Embedded Files
Participants will learn the steps to proactively employ language as a well-being indicator. The objective is for participants to NOTICE language indicators of well-being, MONITOR engagement as a means to proactively gauge language development, SCREEN for potential difficulties with language development if indicated, and use the information gained from screening to ENHANCE opportunities for engagement at home, in the classroom, all learning environments, and in community settings. Participants will learn that when children are engaged, their use of language is frequent, functional, socially oriented, and fluid across settings.
WHAT are our next steps and opportunities?
Engagement through frequent, positive social interactions with caregivers, educators, and peers is both the “fuel” for and a “gauge” of language development. In an attempt to employ language as a well-being indicator, opportunities exist for individuals, practitioners, and policymakers to integrate practices that apply language as a well-being indicator into everyday settings.
(we need to insert something here about the practices not being linear – like you can use NOTICE and go straight to ENHANCE – you can use MONITOR and then use NOTICE and ENHANCE – you can use MONITOR (engagement ladder) as a “universal screener” for MTSS -- important to include content about strategically using a language SCREEN and when to do a language assessment, etc…)
NOTICE
When we view language as a well-being indicator similar to others—such as vision, hearing, and oral health, those who interact with children will NOTICE the language indicators of well-being that enable children to:
communicate for different reasons: why children communicate
communicate in different ways: how children communicate
regulate emotions with the help of others — mutual regulation
regulate emotions on one’s own — self-regulation
These four aspects of language determine well-being and set the stage for literacy, academic success, and emotional resilience.
Think of a time when you noticed a student or someone else who used different ways to communicate with you, either by writing you a note, using non-verbal cues, body language, facial expression or some other means to communicate with you. What did you notice? What got your attention? How did you respond?
NOTICE language indicators of well-being by increasing awareness that:
When we view language as a well-being indicator, we will become aware of language indicators of well-being proactively so we can be developmentally responsive when we NOTICE opportunities;
· There are specific aspects of language that are essential to well-being across the developmental continuum (from infancy through adulthood). These include:
NOTICE
o communicating for different reasons (e.g., sharing attention, sharing emotion, requesting actions, share and requesting information)
o communicating in different ways (e.g., gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice as well as a wide range of vocabulary and sentences expressed in multimodal ways – spoken language, written language, or assistive technology, etc.)
o regulating emotions with the help of others — mutual regulation (e.g., requesting assistance, requesting comfort, and regulating activities to soothe when distressed)
o regulating emotions on one’s own — self-regulation (e.g., using nonverbal and verbal strategies to self-soothe, anticipate transitions, and problem solve).
NOTICE
· if language development is already part of your work with families, educators, and other caregivers, please review this document to ensure these specific language indicators of well-being are being noticed and supported; and
· by recognizing language as a well-being indicator, we encourage those who interact with children to provide opportunities for frequent, language-rich, social interactions vital for social and emotional development, emotional regulation, and executive functioning.
NOTICE TOOL
This freely accessible tool can be shared with individuals, practitioners, and policymakers to generate awareness of language indicators of well-being from infancy through adulthood.
→ These indicators relate to a child’s capacity to communicate for different reasons (i.e., why a child is communicating), to communicate in different ways (i.e., how a child is communicating), to regulate emotions with the help of others—mutual regulation, and to regulate emotions on one’s own—self regulation.
→ It is these aspects of language that determine well-being and set the stage for literacy, academic success, and emotional resilience.
IMONITOR
Now, let’s include MONITOR, which means we can MONITOR whether an individual or group of children are socially connected, following social routines, and expressing their thoughts and feelings to others with the free and easy to use the Social Engagement Ladder. On this pathway, you will discover potential missed opportunities to boost language development. The importance of MONITOR is ENGAGEMENT. There are three elements of ENGAGEMENT.
3 I’S: ELEMENTS OF ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
Engagement through frequent, positive social interactions with caregivers, educators, and peers is both a “gauge” of and the “fuel” for language development.
INVESTMENT
Are children of all ages motivated to engage and stay connected? Investment is the “why” of language use and relates to our social connectedness. We use language when we have something to say; we learn more language when we have many opportunities and reasons to communicate with others; and we engage with our caregivers, educators, and peers when we feel connected. For children [and adolescents] to be “hooked” or motivated to engage, we can provide developmentally attuned environments and responsive practices that stimulate a sense of safety, trust, and connection.
INDEPENDENCE
Do children know what to do and what is being taught? For children of all ages to “know what to do” and "what is being taught” we can provide an environment that includes consistent routines, role models, hands-on materials, and visuals—following social routines, listening to others, anticipating others’ actions, problem-solving on one’s own—is a result of language comprehension and supports independence. We engage in everyday activities and follow social routines when we understand conventional forms of non-verbal language like gestures and facial expressions and have access to previously modeled language and tools that remind us of the meaning of language such as multimedia, graphics, role play, and hands-on materials. This helps develop our inner dialogue to regulate emotions and problem solve in social situations—also known as executive functioning.
INITIATION
Are children and adolescents sharing what they know with others? For children of all ages to send messages to others, we can provide an environment where interactive partners respond to and encourage both nonverbal and verbal ways of communicating and provide frequent opportunities to initiate.
The Social Engagement Ladder monitors whether children are actively engaged in everyday activities that involve social interaction. This tool measures investment, independence, and initiation when engaging in everyday activities.
When children display all “3 i’s” of engagement, communication is frequent, functional, socially oriented, and fluid across settings. This typically indicates a level of engagement which fuels language use and development.
We initiate when we communicate with others in different ways—both verbally and nonverbally—when we have opportunities and options, and when we interact with those who respond to our many forms of communication, including facial expressions, gestures, words, and writing.
How can we determine a child’s level of engagement with the 3i’s?
After reading about the 3I's apply them to yourself. Think of an example of when you were invested in communicating with others. What did that look like and how did it feel?
Think of a time when you showed independence when learning a new concepts or hearing something for the first time. What was the situation and how did you feel?
Think about a time when you initiated sharing something new you learned with a colleague without any prompting from that person. How did you share your new knowledge? Was this only in passing or did you take time to share details of what you learned?
How can we determine a child's level of engagement with the 3i's?
The Social Engagement Ladder
When children display all “3 I’s” of engagement, communication is frequent, functional, socially oriented, and fluid across settings. This typically indicates that a level of engagement which fuels language use and development.
When the ladder highlights opportunities to enhance engagement, this may be a result of a mismatch between the child's current language indicators of well-being and the supports available to that child interpersonally and in the environment.
The Social Engagement Ladder monitors whether children are actively engaged in everyday activities that involve social interaction.
This tool measures investment, independence, and initiation when engaging in everyday activities.
Let’s learn how to use the Social Engagement Ladder as a tool to measure engagement. View these videos for patterns and clues:
Finding the Fuel for Learning—Infant-Toddler Settings
Finding the Fuel for Learning—Early Childhood Settings
Finding the Fuel for Learning—Elementary Settings
Finding the Fuel for Learning—Teenagers & Secondary School-Aged Settings
Individual Version
An individual version of the Social Engagement Ladder is used to provide additional information about children, illustrating levels of engagement of that individual in daily interactive routines.
Children who are at 0 (not focused) or 1 (emerging/fleeting) may be those whose engagement is either not evident or inconsistent, while a 2 (partially engaged) represents a child who is responsive and present.
Children who are at 3 (mostly engaged) or 4 (fully engaged) are displaying positive emotion, participating in social routines, and communicating their thoughts and feelings in an effective and back and forth manner.
For children who score a 0, 1 or 2, there are opportunities to ENHANCE engagement.
If a child is at a 0, 1, or a 2 in the whole group version, it would also then be recommended that an individual Social Engagement Ladder be used to determine if those engagement levels are consistent across settings.
If a child is at 0, 1, or 2 in several activities, this highlights a potential need to SCREEN. A brief language screening to discern whether language development might be a missing link contributing to their disengagement may support our efforts to ENHANCE engagement.
0: No Focus - Child is not engaged, looking away
1: Emerging/ fleeting - Child engagement is not evident or consistent
2: Partially Engaged - Child is responsive and present
3: Mostly Engaged - Displaying positive emotion, participating in routines
4: Fully Engaged - Communicating thoughts and feelings in an effective and sustained manner
What do you notice about the different levels of engagement with this baby?:
Screen
We can administer a brief screening tool* with children who consistently score 0, 1, or 2 on the Social Engagement Ladder during typical interactive daily activities. Using a standardized screening tool can help discern the presence of difficulties with language development, and these results inform how daily routines in the environment can be enhanced with strategies that benefit all children.
These screening tools can be administered in brief periods of time (10 – 20 minutes) and compare the child to the performance of same-aged peers.
A screening tool identifies opportunities to enhance the learning setting for children who may have opportunities to develop language indicators of well-being and determine the need for additional language assessment for children with significant language difficulties.
Screening is too often used only to identify significant difficulties. However, even simple differences in language expression, understanding and use are worthy of attention. Observing these differences can be used by adults to enhance the environment.
A screening tool can be used to discern differences in levels of language development from same-aged peers that are notable, but not significant—a finding that yields immediate implications for those who interact with the child.
A screening tool can be useful in identifying how we as adults can better communicate with the child.
Have you used a screening tool? If so, what type of screening was done and was it useful in helping you work with the child?
*These are examples of screening tools that are often used for measuring language and is not an all-inclusive list.
Screening tools* that consider expressive, receptive, and pragmatic language that are relevant for infancy through adolescence include:
Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile™ Infant-Toddler Checklist (6 months to 2 years)
Preschool Language Scales—5-Screener (Birth to 8 years)
Childhood Communication Checklist—2 (CCC-2) (4 to 17 years)
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—Preschool—3-Screener (3 to 7 years)
Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—5-Screener (5 to 21 years)
While results may warrant a deeper and more comprehensive assessment conducted by a licensed speech language pathologist, this initial screening can be conducted by those who interact with the child in health, education, social, and therapeutic settings, such as nurses, social workers, and counselors.
What’s Next?
Think of a time when it seemed that a child was having difficulty expressing how he/she felt. What did you notice and what do you recall about that child’s behavior?
Next, we ENHANCE active engagement by addressing language understanding, expression, and use within everyday activities and creating an environment that’s supportive at a more universal level.
ENHANCE
We can enhance active engagement by supporting knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy of individuals and practitioners who interact with children, such as families and other caregivers, educators, and health care providers, to enhance the environment when there are opportunities to strengthen one of the “3 I’s” of engagement.
INVESTMENT
When a child is withdrawn, distracted, depressed, or showing a lack of sustained attention, there may be opportunities to strengthen their language indicators of well-being (both in terms of why they are communicating and how they are regulating emotions). We can modify our communication style by adjusting our response to the child, providing opportunities for the child to connect, and modifying the environment by embedding more hands-on, movement-based, and relevant materials.
Using the “Investment” panel, how could this influence the ways you motivate children to get and stay connected and engaged in learning?
INDEPENDENCE
When a child has difficulties knowing what to do or what to expect, there may be opportunities to strengthen their language indicators of well-being (particularly in the use and understanding of language and language to regulate emotions on one’s own). We can strengthen independence by embedding more visuals, hands-on, movement-based, and relevant, real-life materials.
Using the “Independence” panel, how could you use the information and examples to determine if a child understands instructions and expectations?
INITIATION
When a child uses behavior instead of language to communicate, shows limited or no remorse/empathy, and/or displays limited social interactions, this may be an opportunity to strengthen their language indicators of well-being (particularly by expanding the basket of strategies that they have to communicate). We strengthen initiation by encouraging many opportunities to communicate, and the use of multimodal strategies for the child to share what they know, such as visuals and hands-on materials.
Using the “Initiation” panel, how could you use the guidance to balance your interactions with a child so that he/she leads some of the interactions with you ?
After reading about the 3 I’s, apply them to yourself. Think of an example of when you were invested in communicating with others. What did that look like and how did it feel to you?
Think of a time when you showed independence when learning a new concept or hearing something for the first time. What was the situation and how did you feel?
Think about a time when you initiated sharing something new you learned with a colleague without any prompting from that person. How did you share your new knowledge? Was only in passing or did you take time to share details of what you learned?
Below is a quick reference for the 3i’s of Engagement.
*For access to the full and free Quick Refernce Tool for the 3i’s of Engagement, go to the SEE-KS website:
SEE-KS Quick Reference Tool
*When opportunities to enhance language indicators of well-being are identified and we NOTICE, MONITOR or SCREEN, the SEE-KS Quick Reference Tool for the “3 i’s” of Engagement can be shared with the child, family members, educators, health care providers, and other caregivers so that we can provide developmentally responsive environments. This freely accessible resource provides the guidance for enhancing everyday routines with strategies to foster engagement for children who are before words (using gestures and body language), emerging language (using words, brief phrases, and sentences with multimodal language), developing language competence (using simple and complex sentences in familiar settings), or fully conversational.
Think about a group of children or a classroom of children that you worked with. Could you tell if and when the children were fully engaged in the activities? If so, how did you know? If you could not tell if they were fully engaged, why do you think that was difficult?
Refer to the “How” section to learn how to use this tool when mentoring others.
Page updated
Report abuse