Comments on: YouTube May Be Evil, But Thanks for the Memories

By: Barney Can Wait

Barney Can Wait — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 08:14:29 +0000

[...] in the summer, I noted that Charlie had discovered the wonders of YouTube, when he and I found that a number of the Barney videos he used to watch, ask to see a thousand [...]

By: Swimming with Charlie

Swimming with Charlie — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 05:16:57 +0000

[...] It was 7.45 when he asked for the stairs. We changed and went home and I stir-fried vegetables and shrimp and made rice and Charlie asked for YouTube. [...]

By: What Can You Do Without a School?

What Can You Do Without a School? — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:46:47 +0000

[...] them up for himself in the microwave and gobbled up a bowl of freshly cooked rice. He wanted to see Barney on YouTube so I set up my laptop for him. “Yes, yes!” Charlie pointed to a video of Barney’s [...]

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:23:25 +0000

Oh yes, YouTube plays here everyday as well. My some is now hooked on elevator videos. ugh

By: A Rocky Good-bye to the Beach House

A Rocky Good-bye to the Beach House — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 06:49:26 +0000

[...] (and are able to piggyback on someone’s internet server so Charlie is able to discover the pleasures and perils of YouTube) and (after a very anxious start) fall into a fine routine of late morning and late afternoon ocean [...]

By: Measles Cases, and Fear of Autism, on the Rise

Measles Cases, and Fear of Autism, on the Rise — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:36:59 +0000

[...] summer at the beach house, my son Charlie has discovered YouTube and also its endless store of Barney videos and I’ve been hearing “just use your [...]

By: Words, Words, Words

Words, Words, Words — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 16:37:37 +0000

[...] excited. He woke at 5am and tried to go back to sleep, very unsuccessfully; he got up and watched YouTube videos; he conked out on the couch at 10am and awoke when our friends came at 12 noon. We went for a long [...]

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:42:06 +0000

@Bonnie,
Monterey sounds sweet! Charlie has a first-version Apple iBook. It’s gotten (ahem) a bit beat up over time. I like him having a laptop as he wants to lie on the couch or on his bed in a “particular” way and he can use the laptop then—but not a big desktop!

@Pedro,
I didn’t know you could do all that with Apple TV! So many frustrations with sticky DVDs could have been avoided……..time to start making up the Xmas wishlist.

I could use the Red Balloon in English, French, etc.; thanks to Charlie fiddling on YouTube, am adding some more Spanish words to my vocab.

By: Pedro Vera

Pedro Vera — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 04:20:23 +0000

PJ taught himself how to use Youtube very early, he mostly used it to look for Teletubbies videos. The problems started when he realized that there were Teletubbies episodes in Youtube that he did not own, and worse: they were incredibly hard to find.

Later I got him his own AppleTV, which has the added bonus that it can browse Youtube directly. I set him with an account that says he is under 18, so at least the worst part is filtered out (Youtube doesn’t have real content ratings filtering).

The best part is that he keeps exploring and finding neat stuff. He ran into a lot of videos explaining how to make animal sculptures with balloons, and so far has mastered a bunch of them.

The only real annoying part is when he decides to watch the same video nonstop for a half hour or worse, but at least he is only watching educational content, and he is actively digging for it, not just browsing and picking up whatever shows up. I have even caught him watching Thomas the Tank Engine in Japanese, plus he also uses it to learn songs (his current obsession is the English version of 99 Red Balloons).

The other great thing about the AppleTV is that if your child ruins lots of DVDs like PJ has done since he was a baby, it will immediately save you money. Simply rip the DVDs and put them into iTunes, then put the DVDs away. If your hard disk ever crashes, then your loss is the time needed to re-rip the DVDs. If you bought it directly through iTunes then you would be wise to keep a second copy elsewhere, because you can’t re-download a show for free.

He can navigate through a list of movies or TV show, pick an individual program and forward and rewind it just like a DVD. If in the right format you can watch these shows in most recent iPods and in all iPhones.

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:18:28 +0000

What kind of laptop does Charlie have? I need to get one for our household and not sure where to start. Matt picked out a barney DVD at Target yesterday. The kids seem to be getting older on that show. The camp pics this year were thru a Costco CD so when Matt touches the screen that means he wants to see them again. I finally got them on flickr (autismfamily) is the ID.

Nick started on you tube with funny videos like the show on ABC, then cat videos, then dinosaur stuff and big cat stuff, jack hanna things and thanks to history channel new show called Jurassic fight club dinosaur drawing once again and watching videos.

He wanted to be a paleontologist, maybe UC Berkley will be in his future. I want to move to Monterey since the weather is best for my skin. Since they are in 6th and 7th grades, we have some time to figure it out.