With Elmo's Help... It's Never Too Early to Learn About Happiness
Dr. Laurie Santos discusses with Sesame Workshop's CEO Steve Youngwood, Chief Production and Creative Development Officer Kay Wilson Stallings, and Elmo, how to teach emotional well-being fundamentals to children early on, using media and simple strategies applicable to all ages.
Deep Dive Analysis
14 Topic Outline
The Importance of Early Happiness Education
Introducing Sesame Workshop's Role in Well-being
Sesame Street's Impact on Children in Crisis
Current State of Children's Mental Health Challenges
Sesame Workshop's History of Addressing Tough Topics
Sesame's Full-Spectrum Approach to Emotional Well-being
Explaining Complex Emotions: The 'Emotional Weather' Analogy
Elmo's Experience with Frustration and Labeling Emotions
Sesame Workshop's Content Development and Testing Process
Mindfulness and Coping Strategies for Big Feelings
The Power of Media to Reach Children and Caregivers
Best Practices for Engaging Adult Caregivers
Self-Compassion Strategy for Parents
Hope for Addressing the Childhood Mental Health Crisis
7 Key Concepts
Emotional ABCs
A framework used by Sesame Workshop to teach children how to identify their emotions and apply simple coping strategies, particularly in crisis-affected areas. This helps children understand and manage their feelings, which is crucial for learning and long-term development.
Full-Spectrum Approach to Emotional Well-being
Sesame Workshop's comprehensive method for addressing children's mental health, covering everything from everyday joyous moments and helping children recognize and explain their emotions, to assisting parents in identifying serious emotional challenges their children might face.
Emotional Weather Analogy
A teaching tool used to explain to children that emotions change over time and that experiencing negative emotions like sadness, anxiety, or frustration is normal. It likens these changing feelings to different weather patterns, emphasizing that not every day can be emotionally 'sunny'.
Belly Breathing
A simple mindfulness activity recommended for regulating 'big feelings.' It involves placing hands on the belly, taking a slow breath in through the nose, and then slowly breathing out through the mouth to help one get back into their body and feel better.
Other-Oriented Behavior
A strategy for improving one's own well-being by performing kind acts for other people. The science indicates that doing nice things for others can unexpectedly make the person performing the act feel better themselves.
Gratitude Practice
A mental exercise involving actively noticing and expressing thankfulness for various things in one's life. This practice, often done by thinking about or writing down things one is grateful for before bed, is shown to improve both physical and mental well-being.
Self-Compassion Strategy (Oscar Voice)
A technique for adults to combat negative self-talk. When caught in a loop of self-criticism, one labels the critical inner voice (e.g., 'Oscar voice' or 'Karen'), acknowledges it, and then consciously shifts away from that negative thought pattern.
6 Questions Answered
It's never too early to start mastering happiness hacks like mindfulness, gratitude, and sociability, as these habits can boost well-being in younger minds and lay a foundation for long-term impact, making it easier to address mental health challenges later in life.
Children aged three to five born into COVID grew up in anxious households and with masks, leading to difficulties in reading facial expressions and slowed verbal development, with 90% of parents now believing mental health is a major early childhood issue.
Sesame Workshop employs an iterative process involving in-house experts, external subject matter experts, writers, and a research team that conducts formative testing with children (referred to as 'little executives') using storymatics to ensure appeal, comprehension, and intended impact before production.
Yes, research on 'Alain Sim Sim' (the Arabic version of Sesame Street) showed that young viewers in crisis-affected areas were more able to identify their emotions and apply simple coping strategies after watching the show.
Sesame Street incorporates subtle humor and cheeky nods for parents, features diverse musical genres, produces parodies of pop culture, and includes human and adult Muppet characters as role models to guide conversations and play activities, making it a learning opportunity for adults as well.
When adults hear negative self-talk, they can label that thought (e.g., 'Oscar voice' or 'Karen'), acknowledge it ('thank you for trying to help'), and then consciously stop that train of thought to move on to something else.
9 Actionable Insights
1. Self-Compassion: Label Negative Self-Talk
When you notice a ruminative loop of negative self-talk (e.g., ‘I suck’), label that thought (e.g., ‘my Oscar voice’ or ‘Karen’), acknowledge it, and then consciously stop that train of thought to foster self-compassion and move on.
2. Practice Daily Gratitude
Before going to bed, think about a few things you are grateful for, and consider writing them down. Studies show that this practice can make your body and mind feel better.
3. Be Other-Oriented to Boost Mood
When you’re not feeling good, engage in behaviors that involve doing nice things for other people. This action can make you feel better and improve your own well-being.
4. Use Belly Breathing for Big Feelings
When experiencing ‘big feelings,’ place your hands on your belly, take a slow breath in through your nose, and slowly breathe out through your mouth. This mindfulness activity helps you get back into your body and feel a little better.
5. Spend Time with Pets
To feel better, take time to be with pets. This is a wonderful way to do something nice for another creature and feel good yourself.
6. Teach Kids Emotions Change & Are Normal
Explain to children that emotions, including negative ones like sadness or frustration, are normative and will change over time, using analogies like weather. This helps children understand and accept their feelings.
7. Help Children Label Emotions
When children experience strong feelings, help them identify and name those emotions (e.g., ‘frustrated’). This practice aids in developing emotional intelligence and coping mechanisms.
8. Co-View Educational Media with Children
Engage with children while they watch educational content, as learning is stronger when a caring adult is present to reinforce messages and continue the discussion after the show. This extends the educational impact beyond screen time.
9. Enroll in Teen Well-Being Course
Adolescents can access a free course called ‘The Science of Well-Being for Teens’ on YouTube or Coursera.org. This course teaches strategies for happiness and emotional health.
7 Key Quotes
It's certainly never too late to discover the lessons that the science of happiness has to offer.
Dr. Laurie Santos
We focus on early childhood because we do believe that is where you can have the greatest long-term impact in building a foundation.
Steve Youngwood
It cannot be sunny every day when it comes to your emotional health, even if you live on Sesame Street.
Dr. Laurie Santos
They're kind of like feelings. And I love talking to people about their feelings.
Elmo
We listen to what they say. And what they're doing is they're testing these stories for appeal and for comprehension and to make sure that the impact that we're trying to achieve is going to be achieved.
Kay Wilson-Stallings
If HR could hear the voices that we used in our head, we would all get fired for talking badly to ourselves, right?
Dr. Laurie Santos
My dream is that someday we won't need people like me teaching well-being strategies to young adults because all those emotional skills will be as much a part of early educational development as learning the ABCs or how to ride a bike.
Dr. Laurie Santos
3 Protocols
Belly Breathing for Big Feelings
Elmo- Put your hands on your belly.
- Take a slow breath in through your nose.
- Slowly breathe out through your mouth.
Gratitude Practice for Better Feelings
Dr. Laurie Santos- At night, right before you go to bed, think about a few things that you are grateful for.
- Optionally, write them down.
Self-Compassion for Negative Self-Talk
Dr. Laurie Santos- When you hear yourself on a ruminative loop of negative self-talk, take a moment to label that thought (e.g., 'my Oscar voice' or 'Karen').
- Thank the negative voice for trying to help.
- Stop that train of thought and move on to something else.