Supporting Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education

Three Problems

1. Lack of school readiness of many young children in daycare and childcare settings
2. The problem is most pressing for children with social, physical, and economic risk factors
3. 50% of kindergartners are from families with > one risk factor for school failure and 33% of kindergarteners with one risk factor = reading scores in bottom 25%

Questions

• Can greater attention to language and early literacy in early childhood programs enhance school readiness?
• Can this be done in ways to support a broader range of skills?
• How to enhance school readiness?

Three important factors to optimize children's school readiness

1. A strong foundation in language development (A critically important predictor of later reading comprehension)
2. A strong foundation in early literacy skills
   Key components needed for reading readiness:
1. Phonological awareness
2. Letter knowledge
3. Written expression
4. Book & print awareness
5. Motivation to read
3. A strong foundation in early math skills
   Key components needed for math readiness:
1. Numbers & operations
2. Patterns
3. Geometry & spatial sense
4. Measurement
5. Classification

What research tells us about how to support social emotional and cognitive development?

The importance of consistently high levels of interactions throughout early childhood.

Specialized support caregiver and teacher provide for child

scaffolding

What does research tells us about the right kind of responsive stimulation?

Six Key Essentials for Optimal Support of Young Children's Cognitive and Social Development

1. Rich language input

• Use of labels for objects & actions
• Providing explanations & rationales

2. Responsiveness to children's signals
3. Maintaining and building on interests
4. Fewer restrictions
5. More choice providing strategies
6. Monitoring children's behavior

Is early childhood a critical period for responsive stimulation?

• Critical periods
  At some developmental stages the child is more receptive to environmental influence than at other stages
• Plasticity
  Flexibility of the young brain for developing network of associations from learning experiences

4 subgroups of mothers from the 360 families on responsive stimulation behaviors

Measuring children's skills

Cognitive

1. Bayley Mental Scale of Infant Development
2. Stanford Binet Intelligence Test, 4th Ed.

Language

1. Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development
2. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – Preschool

Patterns of maternal responsiveness & growth in cognitive skills 6 months through 4 years

Families can learn responsive stimulation

Combining the 6 Essentials and School Readiness Behaviors

	Critical source of stimulation for the young child Influences child's development
teacher

New goal for early childhood programs

Early childhood programs need to teach early literacy skills including a strong foundation of language skills

Major Goal of the Model

Demonstrate that early childhood programs can support cognitive development in concert with the development of social/emotional competencies

Training Program Content

1. Essential Responsive Behaviors
2. Language enrichment

• Scaffolding throughout the day
• Read alouds
• Expression & comprehension

3. Print & book awareness
4. Motivation to read
5. Phonological awareness
6. Letter knowledge & early word recognition
7. Written expression
8. Numeracy

Six Key Essentials for Optimal Support of Young Children's Cognitive and Social Development

1. Rich language input
• Use of labels for objects & actions
• Providing explanations & rationales
2. Responsiveness to children's signals
3. Maintaining and building on interests
4. Fewer restrictions
5. More choice providing strategies
6. Monitoring children's behavior

Our Training Model

Across the school year for 2 years:

• Weekly, 1 hour in-class coaching per teacher with follow-up grows & glows meeting
• Monthly full day training meetings for in classroom mentors and program coordinators

1. Problem solving
2. Reliability checks on teacher observation checklist
3. In depth training on how to coach early literacy areas

• Site visit by CIRCLE staff twice per year

Critical Elements for Training

• Small group focused trainings
• Training across the year
• In classroom coaching
• "Buy in" from administrators

Scaffolding Children's Language Development

• Talking Table
  teacher sits at table or on rug and talks with 3 or more children
• Read aloud with conversations and discussions about the book
• Circle Time
  allowing children to discuss books, daily news

Ways to Scaffold Language

• Model the use of rich vocabulary
• Use questions & examples to extend language
• Use open ended questions
• Use W questions (who?, what?, why?…)
• Request clarification

Before, During and After

1. Select from one of three well-known tales: The Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs
2. In a small group, come up with BEFORE, DURING and AFTER questions and activities for your 3- or 4-year-olds.
3. Classify questions according to those that are simple (recalling facts) to complex (making predictions and connections).
4. Record the group's ideas on large poster paper.
5. Present role played read aloud to large group.

Scaffolding Children's Language Development Activity

• Can you tell me something about this photo/picture?
• Who/what is in the picture?
• Describe what's happening here?
• Have you ever had to eat something you didn't like? Tell me about it.
• What do you think will happen if the little boy doesn't eat his food?
• If you could plan a meal, what foods would you choose?

Building Vocabulary During Daily News

Teacher: Emily, what happened after your car accident yesterday?
Emily: A car came and took us somewhere.
Teacher: What did the car look like?
Emily: It was white with red on it and made noise.
Teacher: What do we call a car that is red and white and makes noise?
Several children: Ambulance!
Teacher: That's right. Emily, where did it take you?
Emily: A building for people that are hurt.
Teacher: What do we call that kind of building?
Phoebe: A hospital.

What is Needed to Help Children Learn New Words?

"Time Windows": child develops networks of associations with repeated learning experiences
New Vocabulary ambulance, nurse, doctor, hospital
Time 1 Daily News		Time 2 Teacher reads aloud and promotes rich discussion		Time 3 Children act out Emily's story

Suggested Book Titles for Younger Children

• Rescue by Carol Binghan
• Emergency by Gail Gibbons
• Jonathan Goes to the Doctor by Susan K. Jonathan
• Going to the Hospital by Fred Rogers

Bring Vocabulary into Centers

Bringing Language and Early Literacy into Pretend Play

• What ages and early childhood settings is this appropriate for?

Encouraging Early Literacy from the Dollar Store

• Cognitive readiness can happen with limited resources

How Do We Help Children Learn Letters?

Tactile Letters
Writing in various mediums

• Shaving cream
• Play dough
• Pipe cleaners
• Blocks
• Salt
• Sand

Other Letter Activities

• Letter Detective
  Use a magnifying class to look for letters
• Buried Letters
  Bury plastic letters in sand. Find the hidden letter.

More Letter Activities

• Alphabet HoKey PoKey
  Children find letter and dance with it.
• Catch a Letter
  Using a dowel, yarn, and magnet, children "fish" for a letter spread on the floor.

How do we help children learn about sounds?

Phonological Awareness Continuum

Phonological Awareness Activities

• Shake It
  Film canisters are filled with different objects. Children shake and listen for sound.
• Rhyming Baskets
  Basket with objects. Children find pairs that rhyme like lock and sock
• Alliteration Fun
  Children give a stuffed toy a name like:
  Barney Bear
  Cute Cat
  Peggy Pig

How do we help our children with writing?

Stages of Writing Children Use:

• Drawing
• Scribbles
• Letter like forms
• Letter strings
• Invented spelling
• Conventional spelling

Writing Corner

• Things to write on:
  colored paper, post-it notes, cards, receipts
• Things to write with:
  markers, pens, colored chalk, crayons
• Things to make writing fun:
  envelopes, catalogs, ruler, hole punch

Making Class Books

• Lunch Sack Books
  Books made from lunch sack, glue, and crayons
• Baggie Books
  Books made with baggies, construction paper, and crayons

How do we know children are learning?

Assessment of Children's Skills

• Portfolios
• Observation Measures
• Dynamic Assessment
• Pre/Post Standardized Evaluations

Evaluation Design

Evaluation of in targeted and control classrooms

• A random sample of teachers and children within classrooms
• Pre assessments (early Fall, 2000)
• Post assessments (Spring, 2001)
• Approximate testing time per child, 1 hr

1. Developing Skills Checklist subtests

• Print Concepts
• Memory (Letter recognition)
• Auditory (Phonological Awareness)
• Math Concepts/Logical Operations

2. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test – III
3. Expressive Vocabulary Test
4. PreSchool Language Scale

Evaluation of teacher classroom behaviors

• Monthly for target and control classrooms

Differential Change in Children's Language &Literacy Skills for Target vs. Control Programs: Small Scale with Weekly CIRCLE consultant on-site (6 of 9 programs, 2000 children)

  Results for target programs 1-6

Social Emotional Survey 12 Social Items:

1. Child Self-Esteem
2. Joyful Spirit
3. Cooperation with Peers
4. Cooperation with Teachers
5. Conversation with Friends
6. Quality of Pretend Play
7. Ability to Express Feeling
8. Creativity
9. Behavioral Self Control
10. Ability to Make Choices
11. Independence
12. Ability to Care about the Feeling of Others

Teacher Comments

• It's an indescribable feeling to see children who had low self-esteem become confident individuals.
• You can see children light up!
• When they have more language, they solve their problems better.
• Children with speech disabilities are speaking more to other children.
• Children will come in and tell us how they feel without being asked.

Teacher Ratings of Children's Social Competence

Conclusions

Although a challenging and complex goal, teachers and caregivers can be supported to teach young children language and literacy skills, and this can be done in ways that support other abilities including reasoning, social relatedness, and emotional health.

Website:
www.uth.tmc.edu/circle

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