To Teach Preschoolers Safety, USFA Explores Route on ‘Sesame Street’
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Fire Prevention in Action
Illustrations by Guy Schum
In recent months the United States Fire Administration has participated in one of the most challenging, and rewarding, fire safety studies ever taken—television fire education for preschool children.
If you were to select the most knowledgeable organization to work with you in preparing a report for fire educators and television programmers to use in developing fire education messages for the preschool child, your choice would probably be the same as the USFA— The Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), producers of “Sesame Street,” now in its 11th season.
Television is a medium widely used by preschoolers (the average child watches 25 hours per week), and because “Sesame Street” in particular has been successful in teaching educational messages to preschoolers, the Fire Administration in February 1979 awarded a $10,000 grant to CTW to study the best method of presenting fire safety messages on television to the preschool child.
Known for research
“The producers of ‘Sesame Street’ are extremely respected for their thoroughness in researching a subject before making any recommendations,” U. S. Fire Administrator Gordon Vickery explained. “Fires and burns in the home are the number one cause of accidental deaths to the preschool child and we were confident their findings on how to best present fire safety messages on television to the 2-to-5-year-old would represent the best that could be developed.”
The project was managed by G. Clay Hollister, USFA head of media assistance programs, a division of the Office of Planning and Education. It started with staff members from CTW reviewing all the present curricula, film strips, slide presentations, and television materials prepared by educators from many parts of the nation. They felt it was essential for responsible educators and broadcasters to become sensitive to the range of effects their programming may have and to try to design the programming in such a way as to maximize desired educational effects and preclude possible unwanted effects.
“This is far more difficult than the average person might believe,” Vickery stressed. “As an example, how do you explain the concept of fire to a threeyear-old who is just beginning to understand hot? Furthermore, words and phrases such as ‘scald,’ ‘avoid,’ ‘prevention,’ ‘electric appliance,’ and ‘boiling’—all terms commonly used in fire safety messages—are beyond the scope of most preschoolers.”
Difficulty with options
CTW also found that preschoolers are not skilled in holding one or more options in their minds while they weigh factors and choose a best response. It’s hard for a young child to understand commands like, “Touch the door. If it is hot, do not open it. Find another way to get out.”
In general, statements reading, “if :____then _____” require more complex evaluative skills than many preschoolers can master.
Negative modeling—”Don’t do this”—is another point educators and programmers must keep in mind when writing for the preschooler. A scene of playing with matches may be counterproductive in that the young child might want to copy the attractive activity of lighting a match while ignoring the message of how dangerous playing with matches can become.
Again, preschoolers are notorious for being imitators. They learn by copying at this age, yet their judgment is not nearly so sophisticated as their copying skills. A negative action accompanied by a carefully-worded message emphasizing don’t may result in the child copying the act and not responding to the message. Children may watch the visual and ignore the verbal, or vice versa.
Guidelines for educators
Other guidelines for the educator or programmer outlined in the report include:
Evacuation from a burning building: CTW discovered some difficulties in trying to teach the young what to do if caught in a burning building. The thought of telling children not to hide in a closet would be very difficult to present. A pre-planned escape route could be shown, but only if the focus of such a message clearly showed it was a family activity. However, it was pointed out that such a message should not mention any particular escape route (window, another door, etc.) for fear the child might remember it as the “right” answer.
Even the presentation of a simple rule such as “get out,” which might seem self-evident, is not as uncomplicated a matter as it seems. In actuality, getting out is almost certainly going to involve several steps, each contingent on making one or more decisions.
Reporting fires: While some advisers felt children should be taught to report a fire, CTW questioned whether teaching this on television might not assume that preschoolers have sufficient judgment to decide when a given fire is dangerous or benign (food cooking on a stove). Most Sesame-age children are unable to operate telephones successfully and are too short to use fireboxes. They were also reluctant to ask children to telephone for fear the child might delay leaving a burning building to struggle with a telephone call.
Clothing fires: Many fire educators teach children the “stop, drop and roll” or “drop, roll and cool” techniques with a considerable degree of success. CTW felt this kind of message might be teachable via television, but questioned whether preschoolers can transform a game they watch on television to a skill applied in a real life emergency.
Crawling under smoke: A smiliar difficulty arises with games meant to teach children that they should crawl beneath smoke to find breathable air. They felt the same conditions as above prevailed. Can children transmit games to a real-life situation?
Yet, despite what seemed a negative appraisal of what could safely be presented on television to the preschool child, CTW was successful in developing a model curriculum for fire educators and writers. Divided into four segments, it includes:
Understanding fire:
Fire has the following general characteristics:
- Fire is hot.
- Fire can be used to cook food, heat homes, and provide light.
- Fire can burn people and things.
Fire and smoke detectors
- Children can be taught the form (appearance, shape, size and sound) of smoke detectors.
- Children can be taught the function of smoke detectors.
Fire fighters
- The fire fighter is an important person in the neighborhood who plays a role in educating neighbors about fires.
- The fire fighter fights fires and rescues people from fires.
- The fire station is an important place in the town or city.
- A fire fighter wears special protective clothing and uses many unusual tools (CTW wants to avoid the possibility that a fire fighter may frighten a child who requires rescue).
Scalds and contact burns:
- Hot things can burn and hurt.
- Children should not touch hot objects or appliances.
Key is simplicity
“While this may appear to be a very basic curriculum, it must be kept in mind that the target audience is the 2to-5-year-old,” Vickery stressed. “Through television, ‘Sesame Street’ frequently teaches children to recognize or identify characteristics of the natural environment and they believe simple messages about fire might also be treated in similar ways.”
As an example, in “Understanding Fire,” it was suggested fire can be shown as a natural resource—barbecuing, toasting marshmallows, a candle on a stormy night, or warming by a fireplace. CTW would not show clothing, people or animals getting burned. They felt the young viewer might be watching alone with no one to help assimilate the message and allay any fears, and this would constitute too great a danger to risk.
As the CTW grant began to reach the final stages, something the Fire Administration has been hoping for from the start began to take place—the writers of CTW began to explore the possibility of incorporating some of the model curriculum into “Sesame Street” filming.
At this writing, eight messages have been completed. They include:
Where There’s Smoke—Using Big Bird, this is designed to help children recognize the signals which indicate there might be a fire. It’s also designed to familiarize children with the role of a fire fighter.
Fire Station Film—This is a career awareness segment which helps children understand the protective clothing, tools, and equipment used by fire fighters to rescue people. It also helps the preschooler to understand that the fire station is an important place in the community.
Driving to the Fire—By using a series of boxes placed end-to-end, “Sesame Street” children pretend to be responding to a fire and it’s designed to help the children understand how it might feel to be a fire fighter on the way to a fire.
Kermit and Grover the Fireman—Using two of the “Sesame Street” characters, the preschooler is helped to understand that a fire can also be a natural resource. In this case, the suspected fire is a campfire being used to roast marshmallows.
The King and the Fireman—Again, all “Sesame Street” characters are used to reinforce the idea that fire fighters play a unique role on the community for which they need specific skills.
Mr. Hooper and the Smoke Detector—Mr. Hooper buys a smoke detector and Dee Dee Dragon tests it for him. This was developed to teach children what a smoke detector looks like and how it works, and also to help children understand that a smoke detector is used to warn of fire.
Thelma Thumb Fire Animation— Thelma is a new character developed especially for this segment. It contains the highest degree of educational information, teaching children to report a fire and how to evacuate a building when they smell or see smoke.
Fire Bird—Career Awareness— Again using Big Bird, this reinforces the role the fire fighter plays in the community. The fire fighters are shown in their proper gear and it teaches children why fire fighters use specific tools to put out a fire.
Limitations stressed
Throughout the report, CTW stressed the limitations of safe, educational television fire safety messages for the preschooler, yet it noted additional safety techniques could be utilized if an adult were present.
With this in mind, the Community Education Services (CES), a division of CTW, received a USFA grant to develop a program which will deliver fire and burn safety education to preschoolers through parents, care givers (day care centers), teenagers, and fire department educational personnel.
CES is the catalyst and connecting link between “Sesame Street” and a broad spectrum of educational activities. Designed to support and complement CTW production through a national office in New York City and six regional locations, CES provides assistance to anyone working with children through a variety of means—conducting workshops, presentations, serving as consultants, developing training films and distributing supplementary written materials.
Expansion sought
“In this second grant, the USFA has several goals,” Vickery explained. “We wish to reinforce the fire segments presently being shown on ‘Sesame Street,’ expand into communities with additional supervised fire safety practices, and assist local fire departments in preschool fire education by developing some type of brochure suitable for distribution through any number of fire department activities.
“This is a one-year project, which started in July and will conclude in July 1981, with 10 cities from throughout the nation participating.
“In each of the pilot cities, fire personnel will be in attendance, and all activities will be coordinated through the local fire department,” Vickery stressed.
As was previously noted, this is one of the most challenging, and rewarding, fire safety studies ever undertaken. And it is yet to be concluded.
It may take a number of years before the impact of the study is documented. Yet, with “Sesame Street” reaching 9.4 million households on a daily basis, it has the greatest potential for the fire and life safety of the small child thus far conceived.
