Hooray for 2021 from MGOL!

Mother Goose on the Loose Febrary 2021 Newsletter

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Table of Contents
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News & Ideas

A Note From Betsy
Black History Month

Research
S tudying Baby Laughter
Ins and Outs of Research

Resources
LENA- Best Practices for Parent Recruitment
Activities for Black History Month and Beyond
Music Review
Importance of Nursery Rhymes
Using Library Programs to Build Executive Function Skills, a new online course with MGOL!

Rhyme of the Month
Developmental Tip of the Month

A NOTE FROM BETSY

Mother Goose on the Loose presented virtually.... why not?

At the beginning of the pandemic, via some library listserves, I gave permission and encouraged librarians to present MGOL sessions virtually. This was before many publishers had given their okay to read books aloud online for audiences. Librarians who wanted to serve their public but did not want take the chance of infringing on any copyrights, jumped on board.

The number of virtual MGOL programs kept growing and growing. I started a link on my MGOL website but I couldn't keep up with the new programs popping up. My daughter, Maya, is was in Chile with her boyfriend when the COVID lock down began, and they both began doing some virtual MGOL work for me. You may have noticed that the MGOL YouTube Channel now has numerous categorized playlists to make it easy to find rhymes for scarves, for bells, for maracas, lullabies, rhymes in ASL, etc. That is all Maya's doing! She also has been responsible for emailing librarians and asking for permission to post their videos. Thank you to everyone who has agreed to share their material, and thank you to Maya for all her hard work.

Maya's boyfriend, Andres, has been doing a fabulous job of editing the videos. He looks through the virtual programs and finds rhymes that we don't yet have, extracts them and adds a title page and credits. Although he is a native Spanish speaker, he knows many English songs and nursery rhymes by now!

Because I have the support of this wonderful team, we have been adding new rhymes to the MGOL YouTube channel on a regular basis. So if you are looking for new material, please subscribe and you will be notified whenever a new rhyme is posted.

Also, if we are not linked to your MGOL sessions and you would like to be linked, or if you have a specfiic rhyme or song that you would like to share, please email Maya. I wrote an incorrect email last time, so here is the correct one:
mdiamantcohen at gmail.com

Since there is such a high demand for virtual programs, I have created a webinar on Virtual programming for MGOL that uses clips from many of these wonderful videos. One of those clips, of Maria from the Gilford Public Library in New Hampshire doing "Old Mother Goose" with her dog, is so wonderful that I have included it as our rhyme of the month. Thank you again to everyone who has contributed and please keep sending your links!!!! (Also, if you are interested in booking a webinar with me, please let me know!)

One of our most talked about newsletters last year was the Anti-Racism special edition, which was edited by my friend and virtual assistant, Jen. We received a lot of of positive feedback, and wanted to offer it as resource to our newer readers as well. You can visit this special edition (and read all past MGOL newsletters) HERE. Jen has contributed to this newsletter edition also.

What We are Reading at Home Right Now
(with a 5 and 7 year old)

Here are a few of the books we are reading this month in Jennifer's home!

I am Jackie Robinson by Brad Meltzer
Dream Big, Little One by Vashti Harrison
Rosa by Nikki Giovanni
I am Harriet Tubman by Brad Meltzer

Purchasing Books to Support Black-owned Businesses

Stock the shelves with books from Black authors, and when purchasing them support Black-owned businesses when possible.

A few options:

Legacy Book Bar - based in Maryland, ships worldwide
https://www.legacybookbar.com/legacy-bookbar-bookstore

Pyramid Books
https://pyramidbooks.indielite.org/

Or find a local Black-owned bookstore HERE. This wonderful interactive map resource of Black-owned book stores is created by AALBC.com.

"The laughter shared by a parent and child is not some incidental side-effect of their interaction. Rather this interactive, social element of humour is likely to be a key part of their learning and nurturing relationship."

This quote is taken from a 2013 paper called The Science of Baby Laughter. It talks about research by Caspar Addyman and explains his "The Baby Laughter" project which relied on parents sending videos and answering surveys about their babies to provide data.

Addyman is still studying the science of laughter and by 2019 he was able state that "Peek-a-boo is the number one game around the world that makes babies laugh."

Here is link to his TEDxBratislava talk

To learn more, check out Caspar Addyman's 2020 book: The Laughing Baby: The extraordinary science behind what makes babies happy. Unbound Publishing.

Some Interesting Ins and Outs of Research

(This is a summary of some research that I thought was pretty cool!)

New Research on Integrative Dimensions

New research shows that 3 year-olds are capable of if-then reasoning as well as color discernment, previously research proved only 4-5 year-olds as capable. This new study of integrative dimension claims that the reason why earlier studies proved that 3 year-olds failed to comprehend the complexity of if-then reasoning has to do with the test itself!

What was the problem with earlier tests on CD or conditional discrimination (the science behind if-then reasoning)?

When researchers would show children images of firetrucks and ask the child to pick out the red firetruck, they would be shown two cards with identical firetrucks. The difference would be one picture had a red border and one had a blue border.
Example below:

This way of testing, known as Dimensional Change Sort Card (DCSC) meant the only changing variable was the outline of the paper, the truck stayed the same as well as the color of the truck which was blank throughout the whole test.

The full test, pictured above, showed two firetrucks and two stars. The researchers did not factor in how important the connection between the object and the color is. 3 year-olds struggle to discern important information and having the color separated from the object was a challenge. Once the researchers incorporated “integrated-dimensions” and colored in the objects, that is what allowed 3 year-olds to succeed!

The researchers explained why they produced a test that separates the color for the object, “ It seemed to us that since children need to ignore one stimulus dimension when focusing on the other, it would be easier to do that if the two dimensions were not part of the same object (e.g., a drawing of a truck). Also, to the extent that for 3-year-olds a truck is either a truck or it is a red thing, but it cannot be both (Flavell et al., 1986; Perner and Lang, 2002; Kloo and Perner, 2003)”

Here is an example of integrated dimension test cards:

The objects themselves are colored and this adaptation brought the previous low score of 33% of 3 year-olds who passed this test up to 75%. This proves that 3 year-olds can understand if-then statements to some level.

From: Ling, D. S., Wong, C. D., & Diamond, A. (2021). Children Only 3 Years Can Succeed At Conditional" If, Then" Reasoning, Much Earlier Than Anyone Had Thought Possible. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.571891

Resources

Activities for Black History Month

Black History Month is American history, so you do not need to wait until next February to include programs and activities on Black history, diversity, or anti-racism. We can educate through play and literacy year-round.

Black history is current tense. Black history is being made right now! We, as adults, should not limit the curriculum to Harriet Tubman and MLK, and we should include the great Black Americans who are making critical advances in science, technology, the arts, and beyond.

Make Your Own Comic Book
Celebrating Black Comics (authors, illustrators, and characters)
Find all of the Black superheroes in your library, read their stories, and then create your own comic book. Use stickers, stamps, multicultural crayons, and plenty of books for inspiration and discussion.

Who are the superheroes you created?
What will they fight for?
How will they use their powers for good?
What are their challenges?

This activity has been shared from the Race and Diversity Activity Kit by Exploration Delivered.

Music Review

At a workshop before COVID for childcare providers, participant Marcia Sellers showed us a great rhyme for "The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe." Click on the picture to see the rhyme in action.

https://youtu.be/f8Usbmq1XEA

Marcia mentioned that she got the rhyme from "Gettin Down with Mama Goose." Thank you, Marcia!

BOOK REVIEW

A picture book published just in time for Passov

er this year is The Passover Guest by children's librarian Susan Kusel (illustrated by Sean Rubin). Set in the Depression with lovely glimpses of spring in Washington, DC, Muriel meets a mysterious magician who creates a huge Passover feast for her entire community. Could it be the prophet Elijah? Decide for yourself in this wonderful retelling of Uri Shulevitz's The Magician.

(starred review in School Library Journal)

This online course, developed by Betsy, is offered on My Niche Academy. Five online modules with self-reflection questions and quizzes expand participants’ knowledge of research and practical examples about new ways to support the growth of executive functions skills in babies and young children through library programs and activities.

With the belief that library programs can develop more than literacy skills, modules cover how executive functions relate to brain development, early relationships, school readiness, self-regulation, working memory, economics, mindfulness, and 21^st century skills. Video clips of related skill-building activities taking place during library programs are included.

For information and registration, go to:
https://my.nicheacademy.com/MGOL/course/5590

Check out this feedback (unsolicited) from a course participant:

A benefit of virtual programming is that librarians can share their pets. Here is Maria Villar Suarez from the Gilford Public Library in New Hampshire doing "Old Mother Goose" with her dog, Holly Holly.

Old Mother Goose when she wanted to wander
Would fly through the air on a very fine gander.

Click here to watch the video on our site and suggest the next rhyme of the month.

Subscribe to More MGOL Rhymes on YouTube HERE!

Developmental Tip of the Month:

Playing peek-a-boo is a great way to help your baby begin to develop social skills. The eye contact and personal connection shared with your baby is "pure social interaction. " By playing peek-a-boo with you, your baby learns how much fun it is have back-and-forth connections with others.

Click here to view past Mother Goose on the Loose Newsletters

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Table of Contents (click to view)

Some Interesting Ins and Outs of Research

A benefit of virtual programming is that librarians can share their pets. Here is Maria Villar Suarez from the Gilford Public Library in New Hampshire doing "Old Mother Goose" with her dog, Holly Holly.

Click here to watch the video on our site and suggest the next rhyme of the month.

Table of Contents
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