Video Songs from Sesame Street: A Comparison of Fifth Graders' and Adults' Opinions regarding Messages for Preschool Children

Abstract

The study was designed to assess the opinions of fifth-graders and adults concerning messages conveyed to preschool children through video songs, and to compare fifth graders' and adults' opinions to preschool children's responses to questions about the same video songs. Also assessed were subjects' opinions regarding the importance of the messages, whether the messages would be learned, and how much the videos would be liked by preschool children. Two hundred seventeen subjects (fifth-grade children, n = 91; and adults, n = 726) were shown three videotaped productions of songs used in a previous study with preschool children. Adults listed significantly more implicit messages than did fifth graders, whose messages were more explicit (previous findings show that preschoolers report explicit messages). Significant differences were also found between fifth graders and adults concerning importance, learning, and liking. The study has implications for adults who use music segments from children's television as educational experiences for young children.