Week 7 Reading Summaries

Shrock, P. (1992). Nurturing the unborn child: A nine month program for soothing, stimulating and communicating with your unborn baby. Pre- and Peri-Natal Psychology Journal, 7(1), 85-86. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/198777855?accountid=10910

Studies have proven that communication is a very important technique for bonding with you child and assisting with their growth and development. Young children especially benefit from this type of language connection, including the youngest children of who are not yet born. Research has begun on mothers who have learnt a variety of new methods to communicate with their unborn child through emotional and spiritual connections. Researching these levels of communication has become a common scientific study where parents feel priority is to ‘make a connection’ through the womb and develop an emotional bond with their child. Believed to help in the growth of the unborn and experience an amazing process of response. Using ultrasound the unborn babies are viewed as responding to different communication methods including touch and sounds. Senses have already started to work and can react to movements and emotions felt by the mother that may be as simple at patting her stomach. A recent psychiatrist ‘Thomas Verny’ has completed a book titled “Nurturing the Unborn Child” along with Pamela Weintraub detailing advice in which parents to be can use to develop emotional attachment with their baby during the pregnancy length. During the pregnancy, the foetus may develop certain senses and react to different levels of communication at different ages and growth development. Abilities to communicate with the unborn is part of the advice given along with methods to help parents communicate with each other and become aware of each other’s anxieties and reduce the stress levels to benefit the baby who is able to sense the mothers stress will develop in a calm nature. The pregnancy is divided into months when discussing “Womb Harmonics” with a guided plan for each giving summarized exercises that will teach mothers to relax and produce confidence when communicating their growing unborn child. This is a valuable book for parents who are expecting as they can increase the bond shared between mother and father as well as with their unborn baby using new methods of communication through the womb.

Locuniak, M. N., & Jordan, N. C. (2008). Using kindergarten number sense to predict calculation fluency in second grade. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41(5), 451-9. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194229399?accountid=10910

Recent studies have shown that the results of numeracy from the kindergarten age group can be used to assist with placement and fluency predication in the later years. A variety of tests were conducted including memory and reading whilst including numeracy as the specific aspect measured. The use of numbers and the connections between the knowledge and combinations related are used heavily to predict how the child with succeed and develop further in the future years of schooling. At this stage there are two categories used being ‘at risk’ or ‘not at risk’ to assess children in fluency and relate their early abilities to encourage and progress in later number skills. Fluency in early childhood is defined as how simple it is for children to interpret and act out the skill with precision. Basic calculation would normally be simple for most children to grasp and take an interest in, however some find it difficult and need different instruction methods to understand the topic. It is important that children understand the basics concepts of math in order to use this fluency to help daily routines and numeracy involved in life. There is a brief summary of the subjects in which children partake in, labeling the areas children will struggle in if they are not able to grasp the concept leading up to it. Fluency in numeracy calculation creates a dependency on other subjects and experiences throughout the schooling career, where children who are able to fully understand the concepts and interpret the skills required had advantages above other children. The subjects are designed to lead on from one another through the years describing the high importance to understand the basics in order to ‘survive’ the coming subjects. Each subheading shares different methods useful to help young children learn, interpret and understand each skill, also including what each skill involves and how they connect to the following topic. The study included 198 young children from various kindergartens under similar math curriculum and created a test for the children in all mathematical concepts. The results were calculated and showed that child fluency was dependent on the exposure levels at an early age. This concluded that children with more mathematical experience did better in the fluency test which in turn will enable children to progress at a faster rate with higher understanding in future mathematical subjects.