Targeting children six to eight years old, The Electric Company is the newest program to join the PBS Kids television lineup.  Created by Sesame Workshop, the show aims to support the language and literacy skills of its young viewers with a special emphasis on reaching those who are at most risk for developing proficient literacy skills.   The show has four key educational objectives:  (1) improve viewers’ vocabulary skills, (2) improve viewers’ phonics knowledge, (3) teach viewers strategies to improve their comprehension of connected text, and (4) foster motivation towards reading activities.    The show features an engaging central narrative interspersed with brief interstitials.   In the narrative, viewers are presented with the story of a group of four urban youth who use their literary powers to solve problems created by their neighborhood pranksters, while simultaneously integrating the program’s target vocabulary words.   During the short interstitials, viewers are presented with animated and live-action songs, rhymes, raps, and adventures that highlight phonics skills.  Lessons related to connected text and motivation for reading activities are subtly woven throughout the entire program.

The current study is the first summative evaluation of The Electric Company and seeks to measure the impact of the program on young children’s language and literacy skills, with specific attention paid to the core educational objectives of the show.   Using a multiple setting approach (i.e. home versus school viewing), we will also evaluate whether the impact of the program is moderated by the setting.   Finally, by incorporating aspects of The Electric Company’s outreach and broadband materials, the study will evaluate the additive effects of a “360 approach” to learning.   Results will provide information on how the television program, content-related website and online games, and content-related classroom outreach activities both individually and collectively influence children’s language and literacy skills.

Vocabulary knowledge represents one key piece to children’s success in literacy and language (National Reading Panel, 2000). Having rich vocabulary knowledge has been linked to higher reading achievement (e.g., Anderson & Freebody, 1981), among other outcomes. Yet, not every child has the same exposure to a wide variety of words (e.g., Hart & Risley, 1995), and this leads to concern for their later literacy and school success. Promoting young children’s acquisition of words remains an urgent issue for educators, and understanding how vocabulary develops is pertinent to researchers and theorists.

Children learn the meaning of words from different sources, including from parents and teachers as well other sources, such as books, television and other media. Watching television is a consistent and lasting activity in the lives of young children, who watch television and videos/DVDs regularly throughout the day and week (Rideout & Hamel, 2006). With that time spent watching television, the question remains how it affects viewers in a variety of areas, including literacy and language (see Moses, 2008 for a review). Vocabulary is no exception; indeed, for over 3 decades, researchers have examined the influence of television on aspects of children’s vocabulary development.

Vocabulary knowledge is critical for children’s literacy development (NRP, 2000). Having a strong vocabulary base has been linked with higher academic success (e.g., Smith, 1941) and higher reading achievement (e.g., Stahl, 1998). Children rely on many different sources to learn new words and what they mean, including interactions with their family, teachers, and even the media. In fact, one of the most researched areas related to television’s influence on children’s literacy is its impact on vocabulary. Since television may have intentional and unintentional effects on vocabulary, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of how television does, and does not, benefit children’s vocabulary knowledge.

The primary purpose of this research is to evaluate how three different factors (an individual difference variable, a stimulus variable, and an environmental variable) impact preschoolers' comprehension of an educational television program.  Approximately 230 preschoolers (4 years of age) will be recruited for the research. The study takes place within participant's schools, and requires two testing sessions.  Children will meet individually with a trained research assistant to complete all testing and viewing sessions. Assessments measure (1) vocabulary skills, (2) stimulus familiarity, (3) story knowledge, (4) educational content knowledge, (5) narrative comprehension, (6) engagement during viewing, and (7) invested effort during viewing. Parents will also be asked to complete a parent survey. The anticipated results offer both theoretical and applied contributions on how young children learn from television.

Learning to read involves a complex integration of placing print into context while breaking the code of letters and symbols used to represent objects and concepts.   Numerous interventions have been developed and used to improve one or more of these literacy components at various stages of reading development.  One of these interventions has been the use of educational television.   Children who have engaged with educational television content have shown improvement in different skills involved in reading including phonics, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary acquisition (Linebarger, 2006).  For much of this research, the television intervention has been utilized in the spring, towards the end of the academic year.  However, Linebarger (2002) suggests that showing the television program in the fall may be more effective to give children a boost in the early stages of reading development.  Therefore, this research project explores the implications of introducing a television program based on a strong literacy-skills curriculum, Super Why!, to Kindergarten children at the beginning of the school year and following their reading development over the academic year. 

Between the Lions is a children’s television program dedicated to supporting the early literacy skills of its young viewers by highlighting key literacy skills while presenting reading as an enjoyable activity. To date, there have been several studies that have investigated the efficacy of this program. Work by Linebarger (Linebarger, 2000; Linebarger, Kosanic, Greenwood, & Doku, 2004) demonstrated that children who watched the program outperformed children who did not watch the program on a number of standardized measures of early literacy. Moreover, additional research (Prince, Grace, Linebarger, Atkinson, & Huffman, 2002) has shown that exposure to Between the Lions, when combined with related book reading and hands-on activities, had a meaningful impact on the literacy skills of low income children. Similarly, Linebarger (2006) found that a targeted curriculum utilizing Between the Lions and related materials (i.e. the Between the Lions American Indian Head Start Literacy Initiative) made a significant difference for the English language literacy skills of American Indian children.

The current study contributes to the extant literature by merging these two research bodies. Specifically, in addition to measuring the impact of viewing Between the Lions on young children, the study experimentally measures the additive impact of literacy manipulatives. Previous research has shown that viewers who form parasocial relationshipsc with media characters enjoy the program more and are more likely to watch the program (Conway & Rubin, 1991). Extrapolating from this research, it is thought that if one can enhance a child’s relationship with a media character (e.g. through the inclusion of character-based manipulatives) they may be more likely to continue to watch, feel more involved with the character and the programming, and hence influence their learning outcomes. Analyses are currently underway.

Educational media serve as informal educators within the home by supplementing young children’s development. Substantial evidence documents the contributions of educational television to preschoolers’ acquisition of a variety of skills; however, television’s natural capacity as storyteller and the role it plays in preschoolers’ early literacy development has been largely overlooked. This study examined the effects of viewing different TV program types on 311 at-risk preschoolers’ story knowledge and narrative skills. Children were assigned to one of 4 viewing conditions (i.e. watching up to 40 episodes of a particular program type): no viewing; expository; embedded narrative; or traditional narrative. Story knowledge scores were higher for those viewing either narrative type. In contrast, viewing specific narrative types differentially affected the component skills of narrative competence. Story retelling and identification of explicit story events were higher after repeat viewing of embedded narratives while generating implicit story content was higher after repeat viewing of traditional narratives.

Viewing data were reported every 3 months beginning at 6 months of age by the parents of 51 infants and toddlers. Viewing logs were coded for program, content, and intended audience. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques, growth curves examining relationships between television exposure and the child’s vocabulary knowledge and expressive language skills were modeled. Parent’s education, child’s home environment, and child’s cognitive performance were statistically controlled. The findings support the importance of content and program type when describing media effects. At 30 months of age, watching Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Arthur, Clifford, or Dragon Tales resulted in greater vocabularies and higher expressive language scores; watching Teletubbies was related to fewer vocabulary words and smaller expressive language scores; watching Sesame Street was related only to smaller expressive language scores; and viewing Barney & Friends was related to fewer vocabulary words and more expressive language. Reasons for differences are discussed.

The author investigated caption use, sound, and the reading behavior of 76 children who had just completed 2nd grade. The present study indicated that beginning readers recognize more words when they view television that uses captions. The auditory element was important for comprehension tasks related to incidental elements and spontaneous use of target words, and the combination of captions and sound helped children identify the critical story elements in the video clips. Positive beliefs about one's competence in reading or watching television appeared to facilitate the recognition of words and, for boys, improve their oral reading rates. In sum, television captions, by evoking efforts to read, appeared to help a child focus on central story elements and away from distracting information, including sound effects and visual glitz. Implications are discussed.

Using a quasi-experimental framework, this study evaluated (1) whether Between the Lions supported the early literacy skills of children in prekindergarten through 2nd grade, (2) whether the inclusion of literacy manipulatives in conjunction with Between the Lions episodes supported or inhibited literacy outcomes when compared to viewing only, and (3) whether or not type of literacy manipulative (generic versus character-branded) impacted outcomes. For this study, classrooms were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (1) Control, (2) Viewing Only, (3) Viewing + Generic Literacy Manipulatives, (4) Viewing + Between the Lions literacy manipulatives. A total of 291 children were enrolled in this study, with nearly equal gender breakdown (n males=148). Due to missing data, 2nd graders were omitted from this analysis resulting in an adjusted sample size of 236 participants. Results confirmed previous research on Between the Lions (Linebarger, 2006; Linebarger, Kosanic, Greenwood, & Doku, 2004) illustrating that the program supported many literacy outcomes for children in prekindergarten and kindergarten. Furthermore, results suggest that for many outcomes, the presence of literacy manipulatives – particularly character-based manipulatives, can enhance literacy outcomes.

Decades of research support our understanding that, created with the intent to teach, educational television can go far toward supporting a child’s academic and prosocial development (Fisch & Truglio, 2001; Singer & Singer, 2001). The newest addition to the educational television landscape is SUPER WHY!, a program that uses a narrative framework, participatory requests, and pseudo-contingent feedback to solve problems through storybook reading, modeling of key early literacy skills, and fun, interactive games. In total, 171 preschool children were randomly assigned to a SUPER WHY! viewing group or a Control viewing group. Parents were asked to have their children view 20 episodes of their assigned program twice and were asked to keep detailed logs reflecting who was viewing, which episodes were viewed, and how many times each episode was viewed. Children’s early literacy skills as measured using both program-specific content learning and normative performance were evaluated prior to viewing, after viewing all episodes at least one time, and after viewing all episodes a second time. Children who viewed SUPER WHY! over an 8-week period (i.e., at least 20 hours of viewing) outperformed their Control group peers on nearly all indices of program-specific learning as well as the majority of normative outcomes. Learning was most pronounced for letter knowledge and phonological and phonemic awareness skills, key early precursors to conventional reading success. To produce meaningful change on the outcomes of interest, children typically needed to view fewer than 10 episodes and generally closer to 3 or 4 episodes. Not only did children’s early literacy skills demonstrate significant and sustained growth associated with watching SUPER WHY!, they also loved the program and its characters. This high level of appeal suggests that SUPER WHY! has been successful in supporting learning in a highly engaging environment that is likely to maintain children’s interest. 

Substantial evidence documents the success of the program Between the Lions in helping young children acquire early literacy skills, particularly those young children who may be at-risk for reading failure due to economic disadvantage.  Young children who watch this program have demonstrated consistent gains across alphabet knowledge, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and fluency through simple exposure (Linebarger, Kosanic, Greenwood, Doku, 2004; Uchikoshi, 2006) and exposure combined with classroom materials (Linebarger, 2006; Prince, Grace, Linebarger, Atkinson, & Huffman, 2001). The study presented here extends the research on the use of Between the Lions, supplemental classroom materials, and a mentoring program to a new sample of teachers, classrooms, and children.

Introducing young at-risk children to educational television which uses onscreen print, is a viable method for increasing the number of high-quality early language and literacy experiences in their lives. In previous studies where educational television stimuli contained onscreen text, researchers speculated that literacy gains were, in part, related to the onscreen text; yet, this hypothesis has not been formally tested.  There is reason to expect that including onscreen print will aid young, emergent readers, as this technique enables visual redundancy of words as they are spoken aloud.  Onscreen text is also a means of exposing emergent readers to print in a stimulating and meaningful context.  Embedding print in appealing programming may lessen or overcome any hesitancy or lack of motivation young children feel about learning to read (Linebarger, 2001).  Clearly, for onscreen print to be an effective teaching feature for emergent readers, viewers must visually attend to the words.  Yet, there is a general lack of research regarding what factors influence children’s attention to onscreen text or the degree to which their attention to the text subsequently impacts comprehension and literacy skill development.

The present study uses eye-tracking techniques to compare young children’s visual attention to televised text displayed in literacy-focused educational programming to that of adults viewing the same stimuli.  Specifically, we explored visual fixation to onscreen text by three- to six-year-old children and college undergraduates while viewing a segment of Between the Lions.  The amount of time spent looking at onscreen text as well as the length of time to first look at onscreen text were examined in scenes containing varying degrees of text complexity and non-textual movement, as well as presence or absence of verbal redundancy of the text. 

One key developmental change that takes place during the pre-school years is the maturation of the prefrontal cortex (Zelazo, 2004). The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain that plays an essential role in regulating emotions, controlling attention, inhibiting certain types of behaviors, facilitating working memory and helping children follow through with planned behavior (Bunge & Zelazo, 2006; Gross & Thompson, 2007; Zelazo, 2004).  The development of the prefrontal cortex is also instrumental in the processes underlying social cognition and meta-cognition, specifically the development of children’s theory of mind (Gallagher, Happé, Brunswick, Fletcher, Frith & Frith, 2000) which constitutes the child’s ability to attribute mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires, pretending) to self and others and to further understand that others have beliefs, desires, and intentions that are different from one's own (Premack & Woodruff, 1978).

Over the last year, our lab has begun to focus more on both theory of mind and meta-cognition. Our particular interest has been in understanding how these elements of cognitive development help children come to understand their world and how it further influences their academic development.   The purpose of the present study was to see how key literacy variables either influenced or were influenced by theory of mind development.  Previous research has linked language development with theory of mind, yet there are few, if any, studies that have looked at whether there were any links between literacy and theory of mind. 

Research on children’s television suggests that preschool programs can facilitate literacy and language development.  Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998) describe two interdependent sets of skills involved in literacy acquisition: “outside-in” (p. 854) or oral language skills and “inside-out” (p. 854) or code-related skills. Outside-in skills support children’s interpretation or understanding of print by placing written language into context through oral language.  Inside-out skills focus on those skills involved in the translation of print into sounds and sounds into print.  This study describes the production techniques of Between the Lions that contributed to preschooler’s observed behaviors from the outside-in and the inside-out.

 

A recent focus of our Center involves attempts to understand the impact on-screen text has on young media users (Linebarger, Lapierre & Vaala; 2007). While on-screen text has been a featured element of educational television since its inception, there is no definitive evidence regarding its worth as a pedagogical tool for enhancing literacy skills. In addition, we have not, as a research community, identified the elements of text that will best encourage young viewers to attend to on-screen text. In the picture book reading literature, children spent little time attending to the text in story books. Consequently, the purposes of this study are to understand what elements of onscreen text generate the most child attention and whether attention increases the child’s literacy skills and their development as a reader.

This report summarizes the key results from an experiment evaluating the effects of using an intervention designed around the educational television series Postcards from Buster (PFB) with second grade English Language Learners (ELL). The purposes were to determine the program’s unique educational benefits as well as general program appeal. Specifically, did this program enhance (1) receptive and productive language learning, (2) conversational language skills, and (3) map skills? Moreover, did children enjoy the program? 102 second grade children (Mean Age = 7.5 years) in the greater Kansas City metro area participated in this study. Eight classrooms were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (monitor only, control classroom intervention, PFB at Home, and PFB Classroom Intervention).  When combined with the classroom intervention materials, PFB was able to improve children’s receptive and productive vocabulary skills, skills that are critical for later reading comprehension success.

This report summarizes the key results from an evaluation of the appeal of Season 6, a new format, of the PBS Between the Lions (BTL) program. Specifically, the purpose was to assess the ability of the program to maintain viewer’s attention to the television, the appeal of words-on-screen, story elements and characters, and the impact, if any, of visual cutaways (or story interruptions) on story comprehension. The results suggest that the cutaways are having no negative impact on comprehension or enjoyment. Overall the program received high marks from child participants for character appeal. The most appealing characters were the Lion family and Fred.

Educational television has been found to enhance many prosocial and academic skills, including literacy, depending on featured program content (e.g., watching Between the Lions leads to stronger phonemic awareness skills). The purposes of this research were to identify commercially-available educational television programs, code the literacy-promoting strategies in each program (Study 1), and validate these strategies by having children watch the programs and participate in literacy assessments (Study 2). Codes included literacy behaviors, comprehension support, vocabulary emphasis, and program type. The strategies were linked to literacy outcomes with seventy-one 2nd and 3rd grade economically disadvantaged children (i.e., both English-speaking and English language learners). Results indicated that strategies varied in both predictable and unexpected ways within episodes and across literacy outcomes.

This report summarizes our findings from an experiment evaluating the effects of using an intervention designed around the educational television series Postcards from Buster (PFB). The research presented here is from a small study designed to evaluate the effectiveness of both the PFB intervention materials and the researcher-developed assessment instruments. The sample included children who were English language learners between 7 to 10 years of age. The PFB intervention was developed around three themes or clusters. Cluster 1 (“making friends”) consisted of an emphasis on introductory and extending invitation language; Cluster 2 (“cultural traditions”) emphasized similarity and difference language; and Cluster 3 (“settings”) focused on directional and descriptive language. Overall, children’s participation in cluster-related activities appeared to be beneficial in one or more areas (i.e. vocabulary, functional language, map skills). The results suggest that Postcards from Buster and its accompanying classroom intervention materials do lead to positive changes in both receptive and productive vocabulary, functional language, and general knowledge of directional terms. In addition, the majority of children who watched the program liked it and wanted to watch it at home.

Some of the very best educational and appealing television can be found in the short public service announcements or interstitials that air between children's programs. The Healthy Minutes interstitials developed by Iowa Public Television (IPTV) have the ability to enhance learning, extend knowledge and teach important health-related messages. It is important to evaluate the extent to which these messages attract young children’s attention; the degree to which the interstitials support children’s comprehension of the actual messages as well as the degree to which children are able to transfer these messages to novel contexts (e.g., generalization of these messages) and the extent that young children rate these messages as appealing (or not). The purpose of this evaluation was to examine the educational potential of IPTV’s Healthy Minutes interstitial messages.  Results suggest that Healthy Minutes message were successful in teaching children important health-related information. 

The overall purpose of this project was to increase the early English literacy skills of American Indian children in New Mexico Head Start programs using the PBS children’s program Between the Lions, a television series designed with the intent of supporting language and literacy acquisition, and related resources adapted specifically for the American Indian communities. Embedded within the larger project goals was an evaluation designed to assess the impact of this intervention on the early literacy skills of participating American Indian Head Start children.  Results of this evaluation are presented. 

This report summarizes analyses from the home visit evaluation of the program Bark Park Place (BPP). The purpose was to evaluate whether Bark Park Place would induce changes in parents’ reading aloud behavior with their children within the context of available resources. This report is divided into two sections. In the first section, we merge data from parental reports and direct observations to examine the reading behaviors of 13 families prior to, and following, their exposure to the Bark Park Place program to determine what influence the program may have upon such reading behaviors. In the second section of the report, we present data regarding parental opinions of the Bark Park Place program.

This report summarizes analyses from an evaluation of the program Bark Park Place (BPP). The purposes were to evaluate the educational potential and the appeal of the television series and computer software components of BPP for young children and their parents. In this report, we have examined whether young children learn the content featured in the program and whether they like the program and characters found in the program. To answer these questions, we have employed a group-based analysis of children’s reactions to the show. This approach allowed us to answer basic questions about whether children were able to learn the featured content as well as whether they found the program appealing.

This study evaluates the relationships between toddlers’ vocabulary size and expressive language and viewing both on-air programming and videos/DVDs; documents the magnitude and direction of effects associated with these outcomes; and develops a set of rationales that explains potential mechanisms associated with the effects that different structural components might play in these effects. Fifty-one infants were followed from 6 months of age to 30 months of age. Viewing diaries and language outcomes were measured at regular intervals (3 months or 6 months, depending on the measure) and then examined using growth curve modeling techniques. As with other research examining television and child development, results were dependent upon the content and structural components (e.g., narrative structure, embedded language-promoting strategies, conversational turn-taking) comprising individual programs.

The present study is an evaluation of a project designed to increase the literacy skills of American Indian children attending Head Start programs in the southwestern United States using Between the Lions (BTL) and related classroom resources adapted specifically for these communities. Although there were 11 different tribal communities who agreed to implement the intervention, participation in assessment activities varied across these locations (i.e., from the administration of detailed literacy assessments to the collection of questionnaire information from parents and teachers).   In this presentation, we describe the home literacy and media environment of 113 children (51% girls) in 4 communities and the English literacy outcomes of 135 children (53% girls) in a different set of 4 communities.

The paper presents results from a study designed to assess the role that interactive technologies can play on children’s early literacy skills.   Results suggest that children who engaged with interactive technology and viewed a related television program outperformed their viewing only counterparts on tasks assessing inference-making ability.  Making inferences was the most challenging and developmentally sophisticated literacy dimension assessed, thus improved performance in this domain is an important finding. It is unclear at this time whether the differences between conditions (1) were related directly to the supplemental interactive components, (2) were related to the combination of television and interactivity, or (3) were a function of increased exposure to the content. Nonetheless, our findings do lend support to the use of interactive media as a means to facilitate children’s inference development. Further, our findings suggest that future research in this area is necessary to better understand the contributions of interactive media in the lives of children.

The paper presents results from a study designed to assess the role that interactive technologies can play on children’s early literacy skills.   Results suggest that children who engaged with interactive technology and viewed a related television program outperformed their viewing only counterparts on tasks assessing inference-making ability.  Making inferences was the most challenging and developmentally sophisticated literacy dimension assessed, thus improved performance in this domain is an important finding. It is unclear at this time whether the differences between conditions (1) were related directly to the supplemental interactive components, (2) were related to the combination of television and interactivity, or (3) were a function of increased exposure to the content. Nonetheless, our findings do lend support to the use of interactive media as a means to facilitate children’s inference development. Further, our findings suggest that future research in this area is necessary to better understand the contributions of interactive media in the lives of children.