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Volume I, No. 10 SHE’S A NATURAL … THE SWING Not
quite two years old, Amanda Jones reaches out to grasp the bar of her
trapeze. As she takes the bar firmly in hand, she steps off her chair and swings
happily toward her mother. Together, Amanda and her mother, Priscilla, chant
their favorite poem: “How do
you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so
blue? Oh, I do
think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can
do!”* As Amanda
swings and recites the rest of the poem, she utters each syllable with a
beautiful cadence. She’s still perfecting her pronunciation, but her rhythmic
chant makes it clear she knows what she’ saying! A WORLD OF MUSIC Amanda has always enjoyed combining rhymes and
songs with movement. When she was a newborn, her father, Jerry, gentry swung,
spun, and tossed her as they listened to music. French songs were their
favorites. Jerry also held her as he danced to favorite pieces, teaching her
about natural rhythm with each movement of his body. Now Amanda can clap out the beat of the music
she’s listening to, and her mother is working with her on learning to clap
rhythms. Priscilla has spent a lot of time teaching
Amanda about music. Soon after Amanda’s birth, Priscilla started using a
correctly tuned xylophone to teach Amanda about the musical scale. Adapting a
technique she learned about at The Better Baby Institute,** Priscilla played
one note on the xylophone each week. She played the same note at least three
times per day, stating the name of the note each time she played it. Each
week she repeated this process with a new note, with she had played each note
on the xylophone. When Amanda was about eight months old,
Priscilla started playing scales, intervals and major and minor chords for
Amanda on the piano. Each time Priscilla identified what she was playing for
Amanda. Since Amanda’s brother and sister are studying
music through the Suzuki method, Amanda learns about music from them, too.
Darcy, Amanda’s sister, is studying piano, while her brother, Eli, is
studying violin. Amanda gets to listen to both of their Suzuki tapes, as well
as to watch them work with their instruments. She also likes to join them in
singing the “Johnny Appleseed” grace, “Happy Birthday” and “Twinkle, Twinkle
Little Star.” SELECTED LISTENING Recently Priscilla and Amanda have
concentrated on listening to the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. Amanda’s
favorite is “Ode to Joy.” Priscilla selects pieces which she feels have
a positive influence on Amanda, pointing out that even some classical pieces
have a somewhat negative theme. If Amanda seems to get irritable or agitated
during the playing of a piece, Priscilla changes the music. If Amanda’s
behavior improves, Priscilla then has a pretty good indication that the
original piece had affected Amanda negatively. MUSIC AS AN EXPERIENCE Priscilla uses her harp to teach Amanda about
the relationship of sound to the vibration of strings on a musical
instrument. As she plucks a string, she points out that it is the vibration
of the string which makes the sound. She lets Amanda feel the vibration by
touching the string with her hand. Of course, once Amanda touches the string,
the vibration stops, and so does the sound. Then Amanda has a concrete
experience of the principle which Priscilla is introducing. As Priscilla plays each of the strings, she
points out that the longer strings make lower sounds, and that the shorter
ones make higher sounds. Amanda gets to try her hand at plucking the
different notes, too. Through such an experiential approach to music, Amanda
has a solid familiarity with melody and she likes to hum and sing. ... AND THERE’S MORE Amanda’s life is filled with much more than
music. For instance, recently she made her own wrapping paper for a friend’s
birthday present: After Priscilla protected the kitchen floor with newspaper,
she placed a sheet of heavy white paper on it. She mixed one color of paint
and gave Amanda a paint brush to swish the color on the paper. After Amanda
spent some time swishing on color, Priscilla used a rag to rub some color on
Amanda’s tiny feet. Then Amanda added the finishing touches to her work by
walking over the paper. Voila! Amanda’s gift could now be packaged in
personalized wrapping paper. Amanda also likes for her parents to slant a
mattress off the couch onto the floor. The incline that this creates makes it
much easier for her to do her forward rolls — gravity helps her, instead of
working against her. THE “NEW MATH” Amanda started learning about numbers soon
after she was born. Priscilla very quickly flashed cards at Amanda which had
dots representing the numbers one through one hundred. The technique for
teaching with these “dot cards” is detailed in Glenn Doman’s Teach Your
Baby Math. Priscilla builds upon Amanda’s early dot card
experiences by helping Amanda to see quantities in her everyday world. In
this next stage of learning about numbers, it seems that the more objects
Amanda can handle, the happier she is. HAPPINESS IS Happy is a good term to use in describing
Amanda Jones. Although in some ways Amanda’s life may seem exceptional,
Priscilla stresses that natural is a more appropriate word. For Priscilla
feels that the opportunities which she and Jerry have created for Amanda are
a very natural part of life. That is not to say that they come without
effort; opportunities like this don’t arise by themselves — but it does mean
that Amanda regards these opportunities as a very natural part of living. In her nearly two years of life, she’s learned
an entire “foreign” language — English. She’s learned to crawl, creep, walk
and run. Would any adult do so well in so short a time? Amanda is absorbing information at a faster
rate now than she ever will again. Learning is a very natural and easy
process for her. She is curious about everything; she wants to explore and
taste all of life. The opportunities which her parents create for her simply
respond to this natural joy in experiencing life. The results: Amanda’s a natural musician, a
natural artist, a natural learner. It’s enough to make you want to be a child
again. Is it any wonder then that this little, bright-eyed girl is such a
natural? You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies so He loves also the bow that is stable. The Prophet Kahlil Gibran * “The
Swing”— from A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis
Stevenson ** A valuable, specialized teaching tool which we learned
about from the Better Baby Institute — Basic Principles THE RELATION BETWEEN INPUT AND DEVELOPMENT “The
idea of ‘readiness ‘is a mischievous half-truth. It is a half-truth largely because
it turns out that one teaches readiness or provides opportunities for its
nurture, one does not simply wait for it. Readiness in these terms consists
of mastery of those simpler skills that permit one to reach higher skills.” Toward
a Theory of Instruction Jerome Bruner Input precedes output. The process of turning input into output is usually
invisible and takes time. In the development of young children, there is
often a great deal of input before there is any output. Inhale; exhale. Eat; expend energy. Plant a
seed; have a flower. In the natural world we see the natural order. Something
goes in; then something comes out. It’s obvious. We’re used to the time it takes too. We plant
in the spring, harvest in the fall, and don’t feel frustrated about not
having carrots in July. That same lapse of time between input and
output is true for the development of children as well as for vegetables. One
difference is that the process of growing a plant can be observed within a
few months’ time, over and over again, every year of one’s life. The
maturation of human beings is much more complex, and takes much longer. We
may sense that some of the same principles apply to both processes, but the
forms they take in human beings have generally been far less obvious to us. LANGUAGE The input-before-output principle may be
easiest to see in the development of language. The world over, most children
speak understandably sometime between ages one and three. They use the
language and the accent they have heard most intensely from birth. That’s
widely accepted as true. In fact, a very aware mother often knows exactly
what person or experience or book is the source of any word her two-year-old
says. What seems not so widely understood is the
quantity, quality, and duration of input necessary for the output of
speaking. In other words, would adults feel self-conscious or silly talking
attentively to a one-month-old if they really accepted the fact that this
conversation is important input leading to the baby’s ability to speak?
Mightn’t parents more easily get used to naming body parts, objects,
textures, and actions dozens of times each day for their infants if they
really recognized their tiny child’s continual, active absorption of data? Or
if they really knew how many thoughtful repetitions a baby needs in order to
turn new words and phrases into useful vocabulary? Researchers have found that by observing a
mother and her baby they can tell what kind of score that baby will make on
the Binet intelligence test at three years old! They can tell by the amount
of talking and touching the mother does with her infant. Generally the more
talking and touching, the brighter the child. Brightness at three relates to
input in infancy just as surely as harvest in fall relates to planting in
spring. The time lag between input and output for vegetables is about three
months. For children, in this particular example, it is about three years.
It’s going to be interesting to see what “normal” in human beings will be like
when all parents are as conscientious about early input for their infants as
good gardeners are about planting and caring for their vegetables! COLOR Another instance of how we fail to make use of
the input-output process is the teaching of color to children. In homes and
preschools throughout the country — and even in kindergartens and first
grades! — there are games and materials designed for teaching
three-to-six-year-olds the shades and names of color. The thinking seems to
be that we teach children the names of colors only after they can let us know
for sure that they are learning by clearly pronouncing those names out loud
to us. Dr. Marc H. Bornstein, a psychologist at As parents become more aware of the impact
they have on their children’s lives during this stage, their parenting will
change. It will become natural to show and name the colon of the world for
their baby — and irrelevant to do so in preschools, not to mention first
grades! The input principle is evident throughout
children’s development. Language and color discrimination are only two fairly
simple examples. In the process of learning to walk, the importance of input
is equally present, but harder to perceive at first. The initial information
babies need about walking is that their physical exertion is the cause of the
body’s movement in space. As the Institutes for the Achievement of Human
Potential in The examples go on and on. The principle
remains the same. Waiting for “readiness” only wastes the child’s time.
Demanding output before input only creates frustration and gaps in
development. Giving input — enthusiastically, repeatedly, knowledgeably,
appropriately, generously, sensitively — is the province and delight of
parents. With that, output results naturally. TO MOTHER IS TO TEACH TEACHING You hear that learning to read is easiest for children
under three. Great! You just happen to have a four-year-old, though. Now,
what do you do? You get started right away teaching your child
to read. It’s just that the way most four-year-olds learn to read is
different from the way most two-year-olds learn to read. You adjust your
teaching accordingly. SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Each child’s learning style is unique; the
best teaching results from fine attunement to an individual child. There are
developmental patterns, though. Generally two-year-olds, although eminently
logical given their information base, learn new information most readily by
simply absorbing it, taking it in uncritically. Generally four-year-olds,
although still amazingly apt at soaking up new information, will absorb it a
bit less quickly than they did at two; but they’ll be doing more logical
tracking and linear-cause-and-effect thinking than they did at two. HOW DO I TEACH TO THE DIFFERENCE? Both ages, of course, learn best when: (1.)
new input is presented to them in relation to something familiar; (2.) the
process of learning is enjoyable; (3.) they act on new information so it
becomes concrete and personal. In other words, you use many of the same
methods in teaching under-threes and over-threes, but your emphasis shifts. In teaching reading to children under three,
usually the predominant activity is showing lots of words (phrases,
sentences) frequently, quickly, and happily. In teaching children over three
to read, we’ve usually found it helpful, or even important, to use phonics as
well as the basic word/phrase/sentence cards. Additionally you may find the need for more
motivation, more games, and more structure with your four-year-old. If you
are very attentive to cues your child gives, you’ll usually be able to figure
out what approach to take next; but there’s help if your source of creative
teaching ideas runs dry now and then. I NEED TO KNOW SPECIFICS! You start by reading Glenn Doman’s How to
Teach Your Baby to Read, 1970 edition. It’s the best introduction to the
basic word-card approach. With four- and five-year-olds (and some threes)
you’ll probably want to know more, though. Try Sidney Ledson’s Teach Your
Child to Read in 60 Days. It’s a highly readable, very instructive
account of how a single father taught his two children, two and four, to read
with two short teaching sessions a day for about two months! Early Reading,* by Nancy Roehm, is
short, very much to the point, and packed with practical how-to’s. The longer
Give Your Child a Superior Mind, by Siegfried and Therese Engelmann,
covers more than reading, is very structured, and, too, is filled with the
kind of detail you want to know when you’re in the middle of actual teaching. Three other books take what happens in schools
and adapts it for use by parents teaching their four- and five-year-olds.
They greatly overdo “readiness” and overcomplicate reading but can be helpful
if you use only what’s right for your specific child. They are: Teach Your
Preschooler to Read, by Donald Emery, Help Your Child Learn to Read,
by Harry Forgan, and Home Guide to Early Reading, by Toni Gould. Help yourself! And please let us know of other
books you’ve found useful in teaching “early” reading. * Available from Parenting for Excellence for $3,
which includes postage and handling costs. PARENTING FOR EXCELLENCE — Volume I, No. 10 —
December 1981 Parenting
for Excellence is published ten times per year by The Stelle
Group. Subscriptions are sold by the volume, with volumes beginning in January.
Subscription rates are $15 for one year, and queries about subscriptions and
delivery should be sent to The Stelle Group, |
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