The first performance indicator for this one is: Retells story with many events in appropriate sequence, with and without pictures. I will tell you right off the bat that the "without pictures" part will not happen for a large majority of children. They simply do not have the reference for that type of skill anymore. For the rest the "many events" disqualifies this performance indicator even with pictures. I have stated over and over again that sequential tasks fall way beyond the language skills and cognitive skills of today's immature children. The language deficiencies take a huge toll on developing such tasks. Most of us in the field work too hard to pull up the language deficiencies to be able to tackle much else. The only way to develop this one is for teachers to do this on a regular basis, and even then, the children have to have the language to be able to do this. Simply, having this activity in the roster does not guarantee that children will develop this skill.
The next performance indicator is: Verbalizes the major events of the day with some sequential order. This one is actually easier for the children than the previous one. Children tend to remember events more than stories because they have more experience with this events. Children are simply not read to enough. The sequential aspect of this one might be difficult for young or immature four year olds, but most by the age of five can conquer this one. If a five year old struggles with this one, I would have them tested for developmental delays.
Now we will move on to the learning expectation: Uses an increasingly complex and varied spoken vocabulary and sentence structure. The first performance indicator for this one is: Labels objects in books using a variety of adjectives. Four year olds vary so widely in their ability to conquer this one. Some four year olds are so language delayed they do well to use nouns appropriately. Adjectives are just beyond them. Some four year olds conquer this one shortly after their fourth birthday. The difference always remains how much the child has had an adult read to them and how many good language experiences they have had. If you have a four year old that has language delays, the best activity for them is to read to them as much as possible. Beyond that talk to them and use lots of vocabulary. Even for children with language delays do not shy away from using lots and lots of vocabulary around them. Most of these children hear such a limited amount of vocabulary (and some of it is not good vocabulary) that the more you can supplement for them the better.
The next performance indicator is: Comments on characters and events in books and movies. It is a sad commentary on our current country that most four year olds can do this with movies but not books. They watch movies 10 times more than they have books read to them. For some children that number would be 100 or 1000 times more. Some children never have a book read to them at home. Those same children have a very, VERY hard time listening to stories at school or childcare. Screen time for young children does not do them good. Please, limit children's screen time and READ to children.
Lastly, we will look at the learning expectation: Asks many types of questions and responds correctly to many types of questions. The performance indicator for this one is: Asks and answers who. what, where, when, why questions. As an author I travel to many, many schools and read to lots of preschool and kindergarten classrooms. I have gotten to the point I do not even ask preschoolers for questions because they do not understand what a question is. With the kindergarteners I have to explain what questions are before we start and even then I have to shut down many, many stories. Children's inquisitiveness has diminished greatly in the last 3 or 4 years. I have seen it in my own preschool. I have witnessed it in every preschool I have visited in the last several years. I blame it on the unbelievable rise in language delays we have seen in the last 3 or 4 years. This will have major ramifications in the public school system this year and every year hereafter until we find a way to bring up children's language skills again.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! https://linktr.ee/natawade
