
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
Dr. Gene Ouellette
A podcast about child development, birth-to-five, where we explore what really matters, and what it really means to be kindergarten ready.
It's a podcast devoted to understanding and nurturing child development, as guided by developmental science, theory, and research.
Hosted by Dr. Gene Ouellette, Director of the Language, Literacy, Learning Lab at Mount Allison University, Professor of (developmental and educational) psychology, Associate Editor of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, researcher, author, former Speech Language Pathologist....... (and father, husband, soccer coach, and lover of weinerdogs too!).
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
email: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Top 10 Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Early invented spelling and the developing reading brain
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
07/08/20 • 25 min
On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we have our first ever listener requested topic: invented spelling and kid writing! Yay! A topic near and dear to my heart- and brain. We’ll talk about how early kid writing is not only a great gateway to learning to read, it actually directly tells us about the child’s developing brain!
References & Links:
Richard Gentry Phases of Spelling: http://bpsassets.weebly.com/uploads/9/9/3/2/9932784/gentry.pdf
Some of my related research:
- Ouellette, G., Martin-Chang, S., & Rossi, M. (2018). Learning from our mistakes: Improvements in spelling lead to gains in reading speed. Scientific Studies of Reading, 21, 350-357.
- Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in Kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53, 77-88.
- Ouellette, G., Sénéchal, M., & Haley, A. (2013). Guiding children's invented spellings: A gateway into literacy learning. Journal of Experimental Education, 81, 261-279.
- Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2012). The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme-awareness kindergartners: A randomized-control-trial study. Reading and Writing, 25, 917-934.
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As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
https://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters
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Language development that really matters: Vocabulary!
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
05/01/20 • 23 min
In this first full-length episode, let's talk about language development, vocabulary, and everyday opportunities to promote learning.
I could have called this episode 'how GarageBand ruined my week'...after days of struggling to figure out why dragging edited segments within a track was causing prior segments to change, and battling to deal with variations in recording quality, I concede defeat...but vow to improve the quality for the next episode- actually already figured out a big part of the problem! Maybe don't use your best headphones to listen to this one. Just sayin.
And a few references if you are interested...
Bleses, D., Makransky, G., Dale, P.S., Højen. A., & Ari, B.A. (2016). Early productive vocabulary predicts academic achievement 10 years later. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37, 1461-1476.
Hart,B., & Risley, T.R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the lives of children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Hindman, A.H., Wasik, B.A., Snell, E.K. (2016). Closing the 30 million word gap: Next steps in designing research to inform practice. Child Development Perspectives, 10, 134-139.
Jones A., Atkinson, J., Marshall, C., Botting, N., St Clair, M.C., & Morgan, G. (2020). Expressive vocabulary predicts nonverbal executive function: A 2‐year longitudinal study of deaf and hearing children. Child Development, 91, e400-e414.
Ouellette, G., & Shaw, E. (2015). Oral vocabulary and reading comprehension: An intricate affair. L'Année Psychologique/Topics in Cognitive Psychology, 114, 623-645.
Ouellette, G., & Haley, A. (2013). One complicated extended family: The influence of alphabetic knowledge and vocabulary on phonemic awareness. Journal of Research in Reading, 36, 29-41.
Ouellette, G., & Beers, A. (2010). A not-so-simple view of reading: How oral vocabulary and visual-word recognition complicate the story. Reading and Writing, 23, 189-208.
Ouellette, G. (2006). What’s meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension. The Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 554-566.
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com .
email: [email protected]
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Readiness and Emergent Literacy
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
06/10/20 • 26 min
On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we try to better match the content to the podcast title....and talk about what readiness really means... and emergent literacy!
Special thanks to the stars of this week’s episode, Sloan (3.5 years old), Maddy, & Arwyn (both 4 years old)!
References for those interested in the research literature:
Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2017). Invented spelling in Kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known? Developmental Psychology, 53, 77-88.
Ouellette, G., Sénéchal, M., & Haley, A. (2013). Guiding children's invented spellings: A gateway into literacy learning. Journal of Experimental Education, 81, 261-279.
Ouellette, G., & Sénéchal, M. (2008). Pathways to literacy: A study of invented spelling and its role in learning to read. Child Development, 79, 799-813.
Reutzel, R. (2015). Early literacy research: Findings primary-grade teachers will want to know. The Reading Teacher, 69, 14-24.
Welsch, J.G., Sullivan, A., & Justice, L. (2003). That’s my letter!: What preschoolers’ name writing representations tell us about emergent literacy knowledge. Journal of Literacy Research, 35, 757-776.
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
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Stress, Anxiety, and Uncertainty in COVID times
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
05/27/20 • 32 min
In this episode, let's talk about stress, AUGH... More specifically, anxiety, uncertainty, and structure for children given stressful situations such as, gee I don't know, how about a global pandemic...Did I say AUGH?
A tad more serious this time around- promise I'll come up with some light-hearted stories more related to being kindergarten ready next time- but it seemed only appropriate that we broach this subject now.
WHO HANDOUT: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/helping-children-cope-with-stress-print.pdf?sfvrsn=f3a063ff_2
Zero-to-3 : https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/3265-answering-your-young-child-s-questions-about-coronavirus
CORRECTION: at the 22:20 mark I refer to Maude as being 4 years old- my bad- she is 5!
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Parent tips and more...straight from kindergarten teachers!
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
08/19/20 • 17 min
On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters (#10!) we continue with last episode’s focus on being topical and timely- it is back to school time after all! So this week I hand the mic over to two experienced, dedicated kindergarten teachers who share their thoughts on kindergarten readiness and provide many thoughtful tips for parents.
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As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
https://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters
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Kindergarten Readiness in the Traditional Sense...
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
08/05/20 • 24 min
On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we switch our focus once again to the title of the podcast- this time kindergarten readiness in the traditional sense. We’ll see what some top ranked websites have to say for themselves, and hear from a real life kindergarten teacher too...yes a real life one...
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Richard Gentry’s post about our show: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/202007/science-early-literacy-learning-really-matters
Websites reviewed...
As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe sound clips of your kids even!
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
https://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's talk...attachment!
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
07/22/20 • 25 min
On this episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters we switch to the social-emotional domain of development and take on a topic that has relevance not only throughout the 0-5 age range, but for our entire life – this week on Kindergarten Ready, it’s all about attachment!
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As always, please feel free to reach out with comments, suggestions, and maybe even sound clips of your kids! Who knows, they could star in future episodes...
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
https://www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters
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Vocabulary Part II: Techniques to capitalize on daily language learning opportunities
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
05/12/20 • 32 min
In this episode, I boast of my progress made in overcoming some demons that reside in my version of Garage Band (still a ways to go, but getting there), and we continue the discussion of vocabulary. This week the focus is on specific ways that we can talk to kids and turn everyday activities into opportunities for language learning.
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
www.facebook.com/kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters/
email: [email protected]
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What this show is all about!
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
04/25/20 • 4 min
Dr. Gene Ouellette introduces the podcast, describing how the focus on developmental science can help us understand what really matters in child development in the first five years, and just what it means to be kindergarten ready.
www.kindergartenreadywhatreallymatters.com
email: [email protected]
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brain Words and the Science of Reading
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development
09/25/20 • 22 min
On this episode, I cheat a little and share an interview in which I was the guest- I guess it's role reversal time on Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters! It's all about the science of reading and just what that tells us about teaching kids to read.
More about Brain Words:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/raising-readers-writers-and-spellers/201902/brain-words-solution-america-s-reading-problem
https://www.mta.ca/Community/News/2019/April_2019/Brain_Words_%E2%80%94_the_psychology_of_learning_to_read/
Full interview can be found here:
https://pacificeducationpulse.simplecast.com/episodes/4-ep04-rethinking-reading-instruction-using-brain-words
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FAQ
How many episodes does Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development have?
Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development currently has 12 episodes available.
What topics does Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development cover?
The podcast is about Early Childhood Education, Parenting, Kids & Family, Teaching, Child Development, Literacy, Kindergarten, Child Psychology, Podcasts and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development?
The episode title 'Let's talk about babies, speech perception, and babbling.' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development?
The average episode length on Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development is 24 minutes.
How often are episodes of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development released?
Episodes of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development?
The first episode of Kindergarten Ready: What Really Matters in Child Development was released on Apr 25, 2020.
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