OTHER TOOLS: high-tech toys & gadgets
DVD's
DVD’s are Good for Kids Who Need Help With:
- Sorting and sequencing (organization)
- Understanding and relating to other people (social thinking)
- Self monitoring and observing (metacognition)
What You Need to Know About DVD's: :
Unlike watching a movie on VHS, a movie on a DVD allows the user to quickly select a scene visually by chapter, and to fast forward or rewind very quickly, slowly, or at a medium pace. Along with these tools, a user can also pause, mute, and play scenes in slow motion. These advantages allow a user to take the experience of watching a movie, and turn it into a way to help improve executive functions. Depending on the rating of the movie, DVD’s can be used to help improve executive functions for people ages 3 and up.
DVD’s Help Your Kids with Organization:
- DVD’s offer scene selection, which sort and sequence the entire movie by chapter
- Ask your child to retell the plot of the movie, if they have trouble, view the pictures and titles of the chapters to help them organize the information more effectively.
- A child can pause, rewind, or play the scene in slow motion to help him/her understand complex scenes.
Talking Points:
- How easily can you rewind, fast forward, pause, or play scenes in slow motion on a DVD?
- When the events in the movie become confusing, which of these methods is the most helpful for you?
- When real life events become confusing, could it be useful to pause what you are doing and reflect on these events? (since we cannot rewind or fast forward in real life)
DVD’s Help Your Kids with Social Thinking:
- By muting certain scenes parents can ask children to identify what is happening and the emotions of the characters based solely on body language and context clues.
- By muting a scene, a parent can encourage a child to make up dialogue that fits in with the context of the scene, and also dialogue that does not fit in.
- Watching a DVD allows children to empathize with the characters.
- Watching a DVD in slow motion can help to show character’s emotion more in depth; parents can pause a scene to help a child understand the emotion of the characters.
Talking Points:
- How did you know that the character was angry/sad/happy without being able to hear what he said?
- What nonverbal clues in everyday life can help us understand how people are feeling or thinking
- Why did the dialogue you made up fit/not fit with the context of the scene?
- What character do you admire the most? Why?
DVD’s Help Your Kids with Metacognition:
- By pausing a mystery movie, a parent can ask the child to predict what will happen next, and to give a logical reason for that belief.
- If the prediction was incorrect, the child can rewind to certain scenes and locate clues that he/she missed.
- Educational DVD’s give the child the opportunity to learn critical thinking skills.
- Asking a child to identify the moral of the story can influence the child to adopt and prioritize positive values of his own.
Talking Points:
- What clues did you use to predict what would happen next in the movie?
- What was the moral of the story? Do you agree with it? Why or why not?