Five Minutes to Learn About Executive Function

Here is a 5 minute video from Harvard Development Center on Executive Function

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

Processing Complex Sentences Can Impact Speaking, Listening, and Reading Development

 Sentences (Part 2 of 3):  Processing Sentences

“Sentence” is the third unit (sound-word-sentence-discourse) of oral language described as a primary basis for learning to read and reading to learn.  Developmentally, the “average” child begins to put words together to form “sentences” by age 2.   They don’t know the “parts of speech” names, but they do learn that there are certain kinds of words that go together (nouns and verbs, nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs) to achieve a certain purpose.  As they continue to develop, their sentences grow longer and more complex. 

I write about sentences in terms of three dimensions:  structure, process(ing) and function.  I began with structure because structure (form/grammar) is often the way sentences are talked about by adults and are addressed in school curriculum. 

Sentence Processing

There is more to sentence development than its form or structure (syntax). Equally important for the development of literacy (reading) skills are processing of sentences and using sentences for communication—function.

Processing complex sentences

From a developmental perspective Loban’s research with 211 students followed from K to grade 12 shows the following about students’ skills at processing language at the sentence level:

*Those superior in oral language in kindergarten and grade one before they learn to read and write are the very ones who excel in reading and writing by the time they are in grade 6.

^In sentences in oral language, the high group in the 1^st grade demonstrates a proficiency in elaboration attained by the low group only at grades 5 or 6.

^Although all subjects knew and used all the basic structural patterns of English sentence, the high group had a much greater flexibility and repertoire within the pattern of a sentence: that is, they had more ways to fill slots like the subject, the modifiers, and the objects.

^The members of the high group used more subordination, combining communication units in complex fashion

^The high group showed

            *longer communication units

            *greater elaboration of subject and predicate

            *more embedding in transformational grammar

            *greater use of adjectival dependent clauses

Difficulties in attending to or producing long and/or complex sentences impacts reading in a number of ways.

For example, in her text on Teaching Reading Comprehension Processes (1991), Judith Westphal Irwin describes three kinds of comprehension skills: metaprocesses, macroprocesses and microprocesses.  Under microprocesses, Irwin describes the importance of chunking words into meaningful phrases, selecting what is most important from the sentence to keep in short term memory for interpretation of upcoming sentences (that is, microselection); and then using that information across sentence boundaries (integrative processes).

            “Integrative processes” she defined as the processes involved in understanding and inferring the relationships between clauses and sentences.  Three main types of integrative processes are understanding anaphora, understanding connective relationships, and making “slot filling” inference.” (Irwin, page 38).  In the following pages, she offers several suggestions for teaching these skills.  (pp. 38-49)

* * *  

Cheryl M. Scott, Chapter 16: Syntax in Stone, et. al. (Eds.), Handbook of Language and Literacy:  Development and Disorders, (2005)

http://books.google.com/books?id=e3rckmb3a3MC&printsec=frontcover&dq=C.+Addison+Stone&hl=en&sa=X&ei=pbBOU7-xEMG0yATaioDgDg&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Syntax&f=false

Scott lists three things that make sentences complex:

1)      Features of open class words (nouns, verbs); reversible passive sentences

2)      Number and type of syntactic operations (usually reflected in sentence length)

3)      Types of syntactic operations (reversible order, subordination, ambiguity, parsing, etc.)

So, just as is the case in Words/Vocabulary, the complexity of sentence and the operations required to process them, (anaphora, connectives, inferences, for example) influences how easily a child can process sentences.

This reminds us of the quote from the work of Amanda C. Brandone, Sara J. Salkind, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, U. of Delaware and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek:

  “… Although most grammatical structures are in place by the age of 5, children continue to acquire more complex forms and rules of grammar in the school setting….”

Although the “average” child has mastered the basic structures of sentences by age 5, children still need to learn the more complex structures that will require more demanding processing.  The question we need to ask is how they will learn these sentence structures in order to process them efficiently and effectively.  This does not mean that we should focus on directly teaching “grammar” to young children as a basis for reading.  Young children (preschool through primary grades) learn language skill through meaningful contexts.   Sentences become meaningful to children when we focus on the “functions” of sentences, part 3 of our “sentence” topic.

  

* * *  

Individual Differences and Learning

Individual Differences

As a developmental psychologist I know that children are born with differences.  One of the earliest differences is in temperament, recognizable shortly after birth.  As any parent or teacher will tell you, kids are individuals first and members of a “category”—sex/sexual orientation, cognitive ability, language development, social/emotional skills—secondarily.  Parents with more than one child or of twins recognize differences early on. Even in infancy, one of our twin daughters was active and spontaneous, the other quiet and thoughtful.  And I saw the same range of differences from early on in our twin granddaughters.  More recently as a Kindergarten volunteer, I have seen real differences in children across classrooms. 

We value differences in children and try to nurture their development.  I believe that excellent teachers do that too—value differences and nurture individual children.

I am concerned about particular kinds of differences—differences in privilege, opportunity, and learning.  More specifically, I am concerned about and committed to advocating for children trapped in the “achievement” gap and children born with a learning disability.  And so, in the roles of developmental psychologist, speech/language pathologist, and special education/learning “specialist,” I have focused on and will bring to this blog resources on early language, literacy and learning.  I will try to bring information and ideas from sources that advocate for these children, especially those that focus on the 3 to 3 range—3 months to 3 years to grade 3.

For me, probably due to my earliest training in elementary education and speech/language pathology, a natural starting place is language development.  I have written extensively about language development on another blog (Dialogue about Language, Literacy, and Learning), covering the 5 areas of language development: phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics.  You can follow those posts, starting with: Early Language Development:

 An Overview (March 19, 2014) with information from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association—“Hearing and Understanding and “Talking”.

https://classroomdiscourse.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/early-language-development-an-overview/

Over time, the focus here will shift to literacy and, more specifically, reading because it is so central to learning and to school success and because so many of our vulnerable children are vulnerable because they cannot read “at grade level.”

Learning to use language and to read is not just about the children.  Learning involves adults who have the power to help children learn.  So the blog will also focus on teachers and parents and the role they can and sometimes do play in helping children to learn language and literacy skills.  In advocating for children and their growth we really need an ALL IN orientation.  Responsibility goes beyond parents and teachers. Others in education and the larger community also have roles to play; and I will address those roles and contributions as I find good sources and examples.

Kindergarten: Two-Way Readiness

From a recent NAEYC Posting:  I love the idea that both Kindergartners and Kindergarten need to be ready for this great adventure!  Two short excerpts:

Ready for Kindergarten?  Ready for Kindergartners?

Here We come!

http://families.naeyc.org/ready-or-not-kindergarten-here-we-come

"While many of us focus on the basics of letter and number recognition or reading skills, kindergarten readiness encompasses more than a few isolated skills. We need to look at the whole child and all the skills and strengths each child has developed. That’s what makes them unique. As an example, Sasha may love books and have exceptional reading abilities, but she struggles with shyness that prevents her from engaging with other children. Joshua might be very strong socially but still has difficulty holding and using a pencil correctly. Emma can do both these things, but she can be very silly and wiggly and gets distracted in group settings. Despite these differences, all of these children are ready for school...."

We Are Ready for You!

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/AllenHartleyCain2016.pdf

"Many parents have questions about whether their child is ready for kindergarten. Don’t forget that it’s important for the school to be ready for your child as well. Young children are so different from each other - their maturity, language development, past experiences, home languages, physical and social development can vary widely. Kindergarten is a wonderful way to get children of all abilities, languages, and backgrounds ready for success in school – each in their own way. Here are some things you can do to help your school be ready for your child..."

Oral Language AND Literacy. Not either/or

Oral Language AND Literacy: Not either/or

A short excerpt from an article published in Reading Rockets

http://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/role-early-oral-language-reading-comprehension?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ReadingRockets_StrugglingReaders+%28Reading+Rockets%3A+Struggling+Reader+Resources%29 ….

“Recently, Chris Lonigan and I (Timothy Shanahan) wrote a short article for Language Magazine. It’s focus is on “The Role of Early Oral Language in Literacy Development.” I think both Chris and I have bona fides in the “phonics/decoding/foundational skills” community and have the scars to show it. But we are both also advocates of the so-called “simple view” of reading — students need to know how to decode from print to language and they need to know how to understand language. This is a both, not an either/or.

Here is a link to the article. Hope you enjoy it.”

 And here is a short excerpt from that article:

“Response to intervention in preschool holds promise for successful early language development but several key issues must be considered. For one, preschools often serve disproportionate numbers of children who need Tier 2 or Tier 3 services, which causes staffing concerns. Also, more research is needed on the effect of interventions for children from low-income families, children with disabilities, English language learners, and children from underrepresented ethnic groups.
The NELP report, along with other studies of children’s early language development, suggests that early oral language has a growing contribution to later reading comprehension — a contribution that is separate from the important role played by the alphabetic code. As such, improving young children’s oral language development should be a central goal during the preschool and kindergarten years.”

Back to Focus on Oral Language, Literacy and the Achievement Gap

The importance of follow-through

Preschool Through Third Grade Alignment and Differentiated Instruction: A Literature Review

http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/disadv/p-3-alignment-differentiated-instruction/report.pdf

August 2016 Prepared for: Policy and Program 

 Prepared by: Katie Drummond Aleksandra Holod Marie Perrot Antonia Wang American Institutes for Research Washington, DC 20007 Michèle Muñoz-Miller Mackson Ncube Herb Turner Analytica Phoenixville, PA 19460

A brief excerpt of this 37 page report

Executive Summary

 This literature review provides a review of policies, programs, and practices that have the potential to help students sustain the positive effects of preschool as they progress from kindergarten through grade 3 (K–3). T

he U.S. Department of Education’s Policy and Program Studies Service commissioned this systematic literature review, which focuses on two specific approaches: (1) preschool and K–3 alignment, and (2) differentiated instruction in kindergarten and first grade.

Background Research shows that participation in a high-quality preschool can improve young children’s readiness skills for elementary school, positively influencing behavioral, social-emotional, and cognitive outcomes (Andrews, Jargowsky, & Kuhne, 2012). Specifically, for children who may be at risk for academic challenges in early elementary school, attending a high-quality preschool can improve test scores and attendance, and it can reduce grade-level retention and placement in special education (Andrews et al., 2012; Barnett, 2008; Karoly & Bigelow, 2005; Reynolds, 1993; Reynolds et al., 2007).

However, some preschool program evaluations document that strong initial benefits may not persist into early elementary school (Lipsey, Farran, & Hofer, 2015; Magnuson, Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2005; Manship, Madsen, Mezzanotte, & Fain, 2013; Ramey et al., 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010).