Why do young children like to hear the same song or see the same show/movie over and over again?

Kids of that age love repetition, anything that feels familiar has an instant attraction.

When I am with a young child, I say, “again,” even before they get to ask. They love it, over and over again. I think like adults they enjoy what is familiar and what they are good at. They sing a song well, they get a clap from their audience, and want to sing again, gives them a sense of accomplishment I would guess. i think it is cute, it never bothers me. But, I don’t have kids, I just deal with it when I am baby sitting or with the children of friends.

Their brains aren’t developed.

They like to learn all the words and sing along. I think @ucme is correct.

Repetition helps them learn…. So when they want to watch something or listen to over and over again they are memorizing or learning something new for them.

They are just learning their speech and language skills; social skills; motor skills and cognitive skills and, like everything, practice makes perfect. Children naturally like repetition and ritual which helps them learn these needed skills. Plus, when they do learn something, they love to try it again and again to garner praise. Yeah. Good job. Excellent. You’re sooo smart. Clap, clap, clap.

Familiarity and learning every detail. They participate at different levels every time they hear it. As the song or movie becomes more familiar, they anticipate their favourite parts, learn new nuances to sing or the particular meaning of words suddenly dawn on them and it excites them. Once they wring everything they can out of that song or movie, they move on. It’s quite exciting to watch.

I’m reading a lot of answers from adults that sound like adult answers who aren’t recalling what caused them to watch the same things over and over again.

When I was very young, personal choice of entertainment was limited to what was available in the house. It was limited to the existing books, records, and what was on television (with very strict limitations.) I gravitated towards the magical books and songs that invoked imagination.

It wasn’t until I learned to read and was taken to the library every week that I stopped reading the same books. The selection was now expanded. It wasn’t until I was about five or six before I realized that I could ask for things that interested me.

Think back to when you were very young. Was there anything that you watched, read, or listened to over and over again? If so, what was it and why?

I think children find it empowering and reassuring to be able to predict what comes next. It makes the world seem less confusing and random.

@Blackberry I have to disagree; it’s not just children that enjoy that sort of thing. And my brain is far from being “undeveloped”.

I think it’s comforting to watch and listen to that which is familiar. I haven’t been a child in quite some time, but I feel the same way with certain songs and movies. I’ve got a celtic CD that I can listen to over, and over, and over, simply because it’s so familiar; I know every note, and it’s relaxing. I’ve got another current favorite CD that I play ALL the time, because I made an effort to learn all the words when I bought it and now I love to sing along with it.

I do the same thing with certain movies. There are a lot of movies that I can watch repeatedly and not get tired of them. Princess Bride and Monty Python are two of them. In fact, I was so nervous the night before my wedding, that my soon to be sister-in-law snuggled next to me in my bed and we watched Princess Bride and quoted the whole thing, just so that I could get that “comfort” and be able to sleep.

Fun is fun no matter how repetitive.

@WillWorkForChocolate I think you’ve corrected me, because I didn’t think of music, as I do the same thing.

My son watched “Elmo Saves Christmas” every day for a year, sometimes twice a day (he was 2½.when this started) . He would ask for it, he’d be offered the choice of three other videos and he would still ask for it.

It was comforting and familiar. It was a happy place for him!

@WillWorkForChocolate I gave you a GA because I do the same thing. In hindsight though, the OP is about young children and not adult behavior.

@Pied_Pfeffer Yeah, I get that, but I guess I was trying to explain that it’s not JUST children that do that.

I think music is particularly repeatable from early to old ages. It’s the familiarity and mental pictures you get when you hear it. It doesn’t matter what kind of music it is, if you related to it strongly once, it will bring up those feelings again later. Early in my life it was Winnie the Pooh songs and I still get a kick out of hearing them now and then.

It’s because we learn something that we didn’t notice last time we watched it. We learn the who script of the movie so that we can talk at the same time as we are watching it.
We learn new vocabulary.

p.s. I am 17 years old and I have watched Mean Girls again and again and again, I know the whole script… no kidding

My two year old granddaughter just left after staying a week with us. She is amazing. She learned the hokie-pokie and would watch and try it with such concentration it was beautiful. I would sing made-up and real songs. She’d watch my mouth, listen and as soon as she knew the song was over (usually because I’d goose her or make a big show of a bravado ending) she’d copy the exact pattern I’d used.

She knows every Elmo song by heart and can watch Elmo’s ducks, Elmo and India with the ABC song and Elmo’s Song by heart. Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack. It is delightful.

She made me sing Bear Tracks until everyone around us was sick to death of hearing the old Bluegrass song. Before the week was up, she was filling in the blanks of the song when I’d stop and look at her. She would say, “Piggy song, Ganny” and I knew exactly what she meant. It is a wonder to behold to see young minds growing and learning.

@nailpolishfanatic Are the those the same motivations for watching the same movie/show repeatedly that you had as a young child? The reason for asking is that I’ve done the same thing for similar reasons, but they aren’t the same ones for when I was under the age of six.

@Pied_Pfeffer I guess when you are younger you don’t really always understand everything going on so when we grow older we watch them to bring back memories and to also understand it better.
But of course it varies from people.

Kind of the same subject, but not exactly answering the question, one of the reasons children learn language faster than adults is not only because that part of the brain is more open, but also because they and we repeat things for them. This is a table, the crayons are on the table, table, say table. Imagine if someone took that sort of time to repeat with you words, and songs, and demonstrate to you what they are talking about instead of just having you memorize a list in Spanish to English vocabulary words. The way we interact with children, and teach them language, is instinctively the best way to learn language in my opinion.

I think it helps with retention, along with other neural developments.

From recollection of when I was small, I liked to re-watch everything because it took me a while to understand everything the first few times around, but once I did understand, I loved to keep re-watching and feel those emotions I got from it. When I was a child, it was harder to understand why the actors/ protagonists did what they did. “Why did Snow White die?”, questions that seem obvious now, were not to be me before.

I loved watching Disney movies, and Cinderella was my favorite, and I never got tired of it. I also learned how to speak English from watching television as a child.

When I wasn’t that young—> about in my early teens or so, I watched the Spongebob Squarepants movie at least 13 times, and for those 13 times, I laughed HYSTERICALLY… after the 14th time though, I got tired of it, and thought it was ridiculous. I don’t know how I was able to be so entertained for such a long period of time, from such a silly movie.. Good times though, I was genuinely laughing happily. =)

Nah, you guys are all confused. While still in utero the fetus has access to the “How to Make Your Parents Go Nuts and Behave Stupidly, Often in Public” manual which includes such chapters as The Disney Song Earworm; Forging Neural Pathways That Cannot Be Undone and The Plastic Harmonica and Whistle Method; How to Bring Mommy and Daddy Weeping to Their Knees. All children have had access to this before birth, which explains why, 20 years later, I’m still word perfect on the entire score of The Little Mermaid.

@JilltheTooth “I don’t know when, I don’t know how, but I know something’s starting right now. Watch and you’ll see. Someday I’ll beeeeeee part of your world!”

Oh, Thanks so much. Crap.

The seaweed is always greener in somebody else’s lake…

When young children get a kick out of something, they love watching it over and over. They love the stimulation of humor, as it affects their “untouched” minds more effectively. Adults get bored more easily after watching the same thing over, even if it made them laugh initially.