In Northeastern professor Meryl Alper’s class, students studied leading research and children’s TV shows to create educational media guides for parents as they explore how their children should engage with media.
One of the biggest questions parents face in 2025 involves something that we all interact with on a daily basis: screens.
When is it OK to introduce screens and television to your child? How long should they watch? What kind of programs are good or bad to show them? The number of considerations parents face in today’s world is daunting, but a professor at Northeastern University wants to help make it less stressful, with the help of her students and even Bluey, too.
“[It’s] not just about media as good or bad, but how you use it with your kids,” says Meryl Alper, an associate professor of communication studies at Northeastern.
Alper has taken 20 years of experience as a researcher and consultant for the children’s media industry and applied it in the classroom. The goal of her Youth and Communication Technology class, she says, is to have her students connect academic theory with real families and children.
“I wanted to be able to teach my students some of those same skills in how you take theory and bodies of research that we know are out there and be able to create something that parents might be actually able to, through very clear, not overwhelming ways, use to spend quality time with their kids through media,” Alper says.
In her class, students get a crash course in established theories around child development and media effects. They use that knowledge as the foundation for designing an educational media guide based on specific examples of children’s television, from “Bluey” to “Carmen Sandiego.”
So, what should parents think about when it comes to media and their children?
The most important thing for parents is to be actively involved in their child’s viewing habits, especially at an early age.
“Kids are so curious at this age that they are always asking questions, so make sure you’re there to clarify, maybe even deepen their knowledge and push them further,” says Katie Winkleblack, a computer science student who researched the PBS show “Super Why!”
“It’s really important to have your parent there to assess your skills because a child can only do so much,” Winkleblack adds. “The parent needs to be there to see, is my child actually succeeding? Are they dismissing the show? Are they not engaged?”
Identifying media that naturally blends storytelling and education is also key to ensuring your child is not only focusing but learning.
Children have very limited working memory, which can make it difficult to focus on both the plot and a lesson in a piece of media. But a show like “Bluey” is written so that “the lesson becomes part of the narrative” and children are able to absorb lessons through the story without getting confused, says Benjamin Godish, an English and communications student who used the now-classic Australian animated show as his case study for Alper’s class.
“Bluey” tells the story of a family of dogs with a remarkable level of relatability and depth. The focus of the show is often on family relationships and social skills, Godish says, modeling forms of positive play and effective communication between and among children and their parents.
“It really shows a good example of how that relationship should work on the screen, and it fosters discussion between the parent and the child,” Godish says.
For parents who are getting frustrated with their child watching the same episode of a TV show over and over again, don’t fret. Kiana Lau, a communication studies student in Alper’s class who researched “Blue’s Clues & You,” explains that repetition is also one of the most beneficial ways for children to learn from a piece of media.
“If your child wants to keep engaging in the same piece of media, by all means, encourage it because it’s only going to do more good,” Lau says.
As for what parents should avoid when it comes to exposing their children to screens, background TV is a no-go. A show like “Bluey” or “Blue’s Clues & You,” when played in the background while a child is doing something else, can have a negative effect on their learning.
“Really what’s happening is that their attention is going back and forth, and they really can’t concentrate on the main thing,” Lau says. “It might be too much information and they’re not processing it.”
For the students in Alper’s class, these lessons are not just abstract. These shows were an integral part of their own childhood and education, even if they didn’t know it at the time.
“I didn’t even realize it as a kid, but now going back and watching episodes now, I’m like, ‘Wow, they were teaching so much to me, and I just thought I was watching a fun TV show,’” Winkleblack says.