Media Needs to be Educational

The Benefit of Educational Media

  • A majority of parents (59%) say it’s true that kids who watch educational TV have better verbal skills, while 48% say baby videos have a positive effect on early childhood development.

  • Almost all parents surveyed (94%) indicated that their child had watched educational TV shows or videos in the past month, and most parents (84%) reported that their child had played a digital learning game or app in the past month.

  • “Intelligent characters are an ideal link between home and school environments since children already perceive media characters as enjoyable companions during their free time. Intelligent characters could be developed for use at school and subsequent home use, allowing access to the learning tool across contexts and as a way to reinforce in-home learning” (Brunick et al.)

“screen media have the potential to break the boundary between formal and informal learning, and to help mitigate the effects of other constraints on early learning, such as economic disparities and physical distance” (Jing et al)

How Media Can Use This Information

  • Parents are seeing the positive outcome of educational TV. They are looking for educational opportunities when their children watch media. 

  • Families are already watching educational media. 

  • Students who may not have early learning opportunities at a young age can still develop critical skills from the media they watch. 

  • Beyond the show itself, are there interactive ways that children can learn from your show? Build out lessons that use the already loved characters in your show to draw in more engagement and build students' learning.

  • Naturally, integrate learning into your shows. Are their learning opportunities built in? Do your characters explore the world around them? 

Sources:

Jing, M., Ye, T., Kirkorian, H. L., & Mares, M.-L. (2023). Screen media exposure and young children's vocabulary learning and development: A meta-analysis. Child Development, 00, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/ cdev.13927

Kaitlin L. Brunick, Marisa M. Putnam, Lauren E. McGarry, Melissa N. Richards & Sandra L. Calvert (2016) Children’s future parasocial relationships with media characters: the age of intelligent characters, Journal of Children and Media, 10:2, 181-190, DOI: 10.1080/17482798.2015.1127839

Silander, M., Grindal, T., Hupert, N., Garcia, E., Anderson, K., Vahey, P. & Pasnik, S. (2018). What Parents Talk About When They Talk About Learning: A National Survey About Young Children and Science. New York, NY, & Menlo Park, CA: Education Development Center, Inc., & SRI International.

McClain, Colleen. “How Parents' Views of Their Kids' Screen Time, Social Media Use Changed during COVID-19.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 28 Apr. 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/28/how-parents-views-of-their-kids-screen-time-social-media-use-changed-during-covid-19/.

Covid Wreaked Havoc on Students Education

Learning was Lost during Covid

  • Math scores decreased significantly in fall 2021 in comparison to scores in fall 2019 (Kuhfeld et al.)  

  • Looking at low poverty vs high poverty gaps in the elementary school grades, these gaps are now approximately 20% wider in math and 15% wider in reading relative to before the pandemic (Kuhfeld et al.)

  • “In 2022, the average fourth-grade mathematics score decreased by 5 points and was lower than all previous assessment years going back to 2005” (Nations Report Card)

How Media Can be the Answer

  • Focus on building content that educates children using elementary math standards. Creators can target this audience by addressing the need for children to build foundational math skills. 

  • Parents are also looking for ways to increase their child's math skills. Your content should be able to entertain and incorporate math skills naturally. 

  • Part of your goal should be to reach high-poverty students. How are you making your content accessible to those in most need? Is this a goal that already influences your company's mission?

Sources:

Kuhfeld, Megan, James Soland, and Karyn Lewis. (2022). Test Score Patterns Across Three COVID-19-impacted School Years. (EdWorkingPaper: 22-521). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/ga82-6v47

NAEP Mathematics: Mathematics Highlights 2022. (2022). The Nations Report Card. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/mathematics/2022/

Social Emotional Skills are Missing

Children’s Mental Health Post Covid

  • “48% [of parents] said the first year of the pandemic had a very or somewhat negative impact on their children’s emotional well-being” (Pew Research)

  • “Four-in-ten U.S. parents with children younger than 18 say they are extremely or very worried that their children might struggle with anxiety or depression at some point.” (Pew Research) 

  • From March 2020 to October 2020, mental health-related emergency department visits increased 24% for children ages 5 to 11 (American Psychological Association) 

  • Boys are continuing to struggle to make deep friendships and share their emotions as the hypermasculinity narrative continues (Dr. Niobe Way) 

How Media Can be the Answer

  • Does your content provide these lessons through entertainment? Parents are looking for resources to increase their child’s social emotional learning. They know the resources are not always available though at school. 

  •  Do your characters naturally model social and emotional skills? 

    • Characters can model understanding and expressing emotions. 

    • Characters can show their struggles with mental health topics such as anxiety and depression.

    • Characters can demonstrate coping skills and healthy strategies to improve mental health.

  • Are boys being represented equally with girls in your content? Are you showing boys struggling with their social emotional skills? On a preschool and early childhood level, this could be struggling to make friends, showing emotion, and empathizing with others.

Sources:

Gramlich, J. (2023, March 2). Mental health and the pandemic: What U.S. surveys have found. Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/03/02/mental-health-and-the-pandemic-what-u-s-surveys-have-found/

Abramson, A. (2022, January 1). Children’s mental health is in crisis. https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-childrens-mental-health#:~:text=From%20March%202020%20to%20October,45%2C%202020).

McKenna, L. (2021, March 11). Are We Facing a Mental Health Crisis for Boys? Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/are-we-facing-mental-health-crisis-boys/