Deborah L. Linebarger

Infants’ and Toddlers’ Television Viewing and Language Outcomes

Viewing data were reported every 3 months beginning at 6 months of age by the parents of 51 infants and toddlers. Viewing logs were coded for program, content, and intended audience. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques, growth curves examining relationships between television exposure and the child’s vocabulary knowledge and expressive language skills were modeled. Parent’s education, child’s home environment, and child’s cognitive performance were statistically controlled. The findings support the importance of content and program type when describing media effects. At 30 months of age, watching Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Arthur, Clifford, or Dragon Tales resulted in greater vocabularies and higher expressive language scores; watching Teletubbies was related to fewer vocabulary words and smaller expressive language scores; watching Sesame Street was related only to smaller expressive language scores; and viewing Barney & Friends was related to fewer vocabulary words and more expressive language. Reasons for differences are discussed.

Effects of Viewing the Television Program Between the Lions on the Emergent Literacy Skills of Young Children

Does viewing Between the Lions, an educational television series featuring literacy instruction, improve the emergent literacy skills of kindergarten and first-grade children? Do improvements vary as a function of the child’s initial reading risk status? In this study, higher word recognition and standardized reading test scores were noted for all viewers compared with nonviewers. In addition, significantly higher means and accelerated slopes for phonemic awareness and letter–sound tasks were found for viewers compared with nonviewers. Even so, improvements in literacy skills (i.e., speech to print, word building, concepts of print) varied, mostly favoring moderately at-risk to not-at-risk kindergarten children who viewed the program. Kindergarten children at great risk and first graders did not benefit as much from the program.

Background Television in the Homes of US Children

OBJECTIVE: US parents were surveyed to determine the amount of background television that their children are exposed to as well as to isolate demographic factors associated with increased exposure to background television. After this, we ask how certain home media practices are linked to children’s background television exposure. METHODS: US parents/caregivers (N = 1454) with 1 child between the ages of 8 months and 8 years participated in this study. A nationally representative telephone survey was conducted. Parents were asked to report on their child’s exposure to background television via a 24-hour time diary. Parents were also asked to report relevant home media behaviors related to their child: bedroom television ownership, number of televisions in the home, and how often a television was on in the home. RESULTS: The average US child was exposed to 232.2 minutes of background television on a typical day. With the use of multiple regression analysis, we found that younger children and African American children were exposed to more background television. Leaving the television on while no one is viewing and children’s bedroom television ownership were associated with increased background television exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Although recent research has shown the negative consequences associated with background television, this study provides the first nationally representative estimates of that exposure. The amount of exposure for the average child is startling. This study offers practitioners potential pathways to reduce exposure.

Associations between parenting, media use, cumulative risk, and children’s executive functioning

Objective: This study was designed to examine how parenting style, media exposure, and cumulative risk were associated with executive functioning (EF) during early childhood. Methods: A nationally representative group of US parents/caregivers (N = 1156) with 1 child between 2 and 8 years participated in a telephone survey. Parents were asked to report on their childs exposure to television, music, and book reading through a 24-hour time diary. Parents also reported a host of demographic and parenting variables as well as questions on their childs EF. Results: Separate multiple regressions for preschool (2–5 years) and school-aged (6–8 years) children grouped by cumulative risk were conducted. Parenting style moderated the risks of exposure to background television on EF for high-risk preschool-age children. Educational TV exposure served as a buffer for high-risk school-aged children. Cumulative risk, age, and parenting quality interacted with a number of the exposure effects. Conclusions: The study showed a complex pattern of associations between cumulative risk, parenting, and media exposure with EF during early childhood. Consistent with the American Academy of Pediatrics, these findings support the recommendation that background television should be turned off when a child is in the room and suggest that exposure to high-quality content across multiple media platforms may be beneficial.

Educational television as mediated literacy environments for preschoolers

Research on children’s television suggests that preschool programs can facilitate literacy and language development. In 1998 Whitehurst and Lonigan described two interdependent sets of skills involved in literacy acquisition: ‘outside‐in’ or oral language skills and ‘inside‐out’ or code‐related skills. Outside‐in skills support children’s interpretation or understanding of print by placing written language into context through oral language. Inside‐out skills focus on those skills involved in the translation of print into sounds and sounds into print. This study describes the production techniques of Between the Lions that contributed to preschooler’s observed behaviors from the outside‐in and the inside‐out.

Structure and Strategies in Children’s Educational Television: The Roles of Program Type and Learning Strategies in Children’s Learning

Educational TV has been consistently linked to childrens learning. In this research, educational TV characteristics were identified, coded, and tested for their influence on childrens program-specific comprehension and vocabulary outcomes. Study 1 details a content analysis of TV features including a programs macrostructure (i.e., narrative or expository) and learning strategies embedded in the macrostructure that support learning in print-based contexts. In Study 2, regression analyses were used to predict outcomes involving 71 second and third graders (average age=7.63 years). Strategies were categorized as organizing, rehearsing, elaborating, or affective in function. Outcomes were uniformly higher for narrative macrostructures. Strategies used in narratives predicted relatively homogenous relations across outcomes, whereas strategies in expositories predicted quite heterogeneous relations across outcomes.

Evaluating the Educational Potential of Health PSAs with Preschoolers

Children learn from a variety of televised programs, including the short public service announcements (PSAs) that air between childrens programs. PSAs are designed to repetitively expose children to important content ranging from the benefits of reading to health-related messages. The purpose of this study was to evaluate 5 PSAs containing health messages for preschoolers (i.e., nutrition, physical activity, and hand washing). Using an experimental framework, we examined childrens ability to learn the messages and transfer that knowledge and apply it in novel situations. Child PSA viewers were able to recall more of the educational content, apply this knowledge to specific choices contained in each message, and transfer this knowledge to novel situations compared with their nonviewing counterparts. Implications are discussed.

Extending the lessons of educational television with young American children

As the availability of childrens educational television has increased, initiatives to expand the educational impact of programs have emerged. One such initiative is experiential mediation, a form of mediation in which the viewer physically engages with materials designed to extend the programs educational content. Limited research on the effectiveness of experiential mediation exists. A quasi-experiment was conducted with 138 American children (M = 5.32 years) to evaluate the effectiveness of such mediation with the literacy-based television program Between the Lions. Viewing plus mediation was hypothesized to provide greater support for literacy skills than no viewing or unaided viewing. Further, mediation that incorporated character-branded materials was hypothesized to be superior to mediation that relied upon generic materials. Results suggest that the benefits of experiential mediation may be tied to (1) the connection between the mediation materials and television content and (2) the complexity of the educational content.

The home literacy environment: exploring how media and parent-child interactions are associated with children’s language production

Children who start school with strong language skills initiate a trajectory of academic success, while children with weaker skills are likely to struggle. Research has demonstrated that media and parent–child interactions, both characteristics of the home literacy environment, influence childrens language skills. Using a national sample of American parents of children aged 8–36 months (n = 500), the current study evaluated how media and parent–child interactions are associated with childrens language skills. Results indicated a positive association between literacy-based parent–child interactions and childrens language production. The association between access to radios and childrens books was mediated by parent–child interactions. These results offer important implications for creating home interventions to boost the language abilities of children before entering school.

Assessing the Relationship Between Pediatric Media Guidance and Media Use in American Families

Objective. American parents were surveyed to isolate demographic factors that predict reliance on a pediatrician, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), or both for media guidance. We then investigated whether reliance on these resources resulted in different media practices with children. Methods. A nationally representative survey was conducted (n = 1454). Parents were asked what medical professionals they relied on for advice and reported relevant home media practices related to their child. Results. In all, 29% reported relying on their pediatrician, 24.9% said that they relied on the AAP, and 14.9% of all parents said they relied on both. Those following the AAP’s media guidelines were more likely to prohibit bedroom television and to follow all guidelines. Conclusions. The relatively low reliance on the AAP and pediatricians for media guidance suggest that more outreach is necessary. However, parents who report relying on the AAP for advice are more likely to enact these recommendations.