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Whole Child Development

How a Baby with a Mustache Taught Me to Be a Better Parent

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills, Uncategorized 2 Comments

“I left a baby gift for you on your doorstep. It’s the perfect thing for a mom with four boys.”

My friend mentioned this to me casually as we both worked in our neighbor’s kitchen, preparing refreshments for a wedding.

The “impulsive three-year old” section of my brain wanted to drop what I was doing and immediately run next door to tear open this gift.  What could possibly be the perfect baby gift for a mom who had just had her fourth boy?  It was even more intriguing to me because this friend is an amazing mom herself.  She has seven children, and while I’m sure she has stories that would contradict my accounting, every one of them always seems so well-behaved, so kind, so creative, so smart, and so sweet.  She certainly knows a thing or two about motherhood, and so I hoped that this gift was some secret of the trade.  A talisman from my Jedi master.

The “responsible adult” section of my brain won out, and I helped out with food for a few more hours before making my way home to find a small wrapped box on my doorstep.  I slid my fingers through the tape and pulled out the box.

And started laughing immediately.

Here’s a look at what I found inside:

binky

That binky.  I laughed because it was hilarious, but I also laughed at myself for thinking the gift would be so serious. [Read more…]

Succeeding Through Failure: Read Along Section 7–What If Everybody Understood Child Development?

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 4 Comments

splash

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, my brother’s room was a shrine to Michael Jordan.  After I came home one day, devastated about missing out on a part for a children’s theater production, I was taken by my brother to his display.  He pointed at one of his favorite posters.

[Read more…]

An Assessment of the Testing Culture: Read Along Section 6 – What If Everybody Understood Child Development?

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 6 Comments

Assessing Our Testing Culture

The topic of “testing” gets a very passionate response from educators (and parents), and not usually a very good one.  But ask them about assessments, and you’re likely to get a very different response.  It may be a matter of semantics, but the underlying cause is not something to consider lightly.

[Read more…]

Wait! What Happened to Recess? : Read Along Section 5 – What If Everybody Understood Child Development?

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 8 Comments

recess

The mystery of the disappearing recess, is not an uncommon topic of discussion in elementary education.  The majority of adults remember a morning recess, a lunch recess, and an afternoon recess.  I think most Americans would hazard a guess and say that there is probably less time devoted to recess today than in years gone by.

[Read more…]

Speak Up! How Words Can Make a Big Difference for Little Kids

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments

let's talk

The 30 million word gap has become somewhat legendary.  But in case you missed the recurrent rumbling, here’s the quick rundown.  Back in 1995, researchers Betty Hart and Todd Risley recorded hours and hours of interactions between parents and children.  What they found was startling.  By age three, the average child from a family in the professional class heard 30 million more words than did the average child living on welfare.  What was perhaps most striking about this research was their finding that there was a tight link between the number of words a child heard and their future academic success.  This link was so strong that it appears to exist even when other factors, including socioeconomic factors, were controlled for.  In essence, they asserted that closing that word gap could close the achievement gap between the social classes.

Subsequent studies have found that it isn’t just the quantity of words, but the quality of conversation that makes such a big difference for kids. [Read more…]

Let Them Be Little: Read Along Section 3 – What if Everybody Understood Child Development?

by Filed Under: Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 7 Comments

glasses

Until about the mid 1700s, childhood wasn’t recognized as part of the lifespan.  Children were viewed as miniature adults.  The same rules, expectations, and responsibilities were applied equally to children and adults.  (Hence, the child kings, child brides, child laborers, etc.)  No one considered that children might have different needs, different ways of thinking, or different capacities.  The shift in perspective that allowed adults to consider children and childhood to be unique was one of the great advances of the 18th century

[Read more…]

The Powerful Purpose Behind Playing Pretend

by Filed Under: Building Readers, Child Development & DAP, Learning through Play and Experience 2 Comments

One of my favorite moments during my last Powerful Play workshop was talking with the table of teachers who were doing their in-depth study on dramatic play.  With wide eyes and excited tones they made connections between the play they saw in the classroom and the developmental benefits of playing pretend.

“Susie” played hospital for weeks after her brother was born.  “Bobby” had themes of death woven through his play for a month after going to his grandfather’s funeral.  “Lisa and Lori” spent most of their dress up time negotiating themes and characters.  And the concept that pretending is actually part of  building the foundation for reading — that one sparked a major a-ha moment.

Seeing how excited they became as they unpacked all of this, reminded me of why I love what I do.  And made me want to give the same experience to you.  So here’s a repost from the archives, originally posted in 2010.  A primer on the purpose of playing pretend.

Share your observations of powerful play in the comments!
pirateMany parents have come to their child’s preschool teacher with the same concern.  “It seems like my child plays dress-up all day at preschool.  What could he possibly be learning from that?”  The question is understandable – what does he learn from leaping around with his cape fluttering behind him?  And yet, the question is somewhat ironic, as these very parents likely spent much of their childhood engaged in the same kind of play. [Read more…]

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