Can TV help your child become a better writer?
We all know reading matters.
It helps children build vocabulary, follow stories, absorb sentence patterns and become stronger at comprehension.
But what about TV?
Historically, TV gets treated or perceived as the enemy of learning.
Too much screen time. Too much noise. Too much staring into the middle distance with anxiety attack-inducing music and sound-effects.
And yes, if a child is just sitting there for hours with no thought, no conversation and no engagement, it’s probably not doing much for their English, or communication skills.
But TV itself isn’t always the problem, it’s what happens around it.
Used properly, TV can be a brilliant prompt for creative writing, inference and storytelling.
Watch with a writer’s brain
One simple trick is to mute the TV.
Choose a short scene, turn the sound off and ask your child what they think is happening.
“What can you tell from the character’s face?”
“What does their body language suggest?”
“Are they angry, nervous, excited or hiding something?”
“What do you think will happen next?”
Suddenly, your child isn’t just watching. They’re analysing.
They’re making guesses or predictions based on evidence.
They’re reading the scene without being told what’s going on.
That’s exactly the kind of thinking they need for comprehension.
Add the dialogue
Once your child has worked out what might be happening, ask them to add the dialogue.
“What would the character say?”
“How would they say it?”
“Would they whisper it, shout it or mutter it under their breath?”
“Would they say what they really mean, or would they try to hide it?”
This is a great creative writing exercise because they’re not starting with a blank page.
The scene gives them something to work with.
They already have characters, setting, emotion and action.
Now they have to turn that into words.
What if the programme or movie feels too ‘babyish’?
I had a message from a parent recently who was worried because her son kept going back to shows he’d watched when he was younger.
She felt they were too babyish.
As parents, we want children to move forward. We don’t want them getting stuck. We don’t want them clinging to things that feel too young for them.
But there might be a reason those shows still appeal.
They’re familiar, comforting, easy to follow.
And actually, that can be useful.
Children’s TV is often very good at building simple, engaging stories. The plots are usually easy to understand. The characters want something obvious. A problem appears. Something changes. The ending makes sense.
That’s not a bad thing. It’s a structure.
And structure is exactly what lots of children need when they’re learning to write stories.
Turn a simple episode into a better story
You can take a short children’s TV episode and use it as the basis for creative writing.
Watch it together.
Then ask:
“Who is the main character?”
“What do they want?”
“What goes wrong?”
“How do they try to fix it?”
“What happens at the end?”
Once your child has the main story in their head, they can start building from there.
The original plot might be simple, but the writing doesn’t have to be.
This is where you can use description, similes, metaphors, better vocabulary and more interesting sentence choices.
A basic animal adventure can become dramatic.
A silly cartoon scene can become tense.
A bright, cheerful setting can suddenly feel mysterious, wild or dangerous.
It depends how your child tells it.
Build the language around the scene
You could sit with your LinkyThinks Word Wheels beside you and start collecting better words together.
What colours can they see? What does the setting sound like? What textures are there? How could they describe an animal moving? What noise does it make? Could they compare it to something else?
Maybe the trees shake like nervous hands.
Maybe the rain taps at the window like impatient fingers.
Maybe a tiny creature scuttles across the floor like a dropped marble.
The TV show gives them the basic picture, but your child’s job is then to use it to enrich their writing.