In the 35 years since Sesame Street first found its way into American homes, television for preschool viewers has evolved into a medium with the potential to address children's learning and development on a variety of important levels. Initially, children's educational television concentrated almost exclusively on cognitive learning and traditionally defined curriculum goals, followed by a more recent emphasis on the development of social and interpersonal skills. By and large, these two learning objectives - the cognitive and the social/interpersonal - have been kept separate in practice, with different styles and teaching techniques employed for each. Today, however, a new generation of children's television programmers is working to develop a more holistic approach to the medium, integrating a full range of teaching objectives into a learning environment that reflects the rich, unified world in which children live, learn and interact. Further, new programming is increasingly challenged to expand its emphasis beyond the familiar cognitive and social/interpersonal dimensions of traditional children's television to address broader, more complex social concerns, such as violence, cultural and religious diversity, etc.

The Wumblers, a newly developed series by Laura Wellington, is poised to make a vital contribution to this newer, more richly integrated emphasis in preschool children's programming. Wellington's pilot episode for the series, "Bertrum's Color Day," combines three crucial, interrelated dimensions of children's learning:

# Personal development (as Bertrum, the series' protagonist, struggles to understand and maintain his identity during a period of critical life change);

# Social/interpersonal skills (as Bertrum examines the impact of change on his relationships to his family and closest friends); and,

# The acquisition of broader, more complex social values (with Bertrum learning important lessons about diversity and acceptance).

Over the course of the episode, these interrelated messages are seamlessly integrated, along with a variety of implicit cognitive lessons, through the interaction of Bertrum and the other series characters. All lessons are communicated in a safe, nurturing environment that (the variously shaped and colored characters notwithstanding) provides a realistically balanced recreation of a child's everyday social world: imaginative solitude, best friend and friends, parents and other significant adults, larger community.

Most strikingly, Wellington presents her story and characters through a vision and style that is clearly informed by her extensive experiences with preschool children, both as an educator and a parent. Reading the script, I was immediately struck by the reality and spontaneity of the language and situations, with their lively, intuitive sense of how kids today feel, think, express themselves and respond to the world around them. Based on my initial exposure to the pilot script and series concept, I would predict that Laura Wellington's The Wumblers will have a strong, immediate appeal among preschool viewers and could, with the necessary support, play an important role in addressing the learning needs of preschool children today.