Comments on: There’s Something About That Thomas the Tank Train

By: Gabriel Donald

Gabriel Donald — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:46:55 +0000

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

By: Julia

Julia — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 14:22:09 +0000

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.)

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 04:04:07 +0000

Charlie was just never interested. HIT entertainment—they’re behind Barney too!

Thanks for the suggestions, will check them out.

By: apple_m

apple_m — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:42:15 +0000

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.

By: Boy’s Best Friend

Boy’s Best Friend — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:02:04 +0000

[...] dogs. In a new book, Nuala Gardner tells of how a golden retriever named Henry (after one of Thomas’ friends) helped her now 19-year-old autistic son, Dale. Notes the July 29th Times Online: Why did Henry [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:42:25 +0000

mumkeepigsame, same response in Charlie to Disney movies—-I’ve been feeling that he was one of the kids with such a response.

By: Bink

Bink — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:11:13 +0000

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.

By: mumkeepingsane

mumkeepingsane — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 14:07:21 +0000

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.