The present study was a longitudinal investigation of preschool children's viewing of "Sesame Street" and their vocabulary development. Five 1-week diaries of television viewing were collected for 2 years from 2 cohorts of children; 1 group was followed from ages 3 to 5 (n = 160) and another from ages 5 to 7 (« = 166). Child and family measures included children's vocabulary skills, gender, presence of siblings, parent education, parent encouragement of "Sesame Street" viewing, and parent positive attitudes about television. Cross-age multiple regressions, in conjunction with withinage regressions, suggested a positive effect of "Sesame Street" viewing from ages 3 to 5, with declining benefits from ages S to 7. Neither positive nor negative effects were evident for viewing other kinds of children's programs, such as cartoons. Results suggest that the content and presentation formats of "Sesame Street" are well suited to preschoolers' vocabulary development, independent of parent education, family size, child gender, and parental attitudes. The findings suggest the feasibility of tutorial uses of the video medium.

Fifty-one preschoolers' play preferences, skills at assembling block structures, and spatial abilities were recorded in this study. There were no sex differences in children's visual-spatial skills, and play with art materials and children's free and structured play with blocks were related to spatial visualisation. Two patterns emerged from the ndings: (1) activity and Requests for reprints should be sent to Yvonne M. Caldera, Department of Human Development and Family Studies,

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children form separate schemata for social information acquired from TV and from real-world experience, but those who perceive television as socially realistic are apt to incorporate TV messages in their schemata and their aspirations.