Television Programming and DVDs for Young Children

Nowadays, nearly every American family owns at least one television and most children and adults watch television or view DVDs on a daily basis. 

As an increasing number of television programs for children are available, how do parents decide how best to incorporate television programming into their family’s routines and which programs are best suited for their children?

Studies have shown that children who watch “educational” programming demonstrate measurable learning gains, increased vocabularies, counting skills and overall school readiness. However, children who watch more “entertainment” programming actually perform worse on mental function tests.  

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that parents limit their children's exposure to television to no more than 1 to 2 hours per day of high-quality educational programming. Additionally, AAP studies have shown that very young children (0-2) do not seem to benefit from any type of television, and should instead be given a variety of engaging and stimulating learning experiences with their caregivers and surroundings. 

For additional television guidelines, the University of Florida has published an excellent, concise guide for parents available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/fy1074.

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

http://ecl.sagepub.com/ 

Audience: education administrators, health professionals, policy makers, professors, graduate students, librarians

Annotation:

An open access scholarly journal publishing research in the field of emergent literacy.

 

Personal Reaction:This is a scholarly resource that is best suited for professionals, graduate students and librarians. The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal in print since 2001 that publishes research related to the nature, function and use of literacy in early childhood. The Journal of Early Childhood Literacy also includes book reviews of professional titles. Unlike resources such as Reading Rockets or Birth to Six, the content of JECL is scholarly and not intended for parents or caregivers. 

Its entire contents are open access, available online and free of charge, making it an attractive source of quality information for people who may not have access to full-text databases. Articles include scientific studies on play-literacy, English language learners, vocabulary acquisition, shared reading, e-books and many other topics.  

Strengths: free full-text scholarly articles

Weaknesses: material is intended for a specific audience, and not the general public

Pete's A Pizza

Pete’s a Pizza
written and illustrated by William Steig. 1998. Hardcover. New York: HarperCollins.

Author/Illustrator Website: none

Media: watercolor

Audience: 3 years and up

Awards and Honors: Charlotte Zolotow Award Honor Book, ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice, IRA/CBC Children's Choice, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Bulletin Blue Ribbon (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books), Publishers Weekly Best Book

Annotation:
Pete is in a bad mood, until his dad cheers him up with a silly game.

Personal Reaction:
Pete is in a bad mood- he stuck in the house and can’t go play ball with his friends because it’s raining outside. When Pete’s dad notices his son’s mood, he decides to have some fun by pretending to make him into a pizza. Pete’s dad stretches him “this way and that”, tosses him in the air, lays him on the table and pretends to put toppings on him. Pete plays along until he gets tickled, which causes him to giggle and run. By the time their game is done, the sun has come out and Pete can go out to play. This book is good silly fun for kids, and the loving father-son relationship is an excellent model. Too often in books for young children, it is the mother-child relationship that gets all the attention.

My Very First Book of Colors

My Very First Book of Colors
written and illustrated by Eric Carle. 2005. board book (unpaged). New York: Penguin Young Readers.

Author/Illustrator Website: http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html

Media: paper collage

Awards and Honors: none

Audience: 1 to 3 years

Annotation: A concept/toy book that teaches colors to young children.

Personal Reaction:
You can't go wrong with Eric Carle's beautiful books, particularly for very young children. My Very First Book of Colors is one of a set of books that teaches simple concepts to young children. Other titles introduce numbers, shapes, animal noises and food.

Sturdy half-sized pages display colors and their names on the top, and various objects on the bottom. Children can flip the pages back and forth to match the colors with the objects (i.e., a blue bird, green trees, purple grapes). Not only do children learn to recognize the colors, but they are also being exposed to color names in print, as well. For very young children, this book is best shared with an adult, but the toddler and pre-k set will delight in matching up the illustrations.

Eric Carle's "My Very First Book" set is also available as an interactive app for the iPhone and iPad. Three levels of game play are available: Easy (ages 1-3), Medium (ages 2 and up) and Hard (ages 3 and up). The app allows children to match up colors and images just like the book, and also includes a memory game for ages 3 and up.

The app is available on the iTunes website: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eric-carles-my-very-first-app/id392077095?mt=8