Impacts of Ahlan Simsim TV Program in Jordan 

The first causal impact evaluation of a mass media program designed for the Middle East and with a focus on preschool children’s emotional development.

This study was published in Child Development, the flagship journal of the Society for Research in Child Development. 

Researchers evaluated Ahlan Simsim, a television show for young children produced by Sesame Workshop and Jordan Pioneers and designed to foster children’s emotional development.  

The 12-week impact evaluation was conducted in 216 Jordanian government kindergarten classrooms across three regions of the country. It found that Ahlan Simsim improved children’s expressive emotion recognition, emotion situation knowledge, and the emotion-regulation strategy of breathing. With costs of the program estimated at $3 -$7 per child, Ahlan Simsim is a cost-effective, scalable intervention at a time of continued threats to and uncertainty around children’s stability and well-being worldwide. 

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