Moonbug Entertainment publicly shared the Moonbug Learning Principles, a new set of learning principles now being integrated into the company’s creative process across its preschool franchises.
Developed in collaboration with the Center for Scholars & Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA, the principles are being published publicly on Moonbug’s website as part of the company’s ongoing commitment to creating thoughtfully designed preschool storytelling, grounded in child development research.
Alongside Moonbug’s publication of the principles, CSS shared a companion publication detailing how the principles were developed through academic research, collaboration with an advisory council of child development experts, and close work with Moonbug’s creative teams. The CSS publication also explores how child developmental research can translate into practical creative decision-making for children’s media.
Moonbug’s stories are part of everyday life for millions of families. They become songs children sing, routines they repeat, games they play, and bonding moments families return to again and again.
The company cares deeply about the responsibility that comes with that. While Moonbug’s creative teams have long collaborated with learning consultants, the partnership with CSS marks a new step toward creating a more unified and research-informed approach across its preschool storytelling.
That responsibility starts with a simple reality: young children are learning from the videos they watch every day. The question is how intentionally those experiences are designed with child development in mind.
As families spend more time with online video across YouTube, connected TV, streaming platforms, and digital media, creators, researchers, parents, and platforms are asking increasingly important questions:
- Can children learn from online video?
- What makes kids video developmentally appropriate?
- What does high-quality kids video look like in a digital-first world?
The Moonbug Learning Principles
The Moonbug Learning Principles were developed to help answer those questions and guide how learning is considered throughout the creative process:
- Navigating Real Life Moments: Help children understand everyday experiences through familiar routines, emotions, and situations.
- Modeling Positive Relationships: Show children how people communicate, express emotions, solve problems, and build connections.
- Promoting Learning Through Play: Encourage curiosity, imagination, experimentation, and active participation.
- Telling Authentically Inclusive Stories: Represent identities, cultures, families, and experiences with depth and care.
Readers can explore the full Moonbug Learning Principles alongside CSS’s companion publication, which outlines how the principles are being integrated into Moonbug’s creative process through collaboration with learning consultants embedded throughout development and production. The materials include supporting research and citations.
Dr. Yalda T. Uhls, Founder and CEO of the Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA, said:
“Children today are growing up in a digital-first media environment, and child development research has a real role to play in how stories are made for them. When creators design with that research in mind, it can genuinely support how children learn and grow from the content they watch every day. Our hope is that the process we went through with Moonbug — building principles through collaboration with scholars, an advisory council of child development experts, and Moonbug’s creative teams — is useful to others who want to make content that helps children thrive. We are publishing that process so other creators can learn from it.”
“To make great stories for young kids, you have to start with how they learn,” said Rich Hickey, Chief Creative Officer at Moonbug Entertainment. “Our teams already spend a lot of time thinking about how toddlers experience music, stories, play, and routines. The Moonbug Learning Principles are helping shape conversations throughout our development and production process every day and giving us a more transparent way to share how learning is considered throughout our creative work.”
The collaboration with CSS builds on Moonbug’s long-standing work with learning consultants by creating a more unified and research-informed approach across its preschool franchises including CoComelon, Blippi, and Little Angel.
