David Cohen is the director of domestic research for Sesame Workshop.
When my friend tried to explain her divorce to her 8-year-old niece, her niece reflected “It’s going to take me awhile to process this.” Her niece’s reaction might be considered precocious, but it also shows the deep emotions children grapple with when faced with such a life altering effect.
Young children need ongoing and sensitive help from trusted adults who approach this event in age appropriate ways. In fact, young children are at risk of having more adjustment problems than older children, since they are still in the early process of developing the coping skills necessary to deal with all the changes associated with divorce. They also often blame themselves for the divorce or feel that it is their responsibility to bring their parents back together. Read More
Fire Safety, disaster recover, serious illness, healthy eating habits, and divorce. All of these topics have been covered as part of Sesame Street’s long and diverse history of outreach initiatives. When Sesame Street first aired in 1969, there were significant obstacles to Sesame Street reaching children in poor communities – the very children the show most wanted to reach. Meeting this challenge became the Workshop’s first outreach program. Read More
When going through a divorce or separation, parents and children have a lot of questions. Young children are often confused and parents are often uncertain of how to explain such a challenging transition. On top of that, if parents and children have questions, it’s not always clear where they should look for answers.
Luckily Sesame Street’s Abby Cadabby and her friend Rocio Galarza, Senior Director of Outreach and Content Design for Sesame Workshop, are here to help. On Wednesday, February 20, Abby and Rocio will be taking questions about divorce and separation from parents, children, friends and anyone who has questions about staying resilient while navigating a divorce or separation.
Email us at divorce@sesame.org and Abby and Rocio will record an answer to your question in a video segment that will be posted online next week. In addition to your question, please include your name, age (if you wish) and your hometown so we can give say hello if your question is picked. We will also write you back directly if Abby and Rocio have the opportunity to answer your question.
Let your friends, family and colleagues know too! Everyone is welcome to send in a question. We can’t wait to hear from you.
JoAnne Pedro-Carroll is a clinical and research psychologist and author of the award-winning book, “Putting Children First: Proven Parenting Strategies for Helping Children Thrive Through Divorce.” She serves as a lead advisor to Sesame Street for Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce.
Today, there’s an important conversation taking place at Sesame Street – another important conversation in a thoughtful and penetrating series that has taken place behind the scenes here over the past several years. Those conversations culminated in Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce. Read More
Ed. Note: Denise Albert is the Co-Founder of the lifestyle brand, The MOMS. She and her partner, Melissa Gerstein are contributors to HLN’s upcoming parenting show, Raising America. Denise contributes to The Huffington Post Parents and Divorce.
As a mom addicted to my iPhone and to technology I often struggle with how much time to allow my kids to use their iTouches. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have given them the devices at their young ages of 4 ½ and 8. However, their dad receives new phones from his place of business so our kids are the beneficiaries of hand me downs. Who would say no to that! Read More
Image via blackrose916... on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.
I have taught in a K-4 elementary school for twenty-five years. The school is located at the south end of a beautiful old seaport on the south shore of Long Island, the last exit before Jones Beach. I lived here for over thirty of my adult years, and as a child, my family docked our boat behind an antique shop on one of the canals. I remember families of otters swimming in front of the boat and real church baptisms held on the opposite bank from our dock. A lot of things have changed here over the years, and a lot of the old Victorian homes have seen better times, but it is still a beautiful place.
The school was built fifty years ago, a blue two story building opposite a large park, and at the head of a canal that is home to many restaurants, fishing boats, and party boats. It is a popular Long Island destination especially in summer. From the classrooms, you can hear the horns blow as the fishing boats go out for half day charters in the early afternoon. Mergansers, gannets, and Canadian geese spend time in the park across from the school. Sometimes you can spot what looks like a football floating on the canal and upon second look realize that it is a seal. I have always felt lucky to be here. Read More
Photo Credit: Adam Kissick
On Friday, December 14, the National Children’s Museum at National Harbor in Maryland opened its doors for the first time, and Sesame Workshop was happy to be a part of it. The 3-and-under section of the museum is Sesame Street-themed, and includes hands-on activities and interactions with Sesame Street’s characters, such as Big Bird, who greets the incoming children. The museum is the first congressionally designated museum focused exclusively on children.
The Museum’s exhibits, programs and outreach activities focus on six core content areas: the arts; civic engagement; the environment; global citizenship; health and well-being; and play. The National Children’s Museum’s mission is to inspire children to care about and improve the world. In addition to the Sesame-themed 3-and-under section, the Our World section, which centers on the museum’s encouragement of global citizenship, includes an interactive table about all of Sesame Workshop’s international productions.
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The tragic events from Friday morning left the nation shocked, horrified, and speechless. But while often, adults can’t find the words to express the anguish we’re feeling, the children in our lives still have questions and fears.
“What’s happened?”
“Are we safe?”
“I’m scared.”
As parents and caregivers, we want to help our children through this, and make sense of the words and imagery they are seeing on TV an other media. Over the course of decades, Sesame Street has been asked these very questions, and we’ve put together a packet of materials in hopes of helping families cope with these issues. Those materials, available here (as a pdf), are free for you to download. You may also view our Emergency PSA’s available on YouTube. While we can’t make the concerns go away, we hope these materials help you address the recent tragedy, and other emergency situations, with the children in your lives.
Sesame Street has never shied away from taking on tough topics. If it’s a challenge young children face in their lives, it’s a challenge Sesame Street would like to help them weather. Over the years we have tackled everything from the death of a loved one to helping children through challenging economic times. And now Sesame Workshop is providing tools and resources to help children and parents stay resilient during divorce and separation. Read More
Since its inception Sesame Street has been committed to tackling the challenges that young children face, no matter how difficult or unorthodox it may be to discuss those topics with children. With this commitment in mind, Sesame Workshop is taking on the subject of divorce, an emotional trial many children go through. Yet many parents are uncertain how to reassure or even explain what is going on to their children.
Storyboard, a storytelling project by Tumblr’s Department of Editorial, took a deeper look at the way Sesame Workshop is handling the subject of divorce. They wrote this piece about our divorce-focused outreach efforts and created the above video. We encourage you to check out both. Read More
