There’s Something About That Thomas the Tank Train
July 27, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Craegmoor Healthcare reports on a new study commissioned by The National Autistic Society (NAS) according to which it was found that watching the Thomas the Tank Train television show had a positive effect on autistic children. Moreover, as many as 99 percent of the children surveyed said that Thomas & Friends characters were their favorite toy (Bob the Builder came in second) (who might be third?). The bright colors and simple story lines were particularly noted:
An improved concept of colours was learnt by 48 per cent of autistics while 49 per cent has a better grasp of numbers due to Thomas & Friends. Some 34 per cent also improved their language skills due to the programme.
Over half of parents said that clear facial expressions and simple story lines had been very important in their child’s learning abilities.
Charlie is in the 1 percent here as he has never shown more than a passing interest in Thomas. But bright colors and straightforward plots do appeal to him (hence his longstanding fondness for the story of the Gingerbread Boy, as I noted to my students today—-we had gotten onto the subject of “why Shrek is a kind of odyssey story” and everyone expressed their liking for said cookie character.)
But hasn’t the NAS heard the recall of some Thomas the Tank engine toys after lead was found in them back in June? Then there’s also that theory about tv and autism……maybe Thomas is not as “safe” as he seems to be. (Maybe a synaptic connection did not occur about this…….)
Nonetheless, as I said, Charlie does seem to like bright colors and simple story lines—-he kept getting up when we tried to watch Shrek (he did like the music).
We were lucky that none of Patrick’s trains were the ones contaminated with lead paint. He loves Thomas and, while I limit his tv time, has learned a lot from the videos. Thomas is where he learned “…said Salty(or Thomas or Percy)” as a literary tool. Now when he pretends with toys he narrates….”I want to go swimming….said the dog”.
Nice simple story lines, no bad language, bright colours and a great voice narrating all equal success here. Shrek, unfortunately, has too much language for Patrick to watch…actually most Disney type movies do.
My autistic child has no interest in trains — she preferred to line up dolls — but I have several friends who were very, very upset by the news about the red Thomas trains containing lead. One friend’s autistic child has been literally chewing on red trains for years.
mumkeepigsame, same response in Charlie to Disney movies—-I’ve been feeling that he was one of the kids with such a response.
what annoys me the most about this “study” is that it was on behalf of HITs entertainment who distribute in the UK. i’m sure who ever came third isn’t distrubed but hits
I expect the NAS will be selling DVD’s next week , if there not having free lunches with b list celebs and low ranking royals (for a moment I thought I was talking about Autism Speaks).
i would recommend “Oxford learning tree” magic key DVD’s my sons question and answer skills have really improved with it..
and the Cbeebies website is good too.
Thomas is not even on my list.
Charlie was just never interested. HIT entertainment—they’re behind Barney too!
Thanks for the suggestions, will check them out.
Sam was all about Veggie Tales for awhile there.
We only showed him “The End of Silliness?” once — he started crying when Larry the Cucumber was crying, cried through the whole song that broke the scene, and didn’t stop crying until Larry’s problem was solved and he stopped crying.
He likes Wallace and Gromit now, especially “A Grand Day Out”. We never really got into Thomas. (We have Take-Along-Thomas stuff, he likes making tracks and his sister likes running the trains over the track, which works out reasonably well. We also have lots of wooden track, which he likes to lay out in his room, and his sister will come in and run the trains for that over it. No preference for Thomas over other sorts of trains for that track.)
I learned a lot from this passage and my 7 year old has autism and he loves Thomas, (the videos not the toys). He also learned how to say the word “delightful.” For some reason though, he jumps up and down and flaps his hands while he’s watching Thomas. Why is this happening? He also likes to ask this question, “Who’s bigger, Gordon or Henry?”
Thank you, bye