Even the harshest critics of the role that television plays in children鈥檚 lives would have a hard time arguing that Elmo and Big Bird are bad for youngsters. From the earliest days of 鈥淪esame Street鈥� nearly four decades ago, educational television has earned high praise and millions of fans for entertaining and educating young children.
Now, a new generation of programs, and a rigorous research effort to test its impact, is adding to the legacy and working to clarify for parents the potential benefits of television viewing, particularly for literacy development.
While learning experts surely agree that too much television and inappropriate content can have detrimental effects on children, the right kinds of programs can set them on the path toward reading.
鈥淚鈥檓 a big supporter of media technology and I do agree that kids spend far too much time with television and other media,鈥� said Milton Chen, who in the mid-1990s helped launch the , a partnership between the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, and the U.S. Department of Education to create educational programming. 鈥淏ut I come out on the side that specific television programs and experiences can very much support literacy.鈥�
Well-designed programs can teach distinct skills such as letter and sound recognition, as well as cultivate a love of reading, said Mr. Chen, the director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation in San Rafael, Calif. As the director of research earlier in his career for the Children鈥檚 Television Workshop, which has since been renamed Sesame Workshop, Mr. Chen helped to design and test some of the lessons embedded in programs like 鈥淪esame Street鈥� and 鈥淭he Electric Company.鈥�
Gains in Understanding
Literacy has been a dominant theme of public-television programs since the first episodes of 鈥淪esame Street鈥� pioneered the genre in November 1969.
Many parents since then have observed firsthand the effectiveness of those lessons, such as one on 鈥淪esame Street鈥� that featured Y as the letter of the day and was accompanied by Grammy winner Norah Jones singing her song, 鈥淒on鈥檛 Know Why.鈥� Or when Synonym Sam, the girl genius character on demonstrated the meaning of sets of words like 鈥渨alk,鈥� 鈥渟trut,鈥� and 鈥渟tride.鈥�
There is now growing empirical evidence that such carefully crafted segments deliver an academic punch.
A federally financed study released last month, for example, found that 鈥淲ordWorld,鈥� a program funded under the Ready to Learn initiative, helps preschool children learn oral vocabulary and featured words.
鈥淏etween the Lions,鈥� hosted by a puppet family of lions who live in the New York City Library, has been studied even more extensively. Studies on the 10-year-old program have linked it to significant gains in students鈥� understanding of how letters combine to make words, as well as of the purpose of the printed word.
The American Academy of Pediatrics that some television programming has benefits. But the Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based organization urges parents to avoid television viewing altogether for children under age 2, a prime audience for many programs, because it may be detrimental to their brain development.
The academy also points to the potential for television in general to send the wrong messages about violence, drug use, and other negative behaviors, as well as its documented role in promoting sedentary behavior that can lead to childhood obesity.
The Ready to Learn initiative, begun in 1995, set new priorities for children鈥檚 television several years ago, requiring that new programs receiving public funding home in on early literacy. At least a quarter of federal grant money for the programs must be used for research to drive their design and gauge whether the lessons in the programs affect children鈥檚 literacy development.
That research is now emerging and providing critical information on the most effective approaches to infusing learning into television programming, according to Deborah L. Linebarger, the director of the at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
鈥淲e know that we can successfully merge learning and appeal to children, but it takes work,鈥� said Ms. Linebarger, who is studying the impact of several popular shows on public television, including 鈥淏etween the Lions鈥� and 鈥淪uper Why!鈥�
The best programs, she said, create content that reflects research on how children learn and test it out on children prior to putting it on television. While public television tends to dominate the educational market, she said that the cable stations Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel have also found success in promoting children鈥檚 learning on shows such as 鈥淏lues Clues鈥� and 鈥淟ittle Einsteins.鈥�
鈥淲hen they do these things and kids understand them and like them, the shows are really successful,鈥� Ms. Linebarger said, adding that the commercial success can often underwrite the costly development process.
鈥楲iteracy 360 Approach鈥�
Even as children become more accustomed to different kinds of media, from computer games to interactive Web sites, children鈥檚 television has held a large and steady audience, experts say. The newer programs, and even those now heading into middle age, are adapting their approach to engage the digital generation. Most of the shows have accompanying Web sites that provide video clips, activities, and related lessons and games.
鈥淭elevision, particularly for preschoolers and the early grades, is still king,鈥� said Michael H. Levine, the executive director of the at Sesame Workshop, which promotes research and best practices about digital learning for young children. 鈥淏ut now everything needs to be developed for a range of different platforms.鈥�
The Sesame Street site, for example, provides podcasts with vocabulary lessons and information related to a selected word, such as 鈥渄og.鈥� A video clip is offered as well, with former 鈥淟ate Night鈥� talk-show host Conan O鈥橞rien explaining interesting facts about dogs.
鈥淭hey are taking a literacy 360 approach and surrounding kids with learning opportunities,鈥� Ms. Linebarger said.
Those resources help to broaden the impact of the programs and provide learning opportunities beyond the television hour, she added.
With a range of activities, and even some aligned assessment tools, parents and caregivers can use educational programming more formally to teach children, experts say. A summer camp was launched last year in association with the 鈥淪uper Why!鈥� program on PBS and will be offered around the country this year.
PBS is reaching out to parents and caregivers through social-networking tools, such as Twitter, to provide reminders and daily strategies for nurturing language development and background knowledge, precursors to reading. Public-television officials are also devising initiatives to train early-childhood professionals to use educational television and other digital media to promote learning goals.
Detrimental Effects?
Parents and caregivers, however, need to be aware of the darker side of television, some experts say, particularly in light of data suggesting that children鈥檚 daily media exposure can exceed the amount of time they spend in school.
鈥淚t would seem that viewing of age-appropriate educational programming in the preschool years is positively associated with reading,鈥� Marie Evans Schmidt, a research associate at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children鈥檚 Hospital in Boston, wrote in an e-mail. 鈥淏ut there may be some detrimental effects of TV viewing in general (total hours viewed) for slightly older children who are learning to read.
The thought is that watching TV may displace reading practice, which of course affects whether and how soon children become fluent readers.鈥�
That鈥檚 why television focused on learning is a valuable asset worthy of public support, said Susan T. Zellman, the vice president for education and children鈥檚 content at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the nonprofit organization established by Congress that underwrites public television and radio services.
鈥淭hese characters are engaging, and the kids are drawn into [lessons] by the characters and the stories, so you motivate them to learn,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ducational television is so powerful and the research is so compelling.鈥�
