Television programs helped preschoolers develop reading skills and get ready for kindergarten, a new study found, suggesting the tube isn’t all bad.

In the study of 398 preschoolers from poorer neighborhoods, TV-watching students outscored those in a comparison group on all five measured categories, showing impressive gains in letter recognition and story concepts. Their curriculum relied, in part, on television programs and playing interactive games.

Perhaps the study’s most interesting finding is that students who were furthest behind had the biggest gains, according to the Center for Children and Technology, one of two groups that worked on the study.

“If media can be harnessed to help close this literacy gap, as this study has shown, it's a powerful new tool for preschool teachers,” William Penuel, director of evaluation research for SRI International’s Center for Technology in Learning, the other group leading the study, said in a statement. “We know public media can improve literacy skills when kids watch at home; what we didn't know is that content from multiple shows could be effectively integrated into a curriculum and implemented by teachers.”

Of course, these teachers were not showing their students “The Simpsons” or “The Ren and Stimpy Show.” They relied on PBS’s “Sesame Street,” “Super Why!” “ and “Between the Lions.” (An interesting note: the Commission for Public Broadcasting backed the study, according to School Library Journal.)

I covered the intersection of video games and television with families for a few years, and I wound up somewhere in the middle. Video games and television are not necessarily bad, but require engaged parenting, like so many aspects of childrearing. I try to limit my kids’ TV time to two hours and sometimes three hours a week – our baby gets none – and I don’t think it’s making them stupid.

 Thanks to the National Institute for Early Education Research for finding this story.