[kids-lib] In the News: Parent engagement and kindergarten readiness and later academic success

[Katie Anderson]

Hi! I just read the following article and thought many of you might be interested.

The Key to Smarter Kids: Talking to Them the Right Way
Annie Murphy Paul
September 30, 2013

Read the full article here: http://anniemurphypaul.com/2013/09/the-key-to-smarter-kids-talking-the-right-way/#

If you don't have time, here are a few points I copied and pasted directly from the article that might be useful in your conversation with parents-particularly during parent education sessions.


*        students spend less than 15% of their time in school. While there's no doubt that school is important, a clutch of recent studies reminds us that parents are even more [important]... parental involvement-checking homework, attending school meetings and events, discussing school activities at home-has a more powerful influence on students' academic performance than anything about the school the students attend.

*        this research also reveals something else: that parents, of all backgrounds, don't need to buy expensive educational toys or digital devices for their kids in order to give them an edge. They don't need to chauffeur their offspring to enrichment classes or test-prep courses. What they need to do with their children is much simpler: talk. But not just any talk.

*        [How they talk is important] two-way adult-child conversations were six times as potent in promoting language development as interludes in which the adult did all the talking. Engaging in this reciprocal back-and-forth gives children a chance to try out language for themselves, and also gives them the sense that their thoughts and opinions matter. As they grow older, this feeling helps middle- and upper-class kids develop into assertive advocates for their own interests, while working-class students tend to avoid asking for help or arguing their own case with teachers

*        [What they talk about is important] The content of parents' conversations with kids matters, too. Children who hear talk about counting and numbers at home start school with much more extensive mathematical knowledge... the amount of talk young children hear about the spatial properties of the physical world-how big or small or round or sharp objects are-predicts kids' problem-solving abilities as they prepare to enter kindergarten.

*        While the conversations parents have with their children change as kids grow older, the effect of these exchanges on academic achievement remains strong. And again, the way mothers and fathers talk to their middle-school students makes a difference.



Katie Anderson, Library Development Services
* Youth Services Consultant * Oregon Center for the Book Coordinator *
Oregon State Library, 250 Winter St. NE, Salem, OR 97301
katie.anderson at state.or.us<mailto:katie.anderson at state.or.us>, 503-378-2528


[cid:image001.png at 01CEC33B.5D0F8CB0]
Pick up your 2014 summer reading manual<http://www.oregon.gov/osl/LD/Pages/youthsvcs/oregon.srp.certificate.aspx#Summer_Reading_Manuals_> and get science programming training at
OLA's Children's Services Division's fall workshop<https://ola.memberclicks.net/index.php?option=com_mc&view=mc&mcid=form_149058>
Saturday, October 19, 2013 at Tigard Public Library

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