At Little Sunshne House we hold a monthly parent meeting and throughout the year host parenting groups that may meet to discuss a topic such as setting limits.
Below are two interesting research related articles
Parent Involvement Exchange 2008
Parent involvement in a preschool setting improves academic scores and the social emotional development ofchildren. If this involvement is continued, it will contribute to improved academics in grade school and improved graduation rates from high school. Thus observesJoseph Henry, executive director of the Shoshone and Arapahoe Head Start Program on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. In his paper, "Academic Success and Preschool ParentInvolvement," he describes the results of research conducted at his HeadStart site...
"A parent involvement plan was implemented in the Head Start Program....The plan allowed parents to become involved in the education of their children.This involvement included the development of a personal relationship with thechild, the completion of homework, high expectations, communication with HeadStart teachers, and the development of a partnership that included a welcomingenvironment for parents in the program. The hypothesis was that parent communication with the children and teachers, high expectations, aliteracy-friendly environment in the home, and a welcoming school environmentresulted in increased academic and social-emotional performances for children.
"The results of the research confirmed that when parents are involved inthe education of the child, that child is more focused, comfortable, andtrusting and excels in both academics and social behavior. The children of allparents who were exposed to parent involvement demonstrated significantimprovements in all categories: How much involvement and what type ofinvolvement are the questions. It appears from the research that the extent andtype of involvement depends on the location and the audience. There isconsensus on the need for parents, schools, and communities to partner in theformat acceptable to that community, for the good of the child. The context isthe key and what occurs on a Native American Indian reservation may not beappropriate for New York City. [But] theprinciples are similar in all locations: the respect, the welcoming environment, and the acceptance of all social and economic groups..." Exchange 2007 "Learning improves dramatically among young children who take the time to explainacademic concepts to their mothers or who explain the logic aloud tothemselves," reports Education Week (January 30, 2008; www.edweek.org).More specifically, a study conducted by a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University, found that...
"Four- and 5-year olds who explained concepts to their mothers beforetaking a test scored correctly on 76% of the questions on a test of reasoning,and children who explained concepts aloud to themselves prior to the testscored 72% correct. On the other hand, children who did not explain theconcepts at all prior to taking the test scored only 42% correct. The studyexamined 54 youngsters' ability to correctly place toy insects in a certainpattern based on color and type." Discipline Exchange 2007
David Elkind's observations ondiscipline as noted in the Exchange article, "InstructiveDiscipline is Built on Understanding" …
"My dictionary gives two major definitions for the term discipline. One of these is 'training that develops self control, character or orderliness, andefficiency.' The other is, 'treatment that corrects and punishes.' These definitions start from two quite different conceptions of the child and of childrearing. The first begins with the idea that children are born neithersocial nor anti-social and have to be trained to acquire the rules and routinesof healthy interpersonal exchange. In contrast, the other definition starts offwith the idea that children come into the world with anti-socialpre-dispositions (original sin, if you will) that have to be extinguished. One idea of childrearing and discipline is, therefore, instructive; it is a matter of teaching children social skills and attitudes. The other conception of childrearing and discipline is punitive, a matter of stamping out misbehavior throughpunishment.
"The difference in our starting conceptions of discipline is important because it determines how we look at, and treat, what we as adults labelmis behavior. First of all, and most importantly, when we view discipline as a learning experience we will look atso-called misbehavior as an opportunity for instruction. Secondly, we will also appreciate that discipline presents a creative challenge for which there are noready-made solutions, only a number of possibilities. Finally, when we view discipline as a teaching moment,we will also appreciate that children learn differently at different age levels and that we need to adjust our instruction accordingly. We cannot teach infants and young children about prejudice in the same way that we would approach this issue with adolescents. Instructive discipline is developmentally appropriate."
