The first performance indicator for this post is: Talks about something this is not in front of him ("Last night, we went to the movies.") This performance indicator does usually manifest before a child's fifth birthday, but for some children it may be the month of the child's fifth birthday. Those children will language delays will not conquer this one until closer to their fifth birthday. Those without language delays may conquer this one shortly after their fourth birthday. Some advanced children may conquer this one while they are three years old. A child must reach a certain level of language maturity to be able to carry out this performance indicator. In today's society some children will simply not get enough language exposure to develop this one on time. A great deal of the language delay we see in early childhood settings these days is caused by lack of experiences rather than a physical reason for the delay. I am sorry, but parents remain the main cause of this type of delay. Too many parents in America put too little emphasis on reading to their children and other activities that build language skills.
The next performance indicator is: Easily expresses his feelings, fears, ideas, wishes, and dreams. This one goes straight to what is called "emotional intelligence," and it is something American children struggle with horribly. Much has been written and said in recent years trying to help children express their feelings. Part of the problem involves the language delay we are seeing in so many children. However, it goes deeper than that. Unfortunately, a great number of adults cannot easily express their feeling, fears, ideas, wishes, and dreams. This rubs off on the children in the sphere of influence of these adults. The bullying epidemic we have seen explode over the last several years has as its root cause this lack of emotional intelligence. Children do not come by emotional intelligence naturally. It must be taught and modeled. However, the adults must possess it first in order to pass it along. I know we fight against the tide sometimes, but make it a priority to help children develop emotional intelligence along with academic intelligence. Both are necessary to function in the adult world.
The last performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Says full name and full address; knows more about where she lives (state, country). Again ten years ago this was a prerequisite for kindergarten and everyone had to learn this information. Now, it is not that simple. Many, many children have more than one address. Custody division is as such sometimes that they divide weeks between two residences or even within the same week. Very often children do not share the same last name as their mother anymore, and sometimes not even with their siblings. Many schools require this information still. Therefore, the last 3 or 4 months before kindergarten becomes a marathon session of learning this information. Whereas, years ago children acquired this information in a much more natural way. The children I presently have in my care that will start kindergarten in a few months knowing their full name but not their address. One of them has two addresses. This will be something we have to conquer in the next two months before they start school. Both of them are already five years old. As for the knowledge of state and country, unless a child has been in a quality preschool setting, they do not know this information. It is another item that seems to fall through the cracks these days.
Now we will move on to the learning expectation: Uses conventions of speech while expressing ideas. The first performance indicator is: Uses past, present, and future verb tense. Again, this one is affected by language delay. Those children that have not had good language experiences will struggle with using past, present, and future tense correctly in conversation. Those children that have had good language experiences will conquer this one. Good books and good conversation experience develop this particular performance indicator. Nothing can replace the importance of having adults read and talk to children.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! https://linktr.ee/natawade
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