This post will continue the discussion of Communication for 2 1/2 to 3 years olds for the component Receptive Language. Expressive Language will be covered in Part 3. We will finish up the remaining 4 performance indicators for this component. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will now pick up our discussion for the learning expectation: Understands questions, some abstract concepts, and simple directions. The next performance indicator is: Understands night and day and has a simple understanding of the concept of time. This is another performance indicator that has been adversely affected by several trends in our current culture. Back 20 to 30 years ago, children spent more time outdoors than children do today. This has actually affected how children process the passing of time. When children spend the majority of the their time indoors, they do not notice the difference in day and night. This used to be one of those areas where children developed a sense of the passing of time from life experience. Now we live in a 24/7 world and the cycles are not as clear as they used to be. Further complicating this particular performance indicator is the trend for lax bedtime and sleeping schedules. Many children do not have a set bedtime anymore. They have become accustomed to staying up at night and sleeping in during the morning hours. Night and day do not have the same meaning for children without regular bedtime schedules. I have had 3 and 4 year olds come through my door with no real concept of night and day until I started to regulate their schedules and talk about night and day. I really wish this nation would come to grips with what our "new parenting" philosophies are truly doing to our children.
The next performance indicator on our list is: Understands color and can recognize primary colors (red, yellow, blue). This particular performance indicator just happens to be one of my sticky points with the "learn through play" people. This skill falls on the left brain. Learning through play mostly covers right brain skills. Therefore, trying to teach the colors without direct instruction is going the long way around the mountain. Actually, many of the activities prescribed to teach colors involve direct instruction indirectly. The pure learning through play philosophy expects children to pick up information simply from life experience and play. Children have to be told that color is red, yellow, or blue at some point, which is direct instruction by the way. Games for learning the colors almost always involve the adult calling out the names of the colors. Guess what? If you do just a little pure direct instruction one-on-one with this age group, they can learn all the colors not just the primary ones. It only takes 5 minutes per day and involves you calling the colors and having them try to call the colors on their own. Children will pick up the colors much faster when you do more than just name every color you see. Practice makes perfect. A little drill and instruction goes a very long way.
Coming in next on the list of performance indicators is: Begins to demonstrate a sense of humor and is responsive to silly situations (e.g., teacher tries to put shoes and socks on hands rather than feet). This one actually has more to do with life experience than direct instruction. Children pick up a sense of humor from the other people in their life whether they be friends, caregivers, parents, etc. When a child does not begin to demonstrate a sense of humor by the age of 3, this could be a sign of a developmental delay. It also could be a sign of living in a toxic stress environment. Children that are never exposed to the lighter side of life cannot develop a sense of humor. Some children on the autism spectrum have a very difficult time processing humor until they are much older, and therefore do not display a sense of humor at this age. If you have a 3 year old child that does not understand humor, testing for developmental delays would probably be a very good idea. Toxic stress can cause otherwise normally developing children to be delayed.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation involves: Holds up fingers when asked how old he is. This is another performance indicator that has left me flabbergasted over the last several years. Something is going so wrong with children's fine motor skills that two year olds and three year olds are nearly incapable of this particular performance indicator. Holding up two fingers used to be one of the cutest signs of toddlerhood. However, have you asked many two year olds how old they are and just gotten a blank stare recently? It is happening at a frightening level to me. As childcare providers we have now become physical therapists when it comes to holding up fingers for numbers. I have had to work hard for weeks on end to help 3 and 4 year olds learn to hold up fingers for numbers. I have given up trying to teach 2 year olds unless it comes naturally to them. Something major has been lost, and I have not pinpointed what that is just yet. It may be thumb dexterity because the children do not seem able to use their thumb to hold their fingers. I have seen a serious downslide in fine motor skills across the board. Not only have I seen the lack of fine motor skills for this particular performance indicator, but I have also seen a huge uptick in immaturity in two year olds. Many two year olds are no where near the point of even understanding age enough to answer that question. I guess I am old enough to truly see the major difference in the maturity level of children. Two year olds could answer this question 10, 20, 30 years ago. What has happened? In an age where the expectations for education have been increased for younger ages, we are on a track for a major train wreck as the maturity level of preschoolers continues to decline at an alarming rate. This serious maturity issue will probably hit the kindergarten teachers much harder this year than they have ever experienced. The childcare providers on the front lines have seen this coming and increasing over the last 3 or 4 years. What I could accomplish 7 or 8 years ago before a child hit kindergarten has had to be greatly adjusted for many children. I find myself doing much more backtracking, speech therapy, and physical therapy than ever these days. This is going to have major impact on our educational infrastructure sooner than we know.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
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