This post will continue the discussion of cognitive development of 2 1/2 to 3 years in the Early Literacy area of learning. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS). These standards are meant to be used as a tool for the development of curriculum and not as a screening tool. Many older children may not meet all of these standards for various and assorted reasons. I chose this starting point because it represents the basic start to preschool.
First, we will look at the component - Auditory Discrimination with its three learning expectations and performance indicators. The first learning expectation involves Being aware of and identifying many sounds in the environment with the performance indicator: Identifies the source of familiar sounds in the environment and continues to notice new sounds. This particular learning expectation does occur naturally. Children are naturally curious about the sounds around them and can be extremely perceptive about familiar sounds. I can remember as a child knowing exactly when my mom was popping popcorn. I could tell the difference between popcorn hitting the pan and peas hitting the pan. Similarly, my own biological children knew exactly what we were having for breakfast when they heard me using the food chopper. That familiar sound meant homemade apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast. Sometimes in the childcare setting you, the provider, will notice a child that does not pick up on familiar sounds. This could be an indication of a physical or developmental problem but not always. If you do notice a child that does not pick up on familiar sounds, do some simple tests to see if the child does have a hearing issue. If they do, refer them to the appropriate professional service for diagnosis. Do not ever attempt to provide a diagnosis on your own. It is your job to refer not diagnose. Sometimes the child's hearing is fine but the child's ability to pay attention to details may not be. This can or cannot be a symptom of a developmental problem. Again a referral for testing would be appropriate. When you discover a problem in this area, discussing noises with the children on a regular basis will improve the child's ability to pay attention unless a serious developmental delay is present.
The second learning expectation is: Continues to distinguish between words with similar phonemes, such as pat and path. The performance indicator for this one: Makes accurate distinctions between words that contain very similar-sounding phonemes (e.g., path-pass, hat-pat, bug-bud, map-nap, shot-shop, hit-hat, etc.). Remember this is dealing with auditory discrimination and not speech-related development. A child should be able to tell the difference when you say path or pass even though they may say path for both for them. Whether a child reaches this particular one between 2 1/2 and 3 years old very much depends on how much language exposure the child has in his/her environment. Children that have language rich environments will reach this milestone at that age. Whereas, children from language poor environments may not reach this milestone until they are closer to 4 years old. Children that live in a language rich environment will hear 1000 different words per day through reading books and conversations. However, thanks to technology many children do not hear anywhere near that many words in their home setting. Having conversations with the children in your care is extremely important for the proper language development of those children. Read books to them and make mealtime discussions the norm at your facility. Give the children ample opportunity to hear the widest range of vocabulary possible in a day's time. It makes a huge difference.
The third learning expectation for the component Auditory Discrimination is: Discriminates among sounds based on volume and pitch - loud vs. soft, high vs. low, long vs short. The performance indicator for this one is: Responds appropriately when asked to speak with a different volume or to turn up or down the sound of a recording or a toy; can identify whether a sound is high or low, loud or soft, long or short when compared to another sound. This particular learning expectation will not occur naturally. This one must be instructed. This can be accomplished with simple exercises that demonstrate the opposites. I have found that recently children have come into my facility with far less experience with these concepts than even 5 years ago. A child must have exposure to these concepts to gain knowledge, and somewhere the exposure to these types of opposites has been lost in the shuffle. Therefore, you will need to give the child exposure in order for the child to become fluent with these concepts.
The last component for Early Literacy is Phonological Awareness. The learning expectation for this one: Engages in and enjoys word play with silly sounds and real and nonsense words. The performance indicator: Plays with words herself if adult models rhymes or silly-sounding words; recites one or two favorite rhymes/poems. The word "models" in the performance indicator clues you in to the fact that this one definitely does not occur naturally. Children must be exposed to rhymes and poetry in order to develop a sense of rhyming. Childhood used to be filled with nursery rhymes. Therefore, this one did seem to develop naturally years ago. Childhood these days is nearly void of nursery rhymes and poetry unless the parents and caregivers make a specific effort to expose children to these types of literature. In my facility I read at least one poem or rhyme per day. To me it is very sad that nursery rhymes have nearly disappeared from childhood. If you cannot stand the old nursery rhymes, please at least read poems and poetry to the children to give them the exposure they need.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
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