Handling Obsessions and Repetitions with Particular Reference to Music and Video

Quite often, our children develop obsessions with a particular activity or routine and may exhibit narrow interests. For instance, I have heard many parents expressing concerns about their children watching the same track of music or video again and again. This may continue to exist for several months or even years. There are many reasons that are attributable to such repetitive and obsessive behaviors. Lack of ideation, anxiety, sensory preferences, a mere source of pleasure, or could be as simple as a way of coping with everyday life. To quote an example, my child has been watching the Tamil moral story “ Aathi chudi” for more than 2 years and is reluctant to new stories. He is also passionate about Carnatic music, devotionals, and folks genres of regional Tamil, Malayalam, and a few Hindi songs. In an effort to expand his story and musical repertoire, I found the following strategies to be working for my child: Always make sure that the new piece of music or video has some tracks that have some words or actions, or situations that the child is familiar with! Interspersing familiar content with new content is the key to creating and sustaining interest! Parallel talk while introducing the child to new videos. Relating the parallel talk about the context with real-life events. Consistently playing the new videos or content daily along with the familiar tacks. It works! Their repertoire of interests is expanding! Try this and let me know if this works for you. Good luck!