running commentary

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Do your kids give a running commentary to tv commercials, movies,programs etc...?

J does this all the time even if I'm in the room watching the same thing or even in another room doing something else. I'm always getting a blow by blow account.

Just wanted to know if your kids do this to.

Hi aurea,

my son does running commentaries - he talks to himself all the time too .

Temma

My 9 year old and 7 year old sons give running commentaries all the time about what they're watching, what they're reading etc etc.

It's non-stop talking in our house. That's why I like WrongPlanet - I get to talk to other people without the noise.

Helen

I do it. Not sure if its a loneliness issue or what. But, I do know it helps my anxiety and helps me cope. So I wouldn't discourage it.

Yep. Our little sports announcer.

He does announcing for Xbox games he's playing, and he also does it while he's playing "actual" basketball or soccer.

I think he likes hearing himself talk, likes the rhythm, cadence, pitch, etc.

YAY we're moving to a much bigger house, where maybe I can find ONE ROOM that I can't hear him all the time!

Yes, my son does it. I coach him on distinguishing between talking at us and talking with us. He used to yell or talk loudly from the living room area with his back towards us. He's stopped that for the most part. But he still will run up to us and talk as he goes by, this with the tv on or whatever. He'll pause stuff and talk about it too, or demand that we look at it-even when we've told him that we're doing something else or "talking' to each other.

I think my son USED to do it, sometimes, but not often now.

He does do commentary when forced to watch sports, lol. Well, I am thinking specifically about Friday football at school - he has pronounced himself in charge of commentary. I think it's a control thing: the commentary gives him a sense of control over something he has difficulty with. Rather like being the map holder in an amusement park.

For the most part I really don't mind,in fact it is a good way to find out just how much he is comprehending, however when I'm on the phone and he is insisting on telling me something very very loudly or yelling for me to come quick it can be a little frustrating. I've tried asking him to wait a minute, it gets louder, I try adding my own observations and he talks right over the top on me.

I just reread what I just wrote and it sounds like I'm complaining, I'm not really I actually don't mind it I enjoy his chatter. It's a great way to find out things about him.

I used to do this. I've learned to stop the "run-on," (I think that's a learned skill, a sort of impulse control), but I still do one-off "narrative"-type comments.

My partners daughter used to do this an awful lot, but she's got better. A couple of years ago when my dog had a litter of pups, J and her mum were staying for the weekend. One morning when I got up and J was downstairs already she proceeded to give me a running commentary on what each individual pup had been doing since the second she woke up. Then continued while I was trying to make tea and deal with a litter of hungry puppies.
" That one is having a poo, and that one over there has just had a wee. ohh look! Now he's paddling in it. That one is eating the blanket........"
I politely pointed out that as I was in the same room I could perfectly well see for myself what the pups were doing. She then cut down to a slightly less detailed commentary....
Oh well, can't win em all....

Coming to think of this, isn't learning to hold the commentary in check part of that speech thing, "pragmatic speech?"

Yes it is.

commentary is so aggravating! It has gotten to the point where I simply say "Commentary" and my kids stop. I can only take so much.

That is similar to what the speech teacher taught us. For a while, my son's teachers and friends were using a hand signal with him, to tell him that they were losing interest or getting irritated and that it was time for him to finish up what he was saying. Now he has integrated the concept, and no longer talks endlessly. What was funny was when a new student transferred into the school, and my son and him became friends. This child can talk a waterfall! When I came to pick my son up one day, he was wandering the playground, and his friend was following him in an endless discourse. I laughed. My son later told me it annoyed him. I reminded him he used to do that, which he rememberd and agreed - and then noted that it is still annoying, lol.

ANYWAY, at age 4 I think it's cute. As the children grow, however, they do need to learn to curtail it. Hand signals or single word reminders are good tools for that.