What is it about?
Preschool classrooms can play a vital role in promoting social‐emotional skills in young children. Sesame Workshop has been developing digital media programs since 1970 and produced a digital media educational toolkit, Little Children, Big Challenges: General Resilience (LCBC), to foster resilience-building social‐emotional skills. We compared outcomes for this toolkit to another digital media toolkit that focused on healthy food choices and physical activity. LCBC significantly improved children's behaviors and relationships - the foundation of academic success and well-being.
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Why is it important?
Although many SEL interventions effectively promote social‐emotional skills in schools, ours is the first investigation of the effectiveness of a digital media‐based SEL intervention in preschool classrooms. Research on SEL interventions that incorporate digital media is important and timely. Children are increasingly more competent at using technology even before entering preschool, and schools are increasingly integrating technology into instruction. The need for digital media‐based SEL resources became urgent during the COVID‐19 pandemic, given the increase in the mental health needs of children during this time. LCBC can be adapted for virtual implementation since all the materials are available digitally. Teachers, school psychologists, counselors, and parents can access the free media and materials on the Sesame Workshop website.
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This page is a summary of: Effectiveness of Sesame Workshop's Little Children, Big Challenges: A digital media SEL intervention for preschool classrooms, Psychology in the Schools, July 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/pits.22574.
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