2/10/16

AM I READY FOR
KINDERGARTEN?
Assessing Childrens
Product Creation

Pamela C. Phelps, Ph.D.

The Creative Center for Childhood Research
and Training, Inc. (CCCRT)
The Beyond Centers and Circle Time
Curriculum (BCCT)
www.cccrt.org www.bcctseries.com

Children Have
Two Ages
Chronological Age:
The age a child is
from birth.
Developmental Age:
The age at which a
child is functioning in the
developmental domains.

Brain research
tells us that:
Brain development is dependent
on a complex interaction
between the childs genetic
make-up and the
environments in
which he lives.

(Schiller, 1998)

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Brain research
tells us that:
The brain develops
substantially as a result
of positive interactions
with others. Nurturing,
responsive relationships
are essential to the
cognitive development
of children.
(Espinosa, 2002)

Experiences from the moment of birth

affect a childs development
of literacy skills. Becoming
literate is a continuous
journey, the success of
which is dependent on
the childs individual
characteristics and the
literacy experiences
provided.

Some
Misinformation:
Intelligence is the main ingredient of school
success.
A child who can read is successful in school.
An early start in academics leads to more
success later on.
Children can be taught readiness.
Children can be made to learn.
What a child knows is a measure of his
readiness for school.
Children learn only what they are taught.

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School Readiness
School readiness is the
ability to cope with the
school environment
physically, socially,
emotionally, and
academically without
undue stress and to
sustain in that environment.
Quote taken fromOne piece of the
puzzleby Barbara Carl & Nancy Richard

Kindergarten survival skills:

Listening
Following through and
finishing tasks
Being self directing
A cooperative attitude
Respectful of adults
Can accept minor disappointments or
limits without tears
Finds ways to resolve conflicts with
peers independently
Being responsible for personal hygiene and
belongings

WE ARE BORN
WIRED FOR SPEECH
BUT NOT FOR READING AND WRITING

The first writing systems were based on

pictographic symbols known as hieroglyphics.
Sometime during the second millennium B. C.
(estimated between 1850 and 1700 B.C.) a group
of Semitic-speaking people adapted a subset of
Egyptian hieroglyphics to represent the sounds of
their language. This script is often considered the
first Alphabetic writing system.

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All children learn

best with an integrated
approach to reading skills which teaches:
phonemic awareness: the ability to hear and
manipulate the sounds in oral language;
phonics: the relationships between letters and sounds;
fluency: the ability to read quickly and naturally,
recognize words automatically, and group words
quickly;
vocabulary knowledge: new words and what they
mean; and
text comprehension: understanding what is being
read and developing higher-order thinking skills.

Some students are

ready to read at age three, while
others might need to wait until nine.
Martha Bridge Denckla, director of developmental cognitive
neurology at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and neurology
professor at Johns Hopkins University

Children should be
able to do their own experimenting
and their own research. Teachers, of
course, can guide them by providing
appropriate materials, but the
essential thing is that in order for a
child to understand something, he
must construct it himself, he must
reinvent.
Piaget, 1972

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Children use Messy and

Structured Construction Materials
and develop from
Process Players (Toddlers)
to the ability to
Create Realistic Products
and from the
Creation of Realistic Products
to
Sign (ABC's and 123's)

Reading is probably
the hardest thing we teach
children to do. There are just some kids that are
going to have a hard time. There is a variability
at the highest level of the brain for many different
things we call talents music, art, sports. Some of
us are born with an untalented ear for speech
sounds of language which makes it very difficult to
connect with an alphabetic system and be
proficient at reading.

Martha Bridge Denckla, research scientist at the Kennedy

Krieger Institute, professor at Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine, and member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives

In children who have

difficulty reading, the brains
wiring diagram is just a little bit different, better thought
of as an anomaly rather than an abnormality. For all
We know, it may have some benefit for other activities, but
It appears to be somewhat disadvantageous for reading.

Many highly successful people such as Albert Einstein

and Charles Schwab were not so great at basic
academic skills like reading.

The talent for reading and particularly reading quickly

Is not distributed to every human being, and definitely not
In proportion to ones other talents.
Martha Bridge Denckla, research scientist at the Kennedy
Krieger institute, professor at Johns Hopkins school of
Medicine, and member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

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Brain research tells us that:

Girls are school ready

before boys because their
brains tend to be better wired in the left hemisphere
for reading and writing.
In order to read children need a strong hemispheric
connection (corpus callosum). In general this
connecting tissue develops earlier in girls and is richer
in neurons in later life.
The two hemispheres need to communicate as the
right will form an image connected to the letter and
the left will make meaning of the word and content.
Crossing the mid-line is important for school readiness.

Sylvia Ashton Warner taught for 24 years in

a Maori school in New Zealand. This quote
explains her philosophy on how children
begin to develop a sight reading
vocabulary:
First words must mean something
to a child. They must be part of
his being. They must be words organically
tied up, organically born from the dynamic
life itself. They must be words that are
already part of his being. First words, first
books must be made out of the child itself.
I reach into the mind of the child, bring out a
handful of the stuff I find there and use that
as our first working material. This is their key
vocabulary.

Sylvia Ashton Warner, 1963

PRE-SCISSOR ACTIVITIES FOR

STRENGTHENING HAND COORDINATION
AND PINCER GRASP

Picking up small objects

using pincers
Finger plays using writing
fingers (Thumb, index,
and middle fingers)
Crushing
Tearing
With full hand
With pincers

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A SEQUENCE OF CUTTING
DEVELOPMENT

Snipping around edge of paper

Full scissor blade cuts
Continuous opening and shutting of
scissor blade cutting across paper
Cutting between 2 straight lines
Cutting out a shape, but not on
the line
Cutting on bold lines with increasing
control

Its practice that makes perfect. Children

must be allowed to crush, tear, and cut
each day.
Never do anything for children that they
need to practice for themselves.

STAGES OF WRITING DEVELOPMENT

STAGE 1 Random Scribbling

STAGE 2 Controlled Scribbling

STAGE 3 Repetition of Specific Lines and Shapes

STAGE 4 Practicing Letters (name letters)

STAGE 5 Written Name

STAGE 6 Copy Words in the Environment

STAGE 7 Invented Spelling
Initial consonant (D represents Dinosaur)
Initial and final consonant (DS represents Dinosaur)
Middle consonant (DNS represents Dinosaur)
Initial, Middle, Final consonant and vowel place holder (DINSR)
Conventional spelling (DINOSAUR)

Writing Development

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Classification and Patterning:

Stages of Development

1. Empty/fill play
2. Uses as dramatic play material
3. To excess
4. By color
5. By shape
6. By color AND shape
7. By color, shape AND size
8. Makes own pattern
9. Reads pattern cards of various
degrees of difficulty

Block Construction Play

Marker/Crayon/Easel

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The key to
developing literacy
and all other skills is to pace the learning
so that it is consistent with the childs
development, enabling him or her to
succeed at the early stages. Ensure this initial
success and the childs natural love of
learning blooms. Doom him to failure in the
beginning by making inappropriate
demands and he may well be unable to
overcome the resulting inadequacy.

Alliance for Childhood, 2002