Soap Opera Therapy
Have autistic child watch General Hospital, see autistic child learn about emotions?
For parents facing the autism treatment challenge (as the latest PedMed article on autism phrases it), “soap opera therapy” hardly seems surprising. (What will someone think of next to “treat” autistic children, one can sometimes only wonder………..) Parenting Special Needs at About.com highlights a recent study in the U.K. in which a researcher found that watching soap operas helped a 14-year-old autistic boy to improve his behavior and social skills—and to be able to return to school and to participate better in class. As reported in a February 4th Scotsman article, Dr Lynda Breen, a specialist registrar at the Limetrees Child, Adolescent and Family Unit in York, said that “soaps might be better than current computerised techniques in triggering improvements and called for further research.” Her study is published in Psychiatric Bulletin.
The boy in this study (and he appears to have been the only child involved) was already, it is noted, a fan of soap operas. I have taken Charlie to see some of my college students performing improv routines that, like soap operas, can involve somewhat exaggerated portrayals of emotion—-which have seemed to make Charlie anxious and upset (as evinced by his moaning and humming and the tense set of his shoulders). The TV shows that Charlie is drawn to watch are live broadcasts of football, basketball, baseball, swimming, diving.
So I think we will bypass the soaps and stick to the drama of ESPN.
10 opinions for Soap Opera Therapy
Carol
Feb 16, 2007 at 11:42 pm
“Have autistic child watch General Hospital, see autistic child learn about emotions?”
Oh, pleez! One of the earliest indicators I had that my son’s development was atypical was his reaction to soap operas as a toddler. One day when I was at a friend’s house she had a soap opera on (I was not a fan of them) and he became completely distraught with huge “crocodile tears” over a scene that depicted a couple arguing.
From that time on I learned that I had to shield him from TV programs that had anyone demonstrating negative emotions, arguing, fighting, etc., because like Charlie, he would become anxious & agitated.
As an adult he can cope somewhat better with it but that type of programming is still avoided for the most part. In my opinion, it’s just a lot of negative energy anyway and has little entertainment value. I would much rather watch a comedy - my life has enough “drama” as it is! But I digress…
Why does everything that we do with our “kids” have to be labeled “therapy” to be of value? My son continues to learn from day-to-day experiences, but I don’t feel compelled to label it as “therapy” or “intervention”. It’s just life!
He didn’t develop the ability or interest to actually watch entire TV programs or movies until he was in his early 20’s. As his social skills developed, so did his interest in TV, and I think he does learn a lot from watching TV, but I don’t feel a need to justify the viewing by calling it “therapy”. He’s simply enjoying himself and learning at the same time. What a great combination.
Kris
Feb 17, 2007 at 12:17 am
My autistic son is five and one of his largest difficulties is with other children crying. Any sort of exaggerated emotion throws him into a fit - not because of the noise, he can handle noise, but because of the excessive emotional states. So, while I see the logic behind showing soap opera emotions to autistic children, I think that it really depends on the child whether or not they would respond positively to this technique, and it should definetly not be touted as a new “therapy technique.”
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 17, 2007 at 12:17 am
The real edutainment……
TV dramas with arguing or displays of intense emotion also bother Charlie. Jim has been known to watch the Sopranos with the sound completely off, as a result—-Charlie really watches almost no TV now. (He used to sit and watch a lot of kid videos when he was younger, but we no longer have those; he saw a Teletubbies DVD last night at the library, stared at it for a minute, and walked away. But he did like Charlotte’s Web, seen in a theatre (three times—not planned, but well worth it).
zilari
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:08 am
Huh, wow. This is actually somewhat fascinating to read. I have always had extremely intense emotional reactions to certain kinds of drama; last week I had to turn a movie off (one I’d just started watching and had never seen before, and therefore didn’t know what to expect) because there was so much yelling and emotional/family drama going on, as well as a main character in very serious distress. I started crying and hyperventilating and even after the movie was turned off it took me something like 20 minutes to calm down.
Carol
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Kristina wrote “Jim has been known to watch the Sopranos with the sound completely off”.
I’ve relied on closed captioning for years because any time dear son enters the room when I’m watching TV (regardless of the program) he wants the TV put on mute. Now, when he watches TV sometimes he wants the volume on while other times he just uses the CC. I’ve also noticed that the first time he watches a video, he’ll usually have it on mute w/ cc on and then the next time that he watches it he will usually turn on the sound. It’s like once he has an idea of what to expect, then he’s okay with it - even scenes that I find uncomfortable because of the sound.
I can really relate to the other comments posted here. I would like to add that ds has always been very sensitive to female voices. He doesn’t like to hear women who have high-pitched voices or who have too much emotional inflection in their voice or who laugh in a sudden shrill way. All of these things are very irritating to him and consequently have become irritating to me, too.
Any sudden startling sounds can also set him off, although I think dietary supplements have helped somewhat with this. He also prefers to wear industrial earmuffs when out in public which helps tremendously. Earplugs don’t work as well for him & he prefers the earmuffs.
When he was little he couldn’t tolerate the shrill voices of other children. Consequently, he seemed to prefer the company of adults over children. Now as an adult, he tolerates the shrillness of little voices much better; although he usually has his earmuffs on.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Carol, this is very interesting—Charlie definitely has responses to different voices. And a high pitch in a woman’s voice irks him, and the same “sudden shrill laugh”—-
Carol
Feb 18, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Kristina, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning still thinking about this blog. This topic has brought back some memories of my son’s early childhood that I haven’t thought about in a long time.
This issue of sound sensitivity & what type of things he finds irritating just seem like second nature to me anymore after so many years. I recall trying to explain it to his teachers, psychologists, therapists, etc., and they just couldn’t get it. But that was nearly 30 years ago, and hopefully things have changed somewhat.
Dear son has always been very attuned to facial expressions contrary to what people typically think about autism. His interpretation of facial expressions may not always be accurate, but he definitely responds to them.
When he was very young there was an aide in his class who was an older woman with rather harsh features. She had these exaggerated, arching drawn-on eyebrows that gave her an angry appearance all the time. (Not unlike the Seinfeld episode where Elaine drew eyebrows on Uncle Leo and the doctor said he didn’t like his demeanor.) Add to that naturally harsh facial features and facial expressions that always looked angry regardless of her mood, all of which combined for trouble with a child who was overly sensitive to any kind of negative feedback.
These are the type of things that have to be taken into consideration with the child’s environment and looked at whenever there are acting out issues for those children who are sensitive in this way.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Feb 18, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Carol: I think Charlie does prefer male voices—-as I think about it, most of the sportscasters on ESPN are men. And those shows have a certain structure: Broadcasters sitting in place and talking about……sports and stats, with numbers and charts presented inbetween. The players themselves have uniforms, right, so that results in there being fewer groups to distinguish among…….
My own voice can get a bit shrill, just for moments. I’ve learned to watch this a lot in the past few years due to Charlie’s reactions, and also, especially, to speak more softly and slowly (ironically, I had, years ago, to learn to speak loudly and firmly and to project my voice—no one used to be able to hear me when I taught classes). Charlie never minds my husband’s whistling. He has gotten upset more than a few times at school, when some other classmates cry out, and some do have rather high-pitched cries (as I also now realize).
Most of the TV on around here is the news and shows like Jeopardy that Charlie’s grandparents watch and none of these bother him. No MTV etc. here for sure!
Autism Vox » The TV-autism theory, again
Feb 20, 2007 at 9:54 am
[…] Back in the middle of October of 2006, a hypothesis—I repeat, a hypothesis—about “TV causing autism” was presented by Michael Waldman, a professor in the Johnson Graduate School of Management Cornell University. Professor Waldman’s paper, “Does Television Cause Autism?”, was readily available for downloading here. The study drew on statistics and data from sources ranging from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey to county-level autism data for California, Oregon, and Washington to percentages of households that subscribe to cable television—but not on actual observations of autistic children watching TV (and, as I noted in this comment and, more recently, in the post Soap Opera Therapy, my son Charlie watches almost no TV by choice and, when he does, he does not exactly just sit in front of TV and stare at it, but runs all around the room). […]
Autism on the Soaps
Jun 19, 2008 at 5:23 pm
[…] it’s time for a little soap opera therapy. Tags: all my children, asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, days of our lives, disabilities blog, […]
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