DrRosemarieTruglio

I'm around all week! But please don't eat my phone again.

I've known Cookie Monster a long time and trust me, it doesn't matter if the phone looks like a cookie. He'll eat anything. We're trying to have him control his impulses and eat a more balanced diet, but phones shouldn't be on the menu ever.

I think the main difference is that there's a tremendous amount of stress and pressure around children today. We need to give them tools to help them build resiliency in the face of challenges.

What's the same? Children still go through the same stages of development as they grow. They flourish in safe, nurturing environments. It's really important that a child feels loved and supported.

The curriculum is very dynamic. It evolves based on the current research on childhood development and best practices in early childhood education. We always take an annual review of our goals and we highlight very specific educational, health, or social/emotional issues in the lives of children to address their educational needs.

In the early years, we were more focused on "academic" skills like letters and numbers. Today, we take a lot more comprehensive approach for school readiness, looking at how kids process information and manage their emotions -- we want to build empathy, resilience, problem-solving, and executive function skills.

We can't address everything through the television show because it reaches a mass audience. For sensitive topics (which we've always embraced) we often create content in a way which is targeted to those who need it. It's also always-on, available for free online, so you don't have to wait for that episode to air or remember to program the DVR.

By the way, if you or anyone else can use these resources, they're at http://sesamestreetincommunities.org.