Question
I appreciate your newspaper columns, and joined in order to ask you a question. I was very disappointed that the American Academy of Pediatrics watered down its expectations of parents in regard to hours of media (including television) per day and says it has "moved beyond one-size-fits-all." I could actually tell the difference in the intelligence, ability to communicate, and creativity of my grandson when his family went from no television in his room to having one in his room a few years ago at age five. His mother chooses the shows and videos and she feels that makes it okay. Our son and she leave the living room television/video player in the living room on most of the time. That is where our grandchildren often play. Is there anything that I as a grandmother can do? I only have about two hours a week to spend with them and that is when I do creative things with them like games or reading. The second grandchild has a significant speech impediment but they are putting off speech therapy the doctor has recommended for two years (he is five). He has no problem understanding language but has developed his own spoken language which brother or mother understand better than most of us. There are times he can become very angry at not being understood. My heart breaks. Maybe their one year old baby will have her own issues they will not notice. This is very hard to see as they are college educated, home schooling, and my son successful in his career so that my daugher-in-law is able to stay home, something I only dreamed of being able to do. Please do not include the last five sentences if you publish this question as it is too revealing with all this information. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated. I have offered financial help for speech therapy.
