The 2008 ACT College Readiness report, released today, paints a worrisome picture.  Of the 43% of college bound high school graduates who took the test, only 22% received scores indicating they were ready for college level work in all four of the major subject areas.   The ACT defines a student to be college ready if they are likely to earn a “C” or higher in first year courses in English, math, reading, and science.  The average score was virtually unchanged from last year: 21.1 out of a possible 36.

The individual scores on the subject tests were also virtually unchanged:
 Only 53% of students are ready for college level reading.
 Only 43% of students are ready for college level math (algebra).
 Only 28% of students are ready for college level science.
 Only 68% of students are ready for college level English (down one point from last year).

There are a multitude of factors contributing to kids’ inability to read, and do math and science at a proficient level for college success.  High school counselors have reported to me over and over that kids avoid harder courses.  Once a course gets hard, they drop out.  Easy classes might keep a kid’s grade point average up, but these classes don’t have the rigor to prepare a student for college.  High screen time is also an enemy of reading proficiency.  You only get better at reading if you spend time reading.

The character traits for success are at the heart of Say Yes to No.  Kids who have self-discipline, who can attend to a task, who can say no to themselves will be better prepared to face the challenges of the 21st century.  These Say Yes to No kids will understand that success, even in school, only comes with concentration and hard work.  If the media values of “More, Easy, Fast and Fun” dominate, then success in school and life will suffer.  How do you think kids can prepare better for life after high school?

Dr. Dave

The latest community to start the Say Yes to No campaign is Muscle Shoals, Alabama.   The city schools began with a kick off celebration for parents in kindergarten through twelfth grades this past week.

I met with close to three hundred parents and staff and relayed the Say Yes to No message, emphasizing that:

Self-discipline is twice as strong a predictor of school success as intelligence.  And it’s eroding in our kids.  Powerful cultural messages that scream “More, Fast, Easy, and Fun” are making it difficult for children to learn the skills of self discipline.  Parents need the skills to effectively teach children and youth how to “say no” to themselves so they can be successful in school and life.

Parents want to raise strong, healthy kids, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.  Say Yes to No gives them the parenting strategies that work.

Dr. Dave

Two recent studies, reported in the latest issue of Mind magazine, make the case for parents to say “no” to cell phone usage right before kids’ bedtimes.   Talking on cell phones appears to make it harder to fall asleep.   More research is being conducted world-wide concerning cell phone usage and children.  In the United States, researchers are concerned that children’s developing nervous systems may be more vulnerable to wireless devices, such as cell phones.

An Australian study showed that cell phone use activates alpha brain waves which are associated with concentration, and not conducive to sleep. This is not the same kind of concentration associated with homework or other conversation. The scientists believe that these alpha waves are activated so the brain can screen out the pulsed microwave radiation that cell phones give off.

And just how much harder is it for cell phone using kids to fall asleep?  The second study was done in England and found that people who talked on the cell phone for thirty minutes before bedtime took twice as long to fall asleep.

The author for the Australian study was Rodney Croft at Swinburne University of Technology and the English study included James Horne of Loughborough University.

US researchers fear children may be more vulnerable to wireless devices as their nervous system is still developing.

I’ve talked in previous blogs about the importance of a good night’s sleep for kids (and for all of us!)   Activities kids do before bedtime will help their brains prepare for rest.  And rested kids will be more mentally and emotionally alert the following day.  What routines do your kids have at bedtime?

Dr. Dave

Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine posited a number of statistics that describe how quickly our whole way of communicating and often how we organize our lives have changed.  I thought I would pass them along:
 

There are 2 billion portals for entering the web (including cell phones.)
            100 billion clicks on the WWW/day
             55 trillion links on the WWW
             2 million emails are sent every second.
             1 million IM messages are sent every second.

Contrast this web communication with:            
 65 billion phone calls per year.

So if you think your phone is ringing less – it is.  We are quickly changing the way we communicate with each other.  This has huge implications for how we think, learn, teach, and relate in a quickly changing technological and social environment.  And in turn creates opportunities and unique challenges for parents.  What’s your favorite way to communicate with friends, family, and colleagues?

Dr. Dave

I don’t usually read advice columns, but this one caught my eye.  A couple’s dream wedding was to get married on the beach in Florida.  Unfortunately all the relatives, including both sets of grandparents, lived back in Michigan.  The groom was seeking advice on whether it would be OK to tell people not to bring a gift, but just give themselves a “little vacation in Florida” to come to their wedding.  

As I read it I realized that I had heard this scenario before…from friends.   This couple has a lot of choices to make and it all boils down to what they value.  Real choices in the real world always boil down to what you value.  Is this wedding only about the couple, or is it broader, focusing on family and community – how does this picture fit together?   Hard choices.  Of course there are lots of scenarios that could play out: beach wedding, Michigan reception…Michigan wedding, beach honeymoon…each answer sends its own message.   That’s why it’s important for parents to think about the values they want for their children.  Giving kids the character traits they need will give them the tools to be able to sort out life’s choices and easily see what’s really important to them, what values they are living out.

And what was the advice from the columnist?  “…maybe it’s time to learn to say ‘no’ to yourself.”  She voted for the Michigan wedding.

Dr. Dave

Reading specialists are in the middle of a hot debate on whether Internet screen time is helping or hurting kids’ reading skills.  Articles in The Atlantic: “Is Google Making Us Stoopid?” and the latest New York Times Article: “Online, R U Really Reading?” have added fuel to the discussion.

Since the Institute has always had literacy and reading at the core of our concerns about electronic screens in general, I thought I’d add a few thoughts to the debate.   First, we should remember that we are talking about children and not adults.  Kids’ brains are wiring for language from the moment they are born.  Their language skills evolve from listening, then speaking, and in our culture, then reading.  Language and how we think are intertwined.   A rich language base enables a child to use a host of words to describe their thoughts, their feelings, the pictures they see in their brains and the experiences they have in their world.  And further, a rich language base helps a child to understand and take part in the ideas, thoughts and feelings of another person. 

So what we should be concerned about is the language skills of children, of which reading is an important part.  Now remembering that childhood is the time when children acquire the skill sets that will enable them to function to their fullest potential, the debate about on-line reading versus book reading is important.   It’s my belief that to live in the 21st century, a child will need both. A child needs the mental agility that digital literacy brings.  If one is looking for information – the Internet wins, hands down.  And children need to develop the digital literacy skills to find, evaluate, view, respond, and yes, read that information, on-line.  But the child who brings the ability to focus and sustain attention and the ability to delve into a rich language environment, which books can provide, for both emotional enjoyment and more importantly, the wiring of their brains to be able to grasp more complex thoughts, will have greater success in our 21st century world.

The visual stimulation of the on-line world captivates kids.  We need to enhance their language environment through the equally captivating world of their imagination to build a richer language environment.  In addition to books, that might mean more storytelling, more reading out loud, and more shared reading with our kids.

How do you help your kids read?    

Dr. Dave

The University of Minnesota released a study this week that found that for adolescent girls, sharing a family meal at least five times a week during the middle school years yielded benefits that lasted through their teen years.  These girls were less likely to drink, smoke or use marijuana.

A connection with caring adults is the most protective factor for kids.  It's more important than income, family status or religion. Family meals are a way to build that connection. It's the way that people have connected for thousands and thousands of years.  

What do we generally do around the dining room table?  We share the news of the day, we tell stories about our lives.  We connect.  It’s a chance for parents to let their kids know they care about their lives.  It’s a chance to listen.  Kids want to be connected – it’s one of the main driving forces in their lives.  If we can’t signal them that we want that connection, then they will seek it elsewhere.  When our kids were teens, we held that family meal time was important. Even when sports and activities made for crazy schedules we always made time for family meals during the week.  Now that our kids are adults, they still like to drop over for a family meal.  Besides a free meal, it’s our time to connect.

TVs that are on during the family meal will short circuit your connection to your kids.  All eyes will be on the screen.  Your chance for any meaningful exchange or your chance to listen to your kids’ talk about their day will be lost.  So keep family meal time, screen free time.

One interesting fact of this study was that this protective factor did not hold true for boys.  Family meal time did not predict their chemical use.  That doesn’t mean you should let go of your boys.  Boys have the same need as girls to connect, but, perhaps, in addition to family meals.

How do you maintain family meal time?

Dr. Dave

A child sees a puddle on the ground from a recent rain.  How many words that child can use to tell you about what she sees depends on how rich her language environment has been to that point.  Will she tell you about the bug she sees trying to swim across that puddle or the clouds she sees reflected in it?  Will she tell you about how the water feels or what it sounds like when she walks in it?  Will she make up a story?  If she is from a language rich environment, she may have thousands of words to choose from – words that help her be creative in her thoughts and speech.

Summertime is a perfect time to immerse your child in a language rich environment.  Children need to not only listen to, but to speak words to be able to add them to their own treasure trove of vocabulary.   Using lots of words with young children, reading to them, telling stories, and just explaining what’s happening in their world gives kids lots of exposure to words.   Give older kids lots of experiences and talk about them.  Encourage reading, putting on plays, storytelling.  Any activity they do is a potential vocabulary builder.  By age three you can ask your kids how they feel about something and they’ll have something to say!   Give kids the words to identify how they feel, “I know you feel angry.” will help them say it for themselves.

Children have creative, active minds – help them grow with a richness of words. 

 
How do you help your child learn new words?

Dr. Dave