Sesame Street and Learning through Play - An Interview with Rosemarie T. Truglio

Oct 15, 2026

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Interview with Rosemarie T. Truglio, senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, describing her leadership over interdisciplinary curriculum development for Sesame Street and related productions. The conversation traces her childhood play patterns, early influences in Hoboken, New Jersey, and the role of family mentorship in shaping her path. It covers her educational choices, shifting expectations around career training, and how developmental psychology became her focus for helping children.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

American Journal of Play

Interview with Rosemarie T. Truglio

Early influences and interest in child development

Education and mentorship

Focus on developmental psychology

Sesame Street and Learning through Play An Interview with Rosemarie T. Truglio Rosemarie T. Truglio is the senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, where she is responsible for the development of the interdisciplinary curriculum on which Sesame Street is based, and oversees content development across platforms such as television, publishing, toys, home video, and theme park activities. She also oversees the curriculum development for all new show production, including Esme and Roy, a series about learning through play, airing on HBO and PBS, and two shows on Apple TV’s Ghostwriter, a reimagined version of a workshop series with a literature focus from the 1990s and Helpsters, whose characters love to solve problems using fundamental coding skills. Before joining Sesame Workshop in 1997, Truglio was an Assistant Professor of Communication and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to numerous articles in child and developmental psychology journals, she is the author of Ready for School! A Parent’s Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5 (2019) and coeditor of G is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street (2001) . She currently serves on the advisory boards of the Child Trends News Service; Read Alliance; The Ultimate Block Party; and The Toy Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She previously served on the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council (NICHD), the LEGO Foundation Research and Innovation Network, and the PBS KIDS Next Generation Media, among others. She received distinguished alumni awards from Douglass College (2005), University of Kansas (2013), Rutgers University (2014), and the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame (2015) . Key words: preschool television programs; Sesame Street; Sesame Workshop; Whole Child curriculum American Journal of Play: Dr. Truglio, how did you become interested in how children develop? Rosemarie Truglio: My interest in children is definitely linked to my childhood 1 American Journal of Play, volume 12, number 1 © The Strong [Contact Rosemarie T. Truglio at Rosemarie.Truglio@sesame.org](Contact Rosemarie T. Truglio at Rosemarie.Truglio@sesame.org) experiences, in particular my play patterns and in my family and culture. I was the youngest of three children and the only girl, with brothers who were ten and seven years older. So, I engaged in a lot of solitary pretend play at home, which also included two imaginary friends! Children typically role play what they see, so my play during my preschool years was based on my experiences growing up in an Italian American home with a loving and nurturing mother. I grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, and my neighborhood was comprised of many families. It was a time where children played on the sidewalks and hung out on stoops while parents and storekeepers kept an eye on everyone. It was during this time that I cared for and babysat for my neighbors’ young children. These formative years laid the foundation for wanting a career working with children. While I didn’t know exactly what that would be, I was determined that I didn’t want the role my mother had planned for me, which was to get married and raise my children on the same block. I knew that education was my doorway to a different kind of future. The biggest obstacle was mentorship, because only one member of my extended family was a college graduate. This cousin was an elementary schoolteacher and, while teaching was an option, I was interested in other career paths. Fortunately, in one of the families I babysat for, the father was a school psychologist. I had no idea what he did, so I asked him lots of questions, and these conversations introduced me to the range of options within psychology. So, off I went to college with the plan to major in childhood psychology with a minor in early-childhood education. AJP: What kind of support did you get for thes

FAQs

What role does Rosemarie T. Truglio hold at Sesame Workshop?

She is the senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, responsible for developing the interdisciplinary curriculum behind Sesame Street and overseeing content development across multiple platforms.

How did Truglio’s childhood influence her interest in child development?

Her interest in children is linked to her early play experiences, including solitary pretend play and the culture and family environment in which she grew up, which shaped how she understood children’s learning through play.

What educational and career focus did Truglio pursue after college?

She planned to major in childhood psychology with a minor in early-childhood education, then pursued graduate study focusing on developmental psychology, guided by mentors who steered her toward research suited to her strengths.

Oct 15, 2026

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