Learning Connections:
An Emergent Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum for Culturally Diverse Children

Learning Connections is a curriculum-development project directed by the Center on the Family in partnership with the O‘ahu Head Start. The goal of the project is to design, implement, evaluate, and disseminate a supplemental curriculum for Head Start classrooms that will enhance the language, literacy, and numeracy skills of three- and four-year-old children.

The curriculum is based on current research that identifies the foundational skills children should acquire during the preschool period. Project staff will work directly with preschool teachers and parents to create developmentally appropriate learning environments and experiences that prepare children to succeed in kindergarten and elementary school.

The curriculum is built around a collection of sequenced activities that are engaging, challenging, and culturally sensitive. Teachers are provided with daily lesson plans, learning activity instructions and materials, and ongoing in-class mentoring. Parents are provided with weekly home activities and biweekly informal demonstrations. The effectiveness of the curriculum is being evaluated using a controlled longitudinal experimental design. The Learning Connections curriculum fosters the following skills:

• Awareness of words, syllables, rhyme, and sounds within words (phonemic awareness)
• Vocabulary and conversation skills
• Awareness of the functions and usefulness of print
• Emergent writing
• Identification of letter names and sounds, numerals, and shapes
• Enumeration and understanding of the quantities 0-10
• Measurement and estimation using standard and non-standard units
• Comparing, seriating, and categorizing objects based on physical attributes
• Understanding concepts related to measurement and geometry, e.g., length, weight, volume, area
• Independent play and exploration that uses reading, writing, and math

Learning Connections is funded by a three-year head Head Start-University Research Partnership grant awarded by the Administration for Children and Families. Final copies of the curriculum will be made available to Head Start programs nationwide.

Learning Connections Project Publications and Materials:

• Debaryshe, B.D. (2003, April). Enhancing phonemic awareness and emergent literacy in Hawaiian preschoolers: A filed test of the Learning Connections curriculum. In M. A. Evans (Chair), Socio-economic status and phonological skill: An international symposium. Paper presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Tampa, FL.
• DeBaryshe, B.D., & Gorecki, D. (2002). Learning Connections training manual and teacher and family activity guide. (Unpublished manual, available from the Center on the Family, University of Hawai‘i, 2515 Campus Road, Honolulu, HI. 96822.)
• Sophian, C. (2002). Learning about what fits: Preschool children's reasoning about effects of object size. Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, 33, 290-302.
• Debaryshe, B.D., Gorecki, D., & Chun, K (2002, June). Learning Connections: Initial results of a home-school emergent literacy curriculum. Poster presented at the Family Research Consortium Summer Institute, Charlotte, NC.
• Sophian, S. (2002, June). Mathematics for the future: Developing a Head Start curriculum to support mathematics learning. In C. Sophian (Chair), Teaching mathematics to Head Start children: Developmental approaches. Symposium presented at the Head Start Sixth Annual national Research Conference, Washington, DC.
• Learning Connections: Sample Class Activities
• Learning Connections: Sample Home Activities

For more information, contact

Dana Gorecki, Project Coordinator, at gorecki@hawaii.edu or
 Dr. Barbara DeBaryshe, Primary Investigator, at debarysh@hawaii.edu.