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
Sunday, November 16, 2014
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!!
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