ITV

Tag: toddler

  • ‘Sesame Street’ themed interactive games launched in US

    ‘Sesame Street’ themed interactive games launched in US

    MUMBAI: Cablevision Systems Corp. and Sesame Workshop, have launched Sesame Street Games, a new subscription interactive games service featuring the Muppets from Sesame Street available to iO: Interactive Optimum digital cable customers in New York.

    The Sesame Street Games package offers unlimited access to fun, easy-to-play games designed to educate and entertain young children ages 2 to 5 with Elmo, Grover, Zoe and the rest of their favourite Sesame Street characters by pressing a single button on the television remote control.

    “This new games package, developed in cooperation with Sesame Workshop, is a perfect example of the power of digital cable to serve customers in new and exciting ways that add value to the television experience. We are extremely pleased to be able to offer our iO customers the industry’s first educational and entertaining subscription games package dedicated to young children,” said Cablevision vice president digital television and broadband development Patrick Donoghue.

    “Sesame Workshop is always seeking new ways to present learning opportunities to our audience and we are thrilled to be able to bring them the Sesame Street package through Cablevision’s iO digital cable service,” said Sesame Workshop president and CEO Gary E Knell.

    With Sesame Street games, children extend their learning from Sesame Street by interacting with their favourite characters as often as they like, any time of day. The Sesame Street Games package gives children a fun way to learn about letters, numbers, shapes, colours, science, problem solving, sharing, caring and more. The package will feature three new Sesame Street games each month.

    Games currently available in the package include:

    Leaf Collage – Children learn colours and counting while helping Elmo make a leaf collage.

    Thanks for the Letters – Encourages children to learn food names and the letters they begin with at the same time. Children choose a letter and then help Zoe make a meal using foods that start with that letter.

    Tickle Elmo – This game is filled with laughter as children tickle Elmo as much as they like to make him giggle.

    As with all of Sesame Workshop’s content, an extensive research study was conducted to help identify game play patterns that would enable young children, ages two to four, to use a remote control to make choices on a television screen.

    The results of this research led directly to the design of the three game play modes that are used in the Sesame Street Games package: Toddler, Preschool and Kindergarten. The service also offers Demo and Help sections, which explains each game play mode, and guides parents to choose the mode that is most appropriate for their child.

    The prototype of the Sesame Street Games package earned three Interactive Television Emmy nominations.

    The Sesame Street Games package is available to all iO digital cable customers for $4.95 per month. Using the iO auto-upgrade feature, customers can instantly purchase the Sesame Street Games package directly through the television by using a remote control and following on-screen prompts. Before purchasing, iO customers may view a free animated information video about the Sesame Street Games package.

  • BBC will create television’s first ever toddler sanctuary in the UK

    MUMBAI: Showing its social conscience the BBC has announced a series in the UK s aimed at helping Britain’s parents deal with toddler grievances. These will range from their little toddlers not sleeping or eating properly to terrible tantrums.

    Clinical psychologist Dr. Tanya Byron will be at the helm, giving the residents who stay in a house of terraways the professional advice that proved to be so effective when dealing with the troublesome toddlers in BBC Three’s show Little Angels.
     
     
    The doors of the sanctuary will open for one month to families seeking solace. The show’s presenter Claudia Winkleman will be guiding the audience through the daily events. This production has been put together with the collaboration of an ethics committee made up of child-focussed experts. Dr. Byron is a consultant clinical psychologist and has worked in the NHS for 15 years and has a great deal of experience of working and teaching in many areas of mental health and psychology.

    Tanya says, “This series gives me a unique opportunity as a practitioner to experience what happens to families once they leave the consulting room and to continue working with them. I love the thought of all the families living together, giving each other help and support.”

    The BBC states that observing children’s behaviour behind two way mirrors is a long-established psychological technique for ensuring children are relaxed and natural in their play and interaction with each other. Filming in this way is actually far less invasive and intrusive, particularly for young children, than filming with cameramen, sound recordists and crew around them.

    The safety and welfare of the children involved was a primary objective and consideration for the production team from the outset of this project. To this end, Dr Tanya Byron and other programme consultants were enlisted. Before the families are presented to Dr Byron for her consideration, the short-listed families are all psychologically screened by Judith Lask, a leading Family and Systemic Psychotherapist. She is a UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and the Chair of the Association for Family Therapy.

    One problem that is tackled is related to sleep. Nicola is a 28 year old mother and has a 23 month son Dante. Dante will only sleep when Nicola is with him. If he is put in his own bed he will get up 10-15 times a night. Nicola has spent the last six months on the sofa in an attempt to get him to sleep on his own. Dante is also clingy, has tantrums and will not let his mother divert her attention from him. Nicola is unable to get a full-time job, because son Dante has only just started nursery.