Making them like Audio Books?

[Ecclecticmum]

Gosh that makes it sound like I am forcing them :lol:

 

DH & I both read a lot to the kids, and they love it. However, due to medical reasons, I get sick a lot and it puts strain onto my voice, I would love to get them (especially Chaos, if that is somehow possible - he's the most important link) listening to audiobooks to save my throat (and possibly help hubby out a bit with bedtime reading).

 

I would say I could get the others use to it, but Chaos is a whole, different story. He's got certain delays (not anything major), and is a very very very very (x1000) visual person. TV is his number one attention getter, therefore anything with a "screen" that has "volume" coming out of it, must therefore be a video, and must be broken, since it isn't "moving". I have my ipad that I use for music & audio stuff (mainly music appreciate, sotw & FLL etc), as soon as its playing (even if on top of my teacher desk) he must get up, investigate/shake it, then proceeded to revert back to his previously speech patterns (mostly consisting of shrieks/screams) saying the screen is broken, why won't movie work, and I have to gently ungrip his fingers put it back where it was, and then proceed to try and tell him "Why" when hes having his fits. The screaming, and "iz broken!" cries will continue until the audio/music has ended. Lately, he's pretty much ignored the classical music (since it has no "voices") but the fact on any voice ones haven't stopped. I fixed Story of the World (a little bit anyway) by having the book open at the same time, and skimming my finger across the words.

 

Does anyone have any creative ideas/gentle options to somehow fix this?

 

Chaos has multiple little issues, and his screams/tantrums have to be handled a certain way, so we can't change that. Theres probably no hope, but I thought I would give one last shot by asking here, and hope for a miracle. The other two kids would be pretty happy playing and listening to lots of stories, but DS (even if busy with a game) will go straight to the voice source, see its not "video" and proceed to start the brain meltdown. I think he just doesn't understand where the audio is coming from if theres no face?

 

Thanks so much for reading :grouphug:

[Aurelia]

Do you ever listen to music in the car? If you do, how does he react? Can you maybe try audios of picture books, and having him follow along with the book?

 

This may not help because my child doesn't have the issues your son does, but I got Ariel hooked by playing them while she was otherwise occupied, like when she was already drawing or eating, or in the car when there wasn't anything else for her to do (we have no DVD player in my car).

 

There's Storyline Online that has actors reading different books. Maybe that could help in the short term.

[CatholicMom]

Maybe start him on audio books that have actual picture books to go with them?? I would also try to pick one that has a character he knows from TV to hopefully bridge the gap. That way he could follow along visually, and he might realize this is a neat form of entertainment if he recognizes a TV character?

 

You might try Curious George if he knows George. My kids have loved this:

 

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

 

Or Clifford?

 

Clifford the Big Red Dog Read Along Book & CD

 

Hope you can figure something out. My kids LOVE audio books and it is so nice to watch them enjoy it together without having to do the work!

 

My boys used to go to bed and turn on their First Bible Story Book audio CD every. single. night. they loved it so much.

[robsiew]

My advice would be similar to the above...

 

Use audio books in the car... or as an option during another activity (building legos, coloring, etc.)

 

We use audio books during lunch. Keeps everybody from arguing all of lunch!

 

When we first started audios years ago, my younger ones were not real interested. Now, everyone LOVES them. It might just take a little time.... start with shorter ones (the ones with books are a great idea) and gradually go up to the longer ones. You might even start with some Magic Treehouse or something that is a little "light" and fun to just get the love there.... then you could go onto more complicated longer stories.

 

Another idea is to do an audio book of a movie he may have already seen. Maybe having those pictures in his head would help him to visualize the story better.

[EmilyK]

Not sure any of this will be helpful. I stumbled on audiobooks when it was the only thing my fussy first baby liked during naptime.

 

We played them a lot at night with lights out to go to sleep. Things like Jim Weiss. We played them originally on a cassette player and now mostly a CD player. Would being 1) in the darkish or 2) having it not come out of a computer or ipad, but rather a CD player be helpful. The other place we listen is a car radio where we jam one in the CD player. Again, not a place my kids expect a screen.

 

My younger is a visual budding screen addict if allowed so I get it, sort of.

 

Hope something works out. I'm so tired at night I need audiobooks, even if I'm there lying and listening too.

[FairProspects]

Not sure any of this will be helpful. I stumbled on audiobooks when it was the only thing my fussy first baby liked during naptime.

 

We played them a lot at night with lights out to go to sleep. Things like Jim Weiss. We played them originally on a cassette player and now mostly a CD player. Would being 1) in the darkish or 2) having it not come out of a computer or ipad, but rather a CD player be helpful. The other place we listen is a car radio where we jam one in the CD player. Again, not a place my kids expect a screen.

 

:iagree:Are you using something age-appropriate? At that age my boys loved the Jim Weiss preschool CDs. SOTW would have completely lost them. You want to shoot for good vocabulary and interesting stories, but not so over their heads that they just tune out. The Jim Weiss CDs are a good mix of music and stories for youngers.

[Ecclecticmum]

Thanks I will give the above a try.

 

He has noise issues too. He could have the TV turned up loud, or Atlas singing, and it would be fine, but the radio in the car (even on low) has a 50/50 of making him scream "too loud/noisy" and starting a meltdown. And we have an 80's car, so tis broken :tongue_smilie: has no cd/cassette, only the radio. DH sometimes hoods up his mp3 player to it somehow though (he's the electronics/car/mechanical expert) I'll have to ask him if the speakers work for the back of the van, and maybe hook up some silly nursery rhymes and songs he knows, to see if that has any effect.

 

I never thought about having a book & cd :001_huh: silly me. He loves chuggington & Disney Cars, as well as Peppa Pig, pretty much anything that comes on ABC for Kids. He's basically very "sensitive" towards any input (be it Audio, Visual, or Tactile) so one day he may be fine with shaving cream, the next day something like playdough could set him off, one sec he could be playing with mummy making silly faces, the next one face mummy does completely freaks him out and he starts screaming. He loves his Disney Cars though, everytime we go to the bigger town, he always ends up coming back with something related to that.

 

I wonder if I get him something like a cd player for kids? (if its cars he'll love it) then put some audio cd's in there, so he can press play/stop a couple of times, so "He" can be in control of it? and that way it wouldn't have a "screen" either, perhaps clearing up some of the confusion.

 

I'm planning on getting them all Innotabs (for the car and whatnot) so I could put some audiobooks on that possibly?

 

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll note down to do a search for Chuggington/Cars books/cds. You've given me a little bit of hope that it still might be possible, which is fantastic, I was ready to give up and call it quits (reading just one chapter of SOTW is enough to make my throat hoarse for the rest of the day, which is why I am currently having problems)

Edited July 19, 2012 by Ecclecticmum

[EmilyK]

I realize we're talking different countries here, but my son had some Disney Cars paperback books that came with a CD inside. We had CD players though that he could pop it in and listen while he looked. There was a whole line of these books for Disney.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Disney-Cars-Disneys-Read-Along/dp/0763421693

 

is an example. Hopefully we're talking about the same thing.:001_smile:

[Ecclecticmum]

Thanks :D

 

I'm probably heading down to the bigger shopping town this weekend, so will have a look in BIG W (which tends to have lots of books, and kids books, as well as cars stuff, I would therefore assume they would hopefully have something like that. Will also look in the electronics aisles for a portable CD player that kids friendly. Nice to know there is Cars ones out there! At least then he would come home with another cars present too (I keep having to distract him away from the lightning mcqueen cars, he already has two of the bigger diecast and one of the more solid metal little one. Last weekend he found Cars softies (set of 4 hand sized soft plush pillow cars) in the $2 shop, he's been sleeping with them since then and hasn't let his "Queen piwwow" out of his sight. He also has the Cars big pillow book. I told DH sometime soon we're going to have to create a "trophy" room for Chaos & his collection. :tongue_smilie:

[FairProspects]

He has noise issues too. He could have the TV turned up loud, or Atlas singing, and it would be fine, but the radio in the car (even on low) has a 50/50 of making him scream "too loud/noisy" and starting a meltdown.

 

He's basically very "sensitive" towards any input (be it Audio, Visual, or Tactile) so one day he may be fine with shaving cream, the next day something like playdough could set him off, one sec he could be playing with mummy making silly faces, the next one face mummy does completely freaks him out and he starts screaming.

 

There are some red flags here for Sensory Processing Disorder that you may want to keep an eye on. If he is really reacting to the noise, I would not force the audiobook issue at all. My ds had to wear headphones for years at movies, church, and plays. He really is that sensitive. I'd be tempted to work on the sensory issues and wait on the language/audiobook issue.

[LittleIzumi]

I introduced them in the car. Captive audience :D with nothing else to do, really. Now they ask for audiobooks to be on as soon as I get in the car.

 

ETA: Ah. This was already suggested. Oops. Sorry.

[Critterfixer]

I am not you can make somebody like audio-books if auditory input upsets them. I'm not big on audio-books. Never have been. I get them for my boys and often have to grit my teeth through the whole thing. (Particularly Weiss!) I just don't care for them. I would much, much, much rather read a book silently to myself than listen to someone else read it. I can imagine when I read it myself and see the pictures. I CANNOT do that if someone else is reading to me. It is literally noise, and I've got low tolerance for it.

 

What I can stand are radio dramas. I enjoyed them as a child, mostly because we didn't have a television for much of my childhood. I could get into those, because of the sound effects, the characters had their own voices, and there was the welcome addition of music. I could stand them, and I could even like them and be anxious to hear what was coming the next night.

 

I've noticed that both of my boys have the same tendency. Stories that have the radio-drama nature to them get both of them listening with attention. Books that are simply read on the CD usually hold the interest for about 15 to 20 minutes, longer if they are writing or drawing or building something at the same time. (In other words, they are hearing them as background noise.) For my hFA son, even the radio dramas don't hold him unless he has something else to do at the time. He's simply not an audio-input child. Much rather be building, writing or making up his own worlds in his imagination.

[Ecclecticmum]

I'll see how we go. Its close to his birthday, so I went out tonight and got half his birthday presents

 

- Replacement Alphie Robot (his old one was broken, not recognizing the cards anymore, I thought since Alphie by himself is noisy, I could plonk him in the bedroom when the girls have their audiobook readings, so will give this a shot.

 

- Cheap "boombox" for him to control (smurfs lol). And 2 Disney Cars Books with CDs! One fat board book with "Sing a long" songs, so has Cars Music and McQueen? singing. Lyrics are on the page along with cars background/illustrations. And a 24page booklet type book with CD.

 

- DIY paper planes (he loves paper planes) I am thinking this could suitably be another "distraction" and since he would be running all over the place with them, less chance of hearing low-audio

 

- Lego. He was trying to put together the solar plane kit (more a mummy thing lol) but was happily sitting there whilst the "talk" radio was playing in the background, so I broke down and purchased a big starter set for him (I made sure it includes wheels and bits too, so not just blocks) he's really into construction right now, especially following directions/creating, so he may focus on this, and be able to handle the "ghost" voices.

 

Not sure whether I mentioned this, but in regards to the audio, I think its more the fact that he assumes there is supposed to be video with it (i.e. sounds like a movie) so when he sees the ipad blank, he thinks its "broken" thus starting one of his meltdowns.

 

Re: his issues - we are still trying to find a doctor to refer us to a ped (its a bit hard to get this where we are, and have been having problems w/docs ignoring or "pshawing" the comments/descriptions) so we are currently counting him as the possibility of SPD or being on the spectrum, therefore I have been doing exercises etc with him and trying to teach DH how to handle his "emotions", I also read hints/tips etc from some other forums that seem to help as well. His "symptoms" range all over the place, and could be a variety of things, plus added to the fact I only have 1 boy, am unsure, esp after doctors saying "boys will be boys" what is and what isn't, and what I'm supposed to tell, so we are pretty much (combined with other family medical problems and history) in a place where we are tired of all of us (including him) being poked, prodded, ignored etc by hospitals & doctors. We'll be trying with my one of my Daughters specialists, as according to DH, that doctor seems reasonable, and willing to listen. Wish us luck!

 

I'll give the above a try and if those don't work, I'll have another read over this read and decide whether or not its worth it (I don't even mind him being in another room, but he "races" from one side of the house to the other, obviously thinking a movie is on, and if I put a movie or something on for him, then no-one would pay attention to the audiobook, they would all go off zoning into the TV :tongue_smilie:

 

If the boombox doesn't work, he'll probably keep it around as his new stop (play....stop....play...stop, eject, bash lid, rip open, bash lid....find screwdriver....take to pieces....then cry that its broken...Daddy will put it back together ....rinse and repeat ;) )

[Alicia64]

I know you can't hear my "etone." I'm not meaning to come across as rude at all, but getting rid of the TV will do everything you're wanting. Not overnight, but in the long run an audio book will seem like a treat.

 

Alley

[Ecclecticmum]

I know you can't hear my "etone." I'm not meaning to come across as rude at all, but getting rid of the TV will do everything you're wanting. Not overnight, but in the long run an audio book will seem like a treat.

 

Alley

 

Thanks. Your not coming across rude at all :001_smile: And I can understand where you are coming from.

 

We were TV free for about 1 1/2 years. The "TV" came back into the picture after I got Dx with CFS (ontop of my other medical problems) and DD was also Dx with Diabetes T1 and something else that also required the OT.

 

I use the TV as a teaching tool for school as DS relates more with the video, and for enunciation & vocabulary for him, which also gives me a bit of down time. Without the TV he is a very very very very active little boy, and without that break, I couldn't simply handle it. Whilst it was full on before I started getting sick, I was able to handle it, we did lots of crafts, had a separate area of the garden where he could safely play, climb and run about like a looney-tunes. But at the very least, until we finally finish securing the front yard, removing the TV is not an option. And since we use it for educational stuff anyway, plus what needs to happen in order for me to be able to sanely deal with my day, I don't think I could remove it again.

 

But I do see and understand where your coming from, its just not a viable solution right now :001_smile: But thank you :grouphug: