Understand your child’s stage and smile forever
As parents, we are always in search of reassurance to know that the steps we are taking to guide our little ones are correct and leading them through the right path. Unfortunately, no child comes with their instruction manuals in hand and we, very often, find our selves not knowing what to do or expect. So, for this month’s article, I thought of writing about major characteristics of each developmental stage in early childhood, and some tips for you, parents, which will make your parental experience more enjoyable and clear.
It is important to keep in mind that the way you relate with your children, sets the foundation for their healthy development. Their experiences and the way you respond to them are permanently shaping who they are and the way they adapt to the world. Your child’s development depends on nature but also on nurture. Also, consider that all developmental areas (social/emotional/intellectual/language/motor) depend on each other and are connected. Development is not a race. Tune into your child’s individual path and enjoy the process, Yes, it is a process. Just when you feel you have mastered your child’s behaviors, he/she enters a new stage with new challenges and you find your self once again lost. So knowing what to expect will reassure you that you and your child are on the right track.
During the early toddlers, between 8 to 20 months, your child is using his/her whole body to explore the world and learn. He/she is learning all kind of words every day and explores language trying out new ones. He/she is beginning to understand how his/her actions affect others but their world is still egocentric and socialization is based on wanting to have peers near but play alone. He/she loves repetition as it helps him/her discover patterns and become a better problem solver. His/her natural thinking routine is based on actions. First see something, then sense it with almost all his/her body, then he/she explores it through play and then discover patterns that later will want to repeat to start again the exploration and restore confidence in the learning. At this stage, your child needs to know he/she can explore and that you, or the care giver will always be there to help, support, praise and nurture him/her. In that, way your child builds up his/her self confidence.
As parents, be sure to permanently model the use of language. Describe what is going on, put actions and feelings into words, ask questions and allow time for response to come, articulate the right word paraphrasing what your child is saying. Provide chances for outdoor exploration and allow your child to use all five senses and body. Read books describing the images and play with them to find characters. Let your child try to dress up and feed his/her self; if time is an issue, let child have a spoon and use another to help him/her out. Sing. Show appreciation for his/her compassion and emotional expressions. Re-direct behaviors if needed verbalizing the change. Be consistent, set clear and simple routines and follow them remembering that some flexibility is also prudent. (See last months article about routines).
The next stage, some times wrongly called “Terrible Two’s” is a fascinating stage in your child’s life. It goes approximately from 20 to 36 months.
It is a time for crucial brain development. The brain is rapidly changing from action based to the discovery of simple representations. Your child needs exposure to a vast variety of context, topics & resources to be able to make connections and build up his/her own pathways & thinking networks. It is also the beginning of social motivation to learn, he/she wants to please mommy, daddy and her teacher. It is a stage also called the adolescence of early childhood. It is a time where your child is learning how to deal with emotions as they are setting their grounds and your child is experimenting emotions he/she never felt before. These emotions can go from one extreme to another in seconds. Verbal language is also emerging and your child is relaying on it more often. Is a stage where your child discovers that he/she can have control over various situations, and explores to what extend is that true. He/she can be bossy not because he/she is sure but uncertain. Print gains meaning. Socialization starts, there is a need to feel useful. Language, motor skills, self control, social and cognitive skills are all involved in one of the major’s milestones of this age, becoming potty trained. This age is also called the “no” stage; your child says no to almost every thing, and you can also find your self permanently correcting and using “no” sentences. It is indeed, a fascinating stage.
If your child is at this phase, do not panic your child’s life and yours can run smoothly if you pursue the following recommendations: set clear limits so your child knows what to expect. Be persistent reinforcing the boundaries. Just imagine if I tell you there is a hole in the ground with out pointing to the specific area, you will walk insecure and with fear, maybe you would even be upset because you do not know where the hole is. Now imagine I tell you there is a hole in the right corner of the room, you will walk confidently and with gratitude for knowing the limits in advance. Limits work in the same way with your child. Your child requires sameness, persistence and clear limits. Be calm but firm, know that you might be using “no” very often now, but as soon as your child understands the limits you will see how positive behaviors become permanent. Re-direct your child’s attention when possible to move child away fro unwanted behaviors. Let your child knows it is perfectly correct to feel the emotions, you need to validate them and put them into words. However, remember, having the right to feel angry does not mean you can be aggressive. Your child needs to know this and learn how to deal with emotions. Doing pretend play is very good to model actions. Have clear routines. Keep modeling language giving special attention to naming his/her actions and feelings. Allow for some basic decision making, like choosing between two pairs of pants.
Once you have set your limits and routines clearly, We can now move to the next stage of your child’s life, 3 to 4 years old. At this stage, your child knows how to communicate his/her thoughts and understand 75% of what is being told. Your child is a natural inquirer and with good exposure and modeling of higher level questions and thinking language, your child can start using simple thinking language spontaneously, like referring to connections with previous experiences, doing some basic synthesis, looking for evidence when talking and considering other’s view points. At this stage, your child understands the meaning of symbols, skill needed later on to discover the alphabetical way of codifying meaning. He/she understand number concept and is ready to discover knowledge that is more demanding. At this stage children already understand what behaviors are expected from them and differentiate between right and wrong being able to see it in their actions and also in others.
Finally, if your child is 4 to 5 years old, this is the time to establish the passion for learning. Every thing is a big question for him/her and there is the willingness to look for information and solve the inquiries. This is a stage to discover there is a common way of codifying meaning: the alphabetical one, and is permanently playing with writing and reading. Your child is eager to understand the world, sees patterns in nature and wants to know more. Exposure to a vast variety of experiences is essential. This is a stage where your child can show moral autonomy when deciding how to act and how his/her actions may affect others. This is a stage where values are clear and the behaviors are not guided any more because “my mother said so” but because there is an inner motivation and conscience.
As parents of children 3 to 5, be sure to keep your limits and routines consistent. Talk with your child about what happen during the day. Allow enough time for answers and ask about his/her feelings and thoughts more than for a recollection of the events. Encourage your child to look for evidence by asking, “How do you know? And “what makes you say that? Let your child describe the events. Ask, “What do you think…” instead of you giving all the answers. Encourage your child to be inquisitive and analytical by modeling. Let your child participate in regular routines being independent if possible. Share responsibilities at home, your child will love it and it is a good habit. Tell your child about your day and your feeling, soon you will find the child telling you about his/hers. Encourage social events and interaction. At this stage, learning is highly influenced by groups and skills like collaboration group working and team creativity are developed only through interaction with others.
Remember, each child is unique; they all need to be offered a hands-on minds-on environment where they can be protagonist in the discovery of the world around them. Of course, general characteristics of early childhood developmental stages extend far beyond the ones mentioned above. However, I hope these will be of help. Enjoy your parenthood, if not now when?
For more information on this and related topics, you can visit the following web pages,
Mrs. Ana Maria Fernandez is the President and curriculum designer and coordinator of Education First Inc. firm that operates four preschools in Broward County.
First Steps International Academy, Weston-(954) 888-9775, www. fsiapreschool.com, VIP Kids Bilingual Preschool, Weston, (954) 598-9800, www.vipkidspreschool.com, Pines West Academy, Pembroke Pines-(954) 450-0900, www.pineswestacademy.com, Bright Minds Int’l Academy, Tamarac-(954) 653-1570, www.brightmindspreschool.com
Educating for the 21st Century
Dr. David Perkins, senior professor of education at Harvard University and director of Project Zero, visited First Steps International Academy and VIP Kids Bilingual Preschool (two Edu1st.Schools) on Friday, May 15th..
Visible Thinking is a research-based approach of Project Zero, from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. This educational methodology emphasizes the use of thinking routines and documentation to make thinking visible in classrooms and to engage students in deep thinking around the content while also cultivating the student’s disposition towards thinking. Actually, Visible Thinking includes a variety of fun and interesting classroom routines that are integrated with the curriculum content.
Education has always been a topic of conversation for parents. In fact, for many parents it becomes a quest to look for the best education for their children. A similar situation faced a company called Education First Inc, which not only had the vision to find the top models of education in the world, but was committed to bring and apply them in Broward. In 2006, the Edu1st.Schools decided to take the challenge and fully implement the Visible Thinking methodology to teach children from 1 to 5 years old.
There are three important benefits of using this approach with young children. First, the methodology is fun and really engages students, even toddlers where the attention span is really short. Second, modeling the thinking routines helps children develop a structured and profound thinking and exposes them to different points of view. Third, the documentation allows both, teachers to visualize the thinking process of every child through the verbal and non verbal communication, and children to visualize their thoughts and ideas.
The results have been amazing. In one hand, children have become instinctively interested in content, inquirers, critical, creative and problem solvers. Also, they have shown a more organized way of thinking. In fact, the use of some conceptual maps to classify and organize their ideas was something that had been underestimated at this young age. In the other hand, teachers have mentioned to be far more involved with the whole class and even felt the birth of mini “cultures of thinking” in their classroom and school.
Changing a Culture of Learning is a collaborative work. Education First Inc. is not only committed to provide the best in Early Childhood Education, but also has been invited to actively participate in some international and national conferences. Education First Inc. presented the children’s work as results of the use of the Visible Thinking concept in their schools at the VT Conference in Amsterdam at the International School of Amsterdam (April 2008), and participated with the lecture “Our Experience in Changing into a Culture of Learning” at the Mid-Michigan Culture of Thinking Collaborative Conference in Frankenmuth, Michigan (April, 2009).
Last but not least, Education First Inc was present at the14th International Conference of Thinking in Kuala Lumpur on June 22-26, 2009 with three posters explaining the Creation of a Culture of Learning for the 21st in Early Childhood and how to stimulate critical, analytical and creative thinking in preschool through the use of Thinking Routines and Concept Maps.
For more information on this and related topics, you can visit the following web pages,
edu1st@educationfirstinc.com or join us on Facebook at Edu1st or Twitter at Edu1stPG
Edu1st. Schools, Broward County:
First Steps International Academy, Weston-(954) 888-9775, www. fsiapreschool.com,
VIP Kids Bilingual Preschool, Weston, (954) 598-9800, www.vipkidspreschool.com,
Pines West Academy, Pembroke Pines-(954) 450-0900, www.pineswestacademy.com,
Bright Minds Int’l Academy, Tamarac-(954) 653-1570, www.brightmindspreschool.com
The Benefits of a Bilingual Preschool
By Ana Maria Fernandez
Every parent faces various uncertainties when deciding what is best for their child. Education is of course one of the major concerns. What school is best? Which program will suit my child better? When should a second language be introduce and how? All of this knowing that “The world is changing so quickly that promoting the ability for creative thinking and promoting cultural adaptability is essential. We don't have a clue about what the world will be like in the future” as Sir Ken Robinson said in one of his conference on creativity and education.
Thousands of children all over the world are bilingual, there is no evidence of a language delay or disorder proven to be caused by bilingual exposure, on the contrary, research state that learning a second language at an early age makes special and more complex neural networks and connections between both hemispheres. It also trains the phonological system, gestures and sounds in children’s mouth, to make the phonetic sounds unique to each language; skill that becomes more difficult to master later on.
Research has shown that positive cognitive gains are associated with learning a second language in childhood (Bialystok 1991). Children expose to a bilingual education learn to explore language better, become more creative and improve their problem-solving skills not to mention all the social advantages that a child can have when being able to communicate in a multilingual environment. For children it is simple, they discover there is more than one way to express yourself, more than one way to solve a problem and more than one way people can understand each other.
But children do not just “absorb” a language: The environment, support and teaching strategies used will determine the quality and proficiency of the language acquired. School, curriculum, teachers and families need to work together so children will “get to think” in both languages.
Good opportunities for children are found in preschools that have an international view of education that foster thinking habits and understand the importance of creating a culture of learning for the 21st century. Children, parents and staff act as learners and together construct meaning and understanding of culture and world. This progressive approach does more than just revitalize the curriculum through bilingualism; it offers a vast improvement to all aspects of development.
There are various conditions parents need to look for in a bilingual preschool:
-Preschools need to have a friendly atmosphere where each child will feel secure, loved and happy. Where families come in daily at least to drop in and out their child and get to see and talk with the teachers about daily activities and achievements. Parents are always welcome to stay and are encourage to becoming active participants in their child’s education.
- Preschools must have a hand crafted comprehensive curriculum that contemplates the developmental needs of each child and that will allow teachers to challenge each of them to their maximum potential while promoting their creativity.
- Preschools’ curriculum needs to reflect the understanding that there is not just one way of learning therefore there is not just one way of teaching. A variety of pedagogical strategies need to be used on a daily basis in each classroom. Strategies not only designed to model behaviors but to encourage thinking and understanding.
- Teachers need to be degreed in Early Childhood Education or related fields; this will guarantee the quality of the approach to specific needs a child may have during the year. Teachers need to be trained on strategies to work with multicultural and multilingual children and families and they need to keep a culture of constant professional development.
- Preschools need to have a well equipped environment. Art room, media center with computers, a library and improved learning centers so children will find a variety of challenges in science, language, geography, history music etc.
- Parents need to see evidence of a variety of life experiences offered in the preschool. Children discover their world by doing, exploring, observing, copying, questioning, answering, making hypothesis and verifying them. They learn by being exposed to an unnumbered of experiences that will challenge their development and even more when done in a bilingual environment that challenges their mind beyond, allowing them to acquire new vocabulary and encouraging them to start thinking in their new language while having lots of fun.
Of course, the benefits of a bilingual education extend far beyond the classroom. The advantages of being bilingual include wider communication within the community, a deeper sense of multiculturalism, greater tolerance for and understanding of others, increased educational achievements, and future employment benefits.
If you think your child will benefit from a developmentally-based bilingual preschool, Education First Inc preschools invite you to call them at 954 5989801. They offer an English-Spanish bilingual program in four locations in Broward. They accept students age one through five. It also offers an after school bilingual program for kindergarten through fifth grade students Open from 7am until 6:30pm Monday through Friday. www.educationfirstinc.com
