Dh 5 LOVES to tell what happened in a film.

[Friederike in Persia]

It gets somewhat boring and I tell him he's only allowed to tell part of it. That I can just about cope with.
But then we get guests (quite a lot of them) and he tells them, too. Would you forbid it outright? Hope the visitor will somehow stop him?....:confused:
He's a cutie and I'm sure he'll outgrow it, but for now I think I might have to do something about it.
Do you stop your dc from talking too much?

Friederike in Persia

[Chris in VA]

Oh, mine used to do this. He was getting evaluated at a neuro-psych and REALLY wanted to tell the Dr. about "Balto." She commented on his "animated" telling right in the report! lol (Good thing, too, as this child had a lot going on at 6, and at least he could demonstrate his verbal skills in this way, as he just wasn't testing well!)

I would try to be patient, even tho it can be hard when they tell things in such excruciating detail. And maybe, you can prep him for "proper" guest behaviour--" Mr and Mrs So-and-So will be coming today. I want you to greet them politely, but let's not talk about X a lot. Let's let them do the talking, because we want to hear how they are doing."

[8FillTheHeart]

LOL.....no advice.....just a good laugh b/c my original thought was.....wow, her 5th dh.....I think I would have gotten really picky after the 4th!!! :D

[beansprouts]

Could you use this as a starting point for teaching him narrations? ;)

[Friederike in Persia]

It's obviously my dS!! Dh doesn't tell film stories, thank God!

The narration thought is the one that helps this impatient mum to keep listening. "This counts as narration, thus cuts down school time, let him talk!";)

Friederike

[abbeyej]

I would forbid him to narrate movies to guests, lol. Children do have to learn that there are appropriate and inappropriate polite conversations -- and narrating movies or discussing video games with people who don't play them are not acceptable topics for conversation. We talk about it in much the same way we have explained talking about poop and other bodily functions -- there are times when this is okay, but it's not dinner-with-guests type times.

If it starts to happen with a guest, I would step in and gently remind him and redirect, "Ok, Jimmy, I think you've told us enough about Shrek... Can you tell Aunt Mildred about how you caught that frog last week? If I remember correctly, she has a pretty funny frog story from her childhood too!"

Also, can he read and write yet? If so (even if his spelling and punctuation are awful-to-non-existent -- both of my kids would write pages before they figured those things out with any consistency at all), I'd encourage him to write out the movie stories he loves. And I'd praise his efforts liberally -- it's fabulous practice.

[Scarlett]

I agree with Abbey. My own ds now 8, often wants to monopolize grown up conversation. He can tell you word for word lots of movies and books and he can't 'see' that everyone doesn't want to hear it. *I* often dont' want to hear it and tell him so. :) Anyway, we are trying to teach him exactly what Abbey described...a version of 'children should be seen and not heard.'

[WTMindy]

I would forbid him to narrate movies to guests, lol. Children do have to learn that there are appropriate and inappropriate polite conversations -- and narrating movies or discussing video games with people who don't play them are not acceptable topics for conversation. We talk about it in much the same way we have explained talking about poop and other bodily functions -- there are times when this is okay, but it's not dinner-with-guests type times.

If it starts to happen with a guest, I would step in and gently remind him and redirect, "Ok, Jimmy, I think you've told us enough about Shrek... Can you tell Aunt Mildred about how you caught that frog last week? If I remember correctly, she has a pretty funny frog story from her childhood too!"

Also, can he read and write yet? If so (even if his spelling and punctuation are awful-to-non-existent -- both of my kids would write pages before they figured those things out with any consistency at all), I'd encourage him to write out the movie stories he loves. And I'd praise his efforts liberally -- it's fabulous practice.
This is the training ground where we teach our kids how to be aware of what other people are interested in, how to have a two-way conversation, how to pick up social clues, etc. :-) There are a couple grown-ups I know that I wish had a little more training in this area!

[Jennifer in MI]

I have a ds like that. Only, he likes to tell about his rocketry and just can't tell when people are bored to tears!! He's much better now though.

We did what Abbey mentioned and actually banned it while we taught him social cues of boredom (yawning, looking away from him, etc).

I stayed sane by getting him a tape recorder and having him narrate into the recorder. Now he uses my camcorder or my camera and tells about his rockets using pictures and types captions. I still need to teach him about making his own movies. But, that's next.

Good luck!! I know how hard it is!

[abbeyej]

This is the training ground where we teach our kids how to be aware of what other people are interested in, how to have a two-way conversation, how to pick up social clues, etc. :-) There are a couple grown-ups I know that I wish had a little more training in this area!

Yes, yes, that's precisely what I was trying to get at -- you just put it much better! :) It's about training them to *engage* in *real* conversations with back and forth... And sometimes that requires giving actual rules, sometimes it involves coaching (not just in what is appropriate to say, but also how to gauge whether or not the other person is actually interested, reminding them to give others a chance to speak, etc), and some of it is just plain practice.