Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the Developing Child

     This summer I attended a couple of community discussions here in town that were presented the The Hutchinson Community Foundation.  One discussion was based on a video called "The Raising of America."  We viewed Part 1 (of a five-part series).  The series explores the question: Why are so many children in America faring so poorly?  The series investigates this question through different view:  What does science tell us about the enduring importance of early life experiences on the brain and body? What it is like to be a parent today? And what policies and structures help or hinder the raising of healthy, happy and compassionate children? The Signature Hour covers all three of these issues.
     ACEs is a term given to abuse, neglect, and household changes that children, under the age of eighteen, have experienced.  It is the belief that children experiencing ACEs have more health and well-being concerns that those children not experiencing them.  According to an extensive study by the Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente, the following ACEs were identified:

• Abuse
  • Emotional abuse: An adult living in your home swore at you, insulted you, put you down, or behaved in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt.
  • Physical abuse: An adult living in your home pushed, grabbed, slapped, threw something at you, or hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured.
  • Sexual abuse: Any adult, relative, family friend, or stranger who was at least 5 years older than you ever touched or fondled your body in a sexual way, made you touch his/her body in a sexual way, attempted to have any type of sexual intercourse with you.
• Household Challenges
  • Mother treated violently: The mother or stepmother was pushed, grabbed, slapped, had something thrown at her,  was kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, hit with something hard, repeatedly hit for at least a few minutes, or ever threatened or hurt by a knife or gun by your father (or stepfather) or mother’s boyfriend.
  • Household substance abuse: A household member was a problem drinker or alcoholic or a household member used street drugs.
  • Mental illness in household: A household member was depressed or mentally ill or a household member attempted suicide.
  • Parental separation or divorce: The child's parents were ever separated or divorced.
  • Criminal household member: A household member went to prison.
• Neglect¹
  • Emotional neglect: Someone in your family helped you feel important or special, you felt loved, people in your family looked out for each other and felt close to each other, and your family was a source of strength and support.²
  • Physical neglect: There was someone to take care of you, protect you, and take you to the doctor if you needed it², you didn’t have enough to eat, your parents were too drunk or too high to take care of you, and you had to wear dirty clothes.
  
       The findings of this study showed that, over time, as the ACEs increased, so did the risk for the following for the child(ren):
  
  • Alcoholism and alcohol abuse
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  • Depression
  • Fetal death
  • Health-related quality of life
  • Illicit drug use
  • Ischemic heart disease
  • Liver disease
  • Poor work performance
  • Financial stress
  • Risk for intimate partner violence
  • Multiple sexual partners
  • Sexually transmitted diseases
  • Smoking
  • Suicide attempts
  • Unintended pregnancies
  • Early initiation of smoking
  • Early initiation of sexual activity
  • Adolescent pregnancy
  • Risk for sexual violence
  • Poor academic achievement

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To combat these ACEs, children need, safe, stable, nurturing environments so that children are able to reach their full potential.  This is the reason that the Hutchinson Community Foundation brought this film and discussion to the community.  They want to know what we can do as a community, and what resources are needed, to support positive family environments in our area.
  
  

Back to School: Year 31!

      For me, this is yet another year of new beginnings: a new school, new colleagues, a new principal, and a new age group of students.  Wow! 
     For the most part, I have not changed anything that I do with regard to building relationships with the families of my students.  I still call, before school ever starts, and introduce myself.  I invite them to Open House.  I still give out my cell phone number, with the parameters that anything I say before 6 am or after 9 pm may not make sense.  However, parents are free to text or call ANYTIME!  These are their babies that they are sending out into the world.  I feel it is my job to help everyone be comfortable with this new and exciting milestone.
     This is my first year with preschoolers in a while, though. I have found myself reminding myself that where the children are, when I've gotten them as kindergarteners, are where they need to be at the END of this school year!  Some of my students have JUST turned 4!!  They're still little!  :)
     With that being said, we have come so far even since school started on August 17th!  I am SO PROUD of my students!  They are very good at "going with the flow" and LOVE some of the movement and music activities they have been introduced to!!  We even performed for our principal!!  We have already learned to sit still for a story and are doing an amazing job sharing at centers!
     I say this as my very first group of preschoolers that I had in Kansas (I've taught in California, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas) are entering their senior year at Leavenworth high school!  I am hoping to attend their graduation in May and still talk to several of those families!
     With the exception of missing some of the people from my previous building, do I think that I made the right choice asking for a transfer?  Beyond the shadow of a doubt!

The Influence of Teachers on their Students

     This one is LONG, mainly because there are so many wonderful people out there who have influenced who I am and what I believe, so bear with me.  :)

     I  feel compelled to share with you about the teachers who have impacted my life and why.

     First, is Mrs. Maxine Moore.  She was my 2nd grade teacher in Lincoln, NE.  Shortly after school started my 2nd grade year, my father was killed in Vietnam.  He was coming in to an airfield from a mission and crashed his plane just three miles short of the runway.  To this day, no one is quite sure why.  Mrs. Moore went, what I now know, above and beyond to help me.  You see, in my small little 2nd grade mind, I thought that since my father died while I was at school, my mom would, too.  I remember hiding under the kitchen table and refusing to come out.  Mrs. Moore let me come into her classroom before the rest of the class to be her "assistant."  She didn't need one.  It was just to help me acclimate. 

     After my mom remarried, I wrote to Mrs. Moore.  When I attended college at the University of Nebraska, Mrs. Moore, now retired, would invite me over for Sunday dinner and offered her home as a quite place for me to study for tests and we visited, frequently, about questions I might have in my classes.  From Mrs. Moore I remembered and learned that teachers need to be compassionate.

     Next,  Mr. Larry Fletcher.  He taught high school English in our tiny farming community.  Because one section of English was during band, all the band kinds were in the same class.  BIG MISTAKE!!  We were all such GREAT friends!! 

     Back story:  My mom is and speech pathologist.  She had a student who was deaf.  The student spent a couple of summers at our house, learning to sign.  I learned how right along with him.  I taught it to all my friends, too.  As we got older, those friends were in band with me.

     Back to English:  To practice for our spelling test, we would play password with our spelling words, boys against girls.  The girls would always choose me as their captain.  I would spell the word under the desk and we'd ALWAYS get it on the first try (naturally!!)  :)  The boys could never figure it out!  They even said I couldn't be the captain.  It didn't matter since all of us knew sign language!

     Also, Mr. Fletcher would also make sure that I was one point from an "A" at the end of each quarter.  He would tell me that I needed to bake him something to get the "A."  My senior year, I may have been a bit mouthy and refused to bake for him.  To this day, my grade card has an "A" with four minus signs beside it.

     Mr. Fletcher's wife was a fifth grade teacher in our little school.  They were one of six to ten teachers that spent Friday nights, after ball games, out at our farm, singing John Denver songs, telling stories, and sharing pot luck food.  Every Spring Break, these same people went snow skiing with our family.  When  my boyfriend and I broke up my senior year, Mr. Fletcher came out to our farm to see if I was okay.  I still correspond with him and his wife.  <3  Such great memories!!  From Mr. Fletcher, I learned that teaching can be fun!

     Mrs. Diane Knutson.  I am Facebook friends with her.  She is now in Wyoming.  She was our band director.  We were her first students after she graduated from the University of South Dakota.  She pushed us so hard!  All of our hard work paid off.  With her leadership, we scored many superior ratings in concert band, jazz band, small groups, and solos.  She and her husband, a band director in a neighboring town, were also part of the Friday night group.  From Mrs. K, I learned that students will meet, even exceed, expectations.  I just depends on where you set the bar.

     Mrs. Fran Conneally.  She taught Senior Government.  Talk about pushing us!  She was the Queen of Handouts!  I later learned that she did this to enhance our lessons.  She was the ONLY teacher to assign a research paper, with a bibliography, my entire high school career!  I will be forever thankful for that assignment, which I stayed up until 1 a.m. typing (on a manual typewriter set up on a card table in my bedroom).  With only five students continuing onto a four-year college, I needed to know how to do a research paper.  Our last day of our senior year, true to our expectations, she said, "I have a handout."  We all rolled our eyes and groaned.  It was a letter to all of us, telling us how much she had learned from US!  :)  Again, I learned that students will achieve, and surpass, the teacher's expectations.  Students just need to know the teacher believes they can do it!

     Lastly, an instructor I had when getting my masters.  Honestly, I don't even remember his name.  I was part of a cohort of fifteen teachers in a previous school district.  We had an AMAZING cohort for a year and a half!!  Most all of our classwork was discussion, hands on kinds of activities.  I would recommend it to anyone thinking of getting a masters!  However, this particular instructor loved to hear himself talk.  He didn't even like to call on us if we raised our hand for clarification or to ask a question.  It was very frustrating!  Being the optimist that I am, I just HAD to find something positive about this class. 

     Finally, he gave it to me!  He was the instructor who encouraged us to start building relationships with families before school ever started!!  He challenged us to call the families and introduce ourselves as their child's teacher, invite them to Open House, give out our cell phone numbers (they can't be traced to your home.  :) ) and to call each family a couple of times and month, just to touch base.  He stated that if you build positive relationships with families early in the year, they are more receptive if and when something negative comes up.

     I started doing this immediately!  Most of the parents were shocked that I was calling!  Then they were pleasantly surprised!  I have to admit, I am a believer now!!  I give parents the caveat that they should call after 6 a.m. or before 9 p.m., because any time outside of that, I can't promise that I will be able to give them a logical, well thought-out response.  :)  I tell them that I have unlimited texting and messages and that they should feel free to contact me.

     Because I am an Early Childhood teacher, 31 years of either kindergarten or preschool, I can't tell you the number of times I've needed to send a text because someone is in tears because they forgot a library book or because they didn't wear tennis shoes on a PE day!! 

     From this instructor in my masters program, I learned the true value of building relationships not just with my babes, but with the whole family!

     These folks, mentioned above, are the best of the best.  They have all challenged me and helped to mold me into the teacher I strive to be every day.  They have all of my love and gratitude!

The World We Live In

     Scary stuff out there this past week would be an understatement!  Here's what I'm thinking:  Is this the legacy that we want to leave our children?  One of my favorite units to teach is the one I do as we approach Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January.  Every year, my students are surprised that there used to be segregation.  In their world, they have not been segregated, at least not the way it was in the 60's.  When I separate my students into dark-skinned and light skinned groups and ask them to take a look at who is in each group it really hits home!  Most of them can't believe that in the 60's, they wouldn't have even had the opportunity to meet some of their closest friends.  In my classrooms, past and present, we don't see skin color.  We learn together, we grow together, we make mistakes together, we build friendships together.
     Tolerance is taught in most schools.  I know it is in ours.  We also teach rules and expectations.  This is harder for some students than others.  The struggle is real.  As teachers, we work diligently to help our students understand that.  We have little control over what our students go home to each night and what our students are being told there.
     Making the world a better place for the next generation needs to be a joint effort between the community and home.  When we see the reports on the news, I firmly believe that some of the fault lies with the media. They only tell part of the story and people get all riled up. Then they have more to report, while innocent lives are lost. It's job security for them. That being said, do I believe that, in some instances, there is police over-reach.  Sure I do.  In other cases, if the person, regardless of color, did as they were asked, they might still be alive.  Rules are in place for the betterment of our society.  We teach our children to follow them in school.  The rules also work in the real world, for the most part.  However, just like in schools, there are some who have a hard time following them.
    Am I naive enough to think that there are still people out there that judge by the color of skin only?  No, I am not that naive.  Do I think racism is learned? Yes.  This is not a "Black Lives Matter" hot topic.  ALL lives matter! EVERY person that dies is someone's child, someone's brother or sister.  Think about that as the new school year rapidly approaches and you have discussions around the dinner table.

So Much to Say....

     My head is swimming with so much of what has happened this summer, some of it big, some of it, not so much.  I'm debating with spreading it out between several entries or just one long one.  I think it is best to just start at the beginning:
     At the end of May, I became aware of a PreK opening in our school district in a different elementary building than where I've been for the last five years.  For those of you who don't know, I was teaching kindergarten when I became aware of this position.  After talking it over with my husband and a handful of trusted teaching friends, I made the decision to feel out that opportunity.  I met with the building principal.  Guess what!!  She has an Early Childhood background!  BONUS!!  A few days later, I was offered the position!  I accepted it.  :)
     I accepted for several reasons. When teaching kindergarten, I've had a handful of students each year who are not "kindergarten ready."  With education where it is currently, students entering kindergarten are expected to know more concepts, coming into the public school setting, than ever before.  Do I agree with this?  Let's just say that in 30+ years of teaching, district are expecting more and more from our littlest students.  I feel that, in changing to PreK, I can help prepare those students entrusted to my care, be more prepared to enter kindergarten with the skills they need to be successful.
     I also believe that I will be able to grow as an educator by changing grade levels and schools.  While I will miss the daily interaction with so many close friends and teaching professionals, I'm not leaving town, just schools.  Those who are my friends, will continue to be my friends and I will be able to see them outside of the school setting.
     Also, in teaching PreK, there is more professional freedom to do what I feel is best for children, while exciting them about learning.  I am SO EXCITED about that!!  So much of what I will be teaching in PreK is what I used to teach when I first started teaching kindergarten so long ago. What I will begin teaching in August will be age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate.  For that, I am truly grateful for the opportunity!
     Coming up next:  Thoughts on family.

Another Way to collaborate

Dear Friends!
     I have decided to open a Facebook page for preschool teachers to collaborate.  It is a "secret" group in order to afford participants to post freely.  If you are interested in joining, go to Facebook and send me a private message with your email.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/590772201103077/

Blessings,
Kris

The Importance of Play

     Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.  ~ Friedrich Froebel

     According to pediatric occupational therapist, Angela Hanscom, there are several reasons that young children are unable to sit still in school and have difficulty with social situations.
     In her study, she showed that  kids are behaving  differently. They get frustrated easier.  Children fall out of their seats, are less attentive, and run into each other and sometimes even run into the walls. Before academic rigor became so important, these types of behaviors were seldom seen.  Due to this academic pressure, early childhood education programs are feeling the pressure to limit free play more than is developmentally appropriate in order to meet the growing demands for academic readiness that was expected before children entered kindergarten. 
Research  points out that young children learn best through meaningful play experiences, yet many preschools and kindergartens are transitioning from play-based learning to becoming more academic in nature.  Teachers are pressured to document and justify what they do and why they do it, which leads to the relaxed playful environment being compromised. We continue to do what is best for our students, while trying to fit into the ever-growing restraints we must work within.
    Parents, too, are increasingly putting their young children into more organized and structured playtime activities.  Outdoor play is becoming a thing of the past.  Many of my own students spend more time in front of a screen (tablets, iPads, apps on iPhones, and the television) than they do outside.  Several go to bed each night with their televisions on in their bedrooms...at the age of five and six.  
     It is before the age of 7 years — ages traditionally known as pre-academic, when children need to have a wide range of whole-body sensory experiences each day in order to develop strong bodies and minds. This is best done outside where the senses are fully engaged and their little bodies are challenged by the very ground on which they play.
      Preschool years are the very best time for children to learn through play, and also a crucial developmental period. If children are not given enough natural movement and play experiences, they start their academic careers with a disadvantage. They are more likely to be clumsy, have difficulty paying attention, exhibit trouble controlling their emotions, utilize poor problem-solving methods, and demonstrate difficulties with social interactions. We are consistently seeing sensory, motor, and cognitive issues pop up in later childhood, partly because of inadequate opportunities to move and play at an early age.
    The thing about playing is that it's not separate from learning. It IS learning. In fact, if young kids aren't playing, chances are they are getting a fraction of the knowledge they would get if they were "just" goofing around. This will sound strange but instructing kids may actually backfire. 
     Here's an example from Peter Gray's book, Free To Learn: A researcher conducted an experiment on some 4- and 5-year-olds. She had a toy that you could make do four different things -- squeak, light up, buzz... whatever. She took a third of the kids into a room (one by one) and demonstrated how to make the toy squeak: You press this button here.
The second group she sort of ignored while she "played" with the toy and made it squeak, seemingly for her own fun.
The third group she simply handed the toy.
Later on, Groups 2 and 3 had discovered how to make the toy produce more effects than the Group 1 kids. Why? Group 1 was following instructions: They did what the teacher showed them. Groups 2 and 3 played. 
     The point??  By "teaching" children the traditional way -- sitting them down and spoon-feeding them information -- we are actually making them less curious, more passive and, finally, less educated, since all that gets into them is what the teacher tells them. We are shutting down their natural inquisitiveness.

     If children are given opportunities to play outdoors every day with peers, there would be no need for these special exercises or meditation techniques for the youngest of our school children. They would simply develop these skills through play. Something that doesn’t need to cost a lot of money or require much thought. Children just need the time, the space, and the permission to be kids.

     But substituting top-down "education" for free play isn't preparing little kids for college or careers.
It's preparing them to check out.

Too Much, Too Soon

     With SO much being said about the importance of play and what is learned through play, I decided to share my thoughts, as well as some research:
     The changes that seem the most troubling are more around the HOW kids are learning, not the WHAT that kids should be learning.  In one study, from the University of Virginia, researchers chose to compare teachers’ responses from two years, 1998 and 2010. 1998? The federal No Child Left Behind law had not yet changed the school expectations with its testing and emphasis on the achievement gap.  Here is a part of what they found:

• Currently, it is the expectation of kindergarten teachers that students should know the alphabet and how to hold a pencil before beginning kindergarten.  (How to we reach incoming families to let them know the importance of PreK?  What can we do if they are unable to afford PreK?  No one can answer that and it's typically the students who need it the most that are not reached, leading those children to already start behind the proverbial eight ball.)
• 31%  of teachers, in 1998,  believed their students should learn to read during the kindergarten year. In 2010, that jumped to 80%.  (Consideration for students being developmentally ready to read and have the tools that they need to be a successful reader were not taken into consideration.)
• And then there's the increase in testing. In 2010, 73% of kindergartners took some kind of standardized test. 1/3 took tests at least once a month. In 1998, kindergarten students did not take standardized tests at all! But the first-grade teachers in 1998 reported giving fewer tests than the kindergarten teachers did in 2010.  (Now, it's even higher.)
• Decrease in daily music and art.  Why?  More emphasis on "testable" academic content.  (Let's look back at songs and nursery rhymes for a sec.  Don't they teach patterning and rhyming, as well as a host of other skills?)
• A drop in engaging, interesting science instruction, such as dinosaurs and outer space, which children find interesting and engaging.
• There were HUGE decreases in the percentage of teachers who said their classrooms had areas for dress-up, a water or sand table, an art area or a science/nature area.  (Again, skills learned in center-like activities are not tested. Never mind the language and social skills that are learned in these activities...)
• Teachers who offered a minimum of an hour a day of student-driven activities dropped from 54 to 40 percent. During the same time, whole-class, teacher-led instruction rose along with the use of textbooks and worksheets.
• Even though there is a rise in childhood obesity, time for recess has decreased. 
•    This report raises important questions about how we are teaching our youngest learners.  The changes that seem the most troubling are more around HOW kids are learning, not WHAT kids should be learning.  These trends are even stronger in high-poverty classrooms and in schools with more nonwhite children.

     Another study from American University in Washington, D.C., shows a direct link between the amount of physical activity elementary students get and a dramatic increase in their math scores.  This was not just noted in wealthier neighborhoods, but throughout the greater D.C. area.
     How can teachers hold all children to the same standards when they are not all the same? They learn differently, mature differently – they just are not all the same especially at the age of 4-6.  Teachers can have a whole year age difference, or more, between students, primarily due to the increase in "red-shirting" (or holding children out for a year).  GET THIS!!  A 2011 nationwide study by the Gesell Institute for Child Development found that the ages at which children reach developmental milestones have not changed in 100 years.  100 YEARS!!  The manner in which children develop has not changed, yet we are asking our students to do things that they are not developmentally ready to do!! Here's an example:   The average child cannot perceive an oblique line in a triangle until age 5½. This skill is a prerequisite to recognizing, understanding and writing certain letters.  Key to understanding concepts such as subtraction and addition is “number conservation.” A child may be able to count five objects separately, but not understand that together they make the number five. The average child does not conserve enough numbers to understand subtraction and addition until 5½ or 6.  They might be able to memorize the skills. If they are unable to learn and understand the skills, their academic performance will suffer as they get older.  Child development experts understand that children can only learn what their brains are ready to absorb. Kindergarten is supposed to set the stage for learning and exposure to academic content when they are older. If they are going to push our kindergarten children to move faster, what will that mean for the push for educating” Pre-K?
     Play is vastly important in kindergarten!  Through play, children build literacy skills they need to be successful readers. By speaking to each other in socio-dramatic play, children use the language they heard adults read to them or say. This process enables children to find the meaning in those words.
     In kindergarten, there is a wide range of developmental skills.  A good kindergarten teacher observes and makes note of the various levels and stages of development and adjusts his/her teaching to meet the needs of each and every child assigned to that classroom.
     CHECK THIS OUT:  Two major studies confirmed the value of play vs. teaching reading skills to young children. Both compared children who learned to read at 5 with those who learned at 7 and spent their early years in play-based activities. Those who read at 5 had no advantage. Those who learned to read later had better comprehension by age 11, because their early play experiences improved their language development.  (I would love to give credit.  It was not given in the article I read...)
     The drafters of the Common Core ignored the research on child development. In 2010, 500 child development experts warned the drafters that the standards called for exactly the kind of damaging practices that inhibit learning: direct instruction, inappropriate academic content and testing. These warnings went unheeded.  How sad is THAT!!  Went unheeded.....
     It may satisfy politicians to see children perform inappropriately difficult tasks like trained circus animals. However, if we want our youngest, most precious resource to actually learn, we will demand the return of developmentally appropriate kindergarten!!