Promoting Executive Function Skills in Preschoolers Using a Play-Based Program

In recent years, play has been shown to be a powerful means to enhance learning and brain development. It is also known that through play children enhance their executive function (EF) skills. Furthermore, well-developed EF in preschoolers has been shown to be an important predictor for later academic and life success. Armed with this information a program, Building Brains and Futures (BBF), for developing EF through play was designed for 3–5-year-old. The program consisted of 10 simple, fun, and interactive games selected to enhance various facets of EF. The 10 games included were: dimensional change card sort, lips and ears, block building, musical freeze, opposites, pretend play, red light/green light, shared project, Simon says, and wait for it. The program was implemented with a group of children shown to have challenges with respect to kindergarten readiness. The approach was first, to build adult capability by sharing knowledge of brain development, EF, and the importance of play with educators, caregivers, and parents. Second, to build skills in delivering the program in the school setting. Children engaged with the program of games for a minimum of 6 weeks. Their performance on a battery of direct measures of EF, language, and motor skills, were recorded before and after the program. The results showed improvement in all three domains. In addition, adopters of the BBF program reported it was easily and successfully integrated into their existing preschool curricula. The importance of intentional adult directed play in building developmental learning, including EF, is discussed.

Partnering Public and School Librarians for School Readiness Programming

Partnerships from public and school librarians for programming can prove to be beneficial for connecting with the community. When collaborating for school readiness programs, such as a school readiness fair, the expertise can bring about the best resources and services that both the public and school librarians have to offer, alongside the other community leaders in early childhood education. The paper discusses how to create a school readiness fair based on a collaboration between public and school librarians. Covering aspects of networking, programs such as Every Child Ready to Read, and school curriculum standards, it brings about the best parts of collaborating for a community event. Keywords: School Readiness, school libraries, public libraries, programming, kindergarten readiness

Scale Alignment in the Between-Item Multidimensional Partial Credit Model

In between-item multidimensional item response models, it is often desirable to compare individual latent trait estimates across dimensions. These comparisons are only justified if the model dimensions are scaled relative to each other. Traditionally, this scaling is done using approaches such as standardization—fixing the latent mean and standard deviation to 0 and 1 for all dimensions. However, approaches such as standardization do not guarantee that Rasch model properties hold across dimensions. Specifically, for between-item multidimensional Rasch family models, the unique ordering of items holds within dimensions, but not across dimensions. Previously, Feuerstahler and Wilson described the concept of scale alignment, which aims to enforce the unique ordering of items across dimensions by linearly transforming item parameters within dimensions. In this article, we extend the concept of scale alignment to the between-item multidimensional partial credit model and to models fit using incomplete data. We illustrate this method in the context of the Kindergarten Individual Development Survey (KIDS), a multidimensional survey of kindergarten readiness used in the state of Illinois. We also present simulation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of scale alignment in the context of polytomous item response models and missing data.

Spatial training using game play in preschoolers improves computational skills

Previous studies have found that block play results in better spatial ability which may lead to greater mathematical skills. The current study examined a specific type of block play, structured block play in which a copy of a block configuration is constructed. Structured block play is a difficult cognitive task that requires an understanding of spatial relations, hand-eye coordination, and spatial working memory among others. This preliminary study was designed to determine whether training using structure block play would lead to improvements in skills linked to mathematical thinking. Two groups of children participated in the study. One group played a competitive structured block building game once a week for 8 weeks. A control group was also tested. All participants completed a kindergarten readiness assessment before and after the 8-week period. Children in the block play group showed significant improvements in the computation module of the assessment. No such effect was observed for the control group. The results presented demonstrate that young children can, with assistance, engage in structured block play and that they have cognitive benefits from such block building activities.