Draft for comment: early reading survey

[DadDude]

All, I've posted a DRAFT survey for your comment (not to take yet).  It's long...covers (among other things) what you have done, and what results you have seen so far.  View the survey here:

http://larrysanger.org/2011/02/draft-for-comment-early-reading-survey/

I'm looking for detailed comments now!  Please comment either here or on my blog.

[DadDude]

bump

No comments on this at all?  Is it just perfect as a survey?  Can you think of any improvements?

C'mon folks...you're going to be really interested in the results of this survey!  Please help me!

[Ann2010]

I would want to know when they started doing each thing and for how long they used each product.

[khatty]

I read the survey, and have a few comments

Section II.
#3.  I would like to see a half year breakdown between 3, 4, and 5 years.  3, 3.5, 4,4.5, 5 years.
# 4. Part a.  It states on average up to 5 years - that might confuse some parents if their child to date is only 18 months, it might be less confusing to state on average how often was a child read to from birth to current age.
#4. Part f, item i.  To what does 'Doman's Complete Program' refer?  Does that mean just the 'Teach Your Baby to Read' program?  Or the Program described in 'How Smart is Your Baby'?  This item needs clarification.
#4, Part h, I wasn't even aware of FleshCards - it might be useful to provide links to the identified programs, that would also be useful for the LR, YBCR, and other programs mentioned.
#6.  What about a choice of 'I believe in Early Learning and am Currently using it, or would use it again'

Sorry, DadDude, current baby is awake and needs a few Doman Stimulations, I will try to provide comments on Section III later tonight.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

Please excuse my typos, I wrote this out very quickly and I'm not sure if I explained myself well. Assume people are extremely stupid and will misinterpret anything and everything. I don't know if any of this is even helpful, but here goes...

Section 2, question 3- Break up 12-18 months into two smaller categories, it’s too big of a span because it’s such a monumental time developmentally. Kids are reaching their verbal and signing explosions around this time. If my child started reading at 13 months I would have to select the under 18 months option, which just doesn’t seem accurate when lumping the 13 month olds and the 18 month olds in the same group. There is a big difference b/w the two.  Also, use half year increments in the older ages as suggested by a previous poster. 

I’m also surprised that birthdays were not requested on the survey (month and year). I realize you asked for the current age but a birthday might be useful to have on hand and asking for it outright could save you some work. It might be helpful to email the parents one and five years from now for a follow up to see how the kids are doing. You could email all of the 5 year olds that reached the September cut off to find out how they are doing in Kindergarten after the first semester of the school year.  Just send out the same email every year in January to the next group of kids. Having their birthdays would make that a lot easier if it’s a route you wanted to consider. One of the big questions we all have is how will early learning impact our children’s future school experience if we choose to enroll them in a traditional school environment (public, private, Montessori, did they have to do any gifted testing, grade skipping, did they experience social issues, etc.). This is probably more detailed information than you are looking for, but it would great to see how early educated kids’ school experiences turn out in general.

Can you make the YBCR answers more specific? I can’t remember what the instructions even state on YCBR, if it’s once or twice a day, and the same with YCCR.

The Baby Signing answers could be clarified a bit. For example, the last two answers offered could say “Both parent & child sign some…” and “Both parent & child sign a lot...” At first glance, I had to read it twice because “we” (my husband and I) sign a lot to my son who signs back very little.  It could potentially be misinterpreted if someone was in a hurry.

Utero Learning- my husband talked to both of our children loudly, up close at belly level. They both would respond with kicks, encouraging him to keep interacting about 5 nights per week. Is that typical “nothing special” behavior or would that be considered a “technique?”  We didn’t read any books or follow a program, so I assume that “nothing special” would be the correct answer….but then again many people don’t even do that much regularly so I don’t know?

Question 5, where does LR fall in those answers? Doman method or modified Doman method I would assume?

[Twinergy]

You may consider including a section to describe any special needs a child might have.  Some examples: my son had speech delays and nine months of speech therapy  and my daughter, we just found out, has very poor vision.  She  also has eye tracking issues that will involve extensive therapy.

[DadDude]

@Ann2010 - I can add some more of such info, but I can't do a whole separate survey for each product; it would end up being too arduous for people taking the survey, and I would get a lot of incompletes, or so I worry...

@khatty - some good ideas, thanks.

@TeachingMyToddlers - wow, thanks a lot - excellent ideas here.  I'm sure I'll use a bunch of this.

@Twinergy - yes, I was thinking I should put that in, and then forgot about it.

[Lisac]

Wonderful survey! I look forward to hearing the results.

Have you considered adding questions about how often the child sees others in the household reading?
Also is there an older child in the home that is already a reader or learning to read? If so what is the age difference? What did the younger child observe or participate in as a result of the older child reading?
Also might be interesting to know number of books in the house that the child had access to.
Was the purpose of reading ever clarified with the child? If so when and how?
Who else in the child's life supported or was opposed to early learning? (This might be a bit off the subject of the purpose of your survey but I'm sure it could have an overall effect on the success or failure of early learning)

[shaman]

Dad dude,

sorry for the delayed response. The survey is very well written.

Few thoughts:
 
Section I:

1. Child's date of birth (Month/Year)- may help when trying to understand the results ( by chance vs not by chance) since the age intervals are wide.

2. 'day-to-day care'- maybe you can ask how much of the time is the child away from the person that primarily teaches the child eg stays 30 hours a week in daycare/ at home with nanny OR alternately how much time does the teacher spend with the child. I don't know if I have explained myself well. This may be interesting to know since there are many working moms who are trying to make the best of the few hours they have with the child. We may know if something like LR which is easier to do may be worth the time when compared with home made flash cards which take a considerable amount to time to make and some moms are not able to do it.

3. Prior teaching experience? I often think about how this must be easier for someone who has already taught children than someone like me who is still learning how to teach   

Section II

Siblings? Children with siblings seem to learn faster than others because they watch their older brother or sister doing it and want to imitate them.

Age at which one started teaching the child (5 months etc)?

3. a.  'By what age could the child point etc'- my son could point letters, knew his colors and could point at random dots to 10 when he was 7 months old. I know many other kids on this forum were doing this before they were one. Maybe a category like 'less than 12 months' would cover this group.

Section III

I don't know if this can be included here but there was a break of almost 9 months when I could not teach my son and then started where we left off. Similary, we are taking a break from LR since my son is more interested in flashcards and manipulatives at this time. I know that sometimes, we have to take a break from some technique and then restart it when our LO's show interest in them again . Same thing happens when someone is having another baby/ moves/ becomes ill.  I don't know if this can be considered somewhere like 'had to take a break from educational activities due to maternity reasons/ moving/ no interest/other reasons' or if it doesn't pertain to the survey.

I would think any kind of break postpones the child's 'alphabet learning' etc and is not related to the child's intelligence.

Subsection C:

'Pre-chool prep series'- meet the numbers etc...

Subsection D:

2. There was an article that mentioned that if a language is spoken for atleast 30% of the total time one speaks to a child, he or she picks it up soon. If you find such studies, the percentage of time may be more specific than 'some of the time, only a little' etc

We speak 4 languages at home (including English) and I am teaching my son Sanskrit mantras/texts recitation- but I am not teaching him how to speak in Sanskrit or read it. So technically, I would be teaching him 2 other languages  and or answer to 2 would be " speak in language 1: most of the time" and "speak in language 2: none of the time"- there is no 'none' option for the question.

Phew!  All done! 

[stargirl396]

It may be helpful to add "child can not yet demonstrate" options. As I read through, because of my child's special needs and limitations in performance and expression, I would be able to answer very little about what her abilities actually are - I have learned that reading is a mental process and the ability to read should not be viewed as contingent on the ability to speak. But then again - what proof are we left with? That is why it can be difficult to measure. Thanks for the awesome effort, this is a great study. I too feel that follow-up on this would be extremely important. If I come up with anymore insights I will let you know.

[TeachingMyToddlers]

After thinking about this some more, I would love to see a question about puzzles on there. How many piece puzzles can your child currently complete? Peg or jigsaw puzzles? And is that assisted or unassisted? It's kind of a gray area though, but how spatial awareness factors into overall advancement is very interesting to me. I would never have thought to give my 25 month old a 24 piece puzzle until I read about kids that age on these forums doing them. And sure enough, she's was a pro within a week. She has been a puzzle junkie ever since.

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