STICKY! Babies learn about "sticky" from a sensory experience

When the ball of tape stays stuck to her hand, she develops a new theory.

 For decades early childhood educators have understood that children learn through experience.  Even for adults, this is true.  We realize that we learn more through the internship than the years of schooling leading up to it.  We know we can't learn to swim until we get in the water and try.

In 1938, educational philosopher/researcher John Dewey said:

“The scientific method is the only authentic means at our command for getting at the significance of our everyday experiences of the world in which we live...scientific method provides a working pattern of the way in which and conditions under which experiences are used to lead ever onward and outward.”

For infants and toddlers, every concept is a new one that must be explored and experienced with all of the senses-- much like a scientist would do. And like a scientist, young children use these experience to create theories in their minds about the nature of objects and the world around them.

We can talk about the concept of "sticky" with children (and yes, "sticky" is a concept, not just a word) but until they experience it, over and over and over again, it is meaningless.

For young children, they can experience sticky when they eat pancakes for breakfast, and get syrup on their hands.  Notice them experiencing it-- pressing their hands together and then pulling them apart; making a fist, and then opening their hands; squeezing their fingers together and then spreading them apart.  We're quick to clean their hands-- because as adults, we usually experience sticky as gross and unpleasant. 


 Children can also experience sticky with tape, as they did in the Maple Room classroom this morning.  They experienced it with their hands, as they balled up the tape and tried to set it down; they experienced it by trying to peel it off the table; they experienced it by trying (unsuccessfully) to shake it off of their shoes.  And as they experienced it, they built and reshaped theories in their minds, building new neural pathways all the while.

A young toddler knows that if she opens her hand, a ball drops to the floor and she assumes the same is true for every object. That's her theory based on her previous experiences.  When the ball of tape instead stays stuck to her hand, she has to modify that theory to include what happens to objects that are sticky. Sometimes sticky objects don't fall.

At the YCCF, we offer children a variety of experiences, including sensory ones, because we know that this is how the natural way that they learn about the world. 

"You're using the green play dough to make shapes!" The power of self and parallel talk with children

Young children have many huge achievements in their first few years of life, and one of the biggest is moving from only being able to express themselves through crying, to using words, and to eventually be able to use full sentences to ask questions and to talk about the things they see in the world, their experiences, their thoughts and their ideas. 

We marvel everyday at the ever expanding language that our toddlers use, and we intentionally engage in activities that support that expanding language.  One of the ways we do that is to engage in "self talk," and another related way is called, "parallel talk." 

Self talk is when we, as adults, describe what we're doing as we're doing it.  "I'm using the play dough to make a long snake!  My hand is flat as I roll, roll, roll the play dough."

Parallel talk is when an adult describes a child's actions.  "You are pounding on the play dough with the hammer. You're smooshing it flat!"

How do self and parallel talk help children learn language?  Some young toddlers have not yet made the connection between the words we say and the actions, thoughts and processes that they describe.  This kind of intentional talk helps young children make that connection.  Additionally, adults can add vocabulary words during self and parallel talk that children don't know yet.  If children are playing with the musical instruments and we describe their play for them ("You are shaking that maraca very hard! The sound is loud!") children learn new words (maraca) and new concepts (loud vs. quiet.) 

As children get older and start to use words on their own, we can also use parallel talk to repeat and extend their own talk. When a child says picks up a bucket in the sandbox and says, "bucket," we can say, "I see you have the green bucket."  This extension of the child's single word utterance gives them new information (the bucket is green), but it also models a full sentence for the child.  Repetition and extension can also be used to softly model proper grammar for the child.  When a two-year-old runs on the playground and loudly exclaims, "I winned," we don't need to correct them, but we can model proper usage by exclaiming, "You won!  I see that you won!"  Eventually, the child will learn the proper past tense of tricky words.

In preschool, children already have large vocabularies, and we can use these techniques to further expand them.  When a child builds a tall block tower and tells us about it-- "I built a tall tower!" we can expand on that by stating, "Your tower *is* tall!  It's gargantuan!"

The bigger a child's vocabulary is when they get to elementary school, the easier it will be for them to learn to read, so self and parallel talk, as well as repetition and expansion of their language, are vital.

You can give these techniques a try at home as well! Let us know how it goes!

Writing Children's Words

If you spend time in our preschool classrooms, you may notice teachers writing down children's words on their artwork, in the form of stories, or up on flip-charts.  This is an intentional activity that teachers engage in with their students, and in fact is required by Indiana's quality rating system, Paths to Quality.

But why do teachers do this with children who mostly can't read the words the teachers are writing?  What do children get out of it?

Children aren't born with any understanding of written language.  Children's brains are hard-wired to learn oral language and they can do so simply by being talked to and being surrounded by and included in back-and-forth conversations with parents, caregivers and teachers. The written word is a different story, however.  Unless we have specific and effective interactions with children about written letters and words, those mysterious squiggles and their meanings may remain mysterious to children. 

Very often, when we think of teaching children about written language, we first think of teaching them letters, letter names and their associated sounds.  Before we do, though, there are a number of other foundational concepts children have to understand.  First, children need to learn that written language is simply a coding of oral language.  One of the easiest ways for children to gain this knowledge is for adults to "code" children's oral language by writing it down for them to see.  In this way they understand that when they say, "I'm a rhinoceros balancing 4 balls on my head," it can be written down as a sentence, which is made of up words, which are made up of letters, which have a variety of sounds.  They might also notice that those sentences have funny marks we call punctuation. 

Eventually, through repetition, children come to understand that words and sentences are written from left to right, include a combination of specific shapes we call letters (which they begin to recognize) and depending on how we interact with them during the experience of writing, they begin to recognize that certain letters are used for certain words they know ("Hey! That letter starts my name!"), connect the letters sounds with the letters, and learn all of it in a way that is meaningful and interesting to them.

But most importantly, they learn that writing is another way that they can meaningfully communicate their ideas!

How can you help at home?  When your child is drawing or telling you a story you can simply ask them, "Would you like me to write down your ideas?" If your child is talking about things she'd like to get at the grocery store you can suggest that you make a list together.  It's ok to make a big deal of sounding out the words as you write them down or ask your older preschooler for some help figuring out what letter starts the word "Muh, muh, milk" for your list.  Above all, keep it light and fun and enjoyable for you both. 

Pretty soon, you'll be writing books together!