The other week was my last preschool storytime of the fall session. It was a dinosaur storytime and I had a flannel story with dinner species of dinosaurs. There was a T-Rex, diplodocus, stegosaurus, triceratops, and a brontosaurus. I asked the children what the name of the dinosaurs were when I held up their flannel counterparts. I've been surprised at the average three-year olds knowledge of dinosaurs, they love that stuff. This group could identify the T-rex and the triceratops with some prompting. When I held up the brontosaurus instead of the correct name they all shouted: "Long neck, long neck!" from the characters in Land Before Time. Even when told the proper name they continued to call the brontosaurus "long neck."
I have also never seen a child under six identify a clown fish as a clown fish. They all call them "Nemos." It goes to show how great the influence of movies are on television and how many hours they spend watching them.