WordWorld is a three-time Emmy Award-winning children's television series [1] partially funded by the U.S. Department
of Education as part of the Ready To Learn literacy initiative targeted to 3- to 7-year olds. The show airs in 10
languages and 90 countries, including Public Broadcasting Service PBS Kids and qubo in the United States. The
television series, created by Don and Jacqueline Moody, stars Duck and his WordFriends. In each WordWorld television
episode, Duck embarks on a series of adventures where the only way to save the day is to "build a word". The show’s
novelty is that when a word is built correctly, it morphs into the thing it represents, which gives instant meaning
to the word. The WordWorld television series has been translated into popular mobile applications, Internet-based
games, magnetic plush and other toys.
WordWorld delivers a holistic curriculum that helps children develop the core literacy skills required to read.
Third-party testing demonstrates that WordWorld improves children’s literacy skills.
Television Series
The WordWorld television series currently airs in 90 countries and 10 languages. It premiered September 3, 2007 on
PBS Kids and TV Ontario and is currently in its third season, with 84 x 11-minute episodes. It is usually ranked as
one of the top five children’s shows on all broadcasters globally.
WordWorld currently broadcasts on PBS Kids, TV Ontario, Knowledge Networks, EBS in Korea, TVB Pearl in Hong Kong,
Playhouse Disney Asia in 19 countries, Playhouse Disney Japan, Playhouse Disney India, Playhouse Disney Australia,
France 5, Discovery Kids Latin America, Panda and Singapore 12.
Educational Content
The main focus of the educational television show is literacy, with the shows curriculum being based on the National
Reading Panel's 2000 Teaching Children to Read report with input from other groups and experts. The show aims to
focus on print awareness, Phonics sensitivity and letter knowledge, Reading comprehension (including vocabulary
development) and socio-emotional skills.[2]
Wordworld was developed for television by Emmy award winner Olexa Hewryk and Don Moody. Moody was originally inspired
by a study which found that children are likely to pay less attention to words if there is a character on screen at
the same time so he founded WordWorld, LLC.[3] According to Moody, WordWorld's use of characters that physically
resemble the letters that make up their names may cause children to pay more attention to words. “If children want
to look at the character, then the words have to be the character,” he said.[3]