This post will shift gears from early literacy to math. We will still be discussing the cognitive development domain. We will cover the component - Numbers and Operations with its learning expectations and performance indicators. Then we will start the discussion of the component - Patterns and Algebra. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will begin with the component - Numbers and Operations. The learning expectation for this one is: Begins to identify and label objects using numbers. The first performance indicator is: Counts a collection of 1-4 items and begins to understand that the last counting word tells how many. I will say I have had children 2 years old conquer this performance indicator and I have had 4 year olds struggle. If a child has had number concepts modeled during their second year, they will conquer this one easily. If a child has not had any academic exposure before 3 years old, then this will be more of a challenge unless the child has a strong aptitude for numbers. Some children naturally pick up math concepts and some do not. This is where a child's personal learning style and preferences will truly start to show. I will say that most children that get academic instruction and modeling of counting during their third year will conquer this one by their fourth birthday. Some will conquer 1-3 but struggle with 4. Many parents actually model this one in the home. Counting with children seems to come more naturally than reading to children. However, there will always be some parents that do neither. The children that come from the "neither" parents are the ones that will require more instruction than the rest.
The next performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Can quickly "see" and label a group of objects of one to three with a number. This one very much depends on the amount of number concept instruction a child has had in his/her second year. A 3 year old starting from scratch academically will not conquer this one without intense academic instruction in their third year. This one goes beyond just counting to being able to take in a group of objects on sight and determine number. That takes experience and many 3 year olds do not have adequate experience with numbers to be able to conquer this one up to 3 objects. Children must conquer the previous performance indicator before they will conquer this one. It takes quite a bit of practice with counting to be able to determine number by sight.
The next performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Begins to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects. To be honest I have never really seen a child naturally use one-to-one correspondence to determine a number of objects. In case you do not know what I mean by that, it is where a child places objects one to one on a known set of objects to determine how many. Most children simply count. However, it takes a knowledge of one-to-one correspondence to count correctly. A child must understand to point at one object and say one number. Some children struggle horribly with that concept. Other children seem to understand it without instruction. It all depends on the child's natural aptitude for math. Some children can do it with 3 or less objects but not when the number of objects is higher than that. I have also never seen a child naturally compare groups of objects with one-to-one correspondence. This is where they place one object from one group next to one object from another group to see which group has more. Children are usually taught to compare in this way. The most natural way children use one-to-one correspondence is during daily routines such as passing out napkins and silverware for meals or snacks or in play where they are providing the same corresponding object for each member of a group. Again some children pick this up with no problems and some children do not get this concept at all. Aptitude for math seems to have more bearing on this than age. For those children with little aptitude for math, this concept must be taught directly. If you wait until they pick it up naturally, you may be waiting for a very long time.
Now we will move on to the next component - Patterns and Algebra. We will cover the first learning expectation: Explores and begins to sort and classify objects. Its performance indicator is: Begins to sort objects on the basis on one dimension, color, size, shape. It frustrates me to no end how many childhood experts expect us to believe that all children naturally do things like this. The reality of the situation is that many children do not do this naturally. If left to their own devices, these children would never sort things on purpose. They like randomness and are not remotely interested in bringing order to the chaos. These children are not naturally drawn to patterns or puzzles, and most of them do not have a natural aptitude for math concepts. For those children, you will have to directly teach putting objects in groups. You, the adult, will have to expose them to the possibility that objects can be grouped different ways and expect them to struggle with it. This will be something that may take them lots and lots of practice to perfect. Math is not everyone's forte.
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
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 6)
This post will return to my series on child development and finish up the discussion on early literacy. We will look at the last two components with their learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The first component for this post is Visual Sequencing (Patterning). Its learning expectation is: Uses left-to-right and top-to-bottom scanning and observes and reproduces each element in a pattern of 3-dimensional objects. The first performance indicator is: Continues a color- or shape- or size-pattern using a concrete model. Wow! I really do not even know where to begin with this one. Three year olds that come to me as three year olds probably will not come anywhere near this one until they are four and a half. I usually have so much other ground to cover that we do not even attempt patterns until after their fourth birthday. This one assumes so much previous knowledge it is almost laughable in today's early childhood reality. I have a 3 year old that is not yet 3 and 1/2 that nearly has this one conquered, but I have had her since she was 9 months old. She has had good quality instruction from the time she was 9 months old. She has the background to conquer this one on time. Not very many other children get the opportunity to have that type of background. A program has to have infant and toddler instruction that goes beyond just letting them do whatever they want to do in order to really lay a foundation that accomplishes this at 3 years old. The program must have intentional teaching in short bursts for infants and toddlers. It does not have to be much, but it has to be every day.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Continues a pattern of 2 variables (shape and color, color and size, or size and shape) from a concrete model. This one is even worse than the previous one. I have had 5 year olds have extreme difficulty with this one. Only a child that had exposure to patterns as a 2 year old will even come close to this one before his/her fourth birthday. My three year old will probably conquer this one within 6 months, but she is in the top 5% of her age group. Patterns and sequencing tends to be something in which today's young children struggle. Something is missing from their childhood that we had as children, and I am not exactly sure what that is. Maybe we had more time as children to notice natural patterns. Maybe because we had to entertain ourselves, it made us more aware of natural patterns. It could be as simple as more outside time. Nature is full of patterns, and my generation spent a great deal of our childhood outdoors. Whatever it is, today's children are missing a foundation piece that we had. It affects everything.
Now we will move on to the last component for early literacy - letter recognition. The first learning expectation is: Begins to recognize beginning letter of familiar words or environmental print. The performance indicator is: Looks at peer's name in print and recognizes that Johnny starts with the same letter as his own name, Joshua. In most facilities where children's names are plastered everywhere and used to identify large numbers of objects in the room, this one does come naturally. It is only when the print has purpose that children truly start to notice the details. If the children's names are on everything but never really pointed out, then the children are less likely to notice the details. For those children that are raised at home or in small home childcares where the names are not really used on a daily basis, this one does not come naturally. In my facility, I post one child's name on the board every day. That child gets special privileges all day long. The children in my facility learn to distinguish the names when they are 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old because I put special significance on their names. I also have their names on their cubbies, etc., but the special day privilege takes it one step further. Therefore, when I start teaching letter recognition in earnest at 3 years old, the children have a good foundation to build upon.
The last learning expectation is: Attempts to "write" his own name. The performance indicator is: "Writes" name on paper; letters may or may not be readily identified by others; letters may or may not be from left to right or in a straight line. Like the one before it, in large groups this one usually comes along naturally. If a 3 year old sees another 3 year old or 4 year old trying to "write" his/her name, that child will follow suit. Sometimes even older 2 year olds will try to "write" their name when they see other older children do so. In mixed age groups where younger children get to shadow older children, the "writing" will start looking like real letters earlier than in instances where all the children basically scribble. Children in small settings or with stay-at-home moms will exhibit this behavior with adult prompting. If an adult models writing a child's name, the child will mimic that. The letters will become clearer in the first and last scenario because the children will have more exposure to real letters. The more that children are exposed to scribbling the longer that behavior will persist. It is important then for the children not to just be given the opportunity to write, but they must be given good exposure to real letters in order for true writing to begin to emerge.
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
The first component for this post is Visual Sequencing (Patterning). Its learning expectation is: Uses left-to-right and top-to-bottom scanning and observes and reproduces each element in a pattern of 3-dimensional objects. The first performance indicator is: Continues a color- or shape- or size-pattern using a concrete model. Wow! I really do not even know where to begin with this one. Three year olds that come to me as three year olds probably will not come anywhere near this one until they are four and a half. I usually have so much other ground to cover that we do not even attempt patterns until after their fourth birthday. This one assumes so much previous knowledge it is almost laughable in today's early childhood reality. I have a 3 year old that is not yet 3 and 1/2 that nearly has this one conquered, but I have had her since she was 9 months old. She has had good quality instruction from the time she was 9 months old. She has the background to conquer this one on time. Not very many other children get the opportunity to have that type of background. A program has to have infant and toddler instruction that goes beyond just letting them do whatever they want to do in order to really lay a foundation that accomplishes this at 3 years old. The program must have intentional teaching in short bursts for infants and toddlers. It does not have to be much, but it has to be every day.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Continues a pattern of 2 variables (shape and color, color and size, or size and shape) from a concrete model. This one is even worse than the previous one. I have had 5 year olds have extreme difficulty with this one. Only a child that had exposure to patterns as a 2 year old will even come close to this one before his/her fourth birthday. My three year old will probably conquer this one within 6 months, but she is in the top 5% of her age group. Patterns and sequencing tends to be something in which today's young children struggle. Something is missing from their childhood that we had as children, and I am not exactly sure what that is. Maybe we had more time as children to notice natural patterns. Maybe because we had to entertain ourselves, it made us more aware of natural patterns. It could be as simple as more outside time. Nature is full of patterns, and my generation spent a great deal of our childhood outdoors. Whatever it is, today's children are missing a foundation piece that we had. It affects everything.
Now we will move on to the last component for early literacy - letter recognition. The first learning expectation is: Begins to recognize beginning letter of familiar words or environmental print. The performance indicator is: Looks at peer's name in print and recognizes that Johnny starts with the same letter as his own name, Joshua. In most facilities where children's names are plastered everywhere and used to identify large numbers of objects in the room, this one does come naturally. It is only when the print has purpose that children truly start to notice the details. If the children's names are on everything but never really pointed out, then the children are less likely to notice the details. For those children that are raised at home or in small home childcares where the names are not really used on a daily basis, this one does not come naturally. In my facility, I post one child's name on the board every day. That child gets special privileges all day long. The children in my facility learn to distinguish the names when they are 2 and 1/2 to 3 years old because I put special significance on their names. I also have their names on their cubbies, etc., but the special day privilege takes it one step further. Therefore, when I start teaching letter recognition in earnest at 3 years old, the children have a good foundation to build upon.
The last learning expectation is: Attempts to "write" his own name. The performance indicator is: "Writes" name on paper; letters may or may not be readily identified by others; letters may or may not be from left to right or in a straight line. Like the one before it, in large groups this one usually comes along naturally. If a 3 year old sees another 3 year old or 4 year old trying to "write" his/her name, that child will follow suit. Sometimes even older 2 year olds will try to "write" their name when they see other older children do so. In mixed age groups where younger children get to shadow older children, the "writing" will start looking like real letters earlier than in instances where all the children basically scribble. Children in small settings or with stay-at-home moms will exhibit this behavior with adult prompting. If an adult models writing a child's name, the child will mimic that. The letters will become clearer in the first and last scenario because the children will have more exposure to real letters. The more that children are exposed to scribbling the longer that behavior will persist. It is important then for the children not to just be given the opportunity to write, but they must be given good exposure to real letters in order for true writing to begin to emerge.
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
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses
I am going to take a break from my series on child development to tackle a subject I feel is very relevant for the times. It seems to me that we have become a society of victims and as long as we have a good excuse, we can rationalize almost any behavior. I am a big believer in taking responsibility for your own actions, and this should start in childhood. Therefore, indulge me as I rant for a little while.
"I'm trying as hard as I can"
The inspiration for this post started one day not too long ago when I was doing the one-on-one instruction with the five year old that I keep. The lesson was not going well, and he looked at me and said, "I'm trying as hard as I can." Now, the truth of the matter was that he was not even really trying at all. Therefore, his statement made me absolutely bristle. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Let's be honest about this situation. If you were trying as hard as you could, you would be conquering this easily. You are not even half trying. Do not tell me you are trying as hard as you can."
It is a sad commentary on our society that by the time children are 3 years old they understand how to use excuses to get out of doing the unpleasant. Unfortunately the adults in our society set the example for this far too well. Husbands and wives use excuses to get out of the household duties they do not like. Parents make excuses for not making the hard choices in dealing with their children. Employees make excuses for why they cannot take on a particular duty at work. Employers make excuses for why they cannot improve a certain problem in the workplace. Excuses, excuses, excuses. They are everywhere.
If you talk to any person that writes or speaks on the subject of success, they will tell you that excuses are the number one reason many people never reach their full potential. Successful people look at circumstances and try to find solutions. The majority of Americans look at circumstances and make excuses for every type of behavior under the sun. We are by far our own worst enemy. Our society will continue to decline until we decide that maybe just maybe we should stop making excuses and start taking care of business.
I am going to touch on a subject that may be controversial but it lies at the very core of the problem in our society. It used to be that when people did stupid things and bad things happened to them it was viewed as normal. People understood natural consequences. If you play on the railroad tracks and get run over by a train, that was just what happened. You should know better than play on the railroad tracks. Now, we sue the train company and try to come up with barriers to keep people off the tracks instead of tackling the real problem. We have removed the concept of consequences from our society. Nothing is ever our fault. We blame everyone and everything else but the people truly responsible for the circumstances. We have become a society of victims.
How does this play out in the early childhood world? We redirect instead of dealing with behaviors. We shield children from natural consequences because it might make their childhood unpleasant. Then we ruin the lives of the adults that take care of children when those children do absolutely foolish things and hurt themselves because they did not understand natural consequences. We are seeing this play out in older children with terrible consequences. I am thinking of the 12 year old boy that was fatally shot by the police officer for acting like he was shooting people in a public place with a toy gun. A 12 year old boy should have known better than to do something like that. On the other hand, we overreact to everything that deals with a gun in our society. The people that called the police about this boy were freaking out just as badly as the answering policeman. Who was at fault in this situation? Everyone including the victim. The boy did something foolish. The parents did not teach the 12 year old how stupid his actions were. The people overreacted to the boy and called the police, and the policeman shot first and asked questions later. However, I am not hearing anybody blame anyone in that situation but the police. There were at least three other parties that helped set up that fatal confrontation, but it is not politically correct to blame the other parties. This is ridiculous. How many times throughout history have people died because they made foolish choices at just the wrong time? We need to start having some extremely serious discussions about foolish choices and personal responsibility. Those types of discussions might have actually helped every single party in the above incident. We as a society have lost the ability to follow a train of events to a logical conclusion before we jump to a decision. Every single party of that situation acted without thinking it through.
What is the answer? Stop making excuses. Most situations have multiple people at fault at varying degrees. Take ownership of your part of the problem and do something about it. Teach children to own up to their mistakes and fix them. If everyone owned up to their part of the issue, many, many issues would cease to be. This is what marriage counselors tell married couples having problems. This should be what our leaders say to each other and everyone else in a society, which is sort of like a huge marriage if you think about it. We are all in this together for thick or thin whether we like it or not. Rant over.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
"I'm trying as hard as I can"
The inspiration for this post started one day not too long ago when I was doing the one-on-one instruction with the five year old that I keep. The lesson was not going well, and he looked at me and said, "I'm trying as hard as I can." Now, the truth of the matter was that he was not even really trying at all. Therefore, his statement made me absolutely bristle. I looked him straight in the eyes and said, "Let's be honest about this situation. If you were trying as hard as you could, you would be conquering this easily. You are not even half trying. Do not tell me you are trying as hard as you can."
It is a sad commentary on our society that by the time children are 3 years old they understand how to use excuses to get out of doing the unpleasant. Unfortunately the adults in our society set the example for this far too well. Husbands and wives use excuses to get out of the household duties they do not like. Parents make excuses for not making the hard choices in dealing with their children. Employees make excuses for why they cannot take on a particular duty at work. Employers make excuses for why they cannot improve a certain problem in the workplace. Excuses, excuses, excuses. They are everywhere.
If you talk to any person that writes or speaks on the subject of success, they will tell you that excuses are the number one reason many people never reach their full potential. Successful people look at circumstances and try to find solutions. The majority of Americans look at circumstances and make excuses for every type of behavior under the sun. We are by far our own worst enemy. Our society will continue to decline until we decide that maybe just maybe we should stop making excuses and start taking care of business.
I am going to touch on a subject that may be controversial but it lies at the very core of the problem in our society. It used to be that when people did stupid things and bad things happened to them it was viewed as normal. People understood natural consequences. If you play on the railroad tracks and get run over by a train, that was just what happened. You should know better than play on the railroad tracks. Now, we sue the train company and try to come up with barriers to keep people off the tracks instead of tackling the real problem. We have removed the concept of consequences from our society. Nothing is ever our fault. We blame everyone and everything else but the people truly responsible for the circumstances. We have become a society of victims.
How does this play out in the early childhood world? We redirect instead of dealing with behaviors. We shield children from natural consequences because it might make their childhood unpleasant. Then we ruin the lives of the adults that take care of children when those children do absolutely foolish things and hurt themselves because they did not understand natural consequences. We are seeing this play out in older children with terrible consequences. I am thinking of the 12 year old boy that was fatally shot by the police officer for acting like he was shooting people in a public place with a toy gun. A 12 year old boy should have known better than to do something like that. On the other hand, we overreact to everything that deals with a gun in our society. The people that called the police about this boy were freaking out just as badly as the answering policeman. Who was at fault in this situation? Everyone including the victim. The boy did something foolish. The parents did not teach the 12 year old how stupid his actions were. The people overreacted to the boy and called the police, and the policeman shot first and asked questions later. However, I am not hearing anybody blame anyone in that situation but the police. There were at least three other parties that helped set up that fatal confrontation, but it is not politically correct to blame the other parties. This is ridiculous. How many times throughout history have people died because they made foolish choices at just the wrong time? We need to start having some extremely serious discussions about foolish choices and personal responsibility. Those types of discussions might have actually helped every single party in the above incident. We as a society have lost the ability to follow a train of events to a logical conclusion before we jump to a decision. Every single party of that situation acted without thinking it through.
What is the answer? Stop making excuses. Most situations have multiple people at fault at varying degrees. Take ownership of your part of the problem and do something about it. Teach children to own up to their mistakes and fix them. If everyone owned up to their part of the issue, many, many issues would cease to be. This is what marriage counselors tell married couples having problems. This should be what our leaders say to each other and everyone else in a society, which is sort of like a huge marriage if you think about it. We are all in this together for thick or thin whether we like it or not. Rant over.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 5)
This post will continue the discussion of early literacy. We will look at the components of Visual Discrimination and Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships with their learning expectations and performance indicators. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
We will start with the component, Visual Discrimination, with the learning expectation: Discriminates likenesses/differences in real objects. The performance indicator is: Identifies which objects are the same or different in color, shape, size, texture. This one will depend on how much exposure the child has had with these types of concepts. Some 3 year olds are so immature that they are still dealing with social/emotional issues and do not even pay enough attention to their environment to notice sameness and differentness. Some 3 year olds conquer this early in their 3rd year because they have had a lot of exposure as 2 year olds to these types of concepts. As I have stated before, starting around children's second birthday the span of ability begins to widen greatly among even typically developing children. When you add in children with developmental delays, that span can be enormous. Children need to have adults discuss these concepts with them on a regular basis for them to develop these skills on a typical timetable. Unfortunately, many children will not get this exposure or enough of that type of exposure to meet the typical timetable.
The next learning expectation is: Discriminates likenesses/differences in pictured objects. The performance indicator is: Can discriminate which pictured objects are alike or different based on color, shape, size, number. This one is harder than the previous one. Many children have to see things in the real world first to discriminate these likenesses and differences. Most of these children are right-brain dominant. Left-brain dominate children find it much easier to process the abstract nature of pictures as opposed to real objects. Right-brain dominant children must first learn this concept using real tangible objects before they can transfer to the same concept in pictures. Keep this in mind when exposing children to the concept of same and different. Start with real objects before you do pictures of objects unless you know for certain you are dealing with a left-brain dominant child.
Now we will move on to the component: Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships. The learning expectation for this one is: Develops awareness of parts and wholes and how the parts relate to the whole. The first performance indicator is: Completes puzzles of 4 to 10 pieces; notices and identifies missing parts and common objects; constructs a simple block design, using a model. The performance indicator hits a lot of skills that have fallen by the wayside with many children. How many of you have children that take all the pieces out of the puzzles and just leave them that way? These children do not even try to put them back together. How many of you have children that use blocks to fill containers and dump them out and do not even attempt to build anything? That seems to be the norm these days, and children that actually do puzzles and build with blocks are the exception. I have four year olds that could not identify missing parts and common objects. This particular skill absolutely requires adult instruction and lots of it. For the last 3 or 4 years I have had to teach children how to do puzzles and how to build with blocks. For those experts that think children will naturally gravitate to these types of activities, I would like for them to work on the front lines of childcare nowadays. They just might change their tune.
The last performance indicator for that learning component is: Finds hidden figure pictures. I almost laughed out loud over this one. Want to completely frustrate a child nowadays? Hand them a hidden picture book and start timing. The whining will start in less than a minute. Persistence is one of those traits that children do not have these days. If you have a child that loves hidden picture books, that child is probably in the top 10% of his/her age group if not less than 10%. Those children are rare indeed. I have to make the children in my childcare stay after it when we do hidden picture activities. It took all of them months and months of exposure to actually start to become proficient at that activity. It takes persistence and patience and attention to detail to do well on that type of activity. I should not have to say much about the lack of all of the above in the majority of today's children. This activity will take lots of persistence on your part, but teaching persistence, patience, and attention to detail will be worth all the whining, complaining, and hissy fits that might ensue when you introduce this one.
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
We will start with the component, Visual Discrimination, with the learning expectation: Discriminates likenesses/differences in real objects. The performance indicator is: Identifies which objects are the same or different in color, shape, size, texture. This one will depend on how much exposure the child has had with these types of concepts. Some 3 year olds are so immature that they are still dealing with social/emotional issues and do not even pay enough attention to their environment to notice sameness and differentness. Some 3 year olds conquer this early in their 3rd year because they have had a lot of exposure as 2 year olds to these types of concepts. As I have stated before, starting around children's second birthday the span of ability begins to widen greatly among even typically developing children. When you add in children with developmental delays, that span can be enormous. Children need to have adults discuss these concepts with them on a regular basis for them to develop these skills on a typical timetable. Unfortunately, many children will not get this exposure or enough of that type of exposure to meet the typical timetable.
The next learning expectation is: Discriminates likenesses/differences in pictured objects. The performance indicator is: Can discriminate which pictured objects are alike or different based on color, shape, size, number. This one is harder than the previous one. Many children have to see things in the real world first to discriminate these likenesses and differences. Most of these children are right-brain dominant. Left-brain dominate children find it much easier to process the abstract nature of pictures as opposed to real objects. Right-brain dominant children must first learn this concept using real tangible objects before they can transfer to the same concept in pictures. Keep this in mind when exposing children to the concept of same and different. Start with real objects before you do pictures of objects unless you know for certain you are dealing with a left-brain dominant child.
Now we will move on to the component: Visual Whole-Part-Whole Relationships. The learning expectation for this one is: Develops awareness of parts and wholes and how the parts relate to the whole. The first performance indicator is: Completes puzzles of 4 to 10 pieces; notices and identifies missing parts and common objects; constructs a simple block design, using a model. The performance indicator hits a lot of skills that have fallen by the wayside with many children. How many of you have children that take all the pieces out of the puzzles and just leave them that way? These children do not even try to put them back together. How many of you have children that use blocks to fill containers and dump them out and do not even attempt to build anything? That seems to be the norm these days, and children that actually do puzzles and build with blocks are the exception. I have four year olds that could not identify missing parts and common objects. This particular skill absolutely requires adult instruction and lots of it. For the last 3 or 4 years I have had to teach children how to do puzzles and how to build with blocks. For those experts that think children will naturally gravitate to these types of activities, I would like for them to work on the front lines of childcare nowadays. They just might change their tune.
The last performance indicator for that learning component is: Finds hidden figure pictures. I almost laughed out loud over this one. Want to completely frustrate a child nowadays? Hand them a hidden picture book and start timing. The whining will start in less than a minute. Persistence is one of those traits that children do not have these days. If you have a child that loves hidden picture books, that child is probably in the top 10% of his/her age group if not less than 10%. Those children are rare indeed. I have to make the children in my childcare stay after it when we do hidden picture activities. It took all of them months and months of exposure to actually start to become proficient at that activity. It takes persistence and patience and attention to detail to do well on that type of activity. I should not have to say much about the lack of all of the above in the majority of today's children. This activity will take lots of persistence on your part, but teaching persistence, patience, and attention to detail will be worth all the whining, complaining, and hissy fits that might ensue when you introduce this one.
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
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 4)
This post will continue the discussion of early literacy. First we will finish the learning expectations and performance indicators for the component - Phonological Awareness. Then we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. Remember I am taking my information from the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN-ELDS).
The last learning expectation for the component, Phonological Awareness, is: Begins to combine (blend) parts of compound words to make a whole word. The performance indicator for this one is; When the adult provides 2 words that can be combined to form a compound word, child identifies the compound word (e.g., given base and ball, she produces the word baseball). This is another performance indicator that will not be conquered naturally until the child is older. If a teacher regularly does this type of activity with 3 year olds, many with normally developing language skills will conquer it. However, we seem to be getting a generation of children dragging in language development and those children will not have the language skills to conquer this one. The children also need to have a point of reference to be able to make compound words. Some 3 year olds have never seen a baseball. We have a generation of children coming up that do not have any point of reference with many things the previous generation just took for granted. The sad part is that many adults do not even realize the gap that has been developing for nearly a decade.
Now, we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. The first learning expectation for this one is: Demonstrates interest in books and what they contain. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes specific books by their covers; asks to be read to; asks for favorite books to be read again and again; pretends to read; makes comments and asks questions as story is read; participates in rereading by supplying repetitive phrases. That covers a lot. If a child is not read to regularly, that child will not conquer any of this performance indicator. Children that are read to daily conquer this one easily. I have one 3 year old in my care. She is not yet 3 and 1/2, and she does all of these things. I have a 4 and 1/2 year old that comes part-time. He now recognizes books by their cover, but he does not pretend to read or answer questions about what has been read. He does not supply missing words or repetitive phrases very well, either. The first child has been read to daily since she was 1 year old. The other may or may not have been read to much at all before he came to me at 3 and 1/2. He does not come regularly and therefore does not get the benefit of being read to daily. He still lags behind the first child even though he is a year and 1/2 older than she is. Unfortunately the second child is more representative of the norm than the first child
The next learning expectation is: Understands how books work and the way they are handled. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes when books are upside down or backwards, and turns to correct orientation. This entire component will hinge on whether or not an adult reads to a child on a regular basis. Going back to the example for the previous learning expectation. The first child has this one already conquered. The second child sometimes notices this and sometimes does not. When he was 3 years old, he did not have enough experience with books to come close to this one. I hope this walk through these standards has made it abundantly clear how very important it is to read to children daily. It makes such a noticeable difference but so many parents just do not bother. Some childcare providers also do not bother, but I hope they are the minority and not the majority. I would hope that if this is your profession you will know enough to at least read to your children daily.
The third learning expectation for this component is: Begins to attend to print in the environment, especially own name. The performance indicator for this one is: Asks questions about printed name and letters in it; recognizes printed name and attempts to print; uses same purposeful scribbling when "writing." For this one I am going to use a story related to me by the mother of the 3 and 5 year olds that I keep. Recently, she enrolled the 5 year old in a half-day preschool program in order for him to get more socialization. I let her even though I knew she might not be happy with the socialization he received. This society holds hard to the "socialization" reason for public school, but remember I am a former homeschooling mom. I do not. Well, the first slap of reality she received was on orientation day. All of the children in this program are at least 4 years old. This mom noticed that all of the cubbies used picture nametags instead of just the child's name. She asked about this and the preschool teachers told her that the majority of children start the year not being able to recognize their name in print. Therefore, they use the picture nametags until the children gain more exposure to their name in print. This mom left horrified because her almost 3 year old recognized her name in print and had for a good 4 or 5 months. That day that mom realized that what she thought was normal because of my program was not normal at all. That preschool represents the best preschool by reputation in this town. All the "good" kids (meaning rich or upper middle class) attend there. Maybe sometimes you wonder where I get my information on the state of our children. This story is probably by far the best example of just exactly how bad things have gotten. The preschool teachers at this preschool will tell you that 10 years ago they did not have to use picture nametags, but they do now.
The last learning expectation for this component is: Shows awareness that print conveys a message, that print is read rather than the pictures. The performance indicator is: Begins to look at and comment about the print as much as the pictures; begins to "read" common signs and other print when traveling in a vehicle. Aside from the McDonald's logo or maybe one or two others, this performance indicator is out of reach for 80-90% of 4 year olds much less 3 year olds. Many kindergarteners "read" the pictures as opposed to noticing the print for the first half of the year. Just ask kindergarten teachers how much experience with print awareness 80-90% of the children have on the first day of kindergarten. They might laugh at you. They have a daunting task these days because the print awareness of many children on the first day of kindergarten is at or near zero. Those children from the prestigious preschool I mentioned earlier will make up the 10-20% of children that do have some print awareness because those teachers work those kids hard for a year. Then there is my little 3 year old. She has already met this performance indicator, but I will tell you she is in the top 1% for her age.
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
The last learning expectation for the component, Phonological Awareness, is: Begins to combine (blend) parts of compound words to make a whole word. The performance indicator for this one is; When the adult provides 2 words that can be combined to form a compound word, child identifies the compound word (e.g., given base and ball, she produces the word baseball). This is another performance indicator that will not be conquered naturally until the child is older. If a teacher regularly does this type of activity with 3 year olds, many with normally developing language skills will conquer it. However, we seem to be getting a generation of children dragging in language development and those children will not have the language skills to conquer this one. The children also need to have a point of reference to be able to make compound words. Some 3 year olds have never seen a baseball. We have a generation of children coming up that do not have any point of reference with many things the previous generation just took for granted. The sad part is that many adults do not even realize the gap that has been developing for nearly a decade.
Now, we will move on to the component - Print Awareness. The first learning expectation for this one is: Demonstrates interest in books and what they contain. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes specific books by their covers; asks to be read to; asks for favorite books to be read again and again; pretends to read; makes comments and asks questions as story is read; participates in rereading by supplying repetitive phrases. That covers a lot. If a child is not read to regularly, that child will not conquer any of this performance indicator. Children that are read to daily conquer this one easily. I have one 3 year old in my care. She is not yet 3 and 1/2, and she does all of these things. I have a 4 and 1/2 year old that comes part-time. He now recognizes books by their cover, but he does not pretend to read or answer questions about what has been read. He does not supply missing words or repetitive phrases very well, either. The first child has been read to daily since she was 1 year old. The other may or may not have been read to much at all before he came to me at 3 and 1/2. He does not come regularly and therefore does not get the benefit of being read to daily. He still lags behind the first child even though he is a year and 1/2 older than she is. Unfortunately the second child is more representative of the norm than the first child
The next learning expectation is: Understands how books work and the way they are handled. The performance indicator for this one is: Recognizes when books are upside down or backwards, and turns to correct orientation. This entire component will hinge on whether or not an adult reads to a child on a regular basis. Going back to the example for the previous learning expectation. The first child has this one already conquered. The second child sometimes notices this and sometimes does not. When he was 3 years old, he did not have enough experience with books to come close to this one. I hope this walk through these standards has made it abundantly clear how very important it is to read to children daily. It makes such a noticeable difference but so many parents just do not bother. Some childcare providers also do not bother, but I hope they are the minority and not the majority. I would hope that if this is your profession you will know enough to at least read to your children daily.
The third learning expectation for this component is: Begins to attend to print in the environment, especially own name. The performance indicator for this one is: Asks questions about printed name and letters in it; recognizes printed name and attempts to print; uses same purposeful scribbling when "writing." For this one I am going to use a story related to me by the mother of the 3 and 5 year olds that I keep. Recently, she enrolled the 5 year old in a half-day preschool program in order for him to get more socialization. I let her even though I knew she might not be happy with the socialization he received. This society holds hard to the "socialization" reason for public school, but remember I am a former homeschooling mom. I do not. Well, the first slap of reality she received was on orientation day. All of the children in this program are at least 4 years old. This mom noticed that all of the cubbies used picture nametags instead of just the child's name. She asked about this and the preschool teachers told her that the majority of children start the year not being able to recognize their name in print. Therefore, they use the picture nametags until the children gain more exposure to their name in print. This mom left horrified because her almost 3 year old recognized her name in print and had for a good 4 or 5 months. That day that mom realized that what she thought was normal because of my program was not normal at all. That preschool represents the best preschool by reputation in this town. All the "good" kids (meaning rich or upper middle class) attend there. Maybe sometimes you wonder where I get my information on the state of our children. This story is probably by far the best example of just exactly how bad things have gotten. The preschool teachers at this preschool will tell you that 10 years ago they did not have to use picture nametags, but they do now.
The last learning expectation for this component is: Shows awareness that print conveys a message, that print is read rather than the pictures. The performance indicator is: Begins to look at and comment about the print as much as the pictures; begins to "read" common signs and other print when traveling in a vehicle. Aside from the McDonald's logo or maybe one or two others, this performance indicator is out of reach for 80-90% of 4 year olds much less 3 year olds. Many kindergarteners "read" the pictures as opposed to noticing the print for the first half of the year. Just ask kindergarten teachers how much experience with print awareness 80-90% of the children have on the first day of kindergarten. They might laugh at you. They have a daunting task these days because the print awareness of many children on the first day of kindergarten is at or near zero. Those children from the prestigious preschool I mentioned earlier will make up the 10-20% of children that do have some print awareness because those teachers work those kids hard for a year. Then there is my little 3 year old. She has already met this performance indicator, but I will tell you she is in the top 1% for her age.
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
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 3)
This post will pick up the discussion of early literacy with the component - Phonological Awareness. We will cover 3 of the learning expectations for this component with their 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: Initiates word play and likes rhymes and silly sounds and words. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Repeats rhymes without prompts and enjoys rhymes in songs, poems, and finger plays. To be honest, I do not know many 4 year olds that conquer this particular performance indicator. Rhymes are not as big a part of childhood as they once were. A child must have a thorough background and exposure to rhymes, poems, and finger plays to be able to do them without prompts. I do lots of rhymes in my childcare, but because this is the only place where the children have exposure to them, they do not pick them up very fast at all. I read tons of Dr. Seuss, but the 3 year olds just do not latch onto the rhyming like they did even a decade ago. It is sad.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Identifies whether or not two words rhyme. Again, children in today's world struggle with the concept of rhyming because nursery rhymes have disappeared from childhood. It is not only that, but the lack of exposure to books in general also plays into this phenomenon. It is the rare 3 year old that can conquer the concept of whether or not two words rhyme. I have to work extensively with my 4 year olds to conquer this concept. Children just do not pick this up easily anymore. Childcare providers have to spend a great deal of their time dealing with social/emotional issues these days, which leaves little time for the academic. Some in the early childhood world would say that the preschool years should be mostly about the social/emotional development of a child. I say that we are having to deal so much with the social/emotional development of children because our society and parenting styles and philosophies are dysfunctional. Preschool children used to conquer much more academic content naturally.
The third performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Enjoys stories with alliteration, where all words have the same speech sound; plays with the sounds and participates in the production of more words. I am sorry, but I just do not see 3 year olds playing with sounds anymore. Most of us do well to get 3 year olds to actually sit through an entire book without walking away. Most of the time the children do not even pick up on the fact that all the words begin with the same sound unless you specifically point it out, and that is 4 year olds not 3 year olds. Most of the 4 year olds I have had recently struggled horribly with providing words that all begin with the same letter, and I work hard with that concept. Language development for children has declined at an increasingly alarming rate just in the last 5 years. I feel so sorry for the kindergarten teachers now. Because I know what is coming down the pipeline, I know their job will only continue to get harder and harder as the expectations only continue to increase. These two phenomenons cannot coexist. The educational movement in this country is heading for a meltdown. If you think the teacher burnout rate is bad now, just give it a few more years.
Now we will move on to the next learning expectation: Completes a rhyme and recites at least three rhymes. The performance indicator for this one is; With a familiar poem, supplies a missing word that rhymes with another word. I hope it is becoming obvious by this point that phonological awareness has all but disappeared in the preschool years. Poetry and rhymes have disappeared in all but the best of programs. A child cannot fill in the blanks for something in which they have not heard enough times to be familiar. I would venture to say that 75% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not being able to quote three rhymes. I would also say that 50% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not truly understanding the concept of rhyming. If it has not hit those percentages, just give it a few years. My latest batch hits kindergarten next year. This is the batch that began to truly show the uptick in immaturity and drag in language development.
The last learning expectation for this post is: Begins to detect the syllable structure (rhythm) of oral words. The performance indicator for this one is: Claps or beats the rhythm (syllable beats) in own name and other familiar names. The only way a 3 or 4 year old will conquer this particular performance indicator is if you the provider/teacher do an activity on a regular basis where the child is exposed to this concept. If not, the child will not pick this up on his/her own unless the child is gifted. When 3 and 4 year olds are regularly exposed to this concept most of them will pick it up in time. By regularly exposed, I mean at least once a month, and do not expect them to perfect it the first time you introduce it. Normally, it takes several exposures for the children to fully grasp the concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
The first learning expectation for this component is: Initiates word play and likes rhymes and silly sounds and words. The first performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Repeats rhymes without prompts and enjoys rhymes in songs, poems, and finger plays. To be honest, I do not know many 4 year olds that conquer this particular performance indicator. Rhymes are not as big a part of childhood as they once were. A child must have a thorough background and exposure to rhymes, poems, and finger plays to be able to do them without prompts. I do lots of rhymes in my childcare, but because this is the only place where the children have exposure to them, they do not pick them up very fast at all. I read tons of Dr. Seuss, but the 3 year olds just do not latch onto the rhyming like they did even a decade ago. It is sad.
The second performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Identifies whether or not two words rhyme. Again, children in today's world struggle with the concept of rhyming because nursery rhymes have disappeared from childhood. It is not only that, but the lack of exposure to books in general also plays into this phenomenon. It is the rare 3 year old that can conquer the concept of whether or not two words rhyme. I have to work extensively with my 4 year olds to conquer this concept. Children just do not pick this up easily anymore. Childcare providers have to spend a great deal of their time dealing with social/emotional issues these days, which leaves little time for the academic. Some in the early childhood world would say that the preschool years should be mostly about the social/emotional development of a child. I say that we are having to deal so much with the social/emotional development of children because our society and parenting styles and philosophies are dysfunctional. Preschool children used to conquer much more academic content naturally.
The third performance indicator for this learning expectation is: Enjoys stories with alliteration, where all words have the same speech sound; plays with the sounds and participates in the production of more words. I am sorry, but I just do not see 3 year olds playing with sounds anymore. Most of us do well to get 3 year olds to actually sit through an entire book without walking away. Most of the time the children do not even pick up on the fact that all the words begin with the same sound unless you specifically point it out, and that is 4 year olds not 3 year olds. Most of the 4 year olds I have had recently struggled horribly with providing words that all begin with the same letter, and I work hard with that concept. Language development for children has declined at an increasingly alarming rate just in the last 5 years. I feel so sorry for the kindergarten teachers now. Because I know what is coming down the pipeline, I know their job will only continue to get harder and harder as the expectations only continue to increase. These two phenomenons cannot coexist. The educational movement in this country is heading for a meltdown. If you think the teacher burnout rate is bad now, just give it a few more years.
Now we will move on to the next learning expectation: Completes a rhyme and recites at least three rhymes. The performance indicator for this one is; With a familiar poem, supplies a missing word that rhymes with another word. I hope it is becoming obvious by this point that phonological awareness has all but disappeared in the preschool years. Poetry and rhymes have disappeared in all but the best of programs. A child cannot fill in the blanks for something in which they have not heard enough times to be familiar. I would venture to say that 75% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not being able to quote three rhymes. I would also say that 50% of today's children arrive at kindergarten not truly understanding the concept of rhyming. If it has not hit those percentages, just give it a few years. My latest batch hits kindergarten next year. This is the batch that began to truly show the uptick in immaturity and drag in language development.
The last learning expectation for this post is: Begins to detect the syllable structure (rhythm) of oral words. The performance indicator for this one is: Claps or beats the rhythm (syllable beats) in own name and other familiar names. The only way a 3 or 4 year old will conquer this particular performance indicator is if you the provider/teacher do an activity on a regular basis where the child is exposed to this concept. If not, the child will not pick this up on his/her own unless the child is gifted. When 3 and 4 year olds are regularly exposed to this concept most of them will pick it up in time. By regularly exposed, I mean at least once a month, and do not expect them to perfect it the first time you introduce it. Normally, it takes several exposures for the children to fully grasp the concept.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!!
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Cognitive Development for 3 to 4 year olds - Early Literacy (Part 2)
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
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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