Sunday, April 30, 2023

¿Qué salió bien?


El cuidado personal puede ser tan fácil como lograr pequeñas victorias a lo largo del día.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Thursday, April 27, 2023

Theoretical Frameworks of Language Development

Language development is thought to proceed by ordinary processes of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings, and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. Children often begin reproducing the words that they are repetitively exposed to. The method in which we develop language skills is universal; however, the major debate is how the rules of syntax are acquired.[citation needed] There are two quite separate major theories of syntactic development: an empiricist account by which children learn all syntactic rules from the linguistic input, and a nativist approach by which some principles of syntax are innate and are transmitted through the human genome.

The nativist theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky, argues that language is a unique human accomplishment, and can be attributed to either "millions of years of evolution" or to "principles of neural organization that may be even more deeply grounded in physical law". Chomsky says that all children have what is called an innate language acquisition device (LAD). Theoretically, the LAD is an area of the brain that has a set of universal syntactic rules for all languages. This device provides children with the ability to make sense of knowledge and construct novel sentences with minimal external input and little experience. Chomsky's claim is based upon the view that what children hear—their linguistic input—is insufficient to explain how they come to learn language. He argues that linguistic input from the environment is limited and full of errors. Therefore, nativists assume that it is impossible for children to learn linguistic information solely from their environment. However, because children possess this LAD, they are in fact, able to learn language despite incomplete information from their environment. Their capacity to learn language is also attributed to the theory of universal grammar (UG), which posits that a certain set of structural rules are innate to humans, independent of sensory experience. This view has dominated linguistic theory for over fifty years and remains highly influential, as witnessed by the number of articles in journals and books.

Read more, here.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Monday, April 24, 2023

Language Development

Language development in humans is a process starting early in life. Infants start without knowing a language, yet by 10 months, babies can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some research has shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth.

Typically, children develop receptive language abilities before their verbal or expressive language develops. Receptive language is the internal processing and understanding of language. As receptive language continues to increase, expressive language begins to slowly develop.

Usually, productive/expressive language is considered to begin with a stage of pre-verbal communication in which infants use gestures and vocalizations to make their intents known to others. According to a general principle of development, new forms then take over old functions, so that children learn words to express the same communicative functions they had already expressed by proverbial means.

Read more, here.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Friday, April 21, 2023

I'm Listening


Good communication amongst family, healthcare providers, and children leads to trusting relationships and inspires healthy habits… and well-child visits are a great time to communicate!

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Developing Skills

Parallel play helps children begin language development and create social relationships. Rubin et al.(1976) have suggested that "those who play beside others may desire the company of other children but may not yet have the skills required to play in an associative or cooperative manner". It can also assist with gross and fine motor skills through the child's own individualized play. Parallel play can increase confidence because children are learning to play near others. Children can observe one another and learn to use new skills from playing alongside others. Eventually, it will lead to social development where the child will form relationships with others during play. Parallel play can be useful in encouraging expression of a child's feelings through their own individualized play. The child will increasingly learn to share and become aware of others emotions, as well as learn cause and effect through trial and error of adjusting and solving problems in play.

"Parallel play is often viewed as characteristics of a 'stage' through which children pass as they develop from solitary players to social players". Children will undergo different playing stages in order to finally join people in groups. Analysis published in 2003 in Early Childhood Research Quarterly showed that preschool children, who enjoy watching others engage in parallel play, can have future activities designed to help with transition into higher levels of social interaction. The parallel-play activities can help neglected or rejected children with social transition between social-play states. Smith believed parallel play to be optional and not "After Parallel play, children were most likely to be found in either Together or Group Play". This suggests that parallel play played an important role to this transition.

According to a study performed by Wei Peng and Julia Crouse, parallel play can be used to design games, especially active video games that involve physical activity, to be more effective. Playing with other people, even if those individuals are strangers, was more motivational than playing alone and there does not appear to be a major difference in cooperation and competition between same physical space mode and separated physical-space mode. Also playing with others or online creates an ability to relate to others and parallel competition in separated space is more enjoyable, more physically exerting and creates higher future play motivation.

Children cope differently depending on how they were raised, this also applies to how they cope with unfamiliar beings in their lives. Jens B. Asendorpf refers to parallel play as a child's coping style, and explains that children who want to play with an unfamiliar peer will resort to this style. This coping style allows children to engage in the same activities as their peers from afar, until they are comfortable enough to socialize with their peers.

Read more, here.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Saturday, April 15, 2023

History of Parallel Play

Mildred Parten was one of the first to study peer sociability among 2 to 5-year-olds in 1932. Parten noticed a dramatic rise of interactive play with age and concluded that social development includes three stages. Parallel play is the first of three stages of play observed in young children. The other two stages include simple social play (playing and sharing together), and finally cooperative play (different complementary roles; shared purpose). The research by Parten indicated that preschool children prefer groups of two, parallel play was less likely with age, a majority of the kids chose playmates of the same sex and that the most common parallel play activities were sand play along with constructive work. Other findings in her study showed that I.Q. level had little impact, siblings preferred to play with each other, home environment was a big factor, and playing house was the most common form of social play among children. Research indicates that these forms of play emerge in the order suggested by Parten, but they do not form a developmental sequence in which later-appearing ones replace earlier ones. All types coexist during the preschool years. Vygotsky believed that play during childhood created a zone of proximal development of the child and guided in intellectual development. Socioeconomic status appeared to only impact associative play, where British children who were used in the study of low socioeconomic status preferred that type of play. This could be explained due to the fact that those kids had fewer toys and more siblings to share toys with.

Read more, here.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Pattern Play


Recognizing and extending patterns of everyday objects lays the foundation for future math learning.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Sunday, April 9, 2023

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Parallel Play

Parallel play is a form of play in which children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another's behavior; it typically begins around 24-30 months. It is one of Parten's stages of play, following onlooker play and preceding associative play.

An observer will notice that the children occasionally see what the others are doing and then modify their play accordingly. The older the children are, the less frequently they engage in this type of play. However, even older preschool children engage in parallel play, an enduring and frequent activity over the preschool years. The image of parallel play is two children playing side by side in a sandbox, each absorbed in his or her game, not interacting with the other. "This is considered an early stage in child development, characterized by egocentric behavior and the inability to decenter and coordinate with the activities of a 'playmate'".

In education, parallel play also describes activities where students are divided into pairs or small groups and work on the same activity simultaneously. This gives all students equal opportunity for active involvement and reduces exposure – since all students are playing, none are watching. This stage ends when a child develops the ability to engage in interactive play behavior and symbolic communication.

Read more, here.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950

Monday, April 3, 2023

Great Things | #ComingTogether


We can all do great things! Sometimes we have a lot of feelings, and it’s important to share how we feel. When it gets hard, be proud and say, “we can do great things!” Join Wes, Elmo, Rosita and, Ricardo and sing about all the great things we can do to care for ourselves and others.

LOCATION
421 Executive Court North
Fairfield, CA 94534-4019
(707) 863-3950