The 2.7 million children in the United States with an incarcerated parent are in a uniquely difficult situation. They feel a number of complex emotions: sadness, shame, guilty, anger. Yet they often don’t feel they are allowed to talk about their experience, partly because the adults in their life oftentimes don’t know how to talk about the experience either. That’s why Sesame Workshop launched Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration, a multimedia, bi-lingual (English/Spanish) outreach initiative with stories featuring Sesame Street’s beloved characters that help children feel reassured, loved and supported. 

On Saturday, Sesame Street took its message of love and support to Rikers Island, a correctional facility in New York City. Gordon, Rosita and Abby Cadabby performed for inmates and their families, and the kits, which include videos for children and guides for parents to help them navigate this complex topic, were distributed. After the event, Winette Saunders-Halyard, the assistant commissioner for community partnerships and program development at Rikers Island, said having the cast and characters from the show at the facility was fantastic.

“The kids were ecstatic,” she said. “No one can make a child smile the way Sesame Street can.”

She explained that, given the complex ways in which incarceration affects children, it was great to have an organization like Sesame Workshop raising awareness about the issue.

“Sesame Street is expert at dissecting complex issues and making them child friendly,” she said.
The way the Muppets talk to children really makes the children feel comfortable. An adult could say the exact same thing, but a Muppet’s message is so much more powerful.”

“I don’t think people feel comfortable talking about it,” she continued. “These materials will help raise awareness about the impact of incarceration on children and help remove the stigma associated with it.”

To learn more about Sesame Street’s trip to Rikers Island and the ways in which we’re working to help children with an incarcerated parent, watch the above video. To see the material we have created specifically for children affected by incarceration, click here. To see photos from Sesame Street‘s trip to Rikers Island, click here.

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This bilingual, multimedia initiative includes material that can help young children with an incarcerated parent find support, comfort and reduced levels of anxiety and sadness, as well as provides parents and care-givers with strategies, tips, and age-appropriate language they can use to help communicate with their children about incarceration.

The Little Children, Big Challenges initiative, which includes efforts to address the loss of a parent, divorce, incarceration and other difficult situations young children face, grew out of Sesame Workshop’s Military Families initiative.

To learn more about why children with incarcerated parents are in need of support, Sesame Workshop sat down with Carol F. Burton, executive director of Centerforce, a non-profit dedicated to supporting individuals and families impacted by incarceration. Ms. Burton also served as an advisor to Sesame Workshop during the development of the Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration initiative. 

Sesame Workshop:  To start off, tell us about the state of children in the United States with an incarcerated parent today.

Carol Burton: There are several million children impacted by incarceration in this country. They really are the silent victims of the war on crime over the last twenty years. They are the collateral damage. No one is paying attention to them. When someone is incarcerated, institutions are responsible for their custody and care. Children are left back in the community – communities that are often ravaged by drugs, crime and violence. Lots of those kids are left unattended.

That is the real state of care for children with an incarcerated parent. Some are doing pretty well. Others are faring poorly. We don’t even know what’s happening with a significant group of them. They fall under the responsibility of no public institution – none that provide support or care as we remove their parents from their home.

SW: Tell us more about Centerforce and the work it does with people impact by incarceration.

CB: Centerforce is a non-profit working with people who live in prison, their families and the communities that are impacted by incarceration. We started in a house outside of San Quentin State Prison in California. We helped ensure that prisons had visitor centers that provided resources, shelter and materials for loved ones visiting inmates.

Today we serve adults with high risk health behaviors who live in prison, provide support and education to parents in prison and jails, and help with the difficult process of reuniting incarcerated individuals with their families. We also work with youth who are going into the juvenile justice system.

SW: Having a parent removed from your home is undoubtedly a difficult event for a child. What do children struggle with in the wake of having a parent incarcerated?

CB: Guilt. Some of the children feel responsible for having their parents removed and incarcerated. They often say, “If I could have gotten better grades or behaved better, this wouldn’t have happened.” They think it’s something about them. Of course there is sadness and a sense of loss, because they miss and love their parent. There is some shame that is associated with it. The other parents and caregivers around them don’t talk about it, so they learn it’s something to be ashamed of. Shame, guilt, and sadness can all lead to anger as well.

SW: What messages should children be hearing from caregivers or their non-incarcerated parent?

CB: They need to know that they are loved regardless of where their other parent is. If their parent can’t demonstrate that, the other adults around them need to help them feel loved and need to remind them it’s not their fault. Those are the two major things: They need to know they are loved and it’s not their fault. After that, there are some other things that help. For instance, discussing where the other parent is and when he or she is coming home.

SW: How do you feel that an organization like Sesame Workshop is tackling this issue?

CB: When I first heard about it, I was ecstatic. I thought, “Finally someone is paying attention to this.” Of course you know Sesame Street is loved by everyone and does really good work. So for them to be taking this on, my reaction was just pure excitement and joy.

18 months later, I realize that if all the advocates for children of incarcerated parents worked for an entire lifetime to increase awareness, we could not do what Sesame will do with this initiative. It would not reach and impact the audience that Sesame Street will. We have people paying attention to the issue because Sesame Workshop has said, “this is important.” In some ways, we’ve already accomplished what would have taken us 50 years. I’m thrilled.

SW: As the initiative formally gets under way, what message would you like to leave with readers, parents and caregivers?

CB: All of our children need support if they are going to do well and thrive in the world. The Sesame Street incarceration kit gives adults who care for children with an incarcerated parent the tools they need to provide that support. The adults now have the tools in their hands necessary to help their children feel strong, loved, protected and valued.

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Cooking with kids is not only an excellent way to find delectable  “quality time” with the family, it’s a perfect tactic for sneaking in teachable moments, all while  mixing up a batch of good-for-you muffins!  How about math: How many cookies make a dozen?  Or science: Why does butter melt when it’s put over heat? How does a cake rise when it’s put in an oven?  Literacy: What foods begin with the letter “C”?  And even a bit of etiquette: Let’s set a pretty table for supper! Or, let’s take a plate of cookies to the nice lady who lives next door!

And then, of course, there’s the whole issue of good health as it relates to food. Research has shown that Sesame Street’s furry, friendly, familiar characters can have a powerful influence over young children, guiding them to develop positive eating habits and to delight in exercise—strong ingredients for lifelong health. Sesame Street’s ongoing initiative, “Healthy Habits for Life,” proves that young children are more interested in healthy foods and good eating practices when these subjects are reinforced in fun, creative, colorful, and active ways.  That’s what Sesame Street cookbooks have strived to achieve.

Over the years, Sesame Workshop’s Publishing Group has worked with several partners, licensing the use of Sesame Street characters and curricula, to create a number of cookbooks for children, most of which feature the creativity, color, and activities that make cooking and healthy eating fun for kids. If you have a young child in your life, you’ll definitely want to check out our tasty offerings!

Our most recent top-performing cookbooks have all been published by the cookbook division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (now part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).  C is for Cooking, by Susan McQuillan, and its Spanish language edition, C es de Concinar de Nuestra Comunidad both offer a broad array of recipes, ranging from breakfast foods to healthy side dishes. Each recipe includes preparation steps designed just for kids, such as sprinkling on spices, measuring and stirring ingredients, and, of course, taste testing! Its sequel, B is for Baking, also by McQuillan, features 50 yummy dishes to bake together. Like its predecessor, B is for Baking includes fun food facts, safety tips, and a favorite Sesame Street friend on every page to keep young bakers engaged in the kitchen. These titles have collectively sold more than 300,000 copies, a remarkable feat for any cookbook, especially one created especially for children.

In the May 1 issue of The New York Times, Anthony M. Marx, President of the New York Public Library, wrote, “E-book readership is rising much faster than readership of print books; digital books could soon be the most popular book format.” Although the publication rate of e-cookbooks may be slightly less spectacular than the e-publication of other book genres, cookbooks are proliferating on every digital platform.

Despite the robust activity to produce adult cookbooks in digital formats, at the moment few children’s cookbooks are available as e-books or apps.  Nevertheless, once again, Sesame Street emerges as an early leader with the publication of both e-books and apps.  In partnership with Random House, we’ve created two e-books: Elmo’s Breakfast Bingo by Abigail Tabby with illustrations by Louis Womble and Grover’s Guide to Good Eating by Naomi Kleinberg with illustrations by Tom Leigh and Josie Yee, both of which focus directly on the pleasures of cooking and the importance of eating right.

And just this past April, Sesame Workshop and Publications International launched a digital version of Silly Snacks, a 20-recipe bundle of healthy recipes, designed to intrigue and delight younger kids!  This app is available exclusively for download as part of the award-winning iCookbook iOS app. It features recipes for healthy snacking with encouragement from Elmo, Big Bird, Grover and other Sesame Street characters—including, of course, the irrepressible Cookie Monster. Each recipe includes parent tips, facts, and cooking activities designed just for kids.

Much is happening in the worlds of cookbooks for kids—and digital publishing—especially here at Sesame Workshop. Cooking is a wonderful way to bond with your children while teaching them important skills as well. So whether your pre-schooler  prefers “Oscar’s Messy Green Stuff in a Potato Crust” or “Rosita’s Honey Pear Crisp”, use cooking time as learning time. You’ll have fun and will end up sharing special memories as well as food that’s sure to be delicious.

To check out Sesame Street’s print cookbooks, click here. To check out our e-books, click here.

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My first vivid memory of a tornado was the day my sister was born. I was 4 years old, it was nighttime, and I was alone with my grandmother who spent the majority of her adult years in Papua New Guinea. I vividly remember hearing the voice of Gary England (an Oklahoma meteorologist) giving advice about the storm and telling us to quickly take cover. To my preschool brain it was targeted solely for us and our house. I remember the panic my grandma expressed as she was new to tornados. I remember talking about how to take cover, securing the mattress over us in the bathtub, and holding on to her. And, even more vividly, I remember the feeling of fear that my parents weren’t there to protect me.

Tornados aren’t new to Oklahomans. We have multiple warnings a year and taking cover was, and is, a frequent process. We practice drills in school, all the way through high school. In my family, we receive notices from my dad about tornadic weather and we are on alert about when we need to take cover.  It was something we don’t take lightly and something to always be prepared for. We know the drill; when the sirens start blowing, we grab our dog and a couple personal possessions and drive to the local university or church to take cover in the basements. In situations where we don’t have time to drive to a basement, we grab our mattresses for cover, put on bicycle helmets, and hunker down in the hallway (our current house has windows in every room). We hope and pray for the best and then ride out the storm not knowing if our lives will be the same again.

It was that kind of day on May 20th, except this time I was in New York and my family and loved ones were taking cover without me. We knew the tornado threat was high as we had ongoing family text messages the night before. As national news was breaking about the tornado, I was trying to connect with my family.  One of my sisters, a third grade teacher, was doing her best to keep her students safe and calm as they went into tornado lockdown multiple times throughout the day. As my sister was on lockdown, my friends, who live in Moore and right in the tornado zone, were rushing to find their children and recounts it as the longest hour of their lives. One was frantically driving to their 4-year-olds preschool only to be forced to pull off the road and watch the tornado tear apart Moore.  The other one was forced to run 3 miles to their home because the tornado had destroyed everything. Thankfully, their children are safe and the house is standing. The tornado hit 300 yards away from her front door. Yet so many others were not so fortunate.

Tragedies like this remind us of the importance of tornado preparedness. Although my friends’ 4-year- old is safe, she has been left with many “why” questions. It reminds me that children need to know what to do and why readiness is important. They also need to know why it happens, especially as parents all around Oklahoma struggle with what to tell their preschoolers. Words can’t take away the fear, the mixed emotions, and the questions, but they can help heal and strengthen us for future emergencies. That is why we, at Sesame Workshop, provide resources for families – to help families prepare and to also help them recover. The Here For Each Other outreach initiative can help parents with young children find the words they need to help their children cope during this difficult time.

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Kara Koch is the Production Coordinator in Sesame Workshop’s International Creative department. She works on co-productions in Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Israel, South Africa, and the Gulf.

Screening and dissecting videos. Writing treatments. Operating a camera, microphone, and light board. Taking written and oral exams.

You might think these are things only college students would be doing in an advanced film course, but if you are a 12-year-old kid in Bangladesh’s Rural Live Action Film Program, they are just the sort of skills you will learn to master in just a few months.

The local team behind Sisimpur, the Bangladeshi version of Sesame Street, has developed and refined this seven-month training program since its inception in 2003. Students are selected from regions all over the country and, with the cooperation of their parents and schools, they are given the opportunity to experience filmmaking in a way often reserved for industry professionals.

After demonstrating their creativity and storytelling ability by way of written questionnaires and in-person interviews, about 20 students are selected to participate in the full production process. They begin by learning how to pitch a story and move on to studying camera angles and shot composition. When the day comes to get out on location, each student literally calls the shots as the director and camera op for his or her film. The rest of the students work as a team and assume on-set responsibilities such as lighting, sound, and props manager. With the help of Sisimpur editors, the students round out the course by learning post-production techniques during a visit to the city of Dhaka.

Drawing on their own backgrounds and personal experiences, these students have created unique films on topics such as craft making, caring for animals, and a variety of cultural foods, festivals, and music. Over 160 films have come out of this program in just 7 seasons of Sisimpur. Every film produced is broadcast in at least one episode of the series – an impressive credit for kids who haven’t even reached high school!

Some filmmakers have even brought the process full circle by returning to help train the next season of students. At Sesame we spend a lot of time trying to tell stories for kids. The Sisimpur team has found a remarkable way to showcase stories by kids. By training and encouraging the next generation of storytellers, it’s no wonder our “longest street” continues to stretch out ahead of us.

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George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth

Sesame Street founder Joan Ganz Cooney

Dr. Paul E. Jacobs and his daughter Jessica Jacobs

At Sesame Workshop’s 11th Annual Benefit Gala on Wednesday, we were proud to honor both an individual and an organization that champion the importance of early education and work to ensure young children from all walks of life are prepared for school.

Susie Buffett, Chairman of the Sherwood Foundation, received the Global Leadership Award for her commitment to increasing public awareness of the need to invest in educational resources for preschool children at all economic levels. Qualcomm Incorporated received the Corporate Leadership Award for its commitment to leveraging the power of mobile technology to educate children around the globe in new, impactful ways. The award was accepted by Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, Qualcomm’s Chairman and CEO.

Susie Buffett and Oscar.

To learn more about Susie Buffett and the Sherwood Foundation, click here. To learn more about Qualcomm and all the work they do to support the innovative edge of Sesame Workshop’s mission of global education, click here.

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The American Street overflows with giggling faces, neighbors congregating on city stoops, and friends playing jump rope. Sunny days and furry faces fill the Street, the symbolic artery through which so much history and learning flows.

The Indian Galli (alleyway) explodes with color and pulses with a rhythmic drumbeats. A caravan of diverse faces cheers as it zooms past smiling pink and blue storefronts and a technicolor lion kicking a soccer ball. The Galli is a familiar scene, a fantastical heaven tucked away in the dense city.

Both of these streets tell stories – stories of childhood, stories of community, and stories of culture. As an intern at Sesame Workshop and an anthropology student, I wanted to explore these stories in my senior thesis.

After working at Sesame Workshop in Global Education, Research & Outreach as an intern for a year and with the encouragement of a wise mentor, I decided to apply for funding to support a summer of original ethnographic research in India. Much to my mother’s chagrin, I traded in my ninth summer at camp in Wisconsin to explore the life of Muppets on the other side of the world.

When my rickshaw rolled up to the door of Sesame Workshop India in New Delhi, it hit me: I was experiencing, firsthand, what so many people back in the New York office described as “the longest street in the world.” Sesame Workshop India, the only wholly-owned subsidiary of Sesame Workshop in the world, is a lean machine comprised of a bold, fast, sharp team. Not only does this thirty-odd person office drive the production of Galli Galli Sim Sim (the Indian co-production of Sesame Street) radio and television shows that reach over 90% of television-owning families, but they also collaborate with national early childhood education experts to organize policy-oriented advocacy. They also just recently launched a franchise of after-schools and pre-schools called Sesame Schoolhouse, the first of their kind. And if that isn’t enough, this tiny team makes serious dents in school readiness and hygiene educational needs in India, a country where, if all the children broke off and made their own country, they would be the third largest in the world.

After a few days in the office and with the help of the supportive Sesame Workshop India team, I quickly identified a feasible research plan. In 2011 Sesame Workshop India was developing a Healthy Habits radio program intended to be distributed to a number of community radio stations. This particular series was designed in installments in a way that allowed flexibility for local adaptations. When I was in Delhi they were just beginning to roll out this initiative in a sizable migrant labor community on the periphery of Gurgaon, a major satellite city of Delhi. The community radio station, Gurgaon Ki Awaaz, took the material and tailored it to the needs of its audience, playing folk music from Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh –many of the migrant laborers’ home states – and addressing issues that were specific to the community’s needs. And, taking full advantage of radio as a flexible and communicative medium, the community radio station engaged callers in conversation surrounding education, water, employment, and safety.

As I conducted interviews with mothers, kids, teachers, and radio producers it became clear to me: everyone wants to consume high-quality media that speaks to them and, perhaps even more importantly, everyone wants to speak. The Sesame material served as an inspiration for the The Galli Galli Sim Sim community radio program, which provided a safe, educational and accessible space for some of the most marginalized families in the world.

That’s a Street of which I am proud to be a part.

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It’s a wonderful day, and not just cause the sun is shining on Sesame Street. It’s a wonderful day because this morning we learned a new friend was moving in to the neighborhood. Armando, or “Mando” as the gang on Sesame Street has nicknamed him, is join the cast on the upcoming 44th season.

Played by actor Ismael Cruz Córdova, Mando is part of Sesame’s increased focus on engaging with and educating children in the Hispanic community in the United States. The show is constantly evolving and has a long-standing history of modeling a diverse community.  As producers were identifying the realities of the changing American population, it was important to represent that diversity in the new addition to the cast. “Armando,” a writer from Puerto Rico, will join Maria (played by Sonia Manzano), Luis (Emilio Delgado) and Muppets™ Rosita and Ovejita (Carmen Osbahr) as part of Sesame Street’s bilingual community.

To learn more about Mando and his new home on Sesame Street, check out the video above.

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Today, 2.5 billion people don’t have access to toilets. Investing in sanitation leads to healthier people and stronger communities. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Water, Sanitation & Hygiene program focuses on the development of tools and technologies that can lead to radical and sustainable improvements in sanitation in the developing world. An important component is reaching children and families with critical health messages. A new grant to Sesame Workshop will promote hygiene and sanitation among children and families in Bangladesh, India, and Nigeria. Cookie Monster was so excited to work with the Gates Foundation that he sat down with the Impatient Optimist, the foundation’s blog, and answered a few questions. Sesame Workshop looks forward to working with the Gates Foundation in the coming years.

Impatient Optimist: Cookie Monster, we know you are very busy. Why have you taken the time to speak with us today?

Cookie Monster: Well, me heard that if me be very patient, there will be chocolate chip cookies available at the end of this interview. Me not see them yet, but me optimistic.

IO: We know you’re a cookie enthusiast. Can you tell us your cookie eating ritual?

Cookie Monster: Me cookie eating reputation precedes me. Of course me have ritual! First me wash hands. This part very important because it help keep me healthy. Me not sure exactly how long me wash, but me sing the ABCs slowly and when me get to Z, it time to rinse and then look out, om nom nom nom nom. Me also like to share me cookies with Elmo and Big Bird. Little known secret, a birdseed cookie is delicious.

IO: You have traveled all over the world to places like Asia, Australia, Africa—where is your favorite place to go?

Cookie Monster: Well, me favorite place in the whole-wide-world is Sesame Street, of course. But you are right, me global traveler. On the plane, me fly Monster Class—it is luxurious space in the overhead bin. Me not a picky traveler. Me just like to see places where children and monsters are all healthy and happy.

IO: What’s your favorite thing about living on Sesame Street?

Cookie Monster: Me have so many favorites. Me love learning new things, doing Monster pilates, washing me fur at the laundromat (me prefer gentle cycle), but most of all, me love when visitors stop by—especially with cookies. Hey, if you’re planning on being in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi—me will show you Cookie eating ritual too.

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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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