This post will start posts for the age group of 2 to 2 1/2 year olds. It will focus on the area of learning - Early Literacy and cover the components - Picture and Story Comprehension and Book Reading Skills. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will start with the learning expectation: Begins to understand the connection between books and personal experiences. The first performance indicator is: Talks about the characters and events in storybooks in ways that suggest understanding of what has been said or read. Wow! I have not really seen a two to two and a half year old that could do this in about 5 to 7 years. Most of the children this age are barely speaking much less conveying that type of language. Most of the three year olds struggle with this performance indicator. Only those fortunate children that have parents that read to them every day might conquer this performance indicator. However, those same parents would also have to be the ones that greatly restrict screen time as well. More and more research is coming forward that links massive screen time to the language delays we see all the time in the early childhood world.
The second performance indicator is: Relates events in books to personal experiences. Again, it has been years since I have seen a two year old conquer this performance indicator. Children in our society can work a smart phone but they have so little experience with books to conquer this until they are three years old. This performance indicator requires quite a bit of book experience. Most two year olds can barely get through half a book without walking away and becoming disinterested. We must read to our children!!
The third performance indicator is: Makes associations among similar books (e.g., child gets two books about trains and shows the adult that they contain similar pictures or events). Some of today's two year olds might actually conquer this particular performance indicator only because it involves pictures. We have so tilted our culture to be visually dominant that even those children over exposed to screens can find similar books based on pictures. However, if you expect them to talk about it, you will be sadly disappointed. The association will not go further than the similar pictures and the word "train."
We will now move on to the component - Book Reading Skills - with the learning expectation - Recognizes and enjoys reading familiar books. The first performance indicator is: Recites whole phrases from favorite stories if the adult pauses at opportune moments. Again, this is another performance indicator that I have not seen two years old conquer for several years. I have actually seen three year olds not have enough book experience to be familiar enough with any book to do this. This performance indicator assumes that a child has a book read to them over and over again. The sad truth is that many parents do not read to their children at all. Many childcares do read but other activities required by all the crazy regulations make reading the same book over and over not really feasible. Therefore, children do not receive enough exposure for this one until they are nearly four years old.
The second performance indicator for this one is: Protests when an adult misreads a word in a familiar and usually predictable story. I hate to be a broken record but two year olds in today's culture do not conquer this one. No one reads to them enough to acquire that much book experience. Many three year olds cannot conquer this performance indicator. They have never heard a story enough to know when the adult does it wrong. They even have so little experience with books that the repetitive nature of some stories goes over their head for months. People, it is time to put down the tablets and phones and start reading to your children. The language delays we are experiencing are real and are only going to get worse.
I hope you have enjoyed this post!! Goodbye and God bless!!
https://linktr.ee/natawade
