Spending $$ and building skills

Every parent buys learning resources of one kind or another for their child. In the early years (ages 0 – 3), I spent money on toys. Then as we moved to preK3, preK4, I started spending money on books as supplements to our work at home. Let’s be real, for all the technology that exists books still, and probably always will, play a pivotal role in developing a child’s mind. I’ve talked about the ‘don’t read to me’ situation (Why are you reading to me?). Books, though, aren’t only the place where we learn about print as a means of communication. Books also are a source of information and in the early years, ages 3 to 5, books can play an instrumental role in developing skills in a range of areas.

Picture your child reading (or pretending to read which is just as powerful). That reading activity provides development opportunities for building gross motor skills: turning board book pages, coloring pictures, handling books in general, following words with fingers. Fine motor skills are also developed when we move to paper books and learn how to get those pages turned without tearing the paper. Ayyy! Reading is also the doorway to literacy skills – introduction to print, print as a representation of words, words as a representation of thoughts, actions, events and ultimately, the world around you.

So when I spent $ on resources and they did not meet my needs (or my daughter’s needs), I had to figure out what was missing. What did the resource need to say or do differently to develop those critical pre-literacy skills?  I kept buying different titles and still finding gaps in the teaching.  The spending wasn't helping my situation.

The answer came – make your own. I realized quickly that my professional training as an instructional designer equipped me to identify the sub steps in learning and understanding early childhood concepts (ECC).  Thus, although I was still spending $$ on the resources, now I was redesigning and ‘cutting and pasting’ learning steps, moving things around, adding and rewording, creating content or critical stepping stones to facilitate learning.

There are lots of great resources available. There are also lots of mediocre resources that we could easily spend $ on and only later discover “ugh, this really is no help to me”.  Most times, by the time you make that discovery, you’ve either written your name, a date or done a few pages and it’s too late to return the product.

$ saving tip: Before you buy, figure out what your child needs to learn, where they are having difficulty AND THEN google the resource or flip through the pages before you spend your hard-earned $$$. I spent about $145.00 for learning resources to support preK skill development. That may not sound like a lot however if you consider that preschool is PRE the whole 13-year educational adventure, those $$$$  on resources at each grade level or content area will add up.

$ saving tip: whenever possible, locate the resource at Amazon.com. If you’re lucky, the book will come with the ‘search inside’ icon.  This is a real help. You get the table of contents, a few choice pages that can help you determine if the resource provides the topic treatment that suits your needs. In a future post, I’ll talk about how I evaluated the likely usefulness and effectiveness of some resources.   Working for academic success is a good thing.  Spending $$$ on poor or ineffective resources is not.

Here’s one product manufacturer I really like.  It's from Evan Moor.  It's the “Take it to your seat Early Learning Centers”.  This was a BIG hit and GREAT success in my household.  The price was a little steep but it was well worth the money. It's best features were the vibrant colors, clear instructions for each activity, and its focus on a few specific early childhood concepts at a time.  Too many books try to cover everything and the result is poor coverage of many things rather than great coverage of a few things.  http://www.evan-moor.com/

Making the bags was as much fun as using the bags. They’re easy to store. We both had fun cutting and sticking (both necessary pre-school skills). The activities included nursery rhymes, creating patterns, visual discrimination. Lots of fun, lots of color, lots of learning! This resource is a 5-star pick for me.

I’m committed to spending my $$$ wisely on GOOD resources to complement and supplement my child’s academic success. How about you?

I'm willing to spend $$$ on camp, activities, and learning resources once they help to build skills.

Why? Not

You know that baseball joke about who’s on first? They go through all of the 'wh' questions. In speech development, there is a sequence that children should begin to understand (receptive language) and produce (expressive language). That sequence involves all those 'wh' questions.

Children ask lots of why questions and that’s because they’re supposed to. It’s a natural part of their language development. It’s how they make sense of the universe.  They arrived with no clothes and a blank slate for you to fill. Just think how much attention we pay to making sure they have clothes to wear and a special outfit to go home from the hospital. We need to pay the same kind of attention to the language and thinking skills we equip them with. Our first why question came at 4 years 4 months – a little beyond the normal development milestone. Yes, each child develops at his/her own pace. But, when the pacing is off, that could signal a problem.

There are many phrases in speech and language development. The ‘why’ stage is one of the more commonly known phases. Some parents laugh at the fact that their children are driving them crazy with why questions. This phase can be frustrating since the questions range from simple things to some complex concepts that make you scratch your head. 

How many times can a child ask why? I wouldn’t know since my universe was why-less. You could say I had "No 'why'" phase.  There really wasn't a 'why' phase. The one question I heard was ‘why are they taking pictures?’ That was it. Perhaps as development continues she will develop an understanding of the purpose of the why question. (Answering why questions is still a challenge.  What does 'why' mean anyway?)

Again, if you’ve been around normally developing children you would probably know that phase and certainly miss it if it didn’t show up. In our case, the 2 – 3 age was filled with lots of words, some degree of unintelligible speech but no awareness on my part that the language development should have been at the place where the ‘annoying’ or ‘frustrating’ why question was a regular occurrence.

Somewhere in my searching and accessing resources that were informative, I found a milestone guide about asking and answering questions. Who knew? Who knew that there were specific stages at which children developed the ability to ask some 'wh' questions and answer others? The reality is that with each research study on the brain, language, speech & language development, early intervention, and other areas of thought, we learn more that is helpful.  There’s a lot the researchers know; there’s a whole lot yet to be uncovered.  The researchers might have known these things, but no one had told me.

Here’s another question to ponder: why isn’t there one place that serves as a link or hub to other PDD-NOS speech language information that could ease some of the parents’ frustrations? If there is such a place, I haven’t found it yet. However, I’ve decided to answer that question for myself. As I find new, helpful resources for each phase of this journey, I’ll post them on the blog. Why? Perhaps because I’ve endured the land of "No 'why'".

I’d like others who walk this PDD-NOS journey to have better light on the road. Where I had blind spots - language development milestones, for example - those coming after us should not have to face the same confusion. The more you know, the better you can be at taking a proactive step to anticipate, equip, or simply support your child’s language development.

In years to come, parents of all children will know more about the development stages of language because we who have struggled with it, have shared what we know. All children can benefit from some of the tips, techniques, and resources that have been created for children with speech delays. If there are resources that can help them, why would we want to share them with children who have no language development challenge? The real question is: why not? We don’t know which aspects of language development are as challenging for children with normally developing speech as they are for those with speech delays.  Share what we know and we might all be better off for it. Why? Why not?