Early Learning Workshop

1. Early Learning Workshop Dr. Robert Titzer

2. Why it is Important to Stimulate Infants and Toddlers • Brain Development • Bonding Experience • Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

3. Language Acquisition • Receptive Language (Understanding) • Expressive Language (Talking or Signing) • Second Languages • Written Language (Reading)

4. How to Help Your Baby Learn • Math • Music • Shapes • Logic • Colors

5. Questions and Answers • Please write down questions. • Please feel free to ask questions on any topic at the end.

6. Why the Environment is So Important for Infants and Toddlers • Brain Development • Nutrition • Bonding Experience • Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

7. Brain Development • Infants and toddlers have tens of thousands of new synapses forming in their brains every second. • About 75% of brain mass is formed by age two – stimulation and nutrition are extremely important during this time. • About 90% of brain development occurs by age five.

8. Nutrition • What the child drinks or eats is critically important for brain development–especially early in life. • The brain growth spurt is vulnerable to the adverse effects of malnutrition. • Nutrition is an important part of the overall development of infants and toddlers.

9. Bonding Experience • Four separate bonds form early in life. • Baby to Mom • Baby to Dad • Mom to Baby • Dad to Baby

10. Once in a Lifetime Experience • Your child’s brain develops at this fast pace only once. • The time and energy that you invest in your baby will have a lifelong impact on your child’s development.

11. Language Acquisition • Receptive Language (Understanding) • Expressive Language (Talking or Signing) • Second Languages • Written Language (Reading)

12. Receptive Language • Talk to the baby • Use simple, descriptive language • Describe all of the baby’s senses • First 50 words learned take the longest • Fast mapping – learn words after hearing them once or twice • Use hundreds of new words every week

13. Expressive Language • Delays caused by lack of tongue and mouth control • First sounds • Encourage vocalizations • Play fun games in front of a mirror • Limit the use of pacifiers • Think about how you make language sounds • Watch your baby’s mouth

14. Learning the Patterns of Language • Infants and toddlers learn more than the individual words that are spoken • They also naturally learn the patterns of languages Examples: Toddlers learn to add an ‘ed’ on to words to make them past tense, or an ‘s’ on to words to make them plural, or an ‘ing’ on to words at the appropriate times

15. Written Language • Learning one aspect of language generally helps other aspects of language • Begin as soon as you can • Babies can start as soon as they get visual tracking • The first 50 words take the longest to learn • Once they know around 50 words, they generally begin to learn them much faster • Once children know around a hundred words, they usually begin to figure out phonetic patterns

16. Videos of Babies Reading • Savannah at 15 months • Aleka at 9 months • Aleka at 2 years, 3 months • Tara at 14 months • Jacob at 12 months • Jacob at 18 months • Sarah at 15 months • Zoe at 17 months

17. The Current Approaches to Teaching Reading are Not Working • The current approaches are based on our history and tradition more than science. • A 1997 National Panel of Reading Specialists and Early Childhood Educators said that most of our nation’s reading problems could be eliminated if we took two actions: 1) taught reading earlier 2) used a combination of phonics and whole language approaches

18. Other Research on Early Reading • The earlier the child is taught to read, the better the child reads – even when controlling for IQ and socio-economic status (Durkin’s studies). • The gap between early readers and later readers increases over time (Stainthorp & Hughes, 2004). • “Activating children’s neural circuitry for reading early on is key.” (Shaywitz, Shaywitz & Lyon, 2003). • Children who are taught to read earlier enjoy reading more than children who are taught later (Durkin’s studies).

19. Summary of the Benefits of Early Reading: • Early readers stay ahead of children who are taught later in life.  • Research indicates that the gap between early readers and later readers actually increases over time. (This is sometimes known as the "Matthews Effect" where the rich learners get richer and the poor learners get poorer.) • Studies from all areas of language (spoken language, second languages, sign language, receptive language, etc.) show that it’s easier to learn the patterns of language at a higher level early in childhood compared to later in childhood. • Window of opportunity for learning language begins to close by age 4. • Reading opens the door for many other opportunities for learning and it helps children succeed in school and in life.  • Children who enter school already reading have higher self-esteem than children who cannot read when they enter school. • Children who are taught to read earlier prefer to read more than children who are taught at age five or later.

20. Summary of the Benefits of Early Reading: • There is more neuroplasticity* early in life in part because the brain is developing so rapidly in babies and toddlers. • A Yale University study shows that “that activating children's neural circuitry for reading early on is key.” • It’s likely the brain will develop more efficiently for reading when the child learns to read early in childhood compared to later in childhood. • The current methods and ages of teaching reading are not working for hundreds of millions of children around the world. • Teaching reading earlier may eliminate most reading problems according to a US National Panel of Reading Specialists and Early Childhood Educators. • Better readers are more likely to stay in school than poor readers. • Baby brains develop faster than older children’s brains. • Reading is the most important skill a child learns so the impact of learning early influences other learning. • *Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to change or modify how it develops based on its environment.

21. How to Help Your Baby Learn • Math • Music • Shapes • Logic • Colors

22. Questions and Answers • Please feel free to ask questions on any topic.