Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand plays Chutes and Ladders for early education Brigid Schulte wrote on September 19 for the Washington Post about the life-size Chutes and Ladders game set up on the Capitol lawn on Wednesday. In painting the scene on the lawn, with Sen. Tom Harkin hula hopping and Sen. Kristen Gillibrand sharing a moment […]
Lifelines for Poor Children (James Heckman Does it Again!) It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two weeks since I blogged. The start of the school year for my own 5 kids has been a bumpier transition than I expected. Increasing my weekly speech therapy caseload by 10 hours has tightened the belt on my […]
For 3-year old Sam, life is frequently about his ideas and putting them into action. In an appropriate manner for his age, he initiates an idea in his head, plans it out, asks others to get ready to watch him put his plan into action, and executes his plan. He often asserts himself when someone […]
What Science Hopes to Learn From a Baby’s Cries Sumatha Reddy wrote that “subtle differences in infant wailing can provide important clues to later developmental and neurological conditions, such as poor language acquisition” on August 26, 2013 for the Wall Street Journal’s health section. Her statement sums up the importance of observing a baby’s behavior […]
In the video, Sam tries to “quantify” his love for me by saying he loves me “big as the sky and big as the house.” He throws in as big as “the tree” for extra emphasis. The “I love you” game becomes a bit of a competition between him and me (I have done this […]
The phrase “Bubble Guppies” is difficult for any infant or toddler to produce since it has so many syllables (i.e., 4) and because it contains so many similarly produced sounds (i.e., b, p, g). My 3-1/2 year old Sam struggled five times this morning to produce it correctly. For three of the first five times […]
Bringing the CLASS Measure Home: Observing Family Child Care Settings The above link takes readers to a registration page through Teachstone, a company committed to connecting research-based tools with the programs that can use them to improve education practices. According to their website, the company aims to apply “what works to what matters.” Teachstone works […]
Dropout Indicators Found for 1st Graders Sarah Sparks wrote yesterday, in the blog for Education Week, about the extensive tracking of student success taking place in Maryland. The tracking recently revealed that the early warning signs of a student at risk of dropping out may become visible at the very start of a child’s school career. According […]
The above video speaks to the importance of modeling precise vocabulary use to an infant or toddler. Since Sam is only 42-months, one would not expect him to use exactly correct, or precise, vocabulary use of objects around him. He has much to learn! However, it is important to build vocabulary daily (as we know […]
In the video, 42-month old Sam uses the play structures at a park to imagine the sequence of events needed to ride a bus. Although he has never been on a school bus and has only taken a city bus twice in his life, Sam has learned enough about taking a bus through his pretend […]
Baby and Toddler Land 