Head Start

Dr. Sonia Cabell described a framework for teachers to evaluate and understand the writing that young children produce. In addition, she shared research-based guidance on how to individualize instruction in preschool to capitalize on each child's strengths.

Q&A for Supporting Young Writers in Preschool: A Framework for Understanding Early Writing Development [PDF, 273KB]

Dr. Howes described the development of social pretend play in toddler and preschool age children. She provided examples of the beginning social play of infants and toddlers and discussed how these early play forms transform into more developed social pretend. Dr. Howes also discussed theories of how both home and school cultural communities influence the development of social pretend play and how Early Head Start Programs as well as Head Start Programs can encourage social play.

Q&A for The Importance of Peer Interaction and Social Pretend Play [PDF, 281KB]

Science is a Head Start mandated readiness domain. So why is science rarely present in Head Start classrooms? When surveyed, teachers report two key barriers: Feeling unprepared to teach science and a lack of time to devote to it, given all the readiness areas that need to be covered. Dr. Greenfield discussed why these barriers are false and how science can help teachers increase scores on the CLASS™ "instructional support" domain, and cover and improve multiple areas of school readiness for children.

Q&A for Science in the Preschool Classroom: Why and How This Can Be a Teacher's Best Friend [PDF, 228KB]

Dr. Jeff Farmer and Jenny Lerner, M. Ed., presented information on the Kids Play Math computer games project, teacher training and support system, that was developed with an Office of Head Start Innovation and Improvement grant to support early math for school readiness. They shared results of how Kids Play Math is implemented in classrooms and how it impacts student and teacher mathematics learning.

Q&A for Early Math for School Readiness Kids Play Math: An Overview [PDF, 156KB]

Dr. Leong described the characteristics of the kind of play that helps children learn social-emotional skills, cognitive skills, and self-regulation, from the Vygotskian perspective. She discussed the leading developmental play activity for preschool and kindergarten, and how teachers can support it.

Q&A for The Characteristics of Intentional, Mature, Make-Believe Play: How Play Influences Development [PDF, 234KB]

Dr. Kevin Cole gave an overview of some of the simple strategies parents can use at home to foster their child's language acquisition and reading skills. He briefly covered the research behind these strategies and then described exactly how parents and classroom staff can use books and play to enhance language learning, bridging the gap between home and school.

Q&A for Promoting Language and Literacy: Building Bridges from Classroom to Home [PDF, 279KB]

Professor Rochel Gelman delivered evidence supporting the idea that it is possible to develop learning opportunities for young "scientists-in-waiting," who are members of all cultural, socio-economic, and linguistic groups. The vast majority of these children enjoy learning about the what, the how, and the language of science.

Q&A for Science for Preschoolers? Yes and No [PDF, 233KB]

Dr. Suskind and her colleague, Kristin Leffel, discussed the development of the Thirty Million Words Project. This parent-directed behavioral intervention was designed to address disparities in the early language environments of low-income children. The project involved typically developing children below the age of three and combined an educational curriculum of video and animation with a "quantitative linguistic feedback" strategy utilizing LENA technology. The presenters also presented early results from families on Chicago's South Side involved in the Thirty Million Words Project.

Q&A for Caregiver Interventions to Enrich Early Language Environments for Children in Poverty [PDF, 234KB]

In this presentation, Dr. Scott McConnell described ways that programs and classroom staff can monitor individual children and classrooms or programs to ensure that children are making adequate progress toward school readiness. He also presented the benefits and liabilities of two different types of approaches to monitoring progress: observational curriculum approaches and direct general outcomes approaches.

Q&A for Assessment and Progress Monitoring in Early Childhood [PDF, 489KB]

Dr. Elizabeth Spencer and Dr. Howard Goldstein provided recommendations to guide practitioners in the selection of useful and teachable vocabulary targets. They presented a framework for the design of explicit instruction and provided suggestions for differentiating instruction for individual children.

Q&A for Embedding Vocabulary Instruction in Storybooks [PDF, 934KB]

La Dra. Elizabeth Spencer y el Dr. Howard Goldstein formulan recomendaciones, con el fin de orientar a los profesionales en la selección de objetivos de vocabulario útil y enseñable. Presentan un marco para el diseño de la enseñanza explícita y brindan sugerencias para la enseñanza diferenciada e individual para cada niño.

Preguntas y respuestas sobre integrar la enseñanza de vocabulario a los libros de cuentos [PDF, 252KB]