NUACHTÁN KINDER | May 2022

The early learner PYP. Language development and play. The complexity of language

By Pilar Lavín | IB PEP Coordinator

Children bring with them to school complex language knowledge, experience, and meaning-making strategies from their early years at home. Students use language to:

• explore
• examine
• question
• predict
• share
• investigate
• reflect

in a sustained and deliberate manner, within a supportive collaborative setting.

Students use play to make meaning and understandings of the world, and to develop oral language and symbolic competence. They share individual experiences and understandings through talk, play, shared stories, and collaborative exploration. By listening attentively, teachers discover students’ language expertise and mental models. Using this knowledge, teachers plan and create learning experiences that extend students’ language capabilities. This knowledge could be documented on a student’s language portrait.

When young students participate in dramatic and cooperative play, language becomes more complex as it includes negotiating roles, taking turns, conveying desires, and meeting the needs of others. Young students often use inner speech to play with elements of language while consolidating understandings of tasks and relationships with which they are engaged. Teachers support language learning by providing opportunities for physical movement, imaginary, and cooperative play.

Young students are naturally curious about the world and, by interacting with different kinds of materials, they develop the language needed to share their understandings of the properties and behavior of the physical world. Teachers model language around these explorations through talk-aloud and use observations about students’ expressed interests to ensure a responsive learning environment.

Stories provide opportunities to develop language comprehension and the foundations of literacy. When young students assume the roles of characters and play with elements of a story, comprehension increases, as do understandings of print media. Songs and rhymes accompanied by actions that support the development of concepts, sentence structure and vocabulary along with phonemic and graphemic awareness and memory. Young students relish plays with sounds, voices, and funny noises, and play with grammatical constructions, such as repeating patterns, and substituting words, asking questions, repeating lists of words, numbers, and letters.

© Organización del Bachillerato Internacional, 2005-2020.

El alumno. Recuperado  https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/works/pyp_11162-51463?lang=en&alang=es&root=1.6.2.4.9

Allergic Rhinitis

By Dr. Jorge Luis Rangel García | Medical Service

What is allergic rhinitis?

It is a chronic disease of the upper airway manifested by inflammation of the nasal mucosa, i.e. the «skin» that lines the inside of the nose. This inflammation usually presents as a runny nose, sneezing and congestion.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma are highly related. Up to 40% of patients with asthma have AR. The vast majority of cases occur in the first year of life and these are the most likely to subsequently develop asthma. Up to 37% of patients with rhinitis go on to have a diagnosis of asthma, with a prevalence 3 times higher than the general population.

In addition to the discomfort of the symptoms, which we will discuss later, it significantly impacts the quality of sleep, impacting not only growth, but also development: resulting in physical, psychological, social and work restrictions.

What are the symptoms?

The most characteristic symptom is hyaline (clear) nasal discharge. Other common symptoms are red eye, tearing, nasal congestion, snoring, sleep disturbances with or without daytime fatigue, headache, sneezing, itchy nose. Other less common symptoms, but which speak of greater chronicity are «allergic dark circles under the eyes», secondary to chronic nasal congestion; increased gum growth due to mouth breathing. There are reports of geographic tongue as a symptom of allergic rhinitis.

Can we prevent it?

Although it is a disease with multiple causes and a large genetic component. Measures can be taken to reduce the likelihood of acquiring AR.

• In the case of infants, do not introduce formula milk before 6 months of age, unless indicated by your pediatrician.
• Smoking cessation: An increase in rhinitis has been found in children of parents who smoke, even if they don’t smoke in the presence of their children. It has been associated with substances that remain impregnated in clothing.
• Adequate introduction of food: Although current evidence has been dispelling myths about the introduction of (allergenic) foods, giving foods other than breast before 4 to 6 months has been identified with later development of AR.

Is laboratory testing necessary?

In most cases the diagnosis can be made by medical evaluation alone. However, some require labs: when there is no response to treatment, when symptoms are inconclusive and for treatment adjustment (severe cases). To make a definitive diagnosis (which is not necessary in all cases) a specific IgE test against allergens is required. This test can be done by skin prick or blood studies. Skin testing is contraindicated in some types of patients. It is necessary to discuss with your physician which test is more suitable for each case.

What diseases can RA be confused with?

Most of the time an infectious disease can be mistaken for AR. On the other hand, the presence of AR does not rule out the possibility of a concurrent infectious disease. Other diseases that should be ruled out before making the diagnosis are: nasal septal deviation, turbinate hypertrophy (overgrowth), nasal polyps, etc.

If my child has been diagnosed with AR, what should I do?

The first thing to keep in mind is that AR is a chronic disease and although there is no cure, there are measures we can take at home, as well as medications that can help us control it.

As any allergy, Allergic Rhinitis needs an allergen that triggers it. Therefore, identifying what you are allergic to and avoiding it is a vital component in the treatment. Other measures we can take are: avoiding tobacco smoke, closing windows at night and opening them in the morning (this helps to keep pollen concentration as low as possible), frequent bathing of pets. Treatment should be individualized, having as main objective the reduction of symptoms to avoid complications and improve the quality of life. It includes from medications applied directly in the nose to others taken and inhaled. Immunotherapy is the only treatment capable of modifying the natural course of the disease, however, not all patients are candidates due to its numerous contraindications.

Don’t compare me, I am UNIQUE

By Montserrat Flores Padilla | Assistant Director

We know that each child is unique, and that just like adults, they have their own personality, development, and unique character. Despite being clear about this, we insist on comparing them constantly, especially when they are siblings.

But comparing our children with the children of others is not only a wrong practice, but it can also negatively affect their self-esteem and development. Why shouldn’t we compare them?

Rivalry with others

They begin to see the other with whom they are compared as a rival, because they perceive him/her as more accepted and admired by their parents than themselves.

Envy and jealousy

When comparisons are between siblings, children perceive them as a division of their parents’ love between the qualities of each child, i.e., they think that each one is loved for certain things and may conclude that «if they like more things about my brother, it is because they love him more», this creates envy and jealousy among them.

Affectation on self-esteem

Although the purpose of the comparison is to learn something positive, what the child reads between the lines is that we value more those qualities that they do not have. This leads to the development of insecurities that make it difficult to achieve a healthy self-esteem.

Distortion when it comes to measuring personal accomplishments

Comparisons with others can lay the wrong foundations on their expectations and their self-demand that they will carry throughout their personal development, the child will get used to measure their successes and failures based on the successes of others and not on their own evolution.

In conclusion, in order to help them, you should focus on the children’s aptitudes and not on their mistakes, that way you will avoid judging them and will support them in improving their aptitudes so that they can stand on their own.

It would be very nice if you could see your children as unique and incomparable beings, in this way there will be no point of comparison. If you constantly reinforce their qualities or aptitudes, you will motivate your children to feel special, loved and they will not grow up with negative behaviors of envy.

The next time you want to compare your children, think twice before doing so, because all children are different and should be seen as incomparable beings who learn at different rates.

Úrsula Perona. (NA). Why we should not compare our children with those of others. 06/04/2022, from El Mundo Website: https://saposyprincesas.elmundo.es/consejos/psicologia-infantil/comparar-a-nuestros-hijos/

The relationship between student and English teacher

By Iliana Brien | English Coordination

The relationship between students and teachers is no longer manifested in the same way as in the past; it is considered a partnership, and this is clearly reflected in the learning of English.

Students take initiatives, express interests and doubts, make decisions and participate in establishing objectives or topics of interest in their learning process, which serves to keep them interested. 

The teacher remains open to this process so that the acquisition of English is dynamic and interesting.

Students take more control of their own learning and work collaboratively with teachers and peers to create meaningful learning experiences.

Teachers recognize students’ abilities by listening to and respecting their ideas and responding to them, thus stimulating the bond with their second language, without losing sight of the central objectives.

Among the things students do in English class to foster this agency, they influence and direct their own learning, make choices, learn to express opinions in another language, learn to ask questions and express doubts, and participate in contributing to the learning community, even from the earliest years of their educational experience.

When teachers support learners’ agency, they perceive their ability, needs and interests and reflect on them to personalize learning for natural and fluent second language acquisition. Learners are given opportunities to be creative which maintains interest and expands vocabulary beyond the academic program.

Using assessment information as a basis for learning and teaching, we reflect on when students need help and when they do not.

We listened and responded to each student’s activities in order to expand their thinking skills, providing the vocabulary and grammatical tools necessary for them to grow in their development.

Among the strategies to support agency in a second language, the creation of common routines: asking for feedback from students when developing routines related to arrival, transitions, signals, meetings, clean-up and departure, allows them to gain familiarity with basic structures upon which subsequent learning is built.

International Baccalaureate, I. B. (2021). El alumno. MyIB. https://resources.ibo.org/pyp/works/pyp_11162-51463?lang=es