Healthy and Caring Advice from Daniel Tiger

Daniel Tiger has a few helpful tips that can help you address your children’s anxieties, fears, and emotions.

• Make sure your kids feel safe by maintaining a positive environment at home. Even at a young age, children can pick up on stressful situations by observing their parents’ or older siblings’ responses. Let children know not to worry because there are plenty of people who are working hard to keep the world safe. 

• Children may become extra emotional when routines suddenly change. Try to maintain your patience and calm with them during their tantrums or outbursts, while reassuring them that it is alright to express their feelings. Listen and sing-along to Daniel Tiger’s Big Feelings Album, available for free on Spotify, to turn discussions about feelings into a fun, musical moment. 

• Create spaces for your kids to express their feelings in a multitude of ways through art and writing. Have younger kids draw pictures expressing their feelings. Young writers can keep a journal or diary detailing their emotions.  

• Younger kids may need extra help labeling exactly how they feel. Take the opportunity to help them sort out their feelings by offering labels for their feelings, such as sad, mad, worried, unsure, disappointed, or scared. Download the free PBS KIDS Daniel Tiger for Parents app for simple, fun, and educational songs, videos, and parenting tips geared toward children’s social-emotional development. The app is available in English and Spanish. 

• Limit children’s exposure to media and news which may make them feel more anxious or fearful. Be conscious of how often sensitive conversations about coronavirus or  COVID-19 occur in the household so that children do not feel overburdened by negative and scary information. 

• Share the facts about COVID-19, and if appropriate, share information about how viruses are spread and prevented. Learning concrete facts can help some children feel safer and calmer. Explore PBS Learning Media for more resources about virus information and prevention.

• Reinforce healthy habits and hygiene practices by showing kids how to correctly wash their hands and cover their mouth when they cough or sneeze. Watch Daniel Tiger demonstrate how to wash your hands and cough into your elbow.  

More Helpful Resources

Explore

Visit Meet the Helpers for more tips and videos about healthy hygiene habits.

Visit the Fred Rogers Production Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood website for more Daniel Tiger resources and information on other learning goals. 

Explore the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood collection on PBS Learning Media for more video clips, games, songs, and activities. 

Videos

Watch the Man with the Yellow Hat explain how germs work to Curious George. 

Watch Elmo and Rosita show kids the right way to sneeze. 

Watch a clip about healthy habits that illustrates two of the most important healthy hygiene practices we can teach our kids: washing your hands and covering your mouth when you sneeze or cough. 

Activities

Print out Elmo’s step-by-step hand-washing guide and tape it up in the bathroom or by the kitchen sink. 

Have your kids practice their alphabet skills while learning about germs. 

Play a game with Doctor Daniel Tiger!

Download the Breathe, Think, Do with Sesame app to have your kids practice deep breathing with a monster to calm down.

Play In My Bathroom with Daniel Tiger to practice healthy and hygienic bathroom routines.