0:01

Sesame Street, the show that has

0:04

entertained and educated generations of children

0:06

is now and it's fifty fourth

0:08

season. The program has kept pace.

0:11

With the Times once primarily known

0:13

for focusing on a B season

0:15

one two threes, Sesame Street has

0:17

turned his attention. Over the years

0:19

too many other topics that touch.

0:21

On children's lives from grief

0:24

to race and racism to

0:26

covert nineteen. Last year Sesame

0:28

Workshop announced a new focus

0:30

on the emotional wellbeing. Of

0:32

young children and their families. Since then,

0:35

they've been working with A P A

0:37

and other partners to develop materials to

0:39

teach young kids about how to understand.

0:42

And manage their feelings. Today we're going

0:44

to talk with a psychologist who's worked

0:46

at Sesame Street for decades about why

0:48

a focus on. Young kids emotional

0:50

well being is needed right now.

0:52

How the show translates complicated concepts

0:55

into stories that young kids. Can

0:57

connect with the research that underpins

0:59

all the content on Sesame Street

1:01

and what's behind the programs. And. During

1:04

Success Welcome to Speaking of

1:06

Psychology, The flagship podcast of

1:08

the American Psychological Association that

1:10

examines the links between psychological.

1:12

Science and Everyday life. I'm

1:14

Kim Mills. My.

1:19

Guess Today is Doctor Rosemary

1:21

Trulia, a developmental and child

1:23

psychologist and Senior Vice President

1:25

of Curriculum and Content at

1:27

Sesame Workshop. Where she has worked

1:29

since Nineteen Ninety Seven. She

1:31

oversees all content and curriculum development.

1:34

For Sesame Street and other shows

1:36

produced by Sesame Workshop, Doctor Truly

1:38

has written numerous articles published and

1:41

child and developmental. Psychology journals

1:43

and presented her work at

1:45

national and international. Conferences. She's

1:47

author of the book Ready For

1:49

School a Parents Got To Play

1:51

For Learning for Children ages two

1:53

to Five and Co editor of.

1:55

G is for growing. Thirty. years

1:58

of research on children and

2:00

Sesame Street. She has appeared

2:02

on television and radio programs, including The

2:04

Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR's

2:07

Life Kit for Parents, and All Things

2:09

Considered, talking about Sesame

2:11

Street and offering research-based advice

2:13

on children and parenting. Dr.

2:16

Trilio, thank you for joining me today. Oh,

2:19

thank you, Kim. It's a pleasure to be talking

2:21

with you today. I mentioned in the intro that

2:23

Sesame Workshop announced a multi-year commitment

2:25

to focusing on children's emotional well-being

2:27

last year. Why did

2:29

you decide that this was such an important topic to

2:32

focus on right now? It's a

2:34

very important topic because we have

2:36

a global mental health crisis. Sesame,

2:39

from its inception, has

2:41

always been there to help children

2:43

and the caregivers and adults in

2:46

their lives to help them build

2:48

what we call these foundational skills

2:51

to get them ready for school and

2:53

to get them ready for life. So

2:56

Sesame Street is driven by

2:58

what we call a whole

3:00

child curriculum. So we're dealing

3:02

with all aspects of child

3:04

development, their academic skills, their

3:06

social-emotional skills, their health needs.

3:09

And we're very much in tune to

3:12

what is going on in terms

3:14

of the latest research, the best

3:16

practices, as well as what's

3:18

going on in our society. So

3:22

when it was announced that

3:24

there's a global health crisis,

3:26

which was there before the

3:28

pandemic, but just got exacerbated

3:30

with the pandemic, that

3:32

we decided, because we always have

3:34

a curriculum focus every

3:37

year, and we

3:40

decided that we can make

3:42

a difference and provide foundational

3:44

information to help

3:46

build the foundation of

3:49

what we're calling emotional wellbeing.

4:00

for older children or adults? Well,

4:02

we have to keep in mind that

4:05

we're talking to an audience that

4:07

ranges from ages two to age

4:09

five, and we need

4:12

to make sure that the content

4:14

is meaningful and relevant to them

4:16

as well as engaging for them,

4:19

because we know that those are

4:21

critical factors to keep

4:23

children paying

4:25

attention to the messages, but

4:28

also when they're engaged

4:31

with content, it helps with the

4:33

comprehension. So we make

4:35

sure that our

4:38

goals are developmentally appropriate,

4:41

but we never ever talk down

4:43

to children. So we want to make

4:45

sure that the stories have meaning

4:47

in their lives, and we give

4:49

them what we call the vocabulary.

4:51

So we focus a lot on

4:54

the vocabulary for emotional awareness,

4:56

because we know with really

4:58

young children, they

5:01

have a range of big feelings,

5:03

but they don't have the words

5:05

to express these

5:07

feelings. And the adults in their lives

5:09

also have to remind them of

5:12

the nuances in terms

5:14

of the vocabulary. So

5:18

angry versus frustrated versus

5:20

disappointed, and not be

5:23

afraid to use these big words, but

5:26

to define them in the moment

5:28

of the scenario that they're feeling.

5:30

So they have an understanding of

5:32

the meaningfulness of that word.

5:35

And when you're dealing with

5:37

audio-visual content, to make

5:39

sure that there's a

5:42

term that we use is say

5:44

and see. Make sure that the

5:46

visuals are in tune to what

5:48

they're hearing and gestures.

5:50

Gestures are really important in terms

5:52

of comprehension. So as you could

5:55

hear me saying, we do a lot of

5:57

research. We are culling from

6:00

the academic research that's

6:03

coming from the learning sciences. And

6:05

we also engage in our own,

6:07

what we call formative research. Because

6:10

even though I have a doctorate

6:12

in developmental psychology, I'm constantly

6:14

learning from children. They're the real experts.

6:17

I may think this is going to

6:19

work, but then we show children and

6:21

they're telling us what's working

6:23

for them. All right. One

6:27

of your newest videos is about feelings

6:29

helpers. It's a way of

6:31

introducing children to the idea of therapy

6:33

and mental health professionals. I'm

6:35

a special helper too. This

6:42

is my costume. This is

6:44

what I wear when I do my job. I am

6:47

a therapist, a counselor. I'm

6:50

a feelings helper. Can

6:52

you tell us about that? How did you come up

6:54

with the idea of feelings helpers? I'm

6:56

really glad you asked me that question. When

6:59

we start a new initiative

7:01

for a new season of

7:04

content, both show content

7:06

and also we have a tremendous

7:08

amount of content, free

7:10

resources on our website. So

7:13

sesamestreet.org in this particular initiative,

7:15

it's backslash mental health. These

7:18

resources are there for

7:20

parents and caregivers and

7:22

educators to use. But

7:25

we always start with what we

7:27

call an advisory curriculum seminar. That's

7:30

where we bring in the experts

7:32

to help us. Help us figure

7:34

out what goals should we focus

7:36

on and then how to

7:40

move forward in terms of content creation.

7:43

As I said, we have a mental health crisis.

7:46

For the most part, we're

7:49

just focusing on emotional well-being,

7:51

which are these foundational skills.

7:53

That is emotional awareness, social

7:56

connections, mind-body connections,

7:58

and compassionate mindset.

8:01

We could talk about these four

8:03

domains later. But on

8:06

the website we also wanted

8:09

to bring attention to de-stigmatize

8:12

mental health in

8:15

terms of there are times in children's

8:17

lives that these basic foundational

8:20

skills aren't enough. That their

8:22

big feelings are impeding with

8:25

their everyday moments

8:27

or things that they want to

8:29

do so such as anxiety, right?

8:33

We want parents and caregivers and

8:35

educators to know that it

8:37

is okay to then get additional

8:40

help. Now children are

8:42

used to going to the pediatrician, they go

8:44

to the doctor, but what

8:47

do you call the person who is

8:49

helping them with their big feelings? And

8:52

one of the advisors said, you know, we don't

8:54

want to call them therapists or counselors. What

8:56

does that mean for a child? So we're

8:58

gonna call them healing helpers.

9:01

These are special people

9:03

who help us have

9:06

a better understanding of

9:08

what the emotions that are

9:10

overwhelming and taking over. More

9:13

importantly, what are the

9:15

strategies to help be with

9:18

those big feelings when

9:20

they come up? And it's

9:22

really important sometimes to talk to someone

9:24

who is skilled in helping them and

9:26

they are your counselors, your mental health

9:28

professionals. But for children, they're

9:31

feelings helpers. Can

9:34

you tell us a little bit more about your role

9:36

at Sesame Workshop? I mean what do

9:38

you do as the Vice President of

9:40

Curriculum and Content? Are you convening these

9:42

groups or reviewing the science or a

9:44

little of everything? Okay, so

9:47

as the Senior Vice President for Curriculum

9:49

and Content, it's my

9:51

responsibility to help

9:54

our organization figure out what

9:56

are we going to focus on. You know,

9:58

so yes, we are a school readiness,

10:02

we're all based on a school readiness

10:04

curriculum, but then sometimes we have to

10:07

hone in and put a spotlight on

10:09

what's going on and being in tune

10:11

to what's going on in our society.

10:14

So when we decided that we were going

10:16

to focus on emotional well-being, I then

10:20

have a convening and

10:22

I have a colleague who's also

10:24

a senior vice president who

10:27

oversees our US social

10:29

impact work and that's the work

10:31

that you're going to find on

10:33

the website, sesamestreet.org backslash

10:35

mental health. And

10:37

so I help her with her convening, she

10:40

helps me with my convening because they're very

10:42

different audiences. So for

10:44

me, my responsibility is for

10:46

what we call mass media.

10:49

So helping the content creators who are

10:51

writing for the show, who are

10:53

writing for digital, who

10:55

are overseeing our publishing

10:58

department, our licensing department.

11:00

So messages that are

11:02

going out there that are

11:04

directed to children, so

11:06

child-facing messages with the

11:08

hope that the adults are

11:11

going to be co-engaged with them through reading

11:13

a book or watching the show or playing

11:15

a digital game or listening

11:17

to a podcast. My

11:20

colleague, Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, her

11:22

focus is the website. And

11:24

so that's more adult-facing with

11:26

the understanding that for some

11:29

content, you want to be

11:31

able to, an adult

11:33

may want to bring the child and

11:35

watch, and co-engage in the video. And

11:38

there's lots of child-facing content, you

11:41

know, printables and storybooks that are

11:43

child-facing. But then there's also adult-directed

11:49

information for the adults in their

11:51

lives to help them with some of

11:53

these learning goals. Now,

11:56

I also mentioned in the intro that you were

11:58

the co-editor of G is for Grow. 30

12:01

years of research on children in Sesame

12:03

Street. And I'm going to guess that

12:05

a lot of our listeners have no

12:08

idea that there's been so much research

12:10

into Sesame Street and its viewers. And

12:12

your book was really the first time

12:14

that this research was examined holistically. Now,

12:17

I know this was a weighty and

12:19

serious tone, but could you summarize some

12:21

of the key findings? Oh,

12:24

well, that's great. And so that

12:26

book, that brings us up to, you know, season

12:28

one to season 29.

12:30

And I want to mention another book that was co-edited

12:33

by colleagues called The Sesame

12:35

Effect. And that book

12:37

also shows all

12:39

of the research on our

12:42

international productions, because we are

12:44

a global educational

12:46

media company. And in The

12:48

Sesame Effect, there is a

12:50

chapter that starts with

12:52

season 30's educational impact

12:55

to about season 50. So

12:58

we're probably the best

13:00

kept secret. What

13:03

I mean by that is that a lot

13:05

of people don't realize the amount of learning

13:09

science that goes into the

13:11

creation of our content. The

13:15

formative research, so, as I said

13:18

earlier, that for

13:20

us, children are the best experts. So

13:22

we want to make sure for child

13:24

facing content that we're out there talking

13:27

to, showing and talking to children.

13:29

On the website

13:32

content, we want to make sure

13:34

that the content works for caregivers

13:36

and educators. So formative research is

13:38

being done with those target audiences.

13:40

This is a key component of

13:42

Sesame Workshop's content creation.

13:46

But it doesn't stop there, right? So

13:48

we want to make sure the inputs

13:50

are great for putting our best foot

13:53

forward in terms of getting an educational

13:55

impact. But then we're going to do

13:57

the summative research, the impact research. And

14:00

so both books

14:03

are summaries of the

14:05

educational impact that we've had,

14:08

both in the areas of academic

14:10

skills, so literacy and

14:13

language development, math

14:15

and science, social-emotional

14:22

skills and development, and

14:24

health. There's a lot of emphasis

14:26

placed on our physical health.

14:30

And so both books show

14:34

you the breadth of the content

14:36

that we're addressing, but most importantly,

14:39

the educational impact that we're

14:42

having. And most recently, which

14:44

I believe has been released,

14:48

is that we have done a lot of

14:50

work in the Middle

14:52

East with a new co-production called

14:55

Ahlam Simpson. And that

14:57

is to focus on the Syrian

14:59

refugee crisis. So,

15:01

and that work really did focus

15:04

a lot on emotional well-being. So

15:06

looking at this research over such a

15:08

long period of time, have you found

15:10

that kids who grew up on Sesame

15:13

Street were better in school, grew up

15:15

healthier, were better adjusted? All of those

15:17

things that you might want to be

15:19

able to measure. Yes. So

15:22

there were a couple of seminal

15:24

pieces of research that were longitudinal

15:26

research studies, which is really

15:28

hard to do now. These were conducted in the

15:30

early 90s. But it

15:33

showed that children who watched

15:35

Sesame Street during the preschool

15:37

years did significantly better in

15:40

high school. They were able

15:42

to re-contact those children, children

15:44

living in Springfield, Massachusetts and

15:46

Topeka, Kansas. So that's called

15:49

the re-contact study,

15:51

which is in the G's for Growing,

15:54

summarizing the G's for Growing book. What

15:58

we found with Ahlam Simpson, recently

16:00

is that because as we were

16:02

doing this research, there was a

16:05

pandemic. And

16:08

so some of the work had

16:10

to be moved to digital

16:12

through a digital device. And

16:15

they found that the content that was consumed

16:20

over a, I don't know,

16:22

maybe a six or seven week period, was

16:25

the learning impact with the

16:27

equivalent of going to school,

16:30

a physical building for a whole year. So

16:32

just think about the power of that

16:34

to deliver our content through a digital

16:36

device, reaching children. This is true, you

16:38

know, for around the world in terms of

16:40

trying to get to remote areas where

16:42

children may not be able to get

16:44

to preschool. So we're

16:47

pretty we're very pleased by the results

16:49

of that study. And it shows the

16:51

power of our educational content. Do

16:54

you like what you hear on this podcast? Then

16:57

you should check out APA's magazine,

16:59

Monitor on Psychology, to learn even

17:02

more about the latest research in

17:04

psychology, mental health and behavioral science.

17:07

Recent topics include the science of

17:09

conversation, what research says about

17:12

teens and social media, and

17:14

the ethics of artificial intelligence. Every

17:16

issue is available for free on our

17:18

website. No subscription required.

17:22

Visit www.apa.org/monitor

17:25

today. How

17:28

do you identify the needs

17:30

in kids so that you can

17:32

tailor the right messages at the right time?

17:35

Well, we're very much connected

17:38

to the academic community.

17:40

So I'll give you an example of

17:43

that, you know, in the early 2000s

17:46

when all of the focus was on brain

17:49

development. You know, we learned

17:51

a lot as developmental psychologists.

17:53

And so there was a lot of

17:56

talk about self regulation and executive function

17:58

skills. Well, that was never. part

18:00

of our school readiness curriculum, right?

18:03

And so we've learned from the learning

18:05

sciences that, wow, you know, we

18:07

need to start focusing

18:10

more on those process

18:12

skills. How do children

18:14

learn content, right? We've been focusing on

18:16

the content skills, you know, as you

18:18

said, letters and numbers and you're, you

18:21

know, and identifying feelings and maybe talk

18:23

about healthy foods and the importance of

18:25

exercise. But what

18:27

are those skills that are the

18:29

true school readiness skills? And we've

18:31

learned through the research and it

18:33

is those executive function skills, the

18:36

ability to pay

18:38

attention, the ability

18:40

to focus your attention,

18:42

but also be able to shift

18:44

your attention and have flexible thinking,

18:46

the ability to control

18:49

your emotions that might be

18:51

interfering with your ability to

18:53

pay attention. So we revised

18:55

our whole child curriculum based

18:57

on those research findings and

18:59

put those executive functions at

19:02

the core of academic learning,

19:04

social-emotional learning and health

19:07

behaviors. Another

19:09

example is when there was all

19:11

this focus on STEM education and

19:14

a lot of people

19:16

said, well, Sesame Street can't focus on

19:18

STEM. You know, you're talking to, you

19:21

know, little kids, little

19:23

kids and, you know,

19:25

that's that's that's in, you know,

19:27

high school, maybe, maybe middle school

19:29

and was like, no, no, no,

19:31

no, no. Preschoolers are natural STEMists.

19:33

They're scientists, they're technologists, they're engineers

19:35

and they're mathematicians. And

19:38

so once again, we focus

19:40

on those process skills, you

19:42

know, the power of investigation,

19:44

power of observation, the power

19:47

of analyzing, because they're doing

19:49

that all the time as

19:51

they're trying to figure out the world around

19:53

them. And so we created

19:56

a STEM curriculum and

19:58

we have our characters. solving

20:01

everyday problems using

20:03

these process scales and then

20:07

at the end of the solving of

20:09

the problem, they're learning a science fact

20:11

or a math fact or an engineering

20:13

fact. So those are two examples. It

20:16

sounds like the researchers are learning as much

20:18

from the kids as the kids are learning

20:21

from watching the shows. Is that true? Absolutely.

20:24

And I think that's why I've been here for multiple

20:27

decades, because I'm constantly learning.

20:31

So I have to ask you

20:33

about Elmo's viral moment on social

20:35

media a few months ago. Elmo

20:38

posted a question on X, formerly

20:40

Twitter. He said, Elmo is

20:42

just checking in. How is everybody doing? And

20:45

he was inundated with replies about

20:48

people's mental and emotional states and

20:50

some people even called it trauma

20:52

dumping. Were you and the

20:54

other people at Sesame Street surprised by this

20:57

moment? We were surprised

20:59

by the large

21:01

number of people writing

21:06

in. That was surprising, but

21:08

not 100 percent surprised because

21:11

we know that we are dealing

21:13

with a mental health crisis. And

21:16

not surprised by adults

21:20

connection with our characters.

21:23

And I think that is the

21:25

power of our Sesame

21:27

Street brand, is that multiple

21:29

generations now have grown up

21:32

on Sesame Street. And these

21:34

characters have meaning

21:37

in our lives. And so

21:40

also learning from the developmental

21:42

psychology research is that when

21:45

you're a child and you are

21:47

connected to a character, you develop

21:49

what we call a power social

21:52

relationship. Elmo is

21:54

talking to me. Elmo

21:56

is my friend. I

21:59

can talk to Elmo. Elmo

22:01

cares about me and Elmo loves

22:03

me. So think about the

22:05

people who are on X

22:08

and social media, they're adults, but

22:10

they have these emotional connections

22:12

to Elmo and by Elmo

22:15

reaching out, how are you

22:17

doing? They then

22:19

revealed how they were doing.

22:22

And what was wonderful is that we

22:24

also, because that was a year into

22:26

our initiative, we now had

22:28

resources to say, go to

22:31

sesamestreet.org. We are there for

22:33

you. You are not alone.

22:36

We are here for you, and we will always be

22:38

here for you. I have to

22:40

ask a question about the early days of

22:42

Sesame Street, because I grew up when educational

22:45

TV was just beginning, and it was awful.

22:48

It was like a teacher standing in a classroom,

22:50

and the only difference was you were watching on

22:52

a screen instead of in reality. And

22:55

it was in black and white. I'm really dating myself

22:57

here. But then in

23:00

1969, Sesame Street came on television,

23:02

and it was completely revolutionary. Kids

23:04

loved it, and they learned things.

23:06

What was different about Sesame Street,

23:09

and why do you think

23:11

it's persisted for all these decades? A

23:14

tremendous amount of research went into

23:16

the design and the making of

23:19

Sesame Street. First,

23:21

let's start with our co-founder, Joan

23:24

Gans-Conney, who knew that

23:27

at the time she was a documentary

23:31

producer and focused on

23:34

what's going on in terms of the educational

23:36

needs of children. She wanted

23:38

to make sure that by creating

23:41

a television show that we could

23:43

reach children, in particular children who

23:48

didn't have access to preschool

23:50

education, so the disadvantaged children,

23:52

and to make sure that

23:54

giving them an even

23:56

start to get them ready

23:58

for school. But

24:00

because she came from television

24:03

as a producer, she

24:06

noticed that young children

24:08

watching TV, Bass Wasteland,

24:11

were able to recite jingles

24:14

from commercials. And

24:17

she's like, wow, if we

24:20

could teach them commercial jingles,

24:23

think about how we could teach

24:25

them school readiness skills in little

24:27

pieces of television. So

24:30

that was her premise, but she had no idea if

24:32

this was going to work. And so she

24:35

got a grant and to say, all right, this

24:37

is an experiment, no one's ever tried this, give

24:40

it a shot. And so she's the one

24:42

who created this model. We

24:46

got to think out of the box, as you

24:48

said, we just can't have a classroom that is

24:50

just being filmed. We got to

24:52

get their attention, all right? Just

24:54

like a commercial gets their attention.

24:56

So she assembled the developmental psychologist,

24:58

she assembled the early childhood educators

25:00

who know how to create curriculum.

25:03

And she brought in Jim Henson,

25:07

right? She wanted to make sure

25:09

that the street was going to

25:11

be grounded in reality. It's a

25:13

real street. We're gonna have a

25:16

human cast, a diverse and inclusive

25:18

human cast. She wants to make sure

25:20

that she's reaching all children. And,

25:23

but she also wanted to bring in

25:26

that fantasy. And that's where Jim

25:28

and his characters came about,

25:30

right? So Sesame Street is grounded

25:32

in reality, which is really important

25:35

for us to hold onto. It remains

25:37

a live action show. And

25:39

because it's live action, we can

25:42

always create content to

25:45

meet the current needs

25:47

of children. So we're

25:49

constantly evolving and very

25:51

dynamic. So we're always making

25:53

show changes. And so get

25:55

back to your questions, like why are we surviving? Because

25:58

the show that we... created in

26:01

1969 is not the

26:03

show that's currently airing in in

26:08

2024 season 54. Because we're creating

26:10

a show that meets the needs

26:12

of today's children. And

26:17

then I think that's what makes us

26:19

unique and special. Have

26:21

kids needs changed over time? I mean, there's

26:24

some things are very fundamental and must be

26:26

the same from generation to generation. But what's

26:28

new with today's kids? Well,

26:30

I think there are different things going on

26:33

in today's world. I think

26:35

mental really focusing on emotional well

26:37

being is is something that's very

26:40

important. We know

26:42

that these executive function

26:45

skills which children struggle with, we know

26:47

that these are learned skills.

26:49

So that that was a big

26:51

change in our curriculum.

26:56

Focus on physical health, children

26:58

don't understand what it means

27:01

to be healthy. That means I'm not

27:03

sick. Right? And how

27:06

do you give them these what we call

27:08

healthy habits for life? And,

27:10

and in terms of academic

27:12

skills, we're constantly learning

27:14

about what are best practices. So

27:17

for instance, there

27:19

was a lot of emphasis placed

27:22

on vocabulary development. Right?

27:24

Remember the $30 million dollar, not 30 million

27:26

word gap. 30 million word gap. We

27:31

learned a lot about that, that

27:34

it's, you know,

27:36

not just showing the letter, what

27:38

the letter sounds like, that's

27:41

phonemic awareness, but also building

27:43

vocabulary. And that was important

27:45

lesson to us too, when we're focusing on math,

27:48

that children, while

27:51

they may have an understanding

27:53

of math concepts,

27:55

they may not have the math language

27:57

because of the big focus on math.

28:00

and that came out of the academic research. In

28:04

addition to the show itself, Sesame Workshop

28:06

has a lot of other avenues to

28:08

get resources out to caregivers and children.

28:11

Can you tell our listeners some more

28:13

about the other resources that are available

28:15

to help kids learn

28:18

about emotional well-being? Yeah, so

28:20

as I mentioned on our website sesamestreet.org

28:23

backslash mental health,

28:25

there's a lot of information that

28:29

we released and are

28:31

continuing to release. So there will

28:33

be new information coming up in

28:36

early May. So definitely

28:38

check back. Yeah, I think by the time we post this,

28:40

some of that should be up. Yeah, so keep

28:43

that in mind. We

28:45

also have partnerships. So

28:48

we partnered with Headspace, and I

28:50

think this is an important partnership

28:52

because it also extends

28:54

the learning on emotional

28:57

well-being. And so we have

28:59

this wonderful podcast

29:02

called Goodnight World. We

29:05

also partnered with Dr.

29:07

Lori Santos on

29:09

her Happiness Lab podcast. And so

29:12

there are three episodes there. And

29:15

there are other resources in terms of the

29:17

books that we publish. And

29:20

we also, on

29:22

our kid-facing sesamestreet.org,

29:25

there's lots of digital

29:28

games and principles and storybooks that

29:30

I think are also not only

29:33

resources for mental health, but across

29:35

that whole child curriculum. Our

29:38

mission at Sesame Wherishop is helping

29:40

kids grow smarter. So those

29:42

are those processing skills plus the content

29:44

skills stronger. Those are

29:46

the self-regulation and physical health and

29:49

kinder. All right, we all

29:51

need to be kinder in

29:54

today's world. Definitely. Now

29:57

you've said in other interviews that young children's

29:59

mental health health is sometimes overlooked

30:01

in discussions about the youth mental

30:03

health crisis. Why do you

30:05

think that is and why is it important

30:07

to add that perspective to the conversation? Yeah,

30:10

I think that adults

30:12

need some guidance

30:15

and able to pick up on

30:17

what is going on with their

30:19

children. So, noticing

30:22

how their children's

30:24

big feelings might be

30:27

interfering with their everyday

30:30

life or

30:33

there's regression in

30:36

terms of regression in potty

30:40

training or they

30:43

may not be interested in eating

30:46

their favorite foods anymore. So what are

30:48

those signs or even other

30:50

distress signs? Because

30:52

parents may not always realize that

30:56

they could be struggling

30:58

with some mental health

31:02

issue and that's why we really

31:04

want to get this next batch

31:06

of content out about these feelings

31:08

helpers. But there are professionals who

31:10

could help you and we need

31:13

to de-stigmatize this idea that my

31:15

child needs to see a therapist.

31:18

A therapist is there to help, not

31:20

to label, but to help you

31:23

and the family work together

31:25

to help the child with

31:27

their resources to have

31:29

a better understanding. For instance, let's

31:31

talk about anxiety. So, children

31:34

who are so anxious that they

31:36

don't want to go to school or so

31:38

anxious that they don't want to go to

31:40

a friend's birthday party or they

31:42

may not want to go to day camp. I

31:45

mean, this is an example of

31:47

you want to be able to help

31:49

your child so they're not missing out

31:51

on these wonderful experiences but they

31:53

may need some extra help and guidance. So

31:56

what's the critical takeaway you want parents and

31:58

other caregivers to get involved? young

32:00

children to get from the materials that you're

32:02

producing right now? Well I want them

32:05

to understand that there are a range

32:07

of emotions and to

32:09

give children the labels for these

32:11

emotions, to be able to distinguish.

32:14

It's not just happy, angry,

32:17

sad, right? There are other emotion

32:19

words like disappointed, frustrated, and

32:21

jealous. That's an interesting one.

32:24

Jealous, what's jealous? But

32:27

to connect with

32:30

your child. So observe

32:33

these physical expressions

32:35

of an emotion. Give

32:38

the child a label, but

32:42

validate. Validate

32:44

the emotion. I

32:46

understand you are jealous

32:50

because you

32:53

are wanting something that your friend has. Jealous,

32:56

what's jealous? And so now you have an

32:58

opportunity to talk about the feeling. Like you

33:00

think you're mad, but you're angry, but you're

33:02

really jealous. But then come up

33:04

with a strategy. How do I deal

33:06

with this emotion? Because all emotions are

33:09

okay. We all have these feelings.

33:12

But how do I get beyond, I'm

33:14

not going to talk to my friend Susie anymore

33:16

because she's got the sparkly coat that I

33:18

want, so what's a strategy?

33:20

And that's what these mindfulness strategies come

33:22

in. And that's where Sesame

33:25

Workshop comes in because we're not

33:27

there to tell the parents what you need

33:30

to do. We're here to

33:32

give them the language and

33:34

the strategies to build

33:36

our emotional well-being toolbox. So

33:39

we're there for the how-to's.

33:41

I often get so upset when people say, oh, parents

33:44

need to do this and they need to do that.

33:46

Well, show me how.

33:48

Right. Tell me how. And that's

33:50

where our videos and our resources

33:52

come in. We're showing and telling

33:55

how. Dr. Trulli, I want to thank you

33:57

for joining me today. I also want to

33:59

thank Sesame Workshop for collaborating with us. We

34:02

have a great partnership and I know it's going to continue. And

34:05

thank you for this partnership because we learned

34:07

so much from all of

34:09

your experts. So, and thank you, Kim, for

34:11

having this wonderful chat today. Really enjoyed it.

34:13

It's been great. You can find

34:15

previous episodes of Speaking of Psychology on our

34:17

website at speakingofpsychology.org

34:20

or on Apple, Spotify, YouTube,

34:22

or wherever you get your

34:25

podcasts. And if you like

34:27

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34:29

review. If you have

34:31

comments or ideas for future podcasts,

34:33

you can email us at speakingofpsychology

34:35

at apa.org. Speaking

34:37

of Psychology is produced by Lee Weinemann. Our

34:40

sound editor is Chris Condeian. Thank

34:42

you for listening to the American

34:44

Psychological Association. I'm Tim Dills. Thank

34:57

you.