Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development

On this episode, I cheat a little and share an interview in which I was the guest- I guess it's role reversal time on Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters! It's all about the science of reading and just what that tells us about teaching kids to read.More about Brain Words:https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/201902/brain-words-solution-america-s-reading-problemhttps://www.mta.ca/Community/News/2019/April_2019/Brain_Words_%E2%80%94_the_psychology_of_learning_to_read/Full interview can be found here:https://pacificeducationpulse.simplecast.com/episodes/4-ep04-rethinking-reading-instruction-using-brain-words

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters (#11!) we shift gears once again and do a deep-dive into research methods for studying just what shared (storybook) reading does to a child’s developing oral language and emergent literacy. _________________________________________References this week all come from the lab of Monique Sénéchal at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.Sénéchal, M., & LeFevre, J. (2002). Parental involvement in the development of children’s reading skill: A 5-year longitudinal study. Child Development, 73, 445-460.Sénéchal, M., LeFevre, J.-A., Thomas, E., & Daley, K. (1998). Differential effects of home literacy experiences on the development of oral and written language. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 96-116.Sénéchal, M. (1997). The differential effect of storybook reading on preschooler’s expressive and receptive vocabulary acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 24, 123-138.Sénéchal, M., & Cornell, E.H. (1993). Vocabulary acquisition through shared reading experiences. Reading Research Quarterly, 28, 360-374.___________________As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even! Can’t promise I’ll always reply promptly, but I’ll try....www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com 

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters (#10!) we continue with last episode’s focus on being topical and timely- it is back to school time after all! So this week I hand the mic over to two experienced, dedicated kindergarten teachers who share their thoughts on kindergarten readiness and provide many thoughtful tips for parents.  _________________________________________As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com 

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we switch our focus once again to the title of the podcast- this time kindergarten readiness in the traditional sense. We’ll see what some top ranked websites have to say for themselves, and hear from a real life kindergarten teacher too…yes a real life one…    _________________________________________Richard Gentry’s post about our show: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/202007/science-early-literacy-learning-really-mattersWebsites reviewed…https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/school-life/grade-by-grade/preparing-kindergarten.htmlhttps://www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/signs-symptoms/academic-readiness/skills-kids-need-going-into-kindergartenhttps://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/kindergarten-readiness/art-20048432 As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com 

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we switch to the social-emotional domain of development and take on a topic that has relevance not only throughout the 0-5 age range, but for our entire life – this week on Kindergarten Ready, it’s all about attachment!   _________________________________________As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe even sound clips of your kids! Who knows, they could star in future episodes...www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we have our first ever listener requested topic: invented spelling and kid writing! Yay! A topic near and dear to my heart- and brain. We’ll talk about how early kid writing is not only a great gateway to learning to read, it actually directly tells us about the child’s developing brain! References & Links:Richard Gentry Phases of Spelling: http://bpsassets.weebly.com/uploads/9/9/3/2/9932784/gentry.pdfSome of my related research:Ouellette, G., Martin-Chang, S., & Rossi, M. (2018). Learning from our mistakes: Improvements in spelling lead to gains in reading speed. Scientific Studies of Reading, 21, 350-357.   Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in Kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53, 77-88.Ouellette, G., Sénéchal, M., & Haley, A. (2013). Guiding children's invented spellings: A gateway into literacy learning. Journal of Experimental Education, 81, 261-279.Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2012).  The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme-awareness kindergartners: A randomized-control-trial  study. Reading and Writing, 25, 917-934._________________________________________As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com 

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters, we are all about....babies!This week, we shift the focus age wise, and talk about babies and their amazing speech perception abilities and early babbling. And yes I geek out a little on the science and research, but trust me, this is super cool stuff. Seriously. Seriously cool. References on request.As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com

On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we try to better match the content to the podcast title....and talk about what readiness really means... and emergent literacy! Special thanks to the stars of this week’s episode, Sloan (3.5 years old), Maddy, & Arwyn (both 4 years old)! References for those interested in the research literature:Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in Kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53, 77-88.Ouellette, G., Sénéchal, M., & Haley, A. (2013). Guiding children's invented spellings: A gateway into literacy learning. Journal of Experimental Education, 81, 261-279.Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). Pathways to literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read.  Child Development, 79, 799-813.Reutzel, R. (2015). Early literacy research: Findings primary-grade teachers will want to know. The Reading Teacher, 69, 14-24. Welsch, J.G., Sullivan, A., & Justice, L. (2003). That’s my letter!: What preschoolers’ name writing representations tell us about emergent literacy knowledge. Journal of Literacy Research, 35, 757-776.  www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.comhttps://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatterslanguageliteracylearninglab@gmail.com