The Birth to 5 Perspective: Moving to Full Integration of the InfantToddler Years in School Readines

1
The Birth to 5 Perspective Moving to Full
Integration of the Infant/Toddler Years in School
Readiness Initiatives

• NACCRRA Leadership Management Institute
• San Diego, California
• July 10, 2008
• Peter L. Mangione
• WestEd

2

What is Parents Most Important Goal for Child
Care?

• Two Top Responses
• Providing a safe and healthy environment
• Preparing children to enter school ready to learn
• NACCRRA. (2006). Parents perceptions of child
  care in the United States.

3

Parents Desire Quality Care

• Nearly 8 in 10 parents said they would favor a
  10 increase in taxes to improve the quality of
  child care
• Parents understand that infants begin learning in
  infancy, and most believe their child care
  setting offers a learning environment
• NACCRRA. (2006). Parents perceptions of child
  care in the United States.

4
Factors Contributing to Nationwide Surge in
Funding for Pre-K Programs

• Concerns about children's school readiness and
  subsequent academic achievement
• Advances in early brain development research
• The increasing proportion of working mothers and
  their need for child care
• Concerted and well-funded efforts by Pre-K
  advocacy groups
• Economists' promotion of Pre-K as an economic
  development strategy
• Stephen Goldsmith and Rhonda Meyer. (August
  2006). Pre-K Shaping the System That Shapes
  Children. Civic Bulletin, No. 42. Manhattan
  Institute for Policy Research.

5
Social Competence and Positive School Adjustment

• Beyond academic achievement, children's ability
  to develop a strong relationship with their
  teachers, characterized by low levels of
  conflict, is a key indicator of positive school
  adjustment, both concurrently and in the future.
  
• Robert C. Pianta and Bridget K. Hamre

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Links Between Young Childrens Social Competence
and Early Reading Achievement

• High aggressive behavior was related to
  relatively low literacy achievement and low
  aggression was related to relatively high
  literacy achievement (Sara B. Miles and Deborah
  Stipek, Stanford University)
• Boys' behavior and ability at school entry
  influences their reading achievement (Research
  conducted at Kings College, London)
• Source National Institute for Early Education
  Research. (2006). Online News, Volume 5, Issue
  14.

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Influencing Achievement Over the Life Cycle

• Certain personality traits are more malleable
  than cognitive ability and more sensitive to
  intervention.
• Cognitive ability is influenced by personality
  traits such as curiosity, ambition and
  perseverance.
• The inability to delay gratification, anxiety,
  and openness to new experience affect school and
  life skills performance.
• Both cognitive ability and personality traits
  predict a variety of social and economic outcomes
  including schooling, wages, crime, teenage
  pregnancy, and longevity.
  
• Heckman (2008)

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School ReadinessBirth To 5

• School Readiness, to be a useful
  construct,has to recognize social competence and
  emotional well-being as critical to school
  success.

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Social Emotional Competence

• Confidence
• Friendliness
• Good peer relationships
• Ability to tackle persist at challenging tasks
• Good language development
• Effective at communicating frustrations, anger
  joy
• Ability to listen to instructions be attentive
• Source FAN, The Child Mental Health Foundations
  Agencies Network

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What Young Children Gain from Emotionally Secure
Relationships

• Emotional competence establishes the
  foundation for success in all other developmental
  domains.

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The Power of Early Interaction

• I am listened to or not.
• What I choose to do is valued or it isnt.
• How I express my emotions is accepted or it
  isnt.
• I am allowed to explore or I am not.
• Mostly my needs are met or they are not.
• Source Lally, J. R.

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Image of Child Competence

• Curious, motivated, self starting learner
• Imitator, interpreter, integrator
• Explorer, inventor
• Communication initiator
• Meaning seeker
• Relationship builder

13
Image of Child Vulnerability

• The young child is dependent on adults for
• Physical survival
• Emotional security
• Safe base for learning
• Regulating, modeling and mentoring social
  behavior
• Information and exchange about the workings of
  the world and rules for living

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Impact of Responsiveness onLong-term Development

• Responsiveness and sensitivity of care in infancy
  is a major predictor of adaptation from the
  early infancy period on.
• Source Sroufe, L. A., Egeland, B., Carlson, E.
  A., Collins, W. A. (2005). The development of
  the person The Minnesota study of risk and
  adaptation from birth to adulthood. New York The
  Guilford Press.

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From Neurons to Neighborhoods Core Concept 3

• The growth of self-regulation is a cornerstone
  of early childhood development that cuts across
  all domains of behavior.
• Shonkoff, J. P., Phillips, D. A. (2000). From
  neurons to neighborhoods The science of early
  childhood development. National Academy of
  Sciences.

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Synapse Formation in the Developing Brain

• Seeing/Hearing Peaks at 2-3 months of age and
  continues to be important throughout early
  childhood
• Receptive Language Area/Speech Production Peaks
  at about 9 months of age and continues to be
  important throughout early childhood
• Higher Cognitive Function Peaks at about 2 years
  of age and continues to be important throughout
  early childhood
• National Scientific Council on the Development
  Child. (2007). Working Paper 5. The timing and
  quality of early experiences combine to shape
  brain architecture.

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Birth to 5 Perspective

• Within the birth to 5 age period, we have to
  adapt experiences to the childs age and
  developmental competencies.
• In other words, a birth to 5 perspective does not
  mean we provide the same experiences throughout
  the early childhood years. Rather, we link the
  young childs early experiences to the young
  childs later experiences.

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Age Appropriate Experience

• Because low-level circuits mature early and
  high-level circuits mature later, different kinds
  of experiences are critical at different ages for
  optimal brain development.
• When adults or communities expect young children
  to master skills for which the necessary brain
  circuits have not yet formed, they waste time and
  resources, and may even impair healthy brain
  development by inducing excessive stress in the
  child.
• National Scientific Council on the Development
  Child. (2007). Working Paper 5. The timing and
  quality of early experiences combine to shape
  brain architecture.

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Later Experiences Build on Earlier Experiences

• Early learning lays the foundation for later
  learning and is essential (though not sufficient)
  for the development of optimized brain
  architecture.
• Stimulating early experience must be followed by
  more sophisticated and diverse experiences later
  in life, when high-level circuits are maturing,
  in order for full potential to be achieved.
• National Scientific Council on the Development
  Child. (2007). Working Paper 5. The timing and
  quality of early experiences combine to shape
  brain architecture.

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Young Children Are Naturally Oriented Toward
Reciprocal Relationships with Their Teachers

• Each child is unique and the protagonist of his
  or her own growth. Children desire to acquire
  knowledge, have much capacity for curiosity and
  amazement, and yearn to create relationships with
  others and to communicate. Children are open to
  exchange and reciprocity. From early in life
  they negotiate with the social and physical
  worlds - with everything the culture brings them.
• Loris Malaguzzi
• Founder of the Reggio Emilia Schools

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Attributes Parents Associate with Quality Care

• Top Two Responses
• Caregivers who are loving and nurturing
• Caregivers who have specialized training in child
  development
• NACCRRA. (2006). Parents perceptions of child
  care in the United States.