There is a serious early child literacy crisis in America today: 50% of children who enter kindergarten are at-risk to fail. The percentage creeps upward every year, with some studies showing 56% in 2007. Southern Early Childhood Association estimates there are over 3 million kindergartners in 14 SE States, 12 million nationally, at-risk to fail in terms of literacy readiness.
The one thing these children are found to have in common is they have no books in their homes suitable for children. Oftentimes their parents also do not read books, though they often are capable of doing so. As you might guess, these children have not been read to. The idea of sitting with an adult and reading a picture book together is foreign to them.
These findings are tragic, especially when coupled with research as to why high school dropouts are increasing each year (now conservatively estimated as greater than 30% dropout before graduating.) What researchers have uncovered is that it all starts before kindergarten, with a lack exposure to books in the home. Such at-risk kindergartners are 3-4 times more likely to dropout according to educators’ research.
We can guess at reasons these young parents are so disinterested in reading: from difficulty with literacy themselves, greater interest on basic needs, to possibly absorbed with many personal interests. Also many parents assume that since they themselves are not trained educational experts, they will wait for the school teachers to educate their children.73% of adults polled in USA thought a child with no literacy skills who enters kindergarten is behind, but would “just catch up” in the next few years of school. However, studies show they stay 2 years behind their agemates throughout school.
The truth is researchers have found that our grandmothers' way of holding a young child on her lap and sharing the fun of a picture book with them is the very best method that synchronizes nicely with the way children really learn. Also an important point made in early child research is that they learn best from a trusted adult (parent, grandma, or regular care provider).
Neural systems development, sequences of grasping layers of significance of life around them, and emotional nurturing combine in an infant through three year old to create lifelong learning skills in the best possible way. The typical stages of active infant, toddlers (even up to early 4-yr-old) are optimal for early literacy exposure.
Another factor is to help the child learn sound/ object/ picture correlation, that pictures in books represent real objects, and the skill of pointing at the picture of the object named, and color names,before he or she is placed in a kindergarten classroom setting, where they are expected to know these things. Otherwise the at-risk children quickly realize that they do not know what the other children know, and assume school is not a place they belong.
Literacy for Tykes in-home reading program, with the help of our educational and human service partner organizations, can be the intervention needed to take the “at-risk" out of early childhood, while building family skills.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Help Stop Depriving USA Children of Ability to Read
We need to be the heroes for USA at-risk child literacy deprivation. We need rescue workers to reach every parent in every home where an at-risk child lives and intervene while there is still time. There is a destructive force running rampant in our land: children ignored and unhelped whose lives are severely damaged by lack of understanding of those near and far from them.
No buildings are collapsing on them, but precious windows of establishing learning skills often slam closed on them before they get help.
Many USA children today are left unhelped and become situationally disabled, at-risk to fail. Depriving children of the ability to read, and comprehend simple directions is a serious matter. Awareness of the deprivation and its lifelong handicap is an issue we need to address out of our compassion.
With all our work and awareness gained of the appalling situation, Literacy for Tykes is shocked that 73% of USA adults polled thought at-risk kindergartners who have had no exposure to books , or being read to, will "Just catch up" in following years of school. SECA (Southern Early Childhood Association) and other early child educators see at-risk Kindergartners stay 2 years behind their agemates throughout their school years, and JumpStart DC states that they are 3 to 4 times more likely to drop out of school before graduation. SECA goes on to say that this reading difficulty contributes to school dropout, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and overpopulated prisons.
Roughly 12 million kids, birth through 5 years in USA grow up without books. SECA estimates 3 million of those are in 14 SE states. As high as 56% of kindergartners were at-risk to fail in literacy development in 2007 Minnesota Department of Education Survey, up from 50% in 2006.
These figures presented by well-established sources are alarming. The situation of the first five years of these children's lives renders them learning disabled.
Any attempts to remedy this condition are difficult after the age of 3-4 years. It is optimal to reach the child with introduction of simple skills before they enter a group class room experience where they are expected to know that pictures are representing real life objects, that sounds /words can correlate with specific pictures/objects, how to point at an object in a picture when it is named.
We believe many parents are disconnected from the power of their parental position to open up learning skills with their child. Many early child developmental studies show that the child learns best from their parent or other trusted adult (or older siblings). They do learn everything the parent or others show them, mimicking actions, learning what's expected to be part of the day's activities from what they see their life models do.
What are parents doing in the presence of their all-seeing little ones? What are care providers doing? We can think of many hurried, overloaded reasons for parents/care providers actions. Some such adults have never been read to when they were infant or toddlers. Some have "tired brains" with meeting daily schedules, doing all the "should"s or "want to"s. Maybe they don't even know that their little extremely conscious child is looking to them to figure out what's important in this life.
The irony is its takes just 20 minutes a day, following step-by-step guidelines, like those in Teddy Bear's Favorite Pictures, to read to their child, hopefully without a lot of distracting noise and activity. One daily time that can be very relaxing and enjoyable for both parent and child is 20 minutes right before bed time.
We have a plan of action to get books/ materials out to homes through educational and human service organizations who have identified at-risk families/children. Many such partners are requesting books and materials to distribute to these homes. They are happy to encourage parents to look at the Parent Points format, and read to their children daily. After 4 months and 8 months the partners give feedback results reports, so we can ever improve program quality. The orgainztions themselves do not have the funds for this vital program to meet the need.
To invest in helping at-risk children and empowering their parents to create brighter futures for their children, go to Literacy for Tykes Main Website link listed on the right side of this page. We welcome you to be LiFT heroes and get needed resources to these USA at-risk children while it will do the most good.
No buildings are collapsing on them, but precious windows of establishing learning skills often slam closed on them before they get help.
Many USA children today are left unhelped and become situationally disabled, at-risk to fail. Depriving children of the ability to read, and comprehend simple directions is a serious matter. Awareness of the deprivation and its lifelong handicap is an issue we need to address out of our compassion.
With all our work and awareness gained of the appalling situation, Literacy for Tykes is shocked that 73% of USA adults polled thought at-risk kindergartners who have had no exposure to books , or being read to, will "Just catch up" in following years of school. SECA (Southern Early Childhood Association) and other early child educators see at-risk Kindergartners stay 2 years behind their agemates throughout their school years, and JumpStart DC states that they are 3 to 4 times more likely to drop out of school before graduation. SECA goes on to say that this reading difficulty contributes to school dropout, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, crime and overpopulated prisons.
Roughly 12 million kids, birth through 5 years in USA grow up without books. SECA estimates 3 million of those are in 14 SE states. As high as 56% of kindergartners were at-risk to fail in literacy development in 2007 Minnesota Department of Education Survey, up from 50% in 2006.
These figures presented by well-established sources are alarming. The situation of the first five years of these children's lives renders them learning disabled.
Any attempts to remedy this condition are difficult after the age of 3-4 years. It is optimal to reach the child with introduction of simple skills before they enter a group class room experience where they are expected to know that pictures are representing real life objects, that sounds /words can correlate with specific pictures/objects, how to point at an object in a picture when it is named.
We believe many parents are disconnected from the power of their parental position to open up learning skills with their child. Many early child developmental studies show that the child learns best from their parent or other trusted adult (or older siblings). They do learn everything the parent or others show them, mimicking actions, learning what's expected to be part of the day's activities from what they see their life models do.
What are parents doing in the presence of their all-seeing little ones? What are care providers doing? We can think of many hurried, overloaded reasons for parents/care providers actions. Some such adults have never been read to when they were infant or toddlers. Some have "tired brains" with meeting daily schedules, doing all the "should"s or "want to"s. Maybe they don't even know that their little extremely conscious child is looking to them to figure out what's important in this life.
The irony is its takes just 20 minutes a day, following step-by-step guidelines, like those in Teddy Bear's Favorite Pictures, to read to their child, hopefully without a lot of distracting noise and activity. One daily time that can be very relaxing and enjoyable for both parent and child is 20 minutes right before bed time.
We have a plan of action to get books/ materials out to homes through educational and human service organizations who have identified at-risk families/children. Many such partners are requesting books and materials to distribute to these homes. They are happy to encourage parents to look at the Parent Points format, and read to their children daily. After 4 months and 8 months the partners give feedback results reports, so we can ever improve program quality. The orgainztions themselves do not have the funds for this vital program to meet the need.
To invest in helping at-risk children and empowering their parents to create brighter futures for their children, go to Literacy for Tykes Main Website link listed on the right side of this page. We welcome you to be LiFT heroes and get needed resources to these USA at-risk children while it will do the most good.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Compassion: Awareness in Action
Compassion is the word of the day with many people and nations giving any help they can to the life and death needs of thousands of people caught in destruction's path, on Haiti. Even if that island had little interest to most people before the tragic earthquake hit, few can ignore it now.
The suffering of the men, women and children calls out like a compelling wave of need.
Our feelings of sympathy are so encompassing that we must react. Setting aside normally pressing matters, we do all that we can to bring help to those caught in the vise of immediate need. Haitians' means to help themselves have been severely damaged anywhere near Port-au-Prince. Each child's scream tells of the minutes left to help that one.
Helpless without usual emergency gear, a translator with a news crew on the spot put his own life in danger to go into the rubble, crawl over dead bodies, to bring out a little toddler while she is still alive. Miraculously, both the hero and the precious little girl emerged from the heavy crumbled debris. She looked in shock, but soon responded to a familiar relative with a kiss on the cheek. Had the islander hero not acted with his compassion, the girl would probably have died by nightfall. Even the brave emergency workers accessed the situation as too dangerous to try. He said he had babies of his own, and "you do what you can do , even if it costs your own death, to help the babies when they cry out in danger".
Compassion is a selfless force that answers the call. When need is great and the threat is obvious, some of us hear the call and must dive into danger ourselves to help. Each person has needs that he or she will hear. Each person has their own level of ability to respond, differing assets to mobilize for help. Some have money they can send to others who have needed training and equipment to help. Some train just for such emergencies. Some have neither money nor training, but they send love and pray for best outcome for all concerned.
All of those reactions come from awareness, compassion for those in need. We celebrate the actions and prayers of all well-meaning people in this time of our neighbor's calamity. We wish all the little children could find adoptive homes and families. We hope some places can be found for all survivors as close to their cultural norm as possible. We pray for a special help to all those who are there in the dangerous situation to make the best out of life for those who survive. The need is overwhelming. May they find peace with doing whatever they can in such adverse circumstances.
Many there are grieving and in shock. The aftershocks of earthquake are still happening, so there is fear. Lack of food brings anger. I pray for help. I pray for grace to get what is needed to all survivors and all rescue workers, and news crews. All have a part in this life-threatening time and place. All deserve whatever our compassion and circumstance allows us to send.
In a few days, I will blog about a much more subtle destructive force that is easier to ignore, but nonetheless, running rampant in our land: children ignored and unhelped whose lives are severely damaged by that lack of understanding of those near and far from them. Many of our own children are left unhelped and become at-risk to fail, situationally disabled. We will look at how we can help them. Depriving children of the ability to read, and comprehend simple directions is a serious matter. Awareness of the deprivation and its lifelong handicap is an issue we also need to address out of our compassion. See live link at right side of this page for our Literacy for Tykes Main Website for info on our local kids in need.
The suffering of the men, women and children calls out like a compelling wave of need.
Our feelings of sympathy are so encompassing that we must react. Setting aside normally pressing matters, we do all that we can to bring help to those caught in the vise of immediate need. Haitians' means to help themselves have been severely damaged anywhere near Port-au-Prince. Each child's scream tells of the minutes left to help that one.
Helpless without usual emergency gear, a translator with a news crew on the spot put his own life in danger to go into the rubble, crawl over dead bodies, to bring out a little toddler while she is still alive. Miraculously, both the hero and the precious little girl emerged from the heavy crumbled debris. She looked in shock, but soon responded to a familiar relative with a kiss on the cheek. Had the islander hero not acted with his compassion, the girl would probably have died by nightfall. Even the brave emergency workers accessed the situation as too dangerous to try. He said he had babies of his own, and "you do what you can do , even if it costs your own death, to help the babies when they cry out in danger".
Compassion is a selfless force that answers the call. When need is great and the threat is obvious, some of us hear the call and must dive into danger ourselves to help. Each person has needs that he or she will hear. Each person has their own level of ability to respond, differing assets to mobilize for help. Some have money they can send to others who have needed training and equipment to help. Some train just for such emergencies. Some have neither money nor training, but they send love and pray for best outcome for all concerned.
All of those reactions come from awareness, compassion for those in need. We celebrate the actions and prayers of all well-meaning people in this time of our neighbor's calamity. We wish all the little children could find adoptive homes and families. We hope some places can be found for all survivors as close to their cultural norm as possible. We pray for a special help to all those who are there in the dangerous situation to make the best out of life for those who survive. The need is overwhelming. May they find peace with doing whatever they can in such adverse circumstances.
Many there are grieving and in shock. The aftershocks of earthquake are still happening, so there is fear. Lack of food brings anger. I pray for help. I pray for grace to get what is needed to all survivors and all rescue workers, and news crews. All have a part in this life-threatening time and place. All deserve whatever our compassion and circumstance allows us to send.
In a few days, I will blog about a much more subtle destructive force that is easier to ignore, but nonetheless, running rampant in our land: children ignored and unhelped whose lives are severely damaged by that lack of understanding of those near and far from them. Many of our own children are left unhelped and become at-risk to fail, situationally disabled. We will look at how we can help them. Depriving children of the ability to read, and comprehend simple directions is a serious matter. Awareness of the deprivation and its lifelong handicap is an issue we also need to address out of our compassion. See live link at right side of this page for our Literacy for Tykes Main Website for info on our local kids in need.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Parent/Child Two-Way Awareness is Key
When thinking of optimal Parent /Child relationship, two-way awareness is a key factor. Language development is a part of that relationship. Children learn best from parents or other trusted adults, and older siblings. The relationship is a positive attachment that is an essential conduit for two-way awareness of teaching/learning.
When a parent or caregiver has an established relationship with a baby or toddler, they become almost automatically tuned in to the child's need for clear pronunciation. Perhaps by trial and error method , the adult becomes aware that baby will hear the words better if said slowly and emphasis given to each vowel and consonant. Ashley Merryman calls that style of parental pronunciation to toddlers "parentesse". She has stated that parents worldwide have been recorded using "parentesse" and that it is the best way to model words for developing neural networks of early language development.
I would go further to say that infant facial identification also plays a part, since well-emphasized sounds also create more distinct facial expressions that are another important clue for baby's mimicking process. Typically functioning human beings are infinitely responsive to tone of voice, sounds made and facial expression when interpreting verbal communication, not only of the speaker but also of the potential hearer.
How many times have you realized you need to repeat a statement to someone because they have a blank or questioning expression on their face? Adults keep trying variations of pronunciation until they see some sign of recognition on the child's face. So do the infants and toddlers. When they try a "baby talk" sound, they are generally imitating to the best of their nascent ability the general noises they hear. If baby hears their sound repeated back to them by their significant adult, baby is encouraged that he or she is on the right path. When parent or caregiver then refines pronunciation, emphasizing each sound-part of the word, then baby will try to mimic that. The two-way interaction has begun. The language learning process is underway.
That significant interaction continues , layer upon layer, as baby progresses into toddler, toddler into Kindergartner, and on. The more aware interaction parent and child have the more the neural pathways develop, creating lifelong learning skills.
The verbal/aural skills need to expand into the visual literacy arena by age 3 years optimally for most children. Simply reading picture books with the same "parentesse" progression of pronunciation that has been established is a natural flow to toddler perception. Adding the picture in the book and implying that it goes with a specific sound, is the decoding key for initial reading skills.
Once the toddler comes to experience successfully mimicking sounds and picture correlation, they gradually understand that pictures are symbols for objects. Early books include known or "similar to known" objects and some unknown objects. Initially the known objects are understood. Then the unknown objects give information that somewhere they too probably exist. This decoding of flat image pictures as symbols for everyday objects, is the next essential building block in the lifelong learning skills in the progression from language to visual literacy.
Visual literacy and developing language skills give a child information, confidence and reading readiness. This parent/child progression is vitally significant to the well being of the toddler as he or she faces group learning environments. As we stated earlier, typically functioning human beings are very aware of one another's reactions.
Just as positive reactions stimulate the confidence to keep trying, negative feedback from a classmate or teacher can intimidate the learning process. The best teacher finds it hard to control the most subtle facial expression of frustration, or concern. And most toddler/Kindergarten newcomers can read that expression as "I didn't do that right" or worse "I don't belong here".
The way around potential negative feedback from future classmates is to give a toddler ages 3 and 4 years old, ample early visual literacy experiences with the most tuned-in persons on the planet: parents or regular caregivers. Recommended: 20 minutes per day, seven days a week of picture book together time. This regular personal sharing will give the little tyke plenty of familiarity and confidence to move forward more easily in the Kindergarten group.
When a parent or caregiver has an established relationship with a baby or toddler, they become almost automatically tuned in to the child's need for clear pronunciation. Perhaps by trial and error method , the adult becomes aware that baby will hear the words better if said slowly and emphasis given to each vowel and consonant. Ashley Merryman calls that style of parental pronunciation to toddlers "parentesse". She has stated that parents worldwide have been recorded using "parentesse" and that it is the best way to model words for developing neural networks of early language development.
I would go further to say that infant facial identification also plays a part, since well-emphasized sounds also create more distinct facial expressions that are another important clue for baby's mimicking process. Typically functioning human beings are infinitely responsive to tone of voice, sounds made and facial expression when interpreting verbal communication, not only of the speaker but also of the potential hearer.
How many times have you realized you need to repeat a statement to someone because they have a blank or questioning expression on their face? Adults keep trying variations of pronunciation until they see some sign of recognition on the child's face. So do the infants and toddlers. When they try a "baby talk" sound, they are generally imitating to the best of their nascent ability the general noises they hear. If baby hears their sound repeated back to them by their significant adult, baby is encouraged that he or she is on the right path. When parent or caregiver then refines pronunciation, emphasizing each sound-part of the word, then baby will try to mimic that. The two-way interaction has begun. The language learning process is underway.
That significant interaction continues , layer upon layer, as baby progresses into toddler, toddler into Kindergartner, and on. The more aware interaction parent and child have the more the neural pathways develop, creating lifelong learning skills.
The verbal/aural skills need to expand into the visual literacy arena by age 3 years optimally for most children. Simply reading picture books with the same "parentesse" progression of pronunciation that has been established is a natural flow to toddler perception. Adding the picture in the book and implying that it goes with a specific sound, is the decoding key for initial reading skills.
Once the toddler comes to experience successfully mimicking sounds and picture correlation, they gradually understand that pictures are symbols for objects. Early books include known or "similar to known" objects and some unknown objects. Initially the known objects are understood. Then the unknown objects give information that somewhere they too probably exist. This decoding of flat image pictures as symbols for everyday objects, is the next essential building block in the lifelong learning skills in the progression from language to visual literacy.
Visual literacy and developing language skills give a child information, confidence and reading readiness. This parent/child progression is vitally significant to the well being of the toddler as he or she faces group learning environments. As we stated earlier, typically functioning human beings are very aware of one another's reactions.
Just as positive reactions stimulate the confidence to keep trying, negative feedback from a classmate or teacher can intimidate the learning process. The best teacher finds it hard to control the most subtle facial expression of frustration, or concern. And most toddler/Kindergarten newcomers can read that expression as "I didn't do that right" or worse "I don't belong here".
The way around potential negative feedback from future classmates is to give a toddler ages 3 and 4 years old, ample early visual literacy experiences with the most tuned-in persons on the planet: parents or regular caregivers. Recommended: 20 minutes per day, seven days a week of picture book together time. This regular personal sharing will give the little tyke plenty of familiarity and confidence to move forward more easily in the Kindergarten group.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Unlock Your Personal Power
To quote a livetorque tweet of Winston Churchill "If not now, then when?If not us , then who?"
We have chosen as a society to create a mark in time called New Year. Let us make the most of this fresh start. Behind us, much good has been left undone, only hinted at. Ahead we can accomplish anything we set our minds to do. May this year of 2010 be one in which we can unlock our personal power for the greater good of all.
As we celebrate the new year, we wish everyone happiness, auspiciousness of law of attraction, peace of mind, and fullness of awareness. The newness of the year is a fresh view of our own life and the human condition within which we live. Potentially, we can accomplish new solutions to improve the conditions for ourselves and others.
It is fitting that we have set aside this day to celebrate our potential, new possible directions and accomplishments. Moreso, it can be exciting to think of the myriad of possibilities we can accomplish this year together. Our potential individually is limitless; our potential focused together becomes tremendous power manifested.
We can help others by joining resources with workable action plans to empower them. Parents can learn new techniques when presented in a clear easy-to-follow format. These new techniques can allow them to pass along useful information, and have additional experiences that better their child's lifelong learning capacity.
Parents are the prime people to teach their child . They constantly are teaching something : how to get food from the refrigerator; how to put on clothes; how to turn on the TV; how to take a walk; what is important to do in each day. Many parents already naturally include modeling book usage.
Our action plan offers parents who have not experienced early literacy themselves, clear methods to give their child a better start than they had. By doing so before the child faces group-class situation Pre-K or Kindergarten, he or she feels more confident about their learning process. We can reach parents at various points between their child's birth and the time their child might be expected to know these things: that sounds and pictures correlate; that pictures are symbols for objects; what terms of placement mean; to point at objects mentioned; that colors have names.
Together with your investment in our constructive action plan, we can make a significant improvement in the lives of many families and their children. The potential is there in this new year. Unlock your personal power to help manifest this positive change that will continue to benefit our collective future. www.LiteracyForTykes.com.
See live link in list on the right of this page "Literacy for Tykes Main Website""
We have chosen as a society to create a mark in time called New Year. Let us make the most of this fresh start. Behind us, much good has been left undone, only hinted at. Ahead we can accomplish anything we set our minds to do. May this year of 2010 be one in which we can unlock our personal power for the greater good of all.
As we celebrate the new year, we wish everyone happiness, auspiciousness of law of attraction, peace of mind, and fullness of awareness. The newness of the year is a fresh view of our own life and the human condition within which we live. Potentially, we can accomplish new solutions to improve the conditions for ourselves and others.
It is fitting that we have set aside this day to celebrate our potential, new possible directions and accomplishments. Moreso, it can be exciting to think of the myriad of possibilities we can accomplish this year together. Our potential individually is limitless; our potential focused together becomes tremendous power manifested.
We can help others by joining resources with workable action plans to empower them. Parents can learn new techniques when presented in a clear easy-to-follow format. These new techniques can allow them to pass along useful information, and have additional experiences that better their child's lifelong learning capacity.
Parents are the prime people to teach their child . They constantly are teaching something : how to get food from the refrigerator; how to put on clothes; how to turn on the TV; how to take a walk; what is important to do in each day. Many parents already naturally include modeling book usage.
Our action plan offers parents who have not experienced early literacy themselves, clear methods to give their child a better start than they had. By doing so before the child faces group-class situation Pre-K or Kindergarten, he or she feels more confident about their learning process. We can reach parents at various points between their child's birth and the time their child might be expected to know these things: that sounds and pictures correlate; that pictures are symbols for objects; what terms of placement mean; to point at objects mentioned; that colors have names.
Together with your investment in our constructive action plan, we can make a significant improvement in the lives of many families and their children. The potential is there in this new year. Unlock your personal power to help manifest this positive change that will continue to benefit our collective future. www.LiteracyForTykes.com.
See live link in list on the right of this page "Literacy for Tykes Main Website""
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