Parents of children between the ages of 2 and 4 say more than three-quarters of their children’s media use is educational. Yet the media diet for 5 to 10-year-olds slides steeply toward junk food, their parents say. These are the findings of a new survey by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. The report recommends paying closer attention to creating high-interest...
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Experts in media and young children agree; how the youngest children use technology—ideally, with caregivers and with an eye on their learning and development—is more important than how old they are when they start. It’s the latest in baby gear, and it’s got everybody talking. The Fisher-Price iPad Apptivity Seat is a reclining baby seat with a toy bar and a...
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The holiday season is behind us and with it came a flood of newly wrapped gifts, trendy clothes that fit (or did not), and a host of stimulating digital toys and games intricately designed to build our brains for the new world order. As parents, we are overwhelmed—dare we say flummoxed—by the sheer volume of so-called “educational” material that we can...
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Fred Rogers was among the first to demonstrate that television can have a positive impact on a child’s social-emotional development, which is integral for success in school and life in general. In fact, ever since Daniel Goleman’s book on the subject in 1995, emotional intelligence (EI), or “a person’s ability to perceive, identify, and manage emotion,” has become a hot...
Read MoreA new year often brings the excitement of new adventures and resolutions to improve yourself. I can say confidently after accepting my new role at the Fred Rogers Center that definitely applies to me! The Fred Rogers Center has done great work under Rita Catalano and she is a very tough act to follow. I am fortunate that she has assembled...
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