I've written about the Center on the Developing Child before, and this week I came across a fascinating interview with their director, Jack Shonkoff. He started off by discussing epigenetics, an area of scientific research that has emerged only in the past 10 to 15 years. This is the idea that human developmental outcomes are influenced neither solely by genes (nature) nor how they are raised (nurture) but instead by the interaction between those two influences. So we're each born with a unique set of genes, but life experiences determine how some of them are expressed, in terms of both behavior and chemical changes in the epigenome. Early experiences are especially influential because development is happening so quickly. Shonkoff said, "This is the biological explanation for what we mean by critical periods of development. If you get things right at the time they are developing, you've got a lifetime of a solid foundation. If you don't get them right, you're not doomed but you've got a lifetime of trying to make up for something that could have been better if it had been done right the first time."
Epigenetics means that we can't separate young children's development from their environments, and environments include physical and emotional environments as well as environments of relationships. Caregivers (parents, teachers, others) play an exceptionally influential role in creating all of those environments, so Shonkoff and his team started looking at what skills and qualities a person needs in order to be a good caregiver. Gradually they realized that the executive function and self-regulation skills people need to be nurturing caregivers are, in fact, the same skills that anyone needs to be a successful adult. Those skills determine how we organize ourselves toward goal-directed behavior as well as how we handle every-day challenges and broader challenges. While executive function and self-regulation skills are mostly developed between ages three and five, they can also be developed and supported later in life, and they help people become better at just about whatever they do. Shonkoff suggested that a "common core" of executive function and self-regulation supports could help just about anyone who is struggling with some aspect of their adult life, from parenting to addiction to success in the work force.
Thanks for sticking with me through a heavy topic this week. Next week in Part Two I'll discuss Shonkoff's views on early childhood educators and the future of our field. Thanks for reading!
Megan
Classroom Updates
Infant I
We enjoyed a pleasant week and got outside in all variety of the elements. Our two recent walkers both bravely attempted to walk across sheer ice but often found that crawling was the safest way to go. That stuff is slippery! Inside we witnessed some first attempts at climbing, lots of effort put into standing with less and less support, and some very joyful rolling. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays Kaitlyn will be joining the Infant II class and Stefany will be spending time with us in her place. This week she was definitely a fun presence in the room. It was also L's last week with us, and we wish her well as she moves on to Infant II. We'll miss you!
A big interest this week was playing in the sensory table with water and different materials. The children enjoyed splashing and playing in the bubbles. Another hit this week was the new boat. At times there were three or four children in it at once. Exploring with the flashlights also continued this week. The children are working hard on learning how to turn them on by themselves. One morning we spent some time in Infant I and enjoyed playing with the different toys and interacting with them. Most of us are happy to share toys with them and very gentle and careful around their small bodies. Next week two of our children will be moving to the Toddler room and one child from Infant I will be coming over to join us. Hannah will be out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Kaitlyn will be with us on those days.
We had a lively and energetic week in the Toddler Room. We are working consistently with our classmates on being gentle to others, specifically treating others with respect and kindness. We enjoyed lots of fresh air and outside time with special interest in walking on hard snow and ice carefully. Shoveling was a huge interest this week with children working very hard on the right technique. We also focused on developing writing skills by working on holding writing tools correctly.
Preschool I
Whew! We had a wonderfully normal week, which is a gift after how unconventional our previous week was. The only tweak to the routine was that Team Shannon introduced splitting the group in half. The first group has outside time from 9:30 to 10:30, and the second group goes out from 10:00 to 11:00. Thus it is in the best interest of the children to get to school by 8:30 to allow them time to gently transition into their school day with some free play. We've had a hoard of emergent interests bubbling up including building castles, making tracks in snow, sliding safely on ice, and both gross motor and fine motor activity songs. The children are also very interested in taking pictures of their work and each other with toy cameras and "tablets," just like their teachers. Next week, Shannon E.-F. will be out and Stefany will join Shannon T. Please support them by chatting with the children at home about "cranking up focus machines, 1, 2, 3," and focusing on their jobs!
Preschool II
Art, illustrators, and writing sentences have been popular areas of interest this week. Many of us worked several mornings on cutting and glueing magazine pictures to create collage art. And while a few of us were ready to bring them home, some of us will continue them next week. We also compared the art from the different books we have been reading the last two weeks. We noticed similarities in our new library book It Takes a Village and our Friday book All the World. We also read a third version of The Mitten story and compared the three versions–how they looked different, had different animals, different colored mittens, and different endings for the mitten, but are they still the same story? We also questioned if the story was just a story Nicki made up to explain what happened to his mitten, orin it was something that really happened. Wednesday was a special day as we made it to the library, the SES playground, and the hockey rink. Thursday we went with a few PreK friends to the Woof trail and found a little hill that was just right for sledding. Some friends worked to build a campsite with a tent and fireplace. On Friday we tried bubbles outside again, but this time they didn't freeze so we blew on them and counted how long we could keep them in the air. One lasted into the 20s!
Throughout the fall I'd been noticing that despite my best efforts at sustaining them, the children's interests were fleeting. That's begun to change as their attention span for games, play themes, and topics of conversation has started to grow. The cardboard box continues to be a favorite place to hide out and this week children started trying to create new hideouts with boxes, sheets of cardboard pillows and blankets. Favorite authors have also been quick to come and go in the past–but who can resist a great Robert Munch book, or five, or more! We have decided we'd like to know more about him, and maybe some other authors as well. Finally, Memory is also still very popular and we are really getting the hang of taking turns and following rules–especially cooperative games where we all get to work together toward a common goal! Out back we've been having fun with some of the younger children who like to sing with us. We are getting really good at improvising to make each song special. Favorites include, "Baa baa dump truck, have you any rocks," "The wheels on the dump truck go round and round" and "Do the hockey dump truck and turn yourself around–that's what it's all about–CLAP!"
 |
 |
| Research on the body systems and bones |
 |
| Checking the baby's eyes |
 |
| In the waiting room at the hospital |
 |
| Doctors prepping for the day |
 |
| "I'm pretending that I was riding my dirt bike and I fell and broke my arm and it's all blood and I need a cast. I'm a teenager that always goes on my dirt bike and I always speed it up to extra... and then I fall." |
Comments
Post a Comment