Academic Domains

Development of the Academic Domains

By: Daniela Patino

When a child first goes into school he takes with him knowledge that he already knows on different subjects, this is known as background knowledge. Once in school, his learning builds upon these initial mental frameworks and extends beyond.

READING DEVELOPMENT

Reading development is one of the first skills that a child should learn from a very young age. The development of this domain consists of different phases:

–Emergent Literacy (Pre k): In this phase, children learn what books are, and they learn about language. During this phase students must master the skill of phonemic awareness, the understanding that the spoken language is made up of building blocks. It is advisable to provide children with enjoyable experiences with books, especially picture books.

–Beginning Reading (K-1^st ): During this phase young students, generally in kindergarten and 1^st grade are learning to read words, and to understand what they read. They begin to use different strategies to predict a word, and confirm they predictions using the pictures in the story.

–Building Fluency (1^st -2^nd): While in 1^st and 2^nd grade the student’s reading becomes more rapid and accurate. They read with which they read is a sign of the child’s reading comprehension.

–Fluent Readers (3^rd -4^th): At this stage the students begin to read in order to learn and for pleasure. They are able to read, understand and carry on instructions; they read novels and chapter books.

–Mature Reading: During this stage, the reader is confident with their understanding of the text. They choose of book because of their liking of the author’s style. They read with awareness of issues and themes.

The experience that children have at home with literacy and books can have a great effect on their reading development. There are a lot of different things that can influence the type of reader a child will become, the type of support the receive at school, from their peers, and from the society; but also their own characteristics.

WRITING DEVELOPMENT

In order to master the writing skills, children have to coordinate different abilities. This development has age trends that occur as children gain more experience.

–Prephonemic (mid Kindergarten): During this phase, children know what letters look like and can write unconnected letters, but use them without regard to their sounds.

–Early Phonemic (end of Kindergarten): At this phase children use letters to represent some of the sounds in words. They begin to represent words by their phonemes; they commonly represent only the first and last letter of the word.

–Letter name (mid 1^st grade): The children in this phase represent almost all (or all) of the phonemes in a word.

–Orthographic (end of 2^nd grade): The children in this phase are normally beginning readers who have become aware of the conventional spelling for sounds. They might still miss one or two letters in a word.

–Morphological (late 2^nd grade-4^th grade and beyond): In this phase, children are able to spell correctly, adding prefixes and suffixes to the words. They have learned common patterns of spelling, such as rules for long and short vowels.

–Derivational (early 4^th grade through adulthood): At this level, children can recognize morphemes and use them for spelling, reading and as clue for meaning of some words.

As with reading, the development of writing is influenced by a great number of things (experiences at home, characteristics, support from school, peers and the society).

MATHEMATICS DEVELOPMENT:

Mathematics is the study of different disciplines (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, statistics) that use different methods for representing and solving quantitive problems.

When a child is 5 or 6 months old, they are aware of the difference between a small collection of objects and a large one. As they grow older (1 year old) they begin to understand the concepts of “more” and “less”

By the time a child turns 5, they can sometime count up to 50, although it is normal for them to get confused about the order of some numbers. At this age, they have also mastered some basic principles of counting, which include:

–One-one principle: By this time children know that each item in a set may be counted once and once only and that this item is assigned only one number name.

–Cardinal principle: The last number word said while counting, indicates the number of items in a collection.

–Order-irrelevance principle: A collection of items has the same number regardless of the order in which the items are counted.

– Whole-part-whole principle (early elementary grades): At this level children understand that any single number may be broken into two more smaller numbers and that any two more numbers can be combined to form a larger number.

Almost every child has the capacity of being aware that objects and substances vary in quantity. Some children are able to understand challenging mathematical principles, while others may have learning disabilities (such as dyscalculia) that delay their ability to understand number concepts.

For more information on the stages of Reading development please head to Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/article/51574

The Development of Language

Language Development in Children

By: Lauren Acosta

A child’s first form of communication is crying as a newborn. From then on, language is continuously and quickly developing. New babies are very aware of the sounds of their environment and between 0 and 3 months they know to look your way when you speak and smile when they hear a familiar voice. Babies often respond to calming tones of voice even if it isn’t familiar. Between 4 and 6 months babies begin to respond to “no” and can distinguish changes in tone of voice. Between 7 and 12 months babies will recognize names of familiar objects and begin to enjoy games, they also turn when they hear their name and listens when someone speaks to them. On average, first words are usually spoken by the age of 1. A child between 1 and 2 will also point to pictures in books when named, follow simple commands, and enjoy listening to simple stories. Between 2 and 3 years of age children begin to better understand two stage commands and notice familiar sounds like the doorbell. Children will begin to understand simple questions between the ages of 3 and 4. Between 4 and 5 comprehension of language increases vastly, they understand most of what they hear.

While the foundation of this development is established by the early elementary years, it continues all the way through adolescence and high school years. With cognitive development children become better communicators. During middle childhood grammatical understanding and construction expands and pragmatics of language improves. Children become more effective communicators between the ages of 6 and 12. From 12-18 years of age, vocabulary, comprehension, story telling abilities and the ability to hold a conversation increases dramatically.

What To Expect and How You Can Help!

Age Range

Expected Development

Ways to Help Development

Birth-2 Years Old

-Smiling and cooing

-First words by 1^st birthday

-Before 2^nd birthday put 2 words together at a time

-Encourage speech, speak to the child in a conversational manner with animated tones

-Ask questions

-Repeat the child’s early sentences

2-6 Years Old

-Between 2^nd and 3^rd yr. a major advancement in vocabulary

-Between 4 & 5 yrs. the child will organize knowledge of words

-At 6 yrs. Knowledge includes 8000-14000 words, use about 2600 in their speech

-Read age appropriate books

-Encourage listening skills

-Ask follow-up questions

6-10 Years Old

-Understanding of temporal words increasing

-Pronunciation mastery by 8 Yrs.

-Can construct stories with plots

-Teach irregular word forms

-Include group discussions in lessons

-Encourage story telling in speech and writing

10-14 Years Old

-Able to understand complex sentences

-Carries on lengthy conversations

-More aware of many terms used in several areas of academics

-Explore the nature of words

-Encourage class debates

-Use more advanced, preferred terminology

14-18 Years Old

-Refinements in grammar

-Understands figurative language

-Masters a variety of connectives

-Make sure the difference between abstract words is pointed out

-Make children aware of underlying meanings in poetry and fiction

For more in depth information on language development visit the Child & Family WebGuide

http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/?/category/development/4/topic/language-development/78/

The Importance of Physical Development

Physical Development

By: Barbara Cruz

The Physical Development of a child is one of the most important things to consider about a child considering that it includes emotional development, psychological development, and biological development.

These are the changes that occur in humans from the moment of birth to beginning of adulthood, and in some cases the end of adulthood.

Adults and parents should take their child’s physical development seriously because issues can occurs as early as infancy in children. It is not uncommon for a child to learn to walk before they learn to crawl, a parent should monitor the rate of the other developmental milestones.

According to “An Overview of Early Childhood Development”, By Kendra Cherry if a child develops at a much slower rate it could be possible for the child to have a disability. It is important for parents to identify possible disabilities to be able to assist their children in reaching other developmental goals.

For a more comprehensive list of expected milestones please follow this link

http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/external.asp?url=http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/002002.htm&prev=http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/Default.asp?=

Cognitive Development

Children’s Cognitive Development

By: Carolina Bedoya

Piaget’s View of Child Development

Jean Piaget’s theory remains the standard against which all other theories are judged.

o Often labeled constructivist because it portrays children as constructing knowledge for themselves.

Piaget sees children as active, able to learn many lessons on their own and sees them as intrinsically motivated to learn.

Piagetian Theory:

Role of Nature and Nurture

Piaget believed that nature and nurture interact to yield cognitive development.

o Adaptation: the tendency to respond to the demands of the environment to meet one’s goals

o Organization: the tendency to integrate particular observations into coherent knowledge

Piagetian Theory:

Processes Underlying Development

Three processes work together to modify our schemes and propel development.

o Assimilation: process by which people translate incoming information into form they can understand; attempt to make info part of scheme

o Accommodation: process by which people adapt current schemes and create new schemes in response to new experiences

o Equilibration: process by which people balance assimilation and accommodation to restructure schemes to create stable understanding of world

Children progress through four stages of cognitive development, each building on the previous one

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor in Sub-stages:

Preoperational Stage
(2 to 6 years)

A notable acquisition is symbolic representation, the use of one object to stand for another.
A notable limitation is egocentrism.
Egocentrism: the tendency to perceive the world solely from one’s own point of view.

Concrete Operations Stage
(7 to 12 years)

Children begin to reason logically about the world.

o Inductive Logic: Reasoning from the particular to the general; from experience to broad rules.

o They can solve conservation problems, but their successful reasoning is largely limited to concrete situations.

They understand reversibility (that actions and mental operations can be reversed).
Have difficulty with thinking systematically and using deductive logic (reasoning from the general to the particular; reasoning from a theory to a hypothesis).

Formal Operations Stage
(12 years and onward)

Cognitive development culminates in ability to think abstractly and to reason about hypothetical situations.
Individuals can now:

o Imagine alternative worlds

o Reason systematically about all possible outcomes of a situation

o Design systematic plans for investigating phenomena (e.g., pendulum problem; sandwich task)

Please visit the Child & Family WebGuide if you would like even more information on Cognitive Development

http://www.cfw.tufts.edu/?/category/infants/16/topic/brain-development/76/

Family, Culture, and Community

Family, Culture, and Community

By: Maria Bello

Family

Family plays a significant role in a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. It is imperative that parents model good behaviors and norms so that their children can learn good habits that they will have throughout their lives. Effective parenting provides children with good values, support, security, coping skills, and helps them build strong relationships.

Family structures

Nowadays families are made up of different structures and arrangements. Among these are the traditional composition of mothers and fathers, those made up of divorced parents, single parents, parents and step parents, extended families, adoptive families, and foster care. It is important to always keep in mind that the structure of the family is not what matters, rather it is the support and care that these families provide to their children. Below you will find information regarding the statistics of family structures in the United States.

Children living with two married parents: 67%

Research shows that a child living with both parents tend to achieve higher educational levels and present less behavior problems than children who are raised from different families structures.

Children living with their mother only: 23% living with their father only: 3%

Some single parents lack the time to provide adequate supervision and assist their children with their homework. Children might experience a lack of love, affection, and patient from their single parents.

Children living in arrangement families: 4%

Grandparents or foster parents can become the primary guardians of a child. The aforementioned parenting style has to rely on building strong bonds with the child so he can feel secure and protected.

Parenting Styles

The different parent styles have an impact on child development. It is important that parents have a balance between love and discipline to help their children become self-regulated. There are four types of strategies that parents use to raise their child. Authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved parenting styles.

Authoritative: these parents tend to hold high expectations but at the same time nurture their children characterize this style.

Authoritarian: under this style of parenting, children tend to be less confident or lack social skills. This is due to the existence of strict rules and harsh punishment for breaking those rules.

Permissive: These parents have few rules and create an environment of inconsistency. There is a lack of demands and expectations placed on their children. Children’s consequences of living under this style of parenting results in low self-esteem and lack on self-confidence.

Uninvolved: this particular parenting style is characterized by neglectful parenting and indifference to their child’s needs. Children raised by uninvolved parents have emotional problems, feel fear and stress due to lack of family support. This has also shown to result in children’s substance abuse in later years.

Forming Partnership with Families

When this type of relationship is fostered between the school and home, parents and teachers will feel more appreciated at the program and both will be aware of each other’s role in the child’s education. Certainly, this partnership will not be established from the onset, but rather it will need to be built over time. By respecting, encouraging, and taking parent’s ideas and suggestions into the consideration when planning activities, it will help construct productive partnerships. It will be of great benefit to form this relationship based on mutual respect. Respecting their choices, feelings, and concerns will help to empathize with families and their way of life. In addition, it will allow me to learn different things about the children’s culture and allow them to share these customs with other families in my classroom. Teachers and families should have the same goal with regards to children’s success. That is why, it is important that a positive connection be created and maintained between both parties.

Keep parents inform about their children’s accomplishment by having meetings, writing letters, making a phone call, sending emails and creating websites.

Culture

Culture can be defined as a set of characteristics that identify a particular group of people, among these are their values, traditions, religion, and language. Culture affects the way we think, learn, and at the same time influences our expectations. Since we live in a multicultural world we need to learn how to treat everyone equal and respect his or her opinions. Teachers must be responsive to children’s linguistically and culturally contexts. It is important that educators understand how to best respond to these needs. Children need to acquire language so they can achieve a proper level of cognitive and linguistic development. Children will learn and feel more comfortable when their home language is being acknowledged. A way to do it is by sharing stories that are in the home language of those children that are in the classroom.

We have to look at the definition of culture competence as a factor for helping educators to be effective with children’s cultural needs. For that reason it is important that teachers gain knowledge and skills that promote diversity among students. It is important for every teacher to create an environment of acceptance in the classroom and one where individual differences are celebrated.

Types of culture:

Individualistic

This cultural group encourages independence, values personal goals, and puts emphasis on personal achievements.

Collectivistic Culture

These cultures tend to see themselves as members of groups. They are categorized as being cooperative, compliant to authority figures, and invest in-group accomplishment.

Immigration

Children that come to USA from different ethnicities have to go through the process of acculturation. Below you will find the different forms of acculturation:

Assimilation: Children are incorporated into the dominant culture.
Rejections: Individuals have little need to interact with new society.
Selective Adoption: Children adopt new customs but still celebrate theirs.
Bicultural Orientation: People retain their original culture but at the same time acquire belief from the new culture.

The neighborhood where our children are being raised can positively or negatively affect their well-being. It is children’s tendency to want to gather with their friends around the community to play or do different activities. Parents must be aware of the behaviors and activities that will help their children engage with the members of the community. Unfortunately, some families coming from a low socioeconomic status expose their children to live in a neighborhood that can be surrounded with people who have bad habits such as the consumption of drug. For that reason, it is imperative that parents and teachers provide extra care and support for children living under these circumstances. They have to be involved and encourage them to keep themselves occupied in positive things.

Recommendations for working with children from low-income families: