Tehila, 13
Tehila, 13
Media Consumption: Every night before bed
Favorite Media/Technology: Exclusively slime or baking videos on YouTube via her mother’s iPhone
Background: Tehila has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is almost entirely non-verbal. Her language comprehension is proficient, but her language production compromises her ability to effectively communicate with others. Tehila and her family are devout Jews and live in an Orthodox Jewish community. Because of this, the family does not own any televisions or computers and solely relies on cell phones for their digital media input, which the children are given very limited access to. According to her mother, Tehila is allowed to use her mother’s iPhone every night before bed to watch videos on YouTube.
*Answers to the following questions were constructed using an interview with Tehila’s mother and direct observation.
How do you and your family interact with media/technology?
Tehila’s nightly routine consists of bathing, watching slime videos while playing with slime, and then watching slime and/or baking videos while laying down, respectively. On average, she watches videos for 1-2 hours before falling asleep. Tehila rarely sleeps through the night, and when she wakes up, she will continue watching videos to help her fall back to sleep. Because of the household rules surrounding technology and Tehila’s preference of being alone, only Tehila’s mother co-views videos with her. Co-viewing allows her mother to engage with the media and Tehila at the same time. She is able to talk about the content, encourage imitation, and provide Tehila with the verbal labels for each respective object and action that is featured. This promotes Tabitha’s language, cognitive, and social-emotional development.
How do you and your peers interact with media/technology?
Tehila does not have access to technology at school, which is where she sees her friends. Regardless, she often prefers to be alone and enjoys watching YouTube videos by herself.
What do you use media for?
Tehila exclusively uses digital media to watch either slime or baking videos on YouTube. These particular videos are soothing to her because they feature her favorite things: slime and chocolate. While watching slime videos, Tehila often plays with slime in real life and imitates the actions she is seeing on video. Imitation is an important aspect of language development, cognitive development and learning, and is especially important for children with ASD because of the positive associations between imitation and social-communicative abilities. The social component of imitation is imperative for children with ASD to generalize learned behaviors to other settings or with other materials.
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about media/technology?
Tehila’s favorite activity is watching slime or baking videos on YouTube and playing with slime in real life. Technology offers visual demonstrations to Tehila and provides her with opportunities to further explore and learn more about the activities she is most interested in.
“I encourage Tehila to use digital media. When she is watching videos she is so happy! It always calms her down and makes her laugh, even on the worst days.”
- Tehila’s mother