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Does anyone have a kiddo that is afraid of television? My son is both upset with themes (which I've seen mention of on this site), but also afraid of having the television on and "what might happen" if it is left on. He is also startles easily to unfamiliar noises but the television is by far his biggest issue. Our family does not watch a lot of television, but I'm starting to notice that he's missing a lot of the pop culture. Everyone is talking about the lego movie and Frozen and he has no idea. I imagine this divide will grow as he does.

How old is your son? My kids aren't afraid of the TV exactly but my daughter in particular (now 8) find a lot of programs and especially movies to be scary. Like, she thought the Lego movie was too scary, and she wanted to even leave Planes because of the hurricane scene.

I've found that the pop culture gap has shrunk more than I expected. Now she has friends who are reading books she's read, and she's developed an interest in some of the crafts currently popular with other girls her age, like making bracelets. And sometimes I bribe her with pizza and new books to sit down and watch a Disney movie or something.

My 4-year-old, who has even less exposure to pop culture, is actually very knowledgeable about pop culture--because he's so very more socially-oriented than his sister and picks it up straight from the other kids at school.

Could he have possibly heard something like "TV will rot your brain" or "TV's emit radiation" that could be tied to a new fear? I know we often deal with my son hearing snippets of adult conversations and drawing the wrong conclusions and/or taking things literally. It seems so irrational to us, but when these types of things happen and we finally get the root of the issue, I can totally see how he gets to the conclusions he's drawn. . .

One of my dds seemed scared of the tv when she was very young, and when she was around your ds' age she didn't like to watch it at all - she had worries over being scared by scary things on it, but also just in general she didn't like to sit in front of a tv and look at the screen. She was also extremely sensitive to noises from our vacuum cleaner etc. She was diagnosed with sensory issues through an OT eval and went through therapy which helped with the noise sensitivity at 5, and later at 7 was diagnosed with double vision and tracking issues, and it wasn't until after her eyes worked together that she started to actually enjoy tv. FWIW, we also couldn't take her to movies when she was your ds' age - she would scream soooooo so loud just at the thought of going to a movie. The one movie we ttook her to as a family I spent all but the first two minutes sitting in the hall with her as far away from the screen room as possible while her sibs and dad watched the actual movie. Even far removed and with walls in between she was terrified.

I think you mentioned in yr other post that you were considering an OT looking into sensory issues? It's possible that if there is something driving a sensory issue or related something - that might be the reason your ds is afraid of tv. It's difficult to tease out things like this with young children - once they are just a few years older and better able to communicate what they are feeling inside puzzles like this become easier to understand.

Best wishes,

polarbear

DS loves TV (probably because we hardly ever let him watch), but for several years was very scared of any kind of alarm because he was anticipating that it might go off. For a few months after we got a carbon monoxide alarm, he would ask repeatedly about how it worked, and what would make it go off. And I just remembered that he was also very scared of the washing machine. Mostly it's quiet, but will make sudden noises.

If your son is very sensitive to noise, it could be that he's concerned about sudden loud noises from the TV. Commercials were shown to be significantly louder than the preceding TV show - to someone who is sensitive I could see how it would be jarring. Maybe you can change the audio settings - many TVs have an audio mode that limits the range of decibels.

With regard to the pop culture issue - my opinion is that there's actually more danger in a kid becoming TOO obsessed with the latest thing, so, if your son doesn't seem to mind not knowing what's cool, then maybe it's a good thing! Leaves him to explore his own interests rather than chase after those of the crowd.

I thought this was unusual too but it's pretty common I guess. My older daughter just saw her first movie at 7.5. Before she couldn't take it--not even on TV. It does suggest the child is a bit sensitive, either emotionally or physically (like sound or light), but they do get over it.

My little one is still afraid of TV commercials.

My daughter learned all about the Disney characters from her peers.

The automatic ice maker makes sudden sounds that startles me (a really old adult) on occasion.

My DS8 just started being able to go to the movies. I've had to walk out of more than one Disney movie before. I think it might have to do with the volume and size. He does better with TV, but only certain shows (Man Vs. Wild, Blue's Clues, MythBusters) that are either realistic science or for very young kids. Anything else is out of the question.

Thank you all for your responses! We have been having computer issues so I finally was able to view them today. To answer your questions, he is 6 tomorrow. He was very recently dx with sensory issues including auditory sensitivity, so it makes more sense to me now.

KYPie - my two (DD11 and DS9) both had significant "social divide" issues when they were that age (with DD it was intensity, anxiety, perfectionism & perseveration, and with DS it was intensity, perseveration and sensory issues) and I was concerned about the social landscape. The situation has since resolved itself and they have adjusted nicely.

They can still be quirky at times, but both have been able to maintain friendships and fit in with pop culture to whatever degree they are interested. Interest is the key... for instance my DS didn't want anything to do with Halo and avoided conversations about it (his friends at school liked it but he thought it was too violent) but he has since become a Minecraft aficionado, which has social currency.

I guess my point is that the social connection sometimes gets better with growth, development and exposure. In the case of my two, the social divide that you refer to actually shrunk instead of grew