Educational television could help young children develop essential reading skills, and PBS KIDS is investing in programming designed to make literacy fun. Its rebooted series Super Why’s Comic Book Adventures, which premiered October 5, 2026, uses superheroes, interactive games and storytelling to introduce preschoolers to letters, sounds and words.
In an interview with The 74, PBS KIDS executive Sara DeWitt explained that the show incorporates “a lot of call-and-response and a lot of pauses for kids to engage.” These moments encourage children to participate rather than passively watch.
The approach builds on an earlier version of Super Why! that researchers found could improve early literacy skills. Parents can reinforce these lessons by asking children to identify letters on signs, sound out simple words and connect what they watch with books at home.
What Child-Development Experts Say About Learning From TV
Educational television may sometimes teach children skills more effectively than picture books alone, particularly when demonstrations are involved. A Psychology Today report describes an experiment in which researchers compared how toddlers learned to assemble a simple rattle from a video, an illustrated book or neither.
Among 18-month-olds, children who watched the instructional video performed better than those who received the book reading, whose results were not significantly different from the control group. At 24 months, both learning groups outperformed the control group, but the video group performed substantially better than the book group.
However, the experiment tested one simple task, not reading ability. It demonstrates that video can be useful for certain kinds of learning, rather than proving that screens are generally better than books.
What the Science Says About Educational Television
Research published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology examined 310 children ages two to five, finding that educational media use was positively associated with early reading and pre-reading skills. The study on educational television and family stress also found that a supportive home learning environment was directly related to children’s reading abilities.
The findings suggest educational programs can complement family learning, including when household stress makes other educational activities harder to maintain. However, the study examined associations and does not establish that television alone causes better reading outcomes.
For parents, the best strategy is balance: choose research-informed programs, watch together when possible, and follow episodes with conversation, play and shared reading. Educational TV can open the door to literacy, but books and responsive interactions remain important parts of a child’s learning journey.
