This post will shift gears from early literacy to math. We will still be discussing the cognitive development domain. We will cover the component - Numbers and Operations with its learning expectations and performance indicators. Then we will start the discussion of the component - Patterns and Algebra. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will begin with the component - Numbers and Operations. The learning expectation for this one is: Begins to identify and label objects using numbers. The first performance indicator is: Counts a collection of 1-4 items and begins to understand that the last counting word tells how many. I will say I have had children 2 years old conquer this performance indicator and I have had 4 year olds struggle. If a child has had number concepts modeled during their second year, they will conquer this one easily. If a child has not had any academic exposure before 3 years old, then this will be more of a challenge unless the child has a strong aptitude for numbers. Some children naturally pick up math concepts and some do not. This is where a child's personal learning style and preferences will truly start to show. I will say that most children that get academic instruction and modeling of counting during their third year will conquer this one by their fourth birthday. Some will conquer 1-3 but struggle with 4. Many parents actually model this one in the home. Counting with children seems to come more naturally than reading to children. However, there will always be some parents that do neither. The children that come from the "neither" parents are the ones that will require more instruction than the rest.
The next performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Can quickly "see" and label a group of objects of one to three with a number. This one very much depends on the amount of number concept instruction a child has had in his/her second year. A 3 year old starting from scratch academically will not conquer this one without intense academic instruction in their third year. This one goes beyond just counting to being able to take in a group of objects on sight and determine number. That takes experience and many 3 year olds do not have adequate experience with numbers to be able to conquer this one up to 3 objects. Children must conquer the previous performance indicator before they will conquer this one. It takes quite a bit of practice with counting to be able to determine number by sight.
The next performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. To be honest I have never really seen a child naturally use one-to-one correspondence to determine a number of objects. In case you do not know what I mean by that, it is where a child places objects one to one on a known set of objects to determine how many. Most children simply count. However, it takes a knowledge of one-to-one correspondence to count correctly. A child must understand to point at one object and say one number. Some children struggle horribly with that concept. Other children seem to understand it without instruction. It all depends on the child's natural aptitude for math. Some children can do it with 3 or less objects but not when the number of objects is higher than that. I have also never seen a child naturally compare groups of objects with one-to-one correspondence. This is where they place one object from one group next to one object from another group to see which group has more. Children are usually taught to compare in this way. The most natural way children use one-to-one correspondence is during daily routines such as passing out napkins and silverware for meals or snacks or in play where they are providing the same corresponding object for each member of a group. Again some children pick this up with no problems and some children do not get this concept at all. Aptitude for math seems to have more bearing on this than age. For those children with little aptitude for math, this concept must be taught directly. If you wait until they pick it up naturally, you may be waiting for a very long time.
Now we will move on to the next component - Patterns and Algebra. We will cover the first learning expectation: Explores and begins to sort and classify objects. Its performance indicator is: Begins to sort objects on the basis on one dimension, color, size, shape. It frustrates me to no end how many childhood experts expect us to believe that all children naturally do things like this. The reality of the situation is that many children do not do this naturally. If left to their own devices, these children would never sort things on purpose. They like randomness and are not remotely interested in bringing order to the chaos. These children are not naturally drawn to patterns or puzzles, and most of them do not have a natural aptitude for math concepts. For those children, you will have to directly teach putting objects in groups. You, the adult, will have to expose them to the possibility that objects can be grouped different ways and expect them to struggle with it. This will be something that may take them lots and lots of practice to perfect. Math is not everyone's forte.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 6)
This post will return to my series on child development and finish up the discussion on early literacy. We will look at the last two components with their learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first component for this post is Visual Sequencing (Patterning). Its learning expectation is: Uses left-to-right and top-to-bottom scanning and observes and reproduces each element in a pattern of 3-dimensional objects. The first performance indicator is: Continues a color- or shape- or size-pattern using a concrete model. Wow! I really do not even know where to begin with this one. Three year olds that come to me as three year olds probably will not come anywhere near this one until they are four and a half. I usually have so much other ground to cover that we do not even attempt patterns until after their fourth birthday. This one assumes so much previous knowledge it is almost laughable in today's early childhood reality. I have a 3 year old that is not yet 3 and 1/2 that nearly has this one conquered, but I have had her since she was 9 months old. She has had good quality instruction from the time she was 9 months old. She has the background to conquer this one on time. Not very many other children get the opportunity to have that type of background. A program has to have infant and toddler instruction that goes beyond just letting them do whatever they want to do in order to really lay a foundation that accomplishes this at 3 years old. The program must have intentional teaching in short bursts for infants and toddlers. It does not have to be much, but it has to be every day.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Continues a pattern of 2 variables (shape and color, color and size, or size and shape) from a concrete model. This one is even worse than the previous one. I have had 5 year olds have extreme difficulty with this one. Only a child that had exposure to patterns as a 2 year old will even come close to this one before his/her fourth birthday. My three year old will probably conquer this one within 6 months, but she is in the top 5% of her age group. Patterns and sequencing tends to be something in which today's young children struggle. Something is missing from their childhood that we had as children, and I am not exactly sure what that is. Maybe we had more time as children to notice natural patterns. Maybe because we had to entertain ourselves, it made us more aware of natural patterns. It could be as simple as more outside time. Nature is full of patterns, and my generation spent a great deal of our childhood outdoors. Whatever it is, today's children are missing a foundation piece that we had. It affects everything.
Now we will move on to the last component for early literacy - letter recognition. The first learning expectation is: Begins to recognize beginning letter of familiar words or environmental print. The performance indicator is: Looks at peer's name in print and recognizes that Johnny starts with the same letter as his own name, Joshua. In most facilities where children's names are plastered everywhere and used to identify large numbers of objects in the room, this one does come naturally. It is only when the print has purpose that children truly start to notice the details. If the children's names are on everything but never really pointed out, then the children are less likely to notice the details. For those children that are raised at home or in small home childcares where the names are not really used on a daily basis, this one does not come naturally. In my facility, I post one child's name on the board every day. That child gets special privileges all day long. The children in my facility learn to distinguish the names when they are 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old because I put special significance on their names. I also have their names on their cubbies, etc., but the special day privilege takes it one step further. Therefore, when I start teaching letter recognition in earnest at 3 years old, the children have a good foundation to build upon.
The last learning expectation is: Attempts to "write" his own name. The performance indicator is: "Writes" name on paper; letters may or may not be readily identified by others; letters may or may not be from left to right or in a straight line. Like the one before it, in large groups this one usually comes along naturally. If a 3 year old sees another 3 year old or 4 year old trying to "write" his/her name, that child will follow suit. Sometimes even older 2 year olds will try to "write" their name when they see other older children do so. In mixed age groups where younger children get to shadow older children, the "writing" will start looking like real letters earlier than in instances where all the children basically scribble. Children in small settings or with stay-at-home moms will exhibit this behavior with adult prompting. If an adult models writing a child's name, the child will mimic that. The letters will become clearer in the first and last scenario because the children will have more exposure to real letters. The more that children are exposed to scribbling the longer that behavior will persist. It is important then for the children not to just be given the opportunity to write, but they must be given good exposure to real letters in order for true writing to begin to emerge.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The first component for this post is Visual Sequencing (Patterning). Its learning expectation is: Uses left-to-right and top-to-bottom scanning and observes and reproduces each element in a pattern of 3-dimensional objects. The first performance indicator is: Continues a color- or shape- or size-pattern using a concrete model. Wow! I really do not even know where to begin with this one. Three year olds that come to me as three year olds probably will not come anywhere near this one until they are four and a half. I usually have so much other ground to cover that we do not even attempt patterns until after their fourth birthday. This one assumes so much previous knowledge it is almost laughable in today's early childhood reality. I have a 3 year old that is not yet 3 and 1/2 that nearly has this one conquered, but I have had her since she was 9 months old. She has had good quality instruction from the time she was 9 months old. She has the background to conquer this one on time. Not very many other children get the opportunity to have that type of background. A program has to have infant and toddler instruction that goes beyond just letting them do whatever they want to do in order to really lay a foundation that accomplishes this at 3 years old. The program must have intentional teaching in short bursts for infants and toddlers. It does not have to be much, but it has to be every day.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Continues a pattern of 2 variables (shape and color, color and size, or size and shape) from a concrete model. This one is even worse than the previous one. I have had 5 year olds have extreme difficulty with this one. Only a child that had exposure to patterns as a 2 year old will even come close to this one before his/her fourth birthday. My three year old will probably conquer this one within 6 months, but she is in the top 5% of her age group. Patterns and sequencing tends to be something in which today's young children struggle. Something is missing from their childhood that we had as children, and I am not exactly sure what that is. Maybe we had more time as children to notice natural patterns. Maybe because we had to entertain ourselves, it made us more aware of natural patterns. It could be as simple as more outside time. Nature is full of patterns, and my generation spent a great deal of our childhood outdoors. Whatever it is, today's children are missing a foundation piece that we had. It affects everything.
Now we will move on to the last component for early literacy - letter recognition. The first learning expectation is: Begins to recognize beginning letter of familiar words or environmental print. The performance indicator is: Looks at peer's name in print and recognizes that Johnny starts with the same letter as his own name, Joshua. In most facilities where children's names are plastered everywhere and used to identify large numbers of objects in the room, this one does come naturally. It is only when the print has purpose that children truly start to notice the details. If the children's names are on everything but never really pointed out, then the children are less likely to notice the details. For those children that are raised at home or in small home childcares where the names are not really used on a daily basis, this one does not come naturally. In my facility, I post one child's name on the board every day. That child gets special privileges all day long. The children in my facility learn to distinguish the names when they are 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old because I put special significance on their names. I also have their names on their cubbies, etc., but the special day privilege takes it one step further. Therefore, when I start teaching letter recognition in earnest at 3 years old, the children have a good foundation to build upon.
The last learning expectation is: Attempts to "write" his own name. The performance indicator is: "Writes" name on paper; letters may or may not be readily identified by others; letters may or may not be from left to right or in a straight line. Like the one before it, in large groups this one usually comes along naturally. If a 3 year old sees another 3 year old or 4 year old trying to "write" his/her name, that child will follow suit. Sometimes even older 2 year olds will try to "write" their name when they see other older children do so. In mixed age groups where younger children get to shadow older children, the "writing" will start looking like real letters earlier than in instances where all the children basically scribble. Children in small settings or with stay-at-home moms will exhibit this behavior with adult prompting. If an adult models writing a child's name, the child will mimic that. The letters will become clearer in the first and last scenario because the children will have more exposure to real letters. The more that children are exposed to scribbling the longer that behavior will persist. It is important then for the children not to just be given the opportunity to write, but they must be given good exposure to real letters in order for true writing to begin to emerge.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses
I am going to take a break from my series on child development to tackle a subject I feel is very relevant for the times. It seems to me that we have become a society of victims and as long as we have a good excuse, we can rationalize almost any behavior. I am a big believer in taking responsibility for your own actions, and this should start in childhood. Therefore, indulge me as I rant for a little while.
"I'm trying as hard as I can"
The inspiration for this post started one day not too long ago when I was doing the one-on-one instruction with the five year old that I keep. The lesson was not going well, and he looked at me and said, "I'm trying as hard as I can." Now, the truth of the matter was that he was not even really trying at all. Therefore, his statement made me absolutely bristle. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Let's be honest about this situation. If you were trying as hard as you could, you would be conquering this easily. You are not even half trying. Do not tell me you are trying as hard as you can."
It is a sad commentary on our society that by the time children are 3 years old they understand how to use excuses to get out of doing the unpleasant. Unfortunately the adults in our society set the example for this far too well. Husbands and wives use excuses to get out of the household duties they do not like. Parents make excuses for not making the hard choices in dealing with their children. Employees make excuses for why they cannot take on a particular duty at work. Employers make excuses for why they cannot improve a certain problem in the workplace. Excuses, excuses, excuses. They are everywhere.
If you talk to any person that writes or speaks on the subject of success, they will tell you that excuses are the number one reason many people never reach their full potential. Successful people look at circumstances and try to find solutions. The majority of Americans look at circumstances and make excuses for every type of behavior under the sun. We are by far our own worst enemy. Our society will continue to decline until we decide that maybe just maybe we should stop making excuses and start taking care of business.
I am going to touch on a subject that may be controversial but it lies at the very core of the problem in our society. It used to be that when people did stupid things and bad things happened to them it was viewed as normal. People understood natural consequences. If you play on the railroad tracks and get run over by a train, that was just what happened. You should know better than play on the railroad tracks. Now, we sue the train company and try to come up with barriers to keep people off the tracks instead of tackling the real problem. We have removed the concept of consequences from our society. Nothing is ever our fault. We blame everyone and everything else but the people truly responsible for the circumstances. We have become a society of victims.
How does this play out in the early childhood world? We redirect instead of dealing with behaviors. We shield children from natural consequences because it might make their childhood unpleasant. Then we ruin the lives of the adults that take care of children when those children do absolutely foolish things and hurt themselves because they did not understand natural consequences. We are seeing this play out in older children with terrible consequences. I am thinking of the 12 year old boy that was fatally shot by the police officer for acting like he was shooting people in a public place with a toy gun. A 12 year old boy should have known better than to do something like that. On the other hand, we overreact to everything that deals with a gun in our society. The people that called the police about this boy were freaking out just as badly as the answering policeman. Who was at fault in this situation? Everyone including the victim. The boy did something foolish. The parents did not teach the 12 year old how stupid his actions were. The people overreacted to the boy and called the police, and the policeman shot first and asked questions later. However, I am not hearing anybody blame anyone in that situation but the police. There were at least three other parties that helped set up that fatal confrontation, but it is not politically correct to blame the other parties. This is ridiculous. How many times throughout history have people died because they made foolish choices at just the wrong time? We need to start having some extremely serious discussions about foolish choices and personal responsibility. Those types of discussions might have actually helped every single party in the above incident. We as a society have lost the ability to follow a train of events to a logical conclusion before we jump to a decision. Every single party of that situation acted without thinking it through.
What is the answer? Stop making excuses. Most situations have multiple people at fault at varying degrees. Take ownership of your part of the problem and do something about it. Teach children to own up to their mistakes and fix them. If everyone owned up to their part of the issue, many, many issues would cease to be. This is what marriage counselors tell married couples having problems. This should be what our leaders say to each other and everyone else in a society, which is sort of like a huge marriage if you think about it. We are all in this together for thick or thin whether we like it or not. Rant over.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
"I'm trying as hard as I can"
The inspiration for this post started one day not too long ago when I was doing the one-on-one instruction with the five year old that I keep. The lesson was not going well, and he looked at me and said, "I'm trying as hard as I can." Now, the truth of the matter was that he was not even really trying at all. Therefore, his statement made me absolutely bristle. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Let's be honest about this situation. If you were trying as hard as you could, you would be conquering this easily. You are not even half trying. Do not tell me you are trying as hard as you can."
It is a sad commentary on our society that by the time children are 3 years old they understand how to use excuses to get out of doing the unpleasant. Unfortunately the adults in our society set the example for this far too well. Husbands and wives use excuses to get out of the household duties they do not like. Parents make excuses for not making the hard choices in dealing with their children. Employees make excuses for why they cannot take on a particular duty at work. Employers make excuses for why they cannot improve a certain problem in the workplace. Excuses, excuses, excuses. They are everywhere.
If you talk to any person that writes or speaks on the subject of success, they will tell you that excuses are the number one reason many people never reach their full potential. Successful people look at circumstances and try to find solutions. The majority of Americans look at circumstances and make excuses for every type of behavior under the sun. We are by far our own worst enemy. Our society will continue to decline until we decide that maybe just maybe we should stop making excuses and start taking care of business.
I am going to touch on a subject that may be controversial but it lies at the very core of the problem in our society. It used to be that when people did stupid things and bad things happened to them it was viewed as normal. People understood natural consequences. If you play on the railroad tracks and get run over by a train, that was just what happened. You should know better than play on the railroad tracks. Now, we sue the train company and try to come up with barriers to keep people off the tracks instead of tackling the real problem. We have removed the concept of consequences from our society. Nothing is ever our fault. We blame everyone and everything else but the people truly responsible for the circumstances. We have become a society of victims.
How does this play out in the early childhood world? We redirect instead of dealing with behaviors. We shield children from natural consequences because it might make their childhood unpleasant. Then we ruin the lives of the adults that take care of children when those children do absolutely foolish things and hurt themselves because they did not understand natural consequences. We are seeing this play out in older children with terrible consequences. I am thinking of the 12 year old boy that was fatally shot by the police officer for acting like he was shooting people in a public place with a toy gun. A 12 year old boy should have known better than to do something like that. On the other hand, we overreact to everything that deals with a gun in our society. The people that called the police about this boy were freaking out just as badly as the answering policeman. Who was at fault in this situation? Everyone including the victim. The boy did something foolish. The parents did not teach the 12 year old how stupid his actions were. The people overreacted to the boy and called the police, and the policeman shot first and asked questions later. However, I am not hearing anybody blame anyone in that situation but the police. There were at least three other parties that helped set up that fatal confrontation, but it is not politically correct to blame the other parties. This is ridiculous. How many times throughout history have people died because they made foolish choices at just the wrong time? We need to start having some extremely serious discussions about foolish choices and personal responsibility. Those types of discussions might have actually helped every single party in the above incident. We as a society have lost the ability to follow a train of events to a logical conclusion before we jump to a decision. Every single party of that situation acted without thinking it through.
What is the answer? Stop making excuses. Most situations have multiple people at fault at varying degrees. Take ownership of your part of the problem and do something about it. Teach children to own up to their mistakes and fix them. If everyone owned up to their part of the issue, many, many issues would cease to be. This is what marriage counselors tell married couples having problems. This should be what our leaders say to each other and everyone else in a society, which is sort of like a huge marriage if you think about it. We are all in this together for thick or thin whether we like it or not. Rant over.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 5)
This post will continue the discussion of early literacy. We will look at the components of Visual Discrimination and Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships with their learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will start with the component, Visual Discrimination, with the learning expectation: Discriminates likenesses/differences in real objects. The performance indicator is: Identifies which objects are the same or different in color, shape, size, texture. This one will depend on how much exposure the child has had with these types of concepts. Some 3 year olds are so immature that they are still dealing with social/emotional issues and do not even pay enough attention to their environment to notice sameness and differentness. Some 3 year olds conquer this early in their 3rd year because they have had a lot of exposure as 2 year olds to these types of concepts. As I have stated before, starting around children's second birthday the span of ability begins to widen greatly among even typically developing children. When you add in children with developmental delays, that span can be enormous. Children need to have adults discuss these concepts with them on a regular basis for them to develop these skills on a typical timetable. Unfortunately, many children will not get this exposure or enough of that type of exposure to meet the typical timetable.
The next learning expectation is: Discriminates likenesses/differences in pictured objects. The performance indicator is: Can discriminate which pictured objects are alike or different based on color, shape, size, number. This one is harder than the previous one. Many children have to see things in the real world first to discriminate these likenesses and differences. Most of these children are right-brain dominant. Left-brain dominate children find it much easier to process the abstract nature of pictures as opposed to real objects. Right-brain dominant children must first learn this concept using real tangible objects before they can transfer to the same concept in pictures. Keep this in mind when exposing children to the concept of same and different. Start with real objects before you do pictures of objects unless you know for certain you are dealing with a left-brain dominant child.
Now we will move on to the component: Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships. The learning expectation for this one is: Develops awareness of parts and wholes and how the parts relate to the whole. The first performance indicator is: Completes puzzles of 4 to 10 pieces; notices and identifies missing parts and common objects; constructs a simple block design, using a model. The performance indicator hits a lot of skills that have fallen by the wayside with many children. How many of you have children that take all the pieces out of the puzzles and just leave them that way? These children do not even try to put them back together. How many of you have children that use blocks to fill containers and dump them out and do not even attempt to build anything? That seems to be the norm these days, and children that actually do puzzles and build with blocks are the exception. I have four year olds that could not identify missing parts and common objects. This particular skill absolutely requires adult instruction and lots of it. For the last 3 or 4 years I have had to teach children how to do puzzles and how to build with blocks. For those experts that think children will naturally gravitate to these types of activities, I would like for them to work on the front lines of childcare nowadays. They just might change their tune.
The last performance indicator for that learning component is: Finds hidden figure pictures. I almost laughed out loud over this one. Want to completely frustrate a child nowadays? Hand them a hidden picture book and start timing. The whining will start in less than a minute. Persistence is one of those traits that children do not have these days. If you have a child that loves hidden picture books, that child is probably in the top 10% of his/her age group if not less than 10%. Those children are rare indeed. I have to make the children in my childcare stay after it when we do hidden picture activities. It took all of them months and months of exposure to actually start to become proficient at that activity. It takes persistence and patience and attention to detail to do well on that type of activity. I should not have to say much about the lack of all of the above in the majority of today's children. This activity will take lots of persistence on your part, but teaching persistence, patience, and attention to detail will be worth all the whining, complaining, and hissy fits that might ensue when you introduce this one.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
We will start with the component, Visual Discrimination, with the learning expectation: Discriminates likenesses/differences in real objects. The performance indicator is: Identifies which objects are the same or different in color, shape, size, texture. This one will depend on how much exposure the child has had with these types of concepts. Some 3 year olds are so immature that they are still dealing with social/emotional issues and do not even pay enough attention to their environment to notice sameness and differentness. Some 3 year olds conquer this early in their 3rd year because they have had a lot of exposure as 2 year olds to these types of concepts. As I have stated before, starting around children's second birthday the span of ability begins to widen greatly among even typically developing children. When you add in children with developmental delays, that span can be enormous. Children need to have adults discuss these concepts with them on a regular basis for them to develop these skills on a typical timetable. Unfortunately, many children will not get this exposure or enough of that type of exposure to meet the typical timetable.
The next learning expectation is: Discriminates likenesses/differences in pictured objects. The performance indicator is: Can discriminate which pictured objects are alike or different based on color, shape, size, number. This one is harder than the previous one. Many children have to see things in the real world first to discriminate these likenesses and differences. Most of these children are right-brain dominant. Left-brain dominate children find it much easier to process the abstract nature of pictures as opposed to real objects. Right-brain dominant children must first learn this concept using real tangible objects before they can transfer to the same concept in pictures. Keep this in mind when exposing children to the concept of same and different. Start with real objects before you do pictures of objects unless you know for certain you are dealing with a left-brain dominant child.
Now we will move on to the component: Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships. The learning expectation for this one is: Develops awareness of parts and wholes and how the parts relate to the whole. The first performance indicator is: Completes puzzles of 4 to 10 pieces; notices and identifies missing parts and common objects; constructs a simple block design, using a model. The performance indicator hits a lot of skills that have fallen by the wayside with many children. How many of you have children that take all the pieces out of the puzzles and just leave them that way? These children do not even try to put them back together. How many of you have children that use blocks to fill containers and dump them out and do not even attempt to build anything? That seems to be the norm these days, and children that actually do puzzles and build with blocks are the exception. I have four year olds that could not identify missing parts and common objects. This particular skill absolutely requires adult instruction and lots of it. For the last 3 or 4 years I have had to teach children how to do puzzles and how to build with blocks. For those experts that think children will naturally gravitate to these types of activities, I would like for them to work on the front lines of childcare nowadays. They just might change their tune.
The last performance indicator for that learning component is: Finds hidden figure pictures. I almost laughed out loud over this one. Want to completely frustrate a child nowadays? Hand them a hidden picture book and start timing. The whining will start in less than a minute. Persistence is one of those traits that children do not have these days. If you have a child that loves hidden picture books, that child is probably in the top 10% of his/her age group if not less than 10%. Those children are rare indeed. I have to make the children in my childcare stay after it when we do hidden picture activities. It took all of them months and months of exposure to actually start to become proficient at that activity. It takes persistence and patience and attention to detail to do well on that type of activity. I should not have to say much about the lack of all of the above in the majority of today's children. This activity will take lots of persistence on your part, but teaching persistence, patience, and attention to detail will be worth all the whining, complaining, and hissy fits that might ensue when you introduce this one.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 4)
This post will continue the discussion of early literacy. First we will finish the learning expectations and performance indicators for the component - Phonological Awareness. Then we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The last learning expectation for the component, Phonological Awareness, is: Begins to combine (blend) parts of compound words to make a whole word. The performance indicator for this one is; When the adult provides 2 words that can be combined to form a compound word, child identifies the compound word (e.g., given base and ball, she produces the word baseball). This is another performance indicator that will not be conquered naturally until the child is older. If a teacher regularly does this type of activity with 3 year olds, many with normally developing language skills will conquer it. However, we seem to be getting a generation of children dragging in language development and those children will not have the language skills to conquer this one. The children also need to have a point of reference to be able to make compound words. Some 3 year olds have never seen a baseball. We have a generation of children coming up that do not have any point of reference with many things the previous generation just took for granted. The sad part is that many adults do not even realize the gap that has been developing for nearly a decade.
Now, we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. The first learning expectation for this one is: Demonstrates interest in books and what they contain. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes specific books by their covers; asks to be read to; asks for favorite books to be read again and again; pretends to read; makes comments and asks questions as story is read; participates in rereading by supplying repetitive phrases. That covers a lot. If a child is not read to regularly, that child will not conquer any of this performance indicator. Children that are read to daily conquer this one easily. I have one 3 year old in my care. She is not yet 3 and 1/2, and she does all of these things. I have a 4 and 1/2 year old that comes part-time. He now recognizes books by their cover, but he does not pretend to read or answer questions about what has been read. He does not supply missing words or repetitive phrases very well, either. The first child has been read to daily since she was 1 year old. The other may or may not have been read to much at all before he came to me at 3 and 1/2. He does not come regularly and therefore does not get the benefit of being read to daily. He still lags behind the first child even though he is a year and 1/2 older than she is. Unfortunately the second child is more representative of the norm than the first child
The next learning expectation is: Understands how books work and the way they are handled. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes when books are upside down or backwards, and turns to correct orientation. This entire component will hinge on whether or not an adult reads to a child on a regular basis. Going back to the example for the previous learning expectation. The first child has this one already conquered. The second child sometimes notices this and sometimes does not. When he was 3 years old, he did not have enough experience with books to come close to this one. I hope this walk through these standards has made it abundantly clear how very important it is to read to children daily. It makes such a noticeable difference but so many parents just do not bother. Some childcare providers also do not bother, but I hope they are the minority and not the majority. I would hope that if this is your profession you will know enough to at least read to your children daily.
The third learning expectation for this component is: Begins to attend to print in the environment, especially own name. The performance indicator for this one is: Asks questions about printed name and letters in it; recognizes printed name and attempts to print; uses same purposeful scribbling when "writing." For this one I am going to use a story related to me by the mother of the 3 and 5 year olds that I keep. Recently, she enrolled the 5 year old in a half-day preschool program in order for him to get more socialization. I let her even though I knew she might not be happy with the socialization he received. This society holds hard to the "socialization" reason for public school, but remember I am a former homeschooling mom. I do not. Well, the first slap of reality she received was on orientation day. All of the children in this program are at least 4 years old. This mom noticed that all of the cubbies used picture nametags instead of just the child's name. She asked about this and the preschool teachers told her that the majority of children start the year not being able to recognize their name in print. Therefore, they use the picture nametags until the children gain more exposure to their name in print. This mom left horrified because her almost 3 year old recognized her name in print and had for a good 4 or 5 months. That day that mom realized that what she thought was normal because of my program was not normal at all. That preschool represents the best preschool by reputation in this town. All the "good" kids (meaning rich or upper middle class) attend there. Maybe sometimes you wonder where I get my information on the state of our children. This story is probably by far the best example of just exactly how bad things have gotten. The preschool teachers at this preschool will tell you that 10 years ago they did not have to use picture nametags, but they do now.
The last learning expectation for this component is: Shows awareness that print conveys a message, that print is read rather than the pictures. The performance indicator is: Begins to look at and comment about the print as much as the pictures; begins to "read" common signs and other print when traveling in a vehicle. Aside from the McDonald's logo or maybe one or two others, this performance indicator is out of reach for 80-90% of 4 year olds much less 3 year olds. Many kindergarteners "read" the pictures as opposed to noticing the print for the first half of the year. Just ask kindergarten teachers how much experience with print awareness 80-90% of the children have on the first day of kindergarten. They might laugh at you. They have a daunting task these days because the print awareness of many children on the first day of kindergarten is at or near zero. Those children from the prestigious preschool I mentioned earlier will make up the 10-20% of children that do have some print awareness because those teachers work those kids hard for a year. Then there is my little 3 year old. She has already met this performance indicator, but I will tell you she is in the top 1% for her age.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The last learning expectation for the component, Phonological Awareness, is: Begins to combine (blend) parts of compound words to make a whole word. The performance indicator for this one is; When the adult provides 2 words that can be combined to form a compound word, child identifies the compound word (e.g., given base and ball, she produces the word baseball). This is another performance indicator that will not be conquered naturally until the child is older. If a teacher regularly does this type of activity with 3 year olds, many with normally developing language skills will conquer it. However, we seem to be getting a generation of children dragging in language development and those children will not have the language skills to conquer this one. The children also need to have a point of reference to be able to make compound words. Some 3 year olds have never seen a baseball. We have a generation of children coming up that do not have any point of reference with many things the previous generation just took for granted. The sad part is that many adults do not even realize the gap that has been developing for nearly a decade.
Now, we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. The first learning expectation for this one is: Demonstrates interest in books and what they contain. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes specific books by their covers; asks to be read to; asks for favorite books to be read again and again; pretends to read; makes comments and asks questions as story is read; participates in rereading by supplying repetitive phrases. That covers a lot. If a child is not read to regularly, that child will not conquer any of this performance indicator. Children that are read to daily conquer this one easily. I have one 3 year old in my care. She is not yet 3 and 1/2, and she does all of these things. I have a 4 and 1/2 year old that comes part-time. He now recognizes books by their cover, but he does not pretend to read or answer questions about what has been read. He does not supply missing words or repetitive phrases very well, either. The first child has been read to daily since she was 1 year old. The other may or may not have been read to much at all before he came to me at 3 and 1/2. He does not come regularly and therefore does not get the benefit of being read to daily. He still lags behind the first child even though he is a year and 1/2 older than she is. Unfortunately the second child is more representative of the norm than the first child
The next learning expectation is: Understands how books work and the way they are handled. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes when books are upside down or backwards, and turns to correct orientation. This entire component will hinge on whether or not an adult reads to a child on a regular basis. Going back to the example for the previous learning expectation. The first child has this one already conquered. The second child sometimes notices this and sometimes does not. When he was 3 years old, he did not have enough experience with books to come close to this one. I hope this walk through these standards has made it abundantly clear how very important it is to read to children daily. It makes such a noticeable difference but so many parents just do not bother. Some childcare providers also do not bother, but I hope they are the minority and not the majority. I would hope that if this is your profession you will know enough to at least read to your children daily.
The third learning expectation for this component is: Begins to attend to print in the environment, especially own name. The performance indicator for this one is: Asks questions about printed name and letters in it; recognizes printed name and attempts to print; uses same purposeful scribbling when "writing." For this one I am going to use a story related to me by the mother of the 3 and 5 year olds that I keep. Recently, she enrolled the 5 year old in a half-day preschool program in order for him to get more socialization. I let her even though I knew she might not be happy with the socialization he received. This society holds hard to the "socialization" reason for public school, but remember I am a former homeschooling mom. I do not. Well, the first slap of reality she received was on orientation day. All of the children in this program are at least 4 years old. This mom noticed that all of the cubbies used picture nametags instead of just the child's name. She asked about this and the preschool teachers told her that the majority of children start the year not being able to recognize their name in print. Therefore, they use the picture nametags until the children gain more exposure to their name in print. This mom left horrified because her almost 3 year old recognized her name in print and had for a good 4 or 5 months. That day that mom realized that what she thought was normal because of my program was not normal at all. That preschool represents the best preschool by reputation in this town. All the "good" kids (meaning rich or upper middle class) attend there. Maybe sometimes you wonder where I get my information on the state of our children. This story is probably by far the best example of just exactly how bad things have gotten. The preschool teachers at this preschool will tell you that 10 years ago they did not have to use picture nametags, but they do now.
The last learning expectation for this component is: Shows awareness that print conveys a message, that print is read rather than the pictures. The performance indicator is: Begins to look at and comment about the print as much as the pictures; begins to "read" common signs and other print when traveling in a vehicle. Aside from the McDonald's logo or maybe one or two others, this performance indicator is out of reach for 80-90% of 4 year olds much less 3 year olds. Many kindergarteners "read" the pictures as opposed to noticing the print for the first half of the year. Just ask kindergarten teachers how much experience with print awareness 80-90% of the children have on the first day of kindergarten. They might laugh at you. They have a daunting task these days because the print awareness of many children on the first day of kindergarten is at or near zero. Those children from the prestigious preschool I mentioned earlier will make up the 10-20% of children that do have some print awareness because those teachers work those kids hard for a year. Then there is my little 3 year old. She has already met this performance indicator, but I will tell you she is in the top 1% for her age.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 3)
This post will pick up the discussion of early literacy with the component - Phonological Awareness. We will cover 3 of the learning expectations for this component with their performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first learning expectation for this component is: Initiates word play and likes rhymes and silly sounds and words. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Repeats rhymes without prompts and enjoys rhymes in songs, poems, and finger plays. To be honest, I do not know many 4 year olds that conquer this particular performance indicator. Rhymes are not as big a part of childhood as they once were. A child must have a thorough background and exposure to rhymes, poems, and finger plays to be able to do them without prompts. I do lots of rhymes in my childcare, but because this is the only place where the children have exposure to them, they do not pick them up very fast at all. I read tons of Dr. Seuss, but the 3 year olds just do not latch onto the rhyming like they did even a decade ago. It is sad.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Identifies whether or not two words rhyme. Again, children in today's world struggle with the concept of rhyming because nursery rhymes have disappeared from childhood. It is not only that, but the lack of exposure to books in general also plays into this phenomenon. It is the rare 3 year old that can conquer the concept of whether or not two words rhyme. I have to work extensively with my 4 year olds to conquer this concept. Children just do not pick this up easily anymore. Childcare providers have to spend a great deal of their time dealing with social/emotional issues these days, which leaves little time for the academic. Some in the early childhood world would say that the preschool years should be mostly about the social/emotional development of a child. I say that we are having to deal so much with the social/emotional development of children because our society and parenting styles and philosophies are dysfunctional. Preschool children used to conquer much more academic content naturally.
The third performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Enjoys stories with alliteration, where all words have the same speech sound; plays with the sounds and participates in the production of more words. I am sorry, but I just do not see 3 year olds playing with sounds anymore. Most of us do well to get 3 year olds to actually sit through an entire book without walking away. Most of the time the children do not even pick up on the fact that all the words begin with the same sound unless you specifically point it out, and that is 4 year olds not 3 year olds. Most of the 4 year olds I have had recently struggled horribly with providing words that all begin with the same letter, and I work hard with that concept. Language development for children has declined at an increasingly alarming rate just in the last 5 years. I feel so sorry for the kindergarten teachers now. Because I know what is coming down the pipeline, I know their job will only continue to get harder and harder as the expectations only continue to increase. These two phenomenons cannot coexist. The educational movement in this country is heading for a meltdown. If you think the teacher burnout rate is bad now, just give it a few more years.
Now we will move on to the next learning expectation: Completes a rhyme and recites at least three rhymes. The performance indicator for this one is; With a familiar poem, supplies a missing word that rhymes with another word. I hope it is becoming obvious by this point that phonological awareness has all but disappeared in the preschool years. Poetry and rhymes have disappeared in all but the best of programs. A child cannot fill in the blanks for something in which they have not heard enough times to be familiar. I would venture to say that 75% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not being able to quote three rhymes. I would also say that 50% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not truly understanding the concept of rhyming. If it has not hit those percentages, just give it a few years. My latest batch hits kindergarten next year. This is the batch that began to truly show the uptick in immaturity and drag in language development.
The last learning expectation for this post is: Begins to detect the syllable structure (rhythm) of oral words. The performance indicator for this one is: Claps or beats the rhythm (syllable beats) in own name and other familiar names. The only way a 3 or 4 year old will conquer this particular performance indicator is if you the provider/teacher do an activity on a regular basis where the child is exposed to this concept. If not, the child will not pick this up on his/her own unless the child is gifted. When 3 and 4 year olds are regularly exposed to this concept most of them will pick it up in time. By regularly exposed, I mean at least once a month, and do not expect them to perfect it the first time you introduce it. Normally, it takes several exposures for the children to fully grasp the concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
The first learning expectation for this component is: Initiates word play and likes rhymes and silly sounds and words. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Repeats rhymes without prompts and enjoys rhymes in songs, poems, and finger plays. To be honest, I do not know many 4 year olds that conquer this particular performance indicator. Rhymes are not as big a part of childhood as they once were. A child must have a thorough background and exposure to rhymes, poems, and finger plays to be able to do them without prompts. I do lots of rhymes in my childcare, but because this is the only place where the children have exposure to them, they do not pick them up very fast at all. I read tons of Dr. Seuss, but the 3 year olds just do not latch onto the rhyming like they did even a decade ago. It is sad.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Identifies whether or not two words rhyme. Again, children in today's world struggle with the concept of rhyming because nursery rhymes have disappeared from childhood. It is not only that, but the lack of exposure to books in general also plays into this phenomenon. It is the rare 3 year old that can conquer the concept of whether or not two words rhyme. I have to work extensively with my 4 year olds to conquer this concept. Children just do not pick this up easily anymore. Childcare providers have to spend a great deal of their time dealing with social/emotional issues these days, which leaves little time for the academic. Some in the early childhood world would say that the preschool years should be mostly about the social/emotional development of a child. I say that we are having to deal so much with the social/emotional development of children because our society and parenting styles and philosophies are dysfunctional. Preschool children used to conquer much more academic content naturally.
The third performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Enjoys stories with alliteration, where all words have the same speech sound; plays with the sounds and participates in the production of more words. I am sorry, but I just do not see 3 year olds playing with sounds anymore. Most of us do well to get 3 year olds to actually sit through an entire book without walking away. Most of the time the children do not even pick up on the fact that all the words begin with the same sound unless you specifically point it out, and that is 4 year olds not 3 year olds. Most of the 4 year olds I have had recently struggled horribly with providing words that all begin with the same letter, and I work hard with that concept. Language development for children has declined at an increasingly alarming rate just in the last 5 years. I feel so sorry for the kindergarten teachers now. Because I know what is coming down the pipeline, I know their job will only continue to get harder and harder as the expectations only continue to increase. These two phenomenons cannot coexist. The educational movement in this country is heading for a meltdown. If you think the teacher burnout rate is bad now, just give it a few more years.
Now we will move on to the next learning expectation: Completes a rhyme and recites at least three rhymes. The performance indicator for this one is; With a familiar poem, supplies a missing word that rhymes with another word. I hope it is becoming obvious by this point that phonological awareness has all but disappeared in the preschool years. Poetry and rhymes have disappeared in all but the best of programs. A child cannot fill in the blanks for something in which they have not heard enough times to be familiar. I would venture to say that 75% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not being able to quote three rhymes. I would also say that 50% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not truly understanding the concept of rhyming. If it has not hit those percentages, just give it a few years. My latest batch hits kindergarten next year. This is the batch that began to truly show the uptick in immaturity and drag in language development.
The last learning expectation for this post is: Begins to detect the syllable structure (rhythm) of oral words. The performance indicator for this one is: Claps or beats the rhythm (syllable beats) in own name and other familiar names. The only way a 3 or 4 year old will conquer this particular performance indicator is if you the provider/teacher do an activity on a regular basis where the child is exposed to this concept. If not, the child will not pick this up on his/her own unless the child is gifted. When 3 and 4 year olds are regularly exposed to this concept most of them will pick it up in time. By regularly exposed, I mean at least once a month, and do not expect them to perfect it the first time you introduce it. Normally, it takes several exposures for the children to fully grasp the concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 2)
This post will continue the discussion of cognitive development for 3 to 4 year olds in the area of learning - Early Literacy. We will discuss the component - Listening and Understanding with its learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember, I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first learning expectation for this component is: Listens attentively to stories, conversations, and explanations and demonstrates understanding. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Maintains attention to stories and responds to questions appropriately. Whether or not a child conquers this performance indicator very much depends on (1) how much exposure a child gets to books and being read to frequently and (2) how much a parent or caregiver has worked with the child as a 2 year old to sit and listen. Of course, if a child does not have a lot of experience with books, it takes a while for that child to learn to interact with stories correctly. Also, if a child has not had an adult work with them as a 2 year old to sit for at least a short time, that training must start when they are 3 years old. Many, many child experts must believe that certain behaviors just appear at certain ages without those behaviors having to be trained. That is ludicrous. I truly believe there is a huge disconnect between the "experts" and the frontlines of this industry. The experts feel that training a 2 and 1/2 to 3 year old to sit is developmentally inappropriate, but that 3 year olds will automatically display this behavior. This leaves 3 year old teachers with the enormous task of training a behavior that really should have been trained the previous six months to some degree. The same amount of training is required regardless of when it starts putting those 3 year olds behind the curve automatically. The lack of training affects other developmental milestones making the fulfillment of this performance indicator fall after a child's 4th birthday rather than before. I train my 2 and 1/2 to 3 year olds to sit for short amounts of time, and it makes an enormous difference in them as 3 to 4 year olds. When I get 3 year olds that have never been made to sit, that is all we can work on until they conquer it putting them behind the children I have had as 2 year olds.
An Aside
Before I move on to the next performance indicator I want to discuss the ideals of this industry versus the reality of this industry. Very often the ideals of this industry conflict with the gaining of long-held developmental milestones without the idealists realizing that their ideals create a conflict. However, those on the frontlines know that something just is not working without necessarily knowing the how and why. Some on the frontlines do understand the conflict and fix it on their own at their own risk. They understand they have to not adhere to certain principles in order to gain certain milestones (case in point - making 2 year olds sit). They run the risk of the full wrath of the idealists when they do this, and it can be one of the most stressful parts of this job. In some heavily regulated states, these people take great risk to do what they feel is actually right, and some really good caregivers have been driven from this industry over these issues. As an avid history buff, I find myself getting very frustrated with the idealists often. They believe that we have evolved as people and are much smarter than previous generations even though if you actually did studies that truly compare certain behaviors and milestones against previous generations we would see that maybe we are not as smart as we think we are. Most of the idealists look at history through their own perspectives rather than looking at history as it was. They judge history by their own standards rather than judging both groups by common standards. Did you know that the societal rate of literate adults was actually higher during the colonial days than it is now in the United States? That is just one of millions of ways modern society does not necessarily stack up to previous generations. Many times when the idealists do understand there is a conflict between their ideals and the developmental milestones, the milestones are changed rather than the ideals. In the grand scheme of history our present ideals are fairly untested compared to other ideals that have stood for centuries. Maybe just maybe the ideals are the problem and not the milestones.
The next performance indicator is: Participates with understanding in activities with stories, songs, finger plays, and poems. The operative word in that performance indicator is participates. How many of you childcare providers struggle with getting 3 year olds to participate in anything. A great deal of the time, you do the activity while they stare at you. Am I right? We will not even go to participates with understanding when we cannot get them to participate in the first place. Sometimes I literally work years to get some children to participate in group activities in a way that shows they understand what is happening. We have programmed children to do what they want to do and undoing that can be nearly impossible with some children. I am sorry, but this is a perfect example of where the ideals and the reality do not mesh. The ideal of free choice for children and the need for children to learn to participate in group activities do not compliment one another. Many children that are used to doing what they want to do all the time have to be made to participate in group activities. If we do not do it as early childhood educators, then the kindergarten teachers will have do it when they arrive on their doorstep. Believe me, the kindergarten teachers have enough on their plate without having to do that as well. Preschool children are fully capable of participating in group activities without it damaging their psyche. On the contrary, I am not so sure that giving children complete choice does not actually do long-lasting damage to a child's psyche. The jury is out on that one.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Notices if reader omits parts of familiar story. This performance indicator assumes that a child has heard a story enough times to notice if parts of it have been omitted. That can be a huge assumption. Again, if a child has not been read to as a 2 year old, this performance indicator will not happen as a 3 year old. For many children that start with me as a 3 year old, this performance indicator is beyond them until they are 4 year olds. I know this is common occurrence in many childcares. You stop in the middle of a story to see if they can supply what happens next only to be met with blank stares or an entire group of children too busy doing their own thing to even notice that you are actually doing something. I will say that left-brain leaning children will be better at this one than right brain leaning children. Left-brain leaning children are all about the details and notice when one is omitted. Right-brain children may not notice at all or get so caught up in your new version that their brains go in an entirely different direction. Right-brain children need extra practice at details.
The second learning expectation for the component listening and understanding is: Understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary for objects, attributes, actions, and events. The performance indicator for this one is: Comprehends and uses new words that are introduced with stories, thematic units, field trips, and other daily activities. Again, this one assumes a lot of previous language development as a 2 year old. The breadth of the variations of language development in 3 year olds can be enormous. I will say the top 25% of 3 year olds handle this performance indicator well by the time they are 4 years old. The bottom 25% will not do this before kindergarten if then. The middle 50% may or may not handle this one by the time they are 4 years old, but will probably be able to handle it by the time they are 4 and 1/2 to 5 years old. It depends on the level of exposure the children have to language on a daily basis as to when they will be able to start incorporating new vocabulary into their spoken and responsive language. Children need to hear as large a variety of words as possible on a daily basis. I cannot stress enough how important that is to the language development of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The first learning expectation for this component is: Listens attentively to stories, conversations, and explanations and demonstrates understanding. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Maintains attention to stories and responds to questions appropriately. Whether or not a child conquers this performance indicator very much depends on (1) how much exposure a child gets to books and being read to frequently and (2) how much a parent or caregiver has worked with the child as a 2 year old to sit and listen. Of course, if a child does not have a lot of experience with books, it takes a while for that child to learn to interact with stories correctly. Also, if a child has not had an adult work with them as a 2 year old to sit for at least a short time, that training must start when they are 3 years old. Many, many child experts must believe that certain behaviors just appear at certain ages without those behaviors having to be trained. That is ludicrous. I truly believe there is a huge disconnect between the "experts" and the frontlines of this industry. The experts feel that training a 2 and 1/2 to 3 year old to sit is developmentally inappropriate, but that 3 year olds will automatically display this behavior. This leaves 3 year old teachers with the enormous task of training a behavior that really should have been trained the previous six months to some degree. The same amount of training is required regardless of when it starts putting those 3 year olds behind the curve automatically. The lack of training affects other developmental milestones making the fulfillment of this performance indicator fall after a child's 4th birthday rather than before. I train my 2 and 1/2 to 3 year olds to sit for short amounts of time, and it makes an enormous difference in them as 3 to 4 year olds. When I get 3 year olds that have never been made to sit, that is all we can work on until they conquer it putting them behind the children I have had as 2 year olds.
An Aside
Before I move on to the next performance indicator I want to discuss the ideals of this industry versus the reality of this industry. Very often the ideals of this industry conflict with the gaining of long-held developmental milestones without the idealists realizing that their ideals create a conflict. However, those on the frontlines know that something just is not working without necessarily knowing the how and why. Some on the frontlines do understand the conflict and fix it on their own at their own risk. They understand they have to not adhere to certain principles in order to gain certain milestones (case in point - making 2 year olds sit). They run the risk of the full wrath of the idealists when they do this, and it can be one of the most stressful parts of this job. In some heavily regulated states, these people take great risk to do what they feel is actually right, and some really good caregivers have been driven from this industry over these issues. As an avid history buff, I find myself getting very frustrated with the idealists often. They believe that we have evolved as people and are much smarter than previous generations even though if you actually did studies that truly compare certain behaviors and milestones against previous generations we would see that maybe we are not as smart as we think we are. Most of the idealists look at history through their own perspectives rather than looking at history as it was. They judge history by their own standards rather than judging both groups by common standards. Did you know that the societal rate of literate adults was actually higher during the colonial days than it is now in the United States? That is just one of millions of ways modern society does not necessarily stack up to previous generations. Many times when the idealists do understand there is a conflict between their ideals and the developmental milestones, the milestones are changed rather than the ideals. In the grand scheme of history our present ideals are fairly untested compared to other ideals that have stood for centuries. Maybe just maybe the ideals are the problem and not the milestones.
The next performance indicator is: Participates with understanding in activities with stories, songs, finger plays, and poems. The operative word in that performance indicator is participates. How many of you childcare providers struggle with getting 3 year olds to participate in anything. A great deal of the time, you do the activity while they stare at you. Am I right? We will not even go to participates with understanding when we cannot get them to participate in the first place. Sometimes I literally work years to get some children to participate in group activities in a way that shows they understand what is happening. We have programmed children to do what they want to do and undoing that can be nearly impossible with some children. I am sorry, but this is a perfect example of where the ideals and the reality do not mesh. The ideal of free choice for children and the need for children to learn to participate in group activities do not compliment one another. Many children that are used to doing what they want to do all the time have to be made to participate in group activities. If we do not do it as early childhood educators, then the kindergarten teachers will have do it when they arrive on their doorstep. Believe me, the kindergarten teachers have enough on their plate without having to do that as well. Preschool children are fully capable of participating in group activities without it damaging their psyche. On the contrary, I am not so sure that giving children complete choice does not actually do long-lasting damage to a child's psyche. The jury is out on that one.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Notices if reader omits parts of familiar story. This performance indicator assumes that a child has heard a story enough times to notice if parts of it have been omitted. That can be a huge assumption. Again, if a child has not been read to as a 2 year old, this performance indicator will not happen as a 3 year old. For many children that start with me as a 3 year old, this performance indicator is beyond them until they are 4 year olds. I know this is common occurrence in many childcares. You stop in the middle of a story to see if they can supply what happens next only to be met with blank stares or an entire group of children too busy doing their own thing to even notice that you are actually doing something. I will say that left-brain leaning children will be better at this one than right brain leaning children. Left-brain leaning children are all about the details and notice when one is omitted. Right-brain children may not notice at all or get so caught up in your new version that their brains go in an entirely different direction. Right-brain children need extra practice at details.
The second learning expectation for the component listening and understanding is: Understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary for objects, attributes, actions, and events. The performance indicator for this one is: Comprehends and uses new words that are introduced with stories, thematic units, field trips, and other daily activities. Again, this one assumes a lot of previous language development as a 2 year old. The breadth of the variations of language development in 3 year olds can be enormous. I will say the top 25% of 3 year olds handle this performance indicator well by the time they are 4 years old. The bottom 25% will not do this before kindergarten if then. The middle 50% may or may not handle this one by the time they are 4 years old, but will probably be able to handle it by the time they are 4 and 1/2 to 5 years old. It depends on the level of exposure the children have to language on a daily basis as to when they will be able to start incorporating new vocabulary into their spoken and responsive language. Children need to hear as large a variety of words as possible on a daily basis. I cannot stress enough how important that is to the language development of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 1)
We will now switch gears from Language Development to Cognitive Development zeroing in on the area of learning - Early Literacy. We will cover both of the learning expectations for the component - Verbal Expression and Communication. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will start with the learning expectation: Engages verbally with stories in books and movies. The first performance indicator is: Makes relevant comments and asks logical questions about the story; begins to predict what will happen next. I know I speak for many early childhood teachers when I say that at 3 years old we do well to get them to sit for an entire story. Asking them to verbally engage with the story might be asking a little much from many 3 year olds. Truthfully for most children that start at my program as 3 year olds, I will not get this behavior until they are 4 years old. Sometimes it does not show until closer to 4 and 1/2 years old if they started after they were 3 and 1/2 years old. It is a sad commentary on our culture that many children are so book deprived that it takes nearly a year in a literacy rich environment to catch them up to speed. Those children that I have had since they were toddlers will display this behavior at 3 years old because they grew up in a literacy rich environment. Most parents do not understand how much they deprive their children by not reading to them. It makes that big a difference.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Tells own story, with a sequence, using one or more pictures. Unless a 3 year old is in an environment where this is practiced, this skill will not emerge on its own. The same is true of a 4 year old. This has to be introduced by a teacher and demonstrated. Only the top 20% of children MIGHT develop this skill on their own. In my facility we do creative writing lessons on a regular basis. My 3 year olds can come up with elaborate stories because they have watched the older children and have had lots of practice. Sequencing is one of those skills, a left-brain skill, that requires direct instruction unless the child is very heavily left-brain dominate. Many children these days struggle with a sequencing activity unless they have had lots of practice at it.
Now we will move on to the second learning expectation: Uses more advanced sentence structure and varied vocabulary in verbal expression. The first performance indicator is: Speaks in longer sentences, using more adjectives and adverbs, and some clauses beginning with when, if, after; asks to have unknown words explained. Again, I am not really seeing this behavior until right at or after 4 years old. Children from literacy-rich environments conquer this around 3 and 1/2, but unfortunately that does not include a great deal of children these days. Children in literacy-rich programs but literacy-poor homes still drag behind those children that spend all of their waking hours in literacy-rich environments. What do I mean by literacy-rich? The child is read to at least once per day usually more. The child is able to engage in conversation with adults and not just children his/her own age. A child is a literacy-rich environment hears lots of words in a day - around 1000. Whereas, children in literacy-poor environments hear an average of 200 words per day. This makes a huge difference in development. This is why children with educated parents tend to do better than children with uneducated parents. The educated parents tend to use a much wider variety of vocabulary around the children.
The last performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Asks for names of unknown objects, colors, etc. I have actually seen a decrease in this inquisitiveness in kids recently. A decade ago, 3 and 4 year old children were known for driving adults crazy with questions. Now, they still drive adults crazy but most of it is hissy fits and whining. The questions have diminished greatly. I have my theories on why this is occurring, but I have yet to see any studies on this yet. However, I know more and more studies have been done on how social media is causing people to become more isolated. It only makes sense that the same is happening to children. I know from experience that parents arrive to pick up their children talking on their cell phone and never stop while they sign out, pick up their kid, and leave. The child never really gets acknowledged at all except to be crammed in a carseat and strapped in. The parent then drives away still talking on the cell phone. People, when a child's emotional needs for attachment are not being met, then all other areas of development will suffer. The questions have disappeared and been replaced with hissy fits and whining because the children need attention. Parents, please put down the phones and start paying attention to your children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
We will start with the learning expectation: Engages verbally with stories in books and movies. The first performance indicator is: Makes relevant comments and asks logical questions about the story; begins to predict what will happen next. I know I speak for many early childhood teachers when I say that at 3 years old we do well to get them to sit for an entire story. Asking them to verbally engage with the story might be asking a little much from many 3 year olds. Truthfully for most children that start at my program as 3 year olds, I will not get this behavior until they are 4 years old. Sometimes it does not show until closer to 4 and 1/2 years old if they started after they were 3 and 1/2 years old. It is a sad commentary on our culture that many children are so book deprived that it takes nearly a year in a literacy rich environment to catch them up to speed. Those children that I have had since they were toddlers will display this behavior at 3 years old because they grew up in a literacy rich environment. Most parents do not understand how much they deprive their children by not reading to them. It makes that big a difference.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Tells own story, with a sequence, using one or more pictures. Unless a 3 year old is in an environment where this is practiced, this skill will not emerge on its own. The same is true of a 4 year old. This has to be introduced by a teacher and demonstrated. Only the top 20% of children MIGHT develop this skill on their own. In my facility we do creative writing lessons on a regular basis. My 3 year olds can come up with elaborate stories because they have watched the older children and have had lots of practice. Sequencing is one of those skills, a left-brain skill, that requires direct instruction unless the child is very heavily left-brain dominate. Many children these days struggle with a sequencing activity unless they have had lots of practice at it.
Now we will move on to the second learning expectation: Uses more advanced sentence structure and varied vocabulary in verbal expression. The first performance indicator is: Speaks in longer sentences, using more adjectives and adverbs, and some clauses beginning with when, if, after; asks to have unknown words explained. Again, I am not really seeing this behavior until right at or after 4 years old. Children from literacy-rich environments conquer this around 3 and 1/2, but unfortunately that does not include a great deal of children these days. Children in literacy-rich programs but literacy-poor homes still drag behind those children that spend all of their waking hours in literacy-rich environments. What do I mean by literacy-rich? The child is read to at least once per day usually more. The child is able to engage in conversation with adults and not just children his/her own age. A child is a literacy-rich environment hears lots of words in a day - around 1000. Whereas, children in literacy-poor environments hear an average of 200 words per day. This makes a huge difference in development. This is why children with educated parents tend to do better than children with uneducated parents. The educated parents tend to use a much wider variety of vocabulary around the children.
The last performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Asks for names of unknown objects, colors, etc. I have actually seen a decrease in this inquisitiveness in kids recently. A decade ago, 3 and 4 year old children were known for driving adults crazy with questions. Now, they still drive adults crazy but most of it is hissy fits and whining. The questions have diminished greatly. I have my theories on why this is occurring, but I have yet to see any studies on this yet. However, I know more and more studies have been done on how social media is causing people to become more isolated. It only makes sense that the same is happening to children. I know from experience that parents arrive to pick up their children talking on their cell phone and never stop while they sign out, pick up their kid, and leave. The child never really gets acknowledged at all except to be crammed in a carseat and strapped in. The parent then drives away still talking on the cell phone. People, when a child's emotional needs for attachment are not being met, then all other areas of development will suffer. The questions have disappeared and been replaced with hissy fits and whining because the children need attention. Parents, please put down the phones and start paying attention to your children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Language Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Communication (Part 6)
This post will finish the discussion of language development for the area of learning - Communication. I will finish the performance indicators for the component - Expressive Language, and then move on to the component - Speech. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
First, we will look at the last two performance indicators for the component - Expressive Language. We are still in the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator is: Uses new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language. This performance indicator does not have as definite a benchmark as some of the others have had. Therefore, I would say that all 3 to 4 year olds conquer this one. They all incorporate new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language as they gain exposure. Can this vary wildly from child to child? Absolutely. The level of competence for this one directly depends on the amount of language exposure the child receives. Those that get more will have a greater level of competence unless they have physical developmental issues holding them back.
The last performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Talks in complete, complex sentences 4-8 words in length. I know the authors of these standards tried to hit the middle of the road on this one as of the time the standards were written. However, nowadays the 4 word sentences might be closer to the middle even though I have seen children talk in complete, complex paragraphs at 4 years old. Again, the level of the competence depends on the amount of language exposure the child has received. This past week I was the guest speaker for a literacy night at an urban school. I told those parents that the importance of reading to your children every single day could not be overemphasized. I explained to them that I can tell when a child has or has not had adequate language exposure as soon as they walk in my door. I think that might have shocked a great deal of them. Many parents do not think it is such a big deal, and to find out that I can tell that quickly made many of them uncomfortable. Then I told them that if they will only do one thing for the development of their children and read to them, it will make a huge difference in the academic life of their child.
Now, we will shift gears to the component of Speech. The learning expectation is: Speech is clear enough to be understood by most people. The first performance indicator is: Uses some slang words and common colloquial expressions like "Mama carried grandma to the doctor." Slang and colloquial expressions represent some of the first items of speech a child will conquer. In fact, once established these types of language uses are extremely difficult to correct especially in spoken speech. As a Southerner, I will say certain things in spoken language that I would never dream of using in written language especially in academic work. We all seem to learn this one well.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Produces most of the consonant sounds of our language correctly. This one has gone downhill very quickly in the last 3 to 5 years. I am seeing speech issues I have never encountered. One of the families I serve has a mom and grandmom that are speech therapists, and they, too, have not encountered many of the speech issues that I have seen recently. Some of it is pure laziness because we will correct one problem only to have that consonant sound be the one that replaces everything. A great deal of it is underdeveloped tongues, and I have not figured out what is causing that issue yet. If I ever go back for a second degree, I will get it in speech therapy because I spend a great deal of my day acting as a speech therapist anyway. My thesis proposal for graduate school revolved around how phonics reading instruction helped children with speech issues. Because of the emphasis on whole language instruction in the early childhood field, phonemic awareness has taken a backseat, and it is affecting children's speech and reading abilities. However, something physical is causing the underdeveloped tongues, and that one still has me greatly puzzled.
The third performance indicator is: May still have difficulty saying certain sounds that are hard to produce, most frequently with (r), (er), and (l). So that I do not repeat myself let me give you a list of sounds that are now becoming an issue - (k), (g), (f), (v), (th), (ch), (y), (t), and the list grows with every new kid I encounter. I have several speech therapists that are friends of mine, and they will attest to the fact that the old standby problems do not even cover the new extent of the problem. I may have to break down one of these days and actually conduct a study on the underlying causes of this explosion in speech issues.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Says multi-syllable words easily (balloon, dinosaur, umbrella, automobile). My experience with this one is that the children attempt multi-syllable words but very often the middle or ending sounds are not correct. I am working on as many middle and ending sounds of words as onset sounds. Many times when I correct the pronunciation at the onset of the word, we have to then concentrate on that same sound in the middle or end of the word. People, we have serious speech issues here. If anyone else figures out why we are having such problems with underdeveloped tongues, I would love to hear their ideas.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
First, we will look at the last two performance indicators for the component - Expressive Language. We are still in the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator is: Uses new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language. This performance indicator does not have as definite a benchmark as some of the others have had. Therefore, I would say that all 3 to 4 year olds conquer this one. They all incorporate new vocabulary and grammatical construction in language as they gain exposure. Can this vary wildly from child to child? Absolutely. The level of competence for this one directly depends on the amount of language exposure the child receives. Those that get more will have a greater level of competence unless they have physical developmental issues holding them back.
The last performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Talks in complete, complex sentences 4-8 words in length. I know the authors of these standards tried to hit the middle of the road on this one as of the time the standards were written. However, nowadays the 4 word sentences might be closer to the middle even though I have seen children talk in complete, complex paragraphs at 4 years old. Again, the level of the competence depends on the amount of language exposure the child has received. This past week I was the guest speaker for a literacy night at an urban school. I told those parents that the importance of reading to your children every single day could not be overemphasized. I explained to them that I can tell when a child has or has not had adequate language exposure as soon as they walk in my door. I think that might have shocked a great deal of them. Many parents do not think it is such a big deal, and to find out that I can tell that quickly made many of them uncomfortable. Then I told them that if they will only do one thing for the development of their children and read to them, it will make a huge difference in the academic life of their child.
Now, we will shift gears to the component of Speech. The learning expectation is: Speech is clear enough to be understood by most people. The first performance indicator is: Uses some slang words and common colloquial expressions like "Mama carried grandma to the doctor." Slang and colloquial expressions represent some of the first items of speech a child will conquer. In fact, once established these types of language uses are extremely difficult to correct especially in spoken speech. As a Southerner, I will say certain things in spoken language that I would never dream of using in written language especially in academic work. We all seem to learn this one well.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Produces most of the consonant sounds of our language correctly. This one has gone downhill very quickly in the last 3 to 5 years. I am seeing speech issues I have never encountered. One of the families I serve has a mom and grandmom that are speech therapists, and they, too, have not encountered many of the speech issues that I have seen recently. Some of it is pure laziness because we will correct one problem only to have that consonant sound be the one that replaces everything. A great deal of it is underdeveloped tongues, and I have not figured out what is causing that issue yet. If I ever go back for a second degree, I will get it in speech therapy because I spend a great deal of my day acting as a speech therapist anyway. My thesis proposal for graduate school revolved around how phonics reading instruction helped children with speech issues. Because of the emphasis on whole language instruction in the early childhood field, phonemic awareness has taken a backseat, and it is affecting children's speech and reading abilities. However, something physical is causing the underdeveloped tongues, and that one still has me greatly puzzled.
The third performance indicator is: May still have difficulty saying certain sounds that are hard to produce, most frequently with (r), (er), and (l). So that I do not repeat myself let me give you a list of sounds that are now becoming an issue - (k), (g), (f), (v), (th), (ch), (y), (t), and the list grows with every new kid I encounter. I have several speech therapists that are friends of mine, and they will attest to the fact that the old standby problems do not even cover the new extent of the problem. I may have to break down one of these days and actually conduct a study on the underlying causes of this explosion in speech issues.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Says multi-syllable words easily (balloon, dinosaur, umbrella, automobile). My experience with this one is that the children attempt multi-syllable words but very often the middle or ending sounds are not correct. I am working on as many middle and ending sounds of words as onset sounds. Many times when I correct the pronunciation at the onset of the word, we have to then concentrate on that same sound in the middle or end of the word. People, we have serious speech issues here. If anyone else figures out why we are having such problems with underdeveloped tongues, I would love to hear their ideas.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Dealing with the Effects of Helicopter Parenting - Indecisiveness
This post will continue the discussion of the effects of helicopter parenting. Specifically, this post will zero in on the problem of indecisiveness or fear of making decisions that has manifested itself in the first generation of helicopter parented children - the millenials.
Fear of Decisions
Even though helicopter parenting has not been around very long in the broad scheme of time, it has now been around long enough to notice very specific trends that have developed in the generation raised in this way. One of the most disturbing trends manifesting itself encompasses an intense fear of making decisions. This goes beyond just being indecisive. The millenials have meltdowns over having to make mild life decisions much less tough life decisions. These young adults have now reached their twenties, and for the most part, they still rely more heavily on their parents than any other previous generation. A large majority of them still live with their parents and do not hold down regular jobs. This fear of decisions has caused many, many of them to not really be functioning adults. We have had to invent a whole other developmental stage for this generation because of this.
Failure to Launch
For the record, I was absolutely not a helicopter parent even though my children are considered millenials. My children knew when they hit adulthood, my husband and I expected them to leave the nest. Moving back in on us would only happen if dire and extreme circumstances overtook them. We kept a spare bedroom for them when they were in college, but we did not keep "their" bedroom. We meant business because we were seeing so many of our friends having twenty something children not even remotely interested in leaving the nest. We actually saw this coming when our children were in their teens. Many, many of their friends had no desire to get their driver's license. I thought that odd to say the least. However, many of their friends' parents considered that a blessing at the time. I do not think they consider it a blessing now that their twenty something child still does not have a license and sits on the couch all day playing video games. We have a serious problem on our hands.
The Downside of a Perfect Childhood
What went wrong? My peers began the trend of trying to make childhood perfect. They did everything for their children. They tried to give them everything they did not have when they were children. They really did not have expectations for their children because they felt their parents had too many expectations for them. In short, they made a mess. My husband and I bucked the parenting trends popular with our peers, and it was not easy. Many, many people gave us a horrible time because we actually expected our children to work and made them go without a lot of the trendy clothes and toys the other children their age had. Now, many of them have twenty something children still living at home without jobs that function more like overgrown teenagers than adults. We have actual adult children that are on their own, and they are 27, 25, and 23. Our oldest owns a home and 2 cars, our middle child works 3 jobs, and our youngest owns a car. Millenials do not, on average, do any of those things.
Fear of Taking Risks
Millenials' fear of making decisions keeps them from taking risks that before this generation defined the twenties. They do not move out of their parents' home until they absolutely must. By and large many of them are deferring marriage because they are petrified of commitment. They will not even keep credit cards of their own. They will use their parent's credit cards but will not get their own. The responsibility of having to pay monthly bills terrifies them. My generation for the most part could not wait to get out of our own. We struggled in the beginning, but we were not afraid to take risks. I guess my generation decided that struggling was the most horrible experience they had ever encountered and vowed their children would never have to struggle like that. Now, my generation works so many jobs it is unbelievable to support not only their children but their children's children as well. Maybe my generation had a distorted view of reality and made some bad judgement calls. Maybe struggling was the best thing that ever happened to us.
The Need for Struggle
Therein, lies the solution to all this mess. Helicopter parenting failed so miserably because they did not let the children struggle and work to accomplish things. When everything is handed to you on a silver platter, it makes you dependent not independent. These children have to struggle in order to understand and calculate risk. Being able to calculate risk lies at the very heart of being a good decision maker.
The Trouble with Choice
I will say that about a decade ago, early childhood professionals began to see the ramifications of children not being able to make decisions. Therefore, they began to push "choice." Their theory was that if a child had more control over their lives, this would make them more decisive. This brought about the practice of giving children two positive choices instead of making them do things. However, two positive choices and getting things their way does not produce children that can calculate risk. It takes negative experiences to develop risk-taking abilities. Again, the experts have it upside down and backwards. Actually, children that are made to do what they need to do develop risk taking abilities because they understand how the real world works. All this other just adds to the mess.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Fear of Decisions
Even though helicopter parenting has not been around very long in the broad scheme of time, it has now been around long enough to notice very specific trends that have developed in the generation raised in this way. One of the most disturbing trends manifesting itself encompasses an intense fear of making decisions. This goes beyond just being indecisive. The millenials have meltdowns over having to make mild life decisions much less tough life decisions. These young adults have now reached their twenties, and for the most part, they still rely more heavily on their parents than any other previous generation. A large majority of them still live with their parents and do not hold down regular jobs. This fear of decisions has caused many, many of them to not really be functioning adults. We have had to invent a whole other developmental stage for this generation because of this.
Failure to Launch
For the record, I was absolutely not a helicopter parent even though my children are considered millenials. My children knew when they hit adulthood, my husband and I expected them to leave the nest. Moving back in on us would only happen if dire and extreme circumstances overtook them. We kept a spare bedroom for them when they were in college, but we did not keep "their" bedroom. We meant business because we were seeing so many of our friends having twenty something children not even remotely interested in leaving the nest. We actually saw this coming when our children were in their teens. Many, many of their friends had no desire to get their driver's license. I thought that odd to say the least. However, many of their friends' parents considered that a blessing at the time. I do not think they consider it a blessing now that their twenty something child still does not have a license and sits on the couch all day playing video games. We have a serious problem on our hands.
The Downside of a Perfect Childhood
What went wrong? My peers began the trend of trying to make childhood perfect. They did everything for their children. They tried to give them everything they did not have when they were children. They really did not have expectations for their children because they felt their parents had too many expectations for them. In short, they made a mess. My husband and I bucked the parenting trends popular with our peers, and it was not easy. Many, many people gave us a horrible time because we actually expected our children to work and made them go without a lot of the trendy clothes and toys the other children their age had. Now, many of them have twenty something children still living at home without jobs that function more like overgrown teenagers than adults. We have actual adult children that are on their own, and they are 27, 25, and 23. Our oldest owns a home and 2 cars, our middle child works 3 jobs, and our youngest owns a car. Millenials do not, on average, do any of those things.
Fear of Taking Risks
Millenials' fear of making decisions keeps them from taking risks that before this generation defined the twenties. They do not move out of their parents' home until they absolutely must. By and large many of them are deferring marriage because they are petrified of commitment. They will not even keep credit cards of their own. They will use their parent's credit cards but will not get their own. The responsibility of having to pay monthly bills terrifies them. My generation for the most part could not wait to get out of our own. We struggled in the beginning, but we were not afraid to take risks. I guess my generation decided that struggling was the most horrible experience they had ever encountered and vowed their children would never have to struggle like that. Now, my generation works so many jobs it is unbelievable to support not only their children but their children's children as well. Maybe my generation had a distorted view of reality and made some bad judgement calls. Maybe struggling was the best thing that ever happened to us.
The Need for Struggle
Therein, lies the solution to all this mess. Helicopter parenting failed so miserably because they did not let the children struggle and work to accomplish things. When everything is handed to you on a silver platter, it makes you dependent not independent. These children have to struggle in order to understand and calculate risk. Being able to calculate risk lies at the very heart of being a good decision maker.
The Trouble with Choice
I will say that about a decade ago, early childhood professionals began to see the ramifications of children not being able to make decisions. Therefore, they began to push "choice." Their theory was that if a child had more control over their lives, this would make them more decisive. This brought about the practice of giving children two positive choices instead of making them do things. However, two positive choices and getting things their way does not produce children that can calculate risk. It takes negative experiences to develop risk-taking abilities. Again, the experts have it upside down and backwards. Actually, children that are made to do what they need to do develop risk taking abilities because they understand how the real world works. All this other just adds to the mess.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Language Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Communication (Part 5)
This post will continue the discussion of language development in 3 to 4 year olds in the area of learning - Communication. I am still covering the component - Expressive Language. I will start by finishing the performance indicators for the learning expectation: Participates in conversations and then move on to the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
First, I will finish up the performance indicators for the learning expectation: Participates in conversations. The last performance indicator for that one is: Continues to ask many "who," "what," "why," and "where" questions. This week I actually started a child that restored my faith in parents to some degree. She is 3 and 1/2 years old, and she actually is 3 and 1/2 years old developmentally instead of being closer to 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old developmentally. She is the first in a while, but I have also had a very long string of boys. Boys will typically lag behind girls developmentally anyway. A good deal of the boys I have had and some of the girls have not really started asking the "w" questions until well after their fourth birthday. I truly believe the lack of "w" questions and the underdeveloped imaginations of today's children go hand in hand. One truly feeds off of the other and when one is lacking the other will be lacking as well. To bolster the amount of "w" questions, I believe you need to stimulate the imagination. How do you stimulate the imagination? Read to the children and give them plenty of uninterrupted free play time where you back off.
Next, we will move on to the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator for this one is: May combine sentences in conversation. This one very much depends on how well-developed the child's language skills are. When a child reaches a certain level of competency with language, this one will naturally develop. The key to helping along a child's ability to communicate is to make them use their words. If you are allowing a three year old to point and grunt when that child has the capacity to use their words, you are not helping. I know it can be frustrating with some children whose parents allow a lot of pointing and grunting, but in your setting never let that be an option for a 3 year old unless you know for certain that child has serious developmental issues. For moderate to mild developmental issues, pointing and grunting is still not acceptable at 3 years old.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Expresses both physical and emotional feelings. This one is also heavily tied to how much you make the child use his/her words. A great deal of 3 year old children express feelings of all kinds through fits and screaming and not words. I have even had 4 year olds that mostly used fits and screaming to express emotions. Even positive emotions come out as squeals and rambunctious behavior rather than words. We as a society need to work on understanding our own emotions and being able to express those in appropriate ways. Many young millenial parents do not possess a great deal of competency in this area. They know a lot about drama and how to scream at each other, but not so much about handling emotions in an adult manner. How can we expect their children to have a great deal of emotional intelligence if the parents do not posses a great deal of emotional intelligence? This is one of the major underlying reasons we are seeing hissy fits throughout childhood now instead of just in the toddler years. Your mantra needs to be until we turn this around, "Use your words, please." Teach children about emotions and how to express emotions appropriately.
The third performance indicator is: Uses more plural words but may over-generalize (foots for feet). As long as children pull up their language skills to a somewhat reasonable level, this particular performance indicator usually comes along on its own. Most children hear this enough in conversation to conquer it naturally. If a child has not conquered this one by age 4, developmental screening may be in order. A language delay that involves this one could be considered a fairly serious delay.
The fourth performance indicator is: Understands past tense, adds "ed" to verbs. Again this is one that normally develops naturally unless there is a significant language delay. Although this one may develop later than the plurals. If you see that a child is not understanding past tense by 3 and 1/2, you might want to start working on this one. If a child is understanding past tense but does not use it in conversation, simply correcting their words for a short while should alleviate this. When a child develops random issues with language that do not make logical sense, that might be a sign of high-functioning autism. For example, a child that uses past tense but does not use plurals might throw up a red flag. Autism in early childhood manifests itself in very random ways. Sometimes their issues change from day to day, and there is no rhyme or reason why all of a sudden that has become an issue other than you presented the information in a slightly varying form. Slight variations throw high-functioning autistic children. Remember, never try to diagnose something like autism. Leave that to the experts. However, be aware of the red flags because early intervention does make a huge difference in the life of that child.
The last performance indicator we will look at in the post is: Uses contractions regularly. In American language contractions are so prevalent that this one might actually develop before plurals. "I can't" tends to be one of the first phrases an American toddler learns. If an American born child is not using contractions by 4 years old, that would fall into the category of a random idiosyncrasy that should throw up red flags. It is definitely time to take a good hard look for other random idiosyncrasies that might call for developmental screening.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
First, I will finish up the performance indicators for the learning expectation: Participates in conversations. The last performance indicator for that one is: Continues to ask many "who," "what," "why," and "where" questions. This week I actually started a child that restored my faith in parents to some degree. She is 3 and 1/2 years old, and she actually is 3 and 1/2 years old developmentally instead of being closer to 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old developmentally. She is the first in a while, but I have also had a very long string of boys. Boys will typically lag behind girls developmentally anyway. A good deal of the boys I have had and some of the girls have not really started asking the "w" questions until well after their fourth birthday. I truly believe the lack of "w" questions and the underdeveloped imaginations of today's children go hand in hand. One truly feeds off of the other and when one is lacking the other will be lacking as well. To bolster the amount of "w" questions, I believe you need to stimulate the imagination. How do you stimulate the imagination? Read to the children and give them plenty of uninterrupted free play time where you back off.
Next, we will move on to the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator for this one is: May combine sentences in conversation. This one very much depends on how well-developed the child's language skills are. When a child reaches a certain level of competency with language, this one will naturally develop. The key to helping along a child's ability to communicate is to make them use their words. If you are allowing a three year old to point and grunt when that child has the capacity to use their words, you are not helping. I know it can be frustrating with some children whose parents allow a lot of pointing and grunting, but in your setting never let that be an option for a 3 year old unless you know for certain that child has serious developmental issues. For moderate to mild developmental issues, pointing and grunting is still not acceptable at 3 years old.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Expresses both physical and emotional feelings. This one is also heavily tied to how much you make the child use his/her words. A great deal of 3 year old children express feelings of all kinds through fits and screaming and not words. I have even had 4 year olds that mostly used fits and screaming to express emotions. Even positive emotions come out as squeals and rambunctious behavior rather than words. We as a society need to work on understanding our own emotions and being able to express those in appropriate ways. Many young millenial parents do not possess a great deal of competency in this area. They know a lot about drama and how to scream at each other, but not so much about handling emotions in an adult manner. How can we expect their children to have a great deal of emotional intelligence if the parents do not posses a great deal of emotional intelligence? This is one of the major underlying reasons we are seeing hissy fits throughout childhood now instead of just in the toddler years. Your mantra needs to be until we turn this around, "Use your words, please." Teach children about emotions and how to express emotions appropriately.
The third performance indicator is: Uses more plural words but may over-generalize (foots for feet). As long as children pull up their language skills to a somewhat reasonable level, this particular performance indicator usually comes along on its own. Most children hear this enough in conversation to conquer it naturally. If a child has not conquered this one by age 4, developmental screening may be in order. A language delay that involves this one could be considered a fairly serious delay.
The fourth performance indicator is: Understands past tense, adds "ed" to verbs. Again this is one that normally develops naturally unless there is a significant language delay. Although this one may develop later than the plurals. If you see that a child is not understanding past tense by 3 and 1/2, you might want to start working on this one. If a child is understanding past tense but does not use it in conversation, simply correcting their words for a short while should alleviate this. When a child develops random issues with language that do not make logical sense, that might be a sign of high-functioning autism. For example, a child that uses past tense but does not use plurals might throw up a red flag. Autism in early childhood manifests itself in very random ways. Sometimes their issues change from day to day, and there is no rhyme or reason why all of a sudden that has become an issue other than you presented the information in a slightly varying form. Slight variations throw high-functioning autistic children. Remember, never try to diagnose something like autism. Leave that to the experts. However, be aware of the red flags because early intervention does make a huge difference in the life of that child.
The last performance indicator we will look at in the post is: Uses contractions regularly. In American language contractions are so prevalent that this one might actually develop before plurals. "I can't" tends to be one of the first phrases an American toddler learns. If an American born child is not using contractions by 4 years old, that would fall into the category of a random idiosyncrasy that should throw up red flags. It is definitely time to take a good hard look for other random idiosyncrasies that might call for developmental screening.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Dealing with the Effects of Helicopter Parenting - No Problem Solving Skills
This post will continue the discussion on the effects of helicopter parenting. This style of parenting has now been around long enough for us to have a decent grasp on the long term effects, and it is not pretty. Specifically, I will look at what the helicopter style of parenting does to children's ability to problem solve. I will contrast this with a child's ability to manipulate, which is not the same.
Helicopter Parenting is . . .
Before I dive in to the effects of helicopter parenting, let me give you a good overall definition of what I mean. Helicopter parents believe that childhood should be magical and stress free. They believe that parents were put on this earth to make sure their child(ren) have everything their hearts desire especially if the parents were deprived of it during their childhood. They also believe that children should not be rushed to maturity. Childhood should be savored for as long as possible even if that goes into the child's twenties.
As a rebuttal for this style of parenting, I have only one word - millenials. Every negative connotation that word brings up is a direct result of the helicopter parenting style so prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s. Unfortunately, we have not learned our lessons and continue to use and push this style of parenting even though many psychologists are beginning to sound the alarm finally. However, undoing the damage of three decades' worth of helicopter parenting will not be easy to put it mildly. To add to the chaos is the new style now taking our county by storm - attachment parenting. I will not touch that one yet because we need to work on correcting the helicopter parenting first.
To Stress or not to Stress
This post will look at helicopter parents' overemphasis on the lack of stress in children's lives and what that overemphasis has produced. Basically for many, many years if a parent thought a certain task would produce stress, then the parent just did that task for the child rather than have the child throw a fit. The prevalent train of thought was that if a child threw a fit, then the child was stressed and that activity should be avoided at all cost. Children should not cry for more than 5 minutes if that long or they run the risk of being damaged by stress. However, now the psychologists have finally come to the conclusion that some stress is good for a child and without it children cannot properly develop problem solving skills. When everything is handed to them or done for them, these children that are now adults crumple at the first little setback and cannot handle any amount of stress without coming unglued. How many times have you heard that description of millenials? It is actually worse as you move down the scale in age. I have seen fits by ten to twelve year olds that would rival any two year old, and we think this is normal?
Worse yet, in place of problem solving skills this generation is developing manipulation skills. They have become experts at getting people to do for them what they do not want to do for themselves. Please, tell me that you see how backwards that is. Children should do for themselves everything they are capable of doing in order to be functioning members of society. If we raise generation upon generation of people that expect everyone else to take care of them, we have a serious problem. Eventually you will run out of people to do the taking care of part. Then what are you going to do?
How do we turn this situation around?
Stop doing for the children and adults what they are fully capable of doing for themselves. Let them throw hissy fits that lasts for days, months (in the case of the adults) if that is what they do. Until we make them start using the part of the brain that figures out how to get things done themselves it will not develop. That is called problem solving skills. This should start as early as 18 months old and continue indefinitely until they are too old to do for themselves. Then they can have someone do it for them. If you do not make them do for themselves, you are enabling. Please, stop enabling.
Before I leave this subject, I want to touch briefly on another byproduct of children developing manipulation skills rather than true problem solving skills. Another huge trend nowadays is bullying. Guess what is one of the underlying reasons children bully other children - manipulation. It is not the only underlying reason, but it is one of the major underlying reasons. The bullying epidemic did not come of nowhere. We created this monster.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Helicopter Parenting is . . .
Before I dive in to the effects of helicopter parenting, let me give you a good overall definition of what I mean. Helicopter parents believe that childhood should be magical and stress free. They believe that parents were put on this earth to make sure their child(ren) have everything their hearts desire especially if the parents were deprived of it during their childhood. They also believe that children should not be rushed to maturity. Childhood should be savored for as long as possible even if that goes into the child's twenties.
As a rebuttal for this style of parenting, I have only one word - millenials. Every negative connotation that word brings up is a direct result of the helicopter parenting style so prevalent in the 1990s and 2000s. Unfortunately, we have not learned our lessons and continue to use and push this style of parenting even though many psychologists are beginning to sound the alarm finally. However, undoing the damage of three decades' worth of helicopter parenting will not be easy to put it mildly. To add to the chaos is the new style now taking our county by storm - attachment parenting. I will not touch that one yet because we need to work on correcting the helicopter parenting first.
To Stress or not to Stress
This post will look at helicopter parents' overemphasis on the lack of stress in children's lives and what that overemphasis has produced. Basically for many, many years if a parent thought a certain task would produce stress, then the parent just did that task for the child rather than have the child throw a fit. The prevalent train of thought was that if a child threw a fit, then the child was stressed and that activity should be avoided at all cost. Children should not cry for more than 5 minutes if that long or they run the risk of being damaged by stress. However, now the psychologists have finally come to the conclusion that some stress is good for a child and without it children cannot properly develop problem solving skills. When everything is handed to them or done for them, these children that are now adults crumple at the first little setback and cannot handle any amount of stress without coming unglued. How many times have you heard that description of millenials? It is actually worse as you move down the scale in age. I have seen fits by ten to twelve year olds that would rival any two year old, and we think this is normal?
Worse yet, in place of problem solving skills this generation is developing manipulation skills. They have become experts at getting people to do for them what they do not want to do for themselves. Please, tell me that you see how backwards that is. Children should do for themselves everything they are capable of doing in order to be functioning members of society. If we raise generation upon generation of people that expect everyone else to take care of them, we have a serious problem. Eventually you will run out of people to do the taking care of part. Then what are you going to do?
How do we turn this situation around?
Stop doing for the children and adults what they are fully capable of doing for themselves. Let them throw hissy fits that lasts for days, months (in the case of the adults) if that is what they do. Until we make them start using the part of the brain that figures out how to get things done themselves it will not develop. That is called problem solving skills. This should start as early as 18 months old and continue indefinitely until they are too old to do for themselves. Then they can have someone do it for them. If you do not make them do for themselves, you are enabling. Please, stop enabling.
Before I leave this subject, I want to touch briefly on another byproduct of children developing manipulation skills rather than true problem solving skills. Another huge trend nowadays is bullying. Guess what is one of the underlying reasons children bully other children - manipulation. It is not the only underlying reason, but it is one of the major underlying reasons. The bullying epidemic did not come of nowhere. We created this monster.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Language Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Communication (Part 4)
This post will continue the conversation on language development for 3 to 4 year olds focusing on the area of learning - Communication. The component is expressive language starting with the learning expectation: Uses language for a variety of purposes. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first performance indicator we will discuss today is: Shows lots of imagination in verbal expressions. As I have written in previous posts, I am seeing a real decline in imaginative play and verbal expressions in the 3 to 4 year old range. I am seeing imagination from 4 to 5 year olds, but not as much as I used to see. Many 3 year olds are lagging in language skills compared to their counterparts of only a few years ago. They barely know how to play at all. Some 3 year old children are still in the parallel play phase and do well to play next to another child without a war. Some only know how to dump and destroy and do not play at all really. We are having a crisis of imagination these days. I truly believe it is because we have nearly made free play extinct, and it is costing us in every area of development.
The next performance indicator is: Tells the sequence of a story with appropriate pictures. Truthfully, I have 4 year olds that struggle horribly with this performance indicator. I have had 3 year olds that could do this, but they had been with me since they were one year olds and had heard these familiar stories enough to be able to sequence the pictures. That is the key. If a child has not heard a story enough times, they will not be able to sequence the pictures. Children that are not read to enough struggle with this particular performance indicator. I cannot state enough how important it is to read to children daily. So much of their language development depends on this.
Now we will switch gears to the next learning expectation: Participates in conversations. The first performance indicator for this one is: Likes to talk about things that have happened and will happen. Again, this is behavior I am seeing more from 4 year olds than 3 year olds. I have seen 3 year olds that conquer this one very shortly after their 3rd birthday. I have also seen 3 year olds that could barely converse in real conversation until they were well over 3 and 1/2 years old. The lag of language development hits so many different aspects of a child's ability to communicate. However, we as a society view everyone under the age of 4 as babies and are not really all that concerned about this lack of language skills. We need to make some adjustments in our expectations. These standards were written over a decade ago, and they applied for the most part at the time. Looking at them now, we see the downward spiral or at least I do. We have problems that are only going to get worse unless we change our philosophies.
The second performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Continues to ask questions to keep conversation going. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is a behavior I see from 4 year olds and not many 3 year olds. I hope that these posts have been making you take stock of the children in your care and the ones you come in contact with throughout your weekly activities. Are you seeing the lag in language development as much as I am? I am seeing maybe 3 and 1/2 year olds able to participate in a verbal exchange by answering a question, but to keep that conversation going by asking questions? That I am not seeing except from children that have been in high quality care most of their lives. I also might see it from a 3 year old in a homeschooling family. The average 3 year old from the average family can barely converse and be understood at all. Children have to be able to participate in conversations quite a bit to be able to show this level of skill in participation in conversations. I will tell you that they can mimic their parents talking on their cell phone, but to actually know how to participate in conversations? Not so much.
The last performance indicator we will look at in this post is: Participates in meaningful, two-way conversation with another person. Guess what? I am not seeing this with 3 year olds but with 4 year olds. I am also seeing some 4 year olds that cannot conquer this performance indicator. The only 3 year olds I see that can carry on a meaningful two-way conversation are those that have been in high quality care from birth or homeschooling families. I will admit to you that a large majority of care does not qualify for high quality care. High quality care provides environments that promote academic development. These facilities have daily activities for even toddlers that promote language development and math development on the level appropriate for that child. Homeschooling families usually have an environment where the very young watch older siblings' lessons and learn a great deal. They might actually outdo the ones in academic preschools divided by age. Many people do not understand the great blessings of mixed-age environments unless, of course, they are family childcare providers or homeschoolers. Children in mixed-age facilities or homes benefit from all the instruction provided whether for older children or younger children. The older children benefit from the review they get in being exposed to the younger children's lessons. The younger children gain exposure to higher concepts from the older children's lessons. It is by far the most win-win educational environment out there. This is why many homeschoolers outperform their public school counterparts. I wish those that were in positions of power in the United States Department of Education understood that particular concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The first performance indicator we will discuss today is: Shows lots of imagination in verbal expressions. As I have written in previous posts, I am seeing a real decline in imaginative play and verbal expressions in the 3 to 4 year old range. I am seeing imagination from 4 to 5 year olds, but not as much as I used to see. Many 3 year olds are lagging in language skills compared to their counterparts of only a few years ago. They barely know how to play at all. Some 3 year old children are still in the parallel play phase and do well to play next to another child without a war. Some only know how to dump and destroy and do not play at all really. We are having a crisis of imagination these days. I truly believe it is because we have nearly made free play extinct, and it is costing us in every area of development.
The next performance indicator is: Tells the sequence of a story with appropriate pictures. Truthfully, I have 4 year olds that struggle horribly with this performance indicator. I have had 3 year olds that could do this, but they had been with me since they were one year olds and had heard these familiar stories enough to be able to sequence the pictures. That is the key. If a child has not heard a story enough times, they will not be able to sequence the pictures. Children that are not read to enough struggle with this particular performance indicator. I cannot state enough how important it is to read to children daily. So much of their language development depends on this.
Now we will switch gears to the next learning expectation: Participates in conversations. The first performance indicator for this one is: Likes to talk about things that have happened and will happen. Again, this is behavior I am seeing more from 4 year olds than 3 year olds. I have seen 3 year olds that conquer this one very shortly after their 3rd birthday. I have also seen 3 year olds that could barely converse in real conversation until they were well over 3 and 1/2 years old. The lag of language development hits so many different aspects of a child's ability to communicate. However, we as a society view everyone under the age of 4 as babies and are not really all that concerned about this lack of language skills. We need to make some adjustments in our expectations. These standards were written over a decade ago, and they applied for the most part at the time. Looking at them now, we see the downward spiral or at least I do. We have problems that are only going to get worse unless we change our philosophies.
The second performance indicator for that learning expectation is: Continues to ask questions to keep conversation going. I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is a behavior I see from 4 year olds and not many 3 year olds. I hope that these posts have been making you take stock of the children in your care and the ones you come in contact with throughout your weekly activities. Are you seeing the lag in language development as much as I am? I am seeing maybe 3 and 1/2 year olds able to participate in a verbal exchange by answering a question, but to keep that conversation going by asking questions? That I am not seeing except from children that have been in high quality care most of their lives. I also might see it from a 3 year old in a homeschooling family. The average 3 year old from the average family can barely converse and be understood at all. Children have to be able to participate in conversations quite a bit to be able to show this level of skill in participation in conversations. I will tell you that they can mimic their parents talking on their cell phone, but to actually know how to participate in conversations? Not so much.
The last performance indicator we will look at in this post is: Participates in meaningful, two-way conversation with another person. Guess what? I am not seeing this with 3 year olds but with 4 year olds. I am also seeing some 4 year olds that cannot conquer this performance indicator. The only 3 year olds I see that can carry on a meaningful two-way conversation are those that have been in high quality care from birth or homeschooling families. I will admit to you that a large majority of care does not qualify for high quality care. High quality care provides environments that promote academic development. These facilities have daily activities for even toddlers that promote language development and math development on the level appropriate for that child. Homeschooling families usually have an environment where the very young watch older siblings' lessons and learn a great deal. They might actually outdo the ones in academic preschools divided by age. Many people do not understand the great blessings of mixed-age environments unless, of course, they are family childcare providers or homeschoolers. Children in mixed-age facilities or homes benefit from all the instruction provided whether for older children or younger children. The older children benefit from the review they get in being exposed to the younger children's lessons. The younger children gain exposure to higher concepts from the older children's lessons. It is by far the most win-win educational environment out there. This is why many homeschoolers outperform their public school counterparts. I wish those that were in positions of power in the United States Department of Education understood that particular concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Dealing with the Effects of Helicopter Parenting - No Sense of Danger
For the next several midweek posts I am going to look at issues that arise in children because of the helicoptering style of parenting. I could also have called this the effects of helicopter regulations because both cause the same effects. This week we will look at the problem of these children having no real sense of danger.
Danger: A Part of Childhood
Up until the recent past, instilling a good healthy sense of danger in children was one of the only ways to help those children see adulthood. When I was a child, my parents understood that childhood was a dangerous time, and I had to get with the program as young as possible. I raised my own children in this way. However, now the name of the game is to shield children from every possible scenario where they might get the least bit hurt because childhood should be all rainbows and unicorns.
Now do not get me wrong, some of the play equipment I played on as a child was probably unsafe. The slides were metal and tall. We did not have fall zones with pea gravel or wood chips, etc. We had grass and sometimes concrete under our play equipment. However, we had a healthy sense of danger whereas children today do not really. I knew that if I fell off that slide it would hurt and probably break something. If we took risks, we understood they were risks. Yes, we were daring, but we had a better understanding of our limits because we had been allowed to experience hurts. Therein is the problem with today's children. They have no concept of their own limits.
Learning Limits
When we shield children from experiencing the bumps and bruises of childhood, we deprive them of a very big part of their development - learning limits. When a child falls off the chair, that child learns about gravity and that climbing on a chair can be risky. The scenarios for this are endless. Whether we like to admit or not, a child learns more from a negative consequence than they will ever learn from a positive experience. I read an article recently that dealt with this very concept. Did you know that our brains are hardwired to experience negative situations differently than positive situations. The negative situations register in a different part of the brain and go straight to long-term memory. That is called the negativity bias and most of the time it is painted as a bad thing. However, in this article it showed how in times past this negativity bias ensured survival. We had to remember the negative experiences in order to avoid doing it again. Guess what? We still need that.
We cannot shield children from negative experiences and have those children grow up to be functioning adults. Children do not learn limits from positive experiences - ever. It just does not work that way. Children learn limits by pushing those limits until they find the point of hurt. Then they back off. They have to be free to explore this on their own. Parents, I am afraid you cannot just tell them where those points occur. It will have no relevance to them unless they have had experience with it themselves. They must experience negative consequences. It has actually been documented that children today are experiencing more injuries per capita than they did even 10 to 20 years ago. Most of the studies I have seen on this subject agree that children today have developed a false sense of security due to not having enough exposure to natural consequences.
Natural Consequences
How do we rectify this? Back off parents. Back off regulations. We cannot plan for every contingency to make sure that children experience a pain-free childhood nor should we. We have to let them take their lumps just like we had to take our lumps. It is called natural consequences, and we should never shield children from them. Otherwise, they will not learn about gravity. They will also not have a working knowledge of their own limitations. We can plan for worst-case scenario, but these days parents freak out when their child gets a bruise or a skinned knee. Good grief, people. It will be okay.
We have actually made childhood more dangerous by trying to usher in the utopia of childhood. Remember it is documented that our children are experiencing more injuries than previous generations and believe me, these children are not more daring than those previous generations. We have taken something out of the equation we never should have touched. Actually, we have believed a lie that has been pushed by every single movement for a utopic experience. We never learn from history. Every time we try to bring utopia on Earth, we end up with a dystopic situation. It is always because we go too far and remove core pieces of our existence in order to bring it to fruition. We need to learn to accept the "good enough." In childhood, that means we need to let the bumps and bruises be. They serve a very important purpose. To remove them as we have tried to do, has brought about bad results.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Danger: A Part of Childhood
Up until the recent past, instilling a good healthy sense of danger in children was one of the only ways to help those children see adulthood. When I was a child, my parents understood that childhood was a dangerous time, and I had to get with the program as young as possible. I raised my own children in this way. However, now the name of the game is to shield children from every possible scenario where they might get the least bit hurt because childhood should be all rainbows and unicorns.
Now do not get me wrong, some of the play equipment I played on as a child was probably unsafe. The slides were metal and tall. We did not have fall zones with pea gravel or wood chips, etc. We had grass and sometimes concrete under our play equipment. However, we had a healthy sense of danger whereas children today do not really. I knew that if I fell off that slide it would hurt and probably break something. If we took risks, we understood they were risks. Yes, we were daring, but we had a better understanding of our limits because we had been allowed to experience hurts. Therein is the problem with today's children. They have no concept of their own limits.
Learning Limits
When we shield children from experiencing the bumps and bruises of childhood, we deprive them of a very big part of their development - learning limits. When a child falls off the chair, that child learns about gravity and that climbing on a chair can be risky. The scenarios for this are endless. Whether we like to admit or not, a child learns more from a negative consequence than they will ever learn from a positive experience. I read an article recently that dealt with this very concept. Did you know that our brains are hardwired to experience negative situations differently than positive situations. The negative situations register in a different part of the brain and go straight to long-term memory. That is called the negativity bias and most of the time it is painted as a bad thing. However, in this article it showed how in times past this negativity bias ensured survival. We had to remember the negative experiences in order to avoid doing it again. Guess what? We still need that.
We cannot shield children from negative experiences and have those children grow up to be functioning adults. Children do not learn limits from positive experiences - ever. It just does not work that way. Children learn limits by pushing those limits until they find the point of hurt. Then they back off. They have to be free to explore this on their own. Parents, I am afraid you cannot just tell them where those points occur. It will have no relevance to them unless they have had experience with it themselves. They must experience negative consequences. It has actually been documented that children today are experiencing more injuries per capita than they did even 10 to 20 years ago. Most of the studies I have seen on this subject agree that children today have developed a false sense of security due to not having enough exposure to natural consequences.
Natural Consequences
How do we rectify this? Back off parents. Back off regulations. We cannot plan for every contingency to make sure that children experience a pain-free childhood nor should we. We have to let them take their lumps just like we had to take our lumps. It is called natural consequences, and we should never shield children from them. Otherwise, they will not learn about gravity. They will also not have a working knowledge of their own limitations. We can plan for worst-case scenario, but these days parents freak out when their child gets a bruise or a skinned knee. Good grief, people. It will be okay.
We have actually made childhood more dangerous by trying to usher in the utopia of childhood. Remember it is documented that our children are experiencing more injuries than previous generations and believe me, these children are not more daring than those previous generations. We have taken something out of the equation we never should have touched. Actually, we have believed a lie that has been pushed by every single movement for a utopic experience. We never learn from history. Every time we try to bring utopia on Earth, we end up with a dystopic situation. It is always because we go too far and remove core pieces of our existence in order to bring it to fruition. We need to learn to accept the "good enough." In childhood, that means we need to let the bumps and bruises be. They serve a very important purpose. To remove them as we have tried to do, has brought about bad results.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 13, 2014
Language Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Communication (Part 3)
This post will continue the discussion of language development for 3 to 4 year olds. We are still discussing the communication area of learning. We will now switch gears to the component - Expressive Language. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The learning expectation for this component is: Uses language for a variety of purposes. The first performance indicator is: Tells familiar stories. Unless a child is lagging in language development, most children actually conquer this one by 4 years old. Children that have been read to frequently will conquer this one closer to 3 years old. Children that have hardly been read to will not conquer this performance indicator because they do not have a repertoire of familiar stories from which to pull. It is imperative that we read to children. That one activity touches so many different aspects of development. It cannot be overdone.
The next performance indicator is: Likes to make up stories; likes silly words and stories. Some children conquer this one before 4 years old and some do not. This one is also tied to how much a child has had an adult read to him/her. It is also linked heavily to the amount of imaginative play in which the child participates. We as childcare providers are seeing many children struggle with imaginative play because they are not getting the opportunity for free play as much as children used to get. Making up stories comes directly from the right brain and free play is vital for the development of the right brain. Also, a child's sense of humor develops at a pace with the child's language development. If the language development is lagging so will the sense of humor. I have activities in my childcare that directly build creative thinking skills. I call them creative writing activities because we make up stories together. This activity has greatly increased the children's imaginative play, which was lagging. All of these skills are so interrelated. Take away one and so many others are affected.
Next on our list is: Knows and tells names and sex of family members. Again, this performance indicator is conquered by most children by age 4. Unless a child has a very complicated family, which I have seen, this one does not present a problem. If a child does not have this one conquered by age 4 (unless a very complicated family situation does exist), I would definitely have that child tested for developmental delays.
The next performance indicator is: Engages in imaginary talk; plays both roles. In recent years I have seen fewer and fewer children able to really participate in imaginative play until they were nearly 5 years old. To be truthful, I have not seen very many 3 year olds able to carry on an imaginative conversation where they played both roles. A great deal of the time, I am teaching 3 and 4 year olds to actually play and not just dump and destroy. This level of imaginative play is beyond many of them. We have helicopter parented imaginative play right out the door. We, the adults, need to back off and let the children explore and play without us being all up in their business. It is called free play, people.
The last performance indicator on our list is: Asks many questions; wants to know how answers fit into her own thoughts and understanding. With the demise of the imaginative play has also come the decline of inquisitiveness. I really am not seeing 3 year olds ask a lot of questions. I am seeing 4 year olds ask questions, but not 3 year olds. These standards were created in the early 2000s. We have seen such a rapid decline in these types of skills in the decade following the creation of these standards that it is scary. What are we doing to our children? Actually what we are seeing is the results of second generation helicopter parenting. The parents of these children were helicopter parented and now we have nearly outlawed what I consider childhood. My childhood experience would probably send my parents to jail these days. I roamed for miles unsupervised until the streetlights came on for the night. I played on equipment that would have people arrested these days. I did things and had experiences so foreign to modern children, but we had imagination coming out of our ears. Something precious has been lost in our quest for the perfect childhood, and it is childhood.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Dealing with Children that are Hyper-Sensitive
This post will deal with increasing children's emotional intelligence and teaching them to deal with negative circumstances without coming completely unglued. More specifically we will discuss those children that take everything personally to the point they cannot function in a group setting.
The Hyper-Sensitive
We all know this scenario all too well. A statement is made by either a child or an adult, and a hyper-sensitive child takes offense. Or everyone laughs at something that happens and the hyper-sensitive child falls to pieces because he/she feels that everyone is laughing at him/her. Actually I know adults with the same problem and you probably do, too. We all know those people that require you to walk on eggshells around them because they have no capacity for dealing with negative or embarrassing situations.
Unlike a lot of other character issues I have covered, this one is actually mostly genetic. It can be greatly aggravated by environmental factors, but these people come into the world hardwired with this hyper-sensitivity. This explains why this trait runs in families. This also explains why this one can be so hard to correct because it involves an underlying characteristic of a person's personality. I do not know if some chemical imbalance or other related cause occurs in their brains, but I do know that they have a difficult time with all aspects of what we now call emotional intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence
What do I mean by emotional intelligence? Academic intelligence is not the only type of intelligence we humans possess. We all know people that are not necessarily book smart but are people smart. They understand the inward workings of relationships much better than others. We would call these people emotionally intelligent. They understand how to handle complicated situations that call for handling emotions. Let me give you an example. Some of us find it difficult to deliver bad news to other people. Yet, we all know those people that can give bad news in such a way that the person still feels good about the situation. I do not have this capacity and sit in awe of such people. Just like some people come into this world better equipped for academic endeavors, other people come into this world better equipped for emotional situations. The opposite is also true. However, we all know we can increase our academic intelligence with hard work and persistence. The same is true of emotional intelligence.
Hyper-sensitive children come into this world with very little natural coping skills for certain situations, and those situations can vary from person to person. Some cannot handle embarrassment. Some cannot handle any type of criticism. Some cannot handle people not liking them. Some have all or a combination of the above. Adults with these issues may require counseling and/or life coaching to improve, but we that take care of children are in the unique position to really help these children learn to manage what does not come naturally.
No Coddling
Before we get to strategies, I want to cover what not to do. First and foremost, do not coddle these children. Sheltering them from these types of situations will only leave them emotionally immature. This is why we have adults with these types of problems. No one helped these children work through their issues. People usually do not outgrow these types of issues. They have to learn sometime in their life to work through them. Let me put it this way. If you shelter and overprotect, you are being an enabler in a situation that desperately cries for change. On the other hand, these children do not have the capacity to suck up and deal with it. They honestly do not know how. Tough love without instruction is just as useless as coddling and overprotecting in this situation.
The Power of Logic
How do you deal with this situation? Mostly logically actually. A great deal of the thought processes that these children have in these situations are irrational. To deal with irrational thoughts, you teach logical thought processes. Let me give you an example. You have a child that gets upset every time people laugh because the child thinks they are laughing at him/her. When people begin to laugh and the child begins to get upset, ask the child what are they laughing at. At first the child will reply "me." However, if you continue to make the child look harder, he/she will realize the true source of the laughter, which is usually not the child at all. How many times will this be necessary before the child does this on his/her own? Thousands possibly. I did not say this would be easy or fun. Over time the child will begin to correct the irrational thought processes that contribute to the hyper-sensitivity. Let me give you another example. For this one, you have a child that crumbles at the least little criticism. Avoiding criticism throughout your entire life is not practical. Therefore, you must teach this child how to handle criticism. This must start with the child understanding everyone makes mistakes. When the child makes a mistake, this should be the first statement out of your mouth. The second statement should involve teaching the child to learn from mistakes rather than being crushed because they made mistakes. This will take the same amount of persistence as teaching a child not to be embarrassed. This is how you build emotional intelligence.
When dealing with children that seem to have very little emotional intelligence, be very observant to find the underlying irrational thought process. If you pinpoint the irrational thought process, it is much easier to understand how to help the child overcome that thought process. Sometimes we as adults have our own irrational thought processes. Guess what? Teaching ourselves to think logically about situations will help us just as much as it will help the children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
The Hyper-Sensitive
We all know this scenario all too well. A statement is made by either a child or an adult, and a hyper-sensitive child takes offense. Or everyone laughs at something that happens and the hyper-sensitive child falls to pieces because he/she feels that everyone is laughing at him/her. Actually I know adults with the same problem and you probably do, too. We all know those people that require you to walk on eggshells around them because they have no capacity for dealing with negative or embarrassing situations.
Unlike a lot of other character issues I have covered, this one is actually mostly genetic. It can be greatly aggravated by environmental factors, but these people come into the world hardwired with this hyper-sensitivity. This explains why this trait runs in families. This also explains why this one can be so hard to correct because it involves an underlying characteristic of a person's personality. I do not know if some chemical imbalance or other related cause occurs in their brains, but I do know that they have a difficult time with all aspects of what we now call emotional intelligence.
Emotional Intelligence
What do I mean by emotional intelligence? Academic intelligence is not the only type of intelligence we humans possess. We all know people that are not necessarily book smart but are people smart. They understand the inward workings of relationships much better than others. We would call these people emotionally intelligent. They understand how to handle complicated situations that call for handling emotions. Let me give you an example. Some of us find it difficult to deliver bad news to other people. Yet, we all know those people that can give bad news in such a way that the person still feels good about the situation. I do not have this capacity and sit in awe of such people. Just like some people come into this world better equipped for academic endeavors, other people come into this world better equipped for emotional situations. The opposite is also true. However, we all know we can increase our academic intelligence with hard work and persistence. The same is true of emotional intelligence.
Hyper-sensitive children come into this world with very little natural coping skills for certain situations, and those situations can vary from person to person. Some cannot handle embarrassment. Some cannot handle any type of criticism. Some cannot handle people not liking them. Some have all or a combination of the above. Adults with these issues may require counseling and/or life coaching to improve, but we that take care of children are in the unique position to really help these children learn to manage what does not come naturally.
No Coddling
Before we get to strategies, I want to cover what not to do. First and foremost, do not coddle these children. Sheltering them from these types of situations will only leave them emotionally immature. This is why we have adults with these types of problems. No one helped these children work through their issues. People usually do not outgrow these types of issues. They have to learn sometime in their life to work through them. Let me put it this way. If you shelter and overprotect, you are being an enabler in a situation that desperately cries for change. On the other hand, these children do not have the capacity to suck up and deal with it. They honestly do not know how. Tough love without instruction is just as useless as coddling and overprotecting in this situation.
The Power of Logic
How do you deal with this situation? Mostly logically actually. A great deal of the thought processes that these children have in these situations are irrational. To deal with irrational thoughts, you teach logical thought processes. Let me give you an example. You have a child that gets upset every time people laugh because the child thinks they are laughing at him/her. When people begin to laugh and the child begins to get upset, ask the child what are they laughing at. At first the child will reply "me." However, if you continue to make the child look harder, he/she will realize the true source of the laughter, which is usually not the child at all. How many times will this be necessary before the child does this on his/her own? Thousands possibly. I did not say this would be easy or fun. Over time the child will begin to correct the irrational thought processes that contribute to the hyper-sensitivity. Let me give you another example. For this one, you have a child that crumbles at the least little criticism. Avoiding criticism throughout your entire life is not practical. Therefore, you must teach this child how to handle criticism. This must start with the child understanding everyone makes mistakes. When the child makes a mistake, this should be the first statement out of your mouth. The second statement should involve teaching the child to learn from mistakes rather than being crushed because they made mistakes. This will take the same amount of persistence as teaching a child not to be embarrassed. This is how you build emotional intelligence.
When dealing with children that seem to have very little emotional intelligence, be very observant to find the underlying irrational thought process. If you pinpoint the irrational thought process, it is much easier to understand how to help the child overcome that thought process. Sometimes we as adults have our own irrational thought processes. Guess what? Teaching ourselves to think logically about situations will help us just as much as it will help the children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Language Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Communication (Part 2)
This post will continue the discussion of language development for 3 to 4 year olds. The area of learning is still Communication. We will finish up the component - Receptive Language. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
In this post we will cover the learning expectation: Demonstrates understanding of conversations through own actions and responses to directions and questions. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Anticipates correct response to statements made regarding familiar routines (goes and gets coat when told it's time to go outside, finds own blanket and mat when told it's nap time). This performance indicator assumes a child has regular routines. For those children that are in more structured environments, this would be a correct assumption. However, many children do not have regular routines. The downturn in the economy has actually decreased the population of young children in structured environments until those children reach PreK age. Many parents simply cannot afford to put their children in good childcares, which tend to cost to more money. Some childcares can be complete free-for-alls without much structure at all. In order to conquer this particular performance indicator, a child has to have regular routines. Many of today's parents and grandparents do not put much emphasis at all on establishing routines for small children. The children cannot anticipate what does not exist. However, once a child does enter a structured environment even if that is not until kindergarten, they will eventually conquer this particular performance indicator. This is yet another reason kindergarten teachers deserve medals of honor. Many children reach kindergarten completely unprepared.
The next performance indicator is: Knows where he lives (i.e., street name and number). This is a performance indicator from a different era. So many children today live in two or three different places during the same week. Mom has one house. Dad has another house. Grandparents may be thrown in the mix. Most children do well to know which house they will be going to on any particular day. To actually know the street address just might be asking a little much. Very few 3 to 4 year olds know their street address. Many children enter kindergarten not knowing their street address unless the school requires such knowledge in which case the parents frantically try to teach the children their address two weeks before the start of school. I do not personally worry about this particular performance indicator until the child is 6 months out from kindergarten. Some young parents move around A LOT, and if that is the case, I do not even worry about the address at that point, either.
Next on the list is: Understands colors and can identify basic colors when asked (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, and others). As I have said many times before, colors must be directly taught, or they will not be learned. I have had many 4 year olds come through the door not knowing but maybe one or two colors if that many. When colors are directly taught, even 2 and 1/2 to 3 year olds will know their basic colors. What do I mean by directly taught? Teaching colors actually involves two steps. The first step is to name the colors for the child. After that has been done regularly, then you have the child name the color for you. How this is accomplished matters little as long as both steps are involved in the activity. Some early childhood teachers shy away from the second step because it feels too much like requiring rote responses. However, I know from experience that if the child is not required to respond with the correct color, some children will not pay attention to the activity. Learning the names of anything falls on the left side of the brain and requires this "rote" type of instruction.
The next performance indicator is: Understands responses to "Hi" and "How are you?" and answers appropriately. I do believe this one might be a performance indicator from another era as well. Unless a child is friendly and outgoing as a personality trait, most children these days are extremely socially awkward when it comes to these types of social graces. When you say "hi" to them, they either hide behind someone or something or completely ignore you. This continues well into their fourth year. I have to work hard to get the children to say "good morning" to me when I say it to them, and this is 4 to 5 year olds not 3 to 4 year olds.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Carries out a three-part, related direction (three levels would be "Please, would you get the can of dog food out of the refrigerator and feed the puppy?"). I will say that some children can conquer this performance indicator at this age and some absolutely cannot. I have two boys with ADHD, and if I can get them to focus long enough to actually fully carry out one direction, I have done well. If it is an established routine, they might be able to carry out a two-part direction on good days, and they are 4 and 5 years old not 3 years old. Even if you have children you suspect to be ADHD, you still should really work on this performance indicator. Being able to follow multi-part directions lays the groundwork for sequencing and other math skills. If they do not conquer three-part directions before they turn 4 years old, keep after it. They need to be able to do this in order to handle other skills in the future.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
In this post we will cover the learning expectation: Demonstrates understanding of conversations through own actions and responses to directions and questions. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Anticipates correct response to statements made regarding familiar routines (goes and gets coat when told it's time to go outside, finds own blanket and mat when told it's nap time). This performance indicator assumes a child has regular routines. For those children that are in more structured environments, this would be a correct assumption. However, many children do not have regular routines. The downturn in the economy has actually decreased the population of young children in structured environments until those children reach PreK age. Many parents simply cannot afford to put their children in good childcares, which tend to cost to more money. Some childcares can be complete free-for-alls without much structure at all. In order to conquer this particular performance indicator, a child has to have regular routines. Many of today's parents and grandparents do not put much emphasis at all on establishing routines for small children. The children cannot anticipate what does not exist. However, once a child does enter a structured environment even if that is not until kindergarten, they will eventually conquer this particular performance indicator. This is yet another reason kindergarten teachers deserve medals of honor. Many children reach kindergarten completely unprepared.
The next performance indicator is: Knows where he lives (i.e., street name and number). This is a performance indicator from a different era. So many children today live in two or three different places during the same week. Mom has one house. Dad has another house. Grandparents may be thrown in the mix. Most children do well to know which house they will be going to on any particular day. To actually know the street address just might be asking a little much. Very few 3 to 4 year olds know their street address. Many children enter kindergarten not knowing their street address unless the school requires such knowledge in which case the parents frantically try to teach the children their address two weeks before the start of school. I do not personally worry about this particular performance indicator until the child is 6 months out from kindergarten. Some young parents move around A LOT, and if that is the case, I do not even worry about the address at that point, either.
Next on the list is: Understands colors and can identify basic colors when asked (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, and others). As I have said many times before, colors must be directly taught, or they will not be learned. I have had many 4 year olds come through the door not knowing but maybe one or two colors if that many. When colors are directly taught, even 2 and 1/2 to 3 year olds will know their basic colors. What do I mean by directly taught? Teaching colors actually involves two steps. The first step is to name the colors for the child. After that has been done regularly, then you have the child name the color for you. How this is accomplished matters little as long as both steps are involved in the activity. Some early childhood teachers shy away from the second step because it feels too much like requiring rote responses. However, I know from experience that if the child is not required to respond with the correct color, some children will not pay attention to the activity. Learning the names of anything falls on the left side of the brain and requires this "rote" type of instruction.
The next performance indicator is: Understands responses to "Hi" and "How are you?" and answers appropriately. I do believe this one might be a performance indicator from another era as well. Unless a child is friendly and outgoing as a personality trait, most children these days are extremely socially awkward when it comes to these types of social graces. When you say "hi" to them, they either hide behind someone or something or completely ignore you. This continues well into their fourth year. I have to work hard to get the children to say "good morning" to me when I say it to them, and this is 4 to 5 year olds not 3 to 4 year olds.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Carries out a three-part, related direction (three levels would be "Please, would you get the can of dog food out of the refrigerator and feed the puppy?"). I will say that some children can conquer this performance indicator at this age and some absolutely cannot. I have two boys with ADHD, and if I can get them to focus long enough to actually fully carry out one direction, I have done well. If it is an established routine, they might be able to carry out a two-part direction on good days, and they are 4 and 5 years old not 3 years old. Even if you have children you suspect to be ADHD, you still should really work on this performance indicator. Being able to follow multi-part directions lays the groundwork for sequencing and other math skills. If they do not conquer three-part directions before they turn 4 years old, keep after it. They need to be able to do this in order to handle other skills in the future.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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