Child assessment is an essential tool in tracking children’s development as well as for offering important information when considering the match between the expectations of a classroom and a child’s skills and abilities. While the choice of a valid assessment tool is key (see more about Gesell’s tools here), the tool is only as reliable as the examiner using it.

Gesell only approves two pathways for valid examiners to use the GDO-R assessment system:

Train your school’s staff to administer the GDO-R. Gesell strongly encourages schools to train their own internal examiners. All examiners are also required to return for recertification every 5 years. Additionally, we encourage that there be more than one trained examiner within a school. Having a team of trained examiners allows your assessors to collaborate on observations and ensure high standards of fidelity to the approved process. Internal examiners are best equipped to make sense of the results of the assessment in relation to the unique expectations of their school’s classrooms.  

Hire Level 4 Examiners that have been approved through Gesell. The only examiners that Gesell has vetted extensively and can approve to be hired by a school or a parent as an external examiner are Level 4 Examiners. Gesell strongly discourages using examiners who are not up to date on their certification, or have not attained a Level 4 status to deliver assessments for a fee. Send us an email and we are happy to inform you of an examiner’s level of training.

What makes an expert Level 4 Examiner?

The specific requirements to attain Level 4 status can be found here on our website. We ensure that our Level 4 Examiners possess qualities like strong observational skills, excellent communication skills, cultural sensitivity, a child-centered approach, ethical conduct, in-depth knowledge of child development, the ability to build rapport with children, deep experience in Gesell assessment methods, and the capacity to accurately interpret and report observations.

What are the signs an examiner may be unequipped to offer a reliable GDO-R assessment?

1.     They claim to be able to define a child as “ready for Kindergarten.” No assessment tool nor assessor can objectively tell you if a child is “ready for Kindergarten.” What assessments can do is offer a profile of the child’s development or academic skills. That analysis can then be compared to the expectations of the specific Kindergarten class being considered. This is one reason internal examiners are often best equipped to use the GDO-R for placement purposes.

2.     They are not up to date on continuing education and certification with Gesell. We are continuously revising our training protocols as well as our assessment process. Individuals who do not return for re-training regularly will not have up to date validity information and should not be hired as examiners.

3.     They have not achieved Level 4 Examiner status. When hiring external assessors Gesell can only stand behind the vetting of Level 4 Examiners. No other assessors can assuredly be able to provide a reliable assessment.

Learning requires children to be courageous, take chances, and explore. Current research on brain development—in particular on the role of curiosity and wonder in young children’s learning—compels us to restructure practice. Surveys show that most early childhood educators request a reduction in academic pressures and more respect for the normal developmental range of abilities in young children. They want less testing, less data, less paperwork, and more time to focus on the individual and unique needs of children. In short, they want more space to implement developmentally appropriate, child-directed learning experiences: the freedom to play. At Gesell, we have been supporting play-based learning across the country for nearly a century.

Unfortunately, due to a shift away from play and towards greater test-oriented direct instruction, classrooms are now reporting an increase in mental health crises and behavioral challenges. In response, the 2023 Connecticut Legislature passed a play-based learning requirement in public preschool and kindergarten classrooms

This new Connecticut legislation requires schools to provide play-based learning for kindergarten and preschool students, and requires boards of education to permit teachers to utilize play-based learning in first through fifth grades. Click here for more details on this new law and a flyer to share with teachers and parents.

In this video, we briefly introduce a definition of play that honors a spectrum of play depending on the adult or child’s initiation and direction; we also acknowledge the power of play to build brains and support all essential explicit learning goals for preschool and kindergarten students.

Gesell commends the CT Legislature and all advocates who succeeded in passing this legislation and looks forward to supporting schools in implementing play-based learning for preschool and kindergarten students in Connecticut. We hope other states will follow.

To learn more about Gesell's Play Based Learning Coaching Program, "Sparking Wonder", please view this short video describing the process. 

Further Resources on Play:

• Push Pause: the Pressing Case for Play, Kopko & Oliveira, 2023, Center for Responsive Schools
• CT Education Association on Play Based Learning
• Gesell “Learning to Play, Playing to Learn” Blog Series
• Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero
• Inquiry and Choice Time in Kindergarten Classrooms
• Play Sparks Learning
• US Play Coalition

Click here for a flyer to share with teachers and parents.

To send or not to send? The question of at what age a child is most ready for kindergarten is as controversial in some playground circles as bottle feeding a newborn, or screen time before age two. The downward push of academic expectations, dubbing kindergarten the “new first grade,” has intensified the debate. 

A new study from a team led by a Yale sociologist found that children whose birthdays fall shortly after the state’s cutoff date for starting kindergarten — and who are therefore among the oldest in their classes — tend to perform better academically than their younger classmates. Additionally, for those students with younger siblings, the study found, their success in turn has a positive influence on those siblings once they reach middle school — particularly among children from disadvantaged families. This research backs the idea that being an older, and likely a more developmentally mature, member of a class is a plus; and that this benefit can trickle down to younger siblings as well later in their academic careers.

Belief in the advantage of later kindergarten enrollment has been popular long before research supported the claim. While most states mandate a child be in some form of kindergarten during the year of their fifth birthday, this is not the practice for all families. As kindergarten has become the new first grade, families with the resources have been increasingly opting to put off kindergarten for a year; the Covid years contributed to this trend. For other families, however, the cost of an additional year of preschool is prohibitive. This means the decision about the age at which to send a child to kindergarten is often a privilege rather than a choice.

Delaying kindergarten enrollment is known as “redshirting” — a term derived from collegiate athletes who refrain from competition their first season in order to enable four more years of legal play. The anticipated result of redshirting in kindergarten is a child who is one of the older and more developmentally, socially, and emotionally mature of their cohort — not only for kindergarten, but the entirety of their school career.  In a 2021 survey conducted by Morning Consult and Ed Choice, twelve percent of parents with school-age children report having redshirted a child. Interestingly, that rate was even higher at fifteen percent among teachers with school-age children. 

In short, research (summarized here) on the age at which children are most ready for kindergarten is complicated, and should be noted primarily correlational. When considering what is best for a child, we at Gesell have always recommended placing less weight on a child’s chronological age, encouraging more emphasis on finding a just-right fit between a child’s developmental stage and the expectations of the classroom for which they are being considered. This shifts the question from “Is my child ready for kindergarten?” to “Is this particular kindergarten ready for my child?” As schools began to place greater demands on students at earlier ages, the adage “give children the gift of time” evolved. In short, this suggests that if a kindergarten expects the skills of a five-and-a-half- or six-year-old, then another year of preschool, if available, might give some children the time to reach that more mature developmental stage. This will ensure a better fit for increased kindergarten standards.

It is possible that a child with a birthday just before their state’s kindergarten cutoff date, or who is not quite developmentally ready for the rigors of their kindergarten classroom, may benefit from additional time in preschool. But until all families are ensured universal access to free, high-quality preschool, schools must be better prepared for all children eligible for their kindergartens. This means committing to developmentally appropriate and play-based learning environments where even the youngest of the class will thrive.

Photo by woodleywonderworks

To answer some of these questions, specifically as they relate to the Gesell Developmental Assessment System, we offer a brief overview of how and why the changes were made and their relation to the Gesell Developmental Assessment System. We hope this information will answer your critical questions and reinforce the essential role of informed developmental observation and reliable screening for all young children.

Who made the updates?

The CDC Learn the Signs. Act Early. program funded The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to engage an expert working group to review and as needed revise its developmental milestone checklists. A complete explanation of the process and outcomes can be found in the journal Pediatrics.  

Why were the updates made?

The goals of the revisions were to better clarify when most children can be expected to reach a milestone and support clinical judgment regarding screening between recommended ages. Earlier critics suggested that the prior methodology supported a potentially problematic “wait and see” approach. The updates to the milestones aim to better identify potential areas of concern as early as possible, so that action can be taken if needed. In short, the new milestones make it more clear that missing a milestone is a reason for immediate action. 

What changed?

The milestone benchmarks were moved from 50% to 75%. To be clear, the milestone changed; children did not. Previously the milestones were written to identify the age at which 50% of children would be demonstrating a skill. This means that a milestone age meant that half of kids could perform the skill at that age—but half could not. This lower threshold left much room for subjective interpretation among pediatricians, teachers and caregivers about whether intervention was needed or not. If a child did not meet the milestone it simply meant they were in good company with half of the children their age; from this, the “wait and see” approach emerged. Now, the updated milestones reflect what 75% of children, or most children, would be expected to be able to do at the specified age. This means a child not meeting a milestone is in the clear minority, leaving less room for speculation and a more direct imperative that a potential developmental delay should be considered and possibly addressed.

Can I still use the GDO-R and the GES?

YES! The GDO-R and GES are still valid screeners. No updates will be needed to reflect the milestone changes. This is in large part because the data used to create the Gesell Assessment System predates the CDC milestones and developed through a rigorous research process that was not tied to or based on the CDC milestones. 

Additionally, both the CDC and the AAP support the understanding of the milestones as simply surveillance checklists, and that they are not intended to be used as nor take the place of developmental screenings. The GDO-R and the GES are administered by well trained professionals and result in a picture and understanding of a child’s development in a number of essential domains. 

Importantly, the Gesell Assessment System never used a “finish line” for child development or any particular skill. Gesell has always observed child behavior on a range from “concern” to “emerging” to “age appropriate” with the age appropriate designation reflecting what a majority of children at the specified age could do. The newly released 75% threshold even better reflects Gesell’s data on developmental age.  

True then, truer now.

During his time at the Yale Child Study Center, Dr. Arnold Gesell conducted an unprecedented and expansive study including over 10,000 children. Observations of verbal, motor, social, emotional, and cognitive development were recorded and served as the basis of the Gesell Developmental Schedules. The schedules lay out the pattern, sequence and path of development for all children. These Schedules served as the foundation for what is now known as the Gesell Developmental Assessment System. The Schedules have been modified over the years to reflect new research, but its key principles have remained strikingly consistent across decades and generations of children. These basic principles have and will continue to act as a guide for the Gesell Assessment System.

Early in 2020, Covid-19 forced us to consider this question. In response to extreme circumstances we adapted with extreme measures. With consultation from assessors with decades of experience, coupled with input from teachers innovating in virtual classrooms, we came to a protocol for using the GDO-R with video technology like Zoom and Google Meet. This insured the safety of both the assessor and child when social distancing and quarantine requirements were in place. 

While relieved that we were able to support schools in moving forward with assessments over 2020-2021, we acknowledged then and reiterate now that this did not reflect best practice nor adhere to research-based protocols for administration and scoring of the GDO-R. Most notably, only a subset of GDO-R tasks were found to be transferable to a video camera, and as such, suboptimal to a live administration. In a 2020 blog post we wrote:

“We know, and we want you to understand, we still encourage a live assessment as a first best option.”

When isolated circumstances like a sick child or a spike in Covid cases in a school or city press us to move to a virtual assessment, it is a consolation to know we have this safety net. However, as the risk of illness continues to be mitigated, it is time to return to LIVE assessments. Let’s give children the advantage of the robust information gained from a full, in-person GDO-R administration as well as the comprehensive benefits of strand scoring.

* * *

NOTE: If a virtual assessment is your only option, the following precautions must be taken. Gesell strongly discourages assessors from completing a video administration without this guidance.

Even expert examiners need guidance. We strongly encourage all assessors, regardless of veteran status, to complete our webinar course on How to Virtually Administer the Gesell Assessment System. In this package we offer best practice for virtually administering the GDO-R using a video camera, and identify the tasks we’ve found to best transfer to an online environment. Simply going about the GDO-R as you would live, but using a video camera, may seriously invalidate results. We adamantly discourage this approach.

An adult Proxy is needed on the child’s end. To successfully administer the Gesell assessment system virtually, the examiner will need the help of an adult alongside the child; we call this person the Proxy. During the administration of the assessment, the examiner can direct the Proxy to help by placing materials, measuring, throwing, or performing other actions that would typically be performed by the examiner. The greatest surprise of all was how challenging it is to properly prepare the Proxy. As such, as part of our virtual administration training package we provide a Proxy Instructional Video. Not using or inadequately preparing a Proxy for their role in the administration may seriously invalidate results. We adamantly discourage this approach.

Even with a Proxy, some tasks do not translate well over video. For a fully valid administration and for use in strand scoring, all tasks should be administered. However, some GDO-R tasks simply do not work well on a camera. Cubes for example can be a challenge. First, getting a set of official red 1-inch cubes to a family is tricky and expensive. Even when families are given access to cubes, the demonstrations and process is complicated on screen. In some of these instances, we found it necessary to omit certain tasks, rather than risk frustrating a child. Tasks we recommend omitting are detailed in the How to Administer the Gesell Assessment System Virtually webinar training package. 

Again, simply going about the GDO-R as you would in person, but using a video camera, may seriously invalidate results. We adamantly discourage this approach.

To be honest, we were wary, but Covid-19 and social distancing forced the question. Assessors with decades of experience cautioned against the inauthenticity of a virtual environment. We discussed concerns about distractions and the invalidating help from well-meaning parents. To our relief two variables stood strong: the Gesell assessment system and children. The Gesell assessment system proved to not only shine over time, but over modalities. And children proved to be children - wild and wonderful at 4 and sunny and serene at 5 - whether live or on a video camera.

Our goal, as always, was to come to a virtual protocol and set of tasks that allow a child to show what they know and can do and offer a trained observer the best view of this process. Gesell examiners piloted protocols with the Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised and the Gesell Early Screener using a video camera and video applications like Zoom and Google Meet. The good news is that virtual assessment of early childhood development using the Gesell assessment system is feasible. 

Some lessons were learned, however, to deliberate.

Even expert examiners need some guidance. To save other assessors from the

trials and tribulations of our early days of assessing children virtually, we’ve created a How to Virtually Administer the Gesell Assessment System - Webinar Training Package. In this package we offer best practice for virtually administering the GDO-R and GES using a web camera. It includes:

• How to Virtually Administer the Gesell Assessment System: Recorded Webinar
• How to Virtually Administer the Gesell Assessment System: Sanctioned Guidelines Supplement (e-book)
• Gesell Virtual Administration Proxy Instructional Video
• Sample Virtual Administration Video

An adult Proxy is needed on the child’s end. To successfully administer the Gesell assessment system virtually, the examiner will need the help of an adult alongside the child; we call this person the Proxy. During the administration of the assessment, the examiner can direct the proxy to help by placing materials, measuring, throwing, or performing other actions that would typically be performed by the examiner. The greatest surprise of all was how challenging it is to properly prepare the Proxy. As such, as part of our virtual administration training package we provide a Proxy Instructional Video.

Even with a Proxy, some tasks do not translate well, over video. While ideally all tasks are administered, for the benefit of strand scoring, it became evident that

some tasks just did not work well on a camera. Cubes for example was a challenge. First, getting a set of official 1-inch cubes to the family was tricky and expensive. Even when families were given access to cubes, the demonstrations and process were too complicated on screen. In some of these instances we chose to omit concerning tasks, rather than risk impacting reliability. Tasks we recommend omitting are detailed in the How to Administer the Gesell Assessment System Virtually training package. 

Hello Madame President and members of the New Haven Board of Education, Dr. Tracey and thank you to all NHPS staff and families engaging in this important discussion. My name is Peg Oliveira and I am the parent of a Hooker School middle school student and the spouse of a NHPS high school teacher. I am also the Director of the Gesell Program in Early Childhood at the Yale Child Study Center.

As a parent of a NHPS student it is my personal opinion that sending my child back to school is NOT a personal choice. If we’ve learned anything from this pandemic it is that there are few choices that do not impact our neighbors. Like wearing a mask, it is a public duty to agree, as a community, to make uncomfortable choices to ensure the safety of our most vulnerable members. I stand as one proud Hooker parent prepared to do so.

I applaud NHPS leadership as well as the Board of Education for investing so passionately in this decision. This is your decision to make and for that, I feel for you deeply! However, as an education and child development professional working with schools across the nation, I can share my professional perspective, and hope it serves to inform, rather than muddy, this complicated situation.

First, school as we left it in March, should not be our North Star. It is not worthy nor is it possible. We cannot, under any model, “return” to school as we knew it.

This emergency requires a rethinking of school. Talent and resources are squandered if spent on spackling the cracks in the remains of the old school model, ravaged by this pandemic, just to raise up on Sept. 3 a good enough version of what we all recognize as school. I want that first day of school photo in front of the building as much as any parent. But let’s be clear, just as that
picture never tells the full story of the first day of school, the building is not school.

Contrary to Governor Lamont’s fears, it does not NEED to be an inevitability that our children will “lose a year of education” by not returning to a school building. If our true goal is to ensure continued learning for all children, that we can achieve. But we must get out of our own way. We must drop the sentimental memories of what school was. We must wrap our heads around investing taxpayer dollars in people doing innovative things in unusual spaces that support whole child development. This may look unfamiliar to those of us schooled in rows of desks. It
may be hard to imagine that math can happen in the forest or collaboration can happen on a virtual meeting. But we must start from the premise that kids learn in many ways and in many environments.

Let’s drop the hubris that allows us to think that what’s good about New Haven Public School’s is its buildings. That’s way too easy. What children miss about school is relationships. What makes schools amazing, are people. We need to shift our focus from some romanticized return to the school building and start investing in the people that can make school happen outside of that box.

I heard the list of unanswered problems of in person schooling raised during last week’s Board of Education meeting. And I read the counter list, offered by our Superintendent, of unanswered problems with remote learning. There is no perfect answer on the table. So I encourage us to push away from this table of less than ideal solutions. We can do better. Let’s use the resources we have and the bought time of two months to reconsider the problems to be solved and redefine the goal. There are ways that teachers can teach without school buildings. There are ways that parents can be supported to go to work without school buildings. And there is no doubt in my mind that children can be inspired to inquire and learn without school buildings. All that remains is the courage to put new solutions in place, rather than spackle in the cracks.

These new digital programs have been in development for some time and were intended for release in 2021. Necessity, however, is the mother of alacrity, in this case. Our staff is working diligently to bring these new digital options to you as soon as possible. 

Below is a description of what is offered, when each will be available, and links to our website with more information as well as instructions on how to register. Please reach out with any questions. We are here to help.

Gesell Developmental Observation 2.5 – 6-Year-Old Workshops - Online

This is an online training alternative to our in-person GDO workshops. Like the live version, the virtual GDO-R workshop will be led by our National Lecture Staff and train (or re-train) you in the administration and interpretation of the Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised. Some modules will be live, fully facilitated and require attendance at a specified time. Other modules will be recorded video or print content and reviewed or completed at your own pace. Evaluations will accompany some modules to ensure a sufficient level of mastery to proceed to the next level of training. Expert examiners will be assigned to each cohort to mentor as well as nurture a professional learning community of examiners. Previously trained assessors in need of renewal can register for these online workshops at a reduced fee. Register NOW for summer 2020 online workshops!

Gesell Developmental Observation 6 - 9-Year-Old Workshop - Online 

A revised version of our current 6-9 year old webinar will be available in a more interactive online format (to be released summer 2020). The new digital format will include recorded modules to be reviewed or completed at your own pace. Evaluations will accompany some modules to ensure a sufficient level of mastery to proceed to the next level of training. As always, to register participants must have completed the GDO-R 2.5 – 6-year-old training in the last 5 years. Stay tuned for more information on the release of the 6-9 year old online workshop.

Gesell Early Screener Webinar

This new online training will help you in utilizing the Gesell Early Screener (GES) with greater efficiency and validity. While training is not a prerequisite for using the GES, as it is for the GDO-R, we do find that trained examiners are more adept at administration and interpretation. Stay tuned for more information on the release of the GES webinar.

Gesell Examiner Webinars and Q&A

Gesell National Lecture Staff offer a variety of content specific to GDO-R and GES administration, available only to assessors trained in the last five years. Keep an eye out on our calendar for these opportunities. Register now to join us for upcoming Q&A regarding virtual administration of the GDO-R. 

Recorded and Live Webinars

Gesell continues to offer high quality and relevant live virtual seminars and pre-recorded webinars for educators and/or families, hosted by Gesell staff as well as knowledgeable guest lecturers.  Visit our website for a list of potential topics or tell us what you need. These online trainings are a great way to continue professional development or provide support to families in their own homes.

Virtual Coaching

Gesell can work with you to develop an individualized virtual coaching program for your staff. Depending on your needs we can define a focus, teach and practice new skills or just provide open discussion of struggles defined by your teachers. Contact us to set up a consultation.

Peg Oliveira, PhD
Executive Director
Gesell Program in Early Childhood at the Yale Child Study Center
Peg.Oliveira@yale.edu

Many of us parents and guardians accustomed to outsourcing our children’s education are now tasked with educating them at home, thanks to school closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While this should feel like our chance to, once and for all, show the world how children should be educated, instead most of us are reflexively mimicking our own or our children’s less than optimal school experiences. I found myself giddy to “play teacher” with my daughter, making a list of homework sent from school, calendaring projects and defining goals. My time on social media fueled the madness. I was awash in parents on Facebook “out-teacher-ing” one another with pictures of their kids’ rigid home school schedules, DIY classrooms and parent authored worksheets.

Curiously, despite long standing cries from parents to revolutionize our education system to include more play, more movement and less time in the seat, our knee jerk reaction seems to be to replicate the broken pieces of school, in our homes. It feels reminiscent of the “school” I played in my neighbor’s basement, complete with smiley faces on tests. But this is with our own live children. Why, if we have called for an education revolution, are we so eager to perpetuate the drill and kill practices at home now that we are in the driver’s seat?

At Gesell, we support educators to include child centered, inquiry-based learning experiences that build the muscles of creativity, problem solving, self-regulation and collaboration. Research suggests that these Executive Function Skills are more essential for and predictive of future life success than a child’s reading or math scores. Maybe there is a silver lining in this home-schooling blip. For a moment we are free of all the rules and rigidity we have blamed for not allowing us to do school right, such as top down standards, early start times, a lack of access to the outdoors and sufficient time and space to move. Rather than reflexively bringing school, home, maybe we can bring home the idea that school can be something else. In this moment, can we reimagine school, at home?

Active: Children learn when they are interacting with and allowed time to process information, applying it and digesting through application. Simply hearing, reading, observing or being lectured to does not lead to comprehension or mastery.

Engaged: Children learn when their attention is held. Boredom is the villain in the drama of learning.

Meaningful: Children learn when information is presented in a way that it can be understood in context and applied to their real lives. As Piaget taught us, like stair steps, children build knowledge based only on what they already know, and then amending that understanding to incorporate new knowledge. Learning does not happen in a vacuum.

Socially Interactive: Children are relational creatures. They learn through interacting with others (you). Worksheets make for poor playmates, and even worse learning mates.

This research on how kids brains actually learn gives us full permission to experiment in this unusual moment where a majority of American children are expected to do school from home. This of course does not address the needs of the many children who are home, alone. There are different strategies for addressing those kids’ needs, but likely many will be casualties of this online learning moment. Still, if you are a parent or guardian home with your children and eager to lead your child through home schooling, then I challenge you to be less robotic about the undertaking and take the lead.

I’m starting with some of the following ideas:

1. Take it slow; give everyone an acclamation period. Let’s not forget that this is scary for everyone, including kids. Give everyone a little breather. Go outside. Dig out your board games. Clean up your Netflix queue. Plan some baking and cooking for the time ahead.
2. Get Connected. In classrooms, step one is to create supportive relationships. Don’t take for granted that just because kids are home, they feel safe and connected. They may miss their friends. Young children may not understand if they will ever go back to school, and children of all ages are likely confused and anxious. Make time to allow children to ask questions. Plan for how they will stay in touch with friends. Many parents are wondering how to bring up the pandemic in a way that will be reassuring and not make kids more worried than they already may be. Here is some advice from the experts at the Child Mind Institute.
3. Build in some anxiety busters. First, get moving. Movement is miracle grow for the brain and calms the nervous system. We all know that kids don’t get nearly enough exercise in a traditional school setting. Use this time to put some movement, and shared quality time, in the bank. Tune up the bikes, clean off the rollerblades, play with your dog and get out there, together. Also, add in some intentional relaxation exercises like yoga or mindfulness. Insist that some part of the day be dedicated to (screen free) chilling out.
4. Plan for a routine to your days but resist a schedule. Ensuring some consistency and a rhythm will help kids feel secure; but watch out for being too rigid. Let kids have some input into the plans for each day. This is not the time to pull out the carrots and the sticks to train your child to clean their room as you’d always hoped they would. We all could use a little understanding right now if we aren’t working at full capacity. Kids too.
5. Empower kids and support them in being independent. Living under the eyes of adults all day will not be easy. Make sure to confer with kids and be clear about the new rules in this new world. Explain why rules exist and when possible create opportunities for kids to be in control, empowered, and independent, in age appropriate ways.
6. Think projects, not paper. Are there topics that both you and your kids are interested in spending some time on? Many museums now offer free virtual tours. Can you find some books to read or podcasts to listen to together and then write, draw and discuss your thoughts and questions. For example, my family is following The Iditarod sled dog race, offering opportunities for reading, expanding vocabulary, mapping, math and cooing over adorable pups. Make sure there are both inside and outside opportunities for exploration. In the Northeast, ponds are filled with life at this time of the spring. Gardens can be readied. 

In this reset, my intention is to first accept that this is a trying time for them and for us. As always, until we attend to our social and emotional needs, learning cannot happen. Let’s take time to help kids feel safe and connected, first and foremost. And then if we do have time and energy to commit to home schooling, let’s put it into building active, engaged, meaningful and social experiences for our kids, rather than strapping them to a desk, yet again, to do worksheets and math programs.

If you are intent on continuing to do school at home, it’s understandable. The concerns about falling behind, not to mention going crazy with so much time at home with kids, is legitimate. The struggle is real. There are many resources available to support you. Here are a few:

To ensure all kids can access online resources and stay connected Comcast has opened the Xfinity WiFi Network nationally for free.

Here is a list of Anti-Oppressive/Anti-Racist Home School Resources

Free online courses for kids from our partners at Scholastic as well as day by day projects by grade level.

And for our teachers navigating this new world, here’s a great resource to help get your whole team on board an online.

“My son is loving this program because he is doing this program himself. During the school year he doesn’t share as much information with me unless I ask him a lot of questions. This summer he comes home and he wants to tell me all about exploring and creating. Here he is able to be curious and he gets to work with his hands, which helps his excitement.” 

If you have been following our summer play pilot (catch up here) you know that New Haven teachers from around the district partnered with Gesell to co-create classrooms infused with joy, purpose and wonder for 150 pre-k through third graders. Teachers trained with Gesell for four days and then worked with Gesell coaches for one month to implement a pedagogy of play. 

The implementation involved three primary activities:

1. Teacher Training in a Pedagogy of Play: Thirty-eight teachers trained with developmental psychologists and educators from Gesell and with administrators from NHPS for four days to revisit developmentally appropriate practice and define a shared understanding of a play based pedagogy. The learning intensive culminated in collaborating to build, from scratch, classrooms that reflected a vision of an ideal learning environment. 
2. Developmentally Appropriate Play Based Learning Classrooms: Over 21 days, teachers created, reflected on, and re-envisioned the nature of a classroom to include joy, wonder and purpose. The center-based  classrooms that the teachers created used Wondering Questions (big themed and higher-order thinking inquiries) that focused the Open Work (skill-and-content-driven, child led, teacher scaffolded activities). 
3. Coaching: Gesell coaches and experts in developmentally appropriate practice and play based learning supported teachers through side-by-side modeling, one-on-one mentoring and daily group debriefing to ensure fidelity to the pedagogy.

Results suggest that the following goals were achieved:

1. Trained teachers understand and can implement a basic model of developmentally appropriate, play-based learning
2. Trained teachers reported feeling more empowered, engaged in their daily activities and better informed to meet children’s needs. 
3. Behavior challenges were minimal.
4. Children were highly engaged in learning activities.

Based on the success of the summer pilot, NHPS is planning to roll out the program at five schools across the district during the 2019-20 school year.

Lessons Learned

Though the children have gone home, the teachers continue to reflect and plan for the coming school year. In debriefs and discussions with our teachers, we came to a set of thoughtful and important lessons to keep in mind when moving forward with a district wide pedagogy of play.

• Ensure materials and structures are in place that support a play-based curriculum. These should be available for teachers during planning and revision stages. Materials that are interactive and playful (block sets, building materials, instructional play items) are needed to create the Open Work. 

• Indoor and outdoor spaces that foster play should be provided, particularly with movement in mind. Setting aside time for children to be outside is essential. 

• The school communities will need to define their expectations to foster play-based learning, social-emotional learning and executive functioning practice. This includes considering classroom time, lunch times, and time in public and shared spaces. All should enable child-centered opportunities. This can take the form of staff trainings around positive discipline, rethinking signage, dining practices, and structuring playgrounds that foster curiosity. 

• Families will need to understand the play pedagogy and how it impacts student learning. This should be going throughout the school year. Making transparent how skills and curriculum are included in play is essential to their understanding of the program. Families should have their inquiry of the program met with research-based answers. Methods of communicating to families should be established and made transparent to the community. Publications should provide multilingual families access to materials. 

Play On!

At Gesell we believe in the power of play. What looks like simply child's play is in fact complex. The magic of teaching happens in that place where joy, wonder and purpose intersect with essential skills and core content. Play is the perfect way for children to engage not only with any curriculum, but also to practice higher order-thinking and social emotional learning skills essential to life long success. Shifting the focus of the learning in a classroom away from the teacher and onto the students allows children to engage with each other and the material through play. Children feel empowered by choice and engage more wholy with the work. With the inclusion of differentiation in the centers, all students have access to leveled work. Students can work side-by-side and at their own pace.

To review a full report on implementation and results please contact office@gesellinstitute.org.

In our last week of the summerPlay Based Learning pilot (read all about our program here!) with the New Haven Public Schools, students designed a museum of their “Wondering” process. Each classroom focused on the wondering question they had been investigating throughout the summer, and students were asked to choose one artifact as a representation of their wondering. The goal was to show, through found or created objects, the various stages of inquiry that emerged from the prompts offered. These prompts, or provocations, included an overarching “Wondering Question”, like “What makes a home?” or “Why is water important?” as well as related mentor texts, natural objects  like nests and shells, and tools of inquiry like field guides and magnifying glasses. Students within each classroom then considered similarities and differences between the chosen artifacts, and how to group them into “exhibits” within their classrooms to highlight threads of inquiry or the story of a specific line of observations.  

In both the 1st/2nd grade class and in the 2nd/3rd grade class, students inquired about “What makes a home?” This same Wondering Question unfolded in two very different directions, as displayed in their unique classroom museums. Students in the 1st/2nd grade class constructed human homes from different materials and created a mural to explore similarities and differences in all of their own homes. In comparison, the 2nd/3rd grade class became intrigued by animal homes, and compared them to human homes using the tool of Venn diagrams. A pair of students collaborated to investigate how a natural structure can be a home for multiple types of animals. Their process led them to illustrate how a tree can house birds in its branches, squirrels in its trunk, and worms in its roots. 

Once exhibits were completed, students were invited to view each others classroom museums. Children were intrigued by how other classrooms answered the same wondering question they investigated, and teachers helped them consider the value in both approaches. Parents were invited to view the exhibits and students were excited to share their individual stories.

The museum design asked students to reflect on their classroom community’s summer-long exploration, revisit the evolution of their wondering and to share this story with others. It also asked us, the facilitators, to reflect on impact and to communicate the value added of our program. When we send our kids to basketball camp for a month, we hope they come back a bit exercised and with some dribbling and foul shooting skills. But how do you demonstrate the growth of a community of young learners who began by wondering “What is water used for?” and evolved to asking “Why do some things get bigger when we put them in water” and “How do we make sweat?” As we move this innovative work into the school year, here in New Haven as well as in other partner schools in the nation, we must demonstrate that these higher order thinking skills are growing and translating into real life learning gains. In that process, our challenge is to get creative about hot to measure what we value, and not simply value what we can measure.

In July we introduced our summer Play Based Learning pilot program with the New Haven Public Schools (see kick off blog post here). On the very first day a caring mother asked me, “I know this program is focused on playing, but will you also help her with her reading?” The myth of academics and play as opposing processes, as discussed in our blog post “Books vs. Blocks”, was not only on parents’ minds.

How will children learn necessary skills, many wondered, if all they do is play?

In an effective play-based classroom, children choose activities based on where their interest and inquiry takes them. In our program, materials are impeccably chosen to offer provocations and set children up to learn or practice needed skills or gain useful knowledge. A classroom might include a drama center, a science area and water table, a reading nook, a math manipulatives center with a real life problem to address and of course blocks. While it may seem like the teacher’s job is a piece of cake (just hang out and watch kids play all day?) don’t be fooled. Good teachers are busily in the mix; appropriately encouraging kids to explore, and scaffolding their knowledge all while facilitating social skills.

Rather than think of academics and play as opposing practices, consider types of play on a spectrum, useful for different goals. While free play is essential for all children, at all ages, it is not the best way to achieve explicit learning goals. For that, research tells us, we need guided play. Guided play takes advantage of children’s natural abilities to learn through play by allowing them to express their autonomy within a prepared environment and with adult scaffolding. Guided play is initiated by a teacher (or other adult) but the child is allowed to direct the journey of the play. For example, in our program, one classroom offered a sea creature puzzle, to accompany their Wondering Question “What is the sea useful for?”.

Two children began to construct the puzzle, but were quickly curious about one unfamiliar sea creature. A teacher, sitting on the floor with the children, noticed this curiosity and asked what the children “hypothesized” it might be, encouraging them to record their guesses on a white board. Then, the children found the box to the puzzle, scoured it for clues, and came upon the conclusion that the mystery creature was a dugong. Rather than insisting that the children focus on their work of making the puzzle, the teacher followed their lead and in the process extended their vocabulary, practiced literacy and writing skills, introduced them to the scientific method and advanced their knowledge of sea creatures. Later that day a child in the class proudly told me they had discovered a dugong, remembering the word because the learning was self initiated and in context.

Guided play takes the best of the child-directed nature of free play and intersects it with the focus on learning outcomes and adult scaffolding of traditional academic classrooms. As described in our blog post “Why Playful Learning Works”, developmentally appropriate play is an opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. In short, play is learning.

During the month of July children and teachers, together, are co-creating our  classrooms and putting a pedagogy of play into action. Stay tuned for dispatches from the classrooms and follow this blog to hear more from the teachers and children taking this summer adventure in play with Gesell.

Last week we introduced our summer Play Based Learning pilot program with the New Haven Public Schools (see kick off blog post here). In this second installation of our Learning to Play, Playing to Learn in New Haven blog series we share how teachers are implementing play based learning strategies to open possibilities and create community in their classrooms.  

To honor student empowerment and foster community, teachers are using two strategies: Wondering Questions and Open Work.

Wondering Questions

Teaching teams brainstormed topics that would be developmentally appropriate and of interest to their students. From that process, one big inquiry was agreed to. This “Wondering Question” will guide the design of classroom centers, discussions and lessons for the summer. In one classroom students are investigating ‘What makes a home?” The group used their ideas and connections to build a shared idea of community, and then together, defined rules that would help everyone feel safe.

Open Work  

Led by Wondering Questions, teachers designed their classroom and schedules to allow for significant time for student choice in activities and exploration. We call this time Open Work. Open Work empowers children to be learners and show their understanding of what they are learning in a context that is meaningful to them.

The first task in designing productive Open Work is to identify the skills or knowledge you want students to learn or practice during this time, then determine how to build learning centers to address those skills. Learning centers were designed to offer a variety of materials through which students can work by themselves or with others. Shifting the focus of the learning in a classroom away from the teacher and onto the students allows children to engage with each other and the material through play, which opens up avenues to understanding that are difficult to achieve using solely teacher-led practices. 

What does Play Based Learning look like?

In one classroom, students were encouraged to solve a real-world problem when a group of students collaborated to create a tower out of building blocks, then proceeded to count the amount of each color block in the tower as well as tally the total number of blocks. Watch this video of the group working together and encouraging each other until they were sure they had the correct answer. Their collaboration fostered an environment of safety in both making mistakes and growing from them. This interaction between students was able to happen because the teacher valued and encouraged students as co-educators, and allowed them to teach and encourage one another. 

Why Wonder?

Using Wondering Questions and Open Work gives children the opportunity to learn playfully. Classrooms in our Play Based Learning program include block centers, math centers, science centers, book nooks, dramatic play corners, and art centers. Children choose to move from one activity to another intentionally. A classroom designed in this way engages children’s minds and meets their developmental needs for control and movement, while also offering practice in essential skills and academic content.  

Ava, a New Haven public school teacher for over two decades, is relieved to create a classroom where children choose when, where and with whom to work each morning. Her second grade classroom options includes molding clay, a magnifying glass and some bugs, a block corner and even a drama center. “This is how we used to teach, “ she tells us, “before we forgot that kids were kids.”

This summer Gesell has partnered with New Haven teachers from around the district to co-create classrooms infused with joy, purpose and wonder for nearly

Child development isn’t simple or linear. Children develop at their own unique pace and seem to sprint past milestones one year and meander the next. Developmental assessment is the process of mapping a child’s development compared with children of similar age. By using developmentally appropriate observational methods to define where on the growth and learning trajectory a child currently falls, we can better meet their ever changing needs. Choosing a reliable and appropriate assessment method is important; even more important is understanding how to use the information gathered from assessments.

At The Gesell Institute of Child Development we assist parents and educators in finding the best match between what individual children need and what early education programs can offer using our Gesell Developmental Assessment system. This information can be a saving grace, like when a 5 year old assessed using the Gesell Developmental Observation - Revised was found to have vision delays that helped explain months of challenging behaviors. Outcomes assist parents and educators to identify delays, target areas in need of support and plan environments and experiences that best promote learning and development.

In addition to serving alongside other observational tools to identify children who may need additional support or intervention, assessment can provide a record of growth. It is a critical part of any high-quality, early childhood program. In a 2003 position statement on assessment in early childhood, the National Association for the Education of Young Children stated that early childhood professionals have the responsibility to “make ethical, appropriate, valid, and reliable assessment a central part of all early childhood programs. To assess young children’s strengths, progress, and needs, use assessment methods that are developmentally appropriate, culturally and linguistically responsive, tied to children’s daily activities, supported by professional development, inclusive of families, and connected to specific purposes” (NAEYC, Position Statement, 2003).

Assessment should be intentional and potentially have some benefit to the child. For example, assessment results might help improve teaching or refer intervention for special needs, document a child’s developmental growth. The assessment tools used need to match the purpose of assessing and be one step in a cycle of observation and accommodation to best meet each child’s emerging needs. Although specific methods for assessment tools vary, the process should always be cyclical, as follows:

Categories of Assessment Methods

Methods of child assessment can be categorized into two basic approaches: informal or formal. Both types of assessment methods are effective and can help inform educators and parents about a child’s progress, but their purposes differ and the tool chosen should match the purpose of assessing. Informal assessments are usually done in the child’s natural setting and are what teachers use in the day-to-day to evaluate a child’s individual performance, progress and comprehension. Informal assessment methods include observations, gathering children’s work into portfolios, interviews, checklists or teacher ratings of a child’s performance (such as grades). The National Education Goals Panel points to the importance of informal assessments in early childhood stating: “Methods of collecting assessment data include direct observation of children during natural activities; looking at drawings and samples of work; asking questions either orally or in writing; or asking informed adults about the child.” (Principles and Recommendations for Early Childhood Assessments, Shephard & Kagan, 1998).

In comparison, formal assessments are designed to describe what a child has learned, or to determine proficiency or mastery of content or skills. Formal assessment methods are usually pre-planned and include quizzes, questionnaires and standardized tests. These are useful in assessing performance in comparison to others or to identify strengths and weaknesses compared to peers.

Characteristics of Effective Assessment in Early Childhood

• Emphasizes emerging development in all developmental domains: physical/motor, social-emotional, cognitive, language, and literacy development
• Focuses on individual strengths  
• Is based on principles of child growth and development
• Recognizes and supports different intelligences and learning styles
• Minimizes or alleviates child stress to ensure best outcomes
• Is reflective and analytic, honest and accurate, instructive and useful
• Is collaborative with learners, parents, teachers, and professional specialists as needed

How Assessment Information Can be Presented

Information gathered from an assessment can be presented and understood in a variety of ways. Two common presentation frames are criterion-referenced and norm-referenced assessments. Again, one is not better than the other but rather knowing what they describe is essential to using them wisely to support child learning. Criterion-referenced assessments compare a person’s knowledge or skills against a predetermined standard, learning goal, performance level, or other criterion. With criterion-referenced tests, each person’s performance is compared directly to the standard, without considering how other students perform on the test. Criterion-referenced assessments often place students into categories such as “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced.” For example, when at an amusement park where you must be 5 feet tall to ride a rollercoaster, it will not matter how tall the other riders are. Criterion referenced assessments tell you how a child performs in relation to the set criterion, not whether they performed below or above average compared to other children.

In comparison, norm-referenced assessments compare a child’s knowledge or skills to the knowledge or skills of the group. For example, a baby’s weight is defined by the percentile a it falls into. A baby in the 25th percentile weighs more than 25% of babies in the norm group and the same as or less than 75% of them. This data does not tell you, however, if the weight is considered healthy. Similarly, norm-referenced child assessments do not tell you if the child has met learning goals, but rather tells you their place in the group.

Resources

Shepard, L., Kagan, S.L., Wurtz, E. (Eds.). (1998). Principles and recommendations for early childhood assessments. Washington, DC: National Education Goals Panel.

Early Childhood Assessment: Why, What, and How by the National Research Council. Catherine E. Snow and Susan B. Van Hemel, eds. The National Academies Press, 2008.

The Power of Observation: Birth through Eight (2nd edition) by Judy R. Jablon, Amy Laura Dombro & Margo L. Dichtelmiller. Teaching Strategies Inc., 2007.

Spotlight on Young Children and Assessment. Derry Koralek, ed. NAEYC, 2004.

May 2019 (Updated from 2017)

School leaders matter. In fact, research suggests principals have the second largest in-school impact on student achievement after teachers. With growth in the inclusion of public pre-k classrooms in elementary schools, beyond technical leadership competency, it’s increasingly important that elementary school leaders have a strong understanding of pre-K and early learning and know how to translate their skillset to their youngest students. Yet, many school principals, superintendents, and instructional leaders have little or no training in early childhood and feel unprepared to guide and evaluate teachers of young children. A 2015 survey of new principals by the National Association of Elementary School Principals found that only 1 in 5 felt well trained in “instructional methods and developmentally appropriate perspectives for early education.” The National Governors Association suggests that “Most states' principal preparation systems could be improved to better equip elementary school principals to evaluate pre-K through third-grade (P-3) teachers, support improvements in teaching and learning, and guide teachers in using curricula and assessments in the earliest grades.”

A 2016 New America scan found that only four states required elementary principals to have preparation in early language and literacy development; one additional state was in the process of making this a requirement. Only one state specifically included ECE content and experiences as part of its principal licensure process. Five other states at least require elementary school principals to take coursework covering child development.

As explained in the 2015 National Academy of Medicine’s Transforming the Workforce report, early childhood leaders and administrators “...need to understand developmental science and instructional practices for educators of young children, as well as [have] the ability to use this knowledge to guide their decisions on hiring, supervision, and selection of tools for assessment of children and evaluation of teacher performance, and to inform their development of portfolios of professional learning supports for their settings.”

Acting as a school leader means visiting classrooms, observing teachers, and providing useful feedback. Without adequate training in early childhood education, elementary school principals are challenged to provide high-quality feedback to PreK-3rd grade teachers operating in classrooms that, if developmentally appropriate, should look very different from a typical fourth or fifth grade classroom.

A 2005 National Association of Elementary School Principals report outlined what early ed principals should know and be able to do, but we wondered: “What do early childhood educators wish their leaders understood about child development?” Here’s what educators we spoke with, from Pre-K to 4th grade with an average 23 years of teaching, told us us.

1. Kids grow along the same path, but at their own unique pace.

Young children are constantly developing in all domains, including cognitive, physical, linguistic, and social-emotional development. This rapid change happens in a predictable sequence for all children. However, every child develops at differing rates, impacted by family and environmental factors. This means that chronological age can not be assumed to be a true predictor of developmental stage or ability. In other words, not all 5 year old children are ready for the same learning challenges.  

Asking a child to perform beyond their developmental capabilities can result in frustration and behavioral issues. Some children will figure out how to perform beyond their stage; but there are consequences to this rush. When we place developmentally inappropriate expectations on children, crucial opportunities for growth commensurate with the child’s actual stage of development are missed. For example, if children are asked to use sophisticated fine motor skills before more simple gross motor skills have been mastered, they will neither have the foundation for success at the fine motor challenges nor will they be afforded the opportunity to grow such gross motor skills most easily mastered in that critical period.

2. The best neurobiological intervention is a safe relationship.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child states that “The early years are the most active period for establishing neural connections, but new connections can form throughout life and unused connections continue to be pruned. More importantly, the connections that form early provide either a strong or weak foundation for the connections that form later.”

Further, we know that certain areas of the brain are responsible for specific functions. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for executive function skills like self regulation and cognitive flexibility,  best predict academic and lifelong success. Children are not born with these skills;  they are developed over time through relationships and interactions with the environment.  

“Adults can facilitate the development of a child’s executive function skills by establishing routines, modeling social behavior, and creating and maintaining supportive, reliable relationships. It is also important for children to exercise their developing skills through activities that foster creative play and social connection, teach them how to cope with stress, involve vigorous exercise, and over time, provide opportunities for directing their own actions with decreasing adult supervision.”

In a recent publication, Zero to Three echoes this concept urging practitioners working with young children to engage the child by “narrating the child’s ongoing experience of discovery and problem solving” as well as “engaging them in imitative play”.  Further research studies by economist and Nobel Prize winner James Heckman show that there is a significant return on investment when high-quality zero-to-five programs are implemented. Economists and researchers across the country are realizing quickly that investment in the right kind of programs and environments during the early years could change lives and our economy for the better.

3. Guided play and developmentally appropriate curriculum produce stronger learners and better standardized test scores.

“The developmental windows of what is “normal” are WIDE at young ages.”

A play-based approach is one research-based example of investment in the “best” practices of learning that produce better results in the long run. Not just in increased standardized test scores, but in overall success in student productivity, love of learning, and development of self-regulation skills. This is because play based practices produce a pattern of learning instead of just acquisition of knowledge.  

According to experts Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova, “Teaching children to play has to be as intentional and systematic as teaching literacy or math and at the same time must take a form very different from adult-initiated practices often used to teach these content-related skills.” Their studies have shown higher standardized test scores from children in classrooms with their Vygotskian play-based approach versus a traditional classroom. This research suggests that the innovative teaching techniques used in the project classrooms produced gains in children’s early literacy development beyond what was accomplished by the teachers in non-project classrooms.”

4. Movement is Miracle-Gro  for the young brain.

Moving is necessary for physical, vestibular, visual, and cognitive growth, including executive function. Playing outdoors and physical activity promotes physical health, critical thinking, problem solving, risk assessment, conflict resolution, creativity and cooperation. Brain research confirms that physical activity can actually enhance the learning process. Eric Jensen describes six reasons to have students move more to learn more:  circulation, episodic encoding, a break from learning, system maturation, good chemicals, and avoiding the negatives of too much sitting. When we ask children to sit still for long periods of time, especially when direct instruction is the primary method, we are denying them the necessary environment for optimal growth.  This can lead to behavioral problems and impact academic outcomes.

Resources:

1- Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2017). Brain Architecture. Available at http://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/

2- Gesell Institute of Child Development. (2016). Brain Growth. Available at http://www.gesellinstitute.org/neuroscience/

3- Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2017). Executive Function. Available at http://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

4- Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2017). Executive Function. Available at http://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/executive-function/

5- Thompson R., (2016). What More Has Been Learned? The Science of Early Childhood Development 15 Years After Neurons to Neighborhoods. Zero To Three. 

6- Brown E., (Dec. 12, 2016). A Nobel Prize winner says public preschool programs should start at birth. Washington Post. 

7- Leong D., Bedrova E., (Jan. 2012). Assessing and Scaffolding Make-Believe Play. Young Children.

8- Leong D., Bedrova E. (Jan. 2001). Tools of the Mind: A Case Study of Implementing the Vygotskian Approach in American Early Childhood and Primary Classrooms. International Bureau of Education.

9- Jensen E., (Nov. 2000). Moving With the Brain In Mind. Educational Leadership.

peg@gesellinstitute.org

In my home state of Connecticut, parents and teachers are mobilizing to defend what they believe to be an essential right of childhood; play. Bills at the state level are pressing lawmakers to acknowledge recess as integral to the school day. Locally, parent advocates are educating city leadership on the benefits of play.

Surveys show that most early childhood educators request a reduction in academic pressures and more respect for the normal developmental range of abilities in young children. They want less testing, less data, less paperwork and more time to focus on the individual and unique needs of children. In short, they want more space to implement developmentally appropriate, child directed learning experiences; or the freedom to play.

But why?

It seems counter intuitive. How can less academic rigor and more play lead to better outcomes? I stand with them, as both a parent and an advocate. The research is clear: children learn through active, engaged, meaningful and joyful social experiences. Through what we call play. More time on drills and tests leads not to academic achievement, but to burnout.

So what is it about play that is so great for learning?

• Active: Children learn with their whole bodies, not just their eyes and ears. Processing information and applying it and digesting through application, not just reading, observing or being lectured at, is what allows children to own concepts, tinker with ideas and make new discoveries that make sense.

• Engaged: Focused attention, with minimal distractions and transitions, allow children to become absorbed. How long can even the adults you know stay focused, without looking at screen or nodding off?

• Meaningful: Can be understood in context and applied. As far back as Piaget, we understood that learning is iterative. We construct new knowledge based on hypothesis testing and revising one’s existing knowledge over time. Understanding doesn’t happen spontaneously. We need to give children opportunities to discover truths, not be dictated them.

• Socially Interactive: Through play, children are able to practice and create safe, stable and nurturing relationships with adults and other kids. Feeling safe makes exploration possible and exploration is essential to learning. Securely attached children have better peer relationships, are more agreeable, and have greater self regulation skills.

• Joyful! Positive affect is linked to increased executive functions, academic outcomes and brain flexibility. Play has been shown to regulate the body’s stress response and reduce stress hormones like cortisol.

This combination of ingredients leads to change at the molecular (epigenetic), cellular (neuronal connectivity) and behavioral levels (executive function). Developmentally appropriate play with parents and peers is an opportunity to promote the social-emotional, cognitive, language and self-regulation skills that build executive function and a prosocial brain. In short, play is learning.

References

Betzel R. F., Satterthwaite T. D., Gold J. I., Bassett D. S. (2017). Positive affect, surprise, and fatigue are correlates of network flexibility. Sci. Rep. 7 1–10. 

Diamond A. (2012). Activities and programs that improve children’s executive functions. Curr. Dir. Psychol. Sci. 21 335–341. 

Zosh JM, Hirsh-Pasek K, Hopkins EJ, Jensen H, Liu C, Neale D, Solis SL and Whitebread D (2018) Accessing the Inaccessible: Redefining Play as a Spectrum. Front. Psychol. 9:1124. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01124

Before you send off that wishlist to Santa, be sure your choices match your child’s developmental stage of play. Finding a match between your child’s age and what challenges their minds and bodies will bring the most holiday joy. Here are some suggested guidelines, based on Gesell’s normative developmental milestones.

Remember as you fill your stockings:

1. Children are unique! Children develop along the same developmental path, but at their own unique pace. As such, toys suggested for children just a little older and just a little younger than your child’s chronological age may be the best fit.
2. Some of the best toys are things you find around the house! Currently our living room is filled with extra large cardboard boxes. Blankets and furniture are all you need for a stellar fort and all those ribbons are sure to be put to good use!   

Age 2:

Simplicity is best! Your two year old experiences the world through touching, handling and holding it so sand and water tables are great. At two, they are using both hands in cooperation, and gaining skill with handling small toys. Choose things that can be taken apart and put back together like simple puzzles or stacking toys. Books are great at all ages; at two durable picture books that are meant to be touched are great. They prefer parallel play to cooperative play, as cognitive skills are not yet sufficiently developed for complex interactions. Try objects that allow them to “play” at real life, like hammers or cooking utensils. If you want to go high tech, try a phone that really rings.

Age 3:

Open their minds! Encourage imaginative play with dolls, stuffed friends, blocks, and play dough. Your three year old doesn’t need an instruction manual with their toys; they won’t follow it anyway! They like to use crayons, markers and colored pencils. Stick to books with simple plots. At three most children will coordinate total body movements more smoothly and can enjoy slides, tunnels and climbing structures as well as wagons, wheelbarrows and ride-on equipment like tricycles.

Age 4:

Let them move! Toys that can be used in large spaces or outdoors, like balls, hoops and ride-ons will be great for both your four year old, and for you (to exhaust some of that preschool energy). They are beginning to cooperate in their play and will enjoy toys that involve other children. Most 4’s can now catch successfully, hands to chest, so try large and small balls for throwing and catching. They love books that include humor and pictures. Silly jokes and rhymes are right in your four year old’s wheel house. They enjoy experimenting with fantasy and reality, and may want to show off their drama skills so props and stages are great. Drawing instruments will still be a hit at four.

Age 5:

Let them explore! Your five year old enjoys the process of inquiry even more than product. Now is a great age for legos as well as beginner science kits; bug jars and fossil excavation sets are great. Books that explain the world, like on gems or the solar system, scratches their curiosity and serves their expanding language skills. They have well-developed gross motor skills so many 5’s are ready for toys like bicycles (with training wheels) and sports equipment as well as more advanced climbing structures. Gifts that allow them to exercise independence in their personal care skills, like monogrammed toothbrushes or washcloths, might be inspiring.   



If there is one thing teachers are expected to know, it’s everything.

The 2018 Gesell Summer at the Institute Early Childhood Education Conference challenged educators to do exactly the opposite. We asked teachers to imagine that they had no idea; and to CHOOSE WONDER.

Choosing wonder involves a kind of intellectual humility not often allowed a teacher. I still recall the first time I realized my third grade teacher didn’t have all the answers; the earth shook. Choosing wonder is recognizing the limits of our own knowledge and valuing the insight of someone else. Even if that someone else is 4 years old.

Two essential skills contribute to our ability to choose wonder: curiosity and empathy.

Curiosity is to be interested, rather than to know. To be open to the possibility that something new and unexpected might happen, and to open to rather than defend against that option. A culture that values order, above all else, will suppress curiosity. A culture that values improvement, creativity and inspiration will cultivate it.

Empathy is imagining what it’s like to be in another’s shoes, and then some. It is to take another’s perspective, as well as to feel what they feel and acknowledge that we are all connected.  

To kick off our day of choosing wonder, Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek offered an inspirational keynote echoing the six key skills presented in her book Becoming Brilliant that she proposes will help all children become contributing members of their communities and the thinkers of tomorrow.

1. Collaboration
2. Communication
3. Content
4. Critical thinking
5. Creativity
6. Confidence

After workshopping observation techniques presented by Erin Akers of the Gesell Institute, choosing wonder was put to work reviewing a series of best practice videos presented by Dr. Beverly Falk as part of the High Quality Early Learning Project. From a place of curiosity and empathy, Dr. Falk challenged us to wonder what does “high quality early learning” mean? And what does it actually look like in practice? Examples were offered of veteran teachers individualizing learning, celebrating hidden strengths and welcoming surprises.

We hope, as September approaches, that you remember...

When you encounter a differing opinion… choose wonder!

When offered a suggestion that conflicts with your current practice… choose wonder!

When you feel angry, frustrated or disappointed… choose wonder!

When confronted with confusion… choose wonder!

When in doubt… choose wonder!

The following resources can be purchased at the Gesell Institute Online Bookstore:

Falk, B. (2012). Defending Childhood. Teachers College Press.

Falk, B. (2009). Teaching the Way Children Learn. Teachers College Press.

Golinkoff, R.M. & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2016). Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells us About Raising Successful Children. Washington DC: American Psychological Association.

Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R.M. (2003). Einstein Never Used Flashcards. Emmaus, PA: Rodale.

For 65 years and counting, we have trained home visitors as well as teachers, clinicians and others to utilize the Gesell Developmental Observation - Revised (GDO-R) assessment system to objectively determine a child’s stage of development and to screen for delays. Throughout this time, we have engaged with many professionals who are true experts at the art of child observation. Yet, they consistently note their appreciation of the GDO-R as an objective, scientific framework for assessing a child’s development which reveals layers of hard-to-observe information about each child’s unique abilities and needs. It is clear that the practice of screening and assessment serves to further inform a home visitor’s keen observations, and can fortify their recommendations for support, intervention or referral.

Assessment tools such as the GDO-R allow home visitors to fulfill expectations of not only gathering information, but also creating a comprehensive web of individualized support for a child. In their 2009 Position Statement, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) stated that early childhood professionals have the responsibility to “make ethical, appropriate, valid, and reliable assessment a central part of all early childhood programs”. NAEYC identifies the following as especially beneficial purposes of using objective assessment, beyond general observation: 

            (1) making sound decisions about teaching and learning

            (2) identifying concerns that may require focused intervention

            (3) targeting educational and developmental interventions

The ultimate goal of undertaking assessments is to gain a comprehensive picture of the child’s overall development, using a fun and engaging developmentally appropriate format. For example, the main objective of the Gesell Developmental Observation-Revised is to monitor normal developmental growth over time in the following domains: physical/motor, language/comprehension, social/emotional, and beginning literacy and numeracy skills (as the child approaches 5 years old). Results assist in identifying inconsistencies or delays, planning further evaluation as needed, targeting areas for continued growth, and designing environments and methods that best promote child development.

Appropriate assessments, like the GDO-R, help accomplish our collective aim of bettering the lives of our youngest learners. Home visitors are a key part of the observation process that can bring real change to a child’s life. By pairing astute insights with objective data about a child’s progress through the developmental stages, home visitors can contribute substantially to the understanding of what a child needs at a given time. Repeating this process in subsequent stages of development ensures that the child is continually seen and acknowledged for where they are and how far they have come -- and continually supported through the challenge and joy of the growth that lies ahead.

Erin Akers, M.Ed.

There is nothing like the injustice of having to share a favorite toy or interrupt a perfect play session. Reactively, the young brain can, in a flash, ignite with emotion. We’ve all been around a child with a brain on fire; seeming to act without thinking. Unreasonable and incapable of stopping but with no discerning end game. It’s annoying, to say the least, to have our ever so rational question “Why did you hit her?” or our demand to “Stop it or else!” be met with more fury; or go unnoticed. The key to thwarting an outburst is to soothe the fire in the impulsive parts of the brain and get the cool headed thinking brain back in charge. Until then, the best rewards and the worst punishments are powerless against the inertia of a meltdown. The brain on fire is not a listener. And problems can’t be solved from that state.

Three basic parts of the brain, identified in the 1960’s by Dr. Paul McLean as the “Triune Brain”, participate in the eruption and can aid in the reduction of challenging behaviors.

1. The Reptilian Brain, or old brain, sits at the bottom of our brain at the brain stem. It is responsible for survival, including essential life functions that we don’t even think about like the beating of the heart and breathing, as well as for flight, fight or freeze responses. Actions that arise from the reptilian brain are automatic; we don’t think about or plan them. In normative child development, this part of the brain is well formed at birth.

2. The Limbic Brain, or the mammalian brain, wraps around the reptilian brain. It’s main parts are the amygdala, the hippocampus and the hypothalamus. Here memories are recorded along with, importantly, the experience of the memory as positive or negative. It is responsible for most of our emotions, which are for the most part unconsciously produced.

3. The Human Brain, or the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), is at the front of the brain. This part of the brain develops the latest, and isn’t fully formed until late adolescence. As it comes on line it is the game changer. It is responsible for acting, rather than reacting. Here, too, is where Executive Function skills stem. The ability to reason, imagine, problem solve and self regulate are all resources of the PFC.

Early childhood reactivity can be challenging. It is rooted in the adept and more developed lower reptile and limbic brains and while they may seem unreasonable, diving deeper behind the behaviors usually reveals rational, though not effective, reasons. They are ill-informed attempts of the survival drive of the lower brain to re-establish a sense of safety. The goal is to help the lower brain feel safe, and convince it to give control back to the front brain. 

The brain is a survival organ; it’s main job is to keep us alive. The lower brain is fundamental, as it is responsible for all the life giving functions of the organs and for breathing; essentials that we don’t even think about. Additionally, it is programmed to be alert to and remember threats. It’s main job is to hijack control of the whole brain in a moment of danger; and react swiftly. This is useful when we need to pull our hand away from a hot pan or swerve to miss a cat in the road. Ideally, however, once the threat has passed, the lower brain will give control of the wheel back over to the front brain. This is not always the case. The lower brain is not forgiving; once a threat always a threat unless the front brain interrupts to teach us otherwise. As such, stressors or trauma have long lasting impacts on igniting the tenacity of the lower brain to continue to drive our reactivity toward both real and perceived threats. Once ignited, it takes work to convince the lower brain to stand down and until it does, there is little hope of engaging the more rational front brain.

To put out the fire in the lower brain, bring challenging behaviors to a swift end and develop self regulation skills along the way, first attend to the need for safety that the lower brain is reacting to, with vigor. Dan Siegel recommends the following four S’s:

1. Soothe: Start by dealing with the emotion, not the behavior. Try a breathing exercise (for the child as well as for you!) to calm the reactive lower brain.

2. Seen: Honor that the emotion is real by acknowledging and empathizing. State the obvious like, “It looks like it makes you really mad to have to share that ball.”

3. Safe: Make physical space for the child to safely have the emotion and time for the emotion to be fully experienced. Remind the child that emotions are acceptable, though some behaviors may not be, and that we all have them. Explain how some challenging behaviors aren’t allowed because they make it unsafe for all children, and that you are there to keep them safe. Don’t do anything reactive that will frighten the child.

4. Secure: Be there during the challenging behavior and corresponding emotions; and after. Remind them it will all be ok. Do not punish with disconnection or ignoring practices that shame the child. Help develop an internalized sense of connection and well-being.

Finally, the challenge to our own brains, in dealing with reactive and seemingly irrational early childhood behaviors, can not be ignored. If impulsively, we join the child in responding from our lower brain, then we have little hope of getting the child’s front brain back in the driver’s seat. First making space to deal with our own challenging emotions, taking a deep breath, and soothing the fires of the lower brain will enable us to respond empathically and rationally and be interested in the underlying needs behind the behaviors.

Resources

Siegel, D.J. The Whole Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind.

In the 15 years since the publication of From Neurons to Neighborhoods, scientists have learned a lot about the developing brain, the growth of thinking and learning, the effects of early stress, and the importance of relationships to young children’s development. More recently, the 2016 report Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8, confirms that children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. In the article What More Has Been Learned? The Science of Early Childhood Development Since Neurons to Neighborhoods, Dr. Ross Thompson outlines these advances, and considers their implications for practitioners and policymakers.

I’m not quite ready to prescribe MRI informed practices for improving learning in individual children. However, new research does demand that we take seriously how this emerging knowledge of the developing brain can better inform and influence policy and practice, and ultimately the development and learning of all children; especially those facing adversity.

In summary, what we now know about early brain development is:

• We knew it was early, but we didn’t know it was that early. Learning is rapid and cumulative and begins earlier than we thought. The first three years are even more important for lifelong success than even From Neurons to Neighborhoods had predicted. In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second. 
• It’s not (just) about the words. More than just words, it’s the higher pitched, melodic, emotionally charged tones found around the globe that make the difference. Words spoken in adult to adult interactions are less impactful. 
• It’s not (all) about me. The thinking of infants and toddlers is less egocentric and far more inquisitive and conceptual than traditionally believed. 

For more information on the developing brain, register now for :

What We Know About the Brain in Early Childhood

Thursday, October 9, 2018 – 7:00 pm EST
Taught by Erin Akers, MEd - Director of Education and Development

As a classroom teacher, I experienced the professional development “plan” at work in public and private schools. Too often, there was a disconnect between what was happening on a day to day basis in my classroom, and what was being chosen for professional learning by leadership. I am a lifelong learner, so I always gained some information and resources from the PD I participated in. Still,  it never seemed to fit into an overall plan or system that truly impacted the children or my classroom practices. When I became a principal I was determined to solve this problem. One tactic I used was  a team approach. I spent time in classrooms, I listened, and I created an environment involving an interactive culture, collaboration, and accountability.

It is evident, as cited in a recent article in Education Week, that what teachers believe is useful PD, common planning time with colleagues, and mentoring being at the top of the list, does not always match what administrators consider to be most beneficial. Instead, most systems start with what teachers listed as the least desirable: PD from outside the district, and PD focused on academic standards. As with all things, there has to be a balance that focuses on what is best for children.

So where do we start? 

Choosing the right professional development for your team is the first step. There are important questions to ask as you begin planning your program and strategy.

• What are needed areas of improvement? The answer should come from your observations, teacher feedback, collaborative discussion, and evaluation processes. The areas identified should not be a surprise to the teachers in the program if you use a process where all are involved and invested.

• What are some new methods or practices we want to introduce? Identifying learning needs for your staff based on desired outcomes for children must be a guiding force behind your planning. This should coincide with the preceding question, and work to fill “gaps” or simply improve practices through implementation of new ideas. This should be a very collaborative and exciting process when all players are engaged. Building from ideas of those in the classroom helps ensure commitment to the goals established, and ultimately long-term success.

Once you have your PD plans made, how can you be sure that the new information is implemented? It can be difficult to be sure the learning sticks and positively impacts children.

• Develop a leadership plan that addresses culture, collaboration, and accountability and takes into account the overall picture of ongoing professional learning. Create a culture of professional learners who have value. Have regular conversations about ongoing needs for improvement with the entire team. Plan open feedback and collaboration in normal staff meetings. Create an environment where accountability is something that isn’t feared, but valued because it makes everyone better, which is better for children. This takes time, but is the only way to produce ongoing results and higher quality programs. Don’t just present information, but create a CULTURE of professional learners who COLLABORATE on a regular basis and then are ACCOUNTABLE for improving the lives of children.

• Ensure that the PD you invest in is not only implemented, but that continued shared learning and collaboration is taking place in order to allow for the greatest potential for positive outcomes in the classroom. This means “keep talking about it!”. Professional development should be an ongoing process, not a day or two. Make plans to have teachers share how the implementation is going in their own classrooms and what their future plans are; what is working and what isn’t. Provide further articles, books, webinars and other resources to make implementation successful. Have teachers observe one another and share ideas on a regular basis.

When you invest in a team approach and all members feel valued and have a shared commitment to improvement, positive outcomes occur. I know from experience that once collaboration and shared approaches are in place, investment from the classroom level increases. As I spent more time in classrooms participating and helping (not just observing with a clipboard) I saw teachers understand that we were in it together for the children. What a difference it makes! Relationships and genuine common goals influence programs and create a culture that fosters positive change. Creating an environment where teachers are valued members of a team that regularly bring their own ideas and expertise to the group, as well as PD that is clearly communicated and revisited throughout the year (or longer), can be impactful.

Teachers are always learners. Early Education leaders are responsible for creating environments where they can be successful in that process. A few tips to summarize:

• Don’t look for a magic bullet, view big picture
• Don’t ignore the knowledge in house
• Collaborate Collaborate Collaborate!
• Accountability should not be feared, but viewed as part of getting better
• TEAM approach

This is informing our own work at The Gesell Institute of Child Development as we continue to offer Professional Development trainings and seminars, as well as expanded interactive and responsive learning opportunities including:

• Mentoring
• Coaching
• Ongoing support following our trainings

Visit our website for our current schedule, as well as other topics and content to allow us to help you meet your PD needs.

A new study from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) found that by the end of kindergarten, children who attended one year of what researchers defined as “academic-oriented preschools” outperformed their peers who attended less academic-focused classrooms. On average, the children who attended academic preschools ended up two and a half months ahead of their counterparts in math and literacy. This divergence in academic progress begs a few questions. First, what are each of these programs doing, or more importantly not doing, that differentiates them? And second, would a two and a half month difference matter in a child’s development?

The idea that academics and play exist on opposite ends of the teaching spectrum is tidy, but a myth. The difference may be less between a pendulum swing from books to blocks, and more between those children with well-trained and well-paid teachers and those without. Furthermore, our research has shown that children as much as six months apart in cognitive development are not really all that different from one another.  So the question here is not one of choosing sides; but instead to strike a balance between the skill building of qualities of academics and the brain boosting qualities of play.

The new study conducted by researchers at UCB monitored 6,150 kids from around the U.S., born in 2001, from birth to five years of age and was controlled for income and home environment. Language skills, along with growing understanding of mathematical and literary concepts were assessed in children’s homes at about two, four and five years of age. Researchers discovered marked gains when middle-class kids attended preschool classrooms where teachers spend considerably more time on spoken language skills, pre-literacy skills and knowledge of mathematical concepts. The New York Times and other publications are touting these results as a tug of war between “Free Play or Flashcards?” saying that the “New Study Nods to More Rigorous Preschools.” The article goes on to say that the best path forward puts children on course to read and do simple math problems by the end of kindergarten. The primary vehicle to such would be an academic focus.

Increasingly, Kindergarten teachers are being pressured to teach more, sooner. Researchers at the University of Virginia compared the views and experiences of kindergarten teachers in 1998 with those of their counterparts in 2010. Their findings discovered more sophisticated skills expected at younger ages. Generally, Kindergarten teachers now expect children to come in knowing much in regard to academic content and skills like math and literacy. The dramatic play area in the kindergarten classroom is a quaint thing of the past. This push down of academic expectations is being communicated in tangible ways to preschool teachers. They, too, are now responding with spending more of the day on academic instruction, leaving less room in the day for non-academic activities such as music, movement and art.

In an effective play-based, or “child-centered” classroom, children choose activities based on their current interests. The play-based classroom looks like the preschool of memory; a home or kitchen center, a science area and water table, a reading nook, and of course lots of blocks. While it may seem like the teacher’s job is a piece of cake; don’t be fooled. Good teachers are in the mix; appropriately encouraging kids to explore and scaffolding their knowledge all while facilitating social skills.

On the flip side, there are academic programs or “teacher-directed” learning, in which teachers instruct the children in a more structured way by leading them through each activity. For the most part, classroom time is devoted to learning letters and sounds, distinguishing shapes and colors, telling time, and other skills. However, not all children are ready for this in kindergarten. Asking them to do so can be unnecessarily stressful and a distraction from the more developmentally appropriate work of the brain in early childhood, like sorting and stacking.

In truth, my concern is less about what they “do”… the flashcards or the free play… and more about what kids “don’t” do. After all, childhood is short. There is only so much time to learn to play fair and share. If that precious time is spent on memorization in baby lecture halls, then it is not spent on pretend play and fresh air. We only have so much time to spend each day; each of us. Kids too. The time spent on “academically-oriented” activities is time taken away from other activities.

While flashcards may progress a 5 year old to 5.2 on the cognitive scale, maybe 2 months of growth in one area is not worth trading 2 months of loss in another. I wonder, would two and a half months of extra “performance” change a life? Our research says that developmental differences in young children as long as 6 months are 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Two 5 year olds, one performing on cognitive scales at 5.5 and another at 5.7 look pretty much the same and suggest no differences in developmental ability.

In our long history of observing children, we at the Gesell Institute of Child Development have seen little change in patterns and pace of what kids are ready to learn; compared to the big changes in expectations of what kids should know and be able to do. Despite the push down in expectations, including academic work in kindergarten and preschool; our research and our experiences suggest remarkable stability around the ages at which most children reach cognitive milestones such as being able to count pennies or draw a triangle. While children may be able to “demonstrate” academic skills, even as complex as reading, it does not mean that they have built up the foundations of literacy that later translate into comprehension and application.

Reliable and objective developmental assessments allow teachers to truly know a child; so yes, we measure. But, as Dr. Arnold Gesell once said “a child is more than a score.” A useful assessment is comprehensive. We at the Gesell Institute of Child Development assess developmental growth over time, in a breadth of domains beyond beginning literacy and numeracy skills,  including physical/motor, language/comprehension, and social/emotional.  This whole child approach drives us to transition from a narrowly defined academic achievement focus, to one that promotes the long-term development of the child as a lifelong learner.  In this unpredictable world, skills and knowledge have an increasingly limited shelf life. Attempting to map out the competencies children will need in the future seems futile. Of all the skills we teach in early childhood, the most important is the skill to learn and unlearn.

It certainly seems to be one of those “duh” statements: all children are not the same. I mean, why would we imagine otherwise? If we accept that no two snowflakes are alike, why wouldn’t we accept that no two individuals – even of the same age and gender – are alike? It’s just plain common sense.

But common sense doesn’t appear to translate to education policies.

In an interview on BAM Radio Network, noted early childhood expert Jane Healy said, “We have a tendency in this country to put everybody into a formula – to throw them all into the same box and have these expectations that they’re all going to do the same thing at the same time.”

For the most part, that’s always been the case with education: expecting all children in the same grade to master the same work at the same level and pace. But since the inception of No Child Left Behind – and later with Race to the Top and the implementation of the Common Core Standards (common being the operative word) – it’s only gotten worse. The “box” has gotten even smaller. And the younger the children, the less room there is for movement inside it (play on words intended).

There’s nothing wrong with standards, or goals, per se. It makes sense to establish a certain level of mastery for children to achieve and to determine what students should be able to do and know over the course of a particular period of time, a school year, for example. But the standards should be realistic. It should be possible for the majority of students to achieve them, each at her or his own pace. That means the standards must also be developmentally appropriate and based on the principles of child development – designed with actual children in mind.

But they’re not. Standards are written by people with little to no knowledge of child development or developmentally appropriate practice. They’re written with too little input from people who do have that knowledge, such as teachers and child development experts. In fact, of the 135 people on the committees that wrote and reviewed the K-3 Common Core Standards, not one was a K-3 teacher or an early childhood professional.

Of course, along with developmentally inappropriate standards comes developmentally inappropriate curriculum. David Elkind said the following in another BAM interview:

We don’t teach the college curriculum at the high school. We don’t teach the high school curriculum at the junior high. We don’t teach the junior high curriculum at the elementary level. Why should we teach the elementary curriculum at the preschool level?…We have no research to support it; all the research is opposed to it, and yet we do it.

Teachers, more and more often, are being asked to teach in ways they know to be developmentally inappropriate. They’re asked to make demands of students whom they know are not developmentally ready for such demands. And, as Jane Healy noted, “When you start something before the brain is prepared, you’ve got trouble.”

If we’re to give the standards and curriculum writers the benefit of the doubt, we could admit that children these days appear to be smarter and savvier than they used to be. But, according to the research, children are not reaching their developmental milestones any sooner than they did in 1925 when Arnold Gesell first did his research.

As an example, demonstrating the large range of what is “normal” in child development, we know that the average age children learn to walk is 12 months – 50 percent before and 50 percent after. But the range that is normal for walking is 8¾ months all the way to 17 months. The same applies for reading. The average age that children learn to read is six-and-a-half, 50 percent before and 50 percent after. But that does’t mean policymakers and standards writers won’t continue to demand that they read before leaving kindergarten. (For more information, listen to Are Children Smarter, Learning More, Sooner, Faster? on BAM Radio Network.)

Anyone who understands child development knows:

• It’s simply not possible for all children to do and know the exact same things at the exact same age.
• All children go through the exact same stages in the exact same order but they do it at varying rates.
• Each domain – cognitive, physical, emotional, social – has its own rate of development.

And here’s the big one:

• A child’s development absolutely cannot be accelerated or hurried in any way.

All of this has been proved by research. But those with common sense – or kids – don’t need research to verify these facts. They simply need to look at any two siblings, even twins, and note the differences. When we consider the myriad possibilities for genetic combinations, along with various environmental factors, it’s clear that we can’t begin to envision the diversity in temperament, intellect, skills, and learning styles among a group of 30 children in the same classroom.

One of my favorite lines from the interview with David Elkind was, “Wrong ideas always seem to catch on more easily than right ones.”

The idea that all children are the same is definitely a wrong idea.

This piece is excerpted from Rae’s book, What If Everybody Understood Child Development?: Straight Talk About Improving Education and Children’s Lives, available in the Gesell Institute bookstore. 

Rae Pica has been an education consultant since 1980, specializing in the education of the whole child, the brain/body connection, and children’s physical activity. She is the author of 19 books and is co-founder of BAM Radio Network, where she currently hosts Studentcentricity: Practical Strategies for Teaching with Students at the Center. You can learn more about Rae at www.raepica.com.

Interested in reading even more about Developmentally Appropriate Practice? Check out NAEYC’s resources here: https://www.naeyc.org/DAP

Yesterday, we were in the midst of a blizzard here in Connecticut! There’s nothing like shoveling heavy, wet snow while being pummeled by hail to make me appreciate being inside next to a cozy fire while preparing for next week’s Outdoor Classroom webinar!

I do hope you’ll join me, but for now, I wanted to share with you one of the most fascinating pieces of research I’ve come across so far. In his book Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators, David Sobel identifies 7 “outdoor play motifs” – types of play all children tend to engage in when they’re left to unstructured play outside:

1. Making Forts and Special Places
2. Hunting and Gathering
3. Creating Small Worlds
4. Developing Friendships with Animals
5. Constructing Adventures
6. Descending into Fantasies
7. Following Paths and Figuring Out Shortcuts

These patterns of play definitely hold true for my son and his friends! As a mom and educator, I find it exciting to supplement my own backyard, family outings, and my son’s school playground to enable the type of play kids are naturally drawn towards!  Take a look at some of my family and friends’ photos below. What was needed to facilitate the play?

1. Making Forts and Special Places

For an afternoon or for many weeks – we make hideouts in all seasons and in many landscapes!

2. Hunting and Gathering

Picking blueberries, drinking maple water, apple picking and gathering autumn olives. We always enjoy nature’s treats so much more when we’ve hand picked or grown them ourselves! When we’re not eating what we’re gathering, we are usually adding to our (ever growing) rock, stick, shell or feather collections.

3. Crating Small Worlds

At the base of a tree, in a raised bed, in a flower pot…miniature worlds and fairy houses abound for a reason!

4. Developing Friendships with Animals

When we took a family trip to Maine last summer, we stayed on the most beautiful little farm. My son fell in love with the cows – the smallest cow, in particular.

“I remember the baby cow wanted a crabapple but the bigger cows would always eat it out of my hand first. So, I said to the little cow, “stay”, and she did stay. And then I chased all of the other cows to the other side of the field with some hay, and then I ran back and gave the little cow the crabapple just before the big cows came back. It felt good to take care of the smallest cow so she could grow into a big cow!”

5. Constructing Adventures

My little guy has always been so much more eager to “go on an adventure” than “go for a walk”. It’s a small shift in language, but also perspective, because when we “adventure”, there is no destination or purpose beyond exploration.

6. Descending into Fantasies

 7. Following Paths and Figuring Out Shortcuts

Kids can feel so empowered when they lead us off trail and blaze their own paths!

Today I’ll be the leader and you will follow me mama, we will go on a different path”. Sure enough we found this lovely little stream. We sat with our feet in the water, fished leaves and then made our way back…[/caption]

The tools for these types of play are so simple: nature-provided loose parts, shovels, buckets, dirt, sand, water, miniature characters…What’s harder to come by is TIME and a shift in priorities. The more I learn, the more clear it becomes that unstructured time outside isn’t a bonus – it’s critical! As I look back on these gorgeous memories, I’m struck by the bonds that formed in the sand and streams and pastures…and I’m more motivated than ever to connect my family – and yours – with nature every day!

In your family or teaching lives, do your children engage in these kinds of play? Do your outdoor spaces invite children to play in these ways? I’d love to hear how you incorporate nature into your family’s activities, and/or how your school connects with nature!

Happy Adventures!

How are you?

“Stressed!”

I have many teachers in my life, and come May (the third base of the home run of the academic year), this is predictably the answer I hear when I ask “How are you?” As a recent New York Times article put it “Teachers are Stressed, and that Should Stress Us All”

On any given day teachers are balancing the needs of their class as a whole, each individual student, and parents. They are juggling the demands of curriculum goals and administrators. When in class, they are “on” all day. Out of class there is planning to do, meetings to attend, homework to review and parents to connect with. On a good day they may have some space to acknowledge their own personal or family needs too.

For a short time this is, at a minimum, garden variety “overwhelm” – what we’ve gotten used to calling “stress” and swallowing as part of normal life. But in high doses, for long periods of time, without a feeling of reprieve or support, this is a recipe for burnout.  Burnout is not just when you need a vacation to recharge. It’s when you feel overwhelming exhaustion, frustration, cynicism and a sense of ineffectiveness and failure.

This is a problem for us all because anywhere between 40 and 50 percent of teachers will leave the classroom within their first five years(that includes the nine and a half percent that leave before the end of their first year.)

Thankfully there are things we can do for ourselves. Practices that both train the brain to be calm in the face of chaos and to be resilient when life inevitably becomes overwhelming are essential to reducing the impact of stress and avoiding burnout.

A Culture of Mindfulness

Gesell Institute’s professional development starts with some version of “know yourself”. This includes reflective work like engaging in a self-evaluation process, developing an individualized professional development plan, and acknowledging and countering implicit bias. It also means implementing a pedagogy of presenceand learning to manage difficult situations with contemplative practices, like mindfulness.

Outside of my life as the Executive Director of The Gesell Institute of Child Development, I also direct a nonprofit called 108 Monkeys. Its focus is very specific: we mentor schools and child care centers in creating a culture of mindfulness to enable teachers to teach and students to learn in a more calm and creative environment. Many such organizations have sprung up over the past decade – a sign of hope that a new generation of educators is learning to fight stress before it causes their flight from the profession.

Does a Pedagogy of Presence make any difference?

The research is young but extremely promising.

A recent report out of Penn State, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, examined the primary causes of teacher stress, its effects on teachers, schools, and students, and strategies for reducing its impact. Quality programs for mentoring, workplace wellness, social emotional learning, and mindfulness were all proven to improve teacher well-being and student outcomes.

Patricia Jennings is a professor and researcher at the University of Virginia. The Journal of Educational Psychology will soon publish a study of her work in New York City, teaching mindfulness to more than 200 educators in high-poverty schools.

Jennings says the teachers who received mindfulness training showed:

• Reduced psychological distress
• Reduced time urgency — which is this feeling like you don’t have enough time
• Improvements in emotion regulation

In sum, teachers feel emotionally better, more satisfied with their work, better able to manage their attention to emotional matters, and conducted better classes. By practicing mindfulness in their own lives—and with their students—educators are setting the stage for a calmer, more focused learning environment, as a whole.

So what is mindfulness?

Put simply, mindfulness means being here, now. Clinical psychologist and founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) classes, Jon Kabat-Zinn, defines mindfulness as “paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment” (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). 

But mindfulness practices like deep breathing, meditation and yoga are simply the vehicle to the destination: a mindfully lived life. Functional mindfulness is the true goal. We “practice” the skills of mindfulness like  focused attention, increased self-awareness, responding rather than reacting, and observing the consequences of our actions with objectivity, because we want to strengthen our ability to do these things in our daily lives. To live mindfully.

Examples of mindfulness practice include:

• Becoming aware of the breath.
• Noticing thoughts as they pass through the mind.
• Feeling the various physical sensations of an emotion.
• Paying attention to the body at rest and in motion.
• Noticing what happens in the body when you feel stress.
• Paying attention to all the sounds in the room.
• Feeling your stomach rise and fall with each breath.
• Watching your thoughts that arise when you feel bored.
• Choosing to respond rather than react to stressful situations.
• Practicing sending kind thoughts and feelings to yourself and others (even the hard people).

How do I practice mindfulness, when I’m a stressed teacher?

When you picture someone practicing mindfulness, you might envision a person sitting cross-legged, meditating with their eyes closed, repeating “om”.  That is one way; but not the only way.  Taking small breaks every day to give yourself a little extra care and calm can make a big mark on relieving stress and improving overall mental health.  In September this makes a long day bearable. In May, this is the difference between sustainability and turnover.

Recharge Breaks that you can do anywhere, in just a few minutes:

• Take a deep breath before starting an activity or responding.
• Take a moment to feel the warmth of the sun on your face.
• Walk from your car to the house with all of your attention on the bottom of your feet.
• Sip water while doing nothing else.
• Move your body.
• Go outside and connect with nature.
• Eat something without doing anything else at the same time, like one M&M.
• Try an online meditation tool, like headspace.com or calm.com

Exercises to Jumpstart Your Mindfulness Practice:

You can do these at your desk, walking to class, taking a break, or sitting in a meeting (don’t tell!)

Easy Breathing

Bring gentle and consistent attention to your breath for two minutes. Start by becoming aware that you are breathing, and then pay attention to the process of breathing. Every time your attention wanders away (and it will!), just bring it gently back.

Even Easier Breathing

Sit with nothing to get done, and nothing special to do, for two minutes. That’s it. The idea here is to shift from ‘doing’ to ‘being,’ whatever that means to you, for just two minutes.  Just be.

5 Fingers Breathing

• Inhale and open your hand.
• Exhale, touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your pinky finger.
• Inhale open your hand again.
• Exhale, touch the tip of your thumb to the tip of your ring finger.
• Continue like that, until you reach your pointer finger then reverse the direction and go back, one finger at a time, until you land back at your pinky finger.
• Repeat with the other hand.

Wishing you calm within the end of year storm

Further Reading:

• Thich Nhat Hanh
• Jon Kabat Zinn
• Emotional Intelligence: Daniel Goleman
• The Mindful Brain: Daniel Siegel
• Mindfulness for Teachers: Patricia Jennings
• The Courage to Teach: Parker Palmer
• 108 Monkeys

Guided Meditations for Mindfulness Practice:

• 10-45 minute guided meditations from UC SanDiego Health
• headspace.com (A “gym membership for your mind”!)
• calm.com (Meditations, breathing exercises, relaxing nature scenes…)

Mindfulness Videos:

• https://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/resources/Pages/video.aspx