Know Who Your Audience Is

Knowing your audience is one of the most powerful tools content writers can use to create meaningful learning experiences. Start with curiosity about the knowledge and skills your audience already possesses related to the content you are creating.

For instance:

• How much experience do they have working directly with children and families, if any?
• What background knowledge and worldviews are they bringing from their own families and communities, and how might that enrich the learning experience overall?
• What are their needs and goals as a participant or learner?
• What are potential barriers to their learning experience, and how might you help find ways to overcome them?

Find out as much as you can about your audience at the very beginning of any project so you can tailor the learning experience and make it more meaningful and effective.

As you write for a specific audience, also consider what age ranges the content or practices you are writing about may focus on: birth to age 3, 3-to-5-year-old children, birth to age 5, birth to age 8, out of school time, adult learners, etc. 

Multilingual Audiences

Most of our products are developed in multiple languages. It is important to remember that each language will have some uniqueness. What may be written in English may not be exactly the way it is also written in Spanish or Somali and vice versa. Throughout this guide, you will find guidance for writing in multiple languages. Be sure to review the guidance when materials will be translated or written using simultaneous multilingual design.

Refer to the Tip and Recommendations to Support Translation chapter when deveoping materials that will be translated into multiple languages.

When choosing video for multilingual audiences, we strive for media that is in the participant’s preferred language. Refer to the Choosing and Using Visual Media for Our Products chapter for more guidance.