February 2023 Vol. II
Years 0-3, Speech to Print, Alphabet Arc
The brain is most malleable and formative during the years of 0-3.
We try (valiantly) to rewire the brains of our K-12 students. However, the best time has passed. We miss the crucial 0-3 window of foundational learning.
Why aren’t school districts talking about this? Why aren’t we making the most out of this time?
I. Years 0-3: The Most Crucial Years
Before our students ever reach our doors, they spend 3-5 years at home or in daycare. So much could- or could not- be happening. In general, school districts have not had any say on these years. Perhaps they are proactive and have a home visiting program like Parents as Teachers. Perhaps they offer a “jump start” camp for incoming Pre-K and Kindergarten students. All laudable offerings. However, school districts cannot address every part of a child’s development. We can never replicate the experiences that a child may have with a parent or caregiver as infants and toddlers.
Instead, we can partner with organizations that work with parents of infants.
As mentioned in my last newsletter, I believe that pediatrics, libraries, public health and education (child care, Early Head Start included) all can and should play a bigger role in preparing our youngest citizens for school.
This month, I want to focus on the role pediatricians can play when it comes to literacy. Dana Suskind, MD, author of Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child's Potential, Fulfilling Society's Promise states that pediatric healthcare providers can provide the important knowledge that all parents deserve: they are the “brain builders” of the next generation. Suskind states we may believe that parenting is intuitive, but it is clearly not. Her team at TMW Center for Early Learning and Public Health developed SPEAK-the Scale of Parent/Provider Expectations and Knowledge. Her team took SPEAK into the hospital and interviewed mothers who had recently given birth about their knowledge of the infant brain. They asked questions like:
Is educational TV good for learning language?
Is there language development in the first six months of life?
Is a baby’s brain born or built?
What they found was the more education a parent had, the more knowledge they had about a baby’s brain.
“In effect, there is a “missing” first year. Many are unsure of the value of child-directed speech from birth, of sharing books with infants, and of the way their own interactions with their babies will build language development…More than half thought that infants can learn language from television (they can’t).”
Listen to Dr. Suskind discuss pruning, the process of eliminating the processes from the brain that are not used, on the Big Brains podcast. It is incredibly informative and interesting!
We are missing the chance to build the best brain.
When a student arrives in Kindergarten with the language skills of a two-year old, what are the chances that he or she will “catch-up”, i.e., reach grade level? Of course, we all have anecdotes of students who do make incredible progress. However, the research demonstrates that most children do not. The writing is on the wall when they arrive in Kindergarten. Arrive in the bottom 10%, remain in the bottom 10%.
How devastating- but utterly preventable.
Here we have this body of research showing over and over that the core adult-child interactions in the early years of life are critical for brain development and social development,” Romeo says. “Anything we can do as a society to create an environment where [those] relationships can flourish, that's the best investment we can make in children's futures.”- Dr. Rachel Romeo, U.S. Kids are Falling Behind Global Competition, But Brain Science Shows How to Catch-Up, Scientific American
Challenge: Does your district partner with an organization that offers home visits? If so, what is the nature of their curriculum? Do they teach parents how to create conversation with their infants and toddlers?
Question: Has your district ever offered programming for parenting infants and toddlers? I see many babies at parent-teacher conferences. Missed opportunity?
I had the pleasure of speaking with Todd Porter, MD, a pediatrician in Quincy, Illinois. I found Dr. Porter on Twitter (@smalltownpeddoc) after a fellow literacy advocate suggested I follow him. Dr. Porter is interested in literacy and dyslexia. His article in Contemporary Pediatrics discusses the role pediatricians can play in supporting patients with dyslexia.
Dr. Porter has two children diagnosed with dyslexia. Like many parents, he has found the process for evaluation and remediation frustrating. However, when he was a pediatrician in Denver, he worked alongside a colleague that was passionate about dyslexia. He had a roadmap of how to obtain an evaluation and tutoring. Now, in Quincy (pop. 39,121), he is able to talk to parents about a potential diagnosis, but actually obtaining a diagnosis in a small town in Western Illinois has proven to be difficult. (I gave him the name of a psychologist here in Springfield- a 2 hour drive away). He is also frustrated by the fact that once a child is diagnosed there are no tutors (Orton-Gillingham certified or otherwise) to serve the families.
Do I even need to mention that his local school district does not have an evidence-based plan in place to serve students with dyslexia?
I asked Dr. Porter about the possibility of pediatricians performing an early literacy screening during a well visit. Realistically, he said it would be very difficult. Pediatricians are allotted 3 minutes (!!) for “anticipatory guidance, or information about the changes that will occur physically, emotionally and developmentally from one visit to the next."1 Dr. Porter stated that most pediatricians have an area they feel strongly about- for him, it is injury prevention. For some, it is childhood obesity. Consider the most recent guidance for pediatricians on childhood obesity. Their list of required areas to cover grows every day.
I asked if any pediatric practices had a case worker to cover a literacy screening and the follow-up conversations that would ensue. He referred me to a pediatric practice, Cardinal Pediatrics in West Virginia that offers literacy screening and guidance for families. Their website is worth checking out. I hope to write more about their efforts in an upcoming newsletter.
Thanks to Dr. Todd Porter in Quincy, Illinois for his time and insights.
Deep Dive: Associations between home literacy environment, brain white matter integrity and cognitive abilities in preschool-age children
II. Speech to Print
There has been a lot of talk about speech-to-print. You may be familiar with Reading Simplified, EBLI or Spell-Links. All take this approach.
From Reading Rockets, “Print-to-Speech and Speech-to-Print: Mapping Early Literacy”:
“Children do not need to learn the names, shapes, and sounds of all 26 upper- and lower-case letters before they tackle the construction of real words. Children as young as four can develop phonemic awareness and practice a few phoneme–letter pairs as they learn to encode simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words. Using letters to spell meaningful words is physically engaging and constructive. For example, children might begin by listening to a sentence with the word cat in it. Then they can be shown how to segment cat into its sounds and use movable alphabet tiles to spell cat — C-A-T. They can point to the letters as they blend them back into the word cat.”
Redwood Literacy in Chicago uses Spell-Links and Wilson Language for their intervention curriculums. Their YouTube channel has a few videos about their experience with Spell-Links. They also offer virtual Spell-Links small groups too.
Challenge: Is your district waiting until students have mastered letter names and sounds before introducing blending?
Question: Does your district use a phonemic awareness curriculum in Pre-K? Knowing that many students arrive with poor oral language skills, should this be considered? How would your Pre-K teachers feel about this change?
Deeper Dive: A Speech to Print Approach to Teaching Reading by Jan Wasowicz
III. Alphabet Arc
To go along with a speech-to-print approach, consider using an Alphabet Arc in your Pre-K-2 classrooms. Oh, there is so much you can do with an Alphabet Arc.
Obvious ways to use an Alphabet Arc:
match letters
pull down letters to spell name
How to encourage speech-to-print:
choose a few consonants and a vowel (consider t,s,m and a to start). Ask child to pull down the /a/ sound, /s/ sound and so on.
ask child to spell m-a-t. What is the first sound they will pull down in mmmm-a-t?
Continue this exercise with other vowels and slowly add more consonants.
Consider teaching continuous blending with the Alphabet Arc as well. Marnie Ginsburg does a great job of explaining why continuous blending is so beneficial. I agree wholeheartedly!
I love this video from Emily Laidlaw on continuous blending.
The Alphabet Arc is best printed in color on 11x17 paper (I went to Kinko’s).
Click here for a pdf from Literacy Learn (scroll to the bottom). There are also videos on this site as well with many useful ideas!
In Chicago area?
Professional development opportunity:
On February 16, 4:30-6 p.m., Erikson Institute will host Dr. Ben Mardell, principal investigator and project director of the Pedagogy of Play, and Dr. Mara Krechevsky, senior researcher at Project Zero, for an in-person presentation to examine the relationship between play and learning for young children. Register here for this free, in-person professional development opportunity that will be held at Erikson Institute.
What I’m Reading:
Next time:
In March, I will cover the impact of oral language a bit more deeply and interview Michelle Blackwood-Lee, Speech Language Pathologist in Springfield District 186.
Who agrees that SLPs are the most underutilized professional in school districts?
Cheers,
Melissa
Share with Families:
5 Steps for Serve and Return in Spanish
Find the English version in my January newsletter.
Suskind, Dana, and Lydia Denworth. Parent Nation Unlocking Every Child's Potential, Fulfilling Society's Promise. Dutton, 2022.