assistance in school, reads books alot at home.
1 person likes this
@mtdewgurl74 (18151)
• United States
13 Jan 09
I think they are very helpful that is why I let my little sister watch them and try to keep her away from Spongebob and other not to good cartoons. I think if we are going to let them watch television that it should be atleast education as it can be. Lucky she like Superwhy and word girl and Dora and even Diego which teaches her about animals.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
6 Jan 09
I guess you could say that. My daughter used to love to watch Barney and they taught her many things.
• United States
6 Jan 09
Actually, I do! At least the show used to be on TV. These new shows are great, but there is nothing like the classics, like The Letter People. I bought this entire set of episodes for my kids this Christmas. It teaches children about the sounds of letters, and how they get together to form words. This was also on PBS, first run in the late 70's and syndicated until about seven years ago. I wrote a discussion about it, look here: http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1854086.aspx
• India
7 Jan 09
sometiems happy lottin and have a nice day