Conflict Resolution and Cooperation with Max & Ruby
Television’s influence on children cannot be underestimated. Children between the ages of two and five spend about 32 hours a week in front of a television, nearing the number of hours considered full-time for a job (Boyse 2010). The American Academy of Pediatrics advises no television for children under the age of two, but parents and educators may seek programs that offer some educational value for the preschool children in their care (Boyse 2010). While some children’s shows are designed purely for entertainment, other shows are designed with the explicit idea that they are educational. These shows may have specific or multiple ways in which they seek to educate children, including subjects like vocabulary, reading, morals, personal relationships, and so forth. Max & Ruby is a television show created by Nickelodeon as both an entertaining and explicitly educational program; like most television shows, it seeks to educate about a variety of subjects, including psychosocial skills like cooperation and conflict resolution.
Nickelodeon provides some information about the purpose of the preschool-targeted Max & Ruby show on its website, writing, “Max & Ruby is a half-hour animated comedy . . . [offering] an empowering message for children by showing Max and Ruby playing together and resolving their differences in ways that are respectful and supportive” (“About” n.d.). Each half-hour episode consists of three shorter five to seven minute vignettes. The cartoon depicts the brother and sister as rabbit children; Max is three years old and Ruby is seven years old (“About” n.d.). The target audience for the show falls within the range of Max and Ruby’s own ages, between three to seven years old. In the episode examined here, the single half-hour episode consists of three vignettes, “Doctor Ruby,” “Ruby’s Home Run,” and “Ruby’s Good Neighbor report.”
As part of the show’s aim to teach psychosocial skills including cooperation and conflict resolution, each episode demonstrates several conflicts and its resolutions that are familiar to or similar to situations the preschool audience typically encounters in their daily lives. This typically follows the pattern of Ruby participating in an activity with which Max purposely or inadvertently interferes. For example, in “Ruby’s Home Run,” Ruby asks Max not to play with his remote-controlled airplane because it is interfering with her and her friends’ baseball game, but Max continues to fly his plane anyway. Ruby is so distracted by Max’s disobedience that she does not realize she got a home run. In “Ruby’s Good Neighbor Report,” Max is playing quietly with his remote-control fire truck on the floor of the local diner as Ruby interviews the waitress, Katie, and Max is ignored by Ruby until he saves Katie from tripping over Ruby’s backpack by pushing it out of the way with his truck. In “Ruby’s Home Run,” Ruby becomes angry with Max for his interference in the game she is playing with her friends, but the conflict is resolved when she learns that Max’s activity did not stop her from attaining her goal. In fact, his activity may have even helped her. The same is true in “Ruby’s Good Neighbor Report,” in which Max appears to be playing on his own with his remote control fire truck, but saves the waitress from tripping over a distracted Ruby’s backpack. The conflict in this second vignette is not as strong, yet it still demonstrates to children that paying attention to what is going on with other people is important in resolving conflicts and preventing problems.
Ruby or the other rabbits with which she interacts provide the majority of the dialogue. Max is often silent, speaks a single word, or shows his thoughts and feelings with facial expressions, body language, or giggles and other sounds. Instrumental music in a variety of moods plays throughout the vignettes.
Max & Ruby appeals to its preschool target audience because of its colorful cartoon images, pleasant musical score, inclusion of characters around the same age as themselves, inclusion of characters of both genders, and amusing situations. Nickelodeon’s stated goal is not simply to entertain children, but also to educate them (“About” n.d.). Preschool children are more likely to watch a show because of its entertainment value, so the emphasis on its educational value is more likely to appeal to adults who select the shows children watch. The entertainment aspect of Max & Ruby is important because it keeps children interested as they learn about the psychosocial skills the show deals with the most, conflict resolution and cooperation.
It is important that the show depicts situations a preschool audience can easily relate to in order to teach useful lessons about conflict resolution and cooperation. Dealing with the unruliness of a younger sibling or the bossiness of an older sibling, interacting with adults, interacting with friends, playing games requiring imagination, handling desires and disappointments, celebrating success, finding alternative solutions to problems, and understanding others are all important topics in teaching children the psychosocial skills of conflict resolution and cooperation. Because the target audience is so young, the main lesson it depicts in each vignette is straightforward. Children at this early stage of socio-emotional development are just gaining emotional competence, so it is important that the lessons the program imparts are very basic (Berk 2012).
Because Max & Ruby seeks to educate children about good social behavior through conflict resolution and cooperation, it also has a number of other traits that are important in successfully imparting its messages to the preschool age group. For example, the dialogue spoken is slow and clear. At age two, children possess an average vocabulary of about 200 words, while a child of six possesses an average vocabulary of about 10,000 words; children can learn about five new words each day (Berk 2012). The clear and simple vocabulary of Max & Ruby, with precocious Ruby’s occasional use of more advanced words and speech styles, allows the preschool audience to understand the message of the show even if they are unfamiliar with every word used. The program offers children a chance to learn new words in the context of the show’s situation. The slow, clearly enunciated speech contributes to this effect and allows children to develop more vocabulary that will help them solve conflicts and cooperate with others.
The three-vignette format of each episode, rather than having one single half-hour episode, allows preschool children who may have shorter attention spans to comprehend the presented information. Older children may find the repetitive nature of the program’s overt conflict/resolution formula to be boring, but the target audience of preschool children is likely to find it satisfying. During the early childhood years, children are still developing the cognitive skills that allow them to sustain their attention (Berk 2012). However, since their cognitive development is still emergent, a shorter vignette such as those that Max & Ruby present will be more successful in getting across the full intended message than a lengthier show would in which the conflict and resolution is interrupted by commercials.
A noticeable aspect of Max & Ruby that some consider to be a flaw is the lack of Ruby and Max’s parents’ presence. However, recalling that Nickelodeon’s stated goal that Max & Ruby is, in part, designed to “empower” children, the absence of parents does not counteract the psychosocial messages about conflict resolution and cooperation that the show intends to impart (“About” n.d.). The show does not depict situations in which children are doing things where they try to get away with things while parents are not watching. Rather, the show “empowers” children with the idea that they can solve a variety of problems on their own. In order to promote its goals of teaching children conflict resolution and cooperation, children’s own ability to engage in problem solving themselves are an important part of the show’s message. For example, in “Ruby’s Home Run,” Ruby is initially angry with Max because he persists in playing with his remote control airplane, in spite of her polite request that he select another toy to play with. She is so caught up in her upset emotions that she does not realize that she has actually gotten a home run; the other children make her realize her accomplishment, saying, “Wow! You did it, Ruby!” The conflict is resolved by the group of children without the need for adult intervention, which is certainly an empowering message.
Max & Ruby can be an appropriate show for part of a preschool curriculum, day care center, after school, or summer program for preschool-aged children. Episodes of the program are available on the Nickelodeon television channel, on DVD, and the Nickelodeon’s Internet web site. Because it is available in many formats, it offers adults the power to control exactly how many episodes and the length of time the children under their care can watch the program. As part of a preschool curriculum, for example, an instructor can offer episodes the children to watch followed by a discussion about what happened and what the children think of it.
There are many activities that adults can create for children under their care to promote the show’s goals of teaching conflict resolution and cooperation. Instructors can have children create Ruby and Max themed artwork or “stories.” They can present it as part of a recess activity on days when children cannot go outside. Children can be reminded of things that Max, Ruby, and their friends did when conflicts occur. For example, if day care children become upset because others are playing what they perceive to be too close to their baseball game, an adult can remind them about the “Ruby’s Home Run” vignette and to have patience. Ruby had success when she focused on the game and not her anger at her brother.
Max & Ruby depicts its characters in one of children’s favorite games, role play or “pretend.” The vignette “Doctor Ruby” could coincide with an introduction of the preschool’s play medical toys and costumes. Many children may be nervous about seeing a doctor, but becoming familiarized with a doctor’s basic tools, such as through a toy stethoscope, and through taking on the roles of doctor and patient themselves through play, can help alleviate children’s fears. Through play, use of imagination, arts and crafts, and discussions, the social messages of the show, the Max & Ruby program can be incorporated as a useful tool for educators assisting in children’s cognitive and emotional development that are an important part of fostering conflict resolution and cooperation.
Because television is such an influential aspect of children’s lives today, it makes sense that audiovisual media should be included as one part of preschool and other curriculums. Children are used to receiving information through audiovisual media, and it may be easier for educators to discuss things like conflict and resolution and cooperation in terms of neutral, imaginary characters like Ruby and Max rather than using children from the preschool, day care, after school, or summer program as examples. Max & Ruby is a simple program with a lot to offer to preschool children. In tandem with educators’ goals, it can augment a curriculum promoting learning conflict resolution and cooperation for preschool aged children.
References
About Max & Ruby (n.d.). Nickelodeon/Viacom International, Inc. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2012 from http://www.nickjr.com/max-ruby/about-max-ruby/max-and-ruby-tv-show_ap.html
Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens & Harrison, Kristen (2004). The Gender-Role Content of Children’s Favorite Television Programs and Its Links to Their Gender-Related Perceptions. Media Psychology 6. 111-146.
Berk, Laura E. (2012). Infancy, Children, and Adolescents. LOCATION: Allyn & Bacon.
Boyse, Kyla (2010). Television and Children. University of Michigan Health System. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2012 from http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm
“Doctor Ruby” (n.d.). Max & Ruby. Nickelodeon/Viacom International, Inc. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2012 from http://www.nickjr.com/kids-videos/max-and-ruby-kids-videos.html
“Ruby’s Good Neighbor Report” (n.d.). Max & Ruby. Nickelodeon/Viacom International, Inc. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2012 from http://www.nickjr.com/kids-videos/max-and-ruby-kids-videos.html
“Ruby’s Home Run” (n.d.). Max & Ruby. Nickelodeon/Viacom International, Inc. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2012 from http://www.nickjr.com/kids-videos/max-and-ruby-kids-videos.html
