A Child Development center in Oregon
This is an excerpt from the paper...
This paper describes the methods used at the Helen Gordon Child Development Center in Portland, Oregon, where a wide range of techniques are used with preschoolers to engage them in reading, writing, storytelling, and playacting through which they learn the meaning of words and relate the written word to the spoken word (Novick, 1999/2000, 70). The teacher-child ratio is very high, and the children are encouraged to make up or tell stories to relieve tensions and fears, solve disputes with other children, express themselves and make up stories which they dictate to staff members, who write them down verbatim as spoken by the children (70). These writings are kept in books that the children can look at and read, and they see how the written word related to the spoken word. They learn letter recognition, and word recognition, and the fact that words are made up of different sounds. Play-acting is encouraged, and the staff read to the children a lot and encourage writing and storytelling - real or made up - by the children. The whole place has a casual, homey look, with rocking chairs, sofas, and mats strewn around to imitate the home environment so the children can relax and behave as they would at home (Novick, 1999/2000, 71). The staff use any opportunity to read to the children, and a child can ask at any time to have a story read. The big rooms have a plentiful supply of books to choose from, which relate to the types of issues the children are likely to encounter
. . .
uage Skills was used to measure early literacy and language skills development. Assessments were conducted individually in a quiet room by staff specifically trained in measurement administration. Individual spontaneous language samples were also collected from each participant by recording their responses to pictures in a book which had no text. They were urged by the examiner to respond as fully as they could to what was happening in the pictures. Language samples were transcribed and entered into the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts, Research Version 7.0 computer program (173).
Results showed that students in the MELP program demonstrated important increases in the foundation skills of language, phonological awareness, and print development (Paulson et al, 2004, 174). They used more spontaneous language than those not in the program and had a larger vocabulary. They also learned many print conventions and could write.
The first third of this article is taken up by a description of how young children develop language skills and the problems they encounter later in life if these skills are not well-developed by age five (Paulson, 2004, 169-171). The discussion continues with a description of the development
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Development Center, Portland Oregon, Head Start, Research Version, Language Skills, Swahili Novick, Start Paulson, References Novick, Childhood Education, novick 1999/2000, head start, Project MELP, paulson et al, et al 2004, child development, paulson et, et al, development center, al 2004, helen gordon, gordon child development, helen gordon child, gordon child, child development center, melp program,
Approximate Word count = 2469
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
More Essays on A Child Development center in Oregon
|