Transitions to Early Care and Education EDUCATING THE YOUNG CHILD VOLUME 4 Series Editors: Mary Renck Jalongo, Indiana University of Pennsylvania Joan P. Isenberg, George Mason University Kin Wai Michael Siu, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Editorial Board: Dr. Wanda Boyer, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Dr. Natalie K. Conrad, University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, PA, USA Dr. Marjory Ebbeck, University of South Australia, Magill, Australia Dr. Amos Hatch, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA Dr. Huey-Ling Lin, Alabama State University, Montgomery, AL, USA Dr. Jyotsna Pattnaik, University of California at Long Beach, Huntington Beach, CA, USA Dr. Louise Swiniarski, Salem State College, Salem, MA, USA Dr. Kevin J. Swick, University of South California, Columbia, SC, USA Dr. Sue Wortham, Emeritus University of Texas, Wimberley, TX, USA This academic and scholarly book series will focus on the education and development of young chil- dren from infancy through eight years of age. The series will provide a synthesis of current theory and research on trends, issues, controversies, and challenges in the early childhood field and examine impli- cations for practice. One hallmark of the series will be comprehensive reviews of research on a variety of topics with particular relevance for early childhood educators worldwide. The mission of the series is to enrich and enlarge early childhood educators’ knowledge, enhance their professional development, and reassert the importance of early childhood education to the international community. The audience for the series includes college students, teachers of young children, college and university faculty, and professionals from fields other than education who are unified by their commitment to the care and education of young children. In many ways, the proposed series is an outgrowth of the success of Early Childhood Education Journal which has grown from a quarterly magazine to a respected and interna- tional professional journal that is published six times a year. DeAnna M. Laverick • Mary Renck Jalongo Editors Transitions to Early Care and Education International Perspectives on Making Schools Ready for Young Children 1  3 Editors DeAnna M. Laverick, D. Ed. Mary Renck Jalongo, Ph. D. Department of Professional Studies Department of Professional Studies in Education in Education Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana University of Pennsylvania 570 South Eleventh Street 654 College Lodge Road Indiana, PA 15705 Indiana, PA 15701-4015 USA USA [email protected] [email protected] ISBN 978-94-007-0572-2 e-ISBN 978-94-007-0573-9 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-0573-9 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2011921327 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover design: eStudio Calamar S.L. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Preface The assertion that early experience affects later experience represents a triumvirate of theory, research, and conventional wisdom. A basic tenet in the study of hu- man development theory is that the early childhood years leave an indelible imprint across the lifespan. Likewise, research in neuroscience suggests that the brain seeks patterns in complexity, drawing upon previous experience to interpret subsequent experiences (Jensen 2005; Rushton and Larkin 2001). Even from the perspective of the general public, the conviction that initial experience shapes later experience is widely accepted and reflected in everyday expressions such as “starting out right,” “getting a head start,” or the old adage that “first impressions are lasting ones.” For all of these reasons, most parents/families, early childhood educators, and profes- sionals from other fields are in agreement that children’s first experiences with child care, preschool, kindergarten, and other academic programs are important (Einars- dottir et al. 2008). Some of the more common transitions that characterize the early years are from home care to group care, from home or preschool to kindergarten, and from kinder- garten to more formal educational experiences. In addition to these fairly predict- able transitions, individual children often are expected to make an extra effort of adaptation to many other circumstances, such as adjusting to a different cultural context, coping with changes in family configuration, or learning in a second lan- guage—to name just a few. Thus, transitions can be one of the most challenging issues for children, families, and educators because they frequently involve not just one change, but complex interactions among various changes. The child who cries on the first day of kindergarten also might be one who witnessed violence in his family, fears his mother will abandon him as his father did, lives at a shelter, grieves for the dog he was forced to surrender, and worries about expectations for him at school. In fact, researchers estimate that 48% of children experience moderate to serious problems with adjustment to kindergarten (Pianta et al. 2007). Other studies, including the recommendations of the National Governor’s Task Force on School Readiness (2005), research on parents’/families’ involvement in children’s transi- tions (McIntyre et al. 2007), teachers’ evaluations of young children’s adjustment issues (Rimm-Kaufmann et al. 2000), and cross-cultural comparisons of transition v vvii Preface practices all concur that transitions are not necessarily managed well when they very much need to be. In this volume of the Educating the Young Child Series, we have gathered to- gether the insights of a group of distinguished teachers/scholars on transition prac- tices throughout the world. The book’s primary purpose is to support early child- hood educators as they strive to make transitions as seamless as possible. The ways in which such stressors are handled are etched into the child’s memory and often have lifelong significance for ways of coping. Consider, for example, the situation of three-year-old Laura. She could not contain her disappointment when her sister, cousins, and friends boarded the big yellow school bus in late August and left her behind. Laura yearned to join their ranks and flatly refused to accept the explanation of “you’re too little to go.” Those “big kids” had backpacks and lunchboxes, li- brary books and homework; they carried home tales about school that surprised and fascinated her. When Laura’s aunt came to visit, she was well aware of the child’s eagerness to attend school so she presented the three-year-old with a toy school bus loaded with chubby passengers and a plastic lunchbox that included containers for food and drink. These items led to hours of play about being at school, riding the bus, eating in the cafeteria, and the good/bad behavior of children. Laura would line up her stuffed toys to represent a group of students, scribble on the board, give them assignments, reprimand their misbehavior, and pretend to read them a book. Whenever possible, she would draw her extended family into the play, and new dramatic possibilities would be added to the school theme, such as being sent to the principal’s office, having a mean teacher, or getting sick and needing to come home. This “going to school” theme dominated Laura’s play for two years, an indicator of the personal relevance that transitions have for the very young. Three points serve as preparation for readers as they explore these distinguished authors’ perspectives on transitions during the early years of life. First, to consider the child’s point of view; second, that adults often have misconceptions about the kind and amount of support young children need; and finally, that the human costs of poorly managed transitions are considerable. Perhaps the first lesson adults need to learn is that the child’s perspective is quali- tatively different from that of grown-ups. The experience of five-year-old Justin underscores this point. He attended a church-affiliated preschool two days a week at ages 3 and 4, and was ready to begin kindergarten at the local public school. Justin’s grandparents, who were his primary caregivers, attended an orientation program sponsored by the school district. Justin also had the opportunity to spend the after- noon at his new school prior to beginning. The evening before his first official day of kindergarten, his grandmother laid out the clothing Justin would wear. Together they equipped his backpack with school supplies and packed a special lunch. The next morning, Justin and his grandfather walked to the school a few blocks away and that afternoon, his grandfather accompanied him on the walk back home. Jus- tin’s grandparents were relieved to hear that things had gone very well. That eve- ning, as they began preparations for the second day of kindergarten, the preschooler appeared to be puzzled and then said, “You mean I have to do this every day?!” As Justin’s perspective illustrates, young children often have very different questions Preface vviiii and concerns than the ones adults anticipate. If ever we hope to effectively smooth transitions from one early childhood experience to another, we first need to identify with the child and really listen to what that child has to say. Of course, adults can have misconceptions about the best way to support a young child’s transitions; this is another important point addressed in this volume. Often, these misconceptions are based on what they recall from their own lives as children or spring from a desire to hasten the developmental process. When an international group of parents and their teachers convened for a workshop on helping their child adjust to a new country, language, culture, and school, a father from Germany asked it is best to ignore a crying child. The presenter said that being cold and rejecting, while seeming to be a way to put crying to a stop, would actually tend to have the opposite effect if a young child is genuinely distressed. She then stated, “I assume that you now have a warm, caring relationship with your son; otherwise, you would not have attended this session and bothered to ask.” The father nodded affirmatively. “Then consider this,” the presenter went on, “your son sees his big, strong father act- ing strangely. He understandably becomes worried, fearful, and clingy—and that is the very thing you had hoped to prevent. What he really needs is to ‘borrow’ some of your calm and emulate your confidence so that he can learn how to cope with stress- ful situations.” The father appeared to be satisfied with this answer and afterwards, when the teachers were meeting with the presenter over lunch, they expressed their gratitude for explaining the issue in a way that the parents could understand. This is another goal that Transitions to Early Care and Education: International Perspec- tives on Making Schools Ready for Young Children strives to accomplish. The au- thors demonstrate how early childhood educators can bring all of their compassion, experience, and wisdom to bear on the issue of transitions as they work with families. When a transition is managed poorly, it ripples out to affect every person in the process. If, for example, a child does not want to go to school and dreads it so much that he or she becomes physically ill before the bus arrives each day, then the fam- ily is in crisis, opportunities for that child’s learning are diminished, peer relation- ships are disrupted, and reciprocal trust and respect between the family and school personnel is compromised. Consider the case of six-year-old Chris. His mother de- cided to keep him out of kindergarten for a year on the advice of family, friends, and neighbors. Chris was, in her words, “a little backward” and spoke with a lisp. When the child attended kindergarten, other children teased him about “talking like a baby” and his teacher would insist that he repeat after her, drawing out the “r” sound in words. One morning Chris arrived at his classroom door where the two kindergarten teachers stood and one of the teachers said derisively, “Here comes Cwis.” Then both of them laughed. When Chris came home that day, he went directly to his room and could not be coaxed into talking. Hours later, he said tearfully, “My teachers made fun of me today at school.” The inexcusable behavior of Chris’ first teachers formed a lifelong rift between his family and the educational system; they never again viewed the school or district positively because of this one, thoughtless and heartless act. From that point forward, Chris believed that he wasn’t good at anything. His teachers were worse than incompetent, they are a disgrace to the profession. vviiiiii Preface As educators enter the early childhood field, they must, above all, embrace their solemn responsibility to put children first. We need to identify with the very young, advocate for their needs, protect them from harm, support their development, and optimize their learning. As children wend their way through various educational programs, settings, and policies, our role is to offer gentle guidance and support. We have an obligation to make new educational experiences, affirming and welcoming ones; we need to make schools ready for young children. Mary Renck Jalongo Contents 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 DeAnna M. Laverick Part I Programs and Practices 2 T ransition to Group Care for Infants, Toddlers, and Families ............... 7 Nancy Balaban 3 Examining the State of the Science ............................................................ 21 Laura Lee McIntyre and Leah K. Wildenger 4 Supporting and Sustaining the Transition to Formal Schooling for Children on the Autism Spectrum ..................................... 33 Joann M. Migyanka 5 Early Literacy .............................................................................................. 45 Susan Hill 6 Teacher Outreach to Families Across the Transition to School .............. 57 Annemarie H. Hindman, Lori E. Skibbe and Frederick J. Morrison Part II Policies and Issues 7 Critical Perspectives on Transition to School ........................................... 75 Anne Petriwskyj and Susan Grieshaber 8 Transition in the Classroom ....................................................................... 87 Margaret A. King 9 Preparing Preschoolers for Kindergarten ................................................ 93 Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, Allison Sidle Fuligni and Lynn A. Karoly ix