{"id":24257,"date":"2022-12-02T08:50:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T13:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2022-12-05T09:41:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T14:41:15","slug":"danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny LaBrecque on Offering Authentic Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"

Danny LaBrecque, creator and host of Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House, talks to <\/em>TV Kids about the creation of the series and the importance of offering authentic connection through the screen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Like many of us, Danny LaBrecque found comfort and connection in his childhood via the TV screen through the likes of Fred Rogers and Bob Keeshan. Growing up with a mother dealing with cancer, \u201cthere was something about connecting with that one person through the screen that was so sincerely authentic and almost magically very much in the moment,\u201d he tells TV Kids<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Later in life, when he became a teacher, he made use of puppets in his classroom. \u201cNot at the level of a puppeteer but the way that preschool teachers use any object they can to get kids to find the words,\u201d LaBrecque says. \u201cI was really amazed by how much kids would tell me when I would bring up my childhood teddy bear and say, \u2018How do you think Teddy\u2019s feeling today?\u2019 At first, I thought we were going to talk about separation anxiety, standard development stuff, but heavy things would come up. I realized that kids are still dealing with the big issues that impact us as adults. Kids are people, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaBrecque saw the types of shows his students were watching\u2014shows that he calls \u201ccookies for breakfast\u201d that are fun with quirky characters but lack connection. \u201cAuthentic, real human beings connecting through a screen and just being you, meeting you where you\u2019re at\u2014very difficult to find those. So, I wanted to try to do that.\u201d And thus, he created Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House<\/em>, with himself as host.<\/p>\n

The storylines and lessons of the show are based on the things he hears from the kids he works with either directly from them or through messages he receives from parents and caregivers. And he doesn\u2019t shy away from addressing deeper topics. \u201cMy mom did pass eventually [when] I was an adult,\u201d LaBrecque says. \u201cI was working in a care center in Baltimore called The Ark Preschool, the only accredited preschool that served families dealing with homelessness at the time. I had to miss one of my weeks because my mom had passed, and I told the teachers about that. When I came in a couple weeks later, to my surprise, the teachers had shared this with the students. They made me a very nice card. But this is the thing that really hit me: I was thinking about the heavy emotion of losing a parent as an adult, but very young kids in this program, 3- to 5-year-olds, came up and would say things like, \u2018They got my mom, too,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cHaving it delivered in such a mature, reassuring way from a child, \u2018Yeah, death happens. I know.\u2019\u2014Our kids are dealing with a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeyond just \u2018sometimes we\u2019re happy, sometimes we\u2019re mad, sometimes we\u2019re sad,\u2019 sometimes we\u2019re dealing with first and secondary experiences with gun violence,\u201d he says. And it\u2019s \u201cnot just where I\u2019m at in the United States, but [there\u2019s] violence around the world. It\u2019s always going to be there, and it\u2019s always going to impact children.\u201d His goal is to help children process these types of events and experiences through the language of play and by being present and letting them know he is there for them and wants nothing in return.<\/p>\n

In the past, he invited Erricka Bridgeford onto the show for an episode on gun violence. In Baltimore, she runs a program called Baltimore Ceasefire, \u201cwhere she goes out after a shooting and she is present with the community and helps them to heal,\u201d LaBrecque says. \u201cAnd she looks at every perspective: those who got hurt, those who did the hurting. Beyond good and bad, how do we come out of this? How do we grow? There was very little talking in it. It was just being present.\u201d<\/p>\n

And kids are wiser than adults often give them credit for, especially when dealing with the complexity of human nature. LaBrecque brings up Kingsley, an authoritarian king puppet on the show. \u201cEarly on, Kingsley was just going to be a bad guy, the point of conflict. But then, again, the kids through the screen and in the classrooms were the ones saying, \u2018Where\u2019s Kingsley\u2019s mother?,\u2019 \u2018Does he talk to a therapist?\u2019 \u2018A feelings doctor,\u2019 another kid said. And we found out that Kingsley\u2019s super complex, like everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond the content of the show itself, LaBrecque is determined to create a safe space for children by the ways in which his show is shared. Though it was once available on YouTube and Facebook, he has since removed it from those platforms. \u201cThe only social media I\u2019m still on is LinkedIn because it has nothing to do with kids; I know who I\u2019m talking to,\u201d he says. When Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House<\/em> was available on sites such as those, he would get messages of frustration from parents about algorithms leading children to content that was not child-friendly. Although there are certain protections being put in place, namely COPPA, \u201cuntil it\u2019s completely refined, I didn\u2019t feel comfortable risking even just one of the families that I serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from that, he doesn\u2019t see social media as being healthy for anyone, and \u201cI didn\u2019t want to be one of the reasons to bring kids into these houses that I knew weren\u2019t completely safe,\u201d he says. Social media and other technological advances are inevitable, however, so an upcoming episode of the show delves into early media literacy to teach children how to navigate online experiences and the slew of advertising that is thrown at them from many platforms.<\/p>\n

Luckily for LaBrecque, he did find a safe place for his show: Sensical. \u201cI love Sensical to death,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir attention to their creators\u2014it really is a relationship. I feel very heard there.\u201d And it is kid-safe, with child development experts approving every video to ensure children aren\u2019t led to any content that isn\u2019t age appropriate.<\/p>\n

The third season of Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House<\/em> is slated to premiere on Sensical this month with more puppets, lessons and connection, but in the future beyond that, \u201cI\u2019d like to try to create a little bit of a path for many of my colleagues, who I don\u2019t see as competitors,\u201d LaBrecque says. \u201cThey approach these things in their own very unique ways with their own core missions; not as a character but as their true authentic selves.\u201d Children deserve this kind of content, he says. \u201cWe all deserve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is important to note that though Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House<\/em> is a children\u2019s show, it\u2019s not just children who can benefit from it. LaBrecque notes an experience he had a few years ago at a puppet slam in Baltimore. \u201cIt was very artsy, adult puppetry,\u201d he says. \u201cI was invited to do it, and I was very nervous about it because I did not want the adults making fun of the preschool puppeteer guy.\u201d To his surprise, the audience loved him and his simple puppets. \u201cAfter the show, they came up and said, \u2018Listen, I like affirmation. You make me feel centered.\u2019 Because it is a therapeutic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels good to have sincere affirmation and to have a host that\u2019s not saying, \u2018Hey, push the like button,\u2019 or \u2018Buy my product,\u2019\u201d he adds. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to push a button to like me, I want you to know I like you<\/em>, and I really want you to like yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creator and host of Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House discusses the creation of the series and the importance of offering authentic connection through the screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":24258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[6926,6925,5797],"class_list":["post-24257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-danny-joes-tree-house","tag-danny-labrecque","tag-sensical","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nDanny LaBrecque on Offering Authentic Connection - TVKIDS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Danny LaBrecque on Offering Authentic Connection - TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The creator and host of Danny Joe\u2019s Tree House discusses the creation of the series and the importance of offering authentic connection through the screen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVKIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-02T13:50:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-05T14:41:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2017\/07\/DannyJoesTreeHouse-1222.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/\",\"name\":\"Danny LaBrecque on Offering Authentic Connection - TVKIDS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-02T13:50:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-05T14:41:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/danny-labrecque-on-offering-authentic-connection\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Danny LaBrecque on Offering Authentic Connection\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/\",\"name\":\"TVKIDS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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