TV Review: Martha Speaks
Martha Speaks is one of the newest shows on PBS Kids. It is an animated show with the main character being a dog named Martha. The animation is not anything special, but the story line of the show is imaginative and makes up for that. The show basically is about Martha learning to talk like a human after eating alphabet soup. In each episode she learns new words and as she does viewers also increase their vocabulary.
The learning the new words is further emphasized in segments with a professor character that helps explains the words a little better and ties the new words all together in some sort of theme. While as a child caregiver I think this segment is great to further the educational value of the show, at the same time I think it lessens the children’s interest in the show and the show can be educational without these professor segments. At least the professor segments try to be kind of funny and not too seriously educational. The plots themselves can definitely be funny and entertaining making kids not really realize they are being exposed to new vocabulary.
Overall I think for certain kids this may be a fun show, especially those that like dogs and animals in general, but others will be turned off by the absurdity of a talking dog because of alphabet soup or the professor segments. It certainly is worth checking out and see if your preschooler enjoys it because it does have potential to help increase their vocabulary and desire to learn new words.
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