This post will continue the discussion of cognitive development for 3 to 4 year olds in the area of learning - Early Literacy. We will discuss the component - Listening and Understanding with its learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember, I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first learning expectation for this component is: Listens attentively to stories, conversations, and explanations and demonstrates understanding. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Maintains attention to stories and responds to questions appropriately. Whether or not a child conquers this performance indicator very much depends on (1) how much exposure a child gets to books and being read to frequently and (2) how much a parent or caregiver has worked with the child as a 2 year old to sit and listen. Of course, if a child does not have a lot of experience with books, it takes a while for that child to learn to interact with stories correctly. Also, if a child has not had an adult work with them as a 2 year old to sit for at least a short time, that training must start when they are 3 years old. Many, many child experts must believe that certain behaviors just appear at certain ages without those behaviors having to be trained. That is ludicrous. I truly believe there is a huge disconnect between the "experts" and the frontlines of this industry. The experts feel that training a 2 and 1/2 to 3 year old to sit is developmentally inappropriate, but that 3 year olds will automatically display this behavior. This leaves 3 year old teachers with the enormous task of training a behavior that really should have been trained the previous six months to some degree. The same amount of training is required regardless of when it starts putting those 3 year olds behind the curve automatically. The lack of training affects other developmental milestones making the fulfillment of this performance indicator fall after a child's 4th birthday rather than before. I train my 2 and 1/2 to 3 year olds to sit for short amounts of time, and it makes an enormous difference in them as 3 to 4 year olds. When I get 3 year olds that have never been made to sit, that is all we can work on until they conquer it putting them behind the children I have had as 2 year olds.
An Aside
Before I move on to the next performance indicator I want to discuss the ideals of this industry versus the reality of this industry. Very often the ideals of this industry conflict with the gaining of long-held developmental milestones without the idealists realizing that their ideals create a conflict. However, those on the frontlines know that something just is not working without necessarily knowing the how and why. Some on the frontlines do understand the conflict and fix it on their own at their own risk. They understand they have to not adhere to certain principles in order to gain certain milestones (case in point - making 2 year olds sit). They run the risk of the full wrath of the idealists when they do this, and it can be one of the most stressful parts of this job. In some heavily regulated states, these people take great risk to do what they feel is actually right, and some really good caregivers have been driven from this industry over these issues. As an avid history buff, I find myself getting very frustrated with the idealists often. They believe that we have evolved as people and are much smarter than previous generations even though if you actually did studies that truly compare certain behaviors and milestones against previous generations we would see that maybe we are not as smart as we think we are. Most of the idealists look at history through their own perspectives rather than looking at history as it was. They judge history by their own standards rather than judging both groups by common standards. Did you know that the societal rate of literate adults was actually higher during the colonial days than it is now in the United States? That is just one of millions of ways modern society does not necessarily stack up to previous generations. Many times when the idealists do understand there is a conflict between their ideals and the developmental milestones, the milestones are changed rather than the ideals. In the grand scheme of history our present ideals are fairly untested compared to other ideals that have stood for centuries. Maybe just maybe the ideals are the problem and not the milestones.
The next performance indicator is: Participates with understanding in activities with stories, songs, finger plays, and poems. The operative word in that performance indicator is participates. How many of you childcare providers struggle with getting 3 year olds to participate in anything. A great deal of the time, you do the activity while they stare at you. Am I right? We will not even go to participates with understanding when we cannot get them to participate in the first place. Sometimes I literally work years to get some children to participate in group activities in a way that shows they understand what is happening. We have programmed children to do what they want to do and undoing that can be nearly impossible with some children. I am sorry, but this is a perfect example of where the ideals and the reality do not mesh. The ideal of free choice for children and the need for children to learn to participate in group activities do not compliment one another. Many children that are used to doing what they want to do all the time have to be made to participate in group activities. If we do not do it as early childhood educators, then the kindergarten teachers will have do it when they arrive on their doorstep. Believe me, the kindergarten teachers have enough on their plate without having to do that as well. Preschool children are fully capable of participating in group activities without it damaging their psyche. On the contrary, I am not so sure that giving children complete choice does not actually do long-lasting damage to a child's psyche. The jury is out on that one.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Notices if reader omits parts of familiar story. This performance indicator assumes that a child has heard a story enough times to notice if parts of it have been omitted. That can be a huge assumption. Again, if a child has not been read to as a 2 year old, this performance indicator will not happen as a 3 year old. For many children that start with me as a 3 year old, this performance indicator is beyond them until they are 4 year olds. I know this is common occurrence in many childcares. You stop in the middle of a story to see if they can supply what happens next only to be met with blank stares or an entire group of children too busy doing their own thing to even notice that you are actually doing something. I will say that left-brain leaning children will be better at this one than right brain leaning children. Left-brain leaning children are all about the details and notice when one is omitted. Right-brain children may not notice at all or get so caught up in your new version that their brains go in an entirely different direction. Right-brain children need extra practice at details.
The second learning expectation for the component listening and understanding is: Understands an increasingly complex and varied vocabulary for objects, attributes, actions, and events. The performance indicator for this one is: Comprehends and uses new words that are introduced with stories, thematic units, field trips, and other daily activities. Again, this one assumes a lot of previous language development as a 2 year old. The breadth of the variations of language development in 3 year olds can be enormous. I will say the top 25% of 3 year olds handle this performance indicator well by the time they are 4 years old. The bottom 25% will not do this before kindergarten if then. The middle 50% may or may not handle this one by the time they are 4 years old, but will probably be able to handle it by the time they are 4 and 1/2 to 5 years old. It depends on the level of exposure the children have to language on a daily basis as to when they will be able to start incorporating new vocabulary into their spoken and responsive language. Children need to hear as large a variety of words as possible on a daily basis. I cannot stress enough how important that is to the language development of children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
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