Poll: First Children - TV and Speech

[EmilytheStrange]

I know this is wholey anecdotal.. but it seems in the circle of people I know, the very verbal children come from homes where TV is less or not at all restricted. The less verbal children (including mine) come from homes where TV is very restricted or not at all available.

I am not suggesting any long term repurcussions due to this. Just curious and it's been on my mind for about a year now, but I've never put up a poll because I've been otherwise distracted.

I am only interested in the first child. Because subsequent children generally either 1) talk early because they hear so much of it from siblings or 2) talk later because the other siblings are already the mouthpiece for them or even 3) just talk early or later because they do.

I'm not suggesting that one is better than the other or asking for debate, but I'd just love to see some numbers.

thanks!

ETA: for instance, my friend's child who is 2 weeks older than my newly minted 2 yr old - he says things like 'whatcha doin' horsey? eating spinach? No, pooping!' while playing with a toy horse and playdoh. My child would be like 'horse! horse! neigh! neigh!'

[joeslittlewoman]

I had the tv on a lot while DS1 was a baby (I like having background noise) and he seems behind on speech to me. I did have another parent recommend more tv to get him talking, but I didn't take him too seriously. Since I am a pretty quiet person, it may not have been a bad idea...

Eta: he wasn't at all interested in the tv until closer to two. It was just on for background noise for me. And he was an early talker, but I consider him behind because, though he talks a lot, his pronunciation is poor. My 2yo has better pronunciation than my 3yo.

[willownz]

I watched too much tv when my Ds was a baby. He was a late talker.

Kiwl Mum of three.

[stevensmom]

we have the tv on but not sitting down infront of it...ds talked normal/early...dd is a late talker. But she was also a late roller over/crawler/walker etc.

my niece (only child) has NO tv and she talked normal.

[happysmileylady]

I voted other.

In our house, TV is not restricted and never has been.

My oldest was not VERY verbal, she was a little behind. But she wasn't NOT verbal at all.

My second one is 13 years younger than my first, so she is very much like a first/only child. She was less verbal than the first one. She is catching up very fast though.

[Scarlett's mommy]

i voted other. i have the tv on all the time. sometimes for her sometimes just for background noise. now with that said she is really about on average for her verbal skills. she really doesnt pay attention to the tv much at all unless elmo is on lol. i dont allow kids shows that i dont feel are at least in some way educational. at 22 months she recognizes and points out and can say almost all of the alphabet.

[sisu]

I picked this one - "My child was very verbal at an early age and tv was restricted in our home (nonexistent/30mins)" - although we don't restrict TV, per se, we just don't have it on very often.

[am_ryan21]

We do not restrict the tv and my 2.5 year old ds is very verbal and has been for quite awhile. Im not saying that he is verbal because of the tv because we do flash cards alot too.

Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using DS Forum

[kbz2002]

My daughter was delayed and we only allowed her to watch baby signs for about the first 18 months. Doctor said it was probably because she could still communicate to us without talking since she did sign language.

By 24 months though she passed what she needed to know and then some. Just all clicked. Now if I could only get the silence back on some days...

[southernbelle04]

I don't restrict TV a lot. My older daughter was a bit slow to really talk. She had some words here and there. I have no reason to think she is "behind" now; she talks (clearly) all of the time. I would attribute that to TV viewing but she was on the later end of all of her milestones...so maybe it was just her.