Category Archives: Publications and reports

In Families Matter, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop’s most recent research report (released May 2011), I take an ecological approach to chronicling how digital media are shaping childhood, parenting, and family life (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). I do so by sharing findings from two complementary studies: a national survey of parents of 3- through 10-year-olds, and in-depth case studies of two young Latina girls and their families. Gabriela Guzman and Sierra Ramirez’s cases provide rich examples of the potential…

This piece originally appeared in the Huffington Post.   On Tuesday, June 7, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop will present a report at the E 3 Expo in Los Angeles that may surprise media designers and cause policymakers to step back from their current concerns about kids’ digital multitasking addiction, cyber-bullying, violent videogames, and mobile disruptions in school. While much of the public discussion about digital media is concentrated on how little influence parents have in shaping…

On Monday, March 14, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop released Always Connected, a report about the digital media habits of young children. It has come to our attention that the statistic cited regarding children under age 5 and their use of the Internet was stated incorrectly in the press release that was issued. The study results showed that almost 25% percent of parents of children five and under say that their children use the Internet. Of those…

Today, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop are releasing a new report entitled Always Connected. The report is a synthesis of data from seven studies and presents a comprehensive look at young children’s media use over the past five years. As someone who is interested in research methodology, and as one of the authors, the report has encouraged me to think more carefully about the way we define and measure media use. Measurement of media use taps into…

Check out this great interview about the Cooney Center’s report report, “Learning: Is There An App for That?” with Carly Shuler, the study’s co-author, and Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Early Education Initiative at the New America Foundation. They discuss the phenomenon of the “pass-back” effect, in which parents share their devices with their young kids, what it is about these apps that are so appealing to young children, as well as how to determine whether apps are developmentally appropriate.…

The Cooney Center is thrilled to announce our newest report! A mobile media revolution that is changing the lives of adults, and now children of all ages, is under way across the globe. This report focuses on how new forms of digital media are influencing very young children and their families in the United States and how we can deploy smart mobile devices and applications-apps, for short-in particular, to help advance their education. Get more information and download report

April 2010 Over a year ago, we began to notice something we couldn’t ignore.  We noticed it in grocery stores and on the subway.  We noticed it at shopping malls and in coffee shops.  What we noticed was children – even very young children – playing on devices that weren’t specifically designed for them.  The iPhone and iPod Touch revolution had hit the masses – and seemed to be including children as young as 3.  While it felt counterintuitive that…