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Television & Developmental Learning
Television & Developmental Learning
Daniel Anderson et al explains that “From 1 to 4 years of age, there was a dramatic increase in attention to television” (810). With the advancement of technology more media is accessible by young children, they need parents who understand the differentiations between shows for different age groups, so that children will not be exposed to content for which they may not be emotionally ready. The tropes commonly found in children’s educational television have lasting impacts on a child’s executive functions and social skills. For this reason, it is important to differentiate between educational children’s shows and comedically inclined children’s shows. To do this I will examine the tropes that are commonly found in children’s educational television by viewing content from Care Bears (The 90’s Television show), Sesame Street, Dragon Tales, and Bear in the Big Blue House. Melissa Kearnley et al states, “Well-conducted randomized control trials at the time Sesame Street was initially introduced provided evidence that watching the show generated an immediate and sizable increase in test scores” (343). My purpose is to create a better understanding of the importance in messages given to children through television by examining characters, plot, and reoccurring themes.
Educational children’s television often relies on colorful images and interactive content to draw in their audience, but I argue that the writing still plays a role of importance in the quality of the show. Other factors such as bright colors, happy musical tones, and self-contained storylines in each episode give new viewers an understanding of the content. Each episode is self-contained, which means new viewers will not need to watch all the episodes to have a good understanding of the content. Each episode breaches a new topic revolving around similar major themes such as education, friendship, and social skills.
One major theme viewed in many educational children’s television shows is an emphasis on learning. One thing all of the children’s television shows in this genre have is their value on education. Jacob Jensen et al explains, “that exposure to [research-based] educational television was positively related to children’s leisure reading and writing” (225). All educational television shows are trying to teach children important messages that he or she may use in the future. For example, Sesame Street often focuses on the introduction of new words, letters, and numbers through repetition, music, and visual examples, which over all teaches children how to read and write. In Sesame Street the is a character called Count Von Count who introduces a new number to the audience each episode. The repetition used while teaching the number helps the information be remembered by the child. According to Tracy Alloway et al in their study of television and its impact on the development of a child’s vocabulary they state, “young children (ages 2 through 6) can rapidly encode a new word even after a single exposure to it, a process known as ‘fast mapping’” (347). They explain that children learn words very quickly, so television shows that heavily focus on learning have a greater effect on a child’s education.
Educational Television’s emphasis on learning does not just focus on schoolwork. This genre of television also focuses on developing children’s social and technical skills. Maria Cahill et al explains in her article on story time that “School librarians might also consider taking a few pages from the educational television playbook and applying them to storytime” (50). In their article Maria Cahill et al is observing the objectives taught through educational television shows and recommends implementing them in a child’s bedtime story by teaching skills such as problem solving and teamwork, which can be observed in Dragon Tales when each episode presents a problem. Each character has different skills in which they use to help each other get their tasks done. For instance, in the first episode of Dragon Tales the main characters Max and Emmy find an inscription while exploring their new playroom. Max has not learned how to read yet and asks his older sister to read it to him. As it turns out that act of asking for help has led them to many new adventures as they learn new things and make new friends. The inscription that Emmy read to Max was actually a magic spell that transported them to Dragon Land where they had to work together to find their way home.
Friendship is a common theme found throughout children’s television shows. These shows emphasize the importance of friendship and understanding one another as an important skill needed in life. In Care Bears for instance friendship and caring is presented throughout the entire show in the form of cooperation. Claire Christensen et al wrote in her article, “researchers have found that prosocial behaviors such as cooperating and resolving conflicts peacefully are associated with popularity and friendship” (23). In the show when a child does an unkind act a care bear or two is sent down to resolve the issue. The children watch the small bears engage in peaceful conflict resolution, which teaches them that finding common ground with someone is better than continuing to stay in a disagreement with him or her. Many educational television shows follow a similar pattern when resolving conflicts. Another example would be in Dragon Tales when the characters have to talk out their issues instead of fighting. One instance when this happened is when the character Zac had a literal grudge on his shoulder. The physical embodiment of a grudge was holding onto the character’s back until he forgives the other characters and talks out his issues. Children watching this episode are taught that holding a grudge is a bad thing and that it is best to let it go. Not holding a grudge is one of the many morals that Dragon Tales teaches children.
One way these television shows grasp the attention is through interactive music. Harrison Grant Poole in his article about music in the show Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood states, “This new program engages young children through ‘imagination, creativity, and music’ to ‘learn key social skills necessary for school and for life’” (5). Poole explained that music is a great modem for introducing new concepts and that music teachers should incorporate some of the uses of music found in educational television shows for their classes. Dragon Tales, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Care Bears all incorporate music into their performances to help get the best results when teaching people. Bear in the Big Blue House for instance has the main character Bear sing the goodbye song with the moon, Luna, as an indicator that the show is about to end. During the song images play of what happened in the episode, which helps leave the viewer with the important information contained in the episode. A proper ending in these shows helps the child understand the content in the episode. Another common use of music in these types of shows are the interactive songs. These songs expect the audience to respond and helps with a child’s language abilities and physical capabilities. For example, Dragon Tales has a music time within the show. In one of the episodes there is a song called “Shake Your Dragon Tail”. This song expects the audience member to interact with the song and dance with the characters. The act of dancing and interacting with the music in an educational television show stimulates the imagination and the creativity of children by giving them the chance to think through the material.
Shake Your Dragon Tale Interaction
Children’s shows are colorful and fantastical in their way of explaining new topics. Many of the characters are imaginative in design and will not be found in reality such as talking bears and dragons of many colors. Colorful characters are known for drawing in children’s attention, so the use of outlandish characters doing activities and going through problems found in the real world helps children concentrate on the characters. Often times the characters ask for the audience’s input and expect an answer in response. In her article on imagination and television Dorothy Singer states, “Stories should involve the audience through material demanding the viewer's intellectual interaction” (4). An example of an educational children’s show demanding audience interaction is when the Count asks the audience to count his bats with him on Sesame Street. There are also many times Elmo asks for the audience to answer his questions. One these questions is said at the beginning of the “Elmo’s World” segment of Sesame Street. Elmo asks his audience, “Guess what Elmo’s thinking about today” (Elmo’s World). This question stimulates thought within the audience member and expects them to come up with an idea to present to Elmo. It encourages free thought and imagination in young children. Imagination and free thought are important corner stones in a child’s education, so it is important to stimulate this way of thought from a young age.
Why is it important to understand children’s television at an academic level? It is scientifically proven that children’s executive functions are affected by exposure to television programing. Statistics show that there are both negative and positive correlations between children’s exposure to television and their executive functions. Studies show that children watching educational programing have slightly higher executive function than those watching fast paced non-educational programing such as Tom and Jerry or Loony Toons. Studies also show that depending on the medium the program is watched upon changes the resulting executive functions. Amy Nathanson et al states, “PBS viewing may reflect exposure to high-quality programming or storytelling without commercials” (1503). In their study they reach the conclusion that children’s educational television shows presented on a medium with no commercials such as PBS or on a VHS tape have better results in terms of executive functions in children.
Based on their research they came to the conclusion that interruptions in content distracts a child, so the children will have a harder time focusing on different topics, which in turn lowers the executive functions. On the contrary, Angeline Lillard explains in her study that, “a fast and fantastical show intended to be educational still resulted in relatively lower [executive functions] as compared with reading a book based on the educational show” (798). Books will always have better effects when it comes to executive function, since their medium does not have the time limitations that television does. However, just because books produce better results in executive functions, that does not mean the increased executive functions from viewing educational children’s programming means nothing in relation to lowered executive functions from viewing children’s action or comedy shows.
In today’s society television shows are most children’s first modem of learning. For this reason and those stated prior it is important to know the content that children are watching. Many shows that are advertised for children have content in them that have questionable decision making. This is what determines an educational children’s show from any other genre of children’s media. Children’s media that is not garnered towards educational purposes can leave some bad habits upon impressionable children. For example, a child can take away from the television series Bratz that fashion and appearances are more important than how one acts and they could learn bad habits such as whining when he or she does not get their way or the expectation that if someone dresses a certain way that person will act in a particular fashion. On the other hand, children’s shows that fall under the genre of educational, they provide content that stimulates brain activity and teaches morals. For instance, Care Bears, teaches children to be kind to one another and to come up with solutions to problems that benefit everyone.
In conclusion, television programming such as Sesame Street, Care Bears, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Dragon Tales stimulate a child’s imagination through creative character designs and interactive plot lines. Educational television shows such as these have a reputation of exploring morals and other educational material through the songs presented in each performance. Each episode has a self-contained storyline, so that young audiences can watch the show and learn new concepts without the confusion of not knowing the previous content. As a result, many studies have shown that educational television produces higher executive functions in children than fast paced adventure or comedy shows. To conclude, it is important for parents of young children to understand what to expect from educational television, so that they can more easily monitor the content their children view.
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