Resource: National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators

NAECTE Newsletter link: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 )

When reading this newsletter, I found the information on developmentally appropriate media programming very interesting, as it relates to this week's topic of discussion. The University of West Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning expressed understanding of the social and cultural value of the content in which young children are exposed to. As audio-visual programming entertains and informs young children, it helps them to develop their identity, so it is important that young children are provided with media that reflect who they are. Public television is the leader in providing high quality educational programming, in fact, 85 percent of parents trust what their children are watching. As studies show that children watch four hours of television a day, the goal of the Developmental Appropriate Programming and the University of West Georgia Television Station 13 is to offer education, information, and language development to young children in a fun, exciting way. This program plans to meet the needs of area prekindergarten children through service learning, storytelling, puppetry, and exploring culture and traditions.

This issue made me consider the television program that my four year old spends a lot of time watching. He loves to watch the shows on Nick Jr. where he has learned many social concepts, practiced speaking Spanish, explored musical concepts, and much more. He has even answered me in Japanese and often counts in Spanish after watching popular shows on this network. The network's slogan is "preschool on TV," and I believe that it has given my child many social and cultural experiences. There is a wonderful cultural variety on this network with shows like: Dora the Explorer (Spanish), Go Diego Go (Spanish) and Nihao, Kai-lan (Japanese). I feel this is such a great experience for young children to see this on television and then be able to embrace cultural differences as they grow up in our changing society.