One question I get asked quite often in various forms is – if we simplify ideas for children, are we not giving them enough credit for how much they understand? In other words, are we talking down to them?

In my experience, there are two reasons people ask this question:

1) They would genuinely like to challenge children, present them with new ideas and help them learn and grow.

or…

2) They don’t want to put in all the work it takes to actually find out just how different children are, how best to communicate ideas to kids and to learn just what is appropriate for their audience.

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Now because you are here reading this, I’m going to guess you’re far more likely to ask this question for reason 1 and that’s a great reason to examine how you approach children’s content. But an overwhelming amount of people who have asked me this question actually do so for reason 2. That is a huge mistake. That is how work ends up self-indulgent, not age appropriate and risks children picking up all the wrong messages or being left plain baffled. That’s really not giving children credit for who they are – creative, curious, wonderful kids. Not little adults.

Should we talk down to children? No. But worse than that is talking right over their heads. Ignoring that they are actually children and just blabbing out whatever we think makes sense to us as adults.

Communicating to children through television, games, apps, anything is really not all that different to communicating to a child in person. You don’t talk over them. You don’t stand tall and talk down to them. The best way? You hunch down or get down on the ground so they can look you in the eye. You get down to their level, smile and speak softly. That’s direct communication.

When we take ourselves down to their level, truly try to understand their point of view and how they see the world and tailor our communication with all that in mind, we can present children with new ideas, new words and even some very tricky concepts in a context that children will appreciate, enjoy and really comprehend. 

Kids aren’t stupid. And yes, most are very resilient. They’re still kids. It’s not about talking down to them. It’s about getting down to their level and seeing the world the way they do. 

Filed under: General Posts by Jay
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Tags: animation, Children, Messages, parenting, writing

Many broadcasters and parents are pretty savvy when it comes to violence on children’s television, some areas of Europe in particular being very strongly against it.

And it’s fantastic to see so much positive preschool content on children’s television out there at the moment – there are many shows that I’m very happy for my girls to watch and quite a few I enjoy myself (for research purposes obviously).

But there’s much more to it than violence.

Everything in a child’s environment contributes to their newly-forming world view, a sense of self and our perception of others. Television and other media exposure is a big part of that. That is something parents and anyone involved in children’s entertainment need to be very aware of. When children are learning at such an accelerated rate, everything they are exposed to teaches them something. All content is educational, whether intentional or not, and we are not always going to agree on what should be taught. So it’s important that parents know what their children are watching or playing and important for us as content creators to give children and parents the absolute best to choose from, always trying to keep in mind just what contribution our content is making to the lives of our audience.

What type of adult will watching Planet Cosmo contribute towards? Or Fluffy Gardens? Or Batman? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse? Bratz? 

If we can offer children and parents a positive experience, enriching content, messages that build up a child’s sense of self and confidence, all while making children laugh and smile, we’re doing something wonderful. We’re giving gifts through our content that could turn today’s children into tomorrow’s happier adults. Isn’t that something worth striving for?

We really aren’t ever just entertaining, we’re contributing to a whole world view.

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One little extra on today’s post…

I’d like to thank everyone who has got in touch about Planet Cosmo (which is airing here in Ireland on RTE right now). The reaction has been absolutely fantastic. Children are singing along to the songs, dancing, shouting out at the television screen and, best of all, laughing. More than that, all the feedback I have been getting tells me that this show works – children are learning about the planets and they’re asking more and more questions. I couldn’t possibly be happier about that. So thank you so much to everyone who is watching the show and especially to those of you who spread the word. You’re all awesome!

Here’s the Mars Song!

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Tags: animation, Children, Cosmo, Messages, parenting, Planet Cosmo

If we present our children with sweet sugary preschool worlds where everyone is lovely to one another, is real life just going to be a real kick in the crotch? Worse still, are they going to be totally unprepared to deal with tough situations?

Could heaping the sugar on actually be really damaging to children?

The reality is, life is not sugary sweet. Children can be mean. That’s just children finding out who they are, reacting with instinct and learning how to be among other children.

And the world can get much worse going into adulthood.

So is there a good case to be made for presenting children with fictional demons, wicked witches or bullies in order to prepare them for life? That young children actually need to see the darker side of life?

Possibly. As a parent I find that, at the right time, certain stories can really help children understand with or deal with why things happen (like when I had to explain why my scooter was stolen). Or at the right time they can even help children find the strength to overcome their own problems (like when I invented ass-kicking fairies to help my girls beat their bad dreams). Useful.

At the right time. Like medicine, to be taken when prescribed.

And yet all the research I have read indicates that violent television leads to increased aggression. Heavy viewing can scare children, leading to a paranoid world view which then leads, yet again, to increased aggression under the guise of self-defense. And some studies seem to indicate that children who have been watching more age-appropriate content rather than content outside their age range are actually better equipped to deal with life’s problems as they get older.

It seems to me that, while television isn’t to blame for children being who they are, for people being who they are, presenting the darker side of life too early will actually compound problems. In telling children that there are demons, wicked witches or bullies out there, we’re not just preparing them for the worst. We’re presenting the worst as normal. We can make them fearful, more likely to strike first or, worse still, have some aspire to be that which we’re desperately trying to defeat in our fictional worlds – certain preschool demographics were shown to aspire to being Swiper the Fox, for example, and who didn’t want to be Darth Vader?

I think, no matter which way I look at it, by presenting those tales of demons, wicked witches and bullies, we are more likely simply to end up with more demons.

More wicked witches.

And more bullies.

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Tags: animation, Children, education, Messages, parenting, research, writing

The rules are different in cartoons. Nobody really gets hurt. They can’t get hurt. They’re not even real and have little or no bearing to anything in the real world.

But when it comes to how they affect children, that doesn’t seem to really matter.

Studies have indicated that children are emotionally responsive to cartoons (no surprise to parents there) and cartoon violence and exposure to violent cartoons are associated with increased aggression in kids*.

Now I watched a lot of Road Runner and I haven’t once blown anyone up with dynamite or caused them to run off a cliff and fall until they were a mere puff of dust so we have to be careful about overhyping the ‘dangers’. But I guess the thing with our own experiences is that we don’t have a proper test scenario. We don’t have a control. We can’t fall back on the “well, it didn’t do me any harm” thing because we can’t possibly know just what parts of our personality, reactions or world view were affected (even if in a very small way) by what we’ve watched.

That is, unless you’re a twin and you watched violent cartoons and your twin didn’t.

I don’t have a twin.

The good news in that is that, just as some cartoons can have a negative effect, we can (and do) work to make a positive contribution. Good content is key.

But it seems the old ‘only a cartoon’ thing isn’t backed up in tests.

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*Cline, Croft & Courier, 1973; Osborn & Endsley, 1971; Ellis & Sekyra, 1972; Hapkiewitz & Roden, 1971; Lovaas, 1961; Mussen & Rutherford, 1961; Ross, 1972.

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Tags: animation, Children, education, Messages, parenting, research

As I mentioned in last week’s post, Fluffy Gardens characters come with grey areas – they, like real people, aren’t just black and white and don’t always lend themselves to clear messages or absolutes. One character who posed a problem was Scoopy the Pink Rabbit. I set Scoopy up as a character who constantly asks questions. Every answer followed instantly by yet another question, often an inappropriate one.

We all know children like that, right?

But what’s the lesson? That a child shouldn’t ask questions? But then isn’t the best way of learning about things asking questions? We should be encouraging children to ask questions. Well that’s a lesson any parent with a three year-old on their 167^th ‘why’ of the day would likely take issue with.

So Scoopy the Pink Rabbit’s episode ended up with multiple messages to children: asking questions can lead to useful knowledge, but ask the right questions and don’t hurt anyone’s feelings. And, in a way, it had a message to adults too: your child asking questions can be a very good thing.

The result?

The episode is messy. It has some fun in it, no doubt, and children seem to really enjoy it (I suppose that’s the important thing) but across the whole series I feel it is one of the weaker episodes.

Life has its grey areas and sometimes there isn’t just one right answer but, man, that doesn’t half make it hard to write a good show about them. This is where I think co-viewing comes into play. It is a really good idea for parents to watch shows with their children and talk about them. That way, parents can expand on the ideas in the show or answer any questions the show brings up in a way that suits them right then and there.

Because poor ol’ children’s television can’t cover everything.

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Tags: animation, Children, Fluffy Gardens, Messages, Monster Animation