Muppets help on home front
Smith researcher helps Sesame Workshop test effectiveness of programming for military families
Saturday, August 1, 20091
2
3
NORTHAMPTON - Can Elmo really help heal a military family torn apart by the emotional and physical hardships of war?
According to Smith College, the answer is yes.
Smith College has partnered with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind the PBS show "Sesame Street," to study war's effects on military and civilian families.
The 30-minute program produced by Sesame Workshop first aired in April on PBS. Set on Sesame Street and featuring Muppets interacting with military families, the show seeks to give families new ways to talk with children about a soldier's return to family life after being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan.
The impact of war and a parent's deployment on young children has not been adequately studied or addressed, according to Jeanette Betancourt, vice president for outreach and educational practices for Sesame Workshop.
Little data exists on what happens to children under age 5 when a parent goes to war and how the departure and reintegration can be handled to best help a child cope. Sesame Workshop is attempting to fill that void, she said, with the program "Coming Home: Military Families Cope with Change."
The key is to keep children informed about what the deployed and returning parent is experiencing, and to involve the child in the parent's recovery.
Young children "are a population that has been neglected slightly," Betancourt said at a lecture this week at Smith College.
"There were no resources to explain the sudden departures, no tools or words for parents to explain what is happening," she said. "We didn't expect this, but parents, after they use our resources, have less of a sense of depression and anxiety because for the first time, they have the tools to connect with their young sons and daughters."
Gauging effectiveness
Aimed at reaching children under 10 and their families, "Coming Home" tackles war-related issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder, loss of limbs and the painful readjustment families make when a wounded soldier returns.
It features several military families whose patriarchs have suffered physical or emotional injuries candidly conversing with Muppets Elmo and Spanish-speaking Rosita, as well as with actress and rapper Queen Latifah and musician John Mayer about how they've adjusted to life with injuries. "Coming Home" is one program in a three-show series. The other two programs deal with pre-deployment and deployment.
Headed by Marsha Kline Pruett, the M.B. O'Connor Chaired Professor in the college's School for Social Work, Smith College has been holding focus groups across the nation on "Coming Home."
The goal of Pruett's research is to learn whether the program is helping families cope with the sometimes unpleasant aspects of a soldier's return home, which can include, stress, anger, changes in daily routines as well as physical and emotional injuries.
She is also seeking to learn how else Sesame Workshop may be able to address family needs and whether the show is creating empathy for military families and aiding civilian families.
Since April, Pruett has collected 180 surveys from civilian and military participants in California, Massachusetts, Vermont, Texas and Michigan, and will continue collecting comment through September.
"What we get is people with tears in their eyes who say 'Thank you for showing this and running these groups. Thank you for your attention,' " said Pruett. The accolades belong to Sesame Workshop, she said.
"It's really making a difference," she said.
The need
Empirical data on deployment and children seems to be lacking, although military and support groups do provide brochures on how to adjust to home life.
The U.S. Department of Defense's "Coming Home: A Guide for Service Members Returning from Mobilization/Deployment" outlines what a soldier may encounter upon return. It gives brief description of a child's likely reactions: toddlers may be shy and clingy; pre-schoolers may feel guilt, thinking they made mom or dad go away; teenagers may feel guilty about not living up to standards.
But there's room, especially with young children, for more exploration. Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started, more than 1 million children under age 11 have had a mother or father deployed overseas.
These children are among the family members of the more than 34,826 soldiers who have been physically wounded while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released Thursday by the Department of Defense. And nearly 20 percent of returning soldiers report symptoms of PTSD or major depression, according to a 2008 study by the RAND Corporation.
"We want our outreach material to be integrated in the daily lives of families - that's very important," Betancourt said. "If it doesn't, it becomes a burden and it is not used."
As an example of the lack of attention to young children's needs, Betancourt said, it is not uncommon for parents to skip talking about deployment with children under age 5, figuring the child will not understand. That finding comes from Sesame Workshop's own research.
Many times the child will wake up one morning and see deployment bags packed. They're often provided with limited updates.
The sudden departures can lead to changes in a child. Young children will typically feel sadness and might throw tantrums, change eating habits and suffer separation anxiety, Betancourt said.
"There's an impact on the lives of vulnerable children," she said.
Program's focus
"Coming Home" takes the viewer into the homes of three military families: one with a father who is suffering PTSD, another who lost a leg and another who lost most of his arm.
The families discuss what they experienced upon their loved one's arrival home. Children of the father with PTSD discuss being afraid of their father at first because of his unpredictable anger, a common side-effect of the disorder. In the case of fathers who have lost limbs, children said they were worried their parents wouldn't be the same anymore, that they might be completely different people.
The fathers also discuss their adjustments to home life. The emotionally scarred father talks about how difficult it was for him to seek help, but he eventually found it was necessary to protect his family. The disfigured fathers discuss learning how to keep up with young children despite their prosthetics and discuss their medical conditions with their children.
The father with the prosthetic leg, for example, brings his children to every doctor's appointment so they can be a part of his recovery. There is a scene towards the end of the program in which the father is on the playground talking about his prosthetic with his children and their friends. He invites the children to stomp on his prosthetic as hard as they can, something the kids crowd around him to do.
"Interestingly, people responding, (both) military and non military, are getting a lot out of the show," said Pruett.
Although designed with military families in mind, "Coming Home" is meant to also reach civilian families in the hope that it will encourage empathy for military families and help other children who may be coping with parents who leave on extended trips or have suffered severe injuries.
Pruett is still conducting research and will deliver her final analysis to Sesame Workshop in November. She said people seem to enjoy and take away useful tips from "Coming Home," but they want more as well.
They want a program that deals with families who aren't getting better, Pruett said. So far, Sesame Workshop's programs have delivered a message of hope and featured families where good results were eventually reached.
"They say, 'What about those that are not hopeful?'" Pruett said. "But that may not be Sesame's purview."
People are also asking producers to reach out to older children, but again this may not be Sesame Workshop's place. The Muppets and the shows are generally designed for children under 11.
Sesame Workshop's next production for military families will address how to deal with death in the family. Pruett said she hopes her research will be able to shape the production.
"I think a lot of our information is relevant to that," Pruett said. "We want to give Sesame an idea about how people think for their next military program."
