Step Outside: Outdoor Play Supports Healthy Visual Development

Here’s yet another reason to demand more recess and frequent outdoor play for our children! When children play outdoors they have the chance to exercise their leg and arm muscles and rest their eyes muscles. The AAP suggests that children under the age of 2 not watch television and that viewing should be limited to 2 hours a day even for older children. Reasons cited include the rise in childhood obesity resulting from sedentary lifestyles and negative affects on mental, physical and social development. But there’s an additional reason to limit or restrict the use of computers, hand-held devises such as electronic games and phones, and television for all children.

The National Eye Institute corroborated recent studies conducted in Australia and Singapore that strongly suggest “screen time” can negatively impact visual development and increase the occurrence of myopia (near sightedness) in young children (Brown, 2009). Vision disorders are the fourth most prevalent class of disability in the United States and the most prevalent handicapping conditions in childhood (National Eye Institute, 2008). Documented rates of myopia--near sightedness--have risen steadily over the past 40 years.

The definitive cause of myopia has not yet been determined. Children of parents with myopia tend to develop myopia more frequently than children with non-myopic parents. Near sightedness can be inherited, the result of poor nutrition or due to other environments factors. This new information suggests “near work” may be an environmental factor contributing to myopia in children. Children who spend too much time on hand held gadgets such as gaming and entertainment devices, hand phones, personal computers may be at increased risk.

Typical symptoms of myopia in children:

• Complaints of headaches (possibly extra crankiness in infants and toddlers)
• Squinting at a television, hand-held device or while trying to do an activity that involves “close work”
• Rubbing or frequently touching eyes
• Frequently blinking – more than usual.

Why does myopia matter?

Myopia can be corrected with glasses or contacts; however, methods for vision screening in young children vary tremendously as does the effectiveness of the methods (National Eye Institute, 2008). Even with proper correction research shows the eyesight of individuals with myopia becomes progressively poorer over time. While this condition may not be uncommon nor seriously affect a child’s overall health, it can impact his or her ability to function in the everyday world now--and in a classroom setting when they move to a formal educational setting. Our formal education system requires that children have strong "near" eyesight in order to read and focus objects close by while doing “near work.”

Early childhood programs can help young children reduce eye strain by encouraging more outdoor play. Some studies show the risk of developing myopia is less when children spend more time focusing on things in the far distance. So take preventative measures! Step outside and look at the passing clouds.

Help children practice good eye care habits:

• Schedule regular outdoor times to ensure children break away from up close work to rest their eyes
  
• Inform parents about the many risks of television viewing, computer use, and hand-held devices
• Limit the amount of time you schedule any “close work” activities in the early childhood classroom
• Resist pressures to increase academic expectations that require “seat work”
• Encourage children to wear hats and/or sunglasses to protect eyes from overexposure to strong daylight
• Advocate recess time as part of every child’s day in your community!

Resources and references for further reading:

The National Eye Institute. (2008). Vision In Preschoolers Study (VIP Study). Clinical Trials Database. Bethesda, MD: Author. (Retrieved 01/14/2010 online: http://www.nei.nih.gov/neitrials/static/study85.asp)

Brown, K. (2009).Health & Home: Good reasons to limit screen time. Chinook Observer. Salem, OR: East Oregonian Publishing, Co. (Retrieved 01/14/2010 online: ttp://www.chinookobserver.com/Main.asp?SectionID=2&ArticleID=32020)

B. Seet, T. Y. Wong, D. Tan, S. M. Saw, V. Balakrishnan, L. Lee, and A. Lim. Myopia in Singapore: taking a public health approach. British Journal of Ophthalmology, v.85(5); May 2001. (Retrieved 01/14/2010 online: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1723957/)

Are you a Director, Assistant Director or the Administrator of your Early Childhood Program?

Take the PreschoolFirst NAEYC 2009 Pre-Presentation Survey

The PreschoolFirst Staff at THE SOURCE FOR LEARNING would like to know what you feel are your greatest challenges in these tough economic times.

Just follow this link and take 2 minutes to share your concerns!

Administrator Survey: Challenges to Your Early Childhood Program

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zP_2fGfV62xWwMPQCh9Fg4qQ_3d_3d

Feel free to forward this to other Directors and Administrators! We'll share information gathered from the survey during the NAEYC Presentation:

"Time for a check-up? Assessing your center's capacity to meet the challenges of change and economic stability"

Date & Time: 11/19/09 at 10-11:30 am

Presenters: Cheryl Roberts, Ph.D., and Mari Blaustein

Location: Washington Convention Center, Rm.145 A

PreschoolFirst is always happy to answer all your questions. Call us weekdays at 1-866-584-2900.

Thank you! Mari & Cheryl

The Challenge of Observing the Very Youngest

At this year's NAEYC Annual Conference in Washington, DC, our SFL staff members Kamna Seth and Mari Blaustein will present on the challenges of observing infants and toddlers. “I don’t know what to do!” Overcoming the challenges of infant/toddler assessment is scheduled on Saturday 21, 2009 at 2:00PM-3:30PM.

PreschoolFirst would love to hear your thoughts on this hot topic--especially from care teachers and administrators who face this challenge daily.

Do you do any screening of the infants and toddlers in your care? If not, why?

Are you expected to do any kind of "careful" observation or record what a child does when?

If so, what is your biggest challenge? Staff expertise, too few staff, time, parent resistance? Others?

Please share your thoughts!

Head Start Can Take the Lead

At the National Head Start Leadership Institute last week, we were pleased with both the quality of speakers and timely topics related to the ARRA funds and the Early Learning Challnge grants. During the Institute several key topics were brought up that have implications for the children and families served by Head Start.

Our belief is that we are at another critical juncture in the field of early childhood. After years of apathy and lack of funding, the presidential administration has placed renewed attention on the immense impact the first years of a child’s life have on his or her future success. This success has both long range academic and social benefits for the individual, our local communities, and our nation. These issues reach well beyond the public school systems or the Head Start community.

The current influx of new funds may bring a shift as to which organizations and educational entities are responsible for the oversight, education and care of young children. National, state or local appointed policymakers with only rudimentary understanding or experience in early childhood development, learning environments and disadvantaged communities may become the overnight decision makers for how early childhood programs must be structured, and how outcomes and measures should be implemented.

We may also see pedagogical shifts in learning environments that must support the development of our nation’s most vulnerable young children. For example, proponents of the skill & drill, testing environment currently favored in public education to collect data may believe that collecting data in the same manner for early childhood outcomes will justify the allocation of financial resources. So long as the data can be interpreted to show the outcomes that they hope to achieve, the end justifies the means. If the current system of “local state control” of public education remains as is—with the added responsibility of proving early childhood funding “works,” we may see an unintended consequence. This “means to an end” philosophy could create an inhospitable climate that does not support what early childhood educators know about developmentally appropriate practices, healthy child development, and educational expectations.

Evaluating outcomes in early childhood and implementing best practices under intense levels of scrutiny is not new to the Head Start community. Their insight and experience with this challenge could serve as a guide to help bridge the schism in public programs between the world of data outcomes and meaningful learning experiences using developmentally appropriate practices. We hope various public program and associations seek the valuable input of the Head Start community. The dedicated educators from the Head Start community are an inspiration.

Let's Talk About the Swine Flu and Young Children

Young children will hear something about the Swine Flu from parents and older siblings, or accidentally on television. To young children this information can very confusing or even frightening.

Here are some resources from the Children's National Medical Center you can visit to help the young children better understand what the virus is and how to stay healthy.

H1N1 (Swine Flu) - What You and Your Family Need to Know

Talking with Children about H1N1 (Swine Flu)

Print this out from the CDC website and post it right above every sink! Clean Hands Save Lives!

Click here to access H1N1 from CDC resources in other languages
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PreschoolFirst hand washing tip!

Doctors report the best way to avoid the flu is to wash your hands often! Researchers suggest that adults and children soap up their hands for 30 seconds and rinse them thoroughly. So how long is 30 seconds to a young child who cannot yet tell time or count to 30?

Make regular hand washing a playful experience by asking children to sing songs while they take a turn lathering at the faucet. Try these ideas to keep things fresh:

• Hum the tune to "Happy Birthday to You," and help children to chant and count from 1 to 10 AND count backwards from 10 to 1 as they lather up between each finger, and then to rinse well.
• Sing the alphabet song with each child as they lather, then rinse. For the ones who already know the alphabet well, help them learn to say it backwards!
• Sing an original version of an old favorite such as "This is the Way!"

For example:

This is the way (Child's name) squirts the soap, squirts the soap, squirts the soap.
This is the way (Child's name) squirts the soap, to keep the flu from spreading.

This is the way he lathers the soap, lathers the soap, lathers the soap.
This is the way he lathers the soap, to keep the flu from spreading.

This is the way he scrubs between fingers, scrubs between fingers, scrubs between fingers.
This is the way he scrubs between fingers, to keep the flu from spreading.

This is the way he rinses his hands, rinses his hands, rinses his hands.
This is the way he rinses his hands, to keep the flu from spreading.

This is the way (Child's name) washes his hands, washes his hands, washes his hands.
This is the way (Child's name) washes his hands, to keep the flu from spreading.

Do you have other ideas about ways to engage young children in hand washing? Please share them with us!

PreschoolFirst Congratulates Bemis Farms Preschool on achieving their NAEYC re-accreditation!

Interview with the Director, Genevieve Thompson:

PF Staff: What it means to be a director of a NAEYC Accredited child care program?

GT: Being a director of an NAEYC accredited center means that I have committed my self, staff, community, and families to a higher level of daily excellence. The program I run is constantly re-evaluating it's program to make sure it is meeting the needs of the individual families, children and the community we serve. Our program understands what is developmentally appropriate for the children we serve, and we will only provide a program that helps each child reach their individual full potential. We strive for personal best in all that we do in our program, and understand that the field we work in is constantly evolving and growing and that we must also in order to not become stagnant and dull in what we do. Being the director means that I must constantly challenge my staff to question their beliefs in the classroom, and guide them to continue t o educate themselves so that they can provide the best program available.

PF Staff: Why did your program plan to pursue NAEYC re-accreditation?

GT: This was not a decision we made in haste. We took the facts and expectations of NAEYC to the staff, and families and asked them for their opinions and support in this process. In order to complete the re-accreditation process it was important that everyone be involved and willing or it would not have worked. Having the NAEYC accreditation lets newly enrolled families, and the community be assured that you are committed to providing only the highest quality of care for the children you serve. It says that you are not willing to only obtain those standards given by the state you live in but you are willing to obtain much higher standards, and that you are not afraid to involve the families in the process.

PF Staff: Was PreschoolFirst instrumental during the NAEYC accreditation process? If yes, please describe how?

GT: We used PreschoolFirst in many ways.

First we showed how involved the families were in their child's assessment process from day one. Starting with the new family questionnaires, we are able to assess where the parent thinks the child is. We were also able to show through the activities that the families can do at home that we are able to keep the school-home learning connection. The activities also help our families learn about what is developmentally appropriate for their child.

Secondly, the teachers were able to use PreschoolFirst for their portfolios to show that they are doing individually appropriate assessment on the children, and that this continues as the children switch to new classrooms. We were able to show that the assessment was done through observation and that the teachers could tailor the assessment to meet the individual needs of the children they work with. The teachers could show how they used the data they collected to help with continual planning and also how they used this information in parent-teacher conferences to show the continual growth of the child to the families.

Lastly, as the director I was able to use PreschoolFirst to show the assessor during the site visit, how I was actively involved in assessment process. I showed her how I could view all the assessments being done, and could see if a child had red flag behavior that I needed to further explore. I also showed how I could communicate with the teachers, and parents, through PreschoolFirst. Lastly I showed how I could use the developmental handouts on PreschoolFirst to help new staff better understand the age group they were working with.

PF Staff: Do you think your families benefit from the PreschoolFirst system?

GT: I do think that families benefit from the program but they have to fully understand how the program works. To make sure that our families understand the benefits of PreschoolFirst I have a curriculum night that I host every other year where I have a section devoted to PreschoolFirst and how it is used in the classroom, and then how families can use this program at home. I explain what parents will see at parent-teacher conferences, and how we hope they will implement this program at their home. This program works well for the families we are currently enrolling who are from the Generation X and Generation Y group. These families are very comfortable with technology and like when things can be accomplished through email and the Internet. I think PreschoolFirst because it is on the Internet seems more of an updated and viable assessment process to them. I think the families also benefit because PreschoolFirst gives them developmentally appropriate activities in many different genres. Many families get very caught up on cognitive development, but forgot about how important gross, fine motor and social-emotional skills are.

PF Staff: Is there anything that you would like to see in PreschoolFirst system improve so that it would help providers a lot more during the NAEYC accreditation process?

GT: Not at this time.

PF Staff: Would you like to share your experiences and be a part of PreschoolFirst support group in future to assist other programs pursuing NAEYC accreditation process?

GT: I would be happy to help any program going through the NAEYC accreditation process.

If your program is planning to pursue NAEYC accreditation -- check out the Scholarship Awards NAEYC has to offer!

Whole Child Education: Is it new again?

A recent blog posted on the The Whole Child web pages hosted by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) addresses the ongoing questions educators face when they must consider evaluating "student achievement" vs. "whole child development."

In our current climate of test data obsession, the ASCD points out that "Kids simply won't achieve if we don't ensure they are healthy and safe, consider their social and emotional needs, tap into their interests, and demonstrate real-world application of the knowledge and skills we want them to acquire." This is a simple fact that early childhood educators have known for decades and that the NAEYC has supported in various position statements over the years.

Whole child education through intentional teaching supported by best practices - whether it be in a toddler group or a high school history class - looks very similar in all learning environments. Early childhood programs who gather meaningful information using a comprehensive asessment and curriculum system- such as Preschoolfirst - can actually use data to inform and guide whole child practices....and thereby improve learning outcomes.

The ASCD has committed to promoting Whole child educational practices as part of a focus on healthy school communities. PreschoolFirst has a few questions:

• Is your early childhood program a partner in the your community?
• Do you meet with the public and private elementary schools in your area to support a whole child–centered education system?
• What, if any, are the educational practices on which you agree? Are there any on which you disagree?
• Do you have a system that helps your program collect observations that prove "play" and supporting whole child development works?

To read the full ASCD blog visit In Defense of Whole Child Education!