Turn on Subtitles When Kids Are Watching TV
It’s been a week or so since school was out for the summer, which means you’ve probably already explored your arsenal of volcanic projects, beading kits, sand painting, and other activities designed to keep the brain your children have not turned into a cake. in the next two to three months.
This could be the moment you spank the kids in front of the TV while you google “summer camps that still have vacancies.”
I’m getting more and more involved in the Do Nothing Summer Movement, but it would still be great if we could learn to watch TV the same way we add spinach to mashed potatoes .
A Reddit user once suggested turning on subtitles when kids were watching TV . The parents’ son has become “excellent with his verbal and spelling skills,” and while this may not be directly correlated with seeing words on screen, the idea has a foundation. People have long used subtitles from TV shows and movies to help them learn new languages , and since many kids’ shows repeat the same words over and over, kids can get to know them even when they’re disconnected from Danger Mouse or Inspector Gadget.
Jim Trelise, author of the 1980s bestselling Guide to Reading Out Loud, gave parents the same advice a few years ago. For young children, he says, parents can leave the sound on to see the words they hear. But for older children, he recommends turning off the sound so that they can be forced to read. (At this point, I guess they might decide to go outside and play?) According to Trelise and others , one of the reasons Finland’s children have the highest reading scores is because the country imports a lot of English TV programs. language and they are all with subtitles.
Also, read to your children and encourage them to read books .