How Educational Television Shapes Learning

Managing director at BTIG, Janina Casey has over two decades of experience working with some of the most successful brokerages in New York City. An alumna of St. John’s University, Janina Casey had a successful acting career in her youth and was on the iconic children’s educational television program The Electric Company. 

Educational television programs are a vital tool for teaching children positive social behaviors and basic numeracy and literacy skills. Additionally, children can learn about the wider world through educational programs focused on nature, travel, and other cultures. Children’s programming has also been shown to develop school readiness in young children, including skills such as following instructions and learning simple songs through repetition. 

This can have a long-term impact in a child’s academic performance. When compared to children who watch entertainment television regularly, preschool children who watch a large amount of educational television attain higher scores on achievement tests. For this and other reasons, experts advise parents to be selective about the type of programming their children watch.

Teaching Children to Read with Educational Television

With a bachelor of science in finance, Janina Casey has almost 20 years of executive experience in equity research and sales. Before her professional career in finance, Janina Casey was a child actress and was nominated for her role in the children's educational television show The Electric Company. 

While many experts agree that today's children spend too much time with electronic media, a number of them including Milton Chen, who helped launch an educational programming partnership between the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the U.S. Department of Education, believe that educational programming for children has positive effects. In a statement made in 2009, Chen concluded, "I come out on the side that specific television programs and experiences can very much support literacy."

Chen believes that well-designed television and media programs can contribute greatly to learning to read by enhancing a child's recognition of letters and sounds. These programs can also help children develop a love for reading. When working on shows like Sesame Street and The Electric Company, Chen helped to design and test teaching methods that promoted literacy. Still, expert research shows that excessive television viewing may be detrimental to children under two years of age, and that there needs to be a balance between watching literacy programming on television and practicing reading for children to become fluent readers.