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Course SCL1

SmartStart Program:
Helping an Internationally Adopted Child Develop a Foundation for Learning
Ages 3 to 8

Authors Dr. Carol S. Lidz and Dr. Boris Gindis
Instructor Dr. Carol S. Lidz

Unit 1. Introduction to SmartStart program
  • Course overview

  • Major remedial issues of internationally adopted post-institutionalized preschool and school age children

  • Introduction into SmartStart program
Unit 3. Let's make a plan
  • Theoretical background on the role of exploring and organizing activities.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Exploring and organizing.

    Activity 1: "Important New Day"
    Activity 2: "Object Hide and Seek"
    Activity 3: "Explore-A-Toy"
    Activity 4: "I've Got to Get Organized"

  • Part 2. Setting goals;
    thinking about strategies;
    making and carrying out a plan;
    evaluating and adjusting the plan.

    Activity 1: "I'm Puzzled"
    Activity 2: "Kitchen Capers"
    Activity 3: "Getting to Know You"
    Activity 4: "Home Theater"
    Activity 5: "Planned TV Watching (or, who's in control of this, anyway?)"

Unit 5. The nimble symbol
  • Theoretical background on the role of symbols in the development of literacy and numeracy.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Recognizing symbols.

    Activity 1: "Signs of the Times"

  • Part 2. Creating symbols.

    Activity 1: "Our Family Shield"
    Activity 2: "My Secret Language"
    Activity 3: "Symbols in My Home"

  • Part 3. Using symbols.

    Activity 1: "Ready, Set, Read"
    Activity 2: "Family Fun"
    Activity 3: "Measure for Pleasure"
    Activity 4: "It's about Rhyme"
    Activity 5: "Because I Said So!"

Unit 7. Who is in charge?
  • Theoretical background on the role of self-regulation.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Main ideas.

    • Activity 1: "Relax"
    Activity 2: "Mirror, Mirror!"
    Activity 3: "Red Light"
    Activity 4: "First Say; Then Do"
    Activity 5: "Listen up!"
    Activity 6: "All the World's a Stage"
    Activity 7: "When You're Happy and You Know It…"
    Activity 8: "Taking Turns as Boss"

Unit 2. Noticing our world
  • Theoretical background on the ability to detect patterns and sequences.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Learning how to look, listen, touch and to be aware of the surroundings.

    Activity 1: "What is This?"
    Activity 2: "Details; Details..."
    Activity 3: "Sense-A-Tional Food!"
    Activity 4: "To See Is To Remember    "

  • Part 2. Pattern recognition and pattern production.

    Activity 1: "Cereal Serial"
    Activity 2: "A Moving Experience"
    Activity 3: "Pattern Pictures"

  • Part 3. Comparing and classifying by shape, color, size.

    Activity 1: "The Collector"
    Activity 2: "I Spy"
    Activity 3: "Pasta Sort"

Unit 4. That's fantastic!
  • Theoretical background on the development of imagination and hypothetical thinking.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Fanciful thinking.

    Activity 1: "Cloud Nine"
    Activity 2: "Play Time!"
    Activity 3: "If I Were...."
    Activity 4: "Make 'em and Bake 'em"
    Activity 5: "Blotter Blobs"

  • Part 2. Making inferences and predictions.

    Activity 1: "What If....?"
    Activity 2: "Change the Story"

Unit 6. What's the big idea?
  • Theoretical background on the importance of making rules and learning from general principles.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Main ideas.

    Activity 1: "You Tell Me Yours and I'll Tell You Mine"
    Activity 2: "Headlines"
    Activity 3: "TV Gab"

  • Part 2. Principles and rules.

    Activity 1: "Rules for My Space"
    Activity 2: "The Rules of the Game"
    Activity 3: "The Rule is the Tool"
    Activity 4: "It's the Principle of the Thing"

Unit 8 .Making connections:
understanding the past - facilitating the future
  • Theoretical background on the cause and effect thinking.

  • Guidelines for caregivers.

  • Part 1. Cause and effect thinking.

    Activity 1: "Me, Myself, and I"
    Activity 2: "We're Connected"
    Activity 3: "Finding the Source"

  • Part 2. Family relationships.
    Activity 1: "Ritually Speaking"
    Activity 2: "Let Them Read History"
 

 

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