Introduction
Over time there has been a major debate over television and children. Some think that kids shouldn’t watch it, some say that it is okay in moderation, and others say it doesn’t have any effects. The real debate starts when one starts to talk about the content of the shows. Sesame Street is a show that most would say is for all ages, but is it truly educational? Can kids really learn from it?
Media Choice. Description of media
Sesame Street is a TV show directed towards children. It contains Muppets that experience some of the same problems that today’s children face. They talk about being a good sport, getting new kids in their families, having arguments with their friends, and sharing, just to name a few. While helping children deal positively with the things they are dealing with, the show also has an educational aspect exposing children to letters, numbers, and other pre-literacy items. With all of this being advertised it’s important to make sure that the educational aspect is actually positively influencing the millions of children that watch it.
Article and Book Reflection
Sesame Street’s Affects
Mares and Pan’s (2013) research shows that Sesame Street does have a positive influence on children’s learning overall, but it is not significant enough to say that Sesame Street teaches children. When Mares and Pan (2013) looked at the effects of Sesame Street on low SES (Social Economic Status) children, however they found that it has a significantly positive effect on their knowledge.
When looking at the “Sesame Street TV review” found on Commonsensemedia.com, Sesame Street got 5 stars when it comes to quality. The review also says that it is appropriate for all ages (“Sesame Street TV Review”). If that wasn’t ...
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Is Scooby-Doo So Evil?; classic children's TV. (2008). The Times. 30 Mar. 2014.
Mares, M., & Pan, Z. (2013). Effects of Sesame Street: A meta-analysis of children’s learning in 15 countries. Journal Of Applied Developmental Psychology, 34(3), 140-151. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2013.01.001
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Imagination does not always involve dealing with realistic feelings or reading books and having to understand ideas in an intellectual way. Imagination does not need to be taken seriously; intelligence, on the other hand, should be taken seriously. Giving a child a book will test his reading and literacy skills. Putting a child in front of a 20/20 broadcast will confuse him. Reading books are meant for learning, not to expand one’s imagination. Children are not supposed to believe that television and video games are bad for them when this addictive hobby only makes them happy. It is only an excessive amount of television entertainment that will truly damage a child’s intellect. Adults, however, understand both how to read and the difference between reality and fantasy worlds and the effects television has on their intelligence.
“In the late 1960s, a television producer named Joan Ganz Cooney set out to start an epidemic. Her targets were three-, four-, and five-year-olds. Her agent of infection was television, and the “virus” she wanted to spread was literacy” (Gladwell 89). The Tipping Point is a book on the study of epidemics- including mental epidemics and trends. Sesame Street, still one of the most iconic shows to date, is an epidemic; the splurge of knowledge that appeared in children after it began to air is undeniable. The show started production in New York in 1968. Shows for children such as Sesame Street support children in school and throughout life by teaching them memorable lessons from helpful muppets. Nevertheless, how and
...ildren that seem helpful and educational. Learning systems such as leap frog or educational television programs are also a hot topic when it comes to giving your child a boost in the education department. Being that it is still “media”, the question is; how helpful are they really and how much is too much? (Garrison & Christakis, 2005) Many researchers suggest that there are no negative effects of these educational programs. However it may not be the education department that these children will be lacking in. It is found that more children that are preoccupied with media, even educational, are more likely to become obese, lack in social skills, and be less creative. There are pros and cons to every situation that occurs in life. When it comes to the development of a child, balance is ultimately what needs to be achieved to be able to obtain a healthy lifestyle.
To begin with, PBS Kids is a Public television programming and the two shows I decided to watch were Arthur and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. Arthur is a show that aims to promote social-emotional where children acquire positive social skills, problem-solving strategies, and understanding and managing emotions. Arthur is a show that showcases real-life situations children go through during their growth and development period. In the other hand, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood is a show showcases imagination and creativity that allows children to develop social skills. The show Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood also promote social-emotional and I believe the goal is to have young children have an understanding of social skills, emotions, creativity, and
Children in their adolescents years watch a great amount of TV each week and it is almost inevitable that they will start to be influenced by what they see on their television. They will see diffe...
The question as to whether television is a good way to teach children has always been hotly debated. There has been studies conducted that demonstrate that school age children can benefit from educational programs geared toward their age range. Some elementary schools in the United States have implement educational shows into their daily classes; even high schools and colleges use educational videos as part of their lectures and many say they are beneficial. Yet there is a new trend that seems to be sweeping across America; infant targeted media products. These new shows are now targeting children as young as 12 months, telling parents that it will help their child develop faster and ahead of their peers. It’s an appeal that no parent could pass up because everyone what’s their child to be the next Einstein. The question however is do these products actually work? This is the question DeLoache et al. (2010) and Krcmar, Grela, and Lin (2007) attempt to answer in their research into media and infant learning. Both studies focus on infant related media shows vs patent interaction, which learning style works the best, and if the claims by marketers about the effectiveness of their shows hold some or any validity.
As I read Television as a teacher written by Neil postman, His main argument throughout the article is that television isn’t a good or effective way to use education, and he describes how it’s actually worst for us and were not learning the full purpose of education and learning by watching tv. His main example was Sesame Street, and how children sit in front of a television for hours watching what they call education television and claiming they get knowledge from it but they're getting no social interaction by watching it. Also, Neil postman makes excellent points by comparing education television to a real classroom, saying how a classroom has social interaction, the ability to ask a teacher question, development of language, and it’s a
American children, on average, spend more time watching television programs than they do engaging with adults, siblings, or attending school (Feldman, Coats, & Spielman, 1996). This finding introduces the challenge for big networks to use television to positively guide children’s social learning while they are home from school. Studies have shown that even a brief exposure to television can produce positive effects on learning during childhood (Rice and Woodsmall, 1998), and television programming can also positively influence pro-social behaviors and gender-role concepts (Forge & Phemister, 1987, Mares & Woodward, 2001, O’Bryant & Corder-Bolz, 1978 and Signorelli, 2001). Furthermore, many of the existing educational programs directed at young children aim to influence attitudes relating to racial prejudice (Persson & Musher-Eizenman, 2003). If mainstream networks had psychological research to back up their efforts, then television for children could be as socially awakening as it is relaxing.
Sesame Street has an effect on children's development. Their academics become strongly improved through the different sequences of learning activities that Sesame Street provides within the television program. Sesame Street shows a variety of learning programs that deal with numbers,shapes,colours,letters,etc. The cognition part of Sesame Street teaches children how to be interactive, how to compromise and introduce them to new material. Emotional development can be shown in Sesame Street's online gaming and through their songs and also part of their television showing. With these 3 aspects of Sesame Street, children can get just about the same education as a child would in preschool. The television show for children called “Sesame Street” has an effect on children through their academics, their cognition development and their emotional development.
Think about a blue dog, a red monster that can talk, and a Spanish speaking girl who goes on an adventure every day. To a person who has not watched television those characters might be made up people. For a child, however, those characters are Blue from Blue’s Clues, Elmo from Sesame Street, and Dora from Dora the Explorer. These three shows air on networks that are based for children, and are what could be referred to as educational entertainment; they hide learning into an entertaining television show. Experts say that this technique, that children’s education television shows use, builds a foundation that children can use for a lifetime. Though some parents may argue that these programs do more harm than good, these shows have an educational value that other children series do not have. For a child that is watching these television shows, they are not aware of the learning component; rather, they believe that they are having fun. Even though some parents argue that children’s educational programs have little to no value, television that uses the entertaining education techniques in its programing can help children develop lifelong social and educational skills before, during, and after they start and finish preschool or kindergarten by developing their memory and mimicking appropriate social behaviors.
Olsen, Glenn W., and Mary Lou Fuller. Home and school relations: teachers and parents working together. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.
Carrington, S (2009). Home, school and community relationships. In Ashman. A & Elkins. J (Eds). Education for inclusion and diversity (pp. 386-413). Pearson Education Australia.
Sesame Street sought to use the medium of television for good by educating children using cartoons. Sesame Street helped children develop a love for learning; however, it also conditioned kids to only love school if it is like Sesame Street (143). This is a problem because the medium of TV does not allow students to ask questions, requires no social behavior, and teaches kids more about images than about language. Children expect to be constantly entertained, and thus do not want to patiently wait to learn how to read and write or go through the long process of philosophical discussion. When watching Sesame Street, children are allowed to sit on a couch in their pajamas eating popcorn while they learn, so they expect the same at school. The kids do not have to read or do any other type of meaningful work to absorb the images from the television screen, so Postman Says they don’t want to work hard to learn in school. The problem with Sesame Street is not that the publishers did a poor job, but that the medium of television cannot accomplish the goal of teaching children to use language, behave properly, and ask questions. Postman suggests that the medium of TV is not well suited for teaching
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
should be censored to an extent, yet they do not see the significant effect that regular television shows really have on their children.As a child grows, more and more statistics are proving that they are being exposed to too many shows that should be censored. Many studies have concluded that young children are most affected by what they see on television (Dritz, Russel 1996). For example, a child that watches a cartoon with a lot