Sharing Web Resources: A continuation

There are so many links to explore on the Zero to Three website that it is easy to become overwhelmed.  The website is an excellent resource for early childhood professionals and parents.  I had not explored the School Readiness link.  Given the discussions on equity and excellence in early childhood over the past few weeks, I thought the school readiness link would be worth exploring.

I explored the “School Readiness Interactive” which highlighted language and literacy, thinking skills, self-control, and self-confidence for the following age groups: birth to 12 months, 12 months to 24 months, and 24 months to 36 months.  The link offers tips for parents to encourage young children’s learning.  Short video clips are available that address the topic.  For example, I viewed the video clip for language and literacy skills where a young child is singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”  It is a wonderful clip showing the interactions between the parent/adult who prompts the child to continue singing the song.  From the video clip are questions and additional information for parents to increase their thinking and learning about language and literacy skills.

Additionally within the school readiness link are other links.  Another link is a document entitled “Getting Ready for School Begins at Birth.  How to help your child in the early years.”  Again the document is divided according to age groups (as above).  I found this document much easier to read than the link outlined previously (it did cover the same information). 

There is a podcast as well featuring Dr. Alison Gopnik.  I love her passion when she speaks about infant s and how they learn.

I explored the “Learning to Write and Draw” link (still under School Readiness).  This link discusses creativity and how children’s art work and  drawing skills develop by outlining the stages of art development.  I liked that this document encouraged parents to let their child explore and experiment with art materials such as chunky crayons, thick pencils and markers.  I found the tips were practical for parents.  This particular document leads to other documents about creativity and stages of art development. 

I did receive an email from Zero to Three which allowed me to preview one of the articles for the Zero to Three Journal.   The article discusses children’s challenging behaviors.    Interestingly, I found that this article supported Delila Vasquez’s discussion regarding the inattention to children’s social development  and providing children needed skills to cope  (Vasquez, 2011).   According to Perry et al. (2011),“there is strong evidence that social and emotional skills are as critical to school adjustment as are competencies in language and academic readiness skills. When kindergarten teachers report that children are not entering school ready to learn, they are most often referring to deficits in social and emotional skills” (Perry et al., 2011, p. 1).  Many educators are struggling to deal with children’s challenging behaviors and feel they lack training (Perry et al., 2011).  Surprisingly, many of the children with challenging behaviors have been asked to leave early learning and care programs (Perry et al., 2011).    This article is very interesting and worth reading.  

Overall, the Zero to Three is informative.  To be honest, I was concerned about the School Readiness link thinking the information would focus on academics. After exploring several of the links, I learned that each of the links supports children's learning by offering practical tips for parents (spending time with children, reading to them, etc).

References 

Perry, D., Holland, C., Darling-Kuria, N., Nadiv, S. (2011). Challenging Behavior and

Expulsion From Child Care.  Retrieved from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/32-2_Perry.pdf?docID=12901

Vasquez, D. (2011). [Audio Tape Recording]. “ Equity and Excellence of Care for Children and Families-Part 1” Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com