Facilitating pre-academic and cognitive learning; allen & cowdery; chapter 17, EDU 221, fa2014, ccc

1. Facilitating Pre-Academic
and Cognitive Learning
Chapter 17 from The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood
Education; Allen, K. Eileen and Cowdery, Glynnis E.; Pearson (2015)

2. Focus
• In this chapter, we will identify strategies for adapting the learning
environment to meet the pre-academic needs of all children,
including those with exceptionalities

3. What’s Your Philosophy?
•Pre-academics?
•Academics?
•Emerging Literacy?
• Are those words that strike fear in your Early Childhood heart?

4. What Do We Really Mean?
• How can we help children develop the
foundational skills that they will need
to be successful academically?
• How can we avoid inappropriate
watered down academic
curricula and paper-and-pencil
worksheets?

5. How Times Have Changed!
• The concept of pre-academics was once shunned by early childhood
educators and teachers of exceptional children.
• Pre-academics are now considered part of holistic development
(integration of activities that support development in all domains)
that all help a child’s cognitive development.
• More terms
• Preoperational
• Readiness
• Even if children’s work is “playing”, teachers must be intentional in
providing developmentally appropriate experiences (p. 444) that help
children maximize their learning and development.

6. Brain Development
• The brain is very active in the first years of life
• Synapses (neural pathways) are connecting at incredible rates
• Healthy brain development reinforces those synapses
• Responsive caregiving
• Positive experiences, especially through critical learning periods
• Intentional, intensive, and developmentally appropriate interventions as needed
• Negative brain development may occur from
• Non-responsive or poor caregiving
• Stressors and at risk early years such as violence, poverty, etc.
• Lack of stimulation
• Note the “brain research” box at the bottom of p. 445 in your text.

7. Getting the Right Balance
• Children from low income and academically deprived families
especially benefit from a combination of integrated play and teacher
directed activities
• Learning experiences must be developmentally appropriate –
worksheets, memorization, and drill and practice with flashcards are
not considered developmentally appropriate!
• What about children with disabilities?
• Intentional, developmentally appropriate play and teacher directed activities
can help minimize the potential for secondary disabilities
• Careful observation and assessment helps the teacher plan activities that
meet the child where she is and develop step by step

8. Appropriate Strategies
• Direct teaching
• May be combined with indirect teaching
• Teacher takes more of a facilitator role
• Embedded learning
• Child has additional opportunities to practice skills and new learning
• Activities are expanded and modified to integrate additional learning practice
• Teacher builds on child’s interests and motivation
• IEP goals and objectives are clarified
• Observations, data collection, and assessments are systematic and used for
both planning and recording of skills needed and attained

9. Appropriate Strategies (cont.)
• Computers and other assistive technology
• Support autonomy
• Support communication
• Activities must be carefully planned, developmentally appropriate, and not keeping
children from interacting physically and socially
• Keep children motivated
• Encourage their interests, questioning, and discovery
• Involve sensory experiences
• Use your own academic skills to model for children
• Write their questions and help them explore for answers
• Advocate for embedded pre-academics with parents, administrators, and others who
may be pushing for inappropriate academic experiences

10. NAEYC Connection
• Compare NAEYC Ecada Key Element 1c: Using developmental
knowledge to create healthy, respectful, supportive, and challenging
learning environments
to
• “Valuing Today’s Learning” on p. 452 in your text
Our abilities to create positive environments for children is what high
quality childcare is all about. We need to be excited, intentional in our
knowledge and planning, and use the environment as a “third teacher”.
Children who have the type environment described above do not have
behavior problems. They are busy and engaged in their learning!

11. Developing Readiness Skills
• Both experiences and knowledge contribute to readiness skills
• Readiness-as-maturation theory attributes learning to natural step-by-
step progression.
• Because experiences (learning theory) are now considered part of the
developmental process, teachers must not make the mistake of
“waiting for a child to mature” before integrating developmentally
appropriate experiences.
• This is especially important for children with delays or
exceptionalities.
• Learning theory emphasizes task analysis (step-by-step, sequencing)
as appropriate for teaching skills to children with exceptionalities.

12. Developing Readiness Skills (cont.)
• Some specific readiness skills that are likely to be missing for children
with exceptionalities are listed on p. 453
• These are further described in your text with excellent strategies,
activities, and task analysis information found through p. 464.
• The text suggests using the checklist “Taking Stock of what you do to
promote literacy” to help ensure a literacy rich environment.
• Additional tips for planning and presenting pre-academic skills are
further described on pp. 465-468
• All of this takes careful planning but is essential for an inclusive
classroom.

13. References
• Allen, K. E., & Cowdery, G. E. (2015). The Exceptional Child: Inclusion
in Early Childhood Education. (8th Edition). Cengage Learning.
Stamford, CT.
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2011).
2010 Standards for Initial Early Childhood Professional Preparation.
Retrieved from
http://www.naeyc.org/ncate/files/ncate/Initial_2pager.pdf
• National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2003).
Taking Stock of what you do to promote literacy. Retrieved from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200303/PromotingLiteracy.pdf