LINKING LITERACY WITH SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL AND

BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENTAmeet N. Boleigh, Ed.S, NCSPSchool Psychologist IIAlternative Education ProgramCPI InstructorData Committee Lead

Adapted from Connors-Tadros, L., & Yates, T. (2003). Linking Literacy with Social-Emotional Development [PowerPoint slides]

CHILD DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH• Key Findings:

How young children feel is as important as how they think, particularly with regard to school readiness

Emotional development occurs on a parallel path to early literacy development in the context of positive relationships

Learning to cope with strong emotions is important for social AND academic success (Denham, 1998; Elias, 2003; Zins, 2001)

INDICATORS OF SCHOOL SUCCESS/READINESS

Social Developm

ent

Emotional Developm

ent

Literacy Developm

ent

HOW ARE THEY INTERRELATED?• “…We have found that emotional and intellectual development cannot be separated; that these two functions come together as the child actively explores the emotional, social, and cognitive changes at each of these stages.”

- Stanley Greenspan, MD

LANGUAGE, LITERACY, AND SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT• Hearing words allows a baby to self-regulate

• Saying words allows a toddler to self-regulate

• Expressing ideas helps a preschooler to self-regulate

WHAT IS EMERGENT LITERACY?• The Emergent Literacy perspective emphasizes the gradual acquisition of literacy via formal and informal mechanisms from infancy to school age

• Literacy develops along a continuum, ranging from pre-reading to reading skills

WHAT IS EMERGENT LITERACY?

Oral Language

Phonological Awareness

Print Knowledge

ORAL LANGUAGE• Children learn new words by hearing themselves reading out loud (receptive vocabulary)• When an adult explains the word to the child, he/she begins to internalize the meaning and will use the word in his/her speech (expressive vocabulary)

PRINT KNOWLEDGE• Alphabetic principle The alphabet Relationship between letters and sounds• Concepts about print knowledge Reading left to right Print on a page corresponds to words in a sentence

Language related to books – title, author, illustrator

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS• The quality of the interaction, not the language of the interaction, promotes very young children’s interest and ability to communicate in meaningful ways

• A strong foundation in language and lots of exposure to literacy activities is the key to ensuring all children are ready for school

QUALITY OF WORDS• The kinds of words that children are exposed to are important: Rare words, sustained conversation Complexity of sentence structure• The tone of the words that children hear is important for social-emotional development

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS• The ability to distinguish between units of sound or to identify rhyming words• Songs, rhyming games, and word play support children’s phonological development• These activities also support children’s social-emotional development

PROMOTING EMERGENT LITERACY

“The single most important activity for building [literacy] understandings and skills essential for reading success appears to be reading aloud to children.”

SHARED BOOK READING (READING OUT LOUD)• Interactive way of reading books aloud with children that gives them a chance to be actives participants in the reading session • The immediate feedback from the adult is important for the child• Adults are able to adjust instruction to meets the child’s current level of understanding (Palincsar & Brown, 1984)

SHARED BOOK READING (READING OUT LOUD)• Reading aloud builds children’s literacy skills when children are engaged in the activity.• Children who are more engaged during reading aloud are more motivated to read and have better literacy skills.

SHARED BOOK READING (READING OUT LOUD)• Children are also more engaged when they have a positive relationship with the adult who is reading to them

Source: Handbook of Early Literacy Research

DIALOGIC READING ELEMENTS• A particular type of shared book reading technique that includes strategic questioning and responding to children while reading a book (Whitehurst et al., 1998)• Technique addresses 4 key domains: 1) Repeated readings 2) Small groups 3) Vocabulary 4) Comprehension• Positive impact on development of oral language development, phonological awareness, & print knowledge, reading comprehension (Arnold, Lonigan, Whitehurst, & Epstein, 1994; Crain-Thoreson & Dale, 1999)

SMALL GROUPS• Dialogic reading sessions work best with small groups of children (Lonigan & Whitehurst, 1998; Whitehurst, Arnold, et al., 1994)• When stories are read to children in small groups rather than as a whole class, greater levels of reading comprehension are achieved (Morrow & Smith, 1990)• Why?

REPEATED READINGS• Dialogic reading relies on repeated reading of a book or story• By reading the same book or story again and again, children ask more questions and engage in more dialogue (Pappas, 1991; Phillips & McNaughton, 1990) Initial questions are clarifying questions Later questions focus on inference and predictions (complex thinking skills!)

VOCABULARY• Repeated reading are conducive to vocabulary instruction and development• Vocabulary development occurs through direct instruction of word meanings (Stahl, 1997) and through incidental learning from verbal contexts (Elley, 1989; Weizman & Snow, 2001)• Greatest gain with vocabulary development involve a combination of direct instruction and incidental learning (Penno, Wlkinson, & Moore, 2002) KEY POINT: Gains in vocabulary increased with reach repeated reading!

COMPREHENSION• Dialogic reading gives teachers a structure in which to ask meaningful questions that begin a conversation about what is happening in the story and help children comprehend the story (Doyle & Bramwell, 2006)• Adults often under prompt children to process and connect ideas or to express their understanding of the story (McKeown & Beck, 2003)• Young children will respond when prompted with meaningful questions

PROMOTING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL &

BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT

“Emergent behavior difficulties in early childhood have been found to be predictive of social difficulties, including peer rejection, and academic difficulties in later childhood” Dimitria Hartas

WHAT IS SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT?

• The developmentally and culturally appropriate ability to: Manage emotions Relate to adults Relate to peers Feel good about self

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG CHILDREN• Young children demonstrate growing social-emotional competence in numerous ways (Denham, 1998)• We see in early childhood the display of complex emotions such as guilt, pride, and shame• Children are also beginning to learn about the rules of display: There are times you show emotions and time when you don’t• The ability to moderate and control feelings is formulating• 34% of USA children age 3 to 5 meet clinical cut-off criteria for behavioral problems (Upshur, Wenz,-Gross, & Reed, 2009)

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT: A PATHWAY TO SUCCESSFUL READING• Children are more likely to learn important cognitive skills when they: Are confident Can persist at tasks; and Can engage in successful, positive interactions with other children and adults

LEARNING SOCIAL SKILLS• The development of social skills can be taught (Elliot & Gresham, 1993; Ladd & Mize, 1983)• Children, especially those with at-risk social-emotional/behavioral profiles, need to be explicitly taught what to do and how to execute such skills (Ladd & Mize, 1983)• When using dialogic reading with books with social-emotional/behavioral content, teachers can focus on a student’s understanding of certain prosocial skills

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING CURRICULASEL Curriculum Grade Level CostsPromoting Alternative Thinking Skills (PATHS)

Elementary $159 - $700 per 25 students

Caring School Community Elementary $60 per 25 studentsI Can Problem Solve Elementary $40 per 25 studentsSecond Step Elementary $125 per 25 studentsSOAR: Skills, Opportunities, and Recognition

Elementary No product; Training available

PUTTING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL/BEHAVIORAL LEARNING AND EMERGENT LITERACY TOGETHER• When selecting your reading materials, choose those that promote opportunities for mutual growth of social-emotional/behavioral and emergent literacy • Dialogic reading techniques can be used to facilitate both • Merging the two together can improve a child’s memory of what they’ve read Children’s memories are more accurate and they are better able to vocalize such memories when emotions is attached to those events (Fivush, 1998; Liwag & Stein, 1995)

• When the adult-child relationship is strong, there is a greater chance the child will engage in a deeper understanding of the reading material (Bus & van Ijzendoorn, 1998, 1997, 1995, 1992).

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT• Significant results can not be achieved with students without a partnership with the family• Parent-teacher conferences are excellent conduits for teaching parent the important of reading with dialogic techniques and social-emotional/behavioral learning • The use of dialogic reading techniques can double the language gains compared to children who were read to only at school (Lonigan & Whitehurst, 1998)

RECOMMENDATIONS• We should not debate the relative importance of language/literacy development and social-emotional development.• They are interdependent and interrelated such that it is not possible to focus on one without focusing on the other. • Our focus should be on learning opportunities that integrate social-emotional and language and literacy development.• Emphasizing the overlapping areas between emergent literacy and social-emotional/behavioral learning creates a more powerful learning experience in both domains (Izaard et al., 2001; Eisenberg, Hanish, & Spinrad, 2001)

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