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Anarchy in the UK?
CBeebies head of production, animation and acquisitions Alison Stewart says the
growing demand for this type of programming is being driven in the UK by the country’s
early-years educational initiative in which teachers role-play and ask kids openended
questions that encourage them to share their thoughts and think for themselves.
Part of the program’s mandate is to go beyond lessons that teach specifi c knowledge of
numbers and introduce broad-based critical-thinking skills.
“The idea is that if children get a little more teaching along those lines, it gives them
more inquiring minds as they grow up,” says Stewart. She also points to a growing
appreciation for engendering the notion of community in society, which has led to
the creation of TV programming that gets
children to think about each other, work
together and share.
“There is some beautiful content coming
through that is all based on diverse communities
learning to live together,” says Stewart.
Fitting the bill is CBeebies’ new 2012 show
Tilly and Friends (Walker Books/Jam Media)
that’s based on a series of children’s books
about a little girl and her six animal pals who
In CBeebies’ Mr. Bloom’s Nursery, kids
learn to grow and nurture a garden while
taking care of baby veggie puppets
that need their help
34 February/March 2011
The mind of
a preschooler
“If you want to understand a child’s IQ or intellectual
capacity, it’s best to look at how they cope emotionally,”
says Jacqueline Harding, former BBC education editor
and current director of London-based research and
consulting fi rm, Tomorrow’s Child.
Harding explains that the brain’s limbic system,
which regulates functions like emotion, behavior and
long-term memory, develops hand-in-hand with the
brain’s executive functions that help us plan, evaluate
and make decisions. So early emotional experiences
actually become embedded in the architecture of the
brain, says Harding, meaning the emotional state of
young children directly infl uences how they learn.
“Brain development from infancy to age fi ve is so
rapid that it’s the time to talk about early experiences
and cognitive development, particularly in relation
to media,” says Harding. She argues that the way
children react to TV characters mirrors the way they
react to people in real life. So when helping to develop
preschool shows, she takes a close look at what the
characters are saying to the child and how they refl ect
that child’s stage in life. (Refl ecting a preschooler’s
sense of humor, for example, involves depicting a bit
of overall slapstick silliness.)
Harding says showing children versions of themselves
on-screen is the starting point for teaching them
how to cope with more complex emotions like jealousy
and disappointment, and how to recover from failure
and try again. This level of emotional intellect, says
Harding, is what translates into positive dispositions for
learning academic concepts like numbers and words.
“Healthy development depends on the quality and
reliability of a young child’s relationship with important
people in their life,” says Harding. “If we can mirror that
on-screen and manage it in a safe way, we are doing
children such a favor.” –Kate Calder