Prekindergarten Curriculum Guidelines: Language and Communication

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Prekindergarten Curriculum Guidelines Language
and Communication

• Laura M. Justice
• The Ohio State University
• Jan 28, 2008

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• At about 1 year, children
• Say their first word
• Comprehend several words
• Point to objects
• Engage in periods of sustained joint attention
• Listen to storybooks read by a caregiver
• Use a range of strategies to get their needs met

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• By 2 years, children
• Use 100s of words and comprehend many more
• Acquire a new word with only several exposures
• Speak in three word sentences
• Add affixes to words to inflect meaning
• Ask questions about things with intonation and
  some interrogatives (what)

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• By 4 years, children
• Use and understand 1000s of words
• Use complex and compound sentences
• Produce noun, verb, adverbial, adjective, and
  prepositional phrases
• Use language to predict, reason, imagine,
  hypothesize
• Insert themselves into ongoing conversations
• Read some simple words in storybooks or
  surroundings
• Write messages to others using developmental
  spelling

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Multi-Dimensionality of Language
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Child Emergent Writing
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• From birth to five years
• Development of language is steep and fast
• Childrens MAJOR developmental task is learning
  language
• The opportunities of early childhood come once in
  a lifetime

Expressive vocabulary (English) of Eastern
European adoptees Glennen Masters (2002)
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When Language Develops Slowly

• Primary schools and neurobiology are not equipped
  to help children catch up when they have late
  starts in language acquisition

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Synaptogenesis, Neural Plasticity, and Experience
Center on the Developing Child (2007)
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Focus of Instruction
TRANSITION
TRANSITION
Emergent Literacy Meaning Precursors Code
Precursors
Early LiteracyLearning to Read Decoding
Conventional Literacy Reading to
Learn Comprehension
Reading Development
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Type of Intervention
Primary Prevention
Secondary Prevention
Tertiary Prevention
Emergent Literacy Meaning Precursors Code
Precursors
Early LiteracyLearning to Read Decoding
Conventional Literacy Reading to
Learn Comprehension
Reading Development
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Stimulating Language from a Social
Interactionist Perspective

• Frequent
• Well-tuned
• Varied
• Input

It is very very hard to manualize this!!
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Language Development

• Childrens language skills MOVE over the year
• They CHANGE and GROW to look like the INPUT they
  receive

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Language Skills Mature/Adult
Child Skills
Child Skills
Child Skills
Child Skills
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Well-Tuned?
Stimulates Language
Does Not Stimulate Language
Child Language Ability
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How do these develop?
Relationship between preschool teachers complex
syntax use and childrens Syntactic
comprehension. From Huttonlocher, J., Vasilyeva,
M., Cymerman, E., Levine, S. (2002).
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A Day in PreKLANGUAGE MODELING (135
CLASSROOMS)(Justice, Mashburn, Hamre, Pianta,
2008)
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A Day in PreKWhat does teacher talk look
like?(Pence, Justice, Wiggins, in press)
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A Day in PreKWhat do teacher utterances look
like?
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Teacher Use of Language Stimulating Techniques,
Child Attendance, and Child Language Growth
Justice, Mashburn, Pence, Wiggins, in press
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A Formidable Challenge

• Scaling up practices that represent the cutting
  edge of neuroscience, developmental-behavioral
  research, and program evaluation
• In the absence of quality prekindergarten
  programs and ambitious developmental goals,
  disparities among children will only grow larger
  over time
• Center on the Developing Child (2007)

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Guidelines Influence Practices
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RECOMMENDED DAILY ALLOWANCES PREKINDERGARTEN
LANGUAGE SUCCESS
Hugs, Smiles, and Praise Used Often!
Sentences and Structure 8 Servings
Listening Comprehension 3 Servings
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Vocabulary 6 Servings
Speaking 6 Servings
Speech Production 3 Servings
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RDAs for Prekindergarten

• Listening Comprehension
• Vocabulary
• Sentences and Structure
• Speaking (Conversation)
• Speech Production

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Two Dimensional Matrix of Language
DOMAIN
Tomblin, Records, Zhang, 1996
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A Comment on Strategies

• We tend to focus on Targets and Materials
• forgetting about the role of the teacher!
• Recent curriculum studies indicate that targets
  alone are insufficient for achieving improved
  child outcomes

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Changing DevelopmentQuality Teaching Principles

• Targets
• Strategies
• (Materials)

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Changing DevelopmentVocabulary

• Target/Guideline
• Child demonstrates understanding or knowing the
  meaning of 3,000 to 4,000 words, many more than
  he or she uses
• (TX proposed prekindergarten guidelines, 2008)

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Development of Word Knowledge(Curtis, 1987)

• Stage 1
• I never saw it before
• Stage 2
• Ive heard of it, but dont know what it means
• Stage 3
• I recognize it in context, it has something to do
  with
• Stage 4
• I know it!

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Changing DevelopmentVocabulary

• Strategy
• Use and explain new words daily when speaking
  with children
• Discuss new word meanings before, during, after
  book reading
• Create opportunities for children to experience
  new words in multiple ways across multiple
  experiences
• (TX proposed prekindergarten guidelines, 2008)

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Elaborating Words during Storybook Reading

• Children in high-poverty schools completed 20
  small-group storybook reading sessions
• Word learning studied for words elaborated
  compared to words not elaborated
• Example book The Caterpillar That Roared
• Elaborated Words gaze, ripples, surface
• Non-Elaborated Words horrified, snuggled, twitch

Justice, Meier, Walpole, 2004
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Elaborating Words during Storybook Reading
Gains for children with very low vocabulary
scores Justice et al., 2004
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An Evidence-Based Mindset

• Teachers pressed to utilize strategies and
  curricula that are empirically validated
• Evidence-based practice requires educators to
  consider findings from empirical research
• Incorporation of specific research-based
  strategies enables teachers to engage in
  evidence-based practice and actualize these
  targets
• Professional development will be critical

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Thank You

• Laura Justice
• Professor
• College of Education and Human Ecology
• The Ohio State University
• Justice.57_at_osu.edu