Clever Currents

Day Care Dilemmas: Can Child Care Kids Play Nice?

No doubt you saw the press coverage of a government study release last month showing that more time spent in child care centers before the age of 5 resulted in a slight but measurable increase (1%) in "problem" behaviors (interrupting, teasing, bullying) through sixth grade. There were positive correlations – child care kids had higher vocabulary scores. The study results entered the long-running debate over the pros and cons of child care. One thing is clear – social skills need to be considered as part of the early education we give our children, and parents need to assess potential caregivers on this attribute.

The Blue Lake take on it:
We like the way our fellow Oregonian, Sue Shellenbarger, the Work & Family columnist for the Wall Street Journal covered this last week. She devoted her column to identifying care centers that build better social skills. Look out for too much academic drilling, and choose a center where the adults train kids on working together, and where kids can find a quiet place to retreat. Sue's column is available to paid WSJ subscribers only, but she provided this source for information on social emotional development.

Talk, talk and more talk. It’s that simple.

We have read three articles this month which touch on the idea that successful preparation for school begins at home – and this doesn’t mean you need a lot of sophisticated tools. Child development experts at the University of Kansas conducted monthly visits with families of newborn children for three years. They found very significant vocabulary differences that could be directly related to spoken language in the home. On one end of the spectrum was a group of 3-year-olds with about 1,100 spoken words in their vocabulary. At the other end was a group with about 525 words. The first group had an average I.Q. of 117; the latter group had an I.Q. of 79. What was the root cause? Research showed that the more advanced 3-year-olds heard 487 “utterances” – anything from one word to a full sentence – from parents during every hour spent together. The group with the weaker vocabulary and I.Q. heard only 178 utterances per hour. Most of the utterances in the high-scoring group were positive: 86% encouragements vs. 14% discouragements. In the low scoring group, the ratio flipped: 27% encouragements vs. 73% discouragements.

The Blue Lake take on it:
Talk to your child as much as possible – narrate their lives – and strive for positive comments. Here are some helpful tips from Child Welfare League of America.

Kindergarten can wait?

In a January 2006 discussion we facilitated with moms about reading readiness, we heard “Kindergarten is the new first grade”. Many parents think that holding their child back a year will make them more successful in kindergarten - they have more early reading skills, better social training and less chance of being the “runt”. In both public and private schools, we see 5-year-olds in preschool and almost 7-year-old kindergartners. Is this really a good idea? A Department of Education study found that of 21,000 children who entered kindergarten in the fall of 1998, results for those who started late were mixed. By the end of first grade, the study found, the late starters were slightly more proficient than their classmates at reading, but less proficient in math.

The Blue Lake take on it:
With no proven advantage, choose the start date that you and your school’s teachers think is best. The Berkeley Parents Network has a helpful discussion on this topic.