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There are few parenting experiences more aggravating than kids repeatedly asking "why?". Here's the why behind the whys...and the best way to respond to kids asking why all day long. (This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.)
When I pressed my feet to the floor that morning, I didn't know that in just a few hours I'd begin a whole new phase in my life. A phase I had only heard of in hushed exasperated tones from fellow parents.

My daughter awoke in a pleasant and happy mood. We went downstairs for breakfast complete with special-made Mickey Mouse pancakes. The day was unfolding just like hundreds before it, with easy conversation, giggles and promises of a fun-filled day together.

As I was washing the dishes and cleaning up the remnants of mouse-eared pancakes, my joyful 3-year old dropped a bomb, "But Mom, WHY?" I can still hear it echoing in my ears. That was all it took, and it was then that I knew the "why" stage had begun.

What ensued in the following hours was nothing short of a torrential downpour of the same sequence: question, answer, why?, answer, WHY?, answer, WHY???

Honestly, I was not ready.

I knew that I was in for it because my own mother had regaled stories of how I was the most inquisitive child. Citing example after example of my never-ending onslaught of whys during my early childhood. But truthfully, I thought I had another year or two before I would face what karma had in store for me.

"Why do we have to have meatloaf for dinner?" "Why can't I ride my bike without a helmet like Brendan?" "Why do airplanes fly?" "Why?...Why?...WHY?.... WHY?"

Sometimes it feels as if the questions never end!

But have you ever stopped to think, why your child is asking why?

The "why stage" can be irritating and has been known to leave more than one exasperated parent in its wake. But what this stage signifies is a critical point in your child's development, and a brilliant opportunity to promote self-reliance in your child.

To be able to look at this stage with fresh eyes and approach it with a patient open mind (rather than a very frustrated one), can aid our understanding of why kids ask why in the first place.

As parents, we know that young children are naturally curious and begin striving for independence at an early age.

A study done by the University of Michigan found that around age three, children begin to take an active role in learning more about their environment. One way this manifests itself is through asking questions. By doing this, children are able to practice critical thinking skills and take control of their learning.

Previous studies suggested that young children were only aware of temporal relationships or recognizing that there was specific timing between an action and an outcome and that they couldn't understand causation until they reached seven to eight years of age.

But more recent studies, like the one mentioned above, have revealed that children as young as 3 years old are capable of understanding causation. This means that when children ask questions they are capable of actually understanding and learning how things work and why they happen.

This is vitally important information because these are the earliest opportunities we as parents have to begin teaching our children about the world.

But it definitely isn't easy.

A 2012 report by online retailer Littlewoods surveyed 1000 mothers and found that children ages two to ten asked their mothers an average of 228 questions per day on any given day at home.

That's A LOT of questions and considering that number is per child per day it's easy to see how the kids asking why stage can quickly aggravate even the most experienced parent.

When faced with that daunting number, there is one very important thing to remember.

Children ask questions of the people that they love and trust. This exchange of inquiries and answers serves to grow and strengthen our bonds with our little ones while supporting their hunger for knowledge. And, children who are loved, feel secure, and are knowledgeable are far more capable of being self-sufficient.

What does "why" really mean to children?

As adults, the word "why" has a very specific definition, but to young children, it often encompasses many meanings. As clinical psychologist Sally-Anne McCormack explains, " why" doesn't always mean why, often it is the only word a child knows to express an inquiry or ask a question."

This can make our job as parents more difficult because we need to discern our child's real meaning. James Brush, Ph.D., a child psychologist in Cincinnati explains, young children who are just developing conversational and social skills will sometimes engage in asking questions as a way to seek attention or empathy from a loved one.

While sometimes your child may be seeking a few extra snuggles, studies show that children are most frequently seeking an explanation to their question.

The University of Michigan study revealed children are 2 times more likely to re-ask their question when they receive a non-explanation. For example, if your child asks, "Why do dogs wag their tails?" and you respond, "I like dogs" he is twice as likely to re-ask his question than if you answer, "Dogs wag their tails because they're happy or excited." However, children are four times more likely to ask a follow-up question after an explanation.

So, the bad news is that answering "because I said so" doesn't really work.

The question for parents now becomes, do you want to listen to your child asking the same question over and over because you haven't provided an answer?

Or, do you want to seize the opportunity for learning and engage with your child by providing an adequate explanation and further your conversation?

How to answer after your child asks "why?"

Let's get real for a minute, if a single child asks an average of 228 questions every day is it really possible to actively listen and answer each individual question?

Honestly? No.

McCormack reminds us that realistically it is impractical to answer every question, and it's important to teach your children that your needs as a parent are also important.

However, it's important to filter through the onslaught of questions and determine when a question is really important to your child, or when they simply need a little empathy or reassurance.

Maggie Dent, an author, educator, and parenting/resilience specialist explains that children who are constantly discouraged will withdraw to protect themselves emotionally Instead, try focusing your efforts on actively listening and communicating as often as possible and especially when it's important to your child.
Because honestly, two minutes of peace and quiet to go to the bathroom is not too much to ask.
Whenever possible, encourage your child to ask questions because this fosters their natural curiosity and independence.

When answering questions and conversing with your child, be an active participant. McCormack suggests getting on their level or making eye contact (if possible), showing genuine interest with tone of voice and non-verbal cues, and ultimately asking them questions to practice problem-solving and critical-thinking skills.

Engaging with our children in this way helps to strengthen our parent-child bond and encourage independence.

How to handle kids' uncomfortable questions

But then there are those moments when we, as parents, get blindsided by uncomfortable questions. How you react during these moments when it is especially important to establish open lines of communication?

Alan Kazdin, Ph.D., professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University explains, you need to keep the conversation age-appropriate and honest. When relevant, include your family beliefs and values. This is particularly useful when tackling tough subjects with older children.

Michele Borba, Ed.D., educational psychologist and author of The Big Book of Parenting Solutions adds that you gain credibility by being honest about your past failures and what you learned. This lets children know you're human too and it's not the end of the world if you make a mistake.

Engaging in open communication with your children from a young age, sets the expectation that your kids can talk to you about difficult subjects. By answering your child's questions in an honest and factual way, you build friendship, keep an open line of communication, and build trust, while your child gains knowledge and an understanding of their environment.

How does the "why" stage help kids as they grow?

A study from University College London, found that people who perceived their parents as less psychologically controlling grew up to have greater well-being and life satisfaction. In other words, being a warm and responsive parent by engaging your child in an honest way encourages their learning and awareness, and promotes social and emotional development.

When a child asks a question, it is an opportunity to teach critical thinking skills by delving deeper and asking follow-up questions to encourage them to understand process, causation and even make observations about their environment.

Self-sufficient children are independent because they've learned enough about their environment to be capable of doing things on their own and are confident enough to ask the right questions of the right people when they do need help.

The "why stage" is a wonderful opportunity to encourage life-long learning in your child, with the added benefit of strengthening your relationship and promoting healthy independence.

Being patient when my daughter asked for the fifteenth time why I put milk in my cereal was exhausting. Believe me, I was not ready for this at 9:00 AM on Tuesday.

But instead of blowing my top, I just laughed.

I have accepted my latest parenting challenge, knowing that this phase is an important one (and ultimately one I will miss) in raising a self-reliant child.

Ashley is a wife and mom of one girl and a pup named Stella. She is also the founder of and e-designer for Marie and Maggs Interiors. When she's not working, she loves going on outdoor adventures with her family and sipping on hot peppermint mochas.
See also: What Kids REALLY Need to be Confident, Independent, and Self-Reliant How to Raise Internally Motivated Kids The Secret to Raising Strong, Resilient Kids

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Why Your Child's Most Annoying Habit is Their Best Chance at Success

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There are few parenting experiences more aggravating than kids repeatedly asking "why?". Here's the why behind the whys...and the best way to respond to kids asking why all day long. (This post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and purchase the item, I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.)

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I have a love-hate relationship with those kid-sized carts at the grocery store.

Seeing my toddler stand a little taller as she steps up to the plate behind her very own cart? Love.

Watching her methodically arrange every item in the cart like it's the most important job in the world? Love.

Being on high alert every time she moves a centimeter, to make sure she doesn't ram the cart into the back of someone's legs, take a corner too fast and dump all our groceries on the floor, or knock over the perfectly balanced display for this week's sale on Pinot Grigio? No, thank you.

Now Add This to the Mix

A few weekends ago, we stopped by the store right before my toddler's nap time. Which meant Bailey's cart-driving style felt a lot like a game of Bumper Cars.

With baby Charlie on my hip, I hovered close behind Bailey to head off disaster, offering super helpful warnings of "Watch out!" every five seconds.

She's two, so each time I said, "Watch out," her response was, "Why?"
Because you're going to hit someone.
Because you almost knocked over those watermelons.
Because Mommy's slowly losing her mind.
With every "why," my tone got sharper and my words got shorter. To save my sanity, I switched tactics and started putting my hand on her shoulder to slow her Tasmanian Devil rampage.

We were managing alright until a middle-aged man took his life into his own hands by walking right in front of her cart as we entered an aisle.

I reached out to grab her shirt. "Watch where you're going, Bails."

"Why?" she asked.

I sighed. "Because that man stepped in front of you, and you almost ran into him."

I let go, and she plowed ahead into the aisle, not at all flustered by the near-collision.

"Why?" But it wasn't from Bailey. My head snapped up, my narrowed eyes settling on the source.

A guy. Smiling and chuckling at his joke.

I guess the look on my face gave him the idea I wasn't in a joking mood because his smile slipped, and he said, "No, I get it!"

He gestured to a middle-school-aged kid trailing behind him.

I recovered and laughed, but I didn't linger to swap all our best parenting tips for coping with kids asking why because I had a loose cannon to chase.

What We're Doing Wrong When Our Kids Ask, "Why?"

My overreaction to a stranger's friendly comment was the wake-up call I needed.

I realized that for the first few why's of every day, I was the model of patience. I calmly explained whatever it was to my toddler, sometimes even coming up with a playful metaphor to bring the point home.

But as we reached 5, 10, 20 why's, my reserves of patience dried up. Not only that, she'd ask "Why?" for the same things, every day.

Please shut the baby gate when you go upstairs. Why?

It's time to calm your body down for sleep. Why?

Toothpaste is for brushing your teeth, not for eating. Why?

Up until that weekend, I misunderstood what my toddler was really asking when she asked, "Why?"

She didn't want me to give her the right answer. Giving her the right answer meant she'd still ask the same question the next time.

She wanted me to lead her toward the answer.

The Magic Phrase to Use With Kids Asking Why

After my eureka moment, I decided I wouldn't answer the knee-jerk why's anymore.

Instead, I came up with a new phrase that I use in those situations. Not only has this phrase saved my stores of patience for more important things like when my toddler colors on the furniture with a Sharpie, but it's also cut way back on the number of why's I hear every day.

Even when I do hear a why, my toddler will often jump right in after her own question to offer up an idea for an explanation.

If you're tired of answering your child's why's and don't want to resort to "Because I said so," try saying this instead:

"You tell me why."

And wait for her to come up with an explanation. Your little one might need a gentle nudge when you first try this out, so feel free to ask some follow-up questions to get her gears turning. For example:

What would happen if...? What would happen if you left the baby gate open, and your baby sister crawled over to the stairs?

Do you think...? Do you think jumping up and down on the bed will get your body ready for sleep?

Do you see...? Do you see where we keep food in our house? Is that where we keep the toothpaste?

Start with this, and go from there:

"You tell me why."

This phrase has been a lifesaver in the last few weeks. I now have a positive way to respond to kids asking why, giving me one fewer trigger for losing my cool with my little ones.
Related: I Found the Secret to Being a Happy Mom
But First, a Disclaimer

This is the important part: You have to keep your cool when saying, "You tell me why."

If you grit your teeth or heave a big sigh or use a snappy tone, it won't work. You have to want to hear your child's ideas for this phrase to be effective. And kids are intuitive. They'll know if you don't really mean it, and you won't achieve your desired effect. In other words, have fun continuing to answer "Why?" 70 million times a day.

I made the mistake of using a snappy tone one day, and my daughter shut down. She wouldn't answer me, and the phrase stopped working. We were back to square one. So I took a break for a few days and tried "You tell me why" again. I kept my tone curious and upbeat, and lucky for me, the damage wasn't permanent. The magic lived on!

A few more caveats for you:

Your little one's brain is working, working, working. Be patient while she comes up with an answer. It might take a few more seconds than you'd expect. You can always try a follow-up question like the ones I gave above, but sometimes just waiting will do the trick.

Your body language is key. If you cross your arms and show frustration on your face, this phrase won't work. One trick I've found works well is to cock my head a little to one side while I wait. This shows her I'm interested in what she has to say. (I learned this trick from my friend Lauren, who has lots more useful tips on how to teach kids to listen without using words.)

You might need to fill in the holes. Your kid is figuring out how this big crazy world works, so her first explanation won't always be spot on. Try to find something you can agree with in her explanation, then bridge from that to your explanation. For example, suppose you tell her to stop eating toothpaste and her first explanation is, "Because it tastes bad." You might reply with, "That's right. It doesn't taste as good as food. But also, it doesn't have the healthy vitamins and other stuff your body needs from food. And if you swallow too much toothpaste, you might get a tummyache."

Your mileage may vary. This worked with my kiddo, and the friends I've shared it with said it worked for them, too. But every kid is different, so I can't guarantee it'll work for you. Just give it a try for a few days and see what happens. Worst case, you end up back where you started. And best case, you'll hear about 69 million fewer why's a day.

Related: The Only Thing You Need to Survive the "Terrible Twos" - With Your Sanity Intact
What This Phrase Won't Do

Even though this phrase is magic, it won't help your kid avoid wreaking havoc while pushing her own cart around the grocery store.

If you're like me and you have a love-hate relationship with those kid-sized shopping carts, let me know if you figure out the secret to avoiding frustration as you hover behind your kid.

In the meantime, I considered trying to convince her the carts aren't as fun as she thinks, but after thinking it through, here's what I decided: When my toddler asks if she can push her own shopping cart at the store, I'll humor her, every time.

Because one day, she won't ask to push a kid-sized cart. And I'll ask, "Aren't you going to grab a cart, honey?"

She'll wrinkle her nose and say, "No, Mom." In that moment, three thoughts will pop-pop-pop through my mind:

So on that day, don't be surprised if you find me pushing my own cart through the store, ugly-crying while she hangs back pretending she doesn't know me.

Your Turn

How do you handle your kids asking why? Share in a comment below!
Facebook preview photo by Donnie Ray Jones.

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Kelly Holmes, author and Certified Parent Educator

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The Best Way to Respond When Your Kid Asks "Why" All Day Long

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I have a love-hate relationship with those kid-sized carts at the grocery store. Seeing my toddler stand a little taller as she steps up to the plate behind her very own cart? Love. Watching her methodically arrange every item in the cart like it's the most important job in the world?

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Today we're talking all about the toddler why stage, why it happens and how to navigate it. This post was written and first published back in 2017 when we hit the why stage with Lincoln at age 2.
Two months ago we hit the "why" and the "no!" stage at the very same time. And it really shouldn't just be called the "why" stage, because if toddlers only asked "why" once, it wouldn't be so overwhelming. Answering my toddler's constant questions has done more for my patience in the last eight weeks than just about anything else in parenting. That said, I've delved into everything I could find on toddlers asking why and wanted to share what I've learned and what strategies have worked for us as I try to keep my sanity through it all.

First, if you're in the thick of the toddler "why"s, you're not alone.

So far today he's asked "why" 47 times and he hasn't even taken his afternoon nap yet. The longest stretch he's done is 9 "why"s before I gave him a satisfactory answer.

Why your toddler asks why

Getting a little insight into why my toddler keeps asking this one word question has helped me step back and work on patiently answering the endless questions a little bit better. Here's what I've learned about why they are constantly asking why:

To learn more

Your toddler is anxious to learn as much as he can about his surrounding environment. This curiosity can either be encouraged by you as you answer his questions or it can be stifled as you ignore his incessant requests for more information.

I try and remind myself I'm helping his brain grow, and this is one step to having a curious and engaged student years down the road. Sometimes, it works better than others 😉

To get your attention

Your toddler has realized that asking you questions is one easy way to get your attention quickly. Just as a toddler acting out is often in need of more love and attention, sometimes the incessant "why"s are pleads for a few extra moments of eye contact.

To stay in control

It is so easy for a toddler to feel out of control (we talked a lot about this in my post on Why your toddler says "NO!" and how to respond while keeping your sanity). Sometimes, their repetitive use of the question, "why?" is simply a way to control the conversation and discussion. They may still be developing the language skills to ask complex questions and love the power that comes from mastering this one word conversation starter.

What to do when your toddler asks "why?"

So now that you're familiar with why they could be asking "why" all the time, here were the suggestions I came across and how they're working for us.

Before you pick one suggestion to work on, I think it's worth spending some time trying to figure out the reason behind your toddler's "why"s. For us, it seems to mostly be wanting more information with the need for more attention thrown in there occasionally. Realizing this helped me choose which suggestions to focus on.

Also, we've been implementing a lot of these for a couple of weeks and the "WHY"s HAVE NOT STOPPED (not that I want them to after learning more about them). But, I'm a lot more patient in responding to them, and they lead to more meaningful conversation than they did last month.

Don't ignore the questions

It's tempting, I know. Especially when you get to the seventh one in a row or the 40th in the hour, but these questions are indicative of the natural curiosity in your toddler, something you don't want to stifle. He's insatiably curious about the world around him, and this is an opportunity to feed that curiosity.

Be Okay with Saying "I don't know"

I'm a mom, not an expert on construction equipment or weather patterns. If Lincoln wanted to know about camera apertures or political theory, I could answer his questions more accurately. I've learned to be okay with not always knowing the answers to his questions and not getting frustrated when I don't.

There are also plenty of times the questions he asks aren't outside of my expertise-I just don't know the answer. I often turn an "I don't know" into an "I'm not sure, why do YOU think that bird has landed in the tree."

Search for the Answer Together

A tip I read recently for encouraging life-long learning is for kids to see their parents searching for answers. I haven't yet suggested to Lincoln that we look something up together but I'm excited to use his incessant "why"s as in indication of his interest in something and then spend time together learning about that topic. I think a great response to a string of "why"s you don't know the answer to is, "I don't know the answer to that one but I bet we could find the answer _____" (online/in a book/at the library).

Answer the real question

The biggest takeaway from my reading on why toddlers ask "why" is that they aren't always asking for a cause and effect answer. Often they're really just looking to understand more about something they're seeing or experiencing. If your toddler asks why he has to get in the car he might just want to know where you're going and how long you're going to be gone for. If your child is asking why you're having pasta for dinner, he really may just want to know what pasta is or what you're having to go with it.

Instead of feeling the need to explain the cause and effect in your answer, simply give them more information about the topic you're discussing.

Another example I really liked is how this concept applies to answering questions you don't know the answer to.

For example, I might point out if Lincoln can see the green leaves on a tree and he'll ask "why?" Instead of trying to remember photosynthesis and getting frustrated with my lack of details, I'll respond with, "Some trees are green all year round. These are called evergreen trees. Some trees have leaves that change color and fall off before new ones grow in. In the fall the leaves change to orange or yellow or red or brown before they fall off. Usually the leaves grow back green in the spring."

See? I was able to explain something more about the tree being green that was on his level of understanding without having to actually answer the question he asked (side note: I don't get too complicated with him but I often don't try to stick to his level of understanding because I find I am constantly underestimating how much he can understand). Lincoln is usually pretty satisfied with this type of answer and ends with "yes!" instead of another "why?"

This concept has made the biggest difference in how I respond to Lincoln's questions and my patience levels while doing so. It also gives me some freedom to direct the conversation.

Turn the question back to him

My mom loves to tell the story of when she was at her wits end of my incessant "why"s. We were on a walk and saw our neighbor put a letter in the mailbox. We'd gone through a couple of different "why" questions until my mom turned it back to me, "why do you think she was walking to her mailbox."

"Because she has an elephant in her bathtub and she is writing a letter to the zoo to see if they want to take him to live there." Obviously 😉

I love how this tactic encourages imagination and gives you, as the parent, an insight into your child's mind and thought processes.

When I try to ask Lincoln the "why" question (he's 27 months) he often thinks I'm trying to correct him and will repeat the long question I asked him back to me (he does the same thing most of the time I say "thank you" after he says "please." He quickly corrects himself of "please thank you mama" and now says both of them together half the time :P). So this one doesn't work well for us yet but I'm excited to keep using it.

Give him attention when he doesn't ask for it

This one is especially important if your toddler is asking you "why" because he likes the attention he gets from you when he does so. Find other ways for him to feel loved and you'll find his questions start to stem more from his curiosity instead of his need for affection.

Change the subject after you answer

I've made it a personal rule not to ignore his questions, but I do find that sometimes Lincoln will keep asking "why" endlessly. When we've gone through two or three iterations I'll give my answer and then quickly, before he has time to ask it again, ask him another question. Sometimes it has to do with what we're talking about and sometimes it is just to redirect his attention. For example, "Oh, do you see that blue car over there?" or "Lincoln, what did we do together this morning?" It works like a charm 🙂

Force him to ask the full question

Instead of accepting an endless string of "Why"s, require your toddler to ask a complete sentence question in order to get a response. For example, if you tell him it's time to get in the car and he says "why," hep him ask "Why do we need to get in the car?" in order to have you answer.

This is a recent tip I just came across, and I've only been enforcing it for a few days. It's hard because Lincoln doesn't have the vocabulary to ask the full question a lot of the time, and at first he didn't understand what I was asking him. But, I love the concept of this strategy, encouraging vocabulary while cutting down on the "why"s that aren't important enough to take all the effort to ask. If you use this method and are consistent about it, I think it would be appropriate to ignore incessant "why"s when your child isn't asking the full question (similar to how I don't always respond to Lincoln's request for milk unless he's asking politely. Instead I'll ask, "How can we ask that nicely?" and when he asks with a "please" I'll go and get his milk out of the fridge).

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Phew, that was a lot! I hope you found some of it helpful and I'd love to know which of the strategies work for you and your toddler.

Find this useful? Pin it for later:

I've found that, when I try to answer children at this stage of development with the reason for something, they are left cold. After conversing with thousands of children, I've decided that what they really mean is, "That's interesting to me. Let's talk about that together. Tell me more, please?" When I've connected with children and begun to spin a tale to answer this question, they've sat enthralled. There was no need to mention because, or therefore, or cause, or effect. They don't need to know why, all they need is animated attention and me saying whatever came to mind about that subject. After a brief interchange, we were both happy. Let me give you an example.

I remember when one of my own sons asked me why the sky was blue. I told him that on sunny days the sky was blue and that on cloudy days it was gray and that at night it was very, very dark. Sometimes in-between day and night, it's a pretty pink or orange. And there are cool things in the sky. The sun gives us heat and light. It's like the stars, only closer. There are planets that go around the sun, and we live on one of them, called Earth.

Notice that I didn't at all answer why the sky is blue, but I did connect with him and answer his real question. He was delighted with our interchange and I got an enthusiastic "cool," not another automatic "why?" We both won.

When babies cry, they are not just asking for food or a new wardrobe. They are asking for you! Our young scholars are curious and eager to explore the world, but they are still asking for you. They want to explore this fascinating world with the people they feel the safest around and love the most.

This communication dance doesn't end with the "why" phase of development. As children grow, their communication skills become more refined, and it is often more difficult to hear the "That's interesting to me. Let's talk about that together," underneath the surface. As we look for the invitation into our children's lives and relate to them at their level of interest, we'll find countless opportunities to engage with them. This communication dance is not an easy one. Every time we learn the steps, they seem to develop a new set of moves. So, what does "Mom, can I borrow the keys to the car?" really mean? 🙂

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Best ways to handle the toddler why phase | Elisabeth McKnight

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Today we're talking all about the toddler why stage, why it happens and how to navigate it. This post was written and first published back in 2017 when we hit the why stage with Lincoln at age 2. Two months ago we hit the "why" and the "no!"

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Kids ask a lot of hard-to-answer questions, but these questions can spark great conversations that build trust. Get suggestions for tackling the questions that make every parent squirm.

Children are naturally curious about how the world works, which means they ask a lot of questions. Some questions are easier to answer than others, and there's no one right way to respond. Consider your child's temperament and developmental level, as well as your family's values on a given topic.

Below are a few general suggestions for tackling those tricky questions that make every parent squirm:

Ask clarifying questions to understand exactly what your child is asking.

Offer a simple, straightforward answers.

Be honest-it's okay to admit you feel uncomfortable or don't know exactly how to respond.

Be available for follow-up.

Kids' Questions about Anatomy and Sex

Questions about anatomy and sex can be a challenge, depending on the age of your children and your comfort level with discussing these topics.

Q: "Why doesn't my sister's/brother's body look like mine?"

A: Most child educators and safety experts agree it's a good idea to use the correct terms for body parts when you explain to your child about differences in body parts. Especially when your children are young, you can explain "private parts" and what body privacy means: that nobody else should touch them. This is also a good time to let your child know that they should come to you or another trusted adult if anyone does try to touch their bodies.

Q: "Where do babies come from? How did the baby get in your belly?"

A: In a perfect world, talking about sex with our children would be just another topic, like hygiene, math, or sports. We don't live in a perfect world, however, so conversations about sex can cause a lot of discomfort and anxiety-mostly for the parents. Take a deep breath, and follow these simple tips.

Ask your child "What do you think?" before answering questions to get a better sense of what is really being asked and what's likely to be understood. It always helps to understand your child's questions and current thinking before trying to educate them.

Tell the truth. If you make up a story about storks or fairies, it will only cause confusion and mistrust later on.

Avoid too much detail and keep answers short and simple. If your child is not satisfied with your answers, more questions will follow.

Make conversations matter-of-fact. When discussing body functions and sex your child, treat the conversations as you would any other important topic-calmly, and matter-of-factly. Children are perceptive, and they will be able to tell if you're uncomfortable.

Be available. One of the best rules of parenting is to spend relaxed time together and have lots of conversations. Let your child know in words and actions that you are available to offer information and answer questions about sex or anything else.

Defer when appropriate. If a question about sex comes up in the doctor's office or in the line at the bank, don't be afraid to say, "What a good question! Let's talk about that at home later." Then, bring it up again at home so your child knows you aren't avoiding the conversation.

How to Answer Kids' Philosophical Questions

In some ways, philosophical questions are harder to answer because they're about existential, abstract, or unknowable topics. For example:

What is God?

Why do we die? What happens to us when we die? Are you going to die?

If I'm not allowed to hurt my friends, why is it okay to kill a chicken to eat it?

What is a war? Am I safe? Will I be attacked?

Why do some people not have homes?

At the heart of most of these questions are the underlying questions, "Am I safe? Is the world safe?" Your background and values will determine how you answer these questions for yourself and your child, but what if you're not sure of the answer?

Reflect and open the discussion. Some parents may feel uncomfortable and want to either change the subject or brush the question off with a dismissive remark like: "Never mind. That's a grown-up question." Other parents use these tough questions as an opportunity to examine their own beliefs and, depending on the age of their children, discuss these issues as a family. Like with questions about sex, it can be helpful to ask our child, "What do you think?" Not only will it send the message that these thoughts and questions matter, it will signal you are open to discussion.

Research and collaborate. There are endless books that cover "what do we believe?" questions. Explore the parenting section of your library or bookstore or consult like-minded parents. If you are a religious or spiritual person, you may also want to consult with your spiritual community to find information aimed at answering children's questions about religion and the afterlife.

Offer comfort and reassurance. Consider why your child is asking the question. Is it in pursuit of information, comfort, understanding-or all three? Has there been frightening news coverage or has a friend experienced a loss? Children generally want to know 1) why a situation has occurred, 2) what is being done to help or comfort those involved, and 3) how it might affect them. It's okay to acknowledge that life can be unpredictable and confusing, but try to end on a comforting, solutions-oriented note. For example: "People become homeless for a lot of different reasons, such as because they're sick or they lost their job. We donate to the homeless shelter, and we keep money in an emergency fund to help keep our family safe."

Those tough questions your children ask can give you insight into their fears, challenges, and developmental understanding. They can also spark great conversations that build trust. Don't worry about getting every answer right. You can revisit a topic more than once.

More on Tough Conversations with Kids

* Being confident in your parenting approach and style will help you tackle tough questions.
*Is your child feeling stressed? Help your child relieve stress with these expert tips.
*Learn how building resilience can guide your child through challenging life experiences.

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Answering Your Child?s Toughest Questions

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Kids ask a lot of hard-to-answer questions, but these questions can spark great conversations that build trust. Get suggestions for tackling the questions that make every parent squirm. Children are naturally curious about how the world works, which means they ask a lot of questions.

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Simple fine motor activities that combine a seasonal sensory element are an engaging and wonderful opportunity for toddlers to develop their basic skills while exploring their senses at the same time.

I love planning activities within our home around the seasons! With spring in full bloom, I knew that this simple garden themed fine motor activity would draw the interest of my three-year-old.

Hello, can we say dirt?!

Build Your Garden Fine Motor Activity

I chose to use carrots in our garden. You could use any type of vegetable, fruit or flower you desire or that your child has an interest in.

To create our garden fine motor tray, I used a serving tray, potting soil, and orange and green pipe cleaners. I used the pipe cleaner to create our carrots. I also used tweezers and an ice cube tray.

When planning any kind of activity, I always strive for simple setups and preparations. I place all our activities on trays as it allows for one main focal point for the child, easy access, and easy cleanup!

To begin, I simply spread a thick layer of potting soil across our tray and "planted" the little carrots for my three-year-old to pick using his garden tool (tweezers).

I placed the ice cube tray beside the big tray as a place to put the harvested vegetables.

My little gardener went right to work! He was so excited to dig in the dirt and find each carrot to pick.

Initially, it took him a few tries to get a good pincer grasp on his tweezers. He ended up using a two-hand grip that still focused on his fine motor skills.

The repetitive and familiar motion of picking the carrots was a great way to build strength in his hand muscles.

As he picked, he combined his current interests in numbers and carefully counted each carrot while placing it in the ice cube tray. I love seeing little ones combine their learning all on their own!

For an added learning experience, after he was done harvesting his garden I had him replant his carrots. We talked about what kind of shape or pattern he might want to create in the dirt with his carrots.

He chose to plant them all in a clustered bunch on top of a hill that he created.

This simple garden fine motor activity, with an added sensory element, is the perfect way to introduce the season of spring to your little one!

Do you enjoy getting dirty with your little one? Share your favorite gardening tips with us!

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Spring Garden Fine Motor Sensory Activity

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Simple fine motor activities that combine a seasonal sensory element are an engaging and wonderful opportunity for toddlers to develop their basic skills while exploring their senses at the same time. I love planning activities within our home around the seasons!

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Aug 29, 2017 - Whether you are planning a gardening preschool theme or you are just looking for some gardening activities for preschoolers, you will find good ideas here.

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Feb 17, 2020 - Try these easy plant activities for preschool this spring! Get kids learning about plants with these easy planting activities.

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Mixing Earth Materials in a Jar Science Activity for Kids

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May 29, 2018 - Kids can have fun exploring the properties of earth materials in this simple science experiment. Mix sand, rocks and water to discover how materials interact.

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The teaching team will enhance the science center by providing stimulating materials and hands-on activities at least once a month in order for children to gravitate to the center and increase the ECERS 25. Science/nature score.

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Team Cartwright | STEM, Science Experiments, Learning, and Twins

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Easy Weather Science Experiments for Preschoolers and Toddlers

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Apr 15, 2020 - 5 Easy weather science experiments for preschoolers and toddlers! Simple hands on learning activities to help your child learn about rain, tornadoes, rainbows, and more!

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The teachers will promote critical thinking by asking at least two open-ended questions throughout the day and giving them time to respond.

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Teachers will promote expressive language by using at least three language modeling strategies throughout the day.

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Across the nation, teachers learning about CLASS are asked to narrate their actions and sportscast their children's experiences in order to support and encourage healthy language development. Hearing this, many teachers may wonder, "Will people think I'm crazy if I start talking to myself in the classroom?"

The answer is no. Self- and parallel talk are beneficial strategies for teachers to engage in because they strengthen language rich environments and enhance vocabulary development, all while supporting effective relationship building between teachers and children.

What is self-talk?

In self-talk the teacher intentionally describes what he or she is thinking, seeing, hearing, touching or doing. The teacher links words to actions: "I'm giving each of you a handful of animal crackers. I am placing the crackers in a pile in the center of your napkins." These words are said while the teacher actively passes out the snack, making words like, "handful," "placing," and "pile" come alive for the children.

Self-talk is NOT simply using "I" statements, such as, "I am going to tour the zoo tomorrow and I will feed a giraffe! I love giraffes.'" Why would statements like this be less effective? In this example, a child may not know know the word "tour" or "giraffe." These words are said in an abstract way and not made concrete by mapping them to what the child can currently see or experience.

What is parallel-talk?

In parallel talk, the teacher links words directly to children's current actions or experiences. For example, "You are holding the zipper and zipping your jacket all the way up to your chin." The teacher becomes a sportscaster, narrating a play-by-play account of what the child is seeing, feeling, or doing, making words personalized and meaningful.

Parallel talk is NOT simply using a "you" statement, such as, "You did a good job painting your picture." Why? Because this comment refers to something that happened in the past and does not promote the more powerful connection between a child's real-time experiences and the language that describes these moments in rich, memorable detail.

So how can self- and parallel talk be incorporated into your daily schedule?

Take the first step by selecting one part of your daily routine when you can begin to narrate what you and your children are doing during an activity. Try modeling their behavior while describing your actions and pausing for their response, whether it be verbal or non-verbal, and then continuing on with this cycle of communication.

Build relationships! Engage shy, quiet, or non-verbal children by joining them in play and describing both of your actions in a conversational way, focusing on the child's interests, without adding the stress of asking questions or expecting verbal responses. The child will be exposed to personalized language in a relaxed setting and your relationship will be strengthened by sharing an enjoyable activity together.

Tips to increase the effectiveness of self- and parallel talk

Teachers should use these strategies in a back-and-forth, conversational way, being careful not to bombard children with details. While maintaining the flow of communication, teachers should frequently pause so that children may join in, either verbally or non-verbally.

The purpose of these strategies is to expose children to meaningful language and enhance language development. To increase effectiveness, there should be no requirement for children to respond to or to imitate what is being said when providing self- and parallel talk.

As you practice mapping actions with words, it will soon become a more natural part of your daily routine and both you and your children will enjoy the benefits of enhanced communication in your classroom.

This post was written by Mamie Morrow and Anne Tapaszi, two of Teachstone's professional development specialists

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Using Self- and Parallel Talk to Enhance Communication Skills

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Across the nation, teachers learning about CLASS are asked to narrate their actions and sportscast their children's experiences in order to support and encourage healthy language development. Hearing this, many teachers may wonder, "Will people think I'm crazy if I start talking to myself in the classroom?" The answer is no.

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Judi Stevenson-Garcia: Hi, everyone. Welcome to the front porch series, and thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Judi Stevenson-Garcia, and I'm from the National Center on Early Childhood Teaching and Learning, and I'm here with Karen Nemeth. Hi, Karen. Can you tell us a little bit ...

Karen Nemeth: Hello.

Judi: Hi. Can you tell us about what this series is going to cover this year?

Karen: Well, we're really excited about the luxury of having a three-part webinar series that's all about supporting language development, effective practices for supporting language development and supporting development in two or more languages as well. So, the whole series is a connected package, and this is just the beginning when we talk today about research.

Judi: Awesome. I am excited to be a part of this, and I'm excited to be able to do a webinar series with you, Karen. So, this is going to be great. So, our goals for today, what we're hoping we'll be able to accomplish in the 57 minutes that we have with you this hour, we're going to be focusing on providing you with a better understanding of the research on first and second language development.

And we're hoping that you'll be able to identify connections between the research and the strategies that support high-quality instructional interactions, and then finally we're really hoping ... This is actually our greatest hope: that you'll be able to take this research information and think about how this knowledge will improve your support of children who are dual language learners.

So, let's get started. First, it's always important to start with a definition of dual language learners from the Head Start Program Performance Standards, so let's take a minute to read this definition together. A dual language learner is a child who is acquiring two or more languages at the same time, or a child who is learning a second language while continuing to develop their first language.

The term dual language learner may encompass or overlap substantially with other terms frequently used such as bilingual, English language learner, limited English proficient, English learner, and children who speak a language other than English. So, just to get a feel for the languages supported by those of you on this webinar, I'm going to ask you to answer a poll. We're interested in finding out, for those of you who are here with us today, how many languages are spoken by the children and families in your program, so go ahead and take a minute. If you aren't sure, you can make an estimate, or you can say that you aren't sure. You have those options if you scroll down.

Do you have one language represented, two, three to four, five to six, more than six? Or, you can let us know if you aren't exactly sure. So, this looks like we have a real diversity here, but quite a few of our programs are right there - or participants are right there in the two, three, and four languages represented. A good 10% of you have more than six, which is a real challenge; so, I'm hoping that what we share with you today, and throughout this Front Porch series, will be really helpful for you in understanding first and second language development and how to support it in your programs.

So, before we talk about second language development, and even before we start talking about first language development, it's important to have a little bit of a background on brain development. So, that's where we're going to start. We're going to start with the brain connections that are really important to children who are learning language. So, we know that when children are born, they already have the majority of the neurons or the brain cells that they'll ever have.

What is missing are the connections between the neurons; so, our experiences help to determine which connections form between the neurons and how strong those connections are. When we learn something new, we are shaping how the neurons in our brains connect and communicate. Some connections form in our brains as a result of common experiences that all typically developing children are exposed to such as light, sound, touch, and taste, those sensory experiences.

Other connections form as a result of our unique experiences such as the languages we learn or the foods that we enjoy eating. Scientists are still investigating exactly how these connections form, but they do know that the more exposure we have to a particular experience or set of experiences, the stronger those connections are going to be between neurons. This is true of both positive and negative experiences in our lives.

Because the connections between neurons in our brains depend on the experiences we have in our lives, newborns don't yet have all of the connections in place, and this is a really good thing because we each have to become an expert at living our own lives based on our specific environments. So, this flexibility in how our brains become wired allows us to do that. Children's brains are particularly sensitive to experiences in part because during the first few years of life, connections between neurons are forming rapidly.

Here's a fun fact: By the age of 5, a child's brain has about three times the amount of connections than an adult brain has, and that's more connections than it will ever need. But what happens is that over time, the brain systematically reduces the number of connections it has, keeping the frequently used connections and then getting rid of those infrequently used ones. This process of refining the number of connections between neurons is called pruning, and this is an incredibly important process for healthy brain develop.

Let's take a look at how that happens. Scientists often refer to this pruning process as something like the process of caring for a rose bush. So, if you're a gardener or someone who takes care of plants, this analogy might be super familiar to you. The result of this pruning process is a brain or, in this example a rose bush, that is healthy and thriving. The branches, or the connections that are left, are stronger, and the brain is more efficient. So, like a rose bush, at first there is this period of rapid growth when the brain is blooming - that's those early years for young children. During this time, the brain makes extra connections, and these extra connections actually make the brain less efficient.

There's a lot going on. So, just like after this period of rapid growth in the spring, a rose bush can become kind of gangly with too many branches going in all different directions. After the period of blooming in the brain, connections are refined or pruned based on the experiences we have in our lives.

Connections that we need, we keep. Connections that we don't need, the ones that are making it more difficult for the brain to function, those are removed. The results of this process, this pruning process, is a brain, or in this example a rose bush, that is healthy and thriving, and the branches, or the connections, that are left are stronger, and our brains are much more efficient. We have all the connections we need, and we've gotten rid of the ones that we don't. Throughout this process of brain development, there are lots of different periods of blooming and pruning, and these bursts occur at different times and in different parts of the brain.

Scientists think that these bursts of blooming and pruning align with the sensitive periods in the brain, and these sensitive periods are times when our brains are particularly open to new experiences and to learning. So, this was a quick, four-minute lesson on brain development, and there's so much more that we could say, but I wonder, Karen, could you help us with a concrete example of maybe what this pruning process would look like with a child?

Karen: You know, yeah. I think all this talk about roses is helpful, but what about children, right? And everybody can identify with the idea of when a toddler first starts learning words. Like, they have a pet dog at home, and they start saying, "Doggie," and for a while, the only time they say, "Doggie," is when they see their own pet. And then they begin to generalize, right? To build connections.

They go to the park, and they see a neighbor's dog, and they say, "Doggie," and everybody gets real excited. And then they see a doggie in a book, and they say, "Doggie." And they're finding additional examples to fit that concept of doggie in their brain, but one thing the family might bring that child to the farm, and the child would see a four-legged animal that has long ears and a long tail, and he might say, "Doggie," and that animal might say, "Moo," and we realize the child is going to start generalizing to additional examples that are not really doggies, and when he does that, he will get a different response from the other people in his environment than he does when he uses doggie correctly.

And so, over time, he will start to learn that he's generalized too far, and there are some things that do fit the concept of "doggie," and some things that he can prune out of his understanding of doggie, that he can leave them out, cut them out and fine tune his understanding of doggie so that he's using it correctly. And then the connections his brain makes to that word become that much stronger, and once he has that strong connection and that strong collection of examples that are correct for doggie, it's easier and more successful if he learns that word in a new language, too, because he already has that strong collection of connections that helped him.

Judi: I love that example, Karen. I think that's so helpful, and when you think of a young toddler who's just beginning to use words, right? They point at every four-legged animal and say, "Doggie, doggie," and it's like they're testing out what fits and what doesn't, right? I think that's a really helpful example of pruning, so thank you for that. So, let's think a little bit now about what kind of supports we know, and the research shows us, are helpful in supporting first language development.

The research about first language development helps us understand what children need to support the development of a new language, as well as what they need to support their development as a bilingual or biliterate or multilingual language learner. There are some of the supports that we use to help all children build their language skills, and we're going to take most of our time here together to think about what the research shows us about how these features help in one, two, or even more languages. We're going to explore these approaches to supporting language development as we move through the webinar.

So, we're going to take you through the use of appropriate language modeling, vocabulary bridging, language mapping, nonverbal supports, oral language prompts, and peer-to-peer conversation supports, and don't worry if any of these terms are not familiar to you, they will be familiar to you by the end of this webinar. So, the strategies that we use to support language development are always to build these connections between neurons that Karen was just talking about: the connections among the brain cells and the connections between familiar words and new words.

The interesting thing is that all of those strategies that I just mentioned are focused on helping the child build their own connections between what they know currently and the new words and concepts that they're encountering. So, think about the example that Karen just gave us. They understand something about dog, but they're learning new concepts, and they're connecting those concepts to what they already know.

So, when we talk about those approaches that I just mentioned, we're talking about strategies that have been shown by research to help children construct their own language. Now, one thing we know if we know young children: They need to talk. They need to use language in order to learn it, and they need to use new words in different ways and different times and different contexts so that they learn the many meanings of a word. Simply telling things to a child is not enough to support their learning.

So, let's look at some of the other key factors in first language development. We know that humans use language expressively to make connections with others by talking and writing. They use language receptively to make connections with others by listening and reading, and they also use language internally to make connections between thoughts and feelings. That might be one language use that you haven't thought of, but when you keep in mind the purposes of language, to communicate and organize, you can use this knowledge to guide interactions with children.

Now, sometimes we may feel that telling children things feels like teaching. You can tell them lots of information, give them lots of new ideas and concepts, but research is pretty clear that children will learn more and more effectively when we teach through a two-way communication that gives them plenty of practice using words responsively and internally as well. What this means in practice is usually much less teacher talk and lots more child talk, and the teacher talk that is happening is meant to, or intended to, elicit the language from the children to encourage them to think and to respond. Additionally, research shows that children benefit from having books read to them, but they benefit more when they have opportunities to talk with adults, and each, other about the stories.

Think about experiences of children during a whole group story time. Some children may have a chance to talk about what you are reading, but many children do not. For many children, listening to stories is a passive experience, but when you're in small groups or with an individual child, you can engage in a conversation about the story so that they all have the opportunity to engage in an active learning experience. You can make connections with prior learning and children's lived experiences and ask questions like, "Why?" or "How?" that are related to the characters and events in the book.

So, for example, if a child does not speak the teacher's language, the teacher could choose stories that could be acted out together, use some open-ended questions in the child's home language and record their answers. You could ask, "What will happen next?" or, "What are the characters doing?" We'll fill in, in the next two webinars in this series, with many more detailed examples of teaching practices in action.

OK. So, we want to hear from you. This is your opportunity to talk with each other and share you great ideas with your colleagues. So, go ahead and open up that ideas widget, that yellow light bulb widget, and take a minute to share with each other how you know when a great conversation is happening between you and a child or between another adult and a child. What I love about the ideas widget is that you can give thumbs-up to responses you appreciate, and you can also respond directly to a comment with your own thoughts.

So, this is a great opportunity for you to share with each other, take advantage of the knowledge and experience you and your colleagues have brought to this webinar. When I think about great conversations between adults and children, some of the things that I think are really important or that define a great conversation is one where you stay on topic for five or more turns, this idea of having a back-and-forth conversation, where the topic stays the same and you're engaging in deeper and deeper thinking or asking children to expand on what they're thinking. It's also important to have mutual interests, right?

So, whatever this child is telling you or explaining to you, being interested in what they're saying and what they're exploring with their ideas, definitely a part of a great conversation. Lots of opportunities to respond to each other, taking turns in the conversation, using critical thinking, hypothesizing. One of my favorite things to ask my two kids is, "I don't know. What do you think about that?" or, "How do you think that happened?" or, "What would happen if we ..." and then just listening to their great ideas. So, we're going to keep moving through our content, but the ideas widget is going to be there for the rest of the webinar, so, feel free to check in on it as we continue.

So, the research shows us that conversation is critical to early learning, and high-quality instructional interactions require these frequent conversations. There are studies that make the point that young children learn language best when they are involved in sustained, meaningful conversations, so for example, one study showed that the preschool teacher behavior that was most predictive of children's growth was the frequency of sophisticated vocabulary use during informal conversations.

The sophisticated vocabulary use actually predicted children's kindergarten vocabulary, which also correlated with fourth grade word reading. So, don't shy away from those big words. If you know a preschooler, you know that they love them, and they can turn around and use them. So, use those sophisticated vocabulary words and concepts in frequent conversations with children.

Another study showed that teachers' interactions that best encouraged language learning include having conversations that stay on a single topic, giving children the opportunities to talk, to think critically, teachers who are encouraging that analytical thinking, and providing expanded details or information on the meanings of words and concepts. So, we're not just looking for kind of informal back-and-forth, but really intentional interactions that support children's thinking and learning by providing complex syntax, sophisticated vocabulary and the opportunity to expand on ideas and concepts that are involved in the conversation.

Related to this idea, for those of you who are familiar with the CLASS® - the Classroom Assessment Scoring System - the high-quality interactions that are indicated in that tool are related to instructional supports, which include concept development, quality of feedback and language modeling. So, think for a minute about your program's CLASS® scores or your CLASS® scores and what those scores say about the instructional supports and the quality of instructional supports.

The types of interactions identified in those indicators, they support analysis and reasoning through discussions and activities, and there's also an expectation that concepts relate to children's previous learning and their lived experiences. It's about making that connection to what they already know so that they can build on new ideas and new concepts. These dimensions are important for all early childhood programs, including Head Start programs, to work on to improve outcomes for all children, and for children who are dual language learners, these dimensions should receive special attention.

So, for example, using materials that are familiar to children who are dual language learners helps them approach a learning activity with connections to their prior knowledge so that they can build additional learning and skills with confidence. OK. So, that was a lot of research. I'm going to turn it over to Karen, who I know is dying to talk with you. She's going to share with you some information on second language development. Karen?

Karen: Well, thank you very much, Judi, and you've certainly laid excellent groundwork for us to build our own connections to the knowledge that you were just talking about and making connections to how can we use those research understandings and those strategies when children speak different languages. So, we have a list of terms here that represent some of the things that you hear in the field such as ...

We use the term dual language learner, and we talked about the definition in the beginning, to mean any child that's growing up with two or more languages. They may be stronger in one language than the other. They may only experience one language in small amounts, but that child that has learned something in another language or an additional language is a dual language learner even if they speak English really well.

Some of their knowledge that's stored in their brains, it's stored in that other language, and now our doggie example and our rose pruning example really help us understand why it's so important that we support all of the languages that a child has been using to construct knowledge in their brains. So, some children who are dual language learners will grow up to be bilingual. Many of them will, and the more we support second languages, the stronger chances that they will grow up to be bilingual, but not everybody who knows two languages is completely bilingual, and that's OK too.

All of these things help us to understand what intentional planning we need to make. We know that children who know more than one language do code switching or trans-languaging, where they blend words from their two languages or three languages into one phrase or sentence to help them get their point across, and that's a very natural strength of children's ability to use whatever language they have to get their point across. But as adults, we want to try to always stick to one language at a time to give them a full model of, "Here's how I would say this in one language, and here's how I would say it in the other language."

You've heard that some children are simultaneously bilingual, where they're growing up with two languages from the beginning. Maybe, they have one parent that speaks each of the languages. Other children are sequential bilinguals where they're starting out in one language, and then they move to a new area or a new school, and they learn an additional language. But all of those children fall in the category of dual language learners. And so, we talk about children's home language or native language as one of their languages, and then they have a new language. For children tribal populations, their home language may be English, and they start learning their tribal language when they come to preschool.

So, these are a lot of terms that we have to keep in mind and try to juggle as we talk through the content of our presentation. So, one of the first points that we want to really highlight for you is that Head Start Program Performance Standards, we select a strong component of the research saying that children need support for their home language. But what that means, like, how does that work? That's something that we really want to get a little deeper into. And so we have these three categories that we want to focus on, right?

But children need us to recognize their home language and culture as part of who they are, as the wonderful richness of their background, but they also need us to support their home language because we know that there are benefits to growing up being bilingual in childhood, in school and on onto career, right? And thirdly, we need to support the home language simply because that's what kids need so they can understand content. They need to make sure we do everything we can to help them understand content.

So, early childhood education is not about teaching children English; it's about teaching children concepts and content, right? And whatever we do to intentionally make that possible is really important, and that's what we're going to be talking about in the next few slides. OK? So, one of the things we know from research is that bilingual children have brains that do things that monolingual brains don't have to do.

Not only do bilingual children have two language systems ... It's not all, like, one bunch of language all mashed together. They have two language systems for their two languages, and then they also have an additional activity in their brains that help them connect one language to the other. And they have this additional activity of having to search in two language systems for the words and meanings that they need to understand what's happening and to recognize which language is being used, you know, when their teacher's speaking to them in English, and then their friend speaks to them in Korean, and then their grandmother picks them up and talks to them in Spanish. Children who are multilingual have to be able to tell the difference between those languages and start and stop the way they use them.

So, the materials we use are not just about taking English materials and translating the words into another language. We need to think about supporting how bilingual and multilingual children think, and so even as far as choosing assessments and screening tools, takes that into account. When we realize that an English language assessment that's just translated into an additional language, it's still a monolingual assessment in a new language, and the ideal is to get screening tools and assessments that are designed for the way bilingual children think, and that's a whole other topic that we do have resources for that on ECLKC, and we will be talking a little bit more about that in our upcoming webinar, but for now we want to also talk about how we can connect the research with the actual day-to-day teaching practices, and that's where we're going next. OK.

So, on this slide, you can see the emphasis on the actual intentionality of the choices that you make in the classroom, and when you have children that speak two or more languages, you have to really think specifically about what kinds of home language support you will provide to support learning, and you have to also think for the times when you are not supporting the home language, what are you doing in your teaching using English language that's designed to intentionally help children who speak languages other than English and put those things together so that children can express what they know and can do so that they can comprehend content across all learning domains and so they can build learning connections, right?

So, we need to make sure that all children have high-quality early childhood learning experiences which include high-quality interactions, and we also know from the research that this is not enough for children who are dual language learners because they need additional adaptations, specifically planned to help them understand and to learn in English and in their home language.

So, teachers need to plan to provide supports in the home language and separate supports in English, separate opportunities for children to express themselves in each language and to build learning connections in each language. And so, for those reasons, a lot of research is starting to show how important small groups are to accomplish all of those things, to be able to support children's home languages, to be able to support them in learning English and understanding English content. It's better to have more direct contact and to be able to respond to when children show that they maybe don't understand or they misunderstand what is being talked about.

You need a small group to be able to respond to each child and make sure that they are not going through a learning experience with a misunderstanding of what's being said or a lack of understanding. So, small groups are very important, and they're also important for allowing children to express their learning and to do that active learning that Judi emphasized in her suggestions. We want children, especially children who are learning in two languages, to have at least as much opportunity as their monolingual peers to be able to express what they know and can do, and we need capture that.

We need to record that. We need to know how to respond to that, and so we need to think, also, about giving children opportunities to use language in order to learn it, and that's something that Judi also talked about earlier, and here we see this is important for all children, but when we have children that are learning in two or more languages, we have to find additional ways to support how those children will use the language.

So, for example, choose songs and stories that include words that children will actually use in play. So, if you notice that children are really interested in playing in the block area, choose stories that have words that would be useful in interacting and describing what they're doing in that play, and choose classroom materials that support the use of new words. So, if you read a story and children are really interested in that story, and they're learning new words because of the story, they need multiple opportunities to practice those words, right?

So, if you read a story about ducks, it doesn't help them to switch to an activity about magnets, so if you know you're going to read the story about ducks, bring in some duck materials, like puzzles or games or toys. If you know you want to study magnets, then think ahead about finding books with words about magnets, but look for ways to extend those opportunities to practice new words. That's important for all children and important especially for children who are dual language learners.

Also, model whole sentences rather than using individual nouns or objects or labels. Really try to use language as a communication tool in both English and the home languages of the children, when possible, and create those connections that allow the children to use the new words in different activities and different learning domains, right? So, here is an example, a picture, and it's really emphasizing ...

We want high-quality language input that is interactive and meaningful, that it's not just a question of translating what you said in English into words in another language. So, if you have staff that speak the languages of the children, they should not be translating what the teacher said. They should be translating ...

Not translating, they should be interacting directly, having conversations with the children, authentic conversations just, you know, the two of them. They don't have to say the same thing that the teacher said in English, what they have to do is interact with the child about that content, whether it's, you know, a counting activity or an activity anticipating what will happen if we put bread in a plastic bag in the closet and it turns colors, we want to be able to have conversations about that that are authentic between an adult and a child in whatever language they're using.

And we want to find those ways to have those conversations in each language; so, it's a good idea to explain the actual meanings of new words to children. That's true for monolingual children as well, for children learning in one language. We find that, from the research, that teachers who take the time to actually explain what words mean have better results in children actually understanding and using new and sophisticated words, and that helps children build their own connection to what the word means.

And so, that's even more helpful if you can do that in the child's home language or if you can help them connect between English and the home language. Planned interactions in one language helps children build vocabulary in that language, so teachers can support vocabulary development by language-mapping, right? Where why describe what the children are doing as they're playing together or describing what you're doing as you're getting things set up for an activity or getting ready to go outside.

And so it's important that teachers narrate what they're doing. That's helpful as they narrate what the children are doing, but we don't want the classroom to be a sea flooded with teacher talk over what children are doing. That should be a small part that you do to help children understand the vocabulary that relates to their activities, and then pulling back so they can use the words you said when they interact with each other. Like, you want to get them started and then pull back to let them build those connections in that constructive learning that helps them be such great thinkers in early childhood.

Also, vocabulary bridging is another strategy that has been found, through research, to be effective, and that means when you explain the meanings of a word to a child in their home language and then tell them how it's connected to a word in English, so once they understand the word in their home language, they can make a stronger connection to the same word in English, and by explicitly building that bridge for them and helping them see the connection, you can really make a difference in how far children can go in connecting prior knowledge to new knowledge through the vocabulary of their familiar language and the connection to their new language, right?

So, you might say, "This is a story about three bear, and in French, we say, 'trois ours,' " and I would show three fingers, then I would point to the bear on the book cover, and I would have everybody say it with me, so the children that speak French would realize, "Oh, 'trois,' that means 'three,' and 'ours,' that means 'bear,' and so I know what bears are, and so now I'm aware of what this story is going to be about."

That's how their brain pulls together their prior knowledge about bears and about the number three, so even though the English words of the story may be unfamiliar to them, they're a lot better prepared to make those connections because I've helped orient them to the book, I've helped make those vocabulary bridges for them so that they can then listen intently to the story all in English with that stage you've already set for them, so connections are ready to be made because you've helped them see in their home language what they're about to learn in English. OK.

Additional strategies, such as encouraging analysis and reasoning through discussions and activities, well, isn't that something we want to do with all children, right? Relating concepts to children's previous learning and their experiences, that's what we've been talking about, but teachers sometimes wonder, "How am I supposed to do that if the child doesn't understand what I'm saying or if I don't understand what the child is saying?" Right?

So, you might actually invite volunteers who speak the languages of the children, but do you know what makes a difference? When you provide them with professional development so they actually understand what it is you want them to accomplish in supporting the child's home language that you want them to encourage the child to engage in two-way conversations with them, and that you want to them to ask questions that will, you know, really get those children thinking about, well, why is this happening, or why did you choose that, or what do you think will happen?

And volunteers and family members can be wonderful partners in teaching practice to support the home language, and, but intentionality means we have to be ready to help them do that. Also, you might learn some key open-ended questions, like Judi said, in the languages of the children so that you can make sure that you have given the children ample opportunities to communicate, even if you don't understand what they say, you can give them those opportunities to answer those really thought-provoking questions that everyone else gets to answer, and that they may answer in their home language, and you should be ready to record those answers so you have them for, on their portfolio assessments, so you can have them translated later, so you can get back to the child and say, "Oh, I realized earlier that you told me that you have a new pet iguana at home, and I really want to learn about iguanas.

Let's look at this video about iguanas," or something like that, so the children get that opportunity to show you what they're interested in, what they know and that you have an opportunity to respond, and it's sometimes unnerving, right, when children are talking to you in language you don't understand, but that doesn't change the fact that they need that opportunity to express themselves.

So, recording it and getting help with the understanding answers is what we need, and now here is a video about how this can happen when children interact in their home language.

[Video begins]

Children: ♪ Black sheep, black sheep ♪ ♪ What do you see? ♪ ♪ I see a goldfish looking at me ♪ ♪ Goldfish, goldfish, what do you see? ♪ ♪ I see a brother looking at me ♪ ♪ Brother, brother, what do you see? ♪ ♪ I see beautiful children looking at me ♪

Child No. 1: I found my farmer, farmer. Found my farmer, farmer, farmer.

Child No. 2: Farmers, farmer.

Child No.1: What do you see? I see a boy.

Child No. 2: No, pink pig.

Child No. 1: Pig, pig, what do you see? I see a pig, another pig. Pigs, pigs, what did you see? I see a horse. What did you see? I see a ...

Child No. 2: Cow. Cow.

Child No. 1: Pig, pig.

Child No. 2: Cow. Cow, cow. What do you see?

Child No. 1: Horse.

Child No. 2: No.

Child No. 1: Cow.

Child No. 2: What is that?

Child No. 1: Pig, huh?

Child No. 2: What is that?

[Video ends]

Karen: OK, the great thing about that video is it reminds you that when a classroom is filled with high-quality materials and experiences, children don't need grown-ups to keep the valuable conversations going, that the classroom environment and the foundation set by the adults in the room and the materials that are used actually make it possible for children to have wonderful, interesting, valuable conversations with each other. In that conversation, the children were talking a lot in English, but it shows you that if they were talking in another language and you didn't understand them, that valuable interactions would still be happening, and the teacher doesn't always have to be the one in control, do they?

So, we also are going to have in one of the upcoming webinars a focus on the specific uses of cultural influences in teaching of young children, but here is a quote from research about this topic, that researchers found that culture influences not only children's personal preference and behavior, but also how they think and how they feel and how they learn. So, we want to also let you know that we're getting to the end of this webinar.

It's almost time for our questions and answers, but in the future webinars, we're going to take a lot of time to really get into, what does the cultural aspect of diversity and equity in our classrooms look like and how we can support it, and we put a picture there of the Head Start multicultural principles guide, which is available in English and Spanish on the ECLKC as a resource that you can use as you're exploring that, but we certainly hope you'll join us for that next webinar, and this is coming back to remind us that when we look at the things that are covered in the CLASS®, that are addressed in the CLASS®, that are needed to have high CLASS® scores, such as systematic collection and integration of culture and language and engaging with families, that all of these factors come together to remind us of the things that children who are dual language learners really need us to address, and when we do address them, the CLASS® is an indicator of the success that children are going to have with their learning, right?

In other words, the CLASS® itself is not a goal, right? The CLASS® is the assessment that we use because research has shown if we do these things, children will be more successful learners and will progress better. So, this slide reminds us of how these things come together, they're important for every child, and it's important that we pay attention to how we're supporting them for children who are dual language learners.

One last point is that children can become fluent in a new language if they just learn that new language between 40 and 60% of the day. Children do not need to spend all day in a new language to become fluent; about half a day is fine, like there's half a day in preschool they're learning in English, then they go home, and maybe their families read them a story or two in English. That is enough for children to become fully fluent in English. They don't need full immersion in English, so that research frees up our time to realize, if I do spend time helping children learn in their in home language, learn new concepts, explain things, express themselves in their home language, that does not hurt their English, and in fact, it strengthens it, according to the research.

So, we're back to Judi summarizing our list, seeing how we did. What do you think, Judi?

Judi: Well, I think you managed to cover quite a few things in just a very short amount of time, and I want to let you know that for those of you who are in our Q&A box, we are answering questions as we can. We're also ... We'll take your questions and use those to support our upcoming webinars. But, Karen, before I get to this summary, we do have a question from someone who is asking what you mean when you say, "systematic collection." Can you just expand on that a little bit?

Karen: Well, that is an aspect of the interactions that we work with, so maybe I'll take that slide back again. And the kinds of interactions that help at school and at home, and part of it is, we need to really understand what children are learning, so we need to gather examples of how they're expressing themselves and we need to be able to identify, what is a child's existing knowledge and how we're going to build on that. So, that is just that component in that slide.

Judi: Yeah, and I think, you know, that makes me think of, you know, I do a lot of work around ongoing child assessment, and I think one of the things that we talk about frequently is having a system in place for collecting information about what children know and are able to do in both of their languages and not just what they know and are able to do, but also what their home life is like and what languages they're exposed to and what kind of opportunities they have to learn their home language and English, not just in the classroom, but throughout their lived experiences.

And again, speaking of lived experiences, right, that's another piece that's really important when you think of connecting children's concepts - connecting concepts to what children already know in order to help them build on that language understanding what they are experiencing at home is a really important piece of that, so I think it's really important to kind of, rather than have this haphazard collection of, like, oh, we randomly found out, you know, that this child has a grandparent at home who only speaks to them in this language, that you have a system in place for making sure that you are aware of children's backgrounds and experiences.

So, let's just quickly review here, and going back to our list, when we talked about this list of supports for language development, Karen gave us some examples related to appropriate language modeling. We talked about the importance of using high-quality language in any language and that adults should avoid mixing two languages whenever possible, so having interactions that are focused in using only one language.

The vocabulary bridging, I love those bridge images. It makes it stick it out in my mind. We talked about the study showing that children benefit when adults specifically explain meanings of words and connect the words from familiar language to a new language, which I think that's a fantastic image and a great way to think about how we can build on children's language development. The language mapping, we talked about engaging in intentional interactions in both languages whenever possible, and then mapping children's and teachers' actions through language and description.

The nonverbal supports, we talked about the importance of using visuals and props that support children's comprehension, and we saw a great video of how that works in practice. Through oral language prompts, we suggested learning open-ended questions in the home languages of the children, and in just minute, I'm going to share with you a resource that could help you do that. And then finally, again, what we saw in that video was the peer-to-peer conversation supports.

Remember, that supporting same-language, peer-to-peer conversations is an important way to build opportunities for home language support. Build it right into your day. So, one of the resources we wanted to share with you that will help you understand how to support children learning two more language is this document here. Some of you may be familiar with it. In 2017, the National Academies of the Sciences, Engineering, and Math published a thorough review of this research, it's called, "Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English."

This is a comprehensive, well-organized resource, and it provides guidance around teaching children who are learning two or more languages. The link to this study is in your resources tab; so, your resources widget, the green one at the bottom. You can get a link to that. In addition to this report, we have access to more recent research articles that help us to fine-tune our understanding of how children who are dual language learners, how they learn and what are the best ways to teach them because there's a lot of information out there. Just last spring, in May, the National Center On Early Childhood Development, Teaching, and Learning hosted a dual language learner expert work group meeting.

We had the privilege of meeting with the top researchers in the field, and they shared information about their newest research. This information is being complied, and it's going to be summarized in several professional learning guides that are currently being prepared by our partners at the University of Washington, and they will soon be available on the ECLKC. So, as we get ready to close, I know this was a lot of information. I want you to just think for minute about one idea or maybe more than one idea that you're going to share with your colleagues. Not everyone can be on a webinar.

You can share the information with your colleagues. I know I'm always that person who says, "Hey, guess what I read yesterday?" Actually, Karen is like that, too. We're - we get in trouble when we talk to each other because we're always sharing new information that we've learned about from research that we've read.

So, please take this research. You can download the slides and the resources that we presented here and take a minute to share them with your colleagues. OK, so just a couple of resources. I mentioned that we have a resource to help you use some words in other languages with the children that you work with.

The first is the Ready-DLL app. This is a free app. It's designed to help teachers learn strategies, see video examples and try new words in Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, and Haitian Creole, and it has a game-like approach. So, this app is available on Apple and Android, and please download it, share it. It's going to support you in building a culturally diverse classroom and provide you with lots of resources that you need to support the children that you work with. Next, we're super excited to share with you that in just a few weeks, we'll be hosting our second dual language learner's celebration week, and so if you haven't already, you can go to the iPD, which is our online professional development system.

You can get there through the ECLKC, and you can sign up for this fun event that's going to start on Tuesday, Feb. 18. There's an information flier in the resources widget that'll walk you through how to register, and you don't have to worry about being available for every opportunity. It's asynchronous, so you can access the different pieces of - the different modules at any time that you're able to. I want to make sure you have the dates for our upcoming Front Porch series.

We have our April - our April webinar will be about intentional language support in the preschool classroom. Karen is going to come with some really practical strategies for supporting dual language learners, and then in September, we'll be talking about elevating the role of cultural responsiveness and effective teaching practices. Those little images on the right-hand side are more resources, again, that you can download to use to get access to really helpful resources.

There's Text4Teachers, which is a texting service that'll send you twice a month links to helpful resources, and then the ELOF2GO and MiELOF apps are supportive apps that help teaching staff understand and access the information in the ELOF, both in English and Spanish. And then the last thing I want to let you know, in case you haven't already joined, MyPeers is another great resource for supporting - for gathering information and sharing with colleagues about how you support dual language learners. This is a virtual community, and it's there to support the exchange of ideas, sharing of resources and generally to support the early childhood community.

We have a few communities that are specifically related to our topic here today. One is the CLRP community. I will make sure to go on the CLRP community. I'll post the citations for the research that we talk about today, and that community ...

Karen: Judi?

Judi: Oh, yes.

Karen: I just wanted to say, we're used to saying that, but that means Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices Community. That people can look for.

Judi: Thank you.

Karen: People are asking for, like, the research citations and the resources, so whatever you don't see in the resource widget on this webinar, we will also post the direct links to the articles in the CLRP MyPeers community, and that will get everybody started to using that to ask more questions and help each other out.

Judi: I love it. Thank you for clarifying that, Karen. Yeah, so go ahead and join MyPeers. We will extend the conversation there, and we'll keep talking about provided supports for dual language learners, and we're just so thankful that you joined us today. Again, join MyPeers and join that community if you would like additional information, resources and the citations that we mentioned today. We'll make sure that we put all of that information up there for you, and we hope this resource has been helpful and informative, and we will look forward to seeing you at our next Front Porch webinar, which will be in April. So, thank you, and we'll touch base next time.

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Understanding Language Development to Inform High-quality Instructional Interactions | ECLKC

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Explore what the research says about how preschool children develop language and process two or more at a time. Learn about strategies and resources for supporting high-quality instructional interactions.

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Deborah Mazzeo: Hello, and welcome! Thank you all for joining us today for the fourth Planned Language Approach Big 5 webinar with a Focus on Oral Language and Vocabulary. So far, we have talked about alphabet knowledge in early writing, background knowledge and book knowledge and print concepts, and so this month we're focusing on the next Big 5 skill, which, of course, is oral language and vocabulary. For those who may not have been on the prior webinars, the Big 5 is one of the five components of a planned language approach. They are the key skills that are critical for later-school success including grade level reading.

I just want to be sure that you'll join us again in May on the 16th of May at the same time for our last webinar on the fifth Big 5 skill, which is phonological awareness. All of these webinars are recorded, and the first one on alphabet knowledge and early writing is already up and available on the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center, or ECLKC is what we say for short, so you can feel free to listen to it online if you missed that one. So, my name is Deborah Mazzeo, and I am the cultural and linguistic practices coordinator at the National Center on Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning, and I am joined here today with my copresenter Karen Nemeth. She is the senior training and technical assistance specialist for dual language learners. And before we begin, I know some folks may be new to this, so I'd like to just go over some information regarding the webinar. We'll be using some of the features of this webinar platform to help us interact, so at the bottom of your screen you'll notice these widgets. If you have any questions during a webcast, you can submit them through the purple Q&A widget. We will try to answer these during the webcast, and please know that we do capture all questions. If you have any technical questions, please enter them here as well.

A copy of today's slide deck and additional resources are available in the resource list, which is the green widget. We encourage you to download any resources or links that you may find useful. Throughout this session, we'll be using the blue group chat widget to engage with each other, and I thank you to all of those who have already shared some of your ideas for introducing new vocabulary in your programs. You can also find additional answers to some common technical issues located in the yellow help widget at the bottom of your screen. Each of these widgets are resizable and movable for a customized experience. You simply click on the widget and move it by dragging and dropping and resizing using the arrow at the top corners. Finally, if you have any trouble, try refreshing your browser by pressing F5, and be sure to log off your VPN and exit out of any other browsers.

So, with that, here is what we're planning on covering today. The tops are interwoven and connected throughout the entire presentation. You may have noticed in the resources list that there is a multipage PDF titled "Oral Language and Vocabulary." You all are the first to receive this newly updated document, which is the basis for this webinar and follows the same topics that are on our agenda. There is also a new oral language and vocabulary web page on the ECLKC, or the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center, and as many may have heard me say before, there is a page on ECLKC for each of the Big 5 skills. So, at the end of this presentation, you should be able to understand the connections to a planned language approach, what the PLA stands for, coordinated approaches and the ELOF, which is the Early Learning Outcomes Framework. You should be able to explain what the research says about oral language and vocabulary, describe the developmental trajectory from birth to age 5, identify strategies to support children who are dual-language learners and identify effective practices for supporting each skill in different early learning settings.

So, when we talk about oral language and vocabulary, we include the points you see here on the slide. The first one is interactive and social language skills, and these are a function of our culture, which will be discussed later on in the presentation, but they include things like gesturing or taking turns while speaking and listening, and these social language skills, obviously, allow children to interact with others as they're playing with peers or with their siblings. Next is academic language skills, and this includes the rich vocabulary that allows older children to fully participate in listening, speaking, reading and writing activities in school.

Next is the receptive language skills, which includes hearing and understanding the language or languages of an environment. And then last here we have expressive language skills, which is making and using the sounds of a child's language or languages for communication. So, implementing the Big 5 includes a coordinated approach, or involves a coordinate approach I should say. All of these activities listed on the slide involve implementing a coordinated approach, and our conversation on oral language and vocabulary today is only one slice of the pie, and it falls in that slice called the Big 5 for all. You can see the image there on the slide. All of the other pieces of that pie image, though, are also very important.

The five pieces of a PLA are aligned to the sections of the DLLPA or that Dual Language Learners Program Assessment, and you can see that cover image on the slide as well, and it's a wonderful resource for assessing your own systems and services for supporting children who are dual language learners and their families. If you're implementing a planned language approach, you're implementing a coordinated approach to serving children who are DLL or dual language learners, which is required by the Head Start Program Performance Standards. Now, all of the Big 5 skills in our conversation today specifically on oral language and vocabulary are supported by research and connected to the language and literacy domain of the ELOF or Early Learning Outcomes Framework.

While I'm here showing the ELOF goals, childcare programs will see that oral language and vocabulary will also align with state's early learning and development standards. So, here on this slide I have the goals for infants and toddlers associated with oral language and vocabulary, and those appear in the language and communication domain under the language and literacy essential domain, and you see, also, the goals listed under the subdomains of attending and understanding, communicating and speaking and also vocabulary. I want to make note that these are all impacted by language and culture as children interact with family members and caretakers. Now, on this slide, we have the goals for preschoolers that are associated with oral language and vocabulary. They also appear in the language and communication domain under language and literacy essential domain, and we see the same sub-domains of attending and understanding, communicating and speaking and vocabulary. These goals are relevant for children in classrooms, family childcare and home visiting settings. And so with that, I will now turn it over to Karen and let her share a little bit about the research, so, Karen?

Karen Nemeth: Yeah, thank you, Deborah. I always like to share this part because the research about language development and early literacy is just so fascinating, and this is one are of the bigger topic that really captures my interest because oral language seems so simple. It's just about talking, but there's so much more to that story. So, we know, for example, that oral language helps children to process the language they're hearing, that children have to say words to really learn them, and they can't just say them, like, parrots, like repeating them. They have to say them in meaningful contexts and interactions, so we talked so much about the value of play in early childhood education, but it turns out that play is the place where children practice so much of this oral language in meaningful interactions with peers and adults, and they get so much valuable vocabulary learning because they're using the language, right?

So, we know that language is the foundation for communication and learning and social interactions, so if you're looking at children from any of those standpoints, language is always going to be central to what your addressing. And we have referred to the work by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff who actually developed six principles of language development that we like to share, and three of them are on your screen right now. So, we have "Children learn the words that they hear most." That's the first principle, so that's kind of interesting because children hear a lot of words. In some families they hear more words, some families they hear less words, but they hear a lot of words, and they develop an understanding of those words, their receptive language, based on the words they hear.

And so, the more we talk to children and the more meaningful and different and interesting words we use, the more we can support that early language development, but just hearing the words is not the whole story. So, children learn the words they hear the most, but they mainly learn them when they use them, so that's why we see the second principle from Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff, "Social interaction matters." Social interaction is an important way that children have to practice the words they've heard and learned, to try things out that worked, try words out that may be not so accurate and they get feedback in that natural context of those interactions, and so it's really important that as children are learning that they hear words that they can understand, and they hear words that they can use in social interactions. So, this is especially important for children who are dual language learners because they may be in the presence of a lot of words that they don't understand, and so they can't use them, and that doesn't help them develop their home language or their English. But if we make sure that all children, no matter what language they speak, are getting some input of words they can understand and use and then they have opportunities to practice those words in different contexts, social interaction matters in practicing language, both the home language and in English.

And the third principle: "Children learn words for things and events that interest them," not that are dictated by the teacher but for things that the children are interested in and excited about, things that they want to talk about. So, we have an example here of when a baby is focused on a picture of their parent and you might say, "Yes, that's your mommy. She had to go to work, but she'll be back soon. I know you'll be excited to see her," and certainly, there are a lot of words in that interaction that the adult is saying and the child is learning about, but they're making connections because you're saying words that focus on what the child is showing an interest in. And the next three principles - "Children learn words best in meaningful contexts," and this is so important. You know, we do a lot of things in early childhood that have to do with learning colors and shapes, right? But you can't have a very interesting conversation if you just learned the words for colors and shapes in your own language or in a new language, so we want, also, children to have verbs they can use and descriptive words they can use, and if they can -- If a child can learn to say the word big or learn to use the word big, they can certainly understand the word "gigantic" just as well, so we can provide those things in meaningful contexts that support their interactions and are supported by their interactions.

And then the next one, "Vocabulary learning and grammatical development are reciprocal processes." They go together. They go together. Children learn how grammar works long before they ever open a grammar textbook because grammar helps you say things that people can understand. Grammar helps you organize the thoughts that you are having about what you're hearing. So, we see, for example - Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Berta Golinkoff gave this example in their article. If you say John is blicking Mary - That's a nonsense word, blicking - you could guess that a child would know that John is doing something to Mary, and that's different from if you said John and Mary are blicking. And so just that simple question of word order really does make a difference in a child's understanding and how not only they understand what you're saying but how they organize it and store it in their brain and then how they call it forth to use it in their own interactions as well.

So, but it's all based on meaning and context and interaction, not memorization, not one-shot words one time only but repeating and practicing things that you like and are interested in and want to talk about, and then the last of the six is keeping it positive. Encouraging children to use words however it works for them to communicate, and sometimes they will make mistakes, but we focus on the content of their message, the intent of their message and support them and extent their messages rather than correcting their grammar or their vocabulary.

And over time, children do learn from our high-quality language modeling that we provide. We know, also, that oral language and vocabulary are rooted very much in culture, and so we want to pay attention to what families do and how families feel about the language interactions that they have at home. So, children develop ideas about how and when to use language beginning at birth based not only on how adults interact with each other but what are the expectations the adults have for children? And families and culture vary very much in terms of what they expect about how much a child is allowed to talk or encouraged to talk, and so getting to know more about the family and what they are feeling and how they are interacting with their child can give you a lot of insight about what that child's experiences have been and how you can understand the family's practices and help the family understand the choices you make in supporting oral language and vocabulary in the program.

So, we know that families and cultures may differ in their expectations, such as at what age should a child begin to speak? When do you expect children to start talking? When should children speak and not speak at meals or in the car or, you know, whenever they have something to say or only if they have a question? You might ask families to talk about who does the child talk to? Who do they have the most conversations with? Who has the most conversations with their child and provides that important opportunity for oral language practice and expression? And, you know, does the family feel like children should do all the talking they want, or do some families want to limit how much the child talks? And some families see talking in different ways in terms of the role of the child in the family, so, getting to know what the family feels is also important because we want to make those connections with families as well as with the child and make things meaningful in context. So, we have some important resources on the ECLKC to help with these discussions, and here is a really important one called Code Switching and "Why it Matters and How to Respond."

And I want to ask you in the chat box if you've seen examples of code switching with your children. Type in some examples that you've heard because these are some amazing examples of brain power because the drive for young children to use language to communicate is so powerful that their brain enables them to pull words from whatever language is available to them, and that's what code switching reveals to us: an extraordinary strength of brain power that enables a child to get that message across by putting together whatever resources are available in that brain.

So, children who know more than one language have learned some word in one language and other words in their other language, so the total number of words that a child knows adds up to at least as many as the total number of words that a monolingual child knows, but the number of words they know in their home language might be a smaller number, and the number of words in English might be a smaller number, but they put it together, and it makes a really rich and interesting total vocabulary that reveals what the brain knows and how they can talk about it.

So, code switching is something that we really allow and support because it really shows us how that child's brain is working, and, yes, as adults, we don't want to present code switching so much because we're trying to present a clear model for the best possible use in one language or the other, but you're writing your own examples. I know we had some examples from our work, such as a child that might say, "Quiero jugar outside." I want to play outside.

Or this is not what I want to comer. Right? This is not what I want to eat. Those sentences sure get the message across, but think how creative that behind-the-scenes work the brain is doing to get that message across because communication is so critical, and didn't we just talk about how the research says that those social interactions - Well, those are important, and they are supported by communication. These factors all go together, and none of them is about, you know, making sure the child is absolutely correct. They're all about supporting those interactions, that meaning and that communication.

Now we're about to have a poll question because we wanted to draw your attention to another resource, which is the manual for developing classroom language models in your program, and I'm going to ask in the chat room just real quick if as soon as you see this, have you seen this before? This resource on the ECLKC is called "Classroom Language Models: A Leader's Implementation Manual," and many programs use it to - as a guide to address the kinds of language models, the way the classrooms are set up and how they use language. That's what a classroom language model is about. So, in a minute I'm going to show you the poll so that the choice is based on what's in this manual. First of all, some classrooms are set up where the teaching is done in English, but they provide some support of each child's home language, and that's letter A.

Letter B could be for dual language classrooms where there is a focus on teaching in both the home language and English or both - or two languages that are chosen for that classroom. Like Misty, B is saying English and Spanish, right? And then that there's a balance in the use of the two languages, and for C, a home language classroom that's used as a foundation to begin to support English development, and then some classrooms are just English only, or you might be not sure. And now I'm going to administer the poll, so I see that you're writing things in the chat box, but I'm going to ask you also to actually click it on the poll, so we can have a count. So, here's your chance now to go ahead. Even if you've already put it in the chat box, you're ready now to answer the question, so please click it on the poll so we could see. People will then be able to see what the results are.

Okay. I'm giving you a minute or two. You've had a chance. See, I gave you a chance to think of what your answer is, so this is the time for you to start typing it into the polls, so then when I show you the results, you'll be able to see how your answer compared to the other people in the group, but I think when we take a look at, also, some of your written answers, we'll see some more details about how you address these things. Okay. I see more than 100 people have already answered the poll. I'm going to close it in 10 seconds. Okay, and now I just clicked something, and my friend, Deborah, is now going to be amused that when I clicked something, I'm not sure what you can see.

Deborah: Hey, Karen. This is --

Karen: Yes, yep.

Deborah: We can - I can see the poll results.

Karen: Oh, yeah. It's - Okay. It's up. When I click too many things, all of a sudden everything goes away. So, now can you see something interesting with this poll? That the first few people that voted, voted for English with home language support, and for a few minutes - for a few seconds, that was 100 percent of the answers, but now look at what a balance we have. Many people are using home - English with home language support, but also about a third of you are fully using a dual-language classroom model, and some are using home language as a foundation for English, and that leaves a very small number of - Well, not too small - a quarter of the people still using English only, and so - And it's okay to be not sure because, you know, there are still a lot of variations in the way these things are played out, but we really want to make sure you knew about this resource so that - and to think more about how you're using those languages models intentionally to support oral language and vocabulary. And now we're going to talk about how that shows up in the developmental progression of the ELOF. Are you ready, Deb?

Deborah: I'm ready. Thank you so much, Karen. So, we've heard about the what, and we've heard about they why and now we'll get into the how of developing oral language and vocabulary, so we're going to start our conversation on developmental progression with babies and know that many of the strategies we'll be sharing in a moment can be used with toddlers, too. It's likely that these strategies will be familiar to you all. Maybe you've been using them already or if you're a supervisor or a coach, you've supported staff on using them. They may be strategies that are used in your curriculum, which - The curriculum should provide the experiences and activities in which you'll use these strategies.

Okay? So, in this table, we see the goal for infants and toddlers under language and communication and the subdomain of communicating and speaking, and it means the child communicates needs and wants nonverbally and by using language. So, as adults we support babies oral language development by talking to them even before they're born, right? So, when adults give even the youngest babies opportunities to participate in quote, unquote conversations, they're helping children become eager and able talkers, first, as the infant babbles and coos and later as they speak their first words. And so babies build oral language and vocabulary when adults are responsive to their needs for feeding, changing, comforting and cuddling, when adults use child-directed speech or parentese, and that simply means speaking in a higher pitch or at a slower rate with, like, clearer enunciation or simpler and shorter phrases. You probably get the idea. The next bullet there, when they talk, read and sing to babies in one or more languages, and we often recommend that it be in the language that the adult is most comfortable using because that's when the richer vocabulary is shared.

The next bullet is engage babies in back-and-forth exchanges or conversations by responding with different facial expressions and gestures or different words each time a baby babbles and coos, and, you know, you may want to wait for a response before responding back. And then lastly here on the slide, talk to babies about what they see, hear, touch, smell and taste, and that's what you'll be talking about in those back-and-forth exchanges. Here we have a few more. You'll want to explain routines to babies as they are - as you're doing them, so as you're getting them dressed, involved in mealtime, diapering, bathing, those routines. Use gestures, such as pointing, to direct children's attention to objects or people of interest, like if you're outside pointing and saying look! See the squirrel?

The next one, teaching older babies, like 9 months and up, to use simple signs or gestures to help them communicate basic messages like eat or drink or all done, and this would be separate from using sign language with children who are hearing impaired. And then lastly, sharing culturally and linguistically diverse books with brightly colored illustrations or photos and then labeling and describing these pictures. And so on this next slide here, we have two briefs that can support you in your work with babies, and they can also be found in the resources widget, so be sure to download them. The first, on the left-hand side, is called "Hearing Language is Learning," and it provides information around the science behind how babies learn language and some really great tips on how to support it. There are two additional briefs in that series called "Growing Up as a Dual Language Learner" and then also "Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism," so definitely do a search for those on the ECLKC. The next document on the right-hand side is from a series called connecting research to practice. They're tips for working with infants, toddlers and their families, and that series on the right was actually developed to support home visitors in their work with children and families, but in addition to home visitors, teachers and family childcare providers can certainly use them to learn more about the recent research on early childhood development was well. So, next, before I advance

to the next slide, you're going to see a short video clip of a teacher interacting with an infant and offering him some nesting cups and a ball to explore; so, I'm going to ask you to watch for the strategies that you see this teacher using, and then also think how might these be the same or different if the child was a dual language learner, so here we go.

[Video clip begins]

Teacher: Tower. Flip it over. Oh! Whoops! We're going to look at this. This is yellow. Look how round it is. It's a circle. Yeah. It's exciting. Watch! We're going to take the blue ball, and it's in.

[Video clip ends]

Deborah: All right. So, what did you think? What strategies did you see the teacher use? Well, I'll get us started with, you know, some of the gestures for example. So, did you all notice that to reinforce the word round she runs her finger along the edge of the stacking cup? We talked about that use of parentese, too. Did you see how she was kind of using a higher-pitched voice as she talked to the baby? I see Barbara answering here "Thinking aloud." Jan, "Descriptive words and gestures." Yeah, Holly, "The color of the cup," exactly. Keep using those specific vocabulary words, right? Kelly is talking about descriptive language. "Look how round it is," like a circle, the blue ball. "It's in." So, lots of great vocabulary in this 30-second clip. Thank you all. All right. So, since we talked about babies for the first goal, we're going to talk about toddlers for this one. Just know that the strategies we just talked about for babies will also support the development in this goal, too. So, in this table, we also see an infant-toddler goal under the language and communication domain and the vocabulary subdomain, and it reads, the child "uses an increasing number of words in communication and conversation with others," and so the number of words children know and understand expands pretty rapidly from 18 months to 3 years.

Toddlers are also developing expressive language and vocabulary when they begin to combine words and sign or speak in simple sentences and, you know, begin to say things like "go bye," "bye and all done" or "Mommy home." It's important to note that not all toddlers develop oral language and vocabulary in the same way. Some will show slow steady growth while others may progress in spurts or, like, sudden increases in the number of words that they know and use. Toddlers, of course, learn the words in the languages they hear, so it's important that they hear lots of language whether it's in English or another home language or both during this time of development. So, let's look at some of the strategies on how to support toddlers.

So, toddlers develop oral language and vocabulary when adults talk and/or sign to them frequently using different and interesting words, have one-on-one conversations every day and aim for two or more conversational turns for each speaker. Intentionally teach words and word meanings, so, for example, you might say that sign says "caution," so we need to be careful, and then you repeat these new words over time to increase the toddler's understanding, so, you know, later on that day, you might say that yellow light means caution just like the sign we saw earlier. Cars need to be careful.

So, you know, that's just one example, but it is important that you repeat it often and enough so that they really begin to understand the meaning. Answer children's questions, particularly those about how and why the world works the way it does. For example, you might say the sun is setting, and that means it's going down. That's why it's getting dark outside. That's an example there. And then build on what children sign or say, so, for example, if a child points to a plane in the sky and says plane or if the child points to a picture of a plane on his assistive communication device, you might say yes, that's an airplane. The airplane is flying high across the sky, and so here, you're actually repeating and you're expanding. And then lastly here, say words in the child's home language, so, you may need to reach out to the parents and integrate words that are used in their home language to communicate between a parent and child, and these, of course, may be familiar to the child in the home as that's where it's likely often spoken. Here we have a couple more. Model how to use language correctly.

For example, if the child is saying the bear go to sleep, you might respond with, oh, you're bear went to sleep. Goodnight, bear. And just note here that you do not want to ask the child to repeat the phrase correctly. Over time, they'll learn the proper language structure, so, you know, just accept what they say and be excited and, you know, repeat and expand like we talked about. Ask questions that invite toddlers to provide explanations, so, you know, how did you get those blocks to stand up? And even if they don't have, you know, the language, you're modeling the question that offers opportunities for the child to think and then respond, so keep that in mind. You'll want to read and re-read books written just for them, and these kinds of books encourage singing and clapping. They may be concept books that teach new ideas and, of course, books that tell a good story. You might need to adapt some books for children who have difficulties holding and turning pages, so, for example, you might attach tabs to books, to the pages for easier turning, and then lastly here, encourage imaginary plan and introduce words not used in everyday experiences, and this offers, again, another opportunity to introduce new vocabulary. And so, with that -

Oh. Here we have another video that I'm going to show. Oh. Let me set this up for you before I play this video. So, in this next video, the teacher sits as a table with a small group of young toddlers, and the toddlers just explored avocados and are now starting to explore bananas, and so, again, I'm going to invite you to react to the video. Feel free to place comments about what you notice in the chat. Again, based on the strategies that we just covered, feel free to chat about, you know, what you see the teacher doing, the children doing and what this tells us about what the children know. So, here we go again.

[Video begins]

Teacher: You like it? Mia has opened her banana all the way. She's getting all the banana out of there. Huh, Mia? Yes. You're pulling that peel with your teeth. Yes, and getting that banana open. How does it taste? Hmm? Does it taste the same or different than the avocado? Hmm? What do you think? Do you think it tastes the same or different? Hmm? Bananas are sweet, huh? And avocados are not so sweet. They're just plain. You see our avocado seed? Yes. This was in the middle of the avocado.

[Video ends]

Deborah: All right. I just love this clip, and I, you know, I just get so excited every time I see it. I see several folks responding here. The parallel talk, the vocabulary. Yeah, she's totally narrating what the toddlers are doing. "Mia is opening the banana. You're pulling it with your teeth." And so, by doing that, she's talking to them and modeling that language use, right? Did you notice that she's also asking questions? "How does it taste?" Even though they may not have the vocabulary, right, she's providing it. She - You know, she also is intentionally teaching those words. "Bananas are sweet." So, many of you all here are saying, yeah, she's using that soft tone, using the word peel. I just love it. This is great. Expressive, showing excitement, I know. I want to be a child in this teacher's classroom. She's so student-centered. Yes. Yeah, she even asks, "Do you think it tastes the same or different?" Someone just responded there. Wonderful. Thank you all. All right. I think now I'm going to turn it over to Karen to talk about the preschoolers, so, Karen, do you want to take it away?

Karen: Here we go! So, basically, what I want to say about the learning oral language and vocabulary for preschoolers is pretty much everything Deborah just said about infants and toddlers and then some icing on the cake. How about that? We want to add to those experiences, and we want to capitalize on the preschoolers growing receptive language, so when they're younger, we work so hard on supporting their receptive language because we know they understand more than they're ready to say, but as they start saying more and more things, we want to give them plenty of support for that oral language and plenty of opportunity to use it in meaningful ways.

So, once again, we see using lots of different and interesting words, and we do want to use words that are not commonly found in everyday speak. However, that doesn't mean using uncommon words they'll never use again. It means adding interesting, unusual words that do apply to the kinds of building that they're doing with blocks or their outdoor play. Like, we were saying, you know, oh, my goodness. You are soaring down that slide, and your block tower is colossal, and we are adding words that they might not have used before but that they could use, so they practice their oral language. And this idea of explicitly teaching what new words mean, it turns out from recent research, to really be rising up as a powerful strategy to use in preschool, and that goes for English only as well as for supporting dual language learners. Where we might help a child understand new words, like first referring to the familiar word in their home language and then explaining how that familiar word is connected to a new word in English. It makes it easier for a child to learn a new word when they can see how it's connected to something they already know, and then they are able to use it. And that we want to find ways to tuck in definitions of new words during informal conversations and interactions with children, explaining unfamiliar words when they come up during reading, reading books that provide interesting words so that we have a chance then to talk about them.

But this is so important to remember that if you read a book to children and it introduces some wild and wonderful words, they won't stick if the child never hears them again or never uses them. If you read a book with wonderful words, then you should find ways to use those words elsewhere in the classroom or at other times of the day, and making connections with the child culture and traditions is a key component of that work. It's really important to have one-on-one conversations with children every day. Some teachers even track that so that they don't miss it. You know how sometimes you have children - You - you might feel like you're having conversations all day long, and then you might realize, you know, I remember talking to this child and this child, but there's a couple children in my class I can't remember the last time I had a conversation, and those might be the ones that really need it the most.

So, think about ways to build in those conversation times and to find ways to support conversations with the children who are dual language learners. You know what? You're not the only person that has to have those conversations. I'm going to say this, and I'm going to ask you to write in the chat room, who else can you encourage to have conversations in children's home languages? And watch what happens in the chat box when you people start putting in your suggestions. If you don't speak all the home languages in your classroom, who else could you teach about conversations or encourage to have conversations or bring in to have conversations in home languages with those children? Sometimes we call them conversation friends. Okay, so we'll see if you have some examples, and I'll chime in, in a minute. We want to encourage children to tell us stories about what's happening in their life or what they've been doing, and sometimes those stories take a long time, and we really need to find the time to be patient.

I mean, we could have enough adults prepared to listen and respond to those stories. We need to take outings and have lots of experiences that give children lots to talk about or sign about, and, my goodness, I love the use of sign language as a way to connect children who speak a variety of languages, right? Because if you learn signs, then children - And you have children in your classes who speak several languages, everyone can come together in their understanding with using the signs. It helps bridge those connections, and look at all the suggestions we've got. Grandparents, foster grandparents, family members, people from the community, right? How about if you have local, bilingual high-school students that need a community volunteer project or people from the local university that could visit and volunteer as conversation buddies in your classrooms? Lots of opportunities, so, it's not all on one person's shoulder.

Oh, look at all these great ideas. This is just an amazing group, you guys. We also want to model appropriate language without correcting children but really being aware of how we construct sentences and how we communicate with children to model good language. Give them good models that they can learn from and supporting pretend play by providing rich, engaging objects that give children a lot to talk about, and if those objects in the classroom relate to the words they learned in the stories, that's going to help them practice to say those words more often. And now here's a video clip.

[Video begins]

[Chatter]

Teacher: That's a - Here. You can have this, Emile. [Speaks native language]

Boy: This is the last one I'm doing.

Teacher: We have a lot of pasta. Don't worry, okay, Dro?

There you go. Boy: [Speaks native language]

Teacher: [Speaks native language]

Girl: Teacher! Teacher! Teacher, right here. Dro: [Speaks native language]

Teacher: [Speaks native language]

Boy: No, Camile.

Dro: Yes [speaks native language]

Teacher: Uh-huh.

Teacher #2: Who wants pasta? Who wants pasta? Girl: Me!

Me! Teacher: Right. You know what Dro said [Indistinct] just now?

Girl: Teacher!

Teacher: He said he's going to be getting dirt because he wants to plant it over here in our garden.

Dro: Yeah, no. I want to give it all to my friend, the dirt, and then we're going to plant all of us. [Chatter]

Teacher: What do you want to plant, Dro? [Chatter]

Teacher: [Speaks native language] So, he wants to plant cucumber, huh?

[Video ends]

Karen: So, you can see from that video that the teacher is taking her time having conversations with those children, letting those conversations keep going back-and-forth turns, but she's facilitating by adding explanations and explaining what one child is saying to the other children and back and forth, so, she's modeling how people who speak different languages can interact together. So, is there anything else that you notice about the way that teacher interacted? There's more in this video with the older children than the strategies you noticed in the infant-toddler videos, so if you see some additional strategy ideas in the video you just watched, just put that in the chat box. We can all capture it. And so, we are going to be watching for your strategy. I see Lydia said she loves those feedback loops, and she saw that the teacher waited. That's a hard thing. It's a hard thing for me as a webinar presenter, but sometimes we have to just take a breath and let a child take a bit to understand what our question was, think about what they want to say and then say it back to us. We can help the other children learn to be patient with each other as well. Thomasina is saying she loves the engagement. Latisha is saying, "The same thing can apply when you talk to infants, and the same kind of patience and eye contact and getting down on their level is also important for preschoolers."

And so, we know we only have an hour today, and we want to have more of these conversations. You're sharing already such great ideas in the chat, and now we can offer you the opportunity to keep talking about talking, and so, Deborah manages this Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Practices community on MyPeers, and those of you who belong to MyPeers already can just sign on for this group, and you will see that we're going to ask some more questions to keep this conversation going. The kinds of things you're talking about today - Imagine if all these big ideas could be shared with other people who are not on the webinar and that you can also ask questions to help us meet your needs by participating in the community.

And if you're not yet a member of MyPeers, the link that's on the slide will take you to the instructions of how to join. I'm asking you now if you have any more questions to make sure you type them into the chat box or the questions link, so we can try to answer them as we get to the end of the webinar coming up at 4 o'clock. This is another handout that we wanted to draw your attention to. These are strategies for parents and families to talk about building home-school connections, supporting daily activities for infants, toddlers and preschoolers and uses a lot of examples to help families and education staff share together about the kinds of things that can build that homeschool connection to support oral language and vocabulary. And we wanted to let you know that there's a new resource available on the ECLKC, and this is an amazing thing: a curriculum consumer report with new reviews of all the current curriculum models that are being used that you sign on to this resource, and for infants and toddlers, preschoolers and home-based, you can look up different curriculum models and see how they compare to each other, see how they answer the questions you have about the kinds of qualities you want.

You can see the features all listed in this slide, so, we really encourage you to visit that curriculum model, curriculum consumer guide, and then look at this resource coming up. On May 28 to 31 there's a 3-day e-institute to support home visitors, so this is a new event that we want to make sure everyone knows about. You can share with the people you work with, and the link is here, and the details - It starts on May 28, and there are four micro-learning sessions, so, it's like going to a conference, but you don't have to leave your house, and there'll be a ton of really rich information available on the home visitor e-institute with the link that you see on your screen.

And we also have an evaluation form that we ask you to please use this e-mail or ask questions using the phones, which are places where you can ask questions, find out about resources, ask specific things about your program or your classroom, and we will respond. And then here's the list of resources that we shared with you today that you should all be able to access from the resource section, and included in the resource section is the PowerPoint so you can see these links, and this is a link to complete the evaluation for this session.

So, if anyone has any questions, we'll stay on for another 60 seconds, and after this we'll see you on MyPeers and continue the conversation, so thank you all for your participation.

Thank you to Deborah. Thank you to our team behind the scenes with Erica and Alyssa and Shawn, and thank you for attending this program.

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Focus on Oral Language and Vocabulary | ECLKC

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Deborah Mazzeo: Hello, and welcome! Thank you all for joining us today for the fourth Planned Language Approach Big 5 webinar with a Focus on Oral Language and Vocabulary. So far, we have talked about alphabet knowledge in early writing, background knowledge and book knowledge and print concepts, and so this month we're focusing on the next Big 5 skill, which, of course, is oral language and vocabulary.

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Below you will find updates and personalized messages from your Coach!

To schedule a coaching session, below you will find my monthly calendar. Once you have selected a date and time, email your Coach to book.

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Email coach to schedule: mramos@child360.org | Manny Ramos

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Email coach to schedule: mramos@child360.org | Manny Ramos

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May 6, 2018 - Our science center is stocked with lots of cool magnets and magnetic objects. We started with a basic magnetic/non magnetic sort, and have slowly added more interesting items for the students to explore. This is a pencil with round magnets on it, stacked so that they will repel each other. The preschoolers love to take…

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Science Center Set Up And Ideas for Preschool

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Science Center Set Up And Ideas for Preschool

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Science Center Set Up and Ideas for Preschool

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Science center set up ideas and information for pre-k or preschool classrooms. Hands-on activities to help you create a science center.

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Jan 28, 2019 - Fish tank and sensory bottles and much more.

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This site will take you to the general resources where you can find the coaching forms, PD opportunities, and ECE topics.

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Dual Language Learner Resources - Quality Start Los Angeles

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Watch and share our NEW DLL Initiative video! https://youtu.be/Kj9lG6egPm0 ¡Vea y comparta nuestro NUEVO video de la Iniciativa para Aprendices de Dos Idiomas! https://youtu.be/2ptp6TFuKdQ Click here to learn more about the DLL Initiative's Professional Development opportunities. ¿Está buscando capacitaciones para estudiantes de dos idiomas? ¡Haga clic aquí!

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Emilian Geczi

With increasing evidence that nature experiences have a direct and positive effect on children's learning and healthy development, more educators are looking for simple ways to bring the benefits of nature-based education to their students. A previous Natural Start Feature Story offered practical strategies for infusing nature into any early childhood education program. This companion article outlines three nature-oriented dispositions that educators can foster in just about any learning setting - traditional or nature-based - starting today!

These dispositions help students open up to the world around them, observe and investigate how it works, and develop their capacity to care for the plants and animals that also call it home. Taken together, the activities suggested under each disposition nurture children's interest and appreciation of nature while supporting their social, emotional, and cognitive development.

You do not need to possess any special knowledge of natural history in order to facilitate and model these activities with your students. Focus on providing joyful experiences and connections with nature rather than conveying factual information about the environment. Start in a setting where you feel comfortable, including your own classroom, which can provide a great home to potted aromatic herbs or to composting worm bins, for example. Share your own surprise and delight at the things you discover, and let the children's interests and the wonders of nature guide your adventures.

Attentiveness to the Natural World

Maria Montessori called children "spontaneous observers of nature." Offer your students numerous and repeated opportunities to notice plants, animals, different types of rocks, the changing of the seasons, food and decomposition webs, and other elements and processes that connect them to the larger community of life. This can be as simple as growing plants from seeds, bulbs, or seedlings in the classroom, observing their growth, discussing their needs, and then transplanting them outdoors or continuing to care for them in pots.

If you have access to an outdoor learning space, consider adding a small food garden, a butterfly garden, a birdbath, or a squirrel feeder. Draw the children's attention to the visitors that are sure to arrive soon, including ants, ladybugs, and other small insects which are often overlooked. A nearby public park or other green space can provide a vast range of opportunities to:

Learn about different textures, shapes, and colors

Listen to the sounds of people and nature

Follow the comings and goings of squirrels, robins, and other common animals

Begin to notice patterns, seasonal changes, relationships, and interconnections in nature - the very foundations of STEM learning.

Curiosity About the Natural World

Unhurried time with nature in and around the classroom is a perfect springboard for inquiry and curiosity. Ask students open-ended questions: "Where do you think the squirrels find their food?", "Why did the chipmunk run into its hole in the ground?", "How can we find out what plants the butterflies like the most?", etc. Help them to formulate hypotheses, and create opportunities for them to gather clues or additional information from picture books or other sources - including local environmental educators or other classroom guests. Child-directed learning, rooted in real-world surroundings, can greatly facilitate the development of investigative, analytical, critical thinking, and other 21st century skills.

Enable the students to construct meaning and answer their own questions through plenty of hands-on experiences with and in nature. Encourage persistence and effort. Support your students as they reflect on and share their learning with others through drawings, puppet shows, or simple games that incorporate new vocabulary. Going through the process of asking questions, conducting an investigation, and communicating ideas and findings is more important than arriving at the "right" conclusion.

Care Toward the Natural World

When children interact with nature, they begin to understand how their actions can harm or protect the environment. Always model caring behavior toward plants or animals, such as gently moving an earthworm from the pavement into the grass, in order to help children develop a sense of empathy and responsibility for the natural world. This can be especially effective if you share with the students your own rationale for protecting or meeting the needs of specific plants or animals.

Help children begin to understand what plants and animals (including humans) need in order to survive, and how simple actions can make a place more or less suitable for meeting those needs. Most children will eagerly embrace opportunities to be caregivers to plants and animals, and will readily "adopt" a tree or build and tend to a birdfeeder, for example. Concepts that are familiar to young children, such as "home," can provide many opportunities for discussing the needs of plants and animals in tangible and concrete ways.

Cultivating moments of attentiveness, curiosity, and care toward our plant and animal neighbors in childhood grows healthy children and prepares the next generation of scientists, artists, and inventors to sprout. Regardless of the type of natural elements you have access to, from live plants and "loose parts" in the classroom to an outdoor classroom rich in natural landscaping, they can provide students with countless opportunities to observe, ask questions, and develop a sense of responsibility for the wider world.

Emilian Geczi is Manager of Early Childhood Programs at The Morton Arboretum, in Lisle, Ill., and past Director of the Natural Start Alliance.

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Three Nature-Oriented Dispositions You Can Foster in Any Early Childhood Education Setting

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Emilian Geczi With increasing evidence that nature experiences have a direct and positive effect on children's learning and healthy development, more educators are looking for simple ways to bring the benefits of nature-based education to their students. A previous Natural Start Feature Story offered practical strategies for infusing nature into any early childhood education program.