The Council is excited to announce that later this year we will release the newly-revised third edition of the landmark textbook Essentials for Child Development Associates Working with Young Children. The new Essentials will provide all of the most current research, information, ideas and strategies needed by entry-level early childhood professionals. The textbook will be organized around each of the thirteen Functional Areas, along with new information about reflection, intentionality, observation, documentation and other key topics of interest to contemporary teachers and caregivers.
In our last article we reflected on "Functional Area 5 – Cognitive". Please see below, the many responses we received about this topic from members of the national CDA community. This month, we focus on... Communication
Here is an advanced sneak peek of "Chapter 6: Communication" for you to reflect on...
Communication focuses on oral language, reading and writing. In the field of early childhood education, communication skills are most often referred to as language and literacy. Probably no other subject in early childhood education has received as much attention in recent years. This is because we now have a strong and definitive body of research on which to base our practice.
A key research finding is that reading and writing are not skills that mysteriously appear at around age six (Schickedanz, n.d.). Like all skills, they are developmental in nature - they begin at birth. Research has found that children who begin kindergarten having received a foundation for early literacy are more likely to be successful students later in life (Strickland & Riley-Ayers, 2006). However, we also know that children from low income backgrounds may have less exposure to books and language and thus have weaker early literacy skills (Colker, 2010).
You can play a pivotal role in helping children from all backgrounds develop a strong foundation for early language and literacy. This is especially true because research also tells us that most language and literacy skills must be directly taught. You cannot depend on children to - among other things - learn the alphabet on their own. You must be intentional in how you interact with children.
Caregivers can best promote language and literacy skills in young children by:
- Creating an environment that supports literacy
- Supporting children's oral language development
- Fostering children's reading and writing development
- Understanding and supporting dual language learners
- Working with families to support children's literacy development.
Please take a moment to reflect on your own teaching practices. What else might you add to the above list? What do you think are the most important goals to remember in supporting young children's cognitive development? What tips and strategies would you share with others?
CDA Community Reflections on our last topic... "Cognitive Development"
Last month, we asked the CDA community to send us their thoughts about the topic of the last article, "Cognitive Development," to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank you to everyone who responded. In particular, two readers caught some wording in last month's excerpt that, in trying to be illustrative for new ECE professionals, resulted in being technically inaccurate. This is, of course, the risk we are taking in sharing an excerpt of an early draft that has not yet been through the expert panel reviews scheduled for later this year. We apologize for the error.
In discussing cognition, the text stated that, in the earliest years, "the brain is bigger" than at any other time in life. The edited version, which will appear in the new "Essentials" next year, will instead discuss the levels of brain activity and possible synaptic connections that are occurring in the earliest years.
Send your thoughts, along with your first name, last initial, city and state, to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Next month, we'll share with you all of the wise responses we received from across the national CDA community. In addition, we may also print your name and reflection in the new Essentials textbook and share your great ideas with all of the CDA-seeking community college students around the country who use Essentials as their primary textbook!