Educational Television- Or is it?

 As anyone that grew up watching TV can tell you, most shows that were "educational" were often blatantly obvious, and frankly, much less interesting. However, parents are much more enthusiastic about their children watching educational programming than any other brain-rotting show. However, does the type of programming really make that much of a difference? Does educational television actually positively affect a child's development- intellectually, emotionally, or even socially?

Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development , prompted by an article in the APA's journal "Developmental Psychology," decided to delve further into this issue. They conducted an experiment to determine what the actual effect of educational programming was on preschool-aged children. They tested four different groups: one with parents also watching and asking dialogic questions (pausing, asking questions, and encouraging the child to tell parts of the story), another with the parents watching and commenting, a third group with parents watching but not saying anything, and a fourth group without parents watching, but with a dialogic actress (an on-screen assistant asking dialogic questions). All four groups of kids were then given tests after four weeks of their type of TV- watching that measured their story comprehension and expressive vocabulary. The groups where there was dialogic questioning did far better than the groups without, and when the parents were the ones asking, they did even better.

It turns out that, for kids who have not yet passed certain developmental milestones that make it easier to learn from things like TV shows, educational TV is not necessarily the answer. Parent involvement is much more important to helping a child grow and succeed in this area. Even shows that are specifically geared for babies, toddlers, or preschoolers may not have as much of an effect on a child's developing brain if parents are not actively involved in helping their children learn from them. This is why many shows have a narrator or person asking questions in them (Dora makes sense now); it actually helps the child understand. It is just as important to read to children in a dialogic manner. This helps their brains develop a stronger understanding of language and meaning.

As we are on the topic of helpful educational children's shows, I couldn't help but think of one of my old favorites: Reading Rainbow. I give credit to my daily dose of Lamar Burton for my high level of reading comprehension. As a happy blast from the past, here's the opening: