You notice your child isn't meeting typical childhood development milestones. Or maybe you sense that something isn't quite right with your child. There is help. And children benefit when families access that help as soon as possible. 

Families can reach out to their local pediatrician or the state's Early Support for Infants and Toddlers, an early intervention program that provides services to children birth to age 3 who have disabilities and/or developmental delays.

Watch this Learning for Life, we talk with Dr. Bette Hyde, director of the state Department of Early Learning, which now oversees the Early Support for Infants and Toddlers program, about the supports available to children with special needs and how to access the program as well as how this growing group of children fits into the state's new 10-year early learning plan. This segment is the first in a month-long series Learning for Life – and Thrive’s daily blog Birth to Thrive Online – is doing on children with special needs.

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Learning for Life airs every Wednesday on KING 5 Morning News on KONG 6/16 TV between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m.

Please send any story ideas about people, programs and work being done to support children from birth to age 5 to molly@thrivebyfivewa.org. 

Learn more and watch past Learning for Life series and specials here.

The potential for brain research to improve early learning appears to grow by the month. This morning I stumbled upon a mountain of new thinking and research about attention that may alter the way students are taught.

A University of Virginia professor, for example, suggests the thinking that children fall into distinct categories of learning styles is misguided.

“There’s not much to this notion of learning styles,” University of Virginia psychology professor and author Daniel Willingham said at a conference on attention and learning this month,” and no evidence that categorizing children by such terms as “visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners,” for example, helps them learn.” – Busting Some of the Myths of Attention.

Now Willingham wasn’t focusing on early learning, but his ideas seem relevant to the worlds of preschool and pre-kindergarten.

He suggested matching the mode of delivery (teaching) not to the learner, but to the content. “Apply the idea of styles not to students—there’s no evidence for that—but to content, and what you want them to learn from the content.”

This report highlights a lot of interesting research – it’s a summary of a summit on “Attention and Engagement in Learning” – including the idea that attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is not a deficit but an issue of how children allocate their time.

Essentially, children diagnosed with ADHD can struggle to focus on boring tasks and are drawn to more interesting developments, said Martha Bridge Denckla, director of the developmental cognitive neurology department at the Kennedy Krieger Institute.

“This form of inhibition, called effortful control or self-regulation, is a network of brain functions that develop at different speeds in different children. As the network wires up, such regulation becomes easier; until then, it takes a lot of mental effort. Some children with ADHD are slower to develop motor control than other children; it appears they are slower to develop effortful control as well.

…

“ADHD kids are using more brain power to sit still,” Denckla said; holding their movements in check while performing a school assignment is for them doubly difficult.

The summit is one element of the Neuro Development Initiative, which explores how cognitive and neuroscience findings can help teaching and learning. I am sure we will hear more from this group about early learning.
               

Little blocks, big blocks, square blocks, round blocks, wooden blocks, foam blocks, cardboard blocks ... blocks everywhere!
 
BLOCKFest is a building extravaganza for parents and children 8 months to 8 years of age. Block play helps children develop early math, science and literacy skills while having lots of fun.
 
This week on Learning for Life, see BLOCKFest in action at a local event and learn more about how this traveling program, developed by Idaho Parents As Teachers and sponsored locally by Thurston Early Childhood Coalition, helps families give their children a good start with important skills.

Learning for Life airs every Wednesday on KING Morning News on KONG 6/16 TV between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m. Please send any story ideas about people, programs and work being done to support children from birth to age 5 to molly@thrivebyfivewa.org.

Past Learning for Life series and specials are available for viewing on Thrive's Web site.

We are only beginning to understand digital media’s impact on children, researchers say, and a leading neuroscientist worries all of this screen time could rob children of “the ability to gain real understanding.”

Essentially, Baroness Greenfield, a popular scientist in England, suggests information is not knowledge and while kids may be better at grabbing information, they may lose an edge in understanding everything they gather.

Understanding requires the ability to relate one subject to something else – to place something in context. If, because of your development in childhood, you lack that contextual framework, then you can only take it at face value and move on. What you see is indeed what you get. You download information, but you cannot necessarily understand it. – “Computers in schools could do more harm than good,” EducationNews.org, 2/12/10.

Greenfield also cited a new report, which I am still looking for, that suggested students’ ability to study may be eroding.

Constant use of the internet has rewired their brains to function differently from those of earlier generations: they skip from topic to topic in an "associative" mode of thinking, and are less capable of the linear thought required for skills like reading and writing at length.

Wherever you stand in the debate over the rise in digital media’s use by children, the commentary is worth checking out.

Three of the nation’s leading experts on the struggles of managing family and work talked today about what kids really think of their working parents, and it seems they think we are stressed.

Families & Work Institute head Ellen Galinsky, parenting expert and author Joshua Coleman and New York Times parenting blogger Lisa Belkin tackled this topic on a radio show this morning.

Their talk reminds us that the chaos of the work-family balancing act is also a critical element of early learning, though it doesn’t always get a lot of attention. While researchers, advocates and parents correctly focus on what defines a good early education, efforts to build a quality system should also focus on parents.

Now, I am too busy trying to manage my own work and family to listen to this program, but the tweets are striking:

“If they had one wish, kids would want parents to be LESS STRESSED.” – @FWINews

“Kids think parents don't like our work very much.” – @RisingMom.

(Check out all the Twitter comments at #fem2.0. You can listen to a recording of the show or other shows in the series here.)

This show is only the latest in a month-long series that ended today about issues facing working families, everything from “Superman versus Family Man” to “Work Policies and Single Women.”

Breaking Science News: While it’s not surprising, researchers offered examples of how moms help kids develop their brains, ScienceDaily reports in “Moms Influence How Children Develop Advanced Cognitive Functions.”

It is a quiet day on the early learning front, but there are a few interesting developments, including a new list of great math books for preschoolers.

The list compliments fresh research on how preschoolers can grasp more advanced mathematical ideas than many thought – measuring, basic geometry and relationships. Now, the Erikson Institute is developing a list of books “that are great for early math lessons.”

So far, it includes:

• “Tikki Tikki Tembo” by Arleen Mosel
• “The Doorbell Rang” by Pat Hutchins
• “One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab” by April Sayre
• “Five Creatures” by Emily Jenkins
• “Color Farm” by Lois Ehlert

The list is the brainchild of Mary Hynes-Berry, who works at the Institute’s Early Mathematics Education Project. You can add your favorite early learning math books on the Institute’s Facebook page here.

Texting Helps Literacy? While it wasn’t focused on preschoolers, a new British study found that children who send a lot of text messages may be improving their spelling, the BBC News reports.

So when pupils replace or remove sounds, letters or syllables - such as "l8r" for "later" or "hmwrk" for "homework" - it requires an understanding of what the original word should be.

Instead of texting being a destructive influence on learners, the academics argue that it offers them a chance to "practise reading and spelling on a daily basis". – Phone texting 'helps pupils to spell,' BBC, 1/20/10.

Siblings Matter: Finally, parents may think they play the biggest role in raising their children, but helpful siblings also are major players, Sixty Second Parent reports.

"We know that having a positive relationship with siblings is related to a whole host of better outcomes for teenagers and adults," (Laurie) Kramer (an applied family studies professor in the human and community development department at the University of Illinois) said.

 

 

Toddlers don’t process things like adults, moving through their days without a clear sense of structure, and their unfiltered style might just mean they learn faster and more than you and I, researchers suggest.

A toddler’s inability to filter information and pay attention may occasionally be frustrating, but these traits are also critical in helping her learn so much in four short years, according to The Los Angeles Times Booster Shot blog, citing fascinating new research.

“In those crucial four years, a toddler's accumulation of knowledge about her world may be unhampered by the discipline imposed by the prefrontal cortex, suggests a trio of neuroscientists from the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. She vacuums up experience raw, the way she'd ingest anything she found on the carpet. Her prefrontal cortex doesn't stand in the way and try to keep her "on task." It won't make her reject the use of a pan as, say, a hat because hats cannot be made of shiny metal,” Melissa Healy writes in “The mind unchecked: Is a toddler's lack of self-control key to early learning?”

Researchers suggest a toddler’s lack of cognitive control is critical.

We contend that prolonged prefrontal immaturity is, on balance, advantageous and that the positive consequences of this developmental trajectory outweigh the negative. Particularly, we argue that cognitive control impedes convention learning and that delayed prefrontal maturation is a necessary adaptation for human learning of social and linguistic conventions. – “Cognition Without Control.”

This idea holds a lot of promise for educators, although exactly what remains unclear.

A better characterization of which specific types of learning are most likely to benefit from delayed onset of cognitive control could both guide research and inform educational policy.

It turns out autism – those on the autism spectrum process things differently than typically developing people – was one of the inspirations for this potential breakthrough. As researchers unravel the mysteries behind autism, I think we are going to learn a lot about how everyone’s brain works.

Secretary Duncan and Washington Agree: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Washington State are on the same page when it comes to integrating early learning with the first grades of elementary school – a movement known as PreK-3rd.

Secretary Duncan touted PreK-3rd as a way of “transforming America's primary education system,” in a Nov. 8 speech, The Foundation for Child Development reports.

Washington lined up with Duncan when it unveiled a new early learning plan last month that also relies on PreK-3rd.      

Parents naturally want their children to succeed, but a key to their success may not lie in sterling report cards or even great test scores. Instead, their kids sometimes need to struggle and stretch their minds in school.

Noted psychology researcher Carol Dweck spent more than 30 years developing the idea that people can stretch their minds – in a sense, improve their brains – with the right perspective. She calls it a growth mindset, which is found among students who believe they can grow their minds, as opposed to those with fixed mindsets who often see talent as innate.

You can “stretch to learn something new. Your brain makes new connections, and over time you get smarter,” Dweck told me in an interview yesterday in advance of her presentation tonight at the Seattle Public Library. Dweck, author of “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” is in Seattle thanks to the League of Education Voters, whose leaders say that we need to foster a growth mindset not only for our children but also our state when it comes to education – we need to provide rich learning environments that foster lifelong learning.

Dweck’s ideas hold plenty of lessons for parents and teachers. That’s because she suggests students with growth mindsets tap their potential because they are willing to take risks and “each mistake becomes a chance to learn,” according to Stanford Magazine. Children with fixed mindsets, on the other hand, can become so concerned about performance, and worried about failure and its impact on their self-image, that they sometimes don’t take risks or learn much, the story added.

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes,” Dweck, a Stanford professor, told The New York Times last year.

It sounds easy. But, in an era when so many parents are obsessed with their kids’ test scores, how can they change tactics and encourage growing minds? It all starts with praise; something Dweck has spent much of her career studying.

The next time you are sitting around the dinner table and your daughter tells you she got an A or B on a math test, don’t praise the grade. Ask her what she learned today that she didn’t know yesterday, Dweck suggests. Overall, we need to help our kids see their classroom struggles in a positive way, she adds.

“To start to think that hard things are the fun things,” said Dweck during our interview.

Dweck’s work also has powerful if still emerging lessons for those trying to close the achievement gap in schools. For example, students with a growth mindset are less likely to buy into a stereotype, whether it’s tied to poverty or race, she says.

While Dweck has focused on older students, her ideas may apply to preschoolers and pre-kindergarteners. They may even help us understand how the benefits of quality early education are sustained.

“One question I would love to look at is can early gains be sustained by a growth mindset,” Dweck said.

It is impossible to do justice to Dweck’s work in this short forum. To get a better idea about her strategies, check out the following articles:

• “The Effort Effect: According to a Stanford psychologist, you’ll reach new heights if you learn to embrace the occasional tumble.” Stanford Magazine, March/April 2007.
• “The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes.” The New York Times, 11/24/07.
• “If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow.” The New York Times, 7/6/08.          

Hear Dweck speak tonight from 7-9 p.m. at: Seattle Public Library Microsoft Auditorium 1000 Fourth Ave. Seattle, WA 98104 RSVP: Lindsey@educationvoters.org