I was reading through the Education Department’s recent Listening and Learning Tour materials when I stumbled across a great resource and argument for the effort to integrate pre-kindergarten with early elementary grades.

The slides lay out the reasons behind the PreK-3rd movement, explaining why we need to create better transitions between pre-k and elementary school, including that third grade is now seen as a critical turning point in a student’s education and that investment in quality early learning needs to be sustained by a K-12 education of similar quality.

It also offers a few research findings that make a strong case:

• “Only one-third of all American children are reading at grade level or above when tested at the beginning of fourth grade.”
• “Over 80 percent of African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian low-income children are not reading at grade level when tested at the beginning of fourth grade.” –

“PreK-3rd: A New Beginning for American Education,” Ruby Takanishi, president of the Foundation for Child Development.

The slide show also lays out recommendations for improving PreK-3rd integration, such as coordinating pay and training for teachers in pre-k and teachers in early elementary grades. Takanishi also has a great handout that lists useful PreK-3rd resources.

Poor sleep linked to bad behavior among grade schoolers: Along with good parenting, schools and diet, a good night’s sleep is a key element in a child’s development. A new study reports “poor sleep was linked with more aggression and delinquency, as well as a higher incidence of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem,” The Juggle reports today.

“All the kids in the study tended to have more emotional and behavior problems when their sleep was impaired. But the effect was largest among children under stress, such as those from poor families. In contrast, when the kids in poverty got enough sleep, their behavior tended to fall near a normal range, according to the study, led by Mona El-Sheikh of Auburn University.” – The Juggle, Wall Street Journal, 6/7/10.

It is worth checking out.

Sleep problems during early childhood could be linked to problems with alcohol and drugs later in life, according to new research.

The research out of Idaho State University says kids who have trouble sleeping between the ages of three and five have a higher probability of struggling with sleep as teenagers and starting to use drugs and alcohol early.

  “This study confirmed what we suspected a few years ago when we completed our earlier study, that not only do sleep problems in early childhood predict the early onset of alcohol and drug use in adolescence, but it also predicts problems with alcohol and drug use in early adulthood,” Maria Wong, the main author of the study and an associate professor of psychology at Idaho State University, said in a statement.

The connection makes sense when you consider how behavior that leaves preschoolers and pre-kindergarteners tired can set a pattern that creates other problems once they are teenagers.

Overtiredness in early childhood predicted adolescents having problems inhibiting impulses and behavior, which predicted higher rates of illicit drug use.  Sleep problems also predicted the presence of binge drinking, blackouts, driving after drinking alcohol, and the number of lifetime alcohol problems in young adulthood, according to Wong. – “Childhood sleep problems linked to young adult alcohol, drug abuse according to study by Idaho State University professor Wong.” 4/5/10.

This research is also fresh evidence of how setting healthy habits early in life can pay big dividends later. It is also part of an interesting study that is tracking 386 children from age 3 to age 20, which should have other important findings about early learning.

(Thanks to Sixty Second Parent for finding this research.)

Good News from Oregon: In this era of budget cutting, the Pacific Northwest continues to create initiatives and find new money for early learning. Oregon actually approved spending $1 million on Early Head Start for the first time, The Oregonian reports.

“The move reflects the Legislature's commitment to early childhood education, given that lawmakers approved the expansion at a time when they were scrambling to find money to fill a $185 million hole in the current two-year budget.” – Oregon Legislature finds $1 million for Early Head Start, 4/7/10.

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

Researchers found a few basic steps were associated with battling one of the nation’s health concerns, childhood obesity. Preschoolers who got enough sleep, watched limited amounts of television and regularly ate dinner with their families had a lower prevalence of obesity.

In fact, preschoolers who had all three habits were found to have “a roughly 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than those exposed to none of these routines,” according to an article published today in Pediatrics, the research journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. (You can read a summary here.)

Now, preschool teachers will tell you each of these habits likely helps in plenty of other ways, concentration and social skills for example. In this sense, the report is one more reason adequate sleep, a healthy diet and limits on media consumption are elements of quality preschool.

But, how much TV, sleep and family eating are enough?

The latest research offers one idea.

In the study, children who got 10.5 hours of sleep a night, ate dinner with their families more than 5 nights a week and watched 2 hours or less of television a day were in the healthier group.

Since we know these are all healthy habits, it is also interesting to see how many families actually follow these rules. Researchers found one in seven children were in families who had these habits, while one in eight had none.

They also pointed out they found this association in both high-income and poor homes and in homes where the mother was obese. We should clarify this study didn’t make a causal link, but said findings offer “promising behavioral targets.”

News and Notes: Birth to Five Policy has a cool new website. Check it out here.