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The Art of Asking Questions

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT

The Exchange book, Powerful Interactions: How to Connect with Children and Extend their Learning, offers these suggestions for asking children questions:

"In a powerful interaction, you pause to be present, then intentionally make a personal connection with the child, simultaneously moving the child's learning forward in a small, yet purposeful, way. Therefore, the questions you ask them make a difference in both the child's feelings towards you and the child's thinking and learning."

Here are some strategies suggested by the authors for asking good questions:

Alternate between silence, commentary, and questions.
Tailor the questions to the child.
Offer a manageable challenge.

Global Poverty Myths

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Hans Rosling, a professor from Sweden, gave a most amazing Ted Talk, "New Insights on Poverty," in which he talked about how to get at the real nature of poverty in this world and how it is so much more complex than most people imagine. He observed:

"We have to know a little more about the world. I have a neighbor who knows 200 types of wine. He knows everything. He knows the name of the grape, the temperature, and everything. I only know two types of wine — red and white. But my neighbor only knows two types of countries — industrialized and developing. And I know 200, I know about the small data... I'm telling you that there are many dimensions of development. Everyone wants your pet thing. If you are in the corporate sector, you love micro-credit. If you are fighting in a non-governmental organization, you love equity between genders. Or if you are a teacher, you'll love UNESCO, and so on. On the global level, we have to have more than our own thing. We need everything. All these things are important for development, especially when you just get out of poverty and you should go towards welfare."

Increasing Board Effectiveness

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Non profit child care programs often are plagued by boards that don't work. In The Nonprofit Times (January 1, 2012), Dennis Miller offers these suggestions on improving board effectiveness:

"Engage the board as leaders and partners in your vision and goal-setting, encourage them to ask questions, and encourage their ideas.

"Make sure board meetings are well organized and are of appropriate time. Respect the time of your volunteers.

"Ensure that a comprehensive board performance assessment is conducted at least every two or three years. Good boards evaluate their CEO; great boards evaluate themselves."

Keep Them Guessing

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

Young people today when confronted with a question are most likely to use the "let-me-Google-that" approach to seeking an answer. However, according to researchers interviewed for an article, "Good Guess," in Time magazine (December 12, 2011), estimation is the essential foundation for more advanced math skills. "It's also crucial for the kind of abstract thinking children need to get good grades in school and, when they're older, jobs in the knowledge-based economy."

The researchers also noted that everyone, even a baby, possesses a basic ability to estimate. But children from the earliest ages need to be encouraged to hone these estimating skills.

"One of the surprising ways to get kids thinking about numbers is to play board games with them. Flicking the spinner or rolling the dice and then counting out the spaces to move ahead on the board helps children adjust the number line that they carry around in their heads."

In a book to be released in June, 2012, Numbersight: A Street-Fighting Mathematician Teaches How to Make Better Decisions (pre-ordering available on Amazon), Sanjoy Mahajan will describe ways to promote estimating skills and "to make sense of the world by connecting, organizing, and simplifying the numbers that describe it."

Girls and Block Play

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"While block play is essential for both boys’ and girls’ social, cognitive, language, and motor development, girls do not engage in block play as frequently as boys. This situation can be attributed to the socialization process — children learn societal expectations for behavior and materials for both boys and girls — lack of experience for girls with blocks, and attitudes of peers that cause girls to feel unwelcome in the block center. There are important differences in the way boys and girls play with blocks; girls use blocks to create an extension of their place in the world, whereas boys are often more intent on the creation of structures and the innovative use of materials. Teachers need to be supportive and encouraging of girls to increase participation in the block center and to use diverse strategies to insure that girls gain the important skills that are associated with block play. "

This advice comes from Barb Tokarz, writing in "Block Play: It's Not Just for Boys Anymore," which serves as the base for the Exchange Out of the Box Training Kit by the same name. In the article she offers a number of ways to include children in block play including these:

"Locate the block corner next to dramatic play. Children who are going shopping, to school, or to the doctors may come into the block center to build a car to travel in, or to build a structure that becomes the store or school. Allow children to borrow materials from dramatic play to bring into the block corner to support and enrich their play. Choose a time when the block center is not crowded and invite some girls to come in and play with you. Sit on the floor with them and begin building, asking open-ended questions, and supporting them in problem solving if the need arises."

Junk Food at School

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

A new study conducted by Penn State University and reported by CBS suggests that children eating junk food at school has nothing to do with their weight gain.

The university used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study that followed nearly 20,000 students in the same county in both fifth and eighth grades. The author of the study says she was shocked by her findings that school junk food did not correlate to a child’s obesity, despite the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stating that childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years.

“We were really surprised by that result and, in fact, we held back from publishing our study for roughly two years because we kept looking for a connection that just wasn’t there,” Jennifer Van Hook, professor of sociology and demography at Penn State, said in the January issue of Sociology of Education. Van Hook, who teamed up with university doctoral student Claire Altman, found in their study that there was no rise in the percentage of overweight students despite a significant increase in the amount of junk food sold at their schools. The study claims that childhood obesity actually decreased at these schools where junk food was prevalent, from 39.1 percent to 35.4 percent.

“Schools only represent a small portion of children’s food environment,” Van Hook said in a press release. “They can get food at home, they can get food in their neighborhoods, and they can go across the street from the school to buy food.”

Access to Wildlife

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

No government has recognised access to nature as a right, yet it can and does deliver benefits to everyone in society. Now Tony King, head of policy for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, reports in The Guardian that the Scottish Government is considering a rights of children and young people bill that would consider access to nature as being included in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In making a case for making access to nature as a right, King observes...

"Governments can and should articulate a new right: that every child and young person has the right to grow up and live in a high-quality, wildlife-rich environment with ready access to the physical and mental health benefits, developmental advantages, and play opportunities it affords. There is a growing and compelling body of evidence that regular and ready access to a wildlife-rich environment is essential for children's health and wellbeing.

"Recognising — and acting on — a right to that wildlife-rich world is essential for delivering better health, better educational attainment, and better social development. Research published in The Lancet shows that, even after other factors are accounted for, living in a green environment makes people healthier.

"One Scottish child in five is overweight and one in ten is obese but we know that access to attractive, nature-rich greenspace increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Children who live in busy urban areas where there are lots of trees have lower rates of asthma and lower rates of behavioural problems such as ADHD, yet Scotland has no strategy to green those streets that have high levels of air pollution. Children who spend time playing outside suffer less from short sight later in life than those who don't. Children who have ready access to the natural environment have better self-esteem, self-confidence, independence, autonomy, and initiative than those who don't.

"Nature is good for people: let's recognise the right of every child to live and grow up in a wildlife-rich world."

Increasing Staff Accountability

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

In his column in the January/February 2012 issue of Exchange, Dennis Vicars observes, "A mentor once told me: We are always getting better or worse, but never staying the same. While that may well be, for the children’s sake, we ought to make it a priority to get better. And we only get better if our people get better, so that should be where commitment and accountability become one." Vicars outlined some keys to increasing accountability through improved staff performance:

Create an atmosphere of trust.
Be honest in all appraisals.
Make the annual review a road map for the next year.
Meet quarterly to review progress.
Catch people doing what you want and praise the action/behavior.
Utilize all available resources, especially other team members.
Give feedback often.
Recognize every moment as a training opportunity.
Make a commitment to everyone’s growth, including your own.

Preschooler Swearing

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

In a recent episode of the TV series, "Modern Family" a toddler blurted out a swear word. This scene stirred quite a controversy as experts weighed in with arguments that swearing by preschool children is inevitable, intolerable, avoidable, or something else. Here is a sampling of some reactions as shared in MSNBC.

"The show's theme already has critics at the anti-indecency Parents Television Council grumbling, but researchers who study cursing find that, believe it or not, 2 years is about the age when kids really start to use 'adult' language.

"'Yes, 2-year-olds say f---,' said Timothy Jay, a psychologist who studies psycholinguistics and obscenities at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. 'Preschoolers are pretty well versed in the lexicon, and by 11 to 12, we are looking at adult swearing patterns. Kids say swear words as soon as they talk.'

"Jay and his colleagues have a dataset stretching back into the 1970s of words that school teachers, day care workers, and other adults who work with children report hearing. Kids mimic words early on and pick up quickly on which words are 'bad,' even if they don't know the exact definitions of those words, Jay said.

"In fact, studies suggest that swearing is firmly embedded in the brain. Swearing is a form of 'formulaic language,' said Diana Van Lancker Sidtis, a professor of communicative sciences and disorders at New York University. These are expressions such as 'You bet!' that frequently appear in conversation, and kids learn them as they're learning how to piece together sentences."

Creative Marketing Ideas

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

In this challenging economic climate, early childhood programs are looking for new ideas on how to build and maintain enrollment. Our VOICES DVD: Building Enrollment includes insights from a number of experienced and insightful marketing gurus in our field. For example, you can review this DVD's subchapter, "Creative Marketing Ideas" for some thought provoking ideas.

Round-the-Clock Demand

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Day care is slowly becoming night care in today's economy, as parents work ever longer days, take on second jobs, and accept odd shifts to make ends meet," reports Sabrina Tavernise in a recent New York Times article (January 15, 2012). She continues...

"About 40 percent of the American labor force now works some form of nonstandard hours, including evenings, nights, weekends, and early mornings, according to Harriet B. Presser, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. That share is expected to grow with the projected expansion of jobs in industries like nursing, retail, and food service, which tend to require after-hours work.

"At the same time, working hours are less predictable than they once were. 'There’s a greater variability and irregularity of schedules,' said Lonnie Golden, a professor of economics and labor studies at Pennsylvania State University. 'In surveys, more and more people are no longer able to specify a beginning or end of the workday.'

"Yet for years it has been a frustrating reality for parents that child care services have failed to keep pace with the changing workday, with many centers still keeping a rigid 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule. Experiments with nighttime care have come and gone over the years, but lingering ambivalence about the concept led most centers to deem it financially untenable."

Continuous Partial Attention

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

In the past decade, the world has gone from a total of 12 billion emails a day to 247 billion, from 400,000 text messages to 4.5 billion, from an individual average of 2.7 hours a week online to 18 hours.

Cathy Davidson cites these stats in Harvard Business Review (January 2012), but jumps to the unexpected conclusion that all these distractions may not necessarily lower one's productivity...

"Gazing aimlessly out the window is as important to creativity as logging on to Facebook to view the latest photo of your young nephew and then returning to work in a better, lighter, more productive mood. Research shows that accident, disruption, distraction, and difference increase our motivation to learn and to solve problems, both individually and collectively. The key is to embrace and even create positive interruptions. In the future, continuous partial attention will perhaps be seen not as a problem but as a critical new skill."

Malnutrition Widespread among Indian Children

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Roughly 42 percent of all Indian children under age five suffer from malnutrition," according to a major report covered by the New York Times (January 11, 2012). Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quoted responding to the report...

"The problem of malnutrition is a matter of national shame. Despite impressive growth in our GDP, the level of undernutrition in the country is unacceptably high."

The report, conducted by the Naandi Foundation, did provide some good news: Levels of malnutrition have fallen by 20 percent in the last seven years. The prime minister observed that this level of progress is too slow and called for government ministries and private groups to focus on issues like the education of mothers, sanitation, hygiene, the status of women in society, and child-rearing practices.

Pediatricians Promote Play

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Play is essential to the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being of children beginning in early childhood. It is a natural tool for children to develop resiliency as they learn to cooperate, overcome challenges, and negotiate with others. Play also allows children to be creative. It provides time for parents to be fully engaged with their children, to bond with their children, and to see the world from the perspective of their child. However, children who live in poverty often face socioeconomic obstacles that impede their rights to have playtime, thus affecting their healthy social-emotional development. For children who are under resourced to reach their highest potential, it is essential that parents, educators, and pediatricians recognize the importance of lifelong benefits that children gain from play."

This strong statement on the importance of play summarizes a clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics published in the January issue of Pediatrics. This report should be included in every early childhood professional's advocacy tool kit.

Value of Excellent Teachers

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EDT

"Elementary and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings."

This is the conclusion of a new study, reported in the New York Times (January 6, 2012), which tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years. Here are some excerpts from the New York Times story:

"The average effect of one teacher on a single student is modest. All else equal, a student with one excellent teacher for one year between fourth and eighth grade would gain $4,600 in lifetime income, compared to a student of similar demographics who has an average teacher. The student with the excellent teacher would also be 0.5 percent more likely to attend college....

"In the aggregate, these differences are potentially enormous. Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000, the economists estimate. Multiply that by a career’s worth of classrooms...

"The new study found no evidence for one piece of conventional wisdom: that having a good teacher in an early grade has a bigger effect than having a good teacher in later grades."