- Build a mind map AND a problem/solution statement for the project you will work on the next 6 weeks.
The problem I'm looking to address is inadequate school readiness skills upon entering kindergarten in the US. 45% of children live in low-income families - that's over 32 million kids (1), mostly in urban areas. Many of these children do not have the basic pre-academic skills that they need to do well even in elementary schools. At four years old, children below the poverty line are 18 months behind the normal development for their age (2). Many early intervention programs focus on early literacy and language, but research shows that early math skills are actually more predictive of later academic success (3).
In general, low-income children fall behind because their parents don't engage with them as often in high-quality interactions. Children from low-income families hear, and thus learn, about one third of the words as children in higher-income families (2). Similarly with early math activities, low-income parents engage their children in far fewer math activities, and low-income children don't play nearly as many board games as higher-income children (4). What if we could get parents playing these games and engaging more with their young children?
My solution would be to create new early math board and card games based on the research showing which games are most effective for teaching basic number sense concepts (4). We would then sell these games through a one-for-one model, like Tom's Shoes, where every game purchased by a family that can afford it funds a game for a family that cannot afford it. But I don't expect parents to magically change their behavior if we just give them the games. That's where the service side of the equation comes in. Volunteers will go into low-income preschools to play the games with the children in the classroom, and will also hold family game nights where the parents can come get their free games and learn more about how to engage with their children. We will monitor the children's skill levels and survey parent participation, and add in more to the service side if the families need it.
(1) http://www.nccp.org/topics/childpoverty.html, http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1049.html
(2) http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_695.html
(3) http://news.uci.edu/features/kids-skilled-early-in-math-do-better-in-school/
(4) http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~siegler/sieg-cdper09.pdf
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