My 18-year-old son Seth is a very bright and capable student who has always done very well in school. As a younger child, he shared my love for and fascination with books and reading. However as he got older, he read books as needed, choosing to spend more time playing sports or occasionally picking up a magazine to read.
Over the past year, I have observed an interesting transformation in Seth’s interest in books that has coincided with our purchase of a high definition television. Seth has begun regularly to watch high definition programming of nature shows and particularly has enjoyed the Planet Earth series on The Discovery Channel, as well as other programming about nature and animals on PBS. Once he began watching these shows, Seth decided to start looking at my large collection of coffee table books on nature, animals in the wild, and the ocean. I have watched him spend hours at a time turning from page to page looking at incredible pictures of animals, landscapes, and the ocean. He engages in conversations with his friends about what he is looking at and reading and often searches on the Internet to learn more about these animals or asks me to expand our library of nature books.
For children who struggle with reading and learning, getting them to love books, while at the same time having a multi-modal approach to learning, is very important. Kids are natural learners. Those who struggle with reading, paying attention, or writing simply need other methods to encourage their learning. Using highly stimulating, colorful, and engaging television shows to ignite your child’s learning is available by simply sitting on the couch next to him/her and being willing to take the time to watch and talk.Many of the better educational shows available on television capture children’s interest and encourage them to want to know more. Watching with your child is an opportunity to review the content and the vocabulary that is used in the television show. Enhancing vocabulary and work skills leads to better sight-word reading and comprehension. It begets an opportunity to go to the library and pick up books, preferably those with a focus on pictures, rather than words, and to help the child feel better about him/herself as a learner.
In the LearningWorks section of Other Tools, we provided you with educational television shows that are likely to engage your child in the learning process. For many of these shows, we have corresponding books, DVDs, and websites that might further encourage your child’s learning. While we are not suggesting that parents use television as a child’s primary source of education, we encourage you to use it and any other strategies that get your kids excited about learning.
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