THE%20CRITICAL%20ROLE%20OF%20PRACTICE%20IN%20THE%20EARLY%20CHILDHOOD%20CURRICULUM

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THE CRITICAL ROLE OF PRACTICE IN THE EARLY
CHILDHOOD CURRICULUM

• Gerald Mahoney
• Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
• Case Western Reserve University,
• Cleveland, Ohio

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Developmental Proficiency

• One goal of early intervention is to help
  children improve their proficiency in the use of
  developmental skills and behaviors
• Developmental Proficiency
• Use the developmental skill or behaviors
  spontaneously without thinking
• MEANINGFULLY
• APPROPRIATE CONTEXTS
• WITH FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR PEOPLE

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Developmental Proficiency

• Does not mean that
• child has learned response to criteria (8 out 10
  prompted responses)
• Often associated with problems of maintenance and
  generalization
• childs behavior is an approximation of the
  desired response
• child spontaneously uses behavior only on
  occasions

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Developmental Proficiency

• Analogous to reading proficiency
• Accuracy
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Constant Improvement
• Keys to reading proficiency
• Instruction
• Practice
• Instruction alone is insufficient!!!!!!

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Motor Development Proficiency

• What changes in infant walking and why?
• Karen Adolph et. al., (2003) Child Development,
  Vol 74 (2), 475-497
• Compared how childrens body dimensions, age and
  walking experience influence their walking
  proficiency (n210 infants n15 kindergartners).
• WHAT CHANGES As children become bigger, older
  and more experienced their steps become longer,
  narrower, straighter and more consistent
• WHAT CAUSES THESE CHANGES When measures of body
  dimension, age and experience are used to predict
  level of walking skill- (e.g., Step length
  dynamic base, foot rotation)
• THE AMOUNT OF CHILDRENS EXPERIENCE WALKING is
  the only significant predictor

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What Motor Experience entails?
infants everyday experiences with locomotion
occur in truly massive doses, reminiscent of the
immense amounts of daily practice that promote
expert performance in world class musicians and
athletes. Walking infants practice keeping
balance in upright stance and locomotion for more
than six accumulated hours per day.
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What Motor Experience Entails?

• They average between 500 and 1500 walking steps
  per hour so that by the end of each day, they may
  have taken 9,000 walking steps and traveled the
  length of 29 football fields .

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What Motor Experience Entails?
infants everyday walking experiences occur in a
wide variety of events, places and surfaces.
the variety of everyday walking experience
resembles variable and random practice schedules
. (that) lead to a process of continually
generating solutions anew. THE MAGNITUDE,
DISTRIBUTED NATURE, AND VARIABILITY OF INFANTS
WALKING EXPERIENCE MAY LIE AT THE HEART OF
DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE.
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Keys to Proficiency

• Ability those with the greatest ability are
  most likely to achieve highest levels of
  proficiency
• However, those with limited ability can become
  proficient
• Opportunities to Learn
• Context (tennis courts, basketballs)
• Instruction, Coaching
• Practice
• Motivation
• Intrinsic
• Promoted through
• Fun, Encouragement, Success, Being Valued
• Extrinsic

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Practice and Developmental Proficiency

• DOES THE
• MAGNITUDE,
• DISTRIBUTED NATURE,
• AND VARIABILITY
• OF INFANTS PLAY EXPERIENCE LIE AT THE HEART OF
  DEVELOPMENTAL CHANGE?

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2 Children with Down Syndrome

• Childrens play may be the key to understanding
  the role of practice Developmental Learning

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Meghan

• 12 months old
• DA 6 months
• Toys
• bucket, soft doll, rattles, a ball, snap beads,
  soft cloth form, play xylophone with pull string
  and a mallet, a peg board and hammer, a book
• 5 ½ minute observation
• mouthing (N2)
• shaking/waving (N9)
• patting/clapping/banging (N7)
• vocal play (N2
• throwing/dropping (N4).
• used hands for vocal play (N3) and clapping
  (N2).

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William

• 24 months old
• DA 13 months
• Toys
• play telephone with pull string and receiver,
  undressed doll with a bib, a bucket with plastic
  blocks or shapes, a shape sorter, a soft-cushion
  ball, a pull toy shaped like an insect with wire
  antennas and wheels, shape sorter, empty plastic
  box, plastic cylinder
• 5 minute observation
• touching/manipulating the details of objects
  (N5)
• e.g., turning the wheels on the telephone
• used objects according to their intended
  function
• e.g., hold the toy telephone to his ear (N2)
• activated the wire antenna to produce an effect
  (N2)
• use bib on the doll, and strings and appendages
  to lift objects (N6)

• 5 minute observation (continued)
• object permanence activities (N4)
• peek-a-boo with doll
• in-and-out activities (N6)
• in and out of a container
• transferring objects from one container to
  another

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General Observations About Childrens Play

• Children played continually with toys without
  prompting
• Most dominant feature of play is practice or
  repetition of actions
• Childrens play is typical for their
  developmental age level
• Differences in play reflect differences in
  childrens thinking and understanding more than
  differences in their skill at using objects

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Typically developing children engage in massive
amounts of practice before learning new
developmental behaviors
Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing Typically Developing Child
Chronological Age Range to Transition from Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing 4-8 months
Months to Transition from Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing 4 months
Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing acts Per Month 2 per minute X 4 hours (500/day) 15,000
Total Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing Acts to Transition the set of Developmental Behaviors 60,000
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Assimilative v Accommodative Learning

• Assimilation
• Children incorporate the world into their
  existing modes of perceiving, thinking and
  acting.
• During assimilation children
• become increasingly proficient with their current
  modes of thinking, perceiving, and acting.
• learn how their behaviors can be used across a
  wide range of toys and materials in a variety of
  contexts.
• Learn the limitation of perceptions, cognitions
  and behaviors
• Assimilation Practice Developmental Skills and
  Concepts

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Assimilative v Accommodative Learning

• Accommodation
• children develop new ways of perceiving thinking
  and acting
• motivated both by childrens dissatisfaction with
  the adequacy of current forms of thinking,
  perceiving and acting as well as by their
  discovering different ways of thinking,
  perceiving and acting.
• dependent on childrens willingness to give up
  old ways of perceiving, thinking and acting as it
  is on their discovering new ways of perceiving,
  thinking and doing
• Accommodation Learning New Developmental Skills

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Assimilative v Accommodative Learning

• The overwhelming majority of childrens self
  initiated experience is assimilative learning
• The 60,000 BWMT repetitions typically developing
  children do before accommodating or transitioning
  to the next stage of development
• May be the amount of assimilative learning
  experiences (PRACTICE) children need to
• LEARN THE USES OF NEW BEHAVIORS
• LEARN THE LIMITATIONS OF BEHAVIORS
• DISCOVER NEW WAYS OF PERCEIVING, THINKING AND
  ACTING

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Developmental Learning in Children with DS

• Children with Down syndrome
• Engage in same types of behaviors
• Same sequence of behaviors
• Children with DS are delayed because of
• Learning inefficiencies
• Compromised neurological system
• Require more experience to learn the same amount
  as children who do not have compromised learning
  systems

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Learning Efficiency Model Repetitions Needed to
Transition Through Banging, Waving, Throwing and
Mouthing
Typically Developing Child Meghan
Developmental Quotient (DQ) ( Delay) 100 (0) 50 (50)
Chronological Age Range to Transition from Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing 4-8 months 8-16 months
Developmental Age Range of Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing Activities 4-8 months 4-8 months
Months to Transition from Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing 4 months 8 months
Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing acts Per Month 15,000 (500/day) 15,000 (500/day)
Total Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing Acts to Transition 60,000 120,000
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Developmental Delay

• Developmental delay the amount of practice
  children need to learn and get to the next level
  of development
• 50 delay 2 times more practice than a typically
  developing child
• 25 delay 1 time more practice than a typically
  developing child
• Children who have above average developmental
  quotients need less practice to learn than
  typically developing children
• DQ 125 Child learns with 25 less practice
  than the average child
• Does not apply to children with delays that are
  related to lack of opportunities for learning

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Two Kinds of Developmental Practice

• Accommodation Practice
• Dependent on parent or other adult directing the
  child
• Such as in IBI
• Assimilation Practice
• Child playing alone
• or
• Child playing with parent or other adults

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Accommodation Practice

• Hard to implement
• Children resist
• Manifested by
• Passivity
• Fatigue
• Acting out/ Behavior problems
• Too much emphasis on accommodation practice may
  interfere with or impede children from engaging
  in assimilative practice
• Parents must devote time in excess of the daily
  routine interactions they have with their child
• Little evidence that this promotes development
• However, may explain the effects that ABA/IBI has
  on childrens development

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Parent Responsiveness Promotes Assimilation
Practice (Pivotal Behaviors) (Mahoney, Kim
Linn, 2007. Infants and Young Children)
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The development of children with disabilities is
related to the rate they engage in assimilative
practice (N 45) (Mahoney, Kim Linn, 2007)
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Developmental Learning in Children with
Developmental Delays

• The more we can encourage children with
  Developmental Delays to practice his/her current
  developmental skills the quicker they will get to
  the next stage of development.

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Learning Efficiency Model If we could increase
Megans rate of practice by 20 a day
Meghan 20 increased Practice
Developmental Quotient (DQ) ( Delay) 50 (50)
Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing acts Per Month 15,000 (500/day) 18,000 (600/day)
Total Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing Acts to Transition 120,000 120,000
Months to Transition from Banging, Waving, Throwing, Mouthing 8 months 6.6 months
Rate of development during intervention .50 (50 delay) .60 (40 delay)
Improvement from expected 0 20
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Parents engage in massive amounts of one to one
interactions with their children during daily
routines
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If we can enhance parents responsiveness with
their children

• We could
• Increase childrens rate of practicing their
  existing behaviors with their parents
• During the course of the 2 300,000 interactions
  they have with their parents in daily activities
  and routines.
• Help children develop the habit of spontaneously
  practicing and repeating their current
  developmental behaviors
• While playing alone
• While interacting with others
• This might increase their rate of development

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How responsive mothers become was related
increase childrens practice (Mahoney
Macdonald, 2007)
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Increases in Childrens Cognitive
Communication Development was related to increase
in their rate of practicing pivotal behaviors
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The Role of Practice in Early Intervention
RI Strategies Increase Adult Responsive
Interaction
Increase Child Pivotal Behavior
Increase Rate Of Practice of Existing
Developmental Skills (Assimilative Learning Acts)
Reduce Time To Attain Repetitions Child Needs to
Transition To Next Developmental Behaviors
Increase Rate of Developmental Functioning
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Role of Engagement

• Pivotal developmental behaviors
• Behaviors that are central to wide area of
  functioning, such that a change in a pivotal
  behavior results in changes in several other
  behaviors (Koegel Colleagues)
• Learning Processes
• Learning Habits
• Koegel has promoted childrens pivotal behavior
  (Pivotal Response Training) as a method for
  increasing the effectiveness of Discrete Trial
  Training with children with ASD