Assessing Movement Skills
of Infants/Toddlers and Preschoolers
Till is attending his first day of
preschool. Tucked under his left arm is his favorite kitty
puppet; under his right arm is his book on numbers. With his
possessions thus secured, he leaves his house for the car. In all
earnestness he turns to his mother and declares, “Mommie,
this is my work.”
Till’s words echo those of the
eminent Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980), who
maintained that play is the work of children. By that, Piaget
meant that children at play are exploring and eventually
mastering appropriate developmental tasks. Modern child
development specialists apply this idea in order to understand
where children are developmentally.
At the University of Minnesota, we
are producing movement skill assessment tools for use with very
young children while they are at play. We work both with
typically developing children and with those with identified
delays in development. The earlier we can identify delay, the
better. If a child needs help due to a lag in development, it is
critical to get in early and create interventions that
successfully boost the positive developmental trajectory for the
child (Bailey, Bruer, Symons, & Lichtman, 2001; Shonkoff
& Phillips, 2000). This early intervention prevents later
developmental problems and promotes optimal development of
children with disabilities.
While a number of assessment tools
exist for the purpose of early identification of developmental
delays, the early assessment of infants and young children has a
number of challenges. First, developmental assessments of infants
and young children are typically conducted as single session
assessments (Neisworth & Bagnato, 1991) with extensive time
between assessments (e.g., several months or more). These
infrequent single-session assessments limit the information
available regarding the child’s developmental progression,
especially the child’s developmental progress day-to-day and
week-to-week. Second, testing activities are often conducted in
clinical settings rather than the child’s natural
environment, calling into question the relevancy of the
information gained (Bronfen-brenner, 1972; Bailey & Wolery,
1992; Guralnick, 1997). And third, assessment in early childhood
has not been well-linked to intervention (e.g., Bricker, 1993).
These problems occur in all areas of early childhood assessment,
but especially in motor.
One of the University of
Minnesota’s most prominent motor development scholars, Dr.
Allen Burton, described movement skills as “…an
observable, goal-directed movement pattern” (Burton &
Miller, 1998). He emphasized that the observable act was a more
important unit of measurement than the potential ability that the
child had for movement. It isn’t that the potential for
movement (as observed in a child’s reaction time or skill in
balancing on one foot) isn’t important to consider, but
Burton believed that assessing the actual performance gave the
parent and practitioner a lot more information about the
child’s functional skill. In other words, Burton preferred
to look at what a child’s skill performance was like rather
than at the abilities that might contribute to the movement
skills themselves. Dr. Burton’s approach is critical to the
new movement assessment tool developed at the University of
Minnesota.
New Approach to
Assessment: New IGDIs
As any parent knows, the rate of
growth in early motor development is more rapid than at any other
time in development. Therefore, we need a new method of
assessment to track growth frequently, particularly when a child
has a disability or developmental delay. We also need the method
to be brief and contain items highly predictive of later
development. Likewise, we need assessment instruments directly
linked to comprehensive intervention solutions when a delay or
disability is identified. We also need assessment instruments
based on functional movement skills assessed in the natural
environment. Finally, we need assessment instruments that are
easy to use by non-experts in motor development, such as staff of
childcare programs, since an increased number of children ages
three years and younger are cared for in daycare centers in the
United States (Children’s Defense Fund, 1996; in
O’Brien, 1997). Experts in motor skill development are
trained and licensed to conduct comprehensive assessments and
design motor intervention programs when developmental delay is
identified; childcare staff are not typically trained at this
level and rely on experts to work with them.
Five years ago, the University of
Minnesota, along with the University of Oregon and University of
Kansas, launched the Early Childhood Research Institute on
Measuring Growth and Development (ECRI-MGD) to create new tools
in assessment that would meet these objectives [Early Report,
Fall 2000, vol 27 (2)]. The scholars of ECRI-MGD created
assessment tools in the major domains of development for
infants/toddlers, pre-schoolers, and school-age students through
age eight. The assessment tools of ECRI-MGD have been used in
assessing and intervening in the areas of communication skills
for infants/toddlers and reading skills in early childhood. The
research to develop the movement assessment tool at the
University of Minnesota is considered an extension of the work of
ECRI-MGD and obtained separate funding in 2000 from the Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS), U.S.
Department of Education.
The new tools of assessment are
called Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs).
Hence, we used the name “Movement IGDI” to refer to the
new movement assessment tool for infants, toddlers, and
preschoolers. The name “IGDI” includes the word
“indicator” because the tool indicates where the child
is developmentally. The use of an IGDI isn’t a substitute
for comprehensive testing in an early childhood domain, but
rather a mechanism for monitoring development and evaluating
intervention. The new movement assessment tool we have developed
will help us identify sooner where children are with their
skills, help teachers and parents follow their development, and
help us identify children who are lagging (delayed) in movement
skill development.
Our approach was drawn from the work
of Dr. Stan Deno, a professor of Educational Psychology at the
University of Minnesota. Deno believes that the work we do in the
classroom needs to be reflective of the functional skills the
student needs and that those skills need to be assessed
regularly. With this approach, each student’s skill
development and progress is tracked over time. And, importantly,
if a student is not making progress, the assessment quickly
informs us so that intervention can begin in a timely manner. As
we intervene, we continue to use the same assessment tools to see
if the student is benefiting from our new approach to teaching
them. We use Deno’s conceptual framework for assessment, but
since our “students” are so young, we refer to them as
children.
The adult using the Movement IGDI is
not an expert in movement assessment. Rather, the tool is
organized to measure skills that parents and teachers can easily
recognize and are skills children need and use in their daily
lives. Both teachers and parents have responded positively to the
tool use.
Another key element of an IGDI is to
get in and get out quickly. We conducted numerous pilot studies
to find the toys that would quickly engage a child and naturally
produce movement that could be measured. For infants and
toddlers, we fulfilled this purpose with balls of medium size
(both foam balls and rubber playground balls), a push-cart, and a
toy car that when pressed on the top would fly off. These toys
quickly engaged the children in play, and as the children played,
they moved and we could code/count their rate of movement.
We place the toys in front of each
child for two minutes and every 15 seconds we prompt them using a
technique called “following the child’s lead (Table 1,
page 6).” When Till, the child referred to earlier, was a
toddler, adults played with him by presenting different toys and
following him as he played. This approach is the opposite of
being directive with a child, as in saying: “Here is the
ball. Throw the ball.” Rather, the adult evaluator notes
what the child is playing with and comments on the child’s
actions: “You have the ball. Show me how you play with the
ball.” We count every time a child produces an important
functional skill in two basic areas (see Table 2): (1) when they
transition in and out of a position (e.g., going from sit to
stand, from stoop to stand), and (2) when they move from one
place to another, called locomotion (e.g., crawling, walking,
running).
We found that our Movement IGDI was highly correlated with a
standard measure of motor skill (concurrent validity). Using the
Toddler Infant Motor Evaluation (Miller & Roid, 1994), we
reported a correlation of .8 with a p-value of > .001. Parents
agreed that the skills we were looking at were the ones that were
important to them (social validity). We also conducted studies
where we looked at whether two people got the same scores
watching the same child (inter-rater reliability). Our answer was
yes. We also tested whether teachers got the same scores as the
investigators. And again, the answer was yes.
Infant/Toddler
Movement IGDI: Seven Waves of Data
In order to study the validity of
the movement IGDI for work with infants and toddlers, 42 children
in the infant/toddler age range were followed over time. Each
child was assessed every three weeks for a total of seven
assessments (waves). Our infant/toddler Movement IGDI showed that
the children were growing over time across the seven waves
(approximately seven months) and that the younger children were
less skilled than the older children, which is what we would
expect (See Figure 1). It also picked up children whose movement
skills were not growing. For example, in Figure 2 you can see a
child whose growth remained flat in skill for transition in
position. Currently, for the participants showing no growth, we
are beginning interventions with the child, his/her family, and
care providers.
During meetings conducted to receive
feedback on the measures, parents were pleased that we were not
looking at one single assessment session but rather we were
interested in the trend their child set across seven sessions of
assessment: “[This is] refreshing that you are not [only]
looking at it quantitatively but at trends.” And, they
thought the information was something they could use at home:
“[It is] helpful if parents can have a tool at home to use
to gauge a child’s development.”
Preschooler
Movement IGDI: Eight Waves of Data
Till, as a preschooler, needs a
different Movement IGDI because, compared to his infancy and
toddlerhood, he is a more competent mover. The codes we used with
him when he was younger do not account for his movement skills
now as a young preschooler. Again, we conducted numerous pilot
studies to find the toys that would quickly engage a preschool
child in a natural play environment. The answer for the
preschooler was playground balls: six of them in various sizes
and textures. The skill of throw is an object control skill in
movement for young children (Burton & Miller, 1998).
The protocol is to place the balls
in front of two children (these preschoolers enjoy being active
with others) and for 3 minutes we watch them and prompt by
following their lead. We count if they threw the ball to
something (self, other, object) or threw to nothing (into the
air, to no one, to no object).
Preliminary studies found that our
preschool Movement IGDI was highly correlated with a standard
measure of motor skill. We used the Test of Gross Motor
Development II (Ulrich, 2000) and found a high correlation with
overall motor development. Again, parents agreed that the skills
identified were functional skills: ones that their child would
use in their daily life and therefore, ones that are important at
the preschool ages. Again, we conducted studies looking at
whether two people got the same scores watching the same child
(inter-rater reliability). Our answer was yes.
In order to study the validity of
the movement IGDI for work with preschoolers, 37 preschoolers
ages three to five years at the start of the study were assessed
every three weeks for a total of eight assessments (waves).
Similar to the data on the infant/toddlers, our preschool
Movement IGDI showed that the children were growing over time
across the eight waves (approximately eight months), and that the
younger children were less skilled than the older children. This
IGDI also picked up children who were not growing. The results
presented in Figure 3 shows that each group of children is
significantly different from the other group. The
three-year-olds’ trend line is on the bottom of the graph,
the middle trend line is the four-year-olds and the top line
represents all the five-year-olds. All the trend lines are going
up, which means the children are growing in skill. These data are
analyzed using one of the newest approaches in child development
research where groups of children are followed over time. This is
referred to as Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM) (Bryk &
Raudenbusch, 1992).
The Future
Next we plan to package the testing
method into kits and train teachers to use the tools in
classrooms and daycare centers, first in Minnesota and then in
other states. We have opened up discussions through the Great
Lakes Head Start Quality Network with Early Head Start serving
low-income children and their families. In addition, requests
have been coming into the University as presentations are made to
professional organizations such as the North American Federation
of Adapted Physical Activity (NAFAPA), the Council for
Exceptional Children (CEC), the Division of Early Childhood
(DEC), and at the OSERS annual meeting in Washington DC.
In January 2003 presentations were
made in Greece at the University of Athens and in Cyprus.
Discussions have begun in Italy regarding cross-cultural
validation of the movement assessment tools.
References
Bailey, D. B., Bruer, J. T., Symons,
F. J., & Lichtman, J. W. (2001). Critical thinking about
critical periods. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Bailey, D. B., & Wolery, M.
(1992). Teaching infants and preschoolers with disabilities.
New York: Macmillan Publishing Co.
Bricker, D. (1993). Assessment,
evaluation, and programming system for infants, and children,
volume 1: AEPS measurement for birth to three years.
Baltimore: Brookes.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an
experimental ecology of human development. American
Psychologist, 32(7), 513-531.
Bryk, A.S., & Raudenbusch, S.W.
(1992). Hierarchical linear models: Application and data
analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Children’s Defense Fund.
(1996). The state of America’s children’s yearbook
1996. Washington, DC.
Deno, S. L., (1997). Whether thou
goest: Perspectives on progress monitoring. In J. W. Lloyd., E.
J. Kameenui & D. Chard (Eds.), Issues in educating
students with disabilities (pp. 77-99). Mahawah, N.J.
Lawrence Erlbaum.
Guralnick, M. J. (Ed.) (1997). The
effectiveness of early intervention. Brooks: Baltimore.
McConnell, S. R. (2000). Assessment
in early intervention and early childhood special education:
Building on the past to project into the future. Topics in
Early Childhood Special Education, 20, 43-48.
Miller, J. M., & Roid, G.H.
(1994). The toddler/infant motor evaluation. San
Antonio, TX: Therapy Skill Builders.
Neisworth, J. T., & Bagnato, S.
J. (1996). Assessment for early intervention: Emerging themes and
practices. In S.L. Odom & M. E. McLean (Eds.), Early
intervention/early childhood special education: Recommended
practices. (pp. 23-57). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.
O’Brien, M. (1997). Inclusive
child care for infants and toddlers: Meeting individual and
specialized needs. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Shonkoff, J. P., & Phillips, D.
A. (Eds.). (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science
of early child development. Washington DC: National Academy
Press.
Ulrich, D. A. (2002). Test of
gross motor development - 2. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Resources for Program
Development / Best Practices
Cox, L., & Lubbers, T. (1999). Make
it take it!: Creating movement challenge kits for play at home or
school. Kearney, NE: Tekna Books.
McCall, R. M., & Craft, D. H.
(2000). Moving with a purpose: Developing programs for
preschoolers of all abilities. Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics.
Minnesota Department of Children
Families and Learning. (in press). Active learning: A
resource guide for designing and implementing developmentally
appropriate movement experiences for young children ages 3 to 5.
[Manual]. Roseville, MN.
National Association for Sport and
Physical Education (2002). ACTIVE START: A statement of
physical activity guidelines for children birth to five years.
[Brochure]. Reston, VA.
National Association for Sport and
Physical Education. (2000). Appropriate practices in movement
programs for young children ages 3 - 5. [Brochure]. Reston,
VA.
Saunders, S.W. (2002). Active for
life: Developmentally appropriate movement programs for young
children. National Association for the Education of Young
Children, Washington D.C., Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Wessel, J. A., & Zittel, L. L.
(1998). I Can primary skills K-3. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Wessel, J. A., & Zittel, L. L.
(1995). Smart Start: Preschool movement curriculum designed
for all abilities. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
Investigators
Carol A. Leitschuh, Ph.D., Principal
Investigator
Sara Braga, GRA
Allison Shu, GRA
Contact: leitschu@umn.edu or(612) 625-9579
Advisory Committee and
Consultants
University of Minnesota Consultative
Team
• Scott McConnell, Ph.D.
• Mary McEvoy, Ph.D.*
• Allen Burton, Ph.D.*
* (deceased)
University of Kansas Medical Center
• Winnie Dunn, Ph.D., FOAAOT
Heartland Area Education Agency,
Iowa
• Gerry Gruba, Ph.D.
• Carolyn Gibson, RPT
University of Kansas, Juniper
Gardens Children’s Project
• Charles Greenwood, Ph.D.
• Judith Carta, Ph.D.
KID Foundation, Littleton Colorado
• Diane Legner, RPT
Carol Leitschuh
Dr. Leitschuh is a Research
Associate at the University of Minnesota. Her interests include
functional measures of movement skill in early childhood, early
intervention for young children at risk for developmental delay,
improving outcomes for young children prenatally exposed to
illicit drugs, use of general outcome measures in determining
individual performance in development, and the cross-cultural
validation of movement assessment instruments in early childhood.
Currently she has a research grant to develop and validate a
functional movement skill assessment for infants, toddlers and
preschool children with and without disabilities. She also
directs the licensure and Masters in Education program in
Developmental and Adapted Physical Education for the School of
Kinesiology.
Leitschuh was awarded a Postdoctoral
Research Fellowship at the University of Kansas, Juniper
Garden’s Children’s Project, and an Initial Career
Award from the United States Department of Education for work at
the University of Minnesota. She is a CEED representative on the
Institute on Community Integration Advisory Counsel, a guest
reviewer for the Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, a member of
the national committee to develop adapted physical education
licensure, and a member of the Committee on Early Childhood
Special Education/Developmental and Adapted Physical Education
for the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning.
Leitschuh recently presented at the North American Federation for
Adapted Physical Activity; Council for Exceptional Children,
Division of Early Childhood; and the Conference on Research
Innovations in Early Intervention. In January 2003 she presented
at the University of Athens, Greece and in Cyprus.
Sara Braga
Ms. Braga is a Graduate Research
Assistant in the School of Kinesiology. A native of Milan, Italy,
Ms. Braga received a Bachelors of Science in physical education
in Italy, completed a post-graduate study in exercise physiology
in Dijon, France and is currently completing her M.A. at the
University of Minnesota focusing on human sensory motor control.
Ms. Braga has extensive experience in Italy teaching physical
education to preschool children, acting as a physical trainer to
elite sailing teams, and coaching woman’s volleyball.
Remembering Mary
McEvoy
Minnesota and the nation has lost a
leader in early education and development, and many of us have
lost a good friend. On Friday, October 25, 2002 Mary McEvoy,
Professor of Educational Psychology and past Director of the
Center for Early Education and Development at the University of
Minnesota, wife of Jamie Cloyd and mother of Clare, Becca, and
Luke Cloyd, and friend, colleague, and inspiration to many was
killed in a plane crash in Eveleth, Minnesota. Mary was traveling
with Senator Paul Wellstone, Sheila Wellstone, and five others.
Mary’s professional
contributions were many — she was a classroom teacher in
Tennessee, a researcher and teacher at Peabody College of
Vanderbilt University, and a professor of Educational Psychology
at the University of Minnesota since 1990. Here at the University
of Minnesota, she served as director of the early childhood
special education program, she directed the Center for Early
Education and Development from 1993 to 1999, and she chaired the
Department of Educational Psychology from 1999 to 2002. She also
worked with children and families, school districts, child care
programs, information and referral agencies, and advocacy
organizations throughout Minnesota — organizations like the
Governor’s Interagency Council on Early Intervention, the
Pacer Center, the Hennepin County Youth Coordinating Board, and
Ready 4 K. She worked at local, state, and national levels in
special education policy and program improvement, and in related
areas of social justice and child development. Her research
focused on social interaction and inclusion for young children
with disabilities, prevention and early intervention for problem
behaviors, environmental factors affecting development of
children exposed prenatally to drugs and alcohol, and most
recently development of efficient tools for describing
preschoolers’ development, particularly in early literacy.
She also was the first Chair of the Conference on Research
Innovations in Early Intervention. She was a gifted teacher, and
an effective mentor and colleague to many.
We will miss Mary for her many
skills, but we will also miss her for incredible energy, great
humor, enthusiasm, and love. She was quick-witted,
quick-tempered, adoring, committed, and devoted. She had a spirit
and style that was all her own, and that drew so many to her.
CEED, the University of Minnesota, our state and region, the
field of early intervention, and many professionals, parents, and
children have indeed lost a good friend.
Visit Mary McEvoy’s memorial
Web site at http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed
Online Course
Registration is Now Available for an
Online Course Presented by the Center for Early Education and
Development (CEED), University of Minnesota
Both of these graduate level courses
are offered via the internet. Students participate online only,
not in a classroom. Most instruction will take place on each
student’s individual schedule, although students must
periodically participate in “live chats” with the
instructors, other students and guest speakers. In addition, the
instructors will hold specific “online office hours”
for interaction with students via the internet. For further
information, contact the individual instructors.
Relationship-Based Teaching
With Young Children
The foundation of this class is the
premise that young children need and use relationships with
caring adults as a primary pathway to both cognitive and social
emotional development. Hence, early childhood educators can best
provide intervention when they are aware of and use their
understanding of a child and their relationship with that
specific child to guide their work. This course will expand on
the functional behavioral analysis by looking at children’s
interactions and actions to point to what might trigger and
sustain maladaptive behavioral patterns. Relationship-based
practice embodies both reflective teaching and reflective
collaboration with other staff.
Registration is available on-line at
— http://onestop.umn.edu/registrar/registration/index.html
UPDATE: CEED
Affiliated Projects
Early Childhood
Behavior Project
The Early Childhood Behavior Project has created a
web site that blends technology with technical assistance to help educators and
families meet the needs of children engaging in challenging behavior.
Positive Approaches to Challenging
Behavior is
designed to be used by and assist parents, regular and special
education classrooms, Head Start programs, childcare centers, and
other community-based programs. Information about challenging
behavior and proactive ways to assess both the form and function
of behavior provides guidance in developing proactive behavior
plans. The important role of relationship-based practice will be
included as the web site expands its resources. Project personnel
regularly monitor a discussion board, providing an opportunity
for online interaction. In addition, scheduled live chats provide
an opportunity to interact directly with experts in early
childhood.
This project is funded by the
Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning.
Contacts
Christopher Watson, 612-625-2898,
watso012@tc.umn.edu; Judy K. Swanson, 612-626-9528, swans114@tc.umn.edu.
Early Literacy
Training Project
“The seeds of literacy are
planted before children enter school. Important literacy skills
do not develop spontaneously, instruction shapes them”
(Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998). With these wise words guiding
its actions, the Minnesota Early Literacy Training Project (MN
ELTP) is now fully operating. As both a research and a service
project, the MN ELTP is a complex variety of activities carried
out by a multicultural staff of six graduate research assistants
and four training specialists, led by co-coordinators Kate Horst
and Angèle Passe.
The overall direction is provided by
Mary McEvoy and Scott McConnell, with Paul Van den Broek and
Michael Rodriguez as co-investigators. This work is being done in
Minneapolis and on the White Earth Reservation, White Earth,
Minnesota. There are the requisite discipline and rigor of a
scientific study as well as those of a high quality professional
development program, serving educators in a large urban area and
in a remote rural community. The study involves assessing three-
and four-year-olds with five early literacy measures, the
Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) to measure
verbal language development and emerging literacy skills, a
comprehension task to measure children’s ability to
comprehend and communicate and Concepts About Print (CAP) to
assess children’s understanding of print and books.
The project’s service goal is
to implement an early literacy training and coaching curriculum
for early childhood staff working in community childcare centers.
The training includes a series of seven sessions which invite
pre-K educators to reflect on the impact of their practices and
on their role in promoting early literacy as teachers of young
children. The coaching provides a safe and supportive environment
for teachers to examine their work and make changes based on data
and observation. Its hallmarks are effective communication and a
clear results orientation.
This project is expected to
contribute to increasing our knowledge base regarding effective
practices in addressing preschoolers’ language and emerging
literacy skills. It will also generate empirical evidence
supporting instructional practices and classroom environments
conducive to better long-term language and literacy outcomes for
young children.
In December 2002, the first report
was made available as a baseline for the study and also as a
critical tool for coaches to specifically address the
instructional strategies most successful in teaching early
literacy to young children in a developmentally appropriate way.
Get It, Got It, Go!
Tools for Improving
Children’s Developmental Outcomes
Get It, Got It, Go! is a
comprehensive Web site with informational materials and
database-driven systems to help educators and researchers select
measurement tools to monitor children’s development, manage
the data acquired, and collaborate with parents and peers.
Get It —
Obtain informational materials and assessment tools for measuring
the developmental growth of children from birth to age eight.
Got It — Enter
individual child data and generate graphical reports to monitor
the developmental growth of individual children and groups of
children, and determine if intervention is necessary.
Go! —
Communicate and collaborate about a child’s progress over
time and about intervention plans to improve child outcomes.
Current Project
Status
We are refining the basic
functionality for teacher-level users administering Picture
Naming, Rhyming, and/or Alliteration (all for preschool-aged
children).
Get It! is online.
Got It! — The registration
system and data management tools are online for teacher-level
users administering Picture Naming, Rhyming, and/or Alliteration
(all for preschool age children). Users can enter individual
child data and generate simple reports (displayed in graphical
and tabular form) to monitor the developmental growth of
individual children and groups of children and determine if
intervention is necessary.
Go! is not available for use yet.
Head Start QNET
Project Update
QNet (the Great Lakes Head Start
Quality Network) provides training and technical assistance to
Head Start Grantees in Minnesota and throughout Region V
(Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio).
Region V joins with 23 other regional Quality Improvement Centers
across the United States to form a national training and
technical assistance system to support the Federal Head Start
Initiative for families meeting poverty income guidelines and
families whose children have disabilities. Our funding comes out
of the 1% of Federal Head Start budget dollars set aside for
training and technical assistance. Independent contractors are
awarded funds via an RFP submittal/award process.
Our direction of work is guided by
priorities from both the federal government and regional officers
who oversee grantee adherence to federal standards; the Head
Start Performance Standards. We work closely with grantees to
assist with planning, partnering and ongoing staff training in
accordance with the overarching priorities of Head Start which
are —
- Fatherhood and 21st century parenting
- Early literacy/family literacy
- Outcomes and curriculum
- Technology
- Oral health
- Head Start/childcare partnership development
- Professional development/leadership
- Early Head Start
- Prevention and early intervention
- Health care tracking and follow-up
- Disabilities
- Program governance
- Planning and ongoing monitoring
- Fiscal management/financial capability
- Eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment,
attendance
- Locally identified issues and
successes
I’PROMICE
Improving Preschoolers’ Reading
Outcomes Through Measurement and Intervention in Classroom
Environments
The I’PROMICE project examines
relations between the growth of preschoolers’ expressive
language/pre-literacy skills and their later performance in
becoming proficient readers. These preschoolers include children
with disabilities, children whose primary language is Spanish,
and children attending Head Start Programs.
I’PROMICE is continuing to
follow two cohorts of children recruited in each of the first two
years of the project. Administration of preschool Individual
Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI) and kindergarten/first
grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (Dibels)
general outcome measures are conducted seasonally, as are
ecobehavioral classroom observations. An additional cohort of
children will be recruited this year to participate in an
intervention study, which is scheduled to begin Winter 2003.
Project staff will recruit teachers to assist in developing a
classroom intervention program, which will be designed using
information from the early stages of the study and from the
relations between child performance on language and early
literacy measures and classroom ecological variables.
New CEED
Publications
Talking Reasonably and
Responsibly About Brain Development — Trainer Edition
This guide has been developed to
assist in training child care providers, families, parent
educators, and others about myths and misunderstandings on the
subject of early brain development. It is also intended for use
by those who would like to incorporate early brain development
information into their trainings on other topics.
The guide is divided into four
modules —
1. Overview of early brain
development.
2. How to be a savvy consumer of research about brain development
(or any topic).
3. Analysis of public messages about early brain development.
4. How to blend brain development information with child
development information.
The guide is complete with ready-to-use diagrams and overheads,
active learning exercises, glossary of terms, and resource list.
Cost is $25, to order, visit http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed and click on “publications,” or
call 612-625-3058.
Questions About Kids?
If you’re a parent or
professional with questions about children’s development,
Questions About Kids is for you! Questions About Kids are flyers
that provide answers to important questions parents have about
their children’s development.
We have a series of eight Questions
About Kids focused on infants and toddlers. They include a range
of topics that address contemporary concerns and highlight the
unique delights and challenges of the first years of life. They
were written by experts at the University of Minnesota and in the
Twin Cities community and were reviewed by experts at the
University of Minnesota. For the first time, some of the
Questions About Kids are available in Spanish, Somali, and Hmong.
They are being distributed via the Web and through community
health, social service, and parent education programs. We
encourage you to use them as you see fit. The new topics are
—
• How can parents and caregivers support a baby’s
healthy development?
• What’s going on in my baby’s brain?
• How do I get to know my newborn?
• How can trauma affect my young child?
• Am I spoiling my baby?
• What does it mean when my young child is
“assessed”?
• Do dads really make a difference?
• How can I help my young child to become a reader?
Questions About Kids is a joint
project of the Irving B. Harris Training Center for Infant and
Toddler Development and the Center for Early Education and
Development, University of Minnesota. Questions About Kids is on
the Web at http://www.harristrainingcenter.org and http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed/publications.
Harris Forum
Dr. Samuel Meisels, President of the
Erikson Institute and Zero to Three, will be the Harris Visiting
Scholar May 13-15, 2003. He will be the featured speaker at the
Harris Forum, where he will be discussing issues around early
childhood assessment. The Harris Forum will be held at the
Minnesota History Center on Thursday, May 15, from one to three
p.m. There is no charge, but registration is required. The Harris
Forum is co-sponsored by CEED.
For more information, contact Kelley
at the Harris Center at 612.624.4510 or ibharris@umn.edu
Deb Ceglowski Moves
On
Dr. Deborah Ceglowski, a key member
of the CEED faculty and staff, has left the University of
Minnesota for a new position as Associate Professor of
Counseling, Special Education and Child Development at the
University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Deb has joined a
thriving early childhood program there, but will be missed here.
This summer, Deb told some of us, “I leave the U with many
fond memories of my colleagues and am grateful for the
opportunities made available to me during my six years
here.” Deb will continue her involvement in the study of
child care quality currently underway, and Scott McConnell will
assume Deb’s responsibilities on the Head Start technical
assistance projects.
We thank Deb for her many
contributions, here on campus and in the early childhood
community of Minnesota, and wish her all the best in her new
position!
Recent Faculty
Publications
Scott McConnell
McConnell, S. R., Priest, J. S.,
Davis, S. D., & McEvoy, M. A. (2002). Best practices in
measuring growth and development for preschool children. In A.
Thomas and J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology
(4th ed.) (pp. 1231-1246). Washington DC: National Association of
School Psychologists.
McConnell, S. R., Missall, K. N.,
Silberglitt, B., & McEvoy, M. A. (2002). Promoting social
development in preschool classrooms. In M. Shinn, G. Stoner,
& H. M. Walker (Eds.), Interventions for academic and
behavior problems II: Preventive and remedial approaches (pp.
501-536). Washington, D.C.: National Association of School
Psychologists.
Anthony Pellegrini
Pellegrini, A. (2002). Bullying,
victimization, and sexual harassment during the transition to
middle school. Educational Psychologist, 37, 151-163.
Pellegrini, A. (2002). Perceptions
of play and real fighting: Effects of sex and participation
status. In J. Roopnarine (Ed.). Play and culture, Vol. 4. New
York: Elsevier Science.
Pellegrini, A. (2002). The
development and possible functions of rough-and-tumble play. In
C. H. Hart and P. K. Smith (Eds.). Handbook of social
development. Oxford: Blackwell.
Pellegrini, A., & Bjorklund, D.
(2002). Evolutionary psychology and children’s social
development. In C. H. Hart and P. K. Smith (Eds.). Handbook of
social development. Oxford: Blackwell.
Pellegrini, A., & Bjorklund,
D.J. (2002). Phylogeny and ontogeny: The emergence of
evolutionary developmental psychology. Washington, D. C.:
American Psychological Association.
Pellegrini, A., & Blatchford, P.
(2002). Theory, data, and school policy: A reply to E. Wood.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 499-500.
Pellegrini, A., & Blatchford, P.
(2002). Time for a break (The British Psychological
Society’s). The Psychologist, 15, 2-5.
Pellegrini, A., & Long, J.
(2002). A longitudinal study of bullying, dominance, and
victimization during the transition from primary to secondary
school. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 20, 259-280.
Pellegrini, A., Melhuish, E., Jones,
I., Trojanowska, L., & Gilden, R. (2002). Social Contexts of
Learning Literate Language: The Role of Varied, Familiar, and
Close Peer Relationships. Learning & Individual Differences,
12, 375-389.
Pellegrini, A., & Smith, P.K.
(2002). Children’s play: A developmental and evolutionary
orientation. In J. Valsiner and K. Connolly (Eds.). Handbook of
developmental psychology. London: Sage.
Pellegrini, A., Smith, P.K., Smees,
R., & Menesini, E. (2002). Comparing pupil and teacher
perceptions of playful fighting, serious fighting, and positive
peer interaction. In J. Roopnarine (Ed.). Play and culture, Vol.
4. New York: Elsevier Science.
Joe Reichle
Reichle, J., Drager, K., &
Davis, C. (2002). Using requests for assistance to obtain desired
items and to gain release from non-preferred activities:
Implications for assessment and intervention. Education and
Training of Mentally Retarded, 25, 47-66.
CEED Affiliated
Projects
Early Childhood
Behavior Project
Early Childhood Research Institute
on Measuring Growth and Development (Get It, Got It, Go! and I’PROMICE)
Contact: Scott McConnell, (612)
624-6365, smcconne@tc.umn.eduhttp://ici2.umn.edu/ecri/
Early Literacy
Training Project
Contacts: Kate Horst, horst011@umn.edu; Angele Passe, passe008@umn.edu, (612) 626-8723 http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed/projects/literacy
Minnesota Infant
Mental Health Project
Contact: Christopher Watson, (612)
625-2898, watso012@tc.umn.edu
http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed/projects/infantmentalhealth
Head Start Project
Contact: Scott McConnell, (612)
624-6365, smcconne@tc.umn.edu
If you like to make things
out of wood, or sew, or dance, or style people’s hair, or
dream up stories and act them out, or play the trumpet, or jump
rope, or whatever you really love to do, and you love that in
front of your children, that’s going to be a far more
important gift than anything you could ever give them wrapped up
in a box with ribbons.
Fred McFeely Rogers “Mister Rogers” 1928 ~ 2003
“That Which Is Essential Is
Invisible to the Eye,” Young Children (July 1994).
Early Report is published by the Center
for Early Education and Development (CEED), University
of Minnesota, 1954 Buford Avenue, Suite 425, St. Paul, MN, 55108
Christopher Watson, Managing Editor
(612) 624-5780 (phone)
ceed@umn.edu (email) http://cehd.umn.edu/ceed (Web)
CEED provides information regarding
young children (birth to age eight), including children with
special needs, in the areas of education, child care, child
development, and family education. CEED activities include
research, training, and publications geared toward improving
professional practices, supporting parents, and informing policy
development.
The University of Minnesota is an
equal opportunity employer and educator. The College of Education
and Human Development is committed to recruiting, enrolling, and
educating a diverse population of students who represent the
overall composition of our society. This publication is available
in alternate formats upon request.
Scott McConnell, Director
Christopher Watson, Coordinator
Karen Anderson, Executive Administrative Specialist
Sophia Herrera, Office Specialist
Connie Burkhart, Graphic Design
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Winter 2002/Spring 2003, Volume 30, Number I
