Early School Skills Development

From 0 to 5 Years

A Tool For Teachers, Child Care Professionals and Parents

For Teachers

Teachers and child care professionals:

Early School Skills Development pages provide you with simple, visual talking points for working with parents. Each page is designed to help you explain the developmental process by which young children attain a specific skill set. You can download and copy the graphics pages in English or Spanish, as well as the descriptor pages as needed. You may choose to talk with parents individually or in a workshop setting. A sample workshop lesson plan is included here.

Note that each skill area is aligned to both Virginia Foundation Blocks for Early Learning: Comprehensive Standards for Four-Year-Olds, 2007 and Milestones of Child Development. A Guide to Young Children’s Development from Birth to Kindergarten and the Virginia Kindergarten Standards of Learning. See the descriptor pages.

Points to explain:

  • Stress how all skills and concepts form a basis for school. Learning begins at home and parents are the child’s first teachers.
  • The illustrations depict children of different ages engaged in developmentally age-appropriate activities for skill and conceptual development. You can talk with the parent about the meaning of each label and picture, expanding upon them. Stress that these are the normal stages in the process of language, cognitive, social and fine motor development. Use the descriptor link for further explanation.
  • The age timeline provides an indicator of when specific skills occur. Note that these timelines have been carefully researched to find a middle ground among various child development checklists (see sources)
  • Talk about skills, developed aptitudes or abilities. Young children need to have opportunities to develop gross and fine motor, language, thinking and social skills. Parent/Caretakers section on the page explains the parent’s role.
  • A concept is a significant idea that is related to other significant ideas. Explain the importance of early concept development as the base for all later learning. Stress the importance of talking about everyday experiences for concept development.


LESSON PLAN FOR A PARENT WORKSHOP

Goal/purpose: to help parents understand 1) learning begins at home; 2) the process of their child’s skill/concept development; and 3)t o be aware of their crucial role in this development

Example: The Development of Language

Background: tap into parent’s prior knowledge

  1. How did/does your baby learn to communicate?
    • As an infant? Show a picture of an infant. Pretend that you are holding your baby. How do you communicate with him? How does he communicate with you?
    • How do/did you and your toddler communicate? Show a toddler picture.
    • Talk about which language to use with a young child. Stress the importance of consistent use of the home/first language as a base for all language.
    • As a 3-4 year old? Show a picture. What can a pre-schooler understand? Say? How can he express himself? How has his language grown since infancy?
  1. What communication skills does your child need for school? Ask the parents for their ideas.

Information

  1. What is language development?
    • Handout/chart/ board:

    Receptive language = understand, listen, aural

    Expressive language = speak, oral

    • Which develops first? How do you know?
  1. Pass out the graphics page (The Development of Language). Discuss in detail. (See page descriptors)
    • Talk about the illustrations showing the kinds of language child can use.
    • Discuss the timeline.
    • Discuss the language skills needed as a basis for school.
    • Talk about the concepts the child needs to have acquired by the time he goes to school. Stress the parent’s crucial role in their child’s conceptual development.
    • Talk about each point in the parents/caregivers section at the bottom of the page.
    • To prove the importance for school, you may want to show how these milestones coordinate with Virginia state standards for preschoolers, four-year olds and kindergarten. See the Alignment section on the descriptor page.

Practice/Application

  1. What can you do to help your child’s language development at his present age?
    • Think. Highlight on the graphics page/write. Share.
  1. What did you learn about language development?



SOURCES

Ages and Stages. (2007). Retrieved Aug. 2008, from Iowa State University Extension: http://www.extension.iastae.edu/Publications

Caplan, T. a. (1983). The Early Childhood Years. The 2 to 6 Year Old. New York: Bantam Books.

Charting Your Child's Healthy Development. (2003). Retrieved Aug. 2008, from Zero to Three: www.zerotothree.org

Development, D. o. Milestones of Child Development. Richmond: Virginia Dept. of Social Services.

Greenspan, S. J. (2004). Key Social, Emotional and Communicative Milestones for Your Baby's Healthy Development.

Healy, J. M. (2004). Your Child's Growing Mind. New York: Broadway Books.

Riley, D. (2008). Social & Emotional Development. Connecting Science and Practice in Early Childhood Settings. Redleaf Press, NAEYC.

Thompson, S. O. (2004). Teaching Cutting Skillls. Retrieved 2007, from Handy Learning: www.handylearning.com

Virginia's Foundation Blocks for Early Learning: Comprehensive Standards for Four-Year-Olds. (2007). Richmond: Virginia Dept. of Education.