Roslyn Elliott
Television and the
"Teletubbies":
A reflection from early childhood
service providers in Australia
A
pilot study has been undertaken to look at service providers’ use
of television within early childhood services and to identify rationales
used to include this medium as a part of the teaching and learning
context. The nature of television or video programmes shown in services
has been reviewed as well as the popularity of the "Teletubbies"
programmes said to be specifically designed for the younger audience.
Twenty five early childhood services operating
in New South Wales, Australia from both the Sydney metropolitan
area and geographically adjoining rural areas were involved in the
study.
Background
For the past two decades there have been
broad debates about children’s television viewing behaviours. Various
researchers have considered different aspects related to children’s
viewing of television, questioning whether or not it is a drug (Winn,
1985), researching children’s perceptions of reality (Hawkins,1977;
Howard,1996) through to research questioning if children can distinguish
between reality and the images presented to them (Flavell, Flavell,
Green & Korfmatcher, 1990) to the impact of television on consumer
purchasing practices (Fox, 1996; Gunter & McAleer, 1997; Kline,
1993) .
A longitudinal study focusing on infants
and television was commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Authority
(ABA). The study undertaken between 1988 and 1994 tracked the exposure
of young children from age four months to 30 months in an attempt
to add to the body of knowledge currently held in Australia and
internationally (ABA, 1998). Findings of this study have provided
a background and conceptual basis identifying criteria for questions
asked in this project.
The
study
Interviews were conducted on the premises
of the child care services during service operation hours. Each
interview took on average 15 to 20 minutes to complete depending
on the amount of detailed information interviewees provided in their
responses.
Initially service providers were asked if
television or video programmes were offered to the children attending
their services.
As decisions concerning the use of television
programmes or videos are often made by the authorised service provider,
the criteria used to determine which programmes or videos are able
to viewed by children was an key component of the study. Reasons
for providing television or video opportunities were solicited as
were reasons for not providing such experiences. As well participants
were asked to identify their own views about television or video
as a medium of the 20th century and extend their views by identifying
both positive and negative attributes.
Participants were asked if parents sought
their advice about television viewing for their children and were
then asked to explain the nature of advice they would give to parents
if asked. They were then asked to report on children’s apparent
home television viewing preferences. Reports were based on children’s
self reports and dialogues.
As the television programme "Teletubbies"
has received recent media attention, service providers were asked
if any ‘"Teletubby"’ television shows or videos were included in
the range of television or video programmes offered to the children
attending their services and if services had any ‘"Teletubby"’ resources
used by children or if children attending the service owned ‘"Teletubby"’
merchandise and brought this the the service. Gender preference
about viewing ‘"Teletubbies"’ was questioned as well as a question
about identified changes in children’s interests to the programme.
Participants were also asked to comment on
the content of the "Teletubbies" programme as a teaching tool for
early childhood services.
In concluding the interviews the employment
position of the interviewee was asked, their qualifications and
the number of years or experience each person brought to their service.
Data analysis and findings
Of the 25 staff interviewed (representing
25 services) 22 services provided care and education for up to 12
hours per day while only three services were classified as preschool
catering only for children aged 3 to 5 years on a short day or sessional
basis (up to six hours a day).
Initially service providers were asked if
television or video programmes were offered to the children attending
their services. Nine services (36%) said they provided children
with access to television or videos, a further nine services (36%)
very occasionally provided children with limited access and the
remaining seven services (28%) did not provide children with any
access to television or video shows.
Reasons for not providing such opportunities
were solicited as were reasons for providing such experiences. Reasons
for not providing opportunities included, from 2 services (9.5%)
a lack of facilities to be able to watch television or show videos,
2 services (9.5%) perceived television or video viewing as an inappropriate
experience for children in a formal care and education context,
3 services (14.3%) commented that children have access to too much
television whilst in the home environment.
Reasons for providing access to television
and videos was given by 7 services (33.3%) so as to provide children
with a different form of education and stimulation, while 2 services
(9.5%) said they used television to view particular educational
programmes. For those services which indicated that they only allowed
children access to television on rare occasions the reason was due
to extenuating circumstances which in most instances were during
prolonged inclement weather.
Eighteen services responded to identification
of criteria for selecting and screening programmes for children,
the 7 services who did not provide television or video viewing did
not respond to this question. Comments explaining criteria used
to determine which programmes were able to be screened were categorised
into the following areas: educational content , music and movement,
classified as appropriate for preschool children and service policy.
Five services (27.8%) indicated educational
content , 4 services (22.2%) identified individual service policies
which had specific detailed criteria and circumstances under which
television or videos could be screened for children. 4 services
commented that programmes must meet the Australian Broadcasting
Authority criteria (CTS 2) P programme for preschool children (Australian
Broadcasting Authority, 1995), 3 services (14.3%) said to broaden
children’s experiences, and finally 2 services (11.1%) said to provide
and encourage music and movement activities
The types of programmes screened for children
when attending services were identified as being specific programmes
related to the content being taught or listed as educational type
programmes focusing on concepts. Where children’s interest programmes
were identified they were scored under titles identified by the
interviewees.
Programmes screened which related specifically
to the early childhood service programme were identified 13 times.
Examples of such programmes were "Kids and Traffic" as well as Maths
‘shape’ videos and specific nature videos about animals or insects.
The category ‘educational concepts’ encompassed programmes designed
to promote children’s understanding and experiences. This category
was also nominated 13 times by service providers. Specifically named
videos screened for children were The Wiggles (9 nominations) identified
as an interactive video encouraging movement, dance and singing.
This description also corresponds to the ABA (1998) description
of interactions with television programmes. Disney videos (5 nominations)
and "Teletubbies" (2 nominations) were also identified as having
been screened with the reasons for showing these types of videos
said to be children’s interests. One service provider said they
had screened "Teletubbies" once only and would not screen it again
due to children’s demonstrated lack of interest in the content and
inappropriate language model provided by the characters.
Services were asked if parents sought their
advice about children’s home television viewing. Two service staff
said that parents did ask their opinion, 10 said that parents did
not ask, while 13 services said, very occasionally, parents would
seek advice from staff.
When asked to explain the nature of advice
they gave or would give to parents about children’s television viewing
at home, three participants did not respond to the question (13.6%).
Three service staff members (13.6%) said they would actively discourage
parents form turning the television on at all, saying that children
need to spend more time interacting and talking with others. A further
5 staff members (22.7%) said their advise would be to discourage
children’s television viewing.
However, a greater number of respondents
were more positive about television as a tool for learning with
11 respondents (50%) saying they would encourage parents to provide
children with access to television under specific circumstances.
These circumstances were identified as, adults actively monitor
children’s viewing and preferably sat with the child and shared
the viewing of programmes. This joint viewing was to enable parents
to be able to discuss ideas and encourage further conversations
as well as turn off the television when the content became inappropriate
for the child.
Service providers were asked to identify
their own views about television and videos as media for teaching
and learning. They were invited to extend their comments further
by including what they perceived to be both positive and negative
attributes.
The three service providers who said they
would actively advise parents against providing children with access
to television (actively discourage), predictably did not respond
to the question related to the most relevant attribute of the medium
of television. The remaining comments could all be coded into two
categories related to the relevance of information and secondly
the visual attributes of the medium. Twenty two (100%) of respondents
answered the most relevant attribute was that of information while
13 also added the visual aspect of television as being a relevant
attribute. This was rationalised further as participants explained
how television allows the viewer to ‘see’ and ‘learn’ about things
they would not normally encounter in their everyday lives.
Positive aspects of television were coded
into the following categories; informative, interactive, relaxing
and other. Informative was the most highly identified positive aspect
of the medium of television with 21 recorded responses and three
omitted. Next was the relaxing qualities of television with 10 responses
and third, the interactive nature of television or video which was
described as ‘being able to be there’ this category had 7 responses.
The final category, ‘other’, had 15 responses which included as
a positive attribute the ability to " turn it OFF" other comments
identified television viewing as entertaining or fun and could be
used to assist the development of children’s concentration.
Negative aspects were very well defined and
were coded into three categories, unrestrained amounts of television
viewing or more commonly identified as ‘watching too much television’
(19 responses), viewing of inappropriate programmes (17 responses)
and inappropriate use of television by adults, identified as using
television and videos as a baby sitter (7 responses). Service providers
when asked to report on children’s apparent home television viewing
preferences, identified programmes such as Play school (mentioned
8 times), The Wiggles (9 times) Power Rangers (16 times) "Teletubbies"
(15 times), High 5 (6 times). Programmes identified as being outside
the CS2 P rating and addressing an adult audience when identified
by the interviewee were classified for this report as ‘adult ‘ shows.
Seven services commented that children watched and talked about
adult programmes whilst attending centres.
About "Teletubbies"
As the television programme "Teletubbies"
has received recent media attention, mainly negative (Eichler, 1999;
Linn & Poussaint,1999) and it appears many children watch the
programme, service providers were asked if any ‘"Teletubby"’ television
shows or videos were included in the range of television or video
programmes offered to the children attending their services. As
well services were asked if they had any ‘"Teletubby"’ resources
within their centres which are used as components of the programmes
presented. Twenty one services did not have any "Teletubby" resources
and 4 services did indicate a limited number of resources, these
included a video and memory game at one centre, a floor puzzle at
another centre, a poster at yet another centre and in the fourth
service they had fabric covering a child’s lounge in an infant play
room with "Teletubby" characters on it.
Twenty three services said children attending
their centres had numerous and various articles of ""Teletubby""
merchandise. The most frequent resource appeared to be the dolls
of varying sizes, used as comfort toys during rest or sleep time,
then back packs and bags, other identified articles included key
rings, hair ornaments, underclothing and socks. Only two service
providers said that they were unaware of children having any "Teletubby"
merchandise.
"Teletubbies" appeared popular with both
girls and boys although according to respondents more girls than
boys were interested in the characters. Unsolicited comments which
gave reasons given for this were identified as the nature of the
merchandise being sold. It was said to be more appealing to girls
and girls tended to continue to play with the "Teletubby" dolls
for a longer period of time. This also corresponded to the point
made by 14 respondents that children’s interest waned as children
became older and that it was only older girls who still brought
"Teletubby" comfort toys and wore "Teletubby" clothing or personal
adornments to child care.
Participants were also asked to comment on
the content of the "Teletubbies" programme as a teaching tool for
early childhood services. Responses were in the main very negative
and minimal positive or less than negative comments. There were
16 negative comments, detailing perceived deleterious influences
of the programme on children’s development, 5 participants said
they did not know the programme and could not comment, 2 refrained
from commenting and only 2 respondents were positive about the show.
Reasons for the negative comments focused
mainly on the language model presented by the characters. Participants
in this study identified the "Teletubby" speech as ‘poor’ and as
being ‘an inappropriate language model’ for young children during
their formative language learning years. Inappropriate behaviours
were also cited as negative aspects of the programme. The next most
criticised aspect of the programme was identified as a lack of stimulation.
Thirteen comments detailed the show as slow and pedestrian in nature.
Of the two positive comments, one commented on the ‘fun’ aspect
of the show and the cuteness of the characters while the second
comment was about the bright colours, this was the extent of positive
comments.
Staff experience and qualifications were
predominately early childhood with twenty one of the individuals
interviewed employed in the position of authorised supervisor, a
position of legal responsibility (in New South Wales, Australia)
for the daily operation including educational content of the programme
provided at each centre. A further two staff members were teachers
and three staff members were trained teacher’s aids. All staff interviewed
had had formal training from either a university, teacher training
college or technical training institution. 24 of the 25 participants
had studied early childhood development at either a tertiary level
(teaching qualifications) or held post secondary training qualifications
from technical training institutions. Only one person held other
qualifications and she held a tertiary 4 year degree for teaching
children aged 5 to 12 years.
The majority of participants had graduated
from their relevant course between 2 and 5 years (11 in total),
nine had been employed in the early childhood field for a period
of 6 to 10 years, only one staff had been teaching between 11 and
15 years and another staff member had been working for 20 years
the remaining three participants have worked in excess of 22 years
within the profession.
Conclusion
In this preliminary study it appears that
many service providers have very definite opinions about television
and video programmes both as used in the home and as a tool for
children’s learning.
Service providers negative attitudes towards
television and video shows are well acknowledged in the literature.
Children watching too much television was a point raised throughout
the interviews. The amount of exposure to television young children
experienced was the basis for the ABA research on ‘Infants and television’
(1998). Results of the study found infants from 4 months of age
were exposed to an average of 44 minutes of television each day.
By 12 months this had increased to just over one hour per day and
by two and a half years the average television exposure time was
one hour 24 minutes a day (ABA, 1998).
Exposure times were also reviewed and this
is important given the early childhood profession’s concern with
children watching inappropriate or ‘adult’ television programmes.
The ABA (1998) research indicated that there were two peak viewing
periods. The first in the morning 6:00 am to 9:00 am then the evening
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm with children exposed to more television viewing
during the evening period. This is important as the ABA Children’s
Television Standards (ABA, 1995) identify the period during which
preschool children’s programmes are screened as being between the
hours of 8:30 am and 4:30 pm, yet under school aged children are
watching outside of these hours and are subsequently exposed to
television programmes produced for a more mature audience.
Research on the use of television as a babysitter
has been under review for the past 40 years, with initial studies
conducted in the 1950s (Gunter and McAleer,1997). Gunter and McAleer
(1997) point out that television is deliberately used by many families
to occupy children at times when parents are busy or when parents
are not inclined to interact with their children.
Service providers’ positive views were carefully
expressed or couched in terms of being developmentally relevant
and significant to children’s education. They commented on specified
programmes which they provided for children to supported and promote
children’s learning and interest in the broader world. Understanding
and the positive use of television as an educational tool is also
well documented in the literature as quality childrens’s television
can enhance children’s development by providing gender and ethnic
role models,. positive role models of co-operation and collaboration.
As well social responsibility and moral thinking can be reinforced
through content which provides ethical action, and social problem
solving (Colanero, 1995).
The "Teletubbies" appear to meet many of
the attributes of preschool programmes as identified by the ABA
(1998) having music, voices of women and children, distinctive voices
and sounds, laughter, applause and sound effects as well as the
use of short segment stories. However, this particular programme
was not well received nor positively regarded by the early childhood
professionals in this study. Whilst videos and television programmes
have been used by some services to augment their programmes and
provide an avenue for children’s interests the number of services
providing television or videos on this basis is quite limited.
Although the "Teletubbies" are said to be
a landmark in preschool programmeming (ABC Video, 1997) this view
does not appear to be embraced or heralded by early childhood professionals
in this preliminary study. Conversely many service providers do
view the use of carefully selected television programmes and videos
as both an important and significant component of today’s education
for young children. It would appear that although these service
providers are aware that quality children’s television can enhance
children’s development by providing positive role models as well
as other relevant information, they prefer to maintain the human
interactive context of socially mediated learning as the first and
most important component of teaching young children (Berk &
Winsler, 1995).
REFERENCES:
Australian Broadcasting Authority. (1998).
Infants and television.. New South Wales: Australian Broadcasting
Authority.
Australian Broadcasting Authority. (1995). Children’s Television
Standards. New South Wales: Australian Broadcasting Authority.
ABC Video, (1997). Dance with the "Teletubbies". BBC Worldwide
Ltd.
Berk, M., & Winsler, A. (1995). Scaffolding Children’s
Learning: Vygotsky and early childhood education. Washington,
DC: NAEYC.
Colanero, R. (ed.). (1995). Healthy use of TV: Off ‘n’ On.
Issues and Practices. Adelaide:Young Media Australia.
Eichler, H. (1999). "Teletubby" talk. Sydney’s Child. February.
Flavell, J., Flavell, E., Green, F. & Korfmatcher, J. (1990).
Do young children think of television images as pictures or real
objects? Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. Vol
34, (No. 4). Fall.
Fox, R. (1996). Harvesting Minds. London: Praeger.
Gunter, B. & McAleer, J. (1997). Children and Television.
(2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Kline,S. (1993). Out of the Garden . Toys, TV, and Children’s
Culture in the Age of Marketing. London: Verso.
Hawkins, R.(1977). The dimensional structure of children’s perceptions
of television reality. Communication Research. Vol. 4 (No.
3). p. 299-320.
Howard, S. (1996). Bananas can’t talk: Young children judging
the reality of Big Bird, Bugs and the Bananas. Australian Journal
of Early Childhood. Vol. 21 (No. 4). p25-30.
Linn, S. & Poussaint, A. (1999). The Trouble with "Teletubbies".
Idea Central: http://epn.org/idea/syndic990514.html
Winn, M. (1985). The Plug-In Drug: Children Television and
the Family. Hamondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
AUTHOR
Roslyn Elliott, Lecturer, Early Childhood,
School of Learning, Development & Early Education, USW Nepean,
Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia.
INFORMATION
Internationales
Zentralinstitut
für das Jugend-
und Bildungsfernsehen
IZI
Tel.: +49 89 - 59 00 21 40
Fax.: +49 89 - 59 00 23 79
eMail: izi@brnet.de
COPYRIGHT
© Internationales Zentralinstitut für
das Jugend- und Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) 2001
|