The Impact of Sesame Street on Preschool Children: A Review and Synthesis of 30 Years' Research

What Us Parents Don't Know About Their Children's Television Use

“…Parental involvement can also strengthen positive effects of educational and informational media (Corder-Bolz, 1980;Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999;Mares & Woodard, 2001). Parents can discuss media options and content with their children and teach them about the difference between the media world and the real world, thus instructing and encouraging media literacy skills.…”

Educational Preschool Programming in the US

“…These forces, coupled with the growth of public broadcasting and the fact that 97% of American households had television sets when Sesame Street premiered (Palmer & Fisch, 2001), laid the groundwork for this television experiment. Sesame Street proved not only that television could teach (Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999), but that learning could be fun. Its audience and financial success paved the way for Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer by creating a space for educational preschool programming, where none had been before.…”

“…That curriculum focused mainly on advancing the "school readiness" of 3-to 5-year-olds. Sesame Street communicates lessons about cognitive tools like numbers and letters as well as interpersonal concepts like cooperation and fair play (Fisch et al, 1999). Once it became established that viewers could learn from viewing, Sesame Street's curriculum expanded and evolved (Bryant, Alexander, & Brown, 1983); greater emphasis was given to social developmental learning (Lesser & Schneider, 2001).…”

Early Childhood as a Foundation for Civic Engagement

“…Because teachers are more likely to engage in positive ways with children who display prosocial behaviors (Kuklinski & Weinstein, 2000), children with a variety of these behaviors are likely to be exposed to quality learning environments and to adult-child interactions leading to overall positive outcomes. For example, evidence suggests that young children who have access to prosocial models will more likely interact with peers in similar ways, both concurrently and prospectively (Bandura, 1977;Fisch, Truglio, & Cole, 1999). This fi nding raises the question of whether children who are identifi ed by teachers as having poor EFs and prosocial skills are less likely to have experiences and be introduced to activities that promote language development, reasoning skills, and social-emotional competencies-the fundamental skills for later engagement of youth in society more broadly.…”