Assignment 4

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting television time for babies and toddlers. They say that young children learn best from human interaction and that television can end up distracting them. However, as many parents know, many times toddlers do watch television and it is important that the content in the shows stimulates brain activity. There are five shows especially that stimulate learning in young children, Sesame Street, Super Why!, Word World, Sid the Science Kid, and Team Umizoomi. These television shows each offer something of value to the child watching.

Sesame Street has been on the air with PBS since 1969. The show revolves around puppets like Big Bird, Elmo and Cookie Monster among others. Typically there is a letter that the show is focused on and the fast-paced show intermittently changes from video shorts that are animated, or involve children to scenarios on Sesame Street. The lovable characters hold children's attention while teaching them important lessons. Count teaches the children to count things, Elmo often is trying to figure out how things work in a segment called Elmo's world, and the entire show is tied together with fun musical numbers. Many times, this show also teaches children how to deal with certain emotions as well. The content of this show contains many lessons that make it feel like hour-long preschool on television for kids. Overall, this show is easily accessible for parents, it is on daily on PBS, there are many different Sesame Street related DVDs, and it is even possible to stream it on demand through sites like Netflix.

Super Why! is an animated show that began airing on PBS in 2007. The show follows Whyatt and his Super Reader friends. They go through traditional stories like "Humpty Dumpty" or "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and they change the story to fix problems the characters within the stories face.All throughout episodes they are collecting letters that will spell out the ultimate solution to the problems, many times the solutions are simple like,' Be patient'. The story lines tie together the Super Readers real life problems with problems that are found in the story. Typically they have to change lines in the story so the characters can do something to alleviate their problems. This gives toddlers, and preschoolers especially an idea of narration, as well as letter recognition and assembling words out of letters. The familiarity of the stories and the Super Reader characters helps children participate in the story and they learn important, albeit simple,  life lessons about listening carefully or being patient. Super Why! is on PBS kids daily, as well as available on DVD, and streaming sites like Netflix, making it an easy show for parents to show their children.

Word World is an animated television show that currently airs on PBS.  It premiered in 2007 on another network and has since been moved to PBS.This show follows the adventure of Dog and his friends, who include Pig, Frog, Shark, Duck, Sheep, Bear, Ant, and Bug. All of the story lines have the characters needing something and finding the letters for the item they need and when put together, the letters become the object. Also, the characters, while looking like the animals that they are, are comprised of the letters that make up their names. This gives young toddlers and preschoolers an association of a bear with the letters B-E-A-R. This show also explores sounds that letters make like S-H and O-O. Another thing that this show does is change words from one to another using as little as one letter. In one episode Ant wants to be bigger so his friends add a G-I to the beginning of his name and he becomes a Giant Ant. This show introduces children to the letters, associates words with what the object the word represents looks like, and introduces phonetics.  This show is on PBS daily and also available on DVD, but unlike the previously mentioned shows, it is not available on sites like Netflix. In this day and age, many families are choosing to forgo cable and rely solely on the Internet for education television shows for their children, this show is not as easily accessible as Super Why! and Sesame Street.

Sid the Science Kid is an animated television show that premiered on PBS in 2008. The show centers around Sid, who is in preschool, and his friends Gabriella, May, and Gerald in their preschool class taught by Teacher Suzie. Sid is always coming up with questions and then going to school and asking his friends about it, and then his teacher. His teacher almost always recommends some kind of hands on scientific study that the children can learn from, and Sid then goes home and tells his parents about his findings. This show introduces young children to scientific inquiry, and questioning things. In one episode, Sid wants to know why his banana is turning brown, and in another how some liquids, like pancake batter, turn solid after being exposed to heat. In these episodes he comes up with hypotheses and then explores what really happens. In the episode about the banana turning brown, his teacher had them look at a decaying pumpkin versus a fresh one, and then take notes in their journals. Their notes are mostly pictures they draw of the items they look at. This show is very helpful for parents who want to introduce their young children to science. Many times Sid is singing or his friends says funny things, so it is interesting to the children watching. They also learn what things like hypotheses are and even concepts like taking notes as one conducts an experiment. Sid the Science Kid is available to parents daily on PBS or on DVD. Like Word World, Sid the Science Kid is not available on streaming sites like Netflix, which as aforementioned may make viewing harder for some households.

Finally, the animated show Team Umizoomi airs on Nickelodeon. It began airing on Nickelodeon in 2010. The show focuses on Milli, Geo and Bot. They solve kids' problems on the show, like a park that is torn apart by a storm. Milli uses her powers to fill in patterns that are within the show, this is an introduction to mathematics for young children. She also uses her pigtails to measure things and usually interacts with the viewer to ensure that she is not measuring too long or too short. Geo builds things using shapes that need replacing. He has a blue print and interacts with the viewer to find the right shape to build the object they need. This introduces the young children to the names of basic shapes.  Bot serves a functional purpose, like having extendable arms. Team Umizoomi involves a lot of songs within the show and the characters all interact with the viewers. Team Umizoomi is a great show for parents to utilize to introduce their children to basic math concepts needed to build further math skills. Team Umizoomi is on Nickelodeon every weekday, as well as Nickelodeon's channel for young children Nick Jr. Team Umizoomi is also available on DVD, however, it is not available for instant streaming on Netflix.

Although large amounts of television is not recommended for young children, when they watch television programs they should be watching shows that have an educational value. Sesame Street, Super Why!, Word World, Sid the Science Kid and Team Umizoomi all offer different kinds of topics that can help with the development of young children. From science and math to early literacy and even emotional education each of these shows offers different tools for young children to utilize.

References

Carey, B. (2011, October 18). Parents urged again to limit TV for youngest. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html

Sesame Street [Television series]. (n.d.). PBS.

Sid the Science Kid [Television series]. (n.d.). PBS.

Super Why! [Television series]. (n.d.). PBS.

Team Umizoomi [Television series]. (n.d.). Nickelodeon.

Word World [Television series]. (n.d.). PBS.

Assignment 3

There are many different resources available for both educators and parents to help their young children early literacy skills. One of the many resources available is a set of books called BOB books. They have different sets of books based on the skills of the child that the books are aimed at. Each set contains 12 books that progressively more difficult. There are BOB sets directed at pre-readers and a set that introduces the alphabet to young readers. The sets go all the way up to introducing reading, sight words, word families, complex words, long vowels and the sets go in order of progressive difficulty as well. The pre-reading skills set of short books introduces the child to the sounds and shapes of letter.The alphabet set dedicates each book to two letters of the alphabet. They introduce the child to the different letters of the alphabet and the sounds that the letters make. These two sets would be particularly good for the age group that we are studying because it lays the ground work for literacy. It introduces the the basic tools that are needed in order to become literate. These sets of books are easy for parents to use with their children. The books are short and repetitive which makes it easier to use with young children.

The iPhone application iTot Cards is an application that consists of digital flashcards. It offers flashcards of the alphabet, animals, numbers, shapes, food, colors, and other objects. The young child, or the adult, can pick the category, there is even a shuffle category to mix up all of the cards together. You can switch the language of the flashcards from English to Spanish, French, or Chinese. After picking the category and the language the app shows a picture of the word, or the letter and then says it so the child can hear it through the speaker. If the child taps the picture on the flashcard it will keep saying it over and over again, swiping the page will turn it to another flash card. This application is great for young children, it shows them what the word stands for, it is easy to operate, and the animal flash cards even make the noises that the animals make. It is a good way to introduce the alphabet and basic words to an a young child. Hearing the word or letter and seeing the letters, and the picture illustrating what the word means all at once helps the child see how the letters work together to make a word. This application would be great for parents to work with their young children with, or even to let them navigate on their own for a small period of time. Unlike regular flash cards it is possible for a young child to work with these on their own because the application says the word to them. The problem with this as an educational devices is the unclear effect of technology on young children. It seems that this would be useful in short time periods, and not for an extended period of time.

There is a national organization for educators and parents alike called Zero to Three. This organization focuses on the overall health of children when they are in the age range in the title. The early years are the most formative and this web site guides parents and educators on how to work with children in this age group. Part of the online resources for this organization are online versions of booklets on early literacy. There is information on what parents and educators can do to lay the groundwork for early literacy among the children in their care. They also offer information on the research behind language development and early literacy in young children. On top of these resources, this organization offers tips for picking books for young children as well as literature on why it is important to read to infants. This is a great resource for parents and educators there is so much useful and pertinent information on this website. Although it can be difficult at first to locate the literacy information, once you locate it, it is well organized and easy to use.

Another tool that can help give young toddlers the basic building blocks for early literacy is a interactive reading tool offered by Leapfrog called Tag Junior. This is a handheld device that works with Leapfrog interactive books. They offer a similar device for older readers with older books but this device is easier to hold by small hands and offers books for younger readers. There are books with recognizable characters like Disney princesses and Curious George that teach young readers colors, and the books have short sentences. The handheld device reads the pages of the books when touched to the pages of the interactive Leapfrog books. Unlike regular books, the device has dialogue that is not written that is said by the characters when the device is placed on the illustrations. This makes it much more entertaining for younger children to participate in the story. It is relatively easy for parents to download the required software for this device to work. It is possible to program the device to even say the child's name when turned on. However, you have to load the books onto the device prior to using it and it can only hold so many books at once. So if a child wants to read more than what is available the parent has to stop and reload the content on the device. Also, this device is not available to those who do not have access to a computer because it will not work unless it is setup through a computer first. Overall, if the parent has the technology this is a fun supplemental device to give the child time to interact with a story, either alone or with a parent. It gives them the opportunity to handle books and get familiar with them, and it can read to them. However, there are some technological issues that can make it difficult to operate and possibly less than user-friendly.

The Nick Jr.'s A-Z is a smartphone application that has characters based off of the Nick Jr. channel Moose and Zee. This application is a game for young users, not exactly for 0-1 age range but users 2 and older can play a game where Moose prompts the child to find a letter in a picture. The situations in which the letters are placed are not so busy that the child cannot locate them. Moose also offers hints to children who are not finding the letters very quickly. He also offers information like the letters can be big or little. Prior to the search scene, Moose shows the children what the uppercase and lowercase letters look like. The application also does not put the letters in alphabetical order so the child does not get used to the technical order of the alphabet. Moose also offers words that the letters start with.  This application helps children with the recognition of letters. In some cases the child may not be sure where to locate the letter and guess and then see what the letter looks like. This game offers children the ability to recognize and find both uppercase and lowercase letters. These are the fundamental tools for children to begin to become literate. The application,however, does not offer the phonetic sound of the letter which is also a crucial key in early literacy. This application is free and easy to download by parents who have the right technology. It can be a fun way for the child to feel as though they are playing a game when they are actually also learning letter recognition. The advantage of smartphone applications that promote literacy is that, unlike traditional books they are completely portable and can easily fit in a pocket or a bag. The applications have the capability of being completely accessible 100% of the time. There are many different tools that are available to both educators and parents to help them promote early literacy in their young children. From traditional books to new technology like smartphone applications, there are many different options available in this day and age.