From katie.anderson at state.or.us Tue Jan 10 09:59:06 2012 From: katie.anderson at state.or.us (Katie Anderson) Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:59:06 +0000 Subject: [RFHF] What does a fetus really learn? Message-ID: <640435851FD7CB4AB3C4BE0D1963BA241C333C9A@OSLEXCHANGE.osl.state.or.us.local> Hi! I just watched this excellent video (TED Talk) presented by a woman who has published a book on how pregnancy shapes babies lives called Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives. The video is about 16 minutes long, but is well-worth the time... especially to hear the two stories at the end about babies born after a food shortage during WWII and babies born to mother who suffered post traumatic stress syndrome from 9/11. Here are the key things I took away from the video. Most weren't new ideas to me, but the research behind them and explanations on impact to the baby as the grow into adults is much better and more insightful. * As we know, babies learn the sound of their mother's voice in the womb and it is an important factor in language development. But, did you know: 1. Babies slow their sucking when something interests them and speed up sucking when bored. 2. Babies cries differ based on the tones of the mother's native language which they hear in the womb, and this is really the beginning of learning to speak one's native language. * Babies taste the food their mother eats during pregnancy and tend to prefer those foods the rest of their lives, but did you know: 1. Fetuses are being taught what is safe to eat and good to eat. 2. This is their first lesson about their native culture because so much of our culture is expressed in the types of foods, seasonings, and rituals around food. * The emotions a mother feels during pregnancy are shared with her fetus, they fetus incorporates these offerings into their bodies and treats them as information (biological postcards from the outside) to learn what type of world they will be born into. Will they be safe? What do they need to be prepared for to survive? If the hyperlink doesn't work, try copying and pasting this URL into your browser: http://youtu.be/stngBN4hp14 Enjoy, Katie 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, 503-378-2528 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From katie.anderson at state.or.us Thu Jan 19 12:44:05 2012 From: katie.anderson at state.or.us (Katie Anderson) Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:44:05 +0000 Subject: [RFHF] Congratulations--RFHF has come to an end! Message-ID: <640435851FD7CB4AB3C4BE0D1963BA241C347012@OSLEXCHANGE.osl.state.or.us.local> Dear RFHF participants, Congratulations, all of you have now completed Reading for Healthy Families training and implementation! None of you have to submit pink sheets (Healthy Start staff) or library logs (library staff) anymore. Jerod Tarte at NPC research is working on the final evaluation of RFHF and will be sending all of you one last survey. The last survey will be used to learn how many early literacy activities, partnerships, and education sessions have been sustained since RFHF trainings were completed. Please look for the survey in February and fill it out for inclusion in the final evaluation of Reading for Healthy Families. While RFHF has ended, we hope that you will continue to use the knowledge you gained and the resources you were given to provide high-quality early literacy activities, resources and education in your community. As promised, the State Library will continue to provide the following resources for all of you: * Early literacy consulting services: Just send an email (katie.anderson at state.or.us) or pick up the phone (503-378-2528) and let me know what I can help you with. * The RFHF early literacy website: I will continue to add early literacy and related resources and research online at: http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/LD/youthsvcs/rfhf.home.page.shtml * The RFHF early literacy email discussion list: This listserv is now open to all early childhood professionals in Oregon interested in early literacy and related topics. It is available for you to network and share resources with each other. I will also continue to email research, resources, and information via this listserv. o If you know of other early childhood professional who would like to join this email list, please let them know they can subscribe online at: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/reading-for-healthy-families . o If you would like to unsubscribe to this list, please do so online at: http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/reading-for-healthy-families. Thank you all and good luck on your future early literacy adventures! Katie Anderson 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, 503-378-2528 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From katie.anderson at state.or.us Fri Jan 20 09:07:31 2012 From: katie.anderson at state.or.us (Katie Anderson) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:07:31 +0000 Subject: [RFHF] In the news: research on bilingualism and cognitive processing Message-ID: <640435851FD7CB4AB3C4BE0D1963BA241C3475AA@OSLEXCHANGE.osl.state.or.us.local> Hello! I just read an excellent article on the benefits of bilingualism: "Leave Los Ninos Alone! The Mental Costs of Linguistic Assimilation" by Julie Sedivy in Discover magazine online at: http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/19/leave-los-ninos-alone-the-mental-costs-of-linguistic-assimilation/ Below are key points I copied and pasted from the article, all except the first one are new to me. I find the last point particularly interesting and relevant to our work. Many early childhood professionals and bilingual parents ask if one method or another is better for teaching children to be bilingual. This new study suggests that compartmentalizing languages, speaking one language at home and another out of the home, may not have the same cognitive benefits as mixing languages and flipping between them throughout the day. Note, this is only one study which means this isn?t a definitive answer to the question and this study does not address the cultural and familial benefits of learning one?s native language. ? The advantages [of bilingualism] seem to hinge on the cognitive machinery of executive control?mental processes that allow us to switch quickly between tasks or competing information. ? Bilinguals tend to outperform monolinguals whenever they have to ignore distracting information and focus on some relevant dimension? [because]? bilingual speech, whether it overtly mixes languages or not, is a highly controlled process involving rapid-fire decisions about which words to choose and which ones to suppress. ? A bilingual advantage for quick attention-shifting has been found in babies as young as seven months, well before these children ever utter their first words in either language. ? the drawings of bilingual kindergarten-age kids were different from their monolingual peers. ?monolingual children were fairly unadventurous? bilingual children? incorporated elements from completely different objects? This kind of cross-category mixing in children?s drawings tends not to occur until kids are about eight years old, putting the bilingual kids on an accelerated timeline for this particular skill. ? At the far end of the lifespan, bilingualism may help postpone the symptoms associated with Alzheimer?s disease; some bilingual Alzheimer?s populations have shown delays of four to five years in the onset of their symptoms as compared with their monolingual peers. ? one recent study? compared Mandarin-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and monolingual English speakers living in San Diego? the Spanish-English speakers flipped between their languages on a daily basis. Mandarin-English speakers, on the other hand, kept their language use more compartmentalized. All three groups were given a test in which they had to switch between sorting visual images either by their color or by their shape. Only the Spanish-English bilinguals showed a relative advantage when confronted with a sudden category shift; the Mandarin-English speakers were no different on this score than the monolinguals. 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, 503-378-2528 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From lorene at jcld.org Fri Jan 20 12:58:18 2012 From: lorene at jcld.org (Lorene Forman) Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:58:18 -0800 Subject: [RFHF] In the news: research on bilingualism and cognitive processing In-Reply-To: <640435851FD7CB4AB3C4BE0D1963BA241C3475AA@OSLEXCHANGE.osl.state.or.us.local> References: <640435851FD7CB4AB3C4BE0D1963BA241C3475AA@OSLEXCHANGE.osl.state.or.us.local> Message-ID: Thanks for sharing that, Katie. I am excited about passing on this good news to our bilingual moms and dads in my district. (It's ironic how some monolinguals actually feel superior to bilinguals. Oh, if they only knew!!) Off the topic of quick attention-shifting skills, but still on the topic of bilingualism, I'd like to share the following...although I'm probably preaching to the choir here: In our libraries and communities, we should all be encouraging bilingual parents to read to and help their children begin reading in their first language *prior to* learning to read in English. When a child learns to read in his/her own language first, the vocabulary and sentence structure are already familiar and the child won't be fumbling with a strange language while trying to learn literacy decoding skills. It just makes sense. (Imagine yourself, age 4, 5, 6, tackling your first written words... in, say, German and not knowing what the words mean!) Bilingual children will transfer their decoding skills to English easily if they are literate in their first language. Sadly, many children from non-English speaking homes never become literate in their own first language. Because most of our school districts do *not* offer bilingual elementary education, it's up to libraries to help promote first language literacy as much as we can through educating the parents about the importance of this and providing materials and story-times in the language(s) most prevalent in our communities. One 5 year old boy from a Spanish-speaking family in our district entered kindergarten this last fall with almost no English skills. He was moved up to first grade after just the first few weeks of school. Why? Because his superior literacy skills! Before starting kindergarten, he was reading books like *Diary of a Wimpy Kid* in Spanish for pleasure...and after a few weeks exposure to English in kindergarten, he was reading fluently in English as well...at 2nd grade level! This boy's very devoted parents (who have regularly attended Spanish story-times with their children at our library over the years) had been reading to him and later having him read to them in Spanish throughout his infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool years. If there are non-English-speaking parents in your communities, encourage them to read to their youngsters in the language they speak at home. Their children will be ahead of the game. Thanks, Lorene Forman Jefferson County Library Youth Services On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 9:07 AM, Katie Anderson wrote: > Hello! I just read an excellent article on the benefits of > bilingualism: "Leave Los Ninos Alone! The Mental Costs of Linguistic > Assimilation" by Julie Sedivy in Discover magazine online at: > http://mblogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/01/19/leave-los-ninos-alone-the-mental-costs-of-linguistic-assimilation/ > > ** ** > > Below are key points I copied and pasted from the article, all except the > first one are new to me. I find the last point particularly interesting and > relevant to our work. Many early childhood professionals and bilingual > parents ask if one method or another is better for teaching children to be > bilingual. This new study *suggests* that compartmentalizing languages, > speaking one language at home and another out of the home, *may* not have > the same cognitive benefits as mixing languages and flipping between them > throughout the day. Note, this is only one study which means this isn?t a > definitive answer to the question and this study does not address the > cultural and familial benefits of learning one?s native language. > > > ? The advantages [of bilingualism] seem to hinge on the cognitive > machinery of *executive control*?mental processes that allow us to switch > quickly between tasks or competing information. > > > ? Bilinguals tend to outperform monolinguals whenever they have > to ignore distracting information and focus on some relevant dimension? > [because]? bilingual speech, whether it overtly mixes languages or not, is > a highly controlled process involving rapid-fire decisions about which > words to choose and which ones to suppress. > > > ? A bilingual advantage for quick attention-shifting has been > found in babies as young as seven months, well before these children ever > utter their first words in either language. > > > ? the drawings of bilingual kindergarten-age kids were different > from their monolingual peers. ?monolingual children were fairly > unadventurous? bilingual children? incorporated elements from completely > different objects? This kind of cross-category mixing in children?s > drawings tends not to occur until kids are about eight years old, putting > the bilingual kids on an accelerated timeline for this particular skill. > > > ? At the far end of the lifespan, bilingualism may help postpone > the symptoms associated with Alzheimer?s disease; some bilingual > Alzheimer?s populations have shown delays of four to five years in the > onset of their symptoms as compared with their monolingual peers. > > > ? one recent study? compared Mandarin-English bilinguals, > Spanish-English bilinguals, and monolingual English speakers living in San > Diego? the Spanish-English speakers flipped between their languages on a > daily basis. Mandarin-English speakers, on the other hand, kept their > language use more compartmentalized. All three groups were given a test in > which they had to switch between sorting visual images either by their > color or by their shape. Only the Spanish-English bilinguals showed a > relative advantage when confronted with a sudden category shift; the > Mandarin-English speakers were no different on this score than the > monolinguals. > > 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, 503-378-2528 > > _____________________________________________________ > Reading-For-Healthy-Families mailing list > Reading-For-Healthy-Families at listsmart.osl.state.or.us > > http://listsmart.osl.state.or.us/mailman/listinfo/reading-for-healthy-families > Hosted by the Oregon State Library. The Library is not responsible for > content. > Questions related to message content should be directed to list owner(s) > or the sender of the message, by phone or email. > Technical questions? Call 503-378-8800. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: