TPP 101: TV Creator Angela Santomero on Her New Book "Preschool Clues"
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
31 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 11 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What inspired Angela Santomero to write the book *Preschool Clues*?
Just like the food labels and nutrition labels are so important that we read them on food, the idea that sometimes a show might say that it's educational, it might not necessarily be educational. Or the truth is your kids are learning from everything that they're watching or doing or seeing. And you just want to make sure that what they're learning is what you want them to be learning.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Reaver. And today I'm bringing back to the podcast my dear friend, former colleague, and creator of many popular television shows for preschoolers, including Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Super Y, and Blues Clues, Angela Santomero. Angela's kind of like the Shonda Rhimes of Preschool TV. And she's also an author and one who I had the chance to work very closely with over the past two years as she asked me to be her co-author for her new book, Preschool Clues: Raising Smart, Inspired, and Engaged Kids in a Screen-Filled World.
Preschool Clues shares the secret sauce behind Angela's show's powerful, transformative results in the form of 11 research-based foundational clues to ensure that preschoolers flourish academically, socially, and emotionally during this critical time. So today, Angela and I talk about the book, what it's about, who it's for, and how it supports parents in parenting their preschoolers and beyond. And though the book isn't written specifically for an audience of parents raising differently wired kids, the clues we shared are relevant for any parent of any child and actually of any age. I was surprised at how much of this I'm still using today with my teenager. And I was also able to bring my unique lens as the mother of an atypical child to the project.
So we took special care to ensure that the book is truly inclusive. To learn more about Angela and our book Preschool Clues, you can visit the show notes page at tiltparenting dot com slash session one oh one. Thanks so much and I hope you enjoy our conversation. Hey Angela, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. I'm excited about this conversation because this means first of all that this book is out into the world, which is a pretty exciting thing to share. Oh my god. It's been quite a journey. But um before we get into talking about the book, you know, this is your second time on the podcast, but the first time was a while ago. We have a lot of new listeners.
So if you could just take a few minutes to tell us who you are in the world of kids TV and, you know, where your passion stems from.
Sure. I um I'm a mom of two girls and I am the co-creator of Blues Clues and creator of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Super Y, Creative Galaxy, uh Wish and Poof. And Daniel Tiger's neighborhood. And I just have this passion to embrace the positive impact that television and media and screen time has on preschoolers and put that out into the world.
And I will just say as someone who worked with Angela many years ago and when she was working on Blues Clues, you're kind of involved in all aspects of these shows from the writing to the bigger picture themes and the stories and the research and all the pieces that go into making them so successful, yeah? Yeah,
so I love to look and see what um what the need might be in media or what it is that that we really want to say to kids. Um, for instance in Daniel Tiger, it's all about socioemotional skills and bringing Fred's legacy to light and use those skills in a way or portray those skills in a way that parents and kids could actively use them. Um and so I have a background in child developmental psychology and instructional technology and media, and so the idea of research and curriculum. is thread through all of the writing that I do and then of course bringing the writing to life as an executive producer to make sure that the show comes to the screen, you know, in all its glory.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Angela Santomero to write the book *Preschool Clues*?
0:00–4:45
2
How does the book define a healthy media diet for preschoolers?
4:45–8:48
3
What are the three core ingredients of a high‑quality preschool program?
8:48–13:21
4
Why is the “Power of the Pause” important for parent‑child interaction?
13:21–16:40
5
How can parents celebrate the small wins to boost a child’s optimism?
16:40–20:24
6
In what ways can media be used as a parenting toolkit beyond screen time?
20:24–23:31
7
How does *Preschool Clues* address the needs of differently wired children?
23:31–27:26
8
What actionable steps does the book suggest for building a quality media library?
27:26–31:14
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids