For children aged 2 to 6, attention, language, comprehension and self-regulation are still developing. Video content can sometimes be part of family life, but different programmes offer very different viewing experiences.
When looking for content for young children, try looking beyond the subject of a video. Consider its pace, sounds, structure and the opportunities it creates for you and your child to engage together.
This is the idea behind slow media: video content designed to give children time to follow a story, notice details, make connections and process what they see and hear.
In this article
- Features of content design to consider
- How the Kids’ Slow Media Project rating works
- 5 tips for choosing videos for your child
- Supporting resources
Features of content design to consider
At the Kids’ Slow Media Project, we’ve developed a research-informed rubric to assess children’s media across the following five features of content design. Together, these help explain why two videos that both claim to be educational can offer quite different experiences.
1. Narrative pace
Does the story give children time to follow along?
A supportive video has a coherent storyline, familiar characters and transitions that make sense. Characters speak at a manageable pace, with pauses and repetition that help children follow what is happening.
By contrast, a video that jumps rapidly between unrelated songs, toys and animated scenes may leave little time to process one idea before the next arrives.
Note that this is not simply about the length of a video. A 15-minute story can be slow-paced, while a much shorter clip can be fast and fragmented. What matters is how quickly the story changes.
2. Sensory load
Is the video engaging without being overwhelming?
Movement, colour and sound can all enrich a story. A sound that accompanies a character’s footsteps, for example, can help a child connect what they hear with what they see.
Problems arise when stimulation becomes excessive or unpredictable: rapid movements, flashing colours, loud music, frequent sound effects and constant changes in visual focus can compete for a child’s attention.
Look for content where movement and sound serve a purpose, rather than simply adding more stimulation.
3. Use friction
Does the video allow children to stop?
Good design makes room for pauses. A story has a recognisable beginning and end. Finishing an episode provides a natural opportunity to stop, talk or move on to another activity.
Continuous compilations, automatic transitions between clips and videos designed to keep playing make it harder to find these stopping points.
A clear ending is valuable because children need time away from the screen when they can revisit an idea through play, conversation, drawing or simply imagining what might happen next.
4. Learning pattern
Does the video help ideas make sense?
A video can introduce counting, emotions, language or the natural world in ways that help children build understanding. The strongest learning patterns connect ideas, repeat them meaningfully and show them in different contexts.
For example, a programme might introduce counting, count objects with a character and then invite the child to count similar objects at home.
Repetition alone is not enough. A catchy song that rapidly introduces unrelated colours, animals and vehicles may be entertaining, but it offers less structured support for understanding than content that develops an idea over time.
5. Shared attention
Does the video help children and adults focus together?
Young children benefit when important elements are easy to identify. A character who points to an object, pauses to draw attention to it or asks, ‘Can you find the red ball?’ gives the child a clear focus.
When many things move on screen at once, it can be harder to know where to look or connect what is being said with what is being shown.
Content that invites a child to notice, predict, point or respond can also create opportunities for shared attention with a parent or carer. Watching together does not require constant explanation. Sometimes a simple question or a shared laugh is enough.
How the Kids’ Slow Media rating works
The Kids’ Slow Media Project applies these five features and questions through a structured rubric. Each is scored from 1 to 4, with higher scores indicating stronger alignment with slow-design principles.
The rubric is designed to assess the way content is made by trained reviewers who independently assess content and discuss discrepancies before agreeing a final score.
The published ratings illustrate how this approach can help parents compare familiar programmes.
Examples of current scores
Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood, In the Night Garden and Fantorangen each score 20 out of 20 in the current ratings. Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood scores 19, while Teletubbies scores 18.
Other popular titles receive different scores: Paw Patrol Rescue scores 10 and Cocomelon scores 8.
A lower score does not, by itself, establish that a programme causes harm, and a higher score is not a guarantee that it is suitable for every child or every viewing situation.
What the ratings are intended to do is to give parents additional information about content design, specifically about the pace of the content.
5 tips for choosing videos for your child
You do not need to analyse every programme with a formal rubric. A few simple questions can help you make more thoughtful choices.
Look at how scenes change, how characters speak and whether the story is easy to follow. If a video is a compilation, check whether it jumps between unrelated activities.
A familiar character, a connected storyline and time to explore one idea can be more supportive than a stream of new images and sounds. A video should not be fast to hold a child’s interest.
Ask yourself whether music, movement and effects contribute to the story or compete with it. Content can be funny, imaginative and engaging without being relentlessly stimulating.
Choose a complete episode or story rather than an endless stream of clips. Let your child know when the episode will finish and make the transition to another activity predictable.
When it feels natural, watch together. Ask what your child noticed, count something from the story or connect a character’s experience to everyday life. Afterwards, let the child play, draw, talk or explore the idea away from the screen.
A final thought: look at the design, not just the screen time. How long a child watches matters, but so does what they watch and how that content is designed.
Young children need time to process experiences. Content that offers continuity, manageable sensory stimulation, meaningful repetition, clear stopping points and opportunities for shared attention can better respect that developmental need.
