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By Michaela Gordoni
The studio behind COCOMELON and BLIPPI, Moonbug Entertainment, has taken steps to make better quality content for kids by applying child development research from UCLA.
The partnership is through UCLA’s specially designed Center for Scholars and Storytellers (CSS), a nonprofit research center that connects Hollywood to academic research, Variety reported.
The center analyzed Moonbug’s creative process and conducted a study on early childhood learning back in 2023. It developed four core learning principles that Moonbug will apply to all of its future content. The principles will be made public within a couple of months.
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“As more preschoolers spend time on digital platforms, parents and creators are asking more urgent questions about what quality screen time actually means,” said Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, founder and CEO of the CSS. “Research shows children can learn from online video, but only when it’s designed with child development in mind.”
“Our work with Moonbug is about bringing research and storytelling closer together, and we see this as an ongoing commitment,” Uhls continued. “Translating research principles into a production environment takes a sustained effort, and a real measure of success will be how consistently these principles shape creative principles over time.”
CSS currently works with Moonbug’s teams to define learning goals for each season, which includes social and emotional skills, and cognitive and learning skills. The research center will offer input on episode themes and review scripts and early cuts of episodes to make sure that learning is present and age-appropriate.
CSS hopes the standards will influence the whole children’s entertainment industry.
“To make great stories for young kids, you have to start with how they learn,” said Rich Hickey, chief creative officer at Moonbug Entertainment. “Our teams already think deeply about how toddlers experience music, stories and everyday moments. This partnership with CSS renews that commitment and helps us be even more intentional in how we build stories from the earliest ideas through production.”
Uhls, CSS’s founder, developed CSS in 2019 after she “realized that entertainment industry professionals have a real opportunity to help young people through the stories they tell and the content they create.”
The organization also emphasizes “authentic inclusive representation.” The center’s website says, “Through the power of narrative change, we’re building a better world for today’s young people, who are more racially and ethnically diverse than any previous generation.”
The center has helped many creators and organizations, including Disney, Lionsgate and award-winning screenwriters Dustin Lance Black, Sarah Cole and others.
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