hello lovely child

We all want to provide our preschoolers with opportunities leading to later academic success. But as well meaning parents sometimes we’re vulnerable to thinking “inside information” or alternative fast tracks will get us there.

Research and advice from early childhood experts on emerging literacy are more reliable than the latest hype. The advice doesn’t often have a sexy ring to it, but these professionals suggest the best foundation—those steps that lead your child to the point she’s ready to read—comes from daily experiences at home.

Two Opportunities to Seize

In his Children’s Learning Opportunities Report (2000) Carl Dunst conceptualizes the opportunities for language development and early literacy in terms of incidental and intentional opportunities.

Incidental opportunities might include watching leaves blow while on a walk, blowing on food when it’s too hot, or talking about body parts during bath time. Intentional activities might include story hour at the library or a trip to the zoo. Dunst says children need activity settings matched to their interests and competencies to practice existing skills and learn new abilities. He suggests:

TIP #1: Identify your young child’s INTERESTS:

• What makes your child smile or laugh?

• What makes your child happy and feel good?

• What are your child’s favorite things?

• What is enjoyable to your child?

• What does your child work hard at doing?

TIP #2: Identify your young child’s COMPETENCIES:

• What gets and keeps your child’s attention?

• What is your child good at doing?

• What “brings out the best” in your child?

• What does your child like to do a lot?

• What gets your child to try new things?

Everyday Learning Gives Them an Edge

It’s the everyday stuff! Repetition during meal time, bath time, diaper changes, and bedtime story routines primes young children for later school success. Sound lazy or too simple? It’s huge. Rosenkoetter and Barton’s Bridges to Literacy (2002) encourages parents to think of building bridges to literacy by providing experiences that include print, responsiveness, repetition, modeling and motivation, and oral language.

TIP #3: Think PRINT.

Reading time may be brief but must happen everyday. Learning helps kids explore new worlds, laugh across generations, and learn about amazing and ordinary things. Sharing stories can be a balm for irritable or fussy children. Rosenkoetter and Barton indicate “Shared reading also provides security and calms children’s restlessness.” Reading together should be relaxing and fun. It is not just about the exposure to language, it’s about creating happy reading memories which set the stage for a love of reading.

TIP #4: Stay RESPONSIVE.

For early literacy, you want your child to learn: language is fun, she can do it well, and she can get results from using it. When your child speaks, help her feel successful by giving her the attention and lots of positive affirmation.

TIP #5: Provide REPETITION with routine schedules.

Provide routine schedules that use familiar phrases (such as “let’s have some lunch” or “scrub-a-dub-dub”) and cues at key times during the day. Nap and bedtime routines should be kept the same, and reading the same book over and over helps strengthen the foundation for later academic success.

TIP #6: Be a consistent MODEL and MOTIVATOR.

It’s important that your child sees you reading. “Such routines demonstrate that reading is important in the lives of older people and draws attention to the value of reading for coping with everyday life.” At home, point out that you are reading the newspaper or a recipe. On car rides, be intentional as you point out signs on the road or the names on store fronts. It’s also important to write and draw with your child. “When children draw pictures, their verbal comments should regularly be written on the page and read aloud.”

TIP #7: Use ORAL LANGUAGE.

Quantity matters so talk a lot. You want to expose your child to as many words an hour as possible. Talk to your child during work and play. Chit chat has a big payoff and translates into broader vocabularies and higher levels of reading later.

In Learning to Read the World (Zero to Three, 2004) Rosenkoetter and Knapp-Philo write “From this foundation of basic learning and subsequent daily explorations with everyday people and objects, the young child builds many other understandings of self and others…young children begin to ‘read their world’ and to have wider and greater impact upon it.”

As parents we can help them read their world long before they learn to read.

Michele Ranard has been helping students and families as an academic tutor for a decade. She has a husband, two children, and a master’s in counseling. Visit her at hellolovelychild.blogspot.com.

Resources:

Dunst, Carl. “Everyday Children’s Learning Opportunities: Characteristics and Consequences.” Children’s Learning Opportunities Report, Volume Two, Number One. 2000.

Rosenkoetter, S.E., and Barton, L. (2002) Bridges To Literacy: Early Routines That Promote Later School Success. Zero To Three.

Rosenkoetter, S.E., and Knapp-Philo, J. (2004). Learning to read the world: Literacy in the first 3 years. Zero to Three (25)1.

Why They Feel Overwhelmed & How to Help
690 wds
by Michele Ranard, M.Ed.

As a mother and former preschool teacher, I understand stress. Every parent does. But it can be a real issue for kids too. It turns out the hormone our bodies release to deal with stressors—cortisol—is one way to measure and explore stress in children.

Adults cope with stress by learning to calm themselves, and three to six-year-olds need to learn coping too. Understanding some of the underlying structures of stress may help us better guide them.

Cortisol Levels at Home & Away
Why does cortisol matter? Cortisol controls our responses to stress and aids in digestion, the immune system, and energy usage. When we face challenges, cortisol levels spike and provide us with energy. It can suppress immunity when stress is chronic so we need stable levels to remain healthy.

Sarah Watamura of the Child Health & Development Lab at the University of Denver looked at cortisol and stress in toddlers and preschoolers. She found young kids were aware of stress within the family even if parents tried to hide it. Paying attention to a preschooler’s stress signals (crying after separation, exhaustion after day care, trouble sleeping, frequent illness) and reacting with support helps.

What stresses them out? Watamura discovered that even more than separation anxiety, it was their interaction with peers. Levels of cortisol often increased as they attempted to play with lots of other kids.

“At home, preschool-age children typically show a decreasing pattern of cortisol production across the day,” Watamura says. “At child care, many children show a rising pattern,” probably since they are more challenged there.

Nurturance At Home to Combat Stress

Science shows nurturance matters. The amount of nurturing rat pups receive from their mothers (licking and grooming in infancy) has lasting effects on the stress response over the life cycle. Laurie Miller Brotman and researchers at the NYU School of Medicine found in studies of parenting and children’s stress response that in fact, there is a cause-effect relationship.

They aimed to see whether intervention for preschoolers at risk for antisocial behavior could alter the kids’ biological response to a stressful social situation (playing with a group of unfamiliar peers). After the intervention, cortisol levels of preschoolers who were taught coping skills were found to be lower than for those without instruction.

Brotman says “The results provide further evidence that early intervention can have a profound effect on children.”

Stress at Home

Preschoolers are affected by the stress of family members. A new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry found that almost 15 percent of preschoolers have atypically high levels of depression and anxiety. This five-year exploration of Sylvana M. Cote and fellow international researchers in Canada and France found that children with atypical levels were more likely to have mothers with a history of depression.

“We found that lifetime maternal depression was the second most important predictor of atypically high depressive and anxiety problems during preschool years,” says Cote. The researchers stress preventive interventions are needed to see a long-term impact on the well-being of kids at risk.

Tips to Help Stressed Out Preschoolers Cope

*Assure your child. If the stressor for your child is at home, Watamura says talk to your child about how you will be able to figure it out and that there’s no need for worry.

*Assess the connection. If your stressed child goes to day care or preschool, investigate to make sure your child’s teacher is bonding with her. Science shows that cortisol levels are more stable when there is a secure attachment.

*Ask around. Watamura suggests asking your care provider: “Does my child play well when she wants to play? How does she do when I leave? When are the roughest times of day?”

*Choices. Give your child appropriate ones i.e. let her pick a friend for a playdate.

*Offer a heads up. To prevent a meltdown, make sure she knows what to expect—she’ll be better able to adjust to circumstances which could trigger stress.

*Forget about creating CONSTANT nirvana. Watamura reminds that “Like adults, kids don’t always have to be happy” so you shouldn’t automatically try to “fix” things.

Michele Ranard has two children, a master's in counseling, and a blog at hellolovelychild.blogspot.com.

Resources:
Cote, Sylvana M. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Feb 2009.

Watamura, Sarah, Ph.D. Director of the Child Health & Development Lab at the University of Denver. http://www.du.edu/psychology/child_health_and_development/

Laurie Miller Brotman, Ph.D. “Effects of a Psychosocial Family-Based Preventive Intervention on Cortisol Response to a Social Challenge in Preschoolers at High Risk for Antisocial Behavior.” Archives of General Psychiatry. Oct 2007.