Washington Post Interviews Dr. Tirrell-Corbin on Sesame Street Introducing Topic of Addiction to Children

OCTOBER 12, 2019 — Dr. Christy Tirrell-Corbin, executive director of the Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention, was interviewed in The Washington Post's article, "A 'Sesame Street' character's mom has an addiction. Experts say that's a valuable lesson," expressing support of Sesame Street introducing the topic of addiction in parents on its online platform. As it is second to neglect as a "common form of recurring trauma for children," Dr. Tirrell-Corbin argues children need these resources to learn how to respond to adversity and stress — she advocates addressing the topic in Sesame Street's regular television programming. With advance notice given, caregivers could choose to or not to expose children to this content.

While some argue viewers are too young to learn about parental drug addiction, the videos are currently available online only. They are also varied in a way caregivers can decide which videos would be understood versus others. Caregivers should consider "their child's stage of development and what they are ready to learn," and then select videos accordingly.