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Sesame Street Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children’s television show that would “master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them”, such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of $8 million from Carnegie, the Ford Foundation, and the US federal government to create and produce a new children’s television show. Harold (Doc) Howe II, the US Commissioner of Education, and a friend of Morrisett, provided the first $4 million after brain-storming with his staff how to best reach inner city children via the TV antennas on their roofs with excellent pre-school TV programming which would have behind it, careful formative and summative research on best practices. Since no funds were earmarked for this, Howe decided to use research funds for the initial CTW start-up grant and that began the practice of each segment of Sesame Street being the result of carefully conducted R&D. One of his assistants, Harold C. Lyon, wrote his doctoral dissertation on integrating the affective with the cognitive. Howe appointed Lyon the U.S. Office of Education’s project officer for Sesame Street and the Electric Company where he met with the CTW Advisory Board using his influence to integrate the affective with the cognitive content of Sesame Streets program content for more indelible learning

A new study, being released today, takes that conclusion two steps further. It found that preschoolers in low-income areas around Kansas City who had watched educational television programming, including "Sesame Street," not only were better prepared for school but actually performed better on verbal and math tests as late as age 7 than would have been expected otherwise.

A new study, being released today, takes that conclusion two steps further. It found that preschoolers in low-income areas around Kansas City who had watched educational television programming, including "Sesame Street," not only were better prepared for school but actually performed better on verbal and math tests as late as age 7 than would have been expected otherwise.

"This study shows that terrific television causes kids to be more receptive to learning, more receptive to reading, more receptive in school,"

The article discusses the educational benefits of television viewing by children. The author suggests that educational television programs can teach skills such as letter and sound recognition and cultivate a love for reading. Other topics include infusing learning into television programming, children's television audiences, and sedentary behavior.

From the earliest days of "Sesame Street" nearly four decades ago, educational television has earned high praise and millions of fans for entertaining and educating young children.

While learning experts surely agree that too much television and inappropriate content can have detrimental effects on children, the right kinds of programs can set them on the path toward reading."I'm a big supporter of media technology and I do agree that kids spend far too much time with television and other media," said Milton Chen, who in the mid-1990s helped launch the Ready to Learn Service, a partnership between the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, and the U.S. Department of Education to create educational programming, "But I come out on the side that specific television programs and experiences can very much support literacy."Well-designed programs can teach distinct skills such as letter and sound recognition, as well as cultivate a love of reading, said Mr. Chen, the director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation in San Rafael, Calif. As the director of research earlier in his career for the Children's Television Workshop, which has since been renamed Sesame Workshop, Mr. Chen helped to design and test some of the lessons embedded in programs like "Sesame Street" and "The Electric Company."

The good news is, watching developmentally appropriate programming with your children can have many positive benefits (bonding between caregiver and child, the introduction of new vocabulary words, exploring new places together, etc.). Thankfully, there are lots of exceptional television shows for young children that are fun and engaging and that can help children build their early literacy skills along the way.

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