UK Disability Resource of Disabled Needs

Last edited by welshie on Thu Jul 26, 2007 9:23 am; edited 1 time in total

read this with interest as my Daniel was obsessed with thomas the tank and thought other parents may find it of interest.....

You may have thought of Thomas The Tank was just a simple children's character.
But his powers,it would seem run deeper than mere entertainment.
The little blue engine,created in 1945 by clergyman Wilbert Awrdry to entertain his sick son,has been found to help the learning process in autistic children.
His large eyes and expressive face are credited with helping victims,who often find it hard to read people's faces,to distinguish between different emotions.
Books comic strips and films featuring Thomas and his various friends also help youngsters learn about colours numbers and words,a survey by the National Autistic Society found.
Parents of autistic children said the combinatin of clear facial expressions and simple storylines have helped their children have remarkable progress.
Jane Gillham whose 10 year old son Jack is autistic said,'he loved Thomas from a very early age.
'Jack cannot speak,although he has a very good level of understanding,but we foound that he was copying facial expressions from the characters from the television and in the books.
'I think children on the autistic spectrum do learn alot from Thomas.The facial expressions are clear and defined which is not always the case with human beings.
'I do believe it helped Jack read other peoples moods.
Thomas was named favourite toy in a survey of 750 parents of autistic youngsters,with Bob the builder a close second.
The poll also found that his appeal endures longer among autistic children.Almost 40 per cent of parents said that autistic children liked the character for two years longer than siblings without the condition.
The REvernd Awdrys cration reached television 40 years ago after he wrote the books with former beatle star Ringo Star as the narrator.
Benet Middleton,of the National Autistic Society, said:'Parents feel that Thomas has played a pivotal role in the early learming of many children who have autism partly due to the clear facial expressions and simple story lines.'

Make me feel less guilty about how much time spent in front of a thomas video.
Rachel x

Thanks for that Rachel.

I know most Autistic kids are so into Thomas so hopefully lots of parents will now feel like you do about their kids spending time watching the video's.
Very interesting article.

When my lad was younger, he hated Thomas

Anything Thomas and he'd flip out.

We didnt realise at first and when we decorated his room we put up Thomas curtains, Thomas lampshade etc......

In hindsight that wasnt the smartest move

He still has no time for Thomas now.

.

Daniel was obssesed with Thomas used to drive us mad.
we've moved on to many things since but nothing has had the same magic as Thomas and his friends