Touch screen devices have dramatically changed the way young children interact with technology. Preschoolers no longer have to struggle with a mouse or a laptop touch pad – they can now use their fingers to tap, drag, and trace items directly on the screen. When we started to develop one of our first robust iPad apps in 2010, we were extremely optimistic about all of the affordances of this new technology. What surprised us was the number of new challenges we needed to overcome to create a quality developmentally appropriate learning experience for young children.

Elmo Loves ABCs is an early literacy app that covers uppercase and lowercase letter recognition, as well as tracing, letter sounds, and alliteration. The app includes a free-play area with over 75 videos, coloring pages, and a hide-and-seek game, plus a directed-play section that has asks children to identify letters and objects that begin with certain letters. We also wanted to provide children with a lot of choice, so we put an alphabet boarder on the screen that allows them to select a new letter whenever they like.

As we do with almost all our new apps and games, we go directly to the experts—the children for whom our content is made — and watch as they navigate the experience and listen to what they have to say about it. In this case, children figured out how to play with the app immediately, but there were so many active hot-spots on screen that kids would unintentionally activate nearby letters or other spots where they placed their hands, creating a chaotic and confusing experience.

Our first attempt to resolve the issue of children accidentally activating buttons was to create a “boundary box” around the play screen so that if a child was tracing or drawing and accidentally dragged her finger over a button, it would not register. She would have to pick her finger up and place it on a letter to select it. The boundary box helped, but it wasn’t enough. Children were still resting their hands and wrists on the bottoms and sides of the iPad screen and unintentionally launching new activities and letters.

Our second attempt was to add “touch with intent” where the child would need to lift his finger and place it on a button for at least half a second to make a selection. The hope was that if we could discern an accidental tap from an intentional tap, we could provide children with more control over their experience. It didn’t work – children were no longer accidentally triggering new letters, but now they couldn’t select the ones they wanted. Rather than holding their finger on a button longer, children started to rapidly tap the screen expecting immediate feedback. Kids now thought the app was “broken” because it wasn’t responding to their initial touch in the way they expected.

Finally, one of our brilliant producers came up with the idea of using a two-step activation where an initial tap on the border lights up the buttons for five seconds to show that they are now “on”, and a second tap makes the selection. It worked! Young children were now in control of their experience and were able to freely explore letters.

Given that we successfully tackled a literacy app, we thought the math version, Elmo Loves 123s, (the sequel to ABCs) should be easy. However, when we started to work on the companion app a year and a half later the tablet market had already changed.  There was now a variety of new tablets with different screen sizes for which we had to plan. Some of the tablets were substantially smaller than the iPad, so if we used the same type of border that we have in Elmo Loves ABCs, the rest of the screen to watch videos, color, and play games would be very small. We had a brand new design challenge to conquer.

In developing Elmo Loves 123s, we decided to abandon the border entirely, and instead put all of the number choices and the directed play button on a menu that could be accessed at any time from an arrow at the top of the screen. To ensure that children remember how to access the number choices given that they are not constantly visible on the screen, Elmo provides reminders and the arrow blinks. The new design worked – we found that children were even more successful in navigating the app and freely exploring the numbers 1-20 in both the free play and directed play sections.

One of the best parts of creating a sequel app is that we can apply the knowledge from the formative testing of the first app to the development of the second app. For Elmo Loves 123s, we were able to include everything from its predecessor, add even more activities to the free play section (including a number find game, a counting activity, and 60 jigsaw puzzles), and provide more intuitive navigation for children.

Despite the thousands of hours we spend creating games and watching children engage with them, each new piece of technology brings another set of opportunities and obstacles, which, at the end of the day, is what keeps my job of creating content for digital games so exciting. And the children for whom we create these educational digital offerings make it all worthwhile.

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Sesame Workshop is best known for our commitment to the mental and emotional development of children around the world. But we’re also committed to the physical safety of children. That’s why, as part of the U.N.’s Decade of Action for Road Safety, we’ve launched a new major road safety campaign in Australia.

Between 2006 and 2008, there were 6 deaths and 430 seriously injured pedestrians aged 0-14 in the province of Victoria alone. Driveway run-overs in the province resulted in the death of 14 children under the age of six and 73 serious injuries between January 2000 and September 2012.

Our campaign, spearheaded by Sesame Street’s Elmo and Grover, hopes to educate children, parents and teacher on simple road safety practices so in the future children’s lives can be saved. The campaign, created in partnership with Australian child safety advocates Kidsafe, the TAC, RACV and Holden, includes a storybook entitled Elmo Stays Safe: How Furry Little Monsters – and Children – Play Safely. The stories, games and activities in the book help encourage important safety tips like holding a parents hand while crossing the street, treating driveways like roads instead of safe play spaces and using correct restraints when traveling in a car. Additionally, a Community Service Announcement featuring Elmo and Grover is being broadcast on television and social media platforms and urges children and families to play in safe places away from driveways and roads.

To learn more about our efforts to encourage road safety, click here.

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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.

Given the special relationship that children develop with Sesame Street characters and the human cast, we believed that we could play a role for families going through this often traumatic situation. Clearly tackling a topic like divorce, especially with preschoolers, required a sensitive and thoughtful approach. Typical of all Sesame Workshop initiatives, our approach included the input of advisors, who included psychologists and other mental health professionals specializing in the impact of divorce on younger children. We also conducted preliminary research with divorced parents and their children, who viewed working drafts of the materials and provided suggestions and recommendations which could be incorporated into the final version.

We are incredibly grateful to the parents who shared their own stories and provided invaluable feedback about how we described and portrayed divorce. Feedback from parents helped fine tune the video in which Abby Cadabby’s friends show their support when she tells them about her parents’ divorce. For example, the moms and dads suggested that different types of divorce situations should be portrayed in the video, and not just those in which the divorced parents live near each other (as is the case with Abby’s parents in the video). To address this, producers included live action films of real families talking about how they cope when divorced parents live farther apart. These live action films were included with the Sesame Street story in the final version of the video.

Parents also mentioned that in the draft version Abby acted calm and composed when speaking about her parents’ divorce and that was not realistic. Instead parents suggested that Abby should show the feelings that they’ve seen in their own children — anger, confusion, and sadness. As a result, Abby was more explicit in expressing her complex emotions in the finished version of the video — she tells Gordon, “Yeah, I am angry! And sad… oh, I love my mommy and daddy so much!”

Great wisdom and sensitivity went into the creation of the materials. In the words of an 8-year-old girl, it took a lot to “process this.” With the help of the advisors and families who helped shape this project, we were able to launch “Little Children, Big Challenges: Divorce” which is available here. We’re hopeful this initiative will make a difference for families of divorce as they help their preschoolers navigate the challenges and experiences they’ll face together through this major life event.

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That’s why we’re excited to partner with the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation whose National Early Childhood Education Initiative focuses on literacy for young children, particularly those in underserved communities around the U.S. The partnership will develop a program that provides children, parents, caregivers, and facilitators with tools to support young children’s development of essential literacy skills around rich conversations, reading, and writing. This program will provide rich and engaging opportunities for IICF Volunteers.

“We are committed to combining the collective strengths of the insurance industry to positively impact communities at the local and national level, specifically young children at risk of illiteracy,” said William Ross, Chief Executive Officer of the IICF.

The program, which launches in the fall of 2013, will consist of original Sesame Street video segments, downloadable materials for parents, educators and volunteers that help advance literacy for preschool children and a dedicated section of Sesame Street’s website.

Literacy remains a crisis in underserved communities across the United States. Studies show that, by age three, children from low income households knew 600 fewer words than children from families with higher incomes. As long as this literacy gap remains, Sesame Workshop will make closing it a priority.

To learn more about Sesame Workshop’s other efforts to advance literacy in underserved communities, click here.

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With that legacy of innovation in mind, we are proud to announce a new collaboration with Qualcomm centered on researching and developing new ways to educate children using mobile devices and applications. By bringing together Qualcomm’s cutting-edge mobile technologies and Sesame Workshop’s expertise in educating young children, Qualcomm and Sesame hope once again to revolutionize early childhood education.

The partnership was announced on Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.

One of the first educational products created by this collaboration will be Big Bird’s Words, an app that will feature Qualcomm’s Vuforia augmented reality platform. The app will make teaching literacy an interactive experience by encouraging children to use a virtual “wordscope” to search for and find new words in their surrounding environment.

And American pre-schoolers won’t be the only children whose educational experience will be improved by this partnership. Qualcomm and Sesame Workshop will continue collaborating in China and India through Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach program. In India, Sesame Workhop’s Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian version of Sesame Street, is using 3G mobile technology to distribute radio content, videos and fun lessons about healthy living, hygiene, literacy and math. This program is critical to reaching children in rural areas where televisions are not commonly owned.

In China, a project launching later this year will provide tips, activities and other tools to help families with young children prepare for emergencies. These are just two examples of ways mobile devices can positively impact young children around the world.

With each passing day mobile devices and applications are reshaping the way we engage with one another and the rest of the globe. With the help of Sesame Workshop and Qualcomm, it will also reshape the way we educate our children.

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Congratulations to the entire Sesamstrasse team for making young children in Germany laugh and learn for the last 40 years.

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CA Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Wittman and Super Grover 2.0

Students in the United States are falling behind their peers globally in the subjects of science, technology, engineering and math, known as STEM. That is why Sesame Workshop and CA Technologies, a leading IT management solutions company, have partnered to encourage young children to focus on STEM learning even before they reach kindergarten.

The initiative will include a STEM hub on SesameStreet.org that will provide educational resources for preschool children. Resources will include original videos that teach STEM concepts, interactive games, hands-on lesson plans and activities. It’s all part of Sesame Workshop and CA Technologies joint effort to make math and science fun for young children.

“CA Technologies is proud to partner with Sesame Workshop and support the development of creative and interactive programs that engage children in STEM learning,” said CA Technologies Chief Marking Officer Andrew Wittman. “Through this initiative, we are hoping to help young people discover an interest in technology.”

While CA Technologies and Sesame Workshop’s partnership is new, both have focused on STEM education for some time. The organizations are participants in the 100Kin10 effort, a presidentially led effort to prepare 100,000 new STEM teachers over the next decade. CA Technologies and Sesame Worskhop are also members of the Clinton Global Initiative’s STEM education and Early Childhood Development working groups.

“We’re grateful to CA Technologies for supporting our work on STEM education and helping us reach more children with this valuable curriculum,” said Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Sesame Workshop. “Through early STEM education we strive to help children develop strong critical thinking skills and a better understanding of how things work to help prepare them for future learning.”

To learn more about Sesame Workshop’s effort to support STEM education, click here.

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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.

Several times in my experience, the moon and a storm combined to cause flooding that necessitated the evacuation of our school to a nearby school for the day.  The water would come up in the street quickly and cover everything from the front step of the school, go across the park, and right up to the houses on the far side of the park. The water never came higher than that and receded before the next day.  We would be put in big yellow school buses with our class wondering if our cars would be OK upon our return.  We would spend flood day crowded into another schools gym or cafeteria and have an adventure to tell that evening.  The homeowners in the area were used to sump pumps and moving things of value to a higher floor.  Some had had their homes raised up with government grant money made available to alleviate the flooding problem.

Image via spleeness on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

Sandy was different.  No one who had survived years of storms safely at home in the past could have imagined what was to happen.  Homes were lifted right off their foundations only to be slammed down again by the next wave causing beams to shatter.  The boatyards had stacks of shrink-wrapped boats ready for winter, and these were strewn for blocks, broken and causing destruction to homes in their path.  The father of one little girl in my class told me about watching a dumpster that was being used in a renovation several doors away, start to float toward his home.  It got snagged between a tree and a mailbox. Eventually the tree gave way and waves caused the dumpster to smash into the side of his house repeatedly.  Water in the house was already half way up toward the second floor where he had sent his wife and children.  The siding on the house was torn off, but fortunately the wall of the house held.  If it had broken through, the family might not have made it.

I cannot think of any family from our town that was not affected in some way.  People here are hardworking and if they own their home, it is their only asset.  No one has vacation homes, and many were renting basement apartments, now flooded.  Many parents work at jobs that pay by the hour and had to miss work due to the storm.  Others have no job to go back to because the business is too damaged.  Many have extra people staying in their apartment.  Some are staying with friends and family away from this community. One grandmother told me that she drives her grandchildren one hour from Suffolk County in the morning and the children do not get back to her home until eight in the evening.  Then they start dinner, homework, and a new bedtime routine, only to wake early for another long drive back to school.

Those who stayed have lived for weeks without heat or electricity.  The damage caused by the salt water requires that every home in the flood area be inspected before electricity or gas can be restored.  Homes have stickers posted- red for condemned, yellow for needing an electrician, and green for OK to restore.  Some have a yellow sticker because they lack the funds to hire an electrician to do the necessary repairs.  11% of families here live below the poverty level.  There is a large immigrant population where language is a barrier to dealing with FEMA and insurers.  The day after Thanksgiving, I did manage to understand when a mother hugged me and told me that she had no way to provide hot food for her family.  This was a month after the storm.

Image via CasualCapture on Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

Six inches of water entered the first floor of the school.  There are levels 1, 2, and 3 contaminants in the water, 3 being the worst.  Level 3 contaminated water entered in the school and wicked up the walls about one foot.  This caused asbestos tiles that had been tight to lift up, the gym floor to buckle, and lots and lots of shelves of books to be ruined.  And then we could anticipate mold growth.  The school needed extensive repairs, followed by testing of the air quality before it could be used again.

Children were out of class for two weeks and then relocated to the four other elementary schools in the town – one grade to each of the buildings.  Teachers were given a short time to go into our classrooms and place post-it notes on items we considered essential to our work during the relocation.  We were not to disturb anything, and items we marked were cleaned, packed and moved to the new school.  The instruction was to think like you were packing for air travel and to try to pack light.  I followed orders, and found that my age was an advantage because I was able to recreate most things I needed using chart paper and magic markers.  Two days into my new space they delivered a portable blackboard and I was back in business.  I was prepared to carry on with the academics, but soon found that the emotional needs of students and parents after Sandy had to be of first concern.

Armed with lists, I did some detective work and was able to reach most of my families after the storm and learn of their situations – who had lost their home, who was without power and heat, and who was housing friends and relatives.  After hearing the stories of survival their parents told, I knew that the children would have a lot to share when we arrived at our relocation school.  I constructed microphones for all the K and 1 classes from tin foil, duct tape, and toilet paper tubes.  That first day, every child had an opportunity to speak into the microphone and tell his/her story.

I also emailed Sesame Street for help, and boy did I get help!  First I was sent several copies of the dvd Sesame Street Gets Through a Storm along with discussion points.  In this episode Big Bird’s nest is destroyed in a hurricane and everyone in the neighborhood offers support and helps him rebuild. My first graders thought that they were too old for Sesame Street at first, but there was a real connection as they watched and heard Big Bird voice some of their feelings about the storm.  Some of my children are now afraid of the dark and hesitant to take risks.  They spoke of wearing their “other” clothes, meaning they only had two outfits. Others came in modeling beautiful new donated coats.  All of them had been trying so hard to be good during a tough time – giving up their bed to a relative, or missing favorite toys.  Big Bird’s voicing of his feelings gave permission for them to open up.  Several hours after viewing the dvd, one of my brightest little girls took me aside and confided that she felt like Big Bird; that she was mad at the hurricane too.  This dvd gave us an opportunity to address the emotional impact of Sandy.

Big Bird also had his teddy bear Radar with him.  We spoke about sleep problems that most children said they have had since the storm.  Another day the class brought in their favorite sleep toy and showed them, and spoke about how they help us comfort ourselves.  One boy’s father drew his bear for him to bring in because the real bear was lost in the storm.  Then everyone drew their bad dreams and threw the pictures into the trash with great ceremony.  Hopefully time and sharing their fears with the class will help everyone get better sleep.

The adults are trying so hard to return their homes and families back to normal, that they haven’t allowed themselves to address their own emotions after this life -changing storm.  I found parents to be fragile and in need of comfort as well as their children.  Any small delay at dismissal would have parents rushing in to scoop their child up in their arms.  Children would report a minor playground incident and the parent would be at school early the next morning rather than sending a note or making a phone call.  I got the feeling that it was a delayed reaction –“ I was powerless against this storm and I almost lost my child.  I’m going to save them now.”  Parents who had coped with so much just couldn’t handle any extra stress.  Again Sesame Street had an answer for us.  Copies of Here for Each Other: Helping Families After Emergencies were sent to every home in my class.  This booklet helps parents talk to their child about what has happened, and to convey a sense of hope that things will look up again.  It had pictures of favorite Sesame Street characters for the children to color as well.

I shared all the wonderful resources from Sesame Street with teachers from our host school. Their students are also from this community and also survived Sandy.  The host teachers, while welcoming to us relocated teachers, were inconvenienced by our presence.  Benjamin Franklin’s quote about fish and guests both stinking after three days is only too true, so I was happy to have something to share that was of such value.

We are back home now. The closets had to be removed due to water and most of the supplies were piled in boxes. On the Monday the children returned we sang “We’ll be Home for Christmas,” and exchanged hugs and happy tears. It was a great day. It has been an adventure and an adjustment but it is still a big step back toward normalcy. The math and dental materials from Sesame Street that I returned with have been enjoyed by all. Thanks so much for being a wonderful resource for my children.

The Sesame Workshop Blog

This article originally appeared on the Sesame Workshop India site. VisitSesameWorkshopIndia.org to learn more about Galli Galli Sim Sim and all the wonderful work Sesame Workshop India does to improve the lives of and educate the children of India.

Sesame Workshop in India is committed to sustainable projects that enrich children’s lives long after our work is complete. We do this through partnerships, local development, and by investing in the furry heart of our programs—the puppeteers themselves.

Folk traditions of string puppets and shadow puppetry flourished in India long before our Galli Galli Sim Sim television show arrived in 2006. Yet the program’s Muppets represent something new: a sense of humor and emotional depth that connects powerfully with children and opens them to all types of learning.

It’s this quality that attracted actor Manish Sachdeva, whose work with Sesame Street in India has transformed into an enduring passion. Despite having no puppetry experience before his audition for Galli Galli Sim Sim, Manish was chosen from among 2,000 actors to begin training with master Muppeteers from Sesame Street in the U.S. Learning the unusual art of video puppetry took weeks of hands-on mentorship and many rounds of video critiques.

Manish’s character Boombah the Lion is a playful big brother known to a generation of Indian children. Even during training, Manish was urged to explore Boombah’s persona and make him as real as possible. “I started asking ‘What’s his chemistry with other characters? What does he think?’” recalls Manish. “As an artist, you play with it and make it your own.”

The experience—artistic, technical, and social—was excellent preparation for Manish’s next big role. At the end of his tenure on Galli Galli Sim Sim, he started building his own puppets and a company of artists to bring them to life—The Puppet Studio. In its first year, the group produced numerous videos, hosted workshops for children and aspiring puppeteers, and staged an all-puppet version of “The Wizard of Oz.” And Manish is dreaming even bigger, with ambitions for a feature film and TV series that expand the legacy of Muppets in India.

By investing in puppeteers like Manish, Sesame Workshop in India is helping to nurture an art form that can move people in profound ways, giving a voice not only to artists but to children who might otherwise have none.

Living proof is Ghazal Javed, the voice and hands behind Chamki, the much-loved star of Galli Galli Sim Sim. India’s leading woman puppeteer, Ghazal’s career with Sesame Street in India started during her final college exams in 2005. She’s been immersed in puppetry ever since, parlaying her time on the show into a dizzying array of projects, including scriptwriting, documentaries, a soap opera, performing at the Cricket World Cup, and a high-profile government campaign to promote girls’ education.

But her most rewarding work, she says, happens more quietly. In 2011, Ghazal and her partner, who plays the character Googly on Galli Galli Sim Sim, brought a month-long puppet workshop to an orphanage in the embattled region of Kashmir. Working with children whose lives have been torn apart by war, Ghazal worked to create a safe space for them to share their stories.

Ghazal recalls one girl who wrote about how her father was gunned down by militants. At first, she struggled through tears to put words to her tale. Then she picked up a puppet.

“She grabbed this puppet, which she made,” Ghazal says, “and she stood up in front of everyone. She told about losing her parents and how she came to the orphanage. She didn’t flinch. She did it all confidently—with a smile.”

Behold the power of puppets.

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