From left: PBS KIDS consultants Deborah Farmer Kris (Wheelock’98,CAS’98), Nermeen Dashoush, and V. Scott Solberg with characters from the shows they advised on.

Cover Story

Screen Time That Teaches and Inspires

Consultants for PBS KIDS programming—two BU Wheelock faculty members and an alum—explain why informal education is more important than ever

In one episode of Lyla in the Loop, titular character Lyla learns a handful of increasingly complicated magic tricks from her elderly neighbor, Miss Emmaline.

Back home in her room, Lyla, accompanied by her sidekick, Stu, tries to figure out how Miss Emmaline made her feet “levitate” behind a blanket. Keeping the key principles of magic tricks in mind—sleight of hand and misdirection—Lyla methodically talks through the possible steps. Eventually, the seven-year-old cracks it: If you rubber band your shoes together, you can lift just one foot off the ground, making it look like both feet are floating. Later, Lyla hosts a magic show for her family and neighbors, wowing them with her newfound talent.

The episode is just one example of the type of systematic instruction the PBS KIDS show hopes to impart on its young viewers.

“The goal of the show is to teach computational thinking skills, which are problem-solving skills that are foundational to computer science,” says lead Lyla adviser Nermeen Dashoush, a clinical associate professor of early childhood.

Lyla owes much to BU Wheelock faculty.

PBS KIDS employs childhood consultants for all of its programming. In 2020, the network won a Ready to Learn grant from the US Department of Education to create programming focused on career development in early childhood. It promptly brought on V. Scott Solberg, a professor of counseling psychology and applied human development. His charge? Create an evidence-based framework for building career skills into PBS KIDS content. (One key: show characters engaging in career-oriented concepts, such as marketing, financial planning, and lifelong learning.) The STEM-focused Lyla, one of several efforts to result from the grant, debuted in early 2024.

The animated series follows Jamaican American Lyla Loops and her family as they overcome challenges in their daily lives with critical thinking and logic. They’re aided by Stu, a goofy, catlike creature with generative capabilities who responds to specific prompts from Lyla and her siblings. (Stu is “analogous to an AI agent,” Dashoush explains.)

Solberg provides occasional input on Lyla scripts. His focus is signing off on content for What Can You Become?—funded by the same federal grant—a series of shorts on PBS KIDS in which adults tell interested kids all about their jobs.

Early on, PBS KIDS knew Lyla needed an early childhood specialist. That’s how Dashoush, a longtime expert in children’s media and early STEM education, joined the team. As lead adviser, she oversees every script, from brainstorming to final draft, ensuring that all episodes incorporate the PBS KIDS learning framework and the show’s educational goals. She also advises on character design, so that Lyla, her family, and friends reflect a variety of PBS viewers. (Lyla features many characters of color.) Finally, Dashoush helps oversee the Lyla “ecosystem”: the companion games and resources, as well as printable educational materials available on PBS KIDS websites. 

Both What Can You Become? and Lyla are meant to get the gears turning in the minds of young viewers, Solberg and Dashoush say—especially those who might not otherwise see themselves in certain career fields.

“They’re designed for very young children to imagine themselves in these [career] spaces,” Solberg says. “Our research shows that if youth of color, low-income youth, or youth with disabilities don’t have role models that are like them in those spaces, then they never develop a sense of belonging in them.”

It might seem too early to introduce career concepts to children so young, Dashoush says. But that’s the point. “We know that these are the foundational years in which kids form their ideas of who practices science,” she says.

Carl the Collector and social-emotional learning

Lyla isn’t the only PBS KIDS show with a BU Wheelock connection.

Deborah Farmer Kris (’98, CAS’98), an author and a child development expert, has worked with PBS KIDS for years, writing parenting columns and advising on various PBS content. These days, she’s an expert adviser on Carl the Collector, an animated series with a neurodivergent lead.

Carl is a young autistic raccoon who loves collecting objects and fun facts. He lives in Fuzzytown with his friends, who include autistic fox Lotta, identical rabbit twins Arugula and Nico, empathetic beaver Sheldon, and hyperactive squirrel Forrest. The series follows the group as they work together to solve problems and navigate each other’s differences.

Carl is the first autistic lead character in a PBS KIDS show. Lotta represents how girls on the spectrum can often present, which is different from boys. But neurodivergence isn’t the only point of the show, Kris says.

“We’re just trying to authentically show a dynamic where this friend group is filled with very different kids who love each other and care about each other,” she says. “I really love that Carl is often able to use his experiences to help his friends,” and vice versa.

Carl has multiple advisers, including two on autism. Kris is the social-emotional learning (SEL) adviser. (Prior to Carl, she helped create a framework used by every PBS KIDS show that deals with SEL.) For each episode of Carl, Kris creates a one-page “curriculum” based on the main topic. If the topic is “not everybody plays the same way,” she says, she’ll write a short curriculum based on the research behind different types of play. The writers will incorporate that into a fun story. Kris will weigh in on every version of a script, as well as early animations, for accuracy.

“Story is such a great way to teach, because it’s memorable, it’s engaging,” Kris says. “And so the real secret sauce [for teaching concepts] is to have a really good story, and to ground that story in something valuable for kids.”

Why informal education matters

Dashoush, Solberg, and Kris consider themselves lucky to do what they do.

“It’s amazing to be involved in the design of these shows and to feel like you’re having an impact on millions of youth around the country and internationally,” Solberg says.

The importance of informal education has only become more stark as PBS faces funding threats from the federal government. In early May 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order ending taxpayer subsidization of what he calls “biased media” outlets NPR and PBS. The network’s Ready to Learn grant was abruptly canceled the next day. In July, Congress voted to strip PBS and NPR of more than $1 billion in federal funding.

The consultants agree: This is misguided.

“For 22 straight years, national surveys have named PBS as the most trusted institution in America,” Kris says. “In an era where there is eroding trust in public institutions, [it’s telling that almost 90 percent of parents] value PBS KIDS’ educational programming and resources.”

Fun, educational content is vital for children, no matter where they live or what circumstances they come from, they say.

“Cutting access to public media should be seen as a cut to public education,” Dashoush says. “If we want to continue with that reach, and also make sure that children have access to quality education, [shows like this] are a must-have.”