Transcript Head Start: History - Stanford University

Preschool
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Preschool types
Head Start
Temperament
Behavior problems
Preschool: Types
• Montessori
• Waldorf
• High/Scope
Preschool: Types
• Other types
– Church- or temple-run programs
– Community organizations (YMCA)
– Large companies
• Bright Horizons (600 nationwide, work-site)
• Children’s Creative Learning Centers (18 in CA
and CO)
– Parent-run cooperatives
Preschool: Montessori
• Philosophy
– Founded by pediatrician / psychiatrist Maria Montessori in 1907,
– Emphasizes connection of all living things, and need for each
person to find meaningful work and own place in the world
– Child will learn at his or her own pace
• Classroom
– Five areas: Practical life, Sensory awareness education,
Language arts, Mathematics and geometry, Cultural subjects
– Most of interaction is among children: Older kids help younger
ones learn how to master new skills
• Who it's best for
– Children who want a hands-on learning environment suited to
their own needs
– Special needs, especially ADHD or other learning or
psychological problems, because of individual attention
Preschool: Waldorf
• Philosophy
– Stimulate and develop ‘spirit, soul, and body’
– Engage in creative free play rather than watching TV and
videos and playing computer games
• Classroom
– Comfortable, homelike environment
– Daily activities range from painting, coloring, singing, and
reciting poems to modeling with beeswax, baking bread,
building houses out of boxes, sheets, and boards
– Dressing up and pretending to be parents, kings, and
magicians
• Who it's best for
– More group-oriented
– Good for children who thrive on order and rhythmic repetition
– Not recommended for children with severe developmental
disabilities
Preschool: High / Scope
• Philosophy
– Active involvement with people, materials, ideas, and events
– Curriculum of "shared control" in which adults and children
learn together
– Children encouraged to make own choices about materials
and activities
• Classroom
– Key experiences: Creative representation, Language and
literacy, Social relations, Movement, Music
– Computers
• Who it's best for
– Children who need individual attention
– Originally created for at-risk urban children and used in Head
Start
– Effective for children with developmental delays and learning
disabilities
Head Start: History
• Part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty
– Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 authorized programs to
meet needs of disadvantaged preschool children
– Panel of child development experts drew up program
• Office of Economic Opportunity
– Launched Project Head Start in 1965
– Designed to help end poverty by providing low-income
preschoolers with program meeting emotional, social, health,
nutritional, and psychological needs
• Today, Head Start is a program within Administration
on Children, Youth and Families in HHS
• Programs are administered locally by non-profit
organizations and local school systems
Head Start: Programs
• Early Head Start
– Promotes healthy prenatal outcomes
– Promotes healthy family functioning
– Strengthens development of infants and toddlers
• Head Start
– Helps create healthy development in low-income
children
– Offers wide variety of services to influence all
aspects of a child's development and learning
• Migrant and Seasonal Program Branch
• American Indian-Alaska Native Program
Branch
Head Start: Services
• Eligibility
– Largely income-based (100% of the federal poverty level)
– Each local program includes other eligibility criteria such as
disabilities and services to other family members
– <10% of enrollment can be from over-income families
• Disabilities - full services to children with disabilities
• Education
– Goal of Head Start is to ensure that children are ready to begin
school
– HS educational standards have become de facto standards for
high-quality pre-school education programs
• Family and Community Partnerships
• Health
– Provides health screenings
– Ensures regular health check-ups, including dental care
– Teaches good practices in oral health, hygiene, nutrition,
personal care, and safety
Head Start: Effectiveness
• Summary of 31 studies (Lee et al.,1990)
• Head Start program showed
– Immediate improvement in IQ scores of
participating children
– After beginning school, the non-participants
were able to narrow the IQ difference
– Diminution of effects over time, especially for
low-ability children, may reflect differences in
quality of subsequent schooling or home
environment
Head Start: Effectiveness
• HHS Head Start Impact Study (2002 – 2006)
• 5,000 newly entering 3- and 4-year old children
applying for Head Start
– Randomly assigned to Head Start group or non- Head Start
group
– Data collection began Fall 2002 and continued through 2006
(spring of 1st grade)
• Children who entered Head Start as 3-year-olds
– Higher parent use of educational activities
– Lower parent use of physical discipline
– No significant impact for safety practices
• Children who entered Head Start as 4-year-olds
– Higher parent use of educational activities
– No significant impacts for discipline or safety practices
Preschool: Temperament
• Easy
– Very social, comfortable in groups, can fit into most situations
– When she wants something she can't have, it's easy to distract
her before emotions escalate
– When she's out of sorts, she’s easy to calm
– Has a lot of staying power at a single task
– When traveling, she can go with the flow and shift gears easily
• Sensitive, slow-to-warm up
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Slow to adapt to new situations
Likes the world ordered and knowable
Hates to be interrupted when engrossed
May not do well in social gatherings, especially if feeling
pushed
– If left to own pace, can mature into thoughtful, sensitive thinker
Preschool: Temperament
• Spirited, active
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Active physically, often willful, may be prone to temper tantrums
Very social and curious
Adventurer, very determined
Needs very clear boundaries, so that he doesn't act like a
steamroller, trampling anyone or anything in her path
– Given good guidance and an outlet for energy, can be a leader
• Negative, difficult
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Angry, obstinate, needs things to be her way
Great at independent play, but easily frustrated
Finds it hard to express herself, may become a biter or pusher
Tend to be insightful, resourceful, creative
Preschool: Behavior
Problems
• Yale Child Study Center - Gilliam
– Survey responses from 3,900 teachers
– Educators use expulsion three times more
often with troublesome preschoolers than do
their colleagues who teach K-12
– Preschool boys were 4.5 percent more likely
than girls to be expelled
– African-American children were twice as
likely as their white or Latino peers to be
expelled
Preschool: Behavior
Problems
• Aggression – predicts oppositional, violent
behavior
– Parent counseling
• Time out
• Verbal reprimand: saying “No,” explaining the rule for
proper behavior, or warning of consequences if the
aggression persists
• Reward system: withdrawing privileges for aggression or
providing incentives, such as a star chart, for prosocial
behavior;
• Redirection: having the child focus on something else
• Promoting empathy: helping the child understand how
aggression made the other child feel
Preschool: Behavior
Problems
• Shyness and fearfulness or behavioral
inhibition - predicts social anxiety
– Parent counseling
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Encourage child to talk to parent
Limit isolating activities such as watching TV
Praise positive handling of social situations
Give child some undivided attention each day
Help child become independent and confident by
teaching self-care skills
Preschool: Behavior
Problems
• Speech problems (5.8%)
• Developmental delay (3.2%)
• ADHD (2 - 5%)
– Causes significant functional impairments
– Is stable over time
– Predicts behavioral problems later in
childhood