Feature Articles

Early Intervention – Part I

How Young is too Young?

Early intervention can make all the difference for a child who has learning challenges. Navigating the roadways of therapies, programs and treatments in early childhood means parents need to ask the important questions when addressing learning and developmental issues. Kids Enabled solicited some timely research on brain development from a well-respected educator, Polly Williams, as well as thoughts from Sue Balcom, a preschool director and special educator, on how and when early detection and intervention can be beneficial.

» Read Early Intervention – Part II

Early Intervention for Learning Differences – A Scientific Reasoning

Polly Williams, M.Ed.

If parents knew what a strong foundation built early-on can do for their child later in school, they would not hesitate to make any sacrifice necessary to fortify his academic base. Time, energy, money, and other resources are well worth the investment. The value of early intervention is reinforced by extensive research. An understanding of the brain’s structural design is particularly helpful to understanding the benefits of early intervention.

Formative brain development happens in a predictable sequence and its development is dependent on genetics, environment, and experiences. Baby environments need to be filled with the following elements:

Appropriate stimulation
Good nutrition
Protection from dangerous substances
Attentive and engaged caregivers

If any of these elements are missing, the brain will not develop fully. A weak developmental foundation will contribute to unfavorable future brain growth in a child even if a positive environment is subsequently introduced. Scientific studies confirm that important brain development occurs before and soon after birth and many fundamental aspects of the brain are established before a child enters school.

Unfortunately, there remains little popular focus on education at the early childhood level with communities indifferent to ensuring superior quality experiences for children in the early formative years, and sometimes, later when they begin school.

Genetics play a primary role in brain development as genes control the creation of the basic nerve cells and connectivity patterns between nerves. Some learning issues such as dyslexia are highly heritable. However, environment can influence basic genetic patterns. Healthy environments allow the genetic code to be fully realized, but negative environments and harmful behaviors can cause neuronal abnormalities and irregular connections. Obviously, atypical neuronal connections do not allow the brain and nervous system to function optimally.

The relationship between a child and his environment also plays a role in shaping neuronal connections. Experiences influence the pruning or reinforcement of neural circuits. Scientists have established a concept called “sensitive periods” in which the brain is most susceptible to growth and change. Sensitive periods include those in which vision, hearing, language, and responses to social cues are developing. Once the brain establishes these circuit webs, it is much harder to change them. Of course, the development of brain circuits involved in remembering, planning, identifying, analyzing, emotional responses, hearing, seeing, and language processing occur in a predictable progression over time. However, their development does not occur simultaneously.

Adapted from Charles Nelson, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, 2000

Brain studies teach us that learning early in life is highly important and contributes to maximizing later learning. Brain circuitry, which is specialized for learning, begins forming at a very young age and continues to develop into adulthood. Neuron patterns in the brain can be changed. The brain’s plasticity is well documented, but as the brain ages, the neuronal connections lose some of their plasticity, making it harder for alterations to take place. Therefore, early intervention for children experiencing developmental delays and disabilities is critical to future brain development. The earlier the intervention, the greater the opportunity to begin remediation prior to one of the sensitive periods of development and when brain plasticity is at its highest.

“RED FLAG” CHECKLIST
FOR PHONEMIC AWARENESS

A Preschool age child:
__ can discriminate rhyming words
__ can produce rhyming words
__ can divide sentences into words
__ can divide words into syllables
__ can divide words into phonemes
__ can identify a phoneme by its position in a word (beginning, middle, end)
__ can delete roots, syllables, and phonemes. Example: “Say cowboy. Now say it again, but don’t say boy.”
__ can substitute a phoneme to form a new word. Example: Say “f” – “u” – “n” “What word is that?”; now say it again but change the “f” to “s.”

A Child who is age 6:
__ can identify sounds and letters (sound/symbol relationship)
__ can blend sounds together
__ begins to decode (vc, vcv words, words with blends (2 and 3 letter), words with consonant digraphs, magic e words, etc.)
__ can decode nonsense words
__ can segment words into syllables
__ can write words
__ can write sentences

The preschool years, often considered a time of minimal learning, actually serve as the period when the first sign of literacy skills begin to emerge. The successful acquisition of phonological and print awareness skills, as well as oral language proficiency serves to ensure a solid reading foundation. Children experiencing difficulty acquiring these abilities have been largely overlooked due to the belief that they are temporarily delayed in their literacy attainment.

An awareness of segmental size is thought to be directly related to early speech vocabulary growth specifically between ages 18 months to three years. Children learn their first 50 words slowly and one at a time, but after 18 months, there is a sudden increase in the number of words they can produce and comprehend. Researchers have found as a growing number of words overlap in their sound-based properties, children begin to form segmental representations of them. So growth in vocabulary drives both segmental restructuring from large to small units and subsequent development of phonological skills. Further growth in phonemic awareness depends on established early phonological skills. In other words, making a successful early start in reading has a long-term sustaining effect.

Early identification and remediation of reading problems in young children minimizes the ground to make up later and there is no need to unlearn bad habits. Neuronal patterns are not yet distorted and the brain’s plasticity allows distillation to occur and connections to be made easier and routinely. To correct a reading problem after a child has experienced a few years of school requires reconstruction of established processes which is a much harder task. Sally Shaywitz states in her book, Overcoming Dyslexia, “Most parents and teachers delay evaluating a child with reading difficulties because they believe the problems are temporary, that they will be outgrown. This is simply not true.” The goal of preschool should be to provide experiences which help build a child’s neural pathways which enable him to read efficiently and effectively. Preschool teachers should be able to identify children not following the normal progression and direct parents to further evaluation. If testing indentifies a learning issue, the sooner children can begin remediation, the better.

Polly Williams earned her undergraduate degree from Emory University and a Masters in Education from Georgia State University. She taught in the classroom for a lucky 13 years and is now an admissions director. After nine years in admissions at the Schenck School, she is now Director of Admissions at Galloway.

Sources:

“The Timing and Quality of Early Experiences Combine to Shape Brain Architecture.” National Council on the Developing Child. February, 2008: 8.
Muter, Valerie. Early Reading Development and Dyslexia. Whurr Publishers, London, England, 2003.
Red flag checklist adapted by The Schenck School from a variety of sources, 2003.
Nelson, Charles. From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2000.
Shaywitz, Sally. Overcoming Dyslexia. Knopf and Sons, New York, 2003.

Other Linguistic areas that may be associated with reading difficulty:

May talk later than most children
May have difficulty pronouncing words (pusgetti for spaghetti)
May be slow to add new vocabulary words
May have difficulty retrieving the correct work
May have trouble with numbers, days of the week, colors, shapes, telling time
May have trouble with multi-step directions
May reverse letters or words (d for b; tip for pit)
May confuse small words – at, to
May transpose number sequences and confuse arithmetic signs
May have trouble remembering facts
May be slow to learn new skills; relies heavily on memorizing without understanding
Poor decoding including word omissions and/or substitutions
Poor visual memory for how words should look

Motor Skills/Sensory Awareness:

May have difficulty

In overall coordination or appears “clumsy”
Hopping, running around obstacles, balancing on one foot for a few seconds, catching a bounced ball, throwing a ball, riding a tricycle, bicycle, walking downstairs
Knowing where he/she is in space
Understanding appropriate risks
Being touched by others
Coming in contact with different textures or loud noises
Dressing, eating, or washing
Using an appropriate pencil grip
With handwriting skills

Social/emotional

May play alone or appears to ignore others
Had difficulty in making or sustaining eye contact
Has difficulty interacting with peers
Gets agitated or becomes aggressive when others attempt interactive games or want to share toys
Show little interest in dramatic or make believe
Has separation anxiety

Speech/Language Disorders: