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This Month's Feature Article what's behind children's tv? DON’T FEEL SO BAD ABOUT SITTING YOUR KIDS IN FRONT OF THE TELLY NOW AND THEN. THE RIGHT SHOWS CAN ACTUALLY BE VALUABLE FOR CHILDREN Words: Beverley Hadgraft

There is a story that Helen Martin is particularly fond of. It involves a group of preschoolers out for a walk. ‘We passed a dog and it had a curly coat, rather like a poodle,’ she says. ‘I pointed and said, “Look at that lovely woolly dog.” And then I felt a little tug on my arm. A small boy was gazing up at me. “But who knitted him?” he whispered.’
Martin has used the story of that little boy often in her job as an early childhood producer to a range of children’s TV programs including Play School, Bananas in Pyjamas and Hi-5.
‘I sometimes have trouble persuading adults that kids don’t necessarily see what we think they see or learn what we think they learn,’ she says. ‘They learn about the world in little pieces then fit them together like a jigsaw. But sometimes the pieces don’t exactly fit with an adult concept. Someone had obviously given this boy a toy and said, “Look, I’ve knitted you a lovely woolly dog.” He pieced the jigsaw together his way.’

Every day we hear about how women (and men) are reluctant to jettison the buzz of working and business in exchange for caring for littlies. However, a few words with Martin and they’d realise they are missing out on the most exciting project in the world.
A mother of two and now grandmother to two-year-old Thomas, she never ceases to marvel at the sense of wonder and discovery small children have. ‘It’s lovely watching Thomas smell a flower and learning it has a scent or discovering little skills that he has developed,’ she says.

Martin came to children’s TV with a solid background including five years as director of a kindergarten, working for 15 years as a lecturer with the Institute of Early Childhood, now at Sydney’s Macquarie University, and as director of the Marian Street Children’s Theatre in Sydney, writing, directing and commissioning plays for young children. She was also in great demand writing for children’s radio programs, including On the Move, Tuning In and Kindergarten of the Air – being one of those rare writers who can enter a child’s imagination without pictures, tossing around words that bubble, fizz and explode like the most exciting of toys.

So with such a distinguished CV why make the foray into TV? Isn’t it a rather passive pastime to be sitting young children in front of a TV?
‘Not at all,’ says Martin. ‘Children are often in a receptive, learning state when watching TV. They are constantly taking in ideas and if the program also encourages them to move, sing, dance and follow up later in play, it can be an excellent medium for them.’
Martin spoke to me from the studios at Sydney’s Global Television, home of Hi-5, the children’s TV phenomenon she has been involved in since its conception. With its bright sets, catchy songs and glamorous big brother and sister presenters, it doesn’t exactly look educational. Does it really have the cachet of Play School or Sesame Street?

Its appearance may rather belie its educational standards, Martin agrees. ‘But the expertise and qualifications of the writing and production team are second to none.’ And with its huge success overseas, it’s yet another feather in Australia’s cap, proving once again that we are one of the world leaders in producing children’s TV – the result of a huge commitment by Australian women to improve preschool learning after the last war.

Launched in January 1999, Hi-5 was the brain- child of Helena Harris and Posie Graeme-Evans and is aimed at two-to-eight year olds. Divided into segments, based on the different modes kids have of receiving and expressing information, it provides them with a world of entertainment.
So what are those modes? Well in Hi-5-speak they are Shapes in Space, Puzzles and Patterns, Sharing Stories (relationships), Making Music, Word Play and Body-Move. The team includes six scriptwriters – one for each mode. After a theme has been devised, they go away and develop a three-minute segment for each mode.

‘We then revise and rewrite until we are going up the wall,’ says Martin, such is the dedication to providing the best product possible.
Martin’s role is, basically, to look at the show through a child’s eyes to ensure it will work for them. ‘I have to switch on my inner four-year-old and take out what I call my adulterated view,’ she laughs. And if you think that simply means dumbing down, then think again.
For instance, among the many considerations she has to take on board is the fact that children are very sensory-orientated.
‘A young child will rarely say, “I saw a lovely train today,”’ Martin explains. ‘Instead they are more likely to say, “I saw a train, choo choo choo!” Then they start circling their arms like the wheels of a train and maybe start singing about a train. Children speak through their body.’
Then there’s their love of pattern and repetition, things that seem dull to an adult. ‘For a child, patterned structure represents a safe world. It is familiar and therefore empowering,’ says Martin. Oh yes, even a two-year-old desires empowerment – haven’t you noticed how much they love stories that say, “No, no, no” or “I won’t go to bed”?

They also like adventures – but from a safe distance – which is why Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit has stood the test of time. Peter Rabbit is the personification of a young child’s feelings. Children who want adventures and mischief can play out the fantasy of a story and still feel secure. Oh yes, and one more thing, those adventures have to be lived in the now. There are no yester- days for littlies, so if you ever want to go back in time to reason or explain, forget it because they may well have forgotten it.

As the Hi-5 scripts finally reach run-through stage, Martin watches each one carefully. ‘I am constantly questioning, “What am I seeing here?”’ she says. ‘There have been studies done where a four-year-old watches while a rabbit mask is put on a cat and their reaction is not “How funny, a cat in a rabbit mask”. It’s “Where’s the cat gone?” We have to appreciate that sort of perception.’

Ever since the splendid Sesame Street, there has been a strong emphasis on fun and humour in children’s TV. ‘I ask, “Am I enjoying this or does it feel like too much learning?”’ Martin says. ‘Kids don’t want long explanations, they want words and images that work together, and they want presenters who talk directly to them.’

Any mum answering the constant ‘why?’ of a two-year-old will know their child rarely requires a long answer to their question. They just want to know how the grass, sunshine, toasters, balloons and everything else in the world affects them and whether they like them. That’s because children’s learning is very egocentric. However, because they only know the world as it relates to them, it poses another conundrum for the makers of kids’ TV.

Say you wanted to have a program with a theme of planes and airports for instance, says Martin – a child who has grandparents living on the other side of the world will have a very different view of airports and planes to that of a child whose grandparents live up the road. ‘That means we have to interweave all that amount of knowledge so everything makes sense to every child.’

One aspect of Hi-5 that has won it fans, in an era where newspaper headlines panic that even our babies are obese, is that it is very energetic and encourages children, in Helena Harris’ words, to be ‘anti couch-potatoes’.
But, says Martin, the movement is carefully choreographed so it’s not just about being active. ‘There is lots of left brain and right brain work, lots of movement crossing the midline of the body, stretching and expanding. There have been findings that these sorts of movements can help with dyslexia and also have a relationship to early reading. If a child has missed out on early crawling, it’s sometimes really helpful to go back to this very simple work.’

Equally important in this modern world of broken relationships is for children’s television to tackle the issues of positive relationships and life values, and to honour the differences in all aspects of and approaches to life.
When she worked on Play School for instance, it was a time of change. Martin encouraged research that led the Play School team to appreciate that the existing family of toys was rather “WASP” and didn’t reflect the modern, diverse audience. They introduced a black-skinned doll and continued to balance up role play with toys, so that Big Ted was not always the active lead player. Also, the presenters in Hi-5 come from various ethnic backgrounds – when Kathleen, who is from the Philippines, left to have a baby, her replacement was Korean-born Sun.
Listening to all this, it comes as no surprise when Martin says that for those who are involved with children’s TV, it is a life passion.

She also worked with Helena Harris on Play School who, she says, is renowned for her insistence that there must be no compromise in kids’ TV. ‘They deserve the best,’ Harris says. And for proof you only have to look at the hundreds of presenters who audition for shows like Hi-5 and Play School. It really is that difficult to find that perfect person to play the tricky role of a small child’s dream adult – someone who is responsible but has not lost their sense of the ridiculous.
‘Play School is a very honourable show,’ Martin observes. ‘It says, “We are here for you. This is your program and everything we are going to do is something we can share together.”’

So obviously, Play School and Hi-5 get gold stars from Martin, but what other children’s TV shows make the grade in her opinion?
Teletubbies – while it has met with controversy in its time – has a place in her heart, she says. The brainchild of a speech pathologist and former schoolteacher turned TV producer, it was based on a huge amount of research and offers children a sense of safety and security, not least because it introduces toddlers to the huge world of technology in a cuddly way, installing TVs in the tummies of the toddler-like aliens.
And other favourites?
‘I can’t speak highly enough of Sesame Street,’ says Martin. ‘My kids were brought up on it. It was created for underprivileged children, especially black ghetto children, and it was a landmark in the way it used new ways of approaching kids with street-wise language, use of animation, lots of humour and superb quality of production.
‘I love The Wiggles. Three of them graduated from the Institute of Early Childhood Studies, where I was a lecturer. Their songs are easy, simple and fun, and I’m thrilled they’ve done so well, although I always knew they were going to be a hit because they are four men and we are really short of male role models for young children.
‘They show it is OK for boys to dance and play the guitar, and they understand the importance of talking directly to children. They are likeable people who children can feel safe with and relate to, and who do interesting things.’
Martin also praises Blue’s Clues – where the presenter and an animated puppy interact with viewers as they investigate, discover, solve puzzles and play games, and Bob the Builder with his positive, can-do team of machines.

And what wouldn’t she recommend?
While she won’t name names, Martin observes: ‘A bad program is one that has its presenters singing and talking at children, that is a bit adult and sarcastic or involves humour that is above childhood level – one that is very exclusive, where the adults are having fun but not the kids.
‘I’d also avoid programs that don’t allow time for the child to absorb what is happening. Non- stop visual bombardment can be disorientating. If you’re not sure if a show is inclusive, watch it with your child, ask what they liked and reassure yourself that it took them on a little journey…’
But, of course, as Martin herself has already said, we are a world of individuals with different values, so the most important advice she will give to any parent is to consider their own personal values, and make sure the TV their children are watching doesn’t conflict with them.