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meredithspragg@gmail.com

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Literacy Consultants & Consulting Services | Erin Kent Consulting

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About the Community | Erin Kent Consulting (EKC)

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A few special gifts for signing up now: a strategy call with Erin Kent or an EKC Senior Strategist to get started using the EKC Community to support your current literacy initiatives; and 5 free spots in our live, virtual winter courses ($1495 value!)

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Buy What comes before phonics?: Read Kindle Store Reviews - Amazon.com

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Teachers know that encouraging young children to talk and listen improves their ability to communicate. This book gives them a power tool aligned with the science of reading: the "Strive-for-Five" framework. These responsive conversations start with what children say and continue as the teacher listens and responds over five turns-with the goal of stretching their talking and thinking, knowledge, vocabulary, reasoning, and other skills that underpin reading success.

In an accessible format that contains video clips, along with classroom anecdotes and model conversations, Zucker and Cabell show why Strive-for-Five conversations are important and how teachers can use them to engage children and develop their language comprehension. As teachers use the framework to build students' knowledge, vocabulary, reasoning, and other skills that underpin reading success, they'll also see students' confidence grow as they share their individual stories, ideas, and question s.

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Strive-for-Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy (The Science of Reading in Practice)

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Amazon.com: Strive-for-Five Conversations: A Framework That Gets Kids Talking to Accelerate Their Language Comprehension and Literacy (The Science of Reading in Practice): 9781546113881: Zucker, Tricia, Cabell, Sonia: Books

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Literacy Learners for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

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Literacy Learners for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

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Literacy Learning for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers: Key Practices for Educators

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Learn more about Literacy Learning for Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers

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A great way to use visuals (art) to support language and create a literacy rich environment (make displays and books out of discussions)

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Visual Thinking Strategies for Preschool: Using Art to Enhance Literacy and Social Skills [Yenawine, Philip] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Visual Thinking Strategies for Preschool: Using Art to Enhance Literacy and Social Skills

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A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day

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A Teacher's Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day

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A Teacher’s Guide to Vocabulary Development Across the Day

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Balanced and Barefoot

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Although this is primarily about the benefits of music, it talks a lot about movement and it's impact on child development.

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The Musical Child: Using the Power of Music to Raise Children Who Are Happy, Healthy, and Whole

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Amazon.com: The Musical Child: Using the Power of Music to Raise Children Who Are Happy, Healthy, and Whole: 9781328612960: Koenig, Joan: Books

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Metalinguistic Awareness Tips for Parents 

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Metalinguistic Awareness Tips for Parents 

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Long narrative books are important for building vocabulary, connecting to background knowledge, and revisiting concepts. (Example: Here We Are by Oliver Jeffers, Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall, Trying by Komi Yamada.)

For easy "readers" I try to look for: repetition, alliteration, rhyme, simple vocabulary and short sentences. Some of these are especially great for shared reading.

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This is an in-depth summary of the human balance system. For more connections to its impact on education both The Musical Child and Balanced and Barefoot extend on this. This PHD OT breaks it down in a very parent friendly way: https://www.griffinot.com/vestibular-system/

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Good balance is often taken for granted.

Good balance is often taken for granted. Most people don't find it difficult to walk across a gravel driveway, transition from walking on a sidewalk to grass, or get out of bed in the middle of the night without stumbling. However, with impaired balance such activities can be extremely fatiguing and sometimes dangerous. Symptoms that accompany the unsteadiness can include dizziness, vertigo, hearing and vision problems, and difficulty with concentration and memory.

What is balance?

Balance is the ability to maintain the body's center of mass over its base of support. ¹ A properly functioning balance system allows humans to see clearly while moving, identify orientation with respect to gravity, determine direction and speed of movement, and make automatic postural adjustments to maintain posture and stability in various conditions and activities.

Balance is achieved and maintained by a complex set of sensorimotor control systems that include sensory input from vision (sight), proprioception (touch), and the vestibular system (motion, equilibrium, spatial orientation); integration of that sensory input; and motor output to the eye and body muscles. Injury, disease, certain drugs, or the aging process can affect one or more of these components. In addition to the contribution of sensory information, there may also be psychological factors that impair our sense of balance.

Sensory input

Maintaining balance depends on information received by the brain from three peripheral sources: eyes, muscles and joints, and vestibular organs (Figure 1). All three of these information sources send signals to the brain in the form of nerve impulses from special nerve endings called sensory receptors.

FIGURE 1. Balance is achieved and maintained by a complex set of sensorimotor control systems.

Input from the eyes

Sensory receptors in the retina are called rods and cones. Rods are believed to be tuned better for vision in low light situations (e.g. at night time). Cones help with color vision, and the finer details of our world. When light strikes the rods and cones, they send impulses to the brain that provide visual cues identifying how a person is oriented relative to other objects. For example, as a pedestrian takes a walk along a city street, the surrounding buildings appear vertically aligned, and each storefront passed first moves into and then beyond the range of peripheral vision.

Input from the muscles and joints

Proprioceptive information from the skin, muscles, and joints involves sensory receptors that are sensitive to stretch or pressure in the surrounding tissues. For example, increased pressure is felt in the front part of the soles of the feet when a standing person leans forward. With any movement of the legs, arms, and other body parts, sensory receptors respond by sending impulses to the brain. Along with other information, these stretch and pressure cues help our brain determine where our body is in space.

The sensory impulses originating in the neck and ankles are especially important. Proprioceptive cues from the neck indicate the direction in which the head is turned. Cues from the ankles indicate the body's movement or sway relative to both the standing surface (floor or ground) and the quality of that surface (for example, hard, soft, slippery, or uneven).

Input from the vestibular system

Sensory information about motion, equilibrium, and spatial orientation is provided by the vestibular apparatus, which in each ear includes the utricle, saccule, and three semicircular canals. The utricle and saccule detect gravity (information in a vertical orientation) and linear movement. The semicircular canals, which detect rotational movement, are located at right angles to each other and are filled with a fluid called endolymph. When the head rotates in the direction sensed by a particular canal, the endolymphatic fluid within it lags behind because of inertia, and exerts pressure against the canal's sensory receptor. The receptor then sends impulses to the brain about movement from the specific canal that is stimulated. When the vestibular organs on both sides of the head are functioning properly, they send symmetrical impulses to the brain. (Impulses originating from the right side are consistent with impulses originating from the left side.)

Integration of sensory input

Balance information provided by the peripheral sensory organs-eyes, muscles and joints, and the two sides of the vestibular system-is sent to the brain stem. There, it is sorted out and integrated with learned information contributed by the cerebellum (the coordination center of the brain) and the cerebral cortex (the thinking and memory center). The cerebellum provides information about automatic movements that have been learned through repeated exposure to certain motions. For example, by repeatedly practicing serving a ball, a tennis player learns to optimize balance control during that movement. Contributions from the cerebral cortex include previously learned information; for example, because icy sidewalks are slippery, one is required to use a different pattern of movement in order to safely navigate them.

Processing of conflicting sensory input

A person can become disoriented if the sensory input received from his or her eyes, muscles and joints, or vestibular organs sources conflicts with one another. For example, this may occur when a person is standing next to a bus that is pulling away from the curb. The visual image of the large rolling bus may create an illusion for the pedestrian that he or she-rather than the bus-is moving. However, at the same time the proprioceptive information from his muscles and joints indicates that he is not actually moving. Sensory information provided by the vestibular organs may help override this sensory conflict. In addition, higher level thinking and memory might compel the person to glance away from the moving bus to look down in order to seek visual confirmation that his body is not moving relative to the pavement.

Motor output

As sensory integration takes place, the brain stem transmits impulses to the muscles that control movements of the eyes, head and neck, trunk, and legs, thus allowing a person to both maintain balance and have clear vision while moving.

Motor output to the muscles and joints

A baby learns to balance through practice and repetition as impulses sent from the sensory receptors to the brain stem and then out to the muscles form a new pathway. With repetition, it becomes easier for these impulses to travel along that nerve pathway-a process called facilitation-and the baby is able to maintain balance during any activity. Strong evidence exists suggesting that such synaptic reorganization occurs throughout a person's lifetime of adjusting to changing motion environs.

This pathway facilitation is the reason dancers and athletes practice so arduously. Even very complex movements become nearly automatic over a period of time. This also means that if a problem with one sensory information input were to develop, the process of facilitation can help the balance system reset and adapt to achieve a sense of balance again.

For example, when a person is turning cartwheels in a park, impulses transmitted from the brain stem inform the cerebral cortex that this particular activity is appropriately accompanied by the sight of the park whirling in circles. With more practice, the brain learns to interpret a whirling visual field as normal during this type of body rotation. Alternatively, dancers learn that in order to maintain balance while performing a series of pirouettes, they must keep their eyes fixed on one spot in the distance as long as possible while rotating their body.

Motor output to the eyes

The vestibular system sends motor control signals via the nervous system to the muscles of the eyes with an automatic function called the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR). When the head is not moving, the number of impulses from the vestibular organs on the right side is equal to the number of impulses coming from the left side. When the head turns toward the right, the number of impulses from the right ear increases and the number from the left ear decreases. The difference in impulses sent from each side controls eye movements and stabilizes the gaze during active head movements (e.g., while running or watching a hockey game) and passive head movements (e.g., while sitting in a car that is accelerating or decelerating).

The coordinated balance system

The human balance system involves a complex set of sensorimotor-control systems. Its interlacing feedback mechanisms can be disrupted by damage to one or more components through injury, disease, or the aging process. Impaired balance can be accompanied by other symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, vision problems, nausea, fatigue, and concentration difficulties.

The complexity of the human balance system creates challenges in diagnosing and treating the underlying cause of imbalance. The crucial integration of information obtained through the vestibular, visual, and proprioceptive systems means that disorders affecting an individual system can markedly disrupt a person's normal sense of balance. Vestibular dysfunction as a cause of imbalance offers a particularly intricate challenge because of the vestibular system's interaction with cognitive functioning, ² and the degree of influence it has on the control of eye movements and posture.

Authors: the Vestibular Disorders Association, with contributions by Mary Ann Watson, MA, and F. Owen Black, MD, FACS, and Matthew Crowson, MD

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Good balance is often taken for granted. Most people don't find it difficult to walk across a gravel driveway, transition from walking on a sidewalk to grass, or get out of bed in the middle of the night without stumbling. However, with impaired balance such activities can be extremely fatiguing and sometimes dangerous.

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Print awareness (also called concepts of print) is the understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words. Print awareness also includes an understanding of what books are used for and how a book "works" - how to turn pages, how to find the top and bottom of a page, and how to identify the title and the front and back covers.

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next week…

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next week…

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We've started already! As Esther mentioned, we are currently inquiring into night-time and the dark. On Monday, she asked families to write the word 'night' in their own languages and we've added them to our exploration space. She was also able to share your very handy example about learning about the consistency of physical objects regardless of direction in contrast to learning letter symbols, and blew a few parents' minds!

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next month…

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next month…

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We are working towards being more intentional and systematic with our learners documenting through photographs. We're exploring the best system for our context, but really see the value. We will also start documenting our cooking sessions and create a growing book of recipes for our class library. We will also start turning more of our teacher-created documentation into books as well, such as our self-portraits and night exploration.

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next year…

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As a team, something we can commit to in the next year…

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We encourage families to send photos of their child at different ages on their birthdays and then we share it with the group. Although it's always a rich and positive experience, it is a bit haphazard (not all families remember to send photos) and lost once the moment is gone. We recognise the potential for rich discussions and vocabulary-building in this experience, so next year we will include our request for photos in our start-of-year family questionnaire (where we already ask for name pronunciations and spellings in home languages). We will make a book or display so this information is more independently accessible to the learners.

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View all of Harkla’s child development courses. Browse between retained primitive reflexes, sensory diets, infant and toddler courses, and more! We have AOTA CEU approved courses!