Have You Ever Wondered Why Our Children See The Same Movie Over And Over Again, Here I Have An Idea Why This Happens?
Frozen, Ratatouille, My favorite villain, Looking for Dori ... Children watch the same movie over and over again without getting tired and without even blinking. It is always a good time to ask for it and to be on television as hypnotized, ecstatic with pure pleasure and fun. Parents, exhausted, accompany them often wondering what is behind this disconcerting obsession.
Only a few months ago, half the world was surprised by a curious news. A Netflix user had watched the same movie 357 times over the course of a year. Most wanted to know two things: what production it was and who that particular person was. Finally, the well-known audiovisual platform contacted the user to get to know him and be able to publish his story.
A child may have seen more than 100 times that movie for which he feels a great predilection. However, no matter how many times you have seen it, your level of attention is the same as the first time.
The film in question was neither more nor less than Bee Movie. A fun animated film where a bee recently graduated from university leaves her hive to make a beautiful friendship with a human, a florist. For its part, the user who had seen this production almost daily was Jaxson, a baby just over one year of age.
As the mother explained, the boy was only a couple of months old when he became fascinated with the images of this DreamWorks movie. So much so that since then there is no day when I do not put it on again. According to her, during the time that Bee Movie lasts, Jaxson is more relaxed and attentive than ever. She is aware that her son hardly understands anything, but in view of the satisfaction that she produces, she does not hesitate to give him that moment of delight and entertainment on a daily basis.
Children see the same movie again and again because their brain needs it
The story of this Netflix user and her son surprises us, perhaps, because of the age of the protagonist. We know that children today have a very early contact with the audiovisual world. Moving images, color, music and voices are very attractive stimuli for the brain of children. However, when children watch the same movie over and over again, there is more than just sensory attraction.
Let's look back for a moment, until our own childhood. We also had our favorite movie, even more, we had, of course, our favorite story. That we always wanted to read or that we expected our mother or father to explain to us every night. We also loved that our grandparents told us that story or that anecdote every time we went to visit them. We loved to gravitate around familiar, predictable, familiar narratives ...
Repetition as a means of learning
The infant brain learns and consolidates information through repetition. Therefore, it is not strange that children see the same movie over and over again, that they ask us to sing the same song or that they want us to read the same books to them. Thus, studies such as the one published in 2011 at the University of Sussex, Brighton show us that children integrate these stories as a pattern. They are chains of meaning that go deciphering better and better.
As they achieve it, they improve their language, discover new words, understand arguments better, and shred more and more details, thus achieving greater personal satisfaction.
Repetition confers comfort and security
Children need habits, guidelines, routines. In this way they not only manage to better organize their world to discover it, what they also achieve with a set stage is a sense of security. Therefore, it should not surprise us that when children watch the same movie over and over again they experience so much pleasure and well-being.
Knowing what is going to happen in each moment allows them to validate their expectations, reinforces them and relaxes them. There are no unforeseen events to process in a second, there is no contradictory information that puts them on alert. Having before them that known film, that story or that book so read or so listened to helps them obtain that pleasant and above all "controllable" security.
Improve logical thinking
Logical thinking refers to the relationships we make between two or more objects. It is to make comparisons, infer information, combine and obtain a series of conclusions. This important cognitive process that Piaget talked about at the time is key to the intellectual development of children.
In this way, being able to have a frame like a film with a specific history, will allow you to find those same relationships, help you find those cause-effect relationships, those links between factors, between stimuli, micro-stories, gestures, words…
To conclude, although to us as adults these repetitive experiences exhaust us and exasperate us, our little ones need them. When children watch the same movie over and over again, they mature. They not only enjoy, they also grow. They feel competent when making predictions, they delight in these familiar stimuli. Let us then enjoy their favorite productions, and the time will come when they only crave new experiences outside of what they want to know better.
Very informative n critical post, dear friend @joelgonz1982 ...
With this post we come to know that it turns out the children have their own mechanism to learn and to grow up...
We adults became understand that children need not be scolded for their repetitive actions because they are so useful for their future development...
Have a great day dear friend, & thanks for sharing...☕❤
It´s a pretty nice post, I always wondered the reason why children watch the same movie so many times.
Thank you. and what did you learn from what you read in my publication?