Baby Names: My TV/Video Strategy

Why is TV beneficial?

I have let Jett watch up to 30 minutes of television a day since he was about 15 months old, when I first read the article, "The Selective Use of TV and Videos for Advancing the Development of Special Needs, Typical and Accelerated Preschool Children", by Robert J. Doman Jr, found in this post: Some TV is Good for Our Kids!
Excerpt:
"...[D]evelopment of your central/macular vision is very important to many aspects of learning and overall development. Many of the problems exhibited by children diagnosed with developmental delays result from the lack of properly developed central vision....Early stimulation of the central/macular vision is crucial to the development of children within the first two years of life.....[W]e came to the realization that television provides a unique form of visual stimulation. The images on television can only be perceived using central/macular vision; one cannot process the information on the screen with peripheral vision....We were learning that not only is television a great tool for developing central vision in children, but it really is an outstanding educational tool."

TV Filters

Before that, Jett watched TV incidentally. I was careful as to what show was on in his presence in order to prevent him from seeing actions or hearing words that I don't want him to repeat! The cooking channel was usually the easiest/quickest choice if he was in the room.

I understand there are filters you can use with to prevent unwanted audio to be heard in front of your child. If you are interested, here are a few helpful links:
Family Safe Media
The TV Guardian filters profanity from your TV, DVD, Satellite, and Cable, while you watch.
TVGuardian
The Foul Language Filter, mutes profanity while you're watching TV and movies according to your preferred filter level.

Television Shows

Instead of random TV, I have the PBS show, Between the Lions recorded so when Jett uses his potty (or if I need him to be distracted while I give him supplements), I can put it on. In this Emmy-winning series, the Jim Henson mom and dad lion puppets read stories to their cubs. As they read, the words appear on the screen and are high lighted in some way. They also sing songs and encourage phonetic understanding with silly skits and words flashed on the screen for reinforcement. The target audience is ages four to seven, children already familiar with their ABCs. Jett loves it because he is obsessed with words and the show certainly delivers. I keep the closed captions on so that he can see all the words that are being spoken. As he watches, he talks to the lions and points at the words on the screen. Here's the parent support page for Between the Lions: http://www.pbs.org/parents/lions
Here's the TV guide page for BtL: http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/lions/194565

The next show Jett may be allowed to watch is PBS's WordWorld. This target audience is younger than BtL, starting with age three, because it doesn't have quite as many words. The concept is interesting. They take words and turn them into pictures. So the word "hay" turns into a giant bale of hay with the letters in "hay" still visible. But, since it has less words and Jett loves to be read to, I've chosen BtL over WW. WW is also much busier and not as focused as BtL. For Jett, BtL is a better choice. Here's the PBS parent support page on WW: http://www.pbs.org/parents/wordworld/index.html

For kids who are reading or have a better understanding of the spoken word, (6-9 in the typical population), I recommend the Electric Company. Here's the parent support site: http://www.pbs.org/parents/electriccompany/.

If you can't stand children's shows, another program I'd recommend is the Singing Bee. It's a karaoke competition for adults where they sing mostly country songs and show the words on the screen as they sing. Jett loves this, but now that I've found BtL, I prefer he watches that.

A good show to watch with kids is Animal Exploration with Jarod Miller or Growing Up... (an animal) on the Animal Planet TV station. They have great footage of animals and provide plenty of opportunity for discussion with your little one. I'd prefer a series that shows animals in their natural environment, but I haven't found one yet. Please comment if you know of one.

Educational DVDs

As far as educational videos, I got most of the Baby Einstein video series from a garage sale. Jett enjoyed them, but it didn't seem educational enough for me so he only saw them once. There were few visible words (maybe 3 in a 30 minute video) and the verbal descriptions were too adult (actual adult poetry). They were visually stimulating, but playing and talking with your child seems much better to me than those videos. Maybe the newer DVDs are better?

I got the Your Baby Can Read video series from the library. He loved these! If I had the extra money, I would get these videos because it does support the Doman method somewhat, although the word appears much longer on the screen than with flash cards so it targets a different part of the brain. The large word appears on the screen and shows a video image of the item in different scenarios. The choice of words are good and the children in the video are very enthusiastic and enunciate well.
Really, if you had the time, you and your family could make your own video and it would be equally effective and even more delightful to your child. Just make your Doman flash cards and show the object or act out the word with enthusiasm in a couple of different ways. I would use this in addition to your flash cards.
Here is Paul Doney's video of his son (with T21) using the YBCR program. He reads words and signs his response. Very cute! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8hJaxrOsIQ .

Your Baby Can Read as reviewed by Laura

Readeez produces great DVDs that have songs and vignettes with large words that appear while spoken or sung. I highly recommend these. Jett loves them. He has been watching these for many months. The songs are great and our whole family loves listening to them and singing along. They have a youtube channel so you can check them out for free.

Brainy Baby's First Impressions is another DVD-based reading program that I understand is good. http://www.brainybaby.com/shop/html/Products/Value-Line-of-DVDs/Babys-First-Impress-91.html Since I'm teaching sight words I'd probably not show the alphabet one until later. And I'm not teaching him to count chronologically yet since I'm doing the Doman dot method, so I probably wouldn't show him the number one until later either. But the other titles look interesting.

I know other parents have had success with the Signing Times series to encourage speech, reading and of course, signing. I haven't tried this because I'm trying to support Jett's verbal attempts at speech. I'm not against teaching some signs to your baby so he is less frustrated when trying to communicate with you, but at this point, Jett gets his message across and has made up his own signs.