TV shows for children

Not all TV aimed at children is the same and watching some educational shows can benefit small children. But there are so many TV shows out there it can be hard to know what to choose.

Here are just a few of the TV shows that we recommend and why.

• Something Special: This TV show demonstrates use of Makaton sign in practical ways. We often recommend Makaton sign to support a child’s understanding as well as development of expressive language. It gives a child another way to express themselves. For more information on the benefits of Makaton, please see the Makaton website. 
• Something Special Nursery Rhymes: Mr Tumble sings a nursery rhyme each episode and accompanies this with Makaton Sign. Not only does this encourage everyday use of Makaton sign, but because nursery rhymes are repetitive they’re a great way to support the development of your child’s speech and language. When your child is familiar with a song, try singing part of the rhyme then stop to see if your child can fill in the next words.
• Alphablocks: This TV show uses letters of the alphabet to help develop the in area of phonics. While this may be some while off for your little one (depending on their age) you could use it to model sounds as each character comes on the TV, and also encourage your child to experiment with different sounds eg mmmmmmm (when the ‘m’ character speaks).
• Yakadee: This TV show targets a specific word in each episode and uses cartoons and other fun pictures to introduce a word to your child. These words are used frequently in daily life and are said repeatedly over the episode. This is a fantastic way to develop your child’s knowledge of words.
• The Baby Club: This is a TV show where you and your child can sing, learn about new things, and listen to stories together. You can join in by letting your child explore the objects they get together in the episode as they often use items that you have around the house. There are times just to interact with your baby and spend time looking at each other, time spent focusing on an activity together and time for letting your baby explore and interact in your home environment. These are all important parts of the development of communication.

There are many other shows out there and these are only just a few! Speech and Language skills develop when your child is provided with opportunities to communicate. Try to think about how you can interact with your child during these shows and make it a learning experience for them.

If you need any support and advice with your child’s speech and language development, visit our Speech and Language Therapy pages.