This spring one of the giants of family research will launch a campaign to connect parents and teachers with all of the research on benefits of quality early learning, and help them use it.

Next month, Family and Work Institute head Ellen Galinsky will kick off “A Mind in the Making,” an ambitious and multifaceted effort that will be the culmination of eight years of work on early childhood learning research, why kids lose interest in learning and what can be done to keep them engaged.

“Too many kids were dropping out of high school, too many are not prepared for college, and there is a disturbing lack of engagement in learning – the fire that burns brightly in babies’ eyes is dimmed in school,” Galinsky wrote in explaining her ideas and goals. “We have focused on content that young children need to learn, but we have paid much less attention to the learning – ultimately the life skills - they need to have.”

The core of the campaign is Galinsky’s soon-to-be released book “Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Skills Every Child Needs,” which outlines modern skills parents should encourage their children to develop: Focus on control; perspective taking, communicating; making connections; critical thinking; taking on challenges; and pursuing ongoing learning. (April 6, HarperStudio.)

But, the campaign extends far beyond that 352-page book.  The effort includes a congressional launch event, learning modules for early childhood teachers and families, web-based videos for families, a DVD on great experiments in child development research and other efforts.

But, perhaps the most important tool will be lessons Galinsky will offer parents. Instead of telling them they should do something, she will show them steps and exercises they can take to instill those life skills that help children become productive contributing adults.

For example, parents should focus on praising their children’s efforts, not their talents.

“Studies have found that this kind of praise encourages children to challenge themselves,” The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs. “Life is full of stresses and challenges. Children who are willing to take on challenges (instead of avoiding them) do better in school and life.”

As one of the leading voices in the field of family research, Galinsky is more than qualified to lead this effort. She has written more than 40 books and reports, and currently is president of the Families and Work Institute in New York City. We will check back on this campaign as it unfolds.

We’ve seen a lot of different arguments for quality early learning - economic, artistic and wonky - and now rocker Chris Belew will make the case to Washington State lawmakers with a dance party next Friday.

You may remember Belew from when he fronted the popular and more parent-oriented The Presidents of the United States of America. Now, he also makes “kindie” rock and wants to make quality child care a top legislative priority.

“Why the dance?  It's a tough legislative session.  We're in an economic downturn and critically important programs designed to support young children and families – from prenatal care to preschool and everything in between – are in jeopardy of being cut just when families need them most,” MomsRising said this week.

Lawmakers will face tough choices this year as they deal with a $2.6 billion state budget deficit, and MomsRising wants them to remember child care, preschool and pre-kindergarten.

We want “elected officials to decide this session right now to invest in quality early learning, so taxpayers get returns,” MomsRising co-founder Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner said in an interview. “The clock is ticking for kids. We can’t afford to wait.”

Details:

Where: The Rotunda, Washington State Legislative Bldg., Olympia, WA
When: Friday, Feb. 5. 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
RSVP here.

Interesting Science of the Week: Kids who are mixed handed are more likely to develop mental health, scholastic and language problems, Pediatrics, the monthly journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, reports.

“This study supports evidence that mixed-handedness, rather than left-handedness, is associated with risk for language and behavioral problems both in childhood and adolescence.”

Read more at MSNBC.com’s “Ambidextrous kids more prone to mental issues.”

This month researchers made the case for a “new science of learning” that has the potential to remake education, offering fresh evidence of science’s growing role in the conversation about early learning’s importance.

In this month’s Science journal, researchers explored how breakthroughs in neuroscience, psychology and machine learning are helping us understand how we learn. What is even more interesting is that these findings may extend beyond early learning and help us understand “the origins of human intelligence.”

Much of the paper focuses on how kids learn, highlighting the importance of social interaction, the limits of television in the first years of life and new findings about babies.

"Babies learn simply by listening, for example. They learn the sounds and words of their language by picking up probabilistic information as they listen to us talk to them. Babies at 8 months are calculating statistically and learning," Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, said in a summary.

In another setback for baby-targeted television, TV doesn’t appear to be a huge help to infants.

“They take in more information by looking at another person face to face than by looking at that person on a big plasma TV screen," Kuhl added. "We are now trying to understand why the brain works this way, and what it means about us and our evolution."

Overall, the paper tackles broad, deep and complex topics – I will dig deeper in the coming days because a lot is still over my head. However, it doesn’t reject technology as an aspect of teaching. In fact, authors do the opposite by raising intriguing ideas about the intersection of education, robots and technology.

Research suggests children are more receptive to learning from “social robots” that look more like us and interact, the summary says.

"Science is trying to understand the magic of social interaction in human learning,"  said lead author Andrew Meltzoff, co-chair of the Institute and the UW’s Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair. "But when it does we hope to embody some of what we learn into technology. Kids today are using high-powered technology – Facebook, Twitter and text messaging – to enhance social interaction. Using technology, children are learning to solve problems collaboratively. Technology also allows us to have a distributed network from which to draw information, a world of knowledge."

My kindergartener has always liked math, whether he was organizing his blocks, learning to count to ten or tackling basic addition.

Now, a new report from the National Research Council calls for a systemic approach to teaching math in preschool. It argues preschoolers are not only ready for mathematics, but that basic arithmetic can help close the achievement gap.

This is particularly the case for economically disadvantaged children, who start out behind in mathematics and will remain so without extensive, high-quality early mathematics instruction. —“Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Toward Excellence and Equity.” In fact, academic activities such as mathematics can be a context in which social-emotional development and the foundations of language and literacy flourish.

The report later suggests math could follow on the success of the early literacy effort, which has taken hold at so many schools.  This idea doesn’t sound farfetched in our high-tech world.

Given the increasing importance of science and technology in everyday life and for gaining entry into many careers, it's crucial that we give all children a strong foundation in math and that we start many years before they enter formal schooling. —The report, as quoted by ScienceDaily.   

While we may not be able to argue with the importance of arithmetic, the report adds another layer of recommendations to those already weighing down early learning educators and policymakers. For example, authors offer the common suggestion of more training, but many preschools already struggle to pay for training in established subjects and skills.

Yet, the report suggests this is an investment we can’t skip because math is a key to resolving one of pre-k’s greatest challenges: closing the achievement gap.
How would you get math into preschool?

(Thanks to ScienceDaily and Pre-K Now for breaking the news and highlighting this report.)

I came across United Kingdom-based research this morning that shows both medium and high quality preschools pay dividends by bolstering math and English achievement later in school.

Children gained most benefit from having attended high quality pre-school provision, but medium quality provision also led to better Mathematics and social/behavioural outcomes in Year 6 than low quality or no pre-school (the ‘home’ group). – Effective Pre-School and Primary Education 3-11 Project (EPPE 3-11): Influences on Children's Cognitive and Social Development in Year 6.

The research brief suggests low-quality preschool offers little long-term social and cognitive help, and can hinder some development.

Low quality pre-school has little enduring benefit in terms of academic and social/behavioural outcomes in the longer term and was even associated with some poorer social outcomes in comparison with the ‘home’ group, although not for ‘Pro-social’ behaviour. – Effective Pre-School and Primary Education.

The paper is full of interesting findings, such as how quality early learning helps girls versus boys, kids with special needs and disadvantaged children. 

For academic outcomes, particularly Mathematics, and for all social/behavioural
outcomes, having attended a high quality preschool is found to be of particular benefit for boys, children with special educational needs (SEN) and disadvantaged children – Effective Pre-school.

In fact, researchers suggest children from poor families benefit more from quality preschools than their more advantaged peers. Plus, they highlighted the importance of a good home life.        

Thus the disadvantage of not attending pre-school is countered if children have good early years learning experiences at home. Similarly, the disadvantage of poor Early years HLE is ameliorated by high quality pre-school. Both aspects of early influence still show an impact on longer term development up to age 11.

I would love to hear the thoughts of researchers and advocates on the benefits and limits of these findings.

Any thoughts?

(Thanks to the National Institute for Early Education Research for highlighting this report.)