The Dangers of Embracing Victimhood

This post will explore the prevalent attitude of victimhood and how that affects people's outlook on life. I will also look at how this affects the emotional health of children. 

What is a victim? 

Webster defines a victim as someone killed in a religious rite; someone that dies from a disease or accident; or a person cheated, fooled, or injured. For our purposes here, I want to go with the politically correct definition. A victim represents a person that is not in control of his circumstances. Outside forces dictate the entirety of this person's existence. I included the Webster definition of a victim to show that progressives often play with the meaning of words. They very often water down the criteria for something such as victimhood to make it apply in a situation where it really does not. In doing so, they make all victimhood less relevant. What do I mean by this? We would all agree that a person that is murdered or injured deserves the title of victim. However, by using the word victim to describe someone that is merely suffering from their own bad choices because of the color of their skin or station in life, progressives give the impression that these people are victims of some amorphous societal evil. What does this do to the people that fall prey to these word plays. They develop a victim mentality. 

What is victim mentality?

A victim mentality involves believing that you have no control over your circumstances. You believe that the structure of society will never let you succeed no matter how hard you try. It is a defeatist attitude and greatly stifles a person's gumption and creativity. If you truly believe that hard word has no benefits, then you do not have a problem letting someone else take care of you. This attitude makes you believe the world owes you everything because the great amorphous society at large has caused you not to succeed. Your own lack of ambition does not matter. Everyone deserves an equal outcome.  

 How does victim mentality affect a person's life?

As I stated before a victim mentality negates ambition. Is ambition a good thing or a bad thing? Like so many other areas of life, ambition needs to be balanced with other character traits.  Too much ambition makes people greedy. Too little ambition makes people lazy. No ambition makes people useless. If a person truly believes that no amount of hard word will benefit them, why would any person put forth any effort? Whether we admit it or not, all people have a tendency to laziness. It comes naturally. Therefore, most of us will do just as much work as we deem necessary for survival. Those with a strong work ethic learned early in life that hard work pays off and makes survival more likely. What happens to people that do not learn this lesson early in life? They either learn it or they expect someone else to take care of them. Those that fall prey to a victim mentality fall into the latter category. However, this arrangement hardly ever leads to bounty. Most of the time, this arrangement leads to want and poverty. When able-bodied people expect other people to take care of them, those that have to do the work resent it. No one wants to work hard just to have someone else gain all the benefits unless those that do constitute that person's loved ones. We will work hard to provide for those that we love. If we have to work hard just to see it go to someone else while our loved ones suffer want, that breeds anger. Want to divide a nation? Making people work hard to provide for able-bodied people to sit on their butts and do nothing will soon cause either a civil war or a cessation of work. The hard workers will simply quit trying and only do what is absolutely necessary. This explains the failure of socialism more completely than any other explanation. When the hard workers quit, everyone suffers and falls into poverty. As Margaret Thatcher once said, "the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." 

It also stands that killing a strong work ethic leads to depression and despair. Living a life of purpose requires work. All the vacations and good times in the world soon wax cold when not balanced with a hard day's work. Something in a our DNA needs to accomplish tasks. It is the hard day's work that make the vacations sweeter. Like ambition, leisure needs to be balanced with work. Too little work in a person's life takes away a person's well-being. Therefore, a victim mentality robs a person of purpose and brings destruction to those that fall prey to it.  

 What does a victim mentality do to children's emotional health?

Now let us take this into the early childhood world. What does it do to children's emotional health to instill a victim mentality into them? Is it necessary to instill a strong work ethic into the young? This should be a no-brainer. Children that believe the world owes them everything constitute the most spoiled people on the planet. It used to be common knowledge that when a child works for what they have, they appreciate it more. How did our world become so upside down? It is long since time that early childhood professionals begin to understand the underlying agendas that make this world go round. Pushing a victim mentality makes a population more susceptible to embracing the tenets of socialism. If you do not think this is happening in our country, please open your eyes. When children are trained from a young age to think of themselves as victims, they can be easily brainwashed to think that socialism will bring utopia. Socialism never brings anything but dystopia. My generation knew that. The subsequent generations have been slowly brainwashed to believe that socialism is not so bad. Hard work matters greatly. One of the most important lessons you can teach the children in your care involves a solid work ethic. People that understand hard work will not fall prey to a victim mentality even if bad things happen to them. They pull themselves up by the bootstraps and do what is necessary to survive. A victim mentality sets children up for failure, poverty, and want. 

 Conclusion

In conclusion, I want to touch on how VERY dangerous it is for children of color to be trained to be victims. In a nutshell, that is the new Jim Crow laws. When children of color are led to believe that no amount of hard work will pay off, you kill their work ethic. Basically, you are destroying all chance that these children will grow up to be creators and entrepreneurs. We do not want any population of people to be dependent on others for their sustenance. If you have ever been in that situation, you know that it is akin the slavery. It traps people in circumstances that are not necessarily good for them. That, people, is the definition of racism. 

I hope you have enjoyed this post.  Goodbye and God bless!! 

https://linktr.ee/natawade

The Dangers of Being Gullible and Naive

This post will discuss the dangers of being gullible and naive as it pertains to philosophies and agendas. This post is meant for Christian educators and parents.

Definition of Gullible and Naive
Webster defines gullible as being easily deceived or duped. The Urban Dictionary defines naive as "unsophisticated, susceptible to influence, trusting unsubstantiated sources at times. Generally speaking, to be naive means you do not think enough. People who are "naive" tend to believe in whatever they are told, without questioning whether it is right or wrong." I believe the Bible would define both of these words in the following verse from Collosians:  See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy or empty deceit, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ (NASB). I like that the Bible uses the word "captive" because it denotes the agendas of men. Most of the narratives of our modern era are meant to take people captive and give other people power. When you begin to understand that, you begin to see through the deception.

Our World of Agendas
Everyone has an agenda. The sooner you learn that the wiser you will be. Most people believe that scientific research comes without any bias and can be taken as gospel. Most people follow this research without once stepping back and looking to see if the researchers had an agenda. Some agendas are obvious. When a research project has been funded by a certain entity or corporation the agenda is not hard to discern. However, most researchers have an agenda of some sort. They go into the research project looking for a certain outcome. No matter how careful these researchers try to be, this will skew the results in the direction of their preconceived notions. Other agendas can be deeply hidden and come from sources outside the researchers themselves. These biases and agendas come from the underlying knowledge base. In any study, scientists build their hypotheses on what is called "given" information. This is supposed to represent knowledge that has been proven over time, but this does not make it infallible. We have all witnessed knowledge that has turned out to be completely wrong based on new information. What if the debunked information is never purged from the knowledge base? That happens much more than you think. Sometimes knowledge is protected for purely political or philosophical reasons without truly having any basis in reality. This skews the research before it even starts. 

How Can You Detect Agendas?
I will go back to my statement that everyone has an agenda. You must look at information and especially information with the title "the latest research" with suspicion right off the bat. Does it have an obvious bias? If so, chunk it immediately. The next place you look with suspicion is the authors of the information. Do they have an agenda? If so, chunk it immediately. Once you have chunked the obvious biased information, it becomes a little more tricky. Now you are reaching the deep underlying biases and agendas. Here you need a good working knowledge of the Word of God. Our Father, as the Creator of this universe, just might know a thing or two about how this world works. If the new information contradicts the Word of God, chunk it. I will also say that if the new information makes you feel uneasy and uncomfortable, many times this is the Holy Spirit trying to warn you. I can remember being deeply disturbed in school when certain subjects would come up. I did not know it then, but those topics came with deep relativistic agendas. My tender heart picked up on the falseness without realizing why. Now as an adult, I understand why those topics disturbed me. They were not built on the right foundation. Trust your instincts and learn to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Will This Not Make Me Cynical?
If you read the Word of God, you will actually realize that God wants you to be cynical of worldly knowledge. We are supposed to look at the knowledge of man with skepticism. Modern man has lost that entirely. We look at God with skepticism and trust everything that science teaches us. However, true science that simply describes the wonders of God's creation will never contradict the Bible. If science contradicts the Bible, you have man's wisdom and not God's wisdom. As children of God we must relearn the fact that all the depths of knowledge and wisdom are hidden in Him. He made us. He knows the reality of the situation. We must learn to trust Him.

Conclusion
Now let us take this into the early childhood realm. I will tell you outright that most if not all of what you have been taught as early childhood professionals either outright contradicts the Word of God or partially contradicts the Word of God. The theorists that make up the foundation of early childhood study were all relativists. They did not believe in God and they did not build their knowledge on the Word of God. That should disqualify most if not all of their knowledge for Christian educators. However, you have been taught to compartmentalize your religious beliefs and your education whether you realize that or not. God NEVER intended for you to do that. To divorce His knowledge and His wisdom from your base of study is to be the victim of agendas. Worldly people are forcing you to do the opposite of what should be done to make this world a place without God. They will never succeed in that, but they can do irreparable damage to you and the children in your care. Do not be gullible and naive.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade 

Cognitive Development for 2 to 2 and 1/2 year olds - Science

This post will look at the area of learning - Science with the components - Sensory Awareness, Observation, and Exploration and Sequencing and Time . Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).

We will start with the component  - Sensory Awareness, Observation, and Exploration. The learning expectation for this one is:  Begins to build knowledge of the world through observation of surroundings. The performance indicator for this one is:  Explores ways to do things and demonstrates beginning understanding of concepts of color, shape size, matching, and weight.  One word in that performance indicator makes this one unrealistic and that word is explore. To be brutally honest, I do not see much exploring unless that child is raised on a farm or is homeschooled. Those children usually spend a great deal of time outdoors unless they live in urban areas in the case of the homeschooled. Children in institutionalized care have nearly had their curiosity helicoptered out of them. I know I have harped on the regulations before, but they really are damaging our children. Truly, if I am honest, I will admit that children need to stay home with their mother. It is by far the best environment for children and we should as a society be pushing that instead of careers for mothers. Motherhood is a career, people. It is one of the most important jobs a woman can have in my opinion. Children of stay-at-home mothers do all the things that seem to be disappearing from the children of our society. They explore and discover sometimes much to the horror of their mother. However, they have the richest childhood. Do you want to make childhood magical for your child? Stay home with them until they go to school. Do you want to extend the magic? Homeschool. Rant over.

Next we will move on to the component - Sequencing and Time. The first learning expectation for this one is:  Begins to understand consequences when re-creating events. The first performance indicator for this one is:  Calls for adult to help settle a fight over a toy. For once we have a universal performance indicator that most children even developmentally delayed children conquer. Going to an adult to referee can be seen in children even younger than two sometimes. Extremely smart eighteen month olds can employ this strategy. If a two and a half year old does not go to an adult to referee, caregivers can take that as a sign of a severe developmental delay. The only children in my care that did not conquer this performance indicator had severe autism.

The second performance indicator is:  Insists on putting on mittens before putting on coat. This one made me chuckle. This has to be one of the most frustrating aspects of two year old world. It is also one of the performance indicators that seem to be universally conquered. Children at this age spread their wings of independence and seem to want to do everything backwards from what seems logical. As long as it does not really matter, leave this one alone. It is a developmentally appropriate milestone. However, you can begin to explain to them why it is backwards. They may not change but you will be planting the first seeds of logical thinking. Never underestimate the power of planting seeds!

Now we will move on to the learning expectation:  Demonstrates some understanding of when things happen in relation to routines. The first performance indicator is:  Imitates simple block structures and single-line crayon strokes. Unless the child is used to teacher directed activities expecting a child in today's society to pay attention enough to imitate might be expecting a little much. Those children that are used to this type of activity will conquer this one without much issue. However, do not expect them to do it the first time you try if they are not used to this type of activity. It may take several exposures for them to understand what you are expecting from them. Doing this type of activity with a mixed-age group that includes older children will actually deliver the best result.

Finally, the second performance indicator is:  Chooses new shoes to wear when getting ready for a special occasion.  Most children like new things. This holds true for normally developing children as well as developmentally delayed children at this age. Although, severely delayed or severely autistic children might not conquer this one until they are a little bit older.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade 

The Dangers of Elitism

This post will look at the concept of elitism and how that functions in our society. I will also discuss how this plays out in an early childhood setting. This post is for Christian educators.

What is Elitism?
Elitism is the belief or attitude that individuals who form an elite—a select group of people with an intrinsic quality, high intellect, wealth, special skills, or experience—are more likely to be constructive to society as a whole, and therefore deserve influence or authority greater than that of others. In our modern society, our elitist class would be the academics and the wealthy. However, elitism can rear its ugly head even among middle and lower class people to some degree. I will define elitism as thinking more highly of yourself and your circle of influence than you do of others. How many times do you catch yourself looking down on someone else because of their station in life or their lack of ability? Maybe you tell yourself that you feel sorry for that person, but realistically you are snobbing them. How many times have you been snobbed by someone else? We all do this to some degree. We cast an aversive glance toward someone that is not in OUR group. However, I will tell you that the level of elitism increases with the amount of education that you have. It seems that the more "intelligent" you believe yourself to be, the more likely you are to look down on other people that you consider to not be as "intelligent." The Bible says that "knowledge puffs up." This statement lives out in the real world on a daily basis. Elitists puff out their chests and strut around like peacocks. However, the Bible tells us "do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with humility of mind let each of you consider others to be more important than himself." We should not be snobbing anyone. It is a sin.

How does modern Elitism compare to the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Bible?
The Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus' time very much mirror our elites today. They considered themselves to be the highest educated individuals of the time. They also considered themselves morally superior to everyone else. Today's elites consider themselves to be more highly educated than the rest of us. They also consider themselves to be morally superior to those that do not agree with them. How did Jesus view the Pharisees and Sadducees? He hardly ever had nice words for them. His descriptions included hypocrites, white-washed tombs, and the blind leading the blind. Jesus did not at all have a high opinion of them. Why is that? Jesus despises pride, selfishness, and empty conceit. The only way to earn Jesus' respect involves humility. That was a hard pill for the Pharisees and Sadducees to swallow. It is also a hard pill for our elites of today to swallow as well.

Elitism vs. Wisdom
Do the elites of today have a point that they have more right to rule because of their high education? NO NO and double NO!! Education can only be as valuable as the underlying information that supports it. If you have been highly educated with information that is false and/or misleading, then the quality of your education is false and/or misleading. I believe it to be worse than worthless because of the intrinsic value placed on it by our present society. How can you tell if you have a worthless education and may be falling into the trap of elitism? Here is the key. Are you puffed up? Wisdom brings about humility because we know that there remains so much out in the world that we do not know. Knowledge puffs up and thinks it has attained the highest form of being to date. Do you think you know better than someone else just because you studied a bunch of theorists and philosophers? Knowing what these people say is not what I am against. Thinking you know more than others because you know what these people say remains the problem. These theorists and philosophers were men. How do their words and ideas compare with the Word of God which is eternal. If you ever find yourself siding with the theorists and philosophers over the Word of God which came to us from our Creator, you might just have a worthless education and have fallen prey to the sin of elitism. We are all fallen creatures in need of help and assistance from our Creator. Unless that is your foundation, you might have a problem.

Elitism in the Early Childhood World
Elitism in the early childhood world runs rampant. We as early childhood educators are trained whether we realize it or not to think that our training trumps all. Anyone or any other philosophy that disagrees with the training we have, makes us balk and cringe. We have studied these things and we know that the best way to do something is (fill in the blank). This, people, displays the very heart of elitism. Even the words "best practice" reveal the elitism of professional people. How do they know that their remedy is "best practice" in every situation? They do not. They just think that they do, and that, my friends, is the problem.

Conclusion
My fellow Christian early childhood educators, how do you treat people that do not have the training that you have received? Do you treat them as ignorant? Have you placed your training beside the Word of God to make sure that you have not fallen for lies and deception? How do you treat parents that do not agree with your training? Do you snob people? These questions lie at the heart of the issue. When we add correct knowledge to our repertoire, we learn that there remains so much that we do not know. It makes us feel more inadequate not less. This leads to humility. False knowledge puffs up and makes people think they know it all. I urge you to apply this test and reexamine how you relate to the people around you. I way say it again. Snobbery is a sin.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade 

Cognitive Development for 2 to 2 1/2 year olds - Math

This post will look at the area of learning - Math covering the components - Numbers, Patterns, Spatial Sense, and Problem Solving. Remember that I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).

We will start with the component - Numbers with the learning expectation - Begins to build understanding of more, and one-to-one correspondence. The performance indicator for this one is:  Responds to "one" and "one more"; begins to count by imitation. Like most everything, a language delay will affect this performance indicator. Children without a language delay will conquer this one easily, but I am seeing so many children with language delays that the delay is becoming the norm. These standards were developed well over a decade ago and they no longer apply. I see this behavior in 3 year olds not 2 year olds. What are we doing to our children?

Next, we move on to the component - Patterns with the learning expectation - Begins to understand the relationship between objects, solving simple jigsaw puzzles and matching similar shapes. The first performance indicator for this one is:  Begins to identify simple objects by their use, color, and shape. I fear I will be a broken record in this post. A child must have a certain level of language development to conquer this performance indicator. I have seen 3 year olds struggle with this performance indicator because it also assumes quite a bit of attention capability. Many of today's children do not pay enough attention to detail to notice use, color, and shape much less identify it. I have found that many of these areas have to be directly taught before children attain this level. They will not discover this without exposure.

The second performance indicator for this one is:  Correctly stacks nesting cups, completes simple inset puzzles, and completes stacking ring in correct order through trial and error. I will start with the last one. Any teacher will tell you that the majority of children today will not stay with a task long enough to figure anything out by trial and error. That is laughable. I have had 4 year olds that I had to work with to make them understand inset puzzles. Stacking nesting cups became one of my items to learn before kindergarten my last several years of teaching preschool. It is hard to believe that these skills used to be considered normal for 2 to 2 1/2 year olds. Even with instruction many, many 2 year olds will struggle with these skills but this is the age where you should start the instruction. Exposure will finally bring about success.

Now we will move on to the component - Spatial Sense with the first learning expectation:  Matches circle, square, and triangle shapes. The performance indicator for this one is:  Uses trial and error to complete circle, triangle, square form board. Two words in that performance indicator make this one laughable - trial and error. Not many children in the 21rst century have enough patience to learn anything by trial and error. However, many 2 year olds can learn their shapes using direct instruction. Children at this age often know more words than they can say. When you work with them directly, they can learn this by the time they are 2 1/2 years old if you start when they turn 2 years old.

The second learning expectations is:  Explores world, and understands position in space and how to get around. The performance indicator for this one is:  Understands how to climb up, go around, in, or through various spaces to get to or to reach an out of reach object. This performance indicator, since it has little to do with language, actually usually does not present a problem for most 2 year olds. We all know how adept they are at climbing and getting to something out of their reach. Some children are very adept causing much consternation for parent and caregiver alike. However, this performance indicator can also be "helicoptered" from existence. If you never, ever let them explore in this fashion, it will cause them to miss valuable lessons in risk necessary for this age. We cannot save them from all the bumps and bruises that come with normal childhood. We can, however, bolt down all heavy furniture so they do not kill themselves.

Lastly, we will look at the component - Problem Solving with the learning expectation - Explores materials and understands simple acts of cause and effect. The performance indicator for this one is:  Begins to build simple block designs through trial and error. Two things about that performance indicator make it laughable -  blocks and trial and error. Children these days do not play with blocks like they once did. Most children dump blocks, throw blocks, and maybe use blocks in dramatic play but very few actually build with the blocks. In the latter years of my tenure as a preschool teacher (I am now retired), I had to directly teach them how to build with blocks. I have already covered the ludicrous aspect of children in today's world learning anything through trial and error so I will not belabor the point. In today's entertainment culture you will probably find it necessary as I did to directly teach many things we learned as children through simple play. This will be one of them.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade 

The Dangers of Building on the Wrong Foundation

This post will look at the importance of building your philosophies and worldview on the right foundation. This post is for Christian educators.

What Is Your Foundation?
Everyone in this world has a philosophical base upon which they screen all information they receive. Many people do this without even realizing that it happens. Do you know what your philosophical foundation is? Most people do not or think they have one foundation when in reality they have another. As Christian educators, most of us believe that we have a Biblical foundation or worldview, but do we? Many of us have let our education and training override our Christian values without knowing that it happened. Let me give you some self-reflection questions that will help you decide if you truly have a Biblical worldview. (1) Do you believe in the sin nature or do you believe that all people are born with a clean slate and learn sin behavior? (2) Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father or do you believe that there are many paths to the Father? (3) Do you believe in absolute standards of right and wrong or do you believe everything can be categorized into different shades of gray? (4) When the Bible and your training conflict, which one do you follow?  If you answered yes to any of the second parts of those questions, you do not have a true Biblical worldview. You have a mix of Biblical and humanistic worldviews. If you answered yes to all of the second parts of the previous questions, you do not have a Biblical worldview at all.

Why Does it Matter?
Some of you may have had to answer yes to the second half of some of those questions and now have started to take offense at me. However, I ask you to back up and reflect. As Christians we are called to be salt and light in this world. If the world cannot tell the difference between us and the rest of the world, we fail at this job. Being a Christian involves more than just church attendance and/or trying to be "good." If we do not follow His word, we are not following Him. Do we really think that is okay? I know how much our "training" skews from God's perspective and quite a bit of the time outright contradicts what the Word of God teaches. The time has come for us to stand up and tell these "trainers" enough is enough. As Christian early childhood educators we have been entrusted with our most precious resource at the time when they are the most impressionable. God will hold us to higher standards. He does not take lightly when we cause these little ones to stumble. He will not accept our excuses over what the culture demands. He called us to come out of them and be separate. It matters greatly to our Father in Heaven how we conduct ourselves as early childhood educators. Make sure you understand where your foundation lies and make double sure that you build upon the Rock and not the sinking sand of the world around us.

How Do You Fix a Faulty Foundation?
What do you do if you realize that you have not been building on the Rock? Number one, you have to know what the Word of God says. Reading your Bible should be the daily habit of every Christian. A carpenter knows his tools before he lays a foundation. A Christian must knows his "tools" before trying to lay a foundation for life. Number two, you have to make a conscious choice to do what the Word of God says. Reading the Bible everyday is worthless if it goes in one ear and out the other. The foundation does not magically build itself. It takes effort and sacrifice. Number three, you have to filter through your beliefs and make sure they line up with the Word of God. This represents probably the most painful part of this process. It takes humility and a teachable spirit to admit you have swallowed lies. It takes courage to stand up to those lies and change. However, knowing that you live your life in the center of His will cannot be equaled.

Conclusion 
The purpose of this post is not to make you feel bad and then leave you. I wrote this post to challenge you to question everything you have been taught and filter it through the Word of God. The time has come for the church of God to take a stand and push back on all the nonsense we have shoved down our throats. The time has come for us to trust God to take care of us, show us His way of doing our jobs, and let Him take care of the fallout. We need to affect the culture not the other way around. Be His hands and feet in the early childhood world. Do not be afraid to toss aside many of our "best practices" because they are lies of the evil one. Be strong and courageous in the time that God has put you.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade 

Language Development for 2 to 2 and 1/2 year olds - Communication (Part 3)

This post will finish the discussion of the component - Expressive Language. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).

We will start with the learning expectation - Uses words and some conventions of speech to express thoughts and ideas. The first performance indicator is:  Puts together two or more words to make simple sentences. As early childhood professionals we are often counting words to see when this age group will start putting two or more words together. When I first started childcare 15 years ago, children reached this milestone rather easily. I noticed with every passing year that more and more children struggled with first simple sentences and then words in general. For a long time I blamed lack of exposure to oral reading activities as the culprit, but as the years passed it took more and more intervention to pull these children up. Now, I am almost convinced that environmental chemicals in our food supply and overall environment may be causing slow detrimental harm to our children. I wish someone would start asking serious hard questions about the "science" that we have been fed as "safe." Our children seem to be in a fog. I have had enough chemistry and biology to understand that we may be altering the developmental trajectory of an entire generation.

The second performance indicator is:  May use pronouns incorrectly. Nowadays, most teachers would be thrilled beyond belief to have the children use pronouns at all before the age of three. Many, many children barely talk at all before two and a half these days. If a child this age uses pronouns, count yourself blessed whether they use them correctly or not. If you see a child beginning to seriously lag at this age, you might want to begin not just speech intervention but maybe purging processed food from their diet. As childcare providers you also might want to look at removing as many chemicals from your environment as possible. Many more natural options for cleaning are available. It makes a bigger difference than you realize.

The third performance indicator is:  Demonstrates through actions the understanding of action verbs like "run," "hit," "jump," "climb." Oral recognition of words develops faster than spoken speech. Therefore, more children conquer this one as opposed to the spoken speech indicators. However, I have still seen about 25% of children that lag in oral understanding of words. These are the children that truly seem to live in a constant fog until closer to their third birthday or beyond. If you find that your children seem to need extra practice in oral language, make sure you tell oral stories that involve lots of action words letting the children act out those actions.

The next performance indicator is:  Begins to use social conventions such as "please" and "thank you." Instead of going off this time about lagging language development, I want to talk about the destruction that too much choice has done to manners. Basic social manners has all but faded from public discourse, and a great causation of that involves making children believe that they do not have to do anything that they do not want to do. It takes a certain amount of coercion to teach children that they need to say "please" and "thank you." A great deal of them will not do it without gentle coercion. In today's crazy politically correct society, adults are not allowed even gentle coercion anymore. This is ridiculous. Teach the children in your care to say "please" and "thank you" when they do begin to talk. Be a part of the solution to our mess and not another crazy addition to the mob that keeps telling us we cannot expect anything of children anymore. Everyone that comes into contact with your children will thank you.

The last performance indicator is:  50% of what the child is saying is understood by unfamiliar listeners; familiar listeners understand more. Wow! I have seen many four year olds that cannot be understood by strangers. If I see a two to two and a half year old nowadays that can be understood by strangers, I take note and ask questions. That is how rare it is. My own biological children were nearly speaking in paragraphs by the age of two and a half but that was nearly 30 years ago. So much has changed. Maybe someday we will get these metrics going in a good direction.

I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! 
https://linktr.ee/natawade