Published on April 25, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
Published on April 23, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
Early language learning is a complex process. Our working hypothesis is the following: Infants computational skills, modulated by social interaction, open a window of increased plasticity at about 8 months of life. Between 8 and 10 months monolingual infants show an increase in native language phonetic perception, a decrease in nonnative phonetic perception, and remain open to phonetic learning from a new language that can be induced by social experience with a speaker of that language (though not via a standard TV experience). The complexity of learning in this early phase is not trivial, and that complexity might explain why our laboratory studies show wide individual differences in the early phonetic transition. An important question, especially for practice, was suggested by these data: Is an individual child’s success at this early transition toward language indicative of future language skills or literacy?
We began studies to determine whether the variability observed in measures of early phonetic learning predicted children’s language skills measured at later points in development. We recognized that it was possible that the variability we observed was simply “noise,” in other words, random variation in a child’s skill on the particular day that we measured that child in the laboratory. We were therefore pleased when our first studies demonstrated that infants’ discrimination of two simple vowels at 6 months of age was significantly correlated with their language skills at 13, 16, and 24 months of age (Tsao, Liu, and Kuhl, 2004). Later studies confirmed the connection between early speech perception and later language skills using both brain (Rivera-Gaxiola et al., 2005b; Kuhl et al., 2008) and behavioral (Kuhl et al., 2005a) measures on monolingual infants, and with bilingual infants using brain measures (Garcia-Sierra et al., in press). Other laboratories also produced data that indicated strong links between the speed of speech processing and later language function (Fernald, Perfors, and Marchman, 2006) and between various measures of statistical learning and later language measures (Newman, Ratner, Jusczyk, Jusczyk,and Dow, 2006).
Recent data from our laboratory indicate long-term associations between early measures of infants’ phonetic perception and future language and reading skills. The new work measures vowel perception at 7 and 11 months and shows that the trajectory of learning between those two ages predicts the children’s language abilities and pre-literacy skills at the age of 5 years—the association holds regardless of socio-economic status, as well as the level of children’s language skills at 18 and 24 months of age (Cardillo Lebedeva and Kuhl, 2009).
Infants tested at 7 and 11 months of age show three patterns of speech perception development: (1) infants who show excellent native discrimination at 7 months and maintain that ability at 11 months, the high-high group, (2) infants who show poor abilities at 7 months but excellent performance at 11 months, the low-high group, and (3) infants who show poor abilities to discriminate at both 7 and 11 months of age, the low-low group. We followed these children until the age of 5, assessing language skills at 18 months, 24 months, and 5 years of age. Strong relationships were observed between infants’ early speech perception performance and their later language skills at 18 and 24 months. At 5 years of age, significant relationships were shown between infants’ early speech perception performance and both their language skills and the phonological awareness skills associated with success in learning to read. In all cases, the earlier in development that infants showed excellent skills in detecting phonetic differences in native language sounds, the better their later performance in measures of language and pre-literacy skills (Cardillo Lebedeva and Kuhl, 2009).
These results are theoretically interesting and also highly relevant to early learning practice. These data show that the initial steps that infants take toward language learning are important to their development of language and literacy years later. Our data suggest as well that these early differences in performance are strongly related to experience. Our studies reveal that these early measures of speech discrimination, which predict future language and literacy, are strongly correlated to experience with “motherese” early in development (Liu, Kuhl, and Tsao, 2003). Motherese exaggerates the critical acoustic cues in speech (Kuhl et al., 1997; Werker et al., 2007), and infants’ social interest in speech is, we believe, important to the social learning process. Thus, talking to children early in life, reading to them early in life, and interacting socially with children around language and literacy activities creates the milieu in which plasticity during the critical period can be maximized for all children.
There is increasing evidence that children raised in families with lower socio-economic status (SES) show deficits in language measured either behaviorally or in brain studies (for extensive review, see Raizada and Kishiyama, 2010). In one of the first studies of 5-year-old children combining behavioral and brain measures, Raizada et al. (2008) examined the associations between standardized test scores of language, social cognition, intelligence, SES, and fMRI-measured brain activity as the 5-year-old children worked on a rhyming task. The results showed correlations between SES, language performance, and the degree of hemispheric specialization in Broca’s area, as measured by left-minus-right fMRI activation (Figure 6). The SES-Broca’s link remained highly significant after the effects of the language scores were removed, indicating the relationship cannot be attributed to both measures’ correlations with the language scores. The study shows a correlational link, which of course we cannot assume to be causal.
The authors concluded that fMRI is a more sensitive measure of the development of Broca’s area than any of the behavioral tests; each behavioral score is a compound function of perception, cognition, attention and motor control, whereas fMRI probes Broca’s more directly. Thus, neuroimaging studies, especially early in development, may be able to provide us with highly sensitive measures of competence.
We assumed that SES is not itself the variable driving these effects on the brain—SES is likely a proxy for the opportunity to learn. We learned in a follow-up study that SES could be removed from the equation if language input itself was measured. The complexity of language input is the more direct factor influencing development of brain areas that code language. When measures of the complexity of maternal language were assessed across the entire sample of children in the study, we observed a correlation with structural measures of the brain in Broca’s area. These measures indicated that greater grey matter in the left hemisphere language areas was related to the complexity of maternal language in conversations between the mothers and their 5-year-old children.
In summary, our results suggested that language input to the child—its complexity and diversity—was the factor affecting brain development in the language areas, not SES per se. The implication is that children’s brains literally depend on input for development. Though these results are correlational, we believe that the connection between experience with language and brain development is potentially causal and that further research will allow us to develop causal explanations.
Published on April 21, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
Cynthia is the mom of 4 kids, the walker of 5 dogs, and the owner of 4 Kids Books & Toys in Zionsville, Indiana. The 2600 sq. ft. children's store was founded in 2003, and hosts daily story times and events, birthday parties, book clubs and a large summer reading program. She is a current board member of the American Specialty Toy Retailers Assn, a past president of the Great Lakes Bookseller Association, and her store was honored with the Pannell Award in 2013.
Like most children’s stores, we rely on regular story times and authorless events to keep our regulars stopping in. Here at 4 Kids, we host an unchanging weekly schedule, as follows:
Mondays: Paint-a-Story, Tuesdays: Stories & Snacks, Thursdays: Silly Songs & Stories, Fridays: Gymboree Art Class
Wednesdays are reserved for private play groups in our party/event room, “special events” and large order deliveries (because I still *believe* that I can direct when pallets will arrive… see me later about the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and my plan to Whole 30 just any day now…)
The most popular of our events is the Monday morning Paint-a-Story session, and I’m posting today just as this event is finishing up. So yes, I do see that there is blue paint in my hair and gluey fingerprints on my skirt, and yes, I meant for my manicure to be green. Thanks for noticing. We didn’t start out planning for this to be such an art-travaganza, but it owns that moniker proudly. Each week, about 30–35 kids attend with their moms, grandmothers (lots more of these lately, that’s another post, I think) and nannies. There’s another dozen or so “pumpkin seaters,” or babies in carriers and strollers, and the occasional dad.
Read more from Cynthia's Publishers Weekly blog article, April 19th, 2017, at ShelfTalker "in which children's booksellers ponder all things literary, artistic, and mercantile."
Published on March 9, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
from The Telegraph March 6, 2017
Research has shown that phonics can boost children’s reading age by an average of 28 months by the time they turn seven.
"The book offers a fascinating insight into the education and reading of young people in the 17th century," said Dr Nick Seager, a senior lecturer in English at Keele. The book was published when schools were predominately the preserve of the rich and many poorer parents educated their children at home.
Dr Seager said: "Parents could use this book with their children and children could also read it themselves. The idea of printing a book exclusively for children was new. It was also a period when books were just starting to be acquired by middle-class readers. Previously, they were the domain of the aristocracy."
For the very early learners, the guide has an illustrated alphabet, with rhymes to help young learners remember each letter. The letter 'C', for example, is partnered with a wood-cut picture of a cat playing a fiddle to dancing mice. 'D' is an action shot of how "the dog will bite a thief at night". Then 'F' is "the idle fool is whipt at school".
The copy at Keele contains the handwritten notes of its previous owners, Mary Berks and Ann Berks from Newcastle under Lyme, Staffordshire, from around 1776.
The University of Keele is a public research university located near Staffordshire, England.
Published on March 9, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
In a feature article by Porter Anderson in Publishing Perspectives,ubtitled:
With new attention to diversity issues, Scholastic’s sixth biennial survey adds an Australian edition, and looks extensively on reading aloud at home. The main page for the new report online, offers the American study in six areas:
This page offers a helpful set of direct access links to those various parts of the study. Among some of the most interesting elements this time are comparative statistics on Hispanic and African-American readers and families in the American section.
And here, we can only touch on a few highlights from the report, but urge you to take advantage of its availability and give it a look.
Published on March 8, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
This letter, published on is a part of Egon Zehnder's Leaders and Daughters campaign to collectively inspire, cultivate and pave a better future for the next generation of female leaders. To see more letters or contribute your own, please visit www.leadersanddaughters.com.
Dear Sommer and Angelina:
Hopefully you won't read anything in this letter that you haven't already heard from me many times before. I've always tried to lead by example when we are together, so I will do the same in this letter by reminding you of a few thoughts that will help you navigate your incredible life journey ahead: Always be present, read the signs, stay in your lane and never back up more than you have to.
Published on March 6, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
March 25, 2015
Published on March 6, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
I am writing this unit because of the desperate need for more oral language instruction. Today more than ever students are coming into school with insufficient language knowledge. Our students’ oral language skills are not developed enough to support the curriculum and objectives we teachers are pushing so hard. They require formal language instruction before they can be expected to become fluent readers, writers, and thinkers.
This unit is a focused, intensive unit on storytelling. Storytelling is the strategy I use to help obtain oral language proficiency among second language learners and students with deficient language skills. Storytelling gives the students the daily practice they need in order to advance their language skills. This unit will help the students understand how telling stories and story structure enable them to express themselves more clearly. The students will also learn through storytelling that their ability to listen to others will increase, expanding both their vocabulary, knowledge base and sentence structure.
Because this unit is focused on second language learners, my partner teacher who teaches the Spanish component will be working with the students who are learning Spanish as their second language, while I am working with the students who are learning English as their second language.
Published on March 5, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
One of the most stimulating and enjoyable ways of exploring ourselves and people of differing backgrounds is through folktales. Nowhere else can we find the insight and understanding that tales invariably provide for us. The title of this unit suggests that folktales are a mirror. When we look inside of this mirror we see ourselves; who we are, who we have been. The recurring themes and motifs that are in stories passed along through the oral tradition are not there coincidentally. They are there because they are among the primary concerns and preoccupations we have as human beings. As a teacher and storyteller, I have found in folktales a clearer sense of my self worth and an understanding of others. I have seen my personal hopes and fears mirrored in stories from many cultures. I appreciate more the common ground upon which we all stand as human beings.
My goal is to provide for teachers and students a similar path of discovery. This unit gives order to that process. The first section discusses and defines the function of folktales, emphasizing how they reflect the collective nature of our human psyche and consciousness. Next, I give strategies for preparing and acclimating your class to storytelling and folktales. I have included ideas of how you, as a teacher and beginning storyteller, might approach storytelling yourself. The unit schedule suggests a time table you may want to follow as you explore the folktales in the next section. Here, I discuss the function of tales within the West African, Haitian, and African American traditions. From each of these cultures I have selected at least two stories to explore in detail.
Throughout the unit you will find an array of activities and exercises that relate to the stories and goals presented. It is my hope that, upon completing this unit, both teacher and student will have rediscovered the value of the oral tradition and that all will have had ample opportunity to participate by collecting and telling their own folktales!
(Recommended for Drama/Theater, Language Arts, Social Studies, and English; Grades 4-8)
Published on March 2, 2017 | In Blog, For Parents and Teachers | 0 Comment
Can 3 and 4 year olds climb mountains? We found out by taking part in the weekly nature explore excursion of Daisies Early Education and Care Centre in Wellington, New Zealand. Watch this 7 minute video and hear from Dr. Anne Meade about how you can incorporate nature into your curriculum, and the incredible learning that can happen when you do.