The female primo passaggio: a survey of its physiology, psychology, and pedagogy.
The chief reason for the confusion is that the word register is used to describe so many different things ... (1) a particular part of the vocal range (upper, middle, or lower register), (2) a resonance area (chest or head), (3) a phonatory process, (4) a certain timbre, and (5) a region of the voice which is defined or delimited by vocal breaks. (1)
Indeed, if individuals rely on vocal breaks to define their registers, it is no wonder that the transitions become so conspicuous. This study aims to answer the following:
1. Should registers be acknowledged to exist at all?
2. If so, what happens internally to make each register so different?
3. Does the "mix" or middle voice exist as a separate technique or register altogether?
4. What are the origins of register polarization--both physical and psychological?
5. What teaching techniques would be most effective for smoothing this transition?
An idealized concept of registers implies that only one voice should be acknowledged. Rather than consciously altering her voice to navigate through registers, the student should aim for a natural, seamless sound throughout her entire range. After all, both sensation and sound will slightly shift every time she changes pitch. Even when remaining on one pitch, altering a vowel or a dynamic will produce a change in resonance. Rather than considering each pitch as a separate register--which McKinney grants is "taking an idea too far" (2)--it may be easier to completely avoid gear-shifting, instead aiming for a sound both fresh and free. W. Stephen Smith compares singing to driving an automatic transmission vehicle, one that effortlessly shifts gears by just driving.
We should never sing like a manual transmission, consciously thinking, "I will now shift into a medium mix between speaking and airflow" ... We simply allow ourselves to let the voice shift naturally on its own, without making it do anything. (3)
While these intentions are honest, they seem beneficial for students with minimal problems from the start. A student that needs retraining must be met on her level. If in the past she has related to her voice using "chest" and "head" terminology, it would be futile for the teacher to pretend that separate registers do not exist. Even if the student can take advice to "stop thinking about it," her newfound "naturalness" will not be flawless. The teacher's guidance is necessary throughout all the unfamiliar--and often uncomfortable--sensations.
No matter what the ideal may be, registration is a concept that must be recognized and defined. Most importantly, is it purely laryngeal or partly sensational? McKinney insists that registers are defined by laryngeal function--the vocal folds produce specific vibratory patterns that, in turn, produce a particular range of pitches and a characteristic sound. (4) This writer, however, thinks that resonance should be included in the definition; the sensations that accompany each vibration are too strong to ignore. Scott McCoy acknowledges as well that laryngeal adjustments alone will not smooth the break; rather, singers must "modulate breath pressure through correct support, and skillfully manipulate resonance through formant tuning." (5) More than two hundred years later, Manuel Garcia's definition still seems to be the most inclusive. As a revolutionary pedagogue, Garcia was the first to take an interest in both the voice's varying tone qualities and its physical mechanisms. He combined his two interests, defining the register as a consecutive series of tones that share both the same mechanical production and the same basic timbre. (6)
Regardless of any sympathetic vibrations, understanding the vocal folds' own vibrations is paramount. The two pairs of primary laryngeal muscles are the thyroarytenoids (colloquially, the shorteners) and cricothyroids (the lengtheners). Although they almost always contract together as antagonists, one contraction is usually more prominent, resulting in changes in vocal fold fundamental frequencies. These changes are accomplished by lengthening/shortening or thickening/ thinning of the vocal folds, or by tautening/laxing of the vocal fold cover tissue. At the same time, voice source spectra undergo two alterations: one as they enter the vocal tract via the larynx and respiratory system, and again as the resonators adjust in dimension within the vocal tract. Therefore, both the glottal source and the resonators contribute to changes in voice quality. (7)
Although there are four generally accepted voice registers, only two are involved with the female primo passaggio. The "lower" register (so called here for the range of pitches it produces, not where sympathetic vibrations occur) has the thyroarytenoids more prominently contracted. (8) When the thyroarytenoids are dominant, the folds are shorter and thicker, (9) with more lax fold cover tissue and ligaments. (10) Given these conditions, a greater tissue mass is involved in oscillation, with a greater depth of movement into the vocal tissue membranes. Since more is free to oscillate under these lax circumstances, both the superior and inferior areas of the vocal folds are adducted, leading to longer closed phases in each cycle (usually over fifty percent). (11) The glottis closes firmly, remaining closed so that air pressure builds up and nearly "explosively" bursts out. (12) The folds' thickness and depth produces a lower range of fundamental frequencies. Strengthened with higher harmonics, the resulting sound has a thick, rich, and often brassy quality, being the source of both "ring" and "fullness." (13)
Meanwhile, the "upper register" is usually considered cricothyroid-dominant: the cricothyroids contract as the pitch ascends, placing greater tension upon the vocal ligaments. Both the vocal folds and the vocal fold cover tissues are stretched over more surface area. The folds become longer and thinner, and the tissues become more taut; as a result, there is less freedom to vibrate and little mass to be moved. The depth of tissue movement is shallower, and each oscillation cycle has a longer open phase; the folds offer less resistance to the breath, and each puff of air is simpler and weaker. (14) Only the superficial membrane participates in oscillation, and only the superior area of the folds is usually adducted. (15) Given these circumstances, the sound quality is naturally lighter, thinner, and often airier. With fewer intense partials and a more flute like tone, the higher register exemplifies flexibility, ease, and a "light, ethereal quality." (16)
Voice scientists Hirano, Vennard, and Ohala made groundbreaking news in their 1965 study. Through the technique of laryngeal electromyography--hooking wire electrodes to the laryngeal muscles (17)--they discovered that both sets of muscles may not directly control registration. Measurements showed that thyroarytenoid activity increased in the lower register and decreased in the higher register. However, cricothyroid activity remained similar from register to register; there was no great change unless it was accompanied by a considerable rise in pitch. (18) The researchers concluded that the thyroarytenoids were chiefly responsible for registration, antagonized by the cricothyroids as a pitch agent. (19) It is not necessarily a matter of which muscles "create" which register; instead, it is the degree of thyroarytenoid activity--or lack thereof--that allows for a register change.
Evidently, these two laryngeal coordinations are quite distinct. What happens when singers change from one to the other? The average singer experiences a "break" that is both internally felt and easily heard. Leon Thurman succinctly defines the register break as an "abrupt voice timbre change that occurs at an identifiable crossover frequency." (20) This change results from a sudden, strong adjustment of the thyroarytenoids and cricothyroids, usually occurring at an isolated tone. For women, this occurs at a frequency between C4 and G4. In transitioning from lower to higher register, the cricothyroids contract with more intensity since the pitch is rising. If the thyroarytenoids do not complementarily reduce their intensity, the folds hold on to their thickness while the cricothyroids attempt to elongate them, a battle that creates longitudinal tension. When the thyroarytenoids reach their limit, this muscular antagonistic tug-of-war peaks, leading to an abrupt readjustment at one frequency and an involuntary change in quality. (21) Meanwhile, singers who face difficulty in transitioning from high to low typically face one of two concerns: either their thyroarytenoids will abruptly contract at a lower frequency, accompanied by an audible break and increase in volume, or the cricothyroids continue to be dominant into the lower pitches. Since the thyroarytenoids are not significantly contracting, the glottis never regains its higher closed adduction phase. The vocal fold margins recede away from each other--and, with the glottis being open more often, more air escapes. Therefore, the sound becomes breathy and eventually "fades out." (22) Singers who have learned to mix registers have trained their muscles to gradually and subtly adjust their contractions over several fundamental frequencies. While the adjustments may still feel unsteady, they are certainly less audible.
"Mix" is a concept widely used to camouflage the break, yet how exactly is it defined? Music theater performers often acknowledge it separately on their resumes (e.g., "Soprano with Mix/Belt"). Is it a different register altogether? Does it take an entirely different technique, or is it a blend of upper and lower registers? Is it just a matter of carefully modifying resonance and adjusting timbre? Researchers Castellengo, Chuberre, and Henrich investigated many of these questions in their 2004 study at the Laboratoire d'Acoustique Musicale. Singers of different voice parts were asked to sing the three or four notes they usually sang as a mix in three different registers: lower, higher, and mixed. As expected, these notes usually encompassed B4-E4 in female singers, and "all of the artists who participated as subjects [had] a vivid awareness of which laryngeal mechanism they use." (23) This experiment was repeated with five vowels--/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, and /u/--and each EGG and audio signal was recorded. Based on the measurements of glottal open quotients (OQ), it was found that depending on the individual, the mix was produced in either one register or the other. (24) The mixed voice had a largely overlapping open quotient with one register, particularly for the women. One soprano's mean OQ was exactly the same for both her upper register and her mix (0.74), and another soprano's mixed OQ range (0.48 to 0.71) closely overlapped with her lower register (0.39 to 0.68). (25)
Why and how is mix used in the first place? Does it take merely adding fullness to the upper register and lightness to the lower? According to the audio signal measurements, the singers did adjust the intensity of each note to simulate one mechanism while in another. The intensity generally decreased by ten decibels to simulate the upper register while in the lower, and increased by five decibels to simulate the lower register while in the upper. Therefore, while mixed voice is primarily produced in one register, the singer can imitate the characteristics of the other register by modifying the sound's intensity, balancing the ratio between fullness and airiness. (26)
The roles of acoustics and resonance are significant in registration; the vocal tract must adjust accordingly to handle singing's heightened intensity. The oscillating vocal folds create sound pressure waves that travel upward through the vocal tract, often becoming trapped and reverberating on the underside of the vocal folds. When the fundamental frequency approaches the resonance frequency of the trachea, the pressure within the sound waves increases, magnifying the waves' intensity and greatening their impact on the folds. (27) With many inexperienced singers, this forceful pressure interferes with oscillation.
Unskilled singers will use the only vocal tract adjustments that they know--the adjustments that are appropriate for conversational speech. When speaking or singing in greater-than-speech F0 and intensity ranges, the conversational speech vocal tract adjustments will result in acoustic overloading. (28)
The brain learns to expect this impact as certain pitches approach, sending involuntary commands to the laryngeal muscles to compensate. (29) The muscles brace themselves to abruptly readjust, producing an obvious break.
The singer can learn to smooth her transition not only by relaxing the laryngeal muscles, but also by formant tuning. Formant tuning, which accommodates the intensity of these vocal sound waves, can be achieved through vowel modification. Berton Coffin was a revolutionary researcher of vowel-pitch interaction when he created his Chromatic Vocal Chart, a guide that showed which vowels would best resonate the fundamental frequency and harmonics on any note in a singer's range. Regarding the passaggio, he asserted that the female voice is narrower in the middle range while being wider and rounder at the top and bottom. (30) Based on his chart, Coffin recommended that the female singer vocalize in the primo passaggio on alternating front and neutral vowels (/i/ and /u/ coupled with /[??]/ and /e/) to gain flexibility. (31)
Round vowels, which are suitable to the high notes, would extinguish the ringing of the middle and lower notes ... For low notes to be heard, there must be brightening which gives more overtones so that the voice can be heard. (32)
More than twenty-five years later, Coffin's ideas still ring true while gaining more scientific support. Each vowel has an associated formant, and the closer that formant is to the fundamental frequency, the more resonant the vowel becomes--essentially louder, purer in tone, and easier to sing. By modifying the pharyngeal and oral cavities, the singer brings the vowel formant (F1) closer to matching the fundamental frequency (F0). F0 receives additional amplification, (33) so the break's change in volume and intensity becomes less obvious.
Acoustically, inertia of the air column above the vocal folds lowers the level of lung pressure needed to sustain vocal fold oscillation at a given frequency. The decrease in pressure makes it easier for the folds to vibrate. (34) This inertia can be maximized by lengthening and narrowing the vocal tract air column at some location (lips, nostrils, or velum). (35) Given the narrowing that lip trills, nasals, and closed vowels require, these sounds produce greater amounts of inertia--lowering
the first formant frequency, coupling with the fundamental frequency, and resulting in optimal resonance. It is no wonder that the vowels /i/ and /u/ are such helpful models for women in their break; /i/'s F1 of 310 Hz corresponds to the F0 of [D.sup.#.sub.4], (36) and /u/'s F1 of 370 Hz matches the F0 of [F.sup.#.sub.4] (37)--both tones in the initial register break. By adjusting the articulators towards an /i/or /u/ shape, the female singer can camouflage the break more easily.
It is natural to consider the larynx first when addressing the student's passaggio. However, the singer's entire body is her instrument, and, consequently, vocal concerns can and often do expand far outside the larynx. For instance, Richard Miller advises voice teachers to consider the student's head position and breath support. Too often young singers attempt to accomplish intervals with a subconscious change in head position--either elevating the head for ascending pitch changes, or depressing the head for to "dig" for lower pitches. Miller states that either change in position may inhibit the tilting of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages, which occurs as the cricothyroid muscles contract. "At points in the mounting scale, these [actions] become more pronounced, and because they produce different acoustic results, the singer perceives them as events of registration." (38) Since the head and neck provide external frame support to the larynx, (39) a stable head position is necessary for a smooth transition. Rather than asking a singer to immobilize her head from responding to the pitch changes, positively shift her focus to keeping her head relaxed. The singer can consider what less--not more--she has to do to sing a seemingly difficult note.
Breath support also plays a secondary role in register blending, as the young singer will often allow chest displacement to occur at the passaggio. One possible origin of this habit is that the singer, unaccustomed to extended breath support, will assume that she can use the same breathing habits for singing and speaking, especially considering that the passaggio is in her customary speaking range. After inhaling for typical speech, the sternum drops, the ribcage collapses, and the diaphragm rises, quickly depleting the volume of air in the lungs. (40) However, Miller asserts that the voice is an aerodynamic/ myoelastic instrument; the movement of air is what allows the folds to vibrate. (41) As this relationship grows more crucial at the passaggio, these heightened sensations can be met with appoggio breath management. "A uniformly resonant timbre is not possible unless breath energy is adjusted to match voice registration requirements." (42) By leaning into the abdominal and lower back muscles, the singer can counteract her chest cavity's instinct to cave in. Therefore, although the tones in the passaggio are not extreme (perhaps even easy to produce in one register), breath support is imperative. When a student is uncertain or insecure, her instinct is usually not to trust her airflow; rather, she will often bring the air to a halt. She will do anything to avoid hearing and feeling that bump in the road, attempting to micromanage the break with excessive laryngeal control. The student can satisfy her need to control by transferring this energy to her breath, threading the air through this delicate range.
By understanding the passaggio's physical and acoustic events, singers can apply practical solutions such as vowel modification, proper breath support, and appropriate head alignment. However, the origins of the break may be psychological as well. Some singers may be over aware of certain fundamental frequencies and the adjustments at each one. For instance, a singer who has perfect pitch may approach a pivotal note, recognize it, and confess that she does not know which way to sing it. When singing certain pitches, we often feel sympathetic vibrations in our chest or the front and sides of our head. These sensations have coined the common terms "chest" and "head" voice, yet to rely on them could be potentially dangerous. It is easy to assume that since we feel vibrations in a certain place, the sound originates from that source. (43) Those under this assumption may separate their placement of these "voices" to an extreme, even attempting to produce the sound from these locations.
In addition, since women mainly speak in their lower register (centering their inflection between Bb4 and E b4), (44) using their upper register may seem unnatural. Oren Brown interestingly points out that the derivation of the word falsetto, often a synonym for the higher register, dates back to the Latin verb falere, meaning to deceive. "To the extent that we associate falsetto with something false or wrong, we may have built a mental barrier against it." (45) The pressure for women to achieve a "professional" sound may further discourage use of the higher register. On the other hand, everyday speaking habits do not typically include the same legato prolongation that is required for singing. Therefore, singing in the lower register may also seem foreign to women. These ideas originate from one misconception: the difference between speaking voice and singing voice. Thurman claims that such a distinction exists with no other part of our body: "We do not have walking legs and running legs." (46) Humans have one larynx, one vocal tract, and one voice that is produced by the same muscular patterns, whether it is singing or speaking. After all, when we speak expressively on a daily basis, we may cover such a range of fundamental frequencies that a register change indeed occurs. Yet this transition is rarely so abrupt in speech. Could the trick be to carry over the spontaneity of speech into the athleticism of singing?
For most female singers, the register break usually rears its head during adolescence. The female voice undergoes mutation in various ways: the trachea lengthens, the laryngeal muscles grow, the vocal folds thicken, (47) and the larynx itself increases in size from twenty to thirty percent. (48) The female voice is particularly vulnerable as it grows, and its inherent qualities become exposed. The development of noticeable breaks is no exception. Range capabilities may be limited and/or inconsistent, the tone may become breathy and/or husky, and females may feel discomfort or difficulty in phonation. (49) As the vocal folds thicken, many adolescent females observe more volume with less effort in their lower range, while their higher range may suddenly be difficult to access. As a result, adolescent females are often prematurely classified as altos in school, especially if they possess exceptional pitch-matching and music-reading skills. (50) However, classification may be more problematic than helpful. If a female sings exclusively in her lower range, it becomes difficult to break the habit of carrying the lower register too high. A noticeable break will inevitably develop, and the upper register may become virtually inaccessible without retraining. Educator Kenneth Sipley suggests one solution: dividing all the females in middle school choir into two groups that alternate soprano and alto parts every other song. "This procedure not only allowed the singers to exercise their full vocal range, but also created senior high school choristers who were better musicians." (51) Since the adolescent female's voice is still developing, it is crucial to recognize her full potential rather than emphasize her limitations. "Her development as a singer will be much more natural, complete, and free of trouble if she is allowed to use her entire range in choir singing and in vocalization." (52)
To address the passaggio, the teacher must first determine the student's individual issue. Does a register need to be completely discovered,
or do both registers need to be aligned? Is the student dominant in her higher or lower register? Should the student be higher-dominant, she may have been told that using her "chest" voice would hurt her. On the contrary, Stephen Austin suggests that singing only in chest voice for a time may be necessary for such students. (53) The development of the lower register is harmful only when taken to an extreme of its range; otherwise, it is a natural part of the singer's voice that should be properly developed to create richer harmonics. (54) Emphasizing movement (knee squats, dipping, and "scooping" from the ground) may also be effective for these students, encouraging them to feel grounded in their bodies and fullness in their sound. (55) In most circumstances, however, the student will be lower-dominant, and voice teachers usually recommend bringing the upper register down (i.e., vocalizing from higher to lower range). Women generally have less experience with the higher register, and it may strain them to bring their "chest" voice all the way up.
Middle school chorus teacher Patricia Bryan observes, "Everyone wants to be big and loud. I sound like a broken record, telling my seventh and eighth graders that it's okay to be light." (56) Indeed, it may be helpful to embrace this characteristic, letting the tone be light while encouraging consistent airflow through the break. Brown suggests a childish tone, releasing an easy flow of air on a descending slide. (57) An octave skip may help the student confront the "flip" immediately and begin to iron it out. As the break approaches, the tone being "too" light should not be the issue; rather, the student should aim to maintain a legato connection between the registers, threading the air through the notes with the focused vowel /u/ or /i/ as a medium. As the student feels more comfortable exploring the registers, scales and arpeggios encompass more territory and demand more flexibility. Miller suggests a legato descending five-note scale and broken arpeggios with varying degrees of lower, upper, and mixed registers--having the student singing all in higher register until the final note, then changing from higher to a mix on the third note, then from higher to a mix to lower register, then singing the exercise once more in higher register. (58) When less "friendly" vowels are added to the mix, it may be helpful for the singer to maintain a narrow sensation by shaping each vowel from a /i/ or /u/ influence. The energy students place in their laryngeal muscles can be transferred to considering the placement of their articulators. (The teacher may ask: "What are the only things you need to form that vowel?") Similarly, appoggio breath management may transfer "pushing" from the larynx to a lower place, allowing the laryngeal muscles to vibrate more freely while increasing breath flow. (The teacher may ask: "Where can we focus our energy instead?") Vocalizing the above exercises on lip trills, nasals, and hums offers students both palpable resonance and a concentrated stream of airflow, similar to what healthy singing should produce. Above all, no exercise should single out that one pivotal pitch that marks the transition. Rather, the student should gain facility and freedom to use different timbres at different tones.
The adolescent female also undergoes considerable psychological development, much of which may contribute to her break. Sipley notes, "She must work out a conception of life which allows her to assert herself ... She tries to adapt her ego to her environment, and her environment to her ego." (59) As a student asserts herself, she may feel the need to sound big and loud, assuming that light is weak instead of different but just as beautiful. At the same time, with adolescence often comes self-consciousness, a desire to blend in as much as one desires to be noticed. Issues of cracking and breaking may be embarrassing for the self-conscious adolescent. By attempting to blend in, she would probably accomplish little "blending" at all. Instead, she would most likely avoid the problem altogether, limiting her singing to the stronger register and making the break more prominent. With adolescent development also comes an eagerness to belong, which can partly explain the over-classification of voices. Girls may enjoy the defining qualities of the soprano or alto "clique," acknowledging what skills make them unique while still being surrounded by those who are similar. Finally, adolescent females experience a shift of outside influence in their everyday lives. "Parents, teachers, and adult role models lose ground to peer influence and egocentric confidence. Each adolescent begins to develop her own personal value system." (60) As the student creates her own standards, she often picks her own vocal models that may not be the best examples of healthy singing. She may listen to her singing and not hear anything "harmful," even though self-listening is usually distorted. Keeping this necessary development in mind, how can we as teachers acknowledge the student's need for self-reliance while still asserting our authority?
First, we can affirm students' vocal models--often pop or music theater--while clarifying what is being sung from what they hear. Singer and voice teacher Kelley Nassief claims that ... singers are used to bringing everything up. [Adolescents] think they hear all chest, but everyone's usually doing some kind of mix. Audra McDonald may sing in a head-dominant mix, Sutton Foster in a solid mix, and Kristin Chenoweth often all in head--it's just placed so far forward that you can't tell. (61)
Refining students' ears to hear these subtle differences, reinforced by our own demonstrations, may inspire the student to perform likewise. Jazz vocalists such as Jane Monheit may also be effective models, as they encourage a natural, light sound throughout the range for lower-dominant women. Since adolescents so often listen to themselves, they can record each lesson to differentiate what they think they hear from what they actually produce. To encourage self-reliance and responsibility, the teacher can encourage feedback based on sensations the student feels. "When a clear image of balanced resonance has been established, the sensation it produces becomes ... identifiable, repeatable, and above all, freedom-inducing ... feeling the ideal tone becomes a reliable monitor." (62) Finally, teachers can create a positive environment that affirms the student's strengths while presenting them with more possibilities. "Just because you can sing this with so much power doesn't mean you always have to. What would happen if you tried it a different way?" This environment should be safe for
"mistakes"; in fact, cracking should never be considered a mistake but a release of tension, a rite of passage on the way to one's destination.
Both physically and psychologically, the most effective plan of action is for the student to confront the break directly. Physically singing into the flip, as chaotic as it is, is the only way to eventually sing with "one" voice. To avoid it altogether--opting instead to stay in the student's comfort zone--would prevent any new patterns from becoming habits. Finally, facing one's vulnerabilities takes courage, maturity, and self-actualization. To guide a student through this transition is not only smoothing out a technicality, but also encouraging growth in being human--acknowledging weaknesses, accepting them, and patiently working through (not around) them to become stronger individuals. What more valuable lesson could a music teacher offer?
(1.) James C. McKinney, The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults: A Manual for Teachers of Singing and for Choir Directors (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2005), 93.
(2.) Ibid., 98.
(3.) Stephen W. Smith and Michael Chipman, The Naked Voice: A Wholistic Approach to Singing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 99.
(4.) McKinney, 93.
(5.) Scott McCoy, Your Voice: An Inside View (Princeton, NJ: Inside View Press, 2004), 69.
(6.) Nathalie Henrich, "Mirroring the Voice from Garcia to the Present Day: Some Insight into Singing Voice Registers," Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology 31, 3 (2006); http://halbioemco.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/ 34/41/77/PDFHenrich/LPV_2006_registers.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009)
(7.) Leon Thurman et al., "Addressing Vocal Register Discrepancies: An Alternative Science-Based Theory of Register Phenomena" (paper presented at the second international conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing, Denver, CO, October 6-9, 2004), 22; http://ncvs.org/pas/2004/pres/thurman/Thurman.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009)
(8.) Stephen F. Austin, "Scientific Support for the Two-Register Theory," in Ariel Bybee and James E. Ford, eds., The Modern Singing Master: Essays in Honor of Cornelius L. Reid (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004), 72.
(9.) Thurman, 25.
(10.) Ibid., 26.
(12.) William Vennard, Singing: The Mechanism and the Technic (New York: Carl Fischer, 1967), 66.
(13.) Austin, 72.
(14.) Vennard, 67.
(15.) Thurman, 29.
(16.) Austin, 72.
(17.) Minoru Hirano, William Vennard, and John Ohala, "Regulation of Register, Pitch and Intensity of Voice," Folia Phoniatrica 22, no. 1 (1970): 1.
(18.) Ibid., 6.
(19.) Ibid., 10.
(20.) Thurman, 28.
(21.) Vennard, 66-67.
(22.) Thurman, 37.
(23.) Michele Castellengo, B. Chuberre, and Nathalie Henrich, "Is Voix Mixte, the Vocal Technique Used to Smooth the Transition Across the Two Main Laryngeal Mechanisms, an Independent Mechanism?" (paper presented at the International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, Nara, Japan, March 31-April 3, 2004); http://www.icp.inpg.fr/~henrich/communications/2003_2004/2004_NARA_Mixte.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009)
(27.) Thurman, 15.
(28.) Ibid., 42.
(30.) Berton Coffin, Coffin's Sounds of Singing (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1976), 113.
(31.) Ibid., 206.
(32.) Ibid., 233.
(33.) McCoy, 69.
(34.) Ingo R. Titze, "Voice Research: The Use of Low First Formant Vowels and Nasals to Train the Lighter Mechanism," Journal of Singing 55, no. 4 (March/April 1999): 41.
(35.) Ibid., 41.
(36.) McCoy, 44.
(37.) Ibid., 45.
(38.) Richard Miller, Training Soprano Voices (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 118.
(39.) Ibid., 118.
(40.) Ibid., 120.
(41.) Ibid., 119.
(42.) Ibid., 120.
(43.) Oren Brown, Discover Your Voice: How to Develop Healthy Voice Habits (Clifton Park, NY: Thomas Delmar Learning, 1996), 55.
(44.) Miller, 143.
(45.) Brown, 56.
(46.) Thurman, 49.
(47.) Kenneth L. Sipley, "The Adolescent Female Voice: A Review of Related Literature" (ERIC Document Reproduction Services, text-fiche, ED391703, 1995), 6.
(48.) Kevin D. Skelton, "The Child's Voice: A Closer Look at Pedagogy and Science," Journal of Singing 63, no. 5 (May/ June 2007): 540.
(49.) Sipley, 6.
(50.) Ibid., 11.
(51.) Ibid., 12.
(52.) Ibid., 13.
(53.) Austin, 73.
(54.) Ibid., 75.
(55.) Kelley Nassief, interview by author (Mastic, NY, April 6, 2009).
(56.) Patricia Bryan, interview by author (East Islip, NY, April 1, 2009).
(57.) Brown, 55.
(58.) Richard Miller, Solutions for Singers: Tools for Performers and Teachers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 141.
(59.) Sipley, 35.
(60.) Ibid., 36.
(62.) Miller, Solutions, 68.
Elena Blyskal, a New York-based soprano, graduated summa cum laude from Providence College with bachelor degrees in both Music and Theatre Arts. She completed additional studies in vocal performance at New York University and voice pedagogy at Long Island University. Published work includes the article "Dancing as Storytelling: The Innovations of Robbins and Fosse" in the 2010 book Writing About Dance. Elena has performed roles with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, Crittenden Opera Studio, and Sayville Opera Workshop. She is also a committed private teacher as well as an active piano accompanist, NYSTA member, and musical director. Elena looks forward to attending graduate school in the near future for an MM in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy.
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|Publication:||Journal of Singing|
|Date:||Sep 1, 2012|
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Play is essential to the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being of children beginning in early childhood. It is a natural tool for children to develop resiliency as they learn to cooperate, overcome challenges, and negotiate with others. Play also allows children to be creative. It provides time for parents to be fully engaged with their children, to bond with their children, and to see the world from the perspective of their child. However, children who live in poverty often face socioeconomic obstacles that impede their rights to have playtime, thus affecting their healthy social-emotional development. For children who are underresourced to reach their highest potential, it is essential that parents, educators, and pediatricians recognize the importance of lifelong benefits that children gain from play.
More than 15 million children in the United States younger than 18 years live in poverty.1 These children experience disparities in education, health care, and socioeconomic resources.2,–6 Children living in poverty may also be deprived of the benefits of safe and creative playtime and access to age-appropriate extracurricular activities. The implications of play deprivation may be substantial, because play is essential to the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being of children beginning in early childhood.7 In addition, play offers an opportunity for parents to view the world from their child’s perspective as they engage fully with their children during playtime; all families deserve ready access to this bonding opportunity. Even before the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights cited play as a right of every child, philosophers and psychologists, such as Plato, Piaget, and Friedrich Froebel, recognized the importance of play in healthy child development.8,–10
This report addresses issues that may deprive children who live in poverty from gaining the maximum benefit from play. Because it follows an earlier report that focused on factors reducing free playtime for children whose families have resources, this report addresses issues specific to children from lower-income families.7 Although some of the factors covered in the previous report may also apply to children from lower-income and poor families, 3 issues disproportionately affect these children and merit special attention. First, access to recess and other in-school creative and physical outlets (eg, physical education, art, music), as well as after-school youth development programs are reduced. Second, out-of-school opportunities for play may be compromised by a lack of safe play areas, because parks and playgrounds are less abundant in lower-income areas and, in some cases, may be unsafe because of drug dealing, violence, and vandalism.11,12 Finally, because lower-income parents have to deal with additional social, emotional, and economic stressors of daily living, they may have less time, energy, and resources available to provide active and creative playtime at the park, playground, or even in the home.
All children deserve the opportunity to reach their highest potential. The optimal developmental milieu for children includes academic enrichment, as well as opportunities for physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth offered in school, home, and community settings. There are different forms of play—free unstructured play, which uses unlimited creativity, and semistructured play, which is guided play with joint attention by parent and child. It is beyond the scope of this report to define and divide, but poverty may prevent challenges to both unstructured and guided play.
Free unstructured play, as well as creative and physical outlets, contribute to social and emotional growth. This report offers guidance on how pediatricians can advocate for children by helping families, school systems, and communities consider how best to ensure play is protected and promoted as the optimal developmental milieu for positive child and youth development is explored.
The Benefits of Play
It could be argued that active play is so central to child development that it should be included in the very definition of childhood. Play offers more than cherished memories of growing up, it allows children to develop creativity and imagination while developing physical, cognitive, and emotional strengths. A previous manuscript described the benefits of play in fuller detail.7
Play enhances physical health by building active, healthy bodies. Physical activity beginning in early childhood prevents obesity.13 In fact, play may be an exceptional way to increase physical activity levels in children and, therefore, may be included as an important strategy in addressing the obesity epidemic.14,15
Play contributes to healthy brain development.16,–18 Children engage and interact with the world around them through play from a very early age. Even in the academic environment, play helps children adjust to the school setting, thereby fostering school engagement, and enhances children’s learning readiness, learning behaviors, and problem-solving skills.19,–31 In addition, play and recess may increase children’s capacity to store new information, as their cognitive capacity is enhanced when they are offered a drastic change in activity.19,20
Play is essential to developing social and emotional ties. First, play helps to build bonds within the family. Children’s healthy development is mediated by appropriate nurturing relationships with consistent caregivers.16 Play allows for a different quality of interaction between parent* and child, one that allows parents to “listen” in a very different, but productive, way. When parents observe their children playing or join them in child-driven play, they can view the world through their child’s eyes and, therefore, may learn to communicate or offer guidance more effectively. Less-verbal children may be able to express themselves, including their frustrations, through play, allowing their parents an opportunity to better understand their needs. Above all, the intensive engagement and relaxed interactions that occur while playing tell children that their parents are fully paying attention to them and, thereby, contribute to a strong connection.17,32,33 Play also helps forge connections between children. It allows them to learn how to share, to negotiate and resolve conflicts, and to learn self-advocacy skills when necessary.34,35 It teaches them leadership as well as group skills that may be useful in adult life.
Play should be an integral component of school engagement. School engagement is best realized when the educational setting attends to the social and emotional development of children as well as their cognitive development. The challenge is to make each child feel competent in a school setting, because the experience of success forms positive associations with school attendance.9 Although we hope for each child to demonstrate academic strengths, opportunities to exhibit social, physical, and creative strengths optimizes the chances that children will realize their areas of strength. Play, recess time, and classes that foster creative aptitude and physical fitness allow for peer interactions that contribute both to school engagement and social-emotional learning. Social-emotional learning should not be thought of as distinct from academic learning, because it can creatively be integrated with academic learning and has been shown to enhance children’s ability to learn.36,–38
Play is a natural tool that children can and should use to build their resilience. At its core, the development of resilience is about learning to overcome challenges and adversity. As mentioned, children learn to deal with social challenges and navigate peer relationships on the playground. In addition, even small children use imaginative play and fantasy to take on their fears and create or explore a world they can master. Play allows them to create fantasy heroes that conquer their deepest fears. It allows them to practice adult roles, sometimes while playing with other children and sometimes while play-acting with adults.34,39,–41 Sensitive adults can observe this play and recognize the fears and fantasies that need to be addressed; however, in many cases, play itself helps children meet their own needs. As they experience mastery of the world they create, children develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resilience they need to address future challenges.34,42
Factors That Reduce Play for Children in Poverty and the Potential Implications
Reduced Access to Play in Schools
There has been a national trend over the past decade of reducing playtime as an integral part of the school day. This trend is most easily observed in the reduction and, in some cases, elimination of recess; however, there are more subtle changes throughout the school day that reduce children’s opportunity to play. First, the approach to early education that naturally incorporated play into the school day is shifting toward a more academically oriented instructional approach as new standards for reading readiness have changed for even kindergarten students.9 Second, in many districts, there is less school time allocated to the creative arts and physical education.9,43,44 These subjects contribute to a well-rounded education for a variety of reasons but share some of the benefits of play. They allow for a break from the standard academic subjects, foster creative and physical expression, and teach relaxation and stress-reduction skills that will last a lifetime.9,13 Finally, even after-school activities have shifted away from play and physical activity and toward being an extension of academics and a space for homework completion.43 This report focuses on reduced recess for illustrative purposes.
Many of these trends are disproportionately affecting underresourced school districts because of targeted efforts to reduce significant academic disparities. It is a national imperative that all children are given the opportunity to reach their academic potential, and efforts to reduce disparities between children with varying levels of resources are urgently needed. It remains important, however, that what is known about child development, including social and emotional learning, remains at the forefront of consideration as policies to raise academic standards and performance for children are created and implemented. Play, in all its forms, needs to be considered as the ideal educational and developmental milieu for children is created. Because poorer children are most dramatically affected by these policies, stakeholders must remain vigilant in ensuring that children do not inadvertently suffer from the diminution of play in their lives while exploring potential solutions to benefit them academically.
A report by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that children who attend schools with high minority and high poverty rates in urban settings are more likely to have reduced recess time as compared with their peers in more affluent suburban areas.44,–46 Twenty-eight percent of schools with students who have the highest poverty rates had no recess at all.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, designed to decrease the achievement gap of disadvantaged students, allocated additional educational resources and enrichment programs while decreasing recess time to allow more formal educational encounters.47 At its inception, child development experts, including educators and pediatricians, voiced caution about the demise of playtime for young children with the proposed increased curriculum time of the program.9 The experts supported the Alliance for Childhood recommendations that children from low-income families be afforded time to learn how to play and time to play.9 Perhaps in recognition of the importance of the social and emotional development, as well as academic success of children who live at or below the poverty line, the US Department of Education in 2009 announced the Race to the Top Program, an education initiative that financially rewards school districts that support improving social, cognitive, physical, and emotional school readiness of disadvantaged students. In bids to receive the rewards, school districts must demonstrate focused programs that prepare students in the core academic subjects and other subjects that contribute to the development of well-rounded students, such as physical education and the arts.48 Thus, children who might otherwise not be afforded opportunities for physical activity and enrichment programs outside of the school day have designated time to enhance their total development.
The disparity between access to recess between middle-income and lower-income districts may be explained by factors other than recess time being transferred to reading and math instruction. It has been suggested that reduced recess in poorer areas is reflective of adult concerns that it is not safe for poorer children to have unstructured time; yet, it has not been proven that recess is unsafe. A time to play is different from the environment in which play occurs. When children have toys and equipment with which to play and attention is paid to helping the children transition back to class, the benefits of recess in terms of expressivity, exercise, and socialization suggest its vital role in the child’s school day and overall well-being. Some experts believe the real danger is that the misunderstanding has led to the removal of playtime.49 The reduction of recess and other in-school opportunities to play affect all children but may have a particularly detrimental effect on poorer children, because they are likely to have fewer opportunities to play outside of school.11,12 In addition, because school is often the first true socialization environment for vulnerable children, the opportunity for social and emotional learning must not be compromised.
Poor children enter the educational system at a lower level of readiness, averaging 2 years behind their middle- and upper-class peers.50 This may be explained in part by their increased exposure to social stressors (higher rates of single mothers who lack social supports and financial resources, absent fathers, limited access to early childhood education, unsafe neighborhoods, lack of preventive health care). They mainly enter schools in poor communities that lack financial resources to enhance the educational process.51 Schools, under pressure to increase academic performance and to decrease the achievement gap of students, have increased direct educational time, including after-school enrichment and tutorial programs. Although it is important to decrease academic disparities, enhanced nonacademic interactions are also essential to prepare children for future success. If the overall goal is to decrease school failure, which could ultimately lead to depression, entry into the juvenile justice system, and continued economic deprivation, a response to the problem has to include efforts to promote school engagement.49 As previously discussed, opportunities for play and social and emotional learning enhance school engagement. Quite simply, school engagement occurs when children succeed academically, have other nonacademic opportunities for success (creative arts, physical education), and consider school a place in which they feel safe and enjoy spending time.
Play in the school day offers benefits to academic as well as social and emotional learning. A recent report by Barros and others stated that a break during the school day of ≥15 minutes was associated with better teachers’ ratings of classroom behavior scores.19 Good behavior in the classroom is associated with a more productive learning environment secondary to increased attentiveness.19,20 In addition, children’s ability to store new information is increased, because their cognitive capacity is enhanced by a drastic change in activity.51,–53 A change in academic subject and even physical education class may not offer the same benefit as free-play recess.49 A reduction of time for physical activity may have even greater implications for boys. Schools that use only sedentary styles of learning may be a more difficult environment for boys to navigate successfully and contribute to the discordant academic abilities between boys and girls.54,55 These findings suggest that decreasing and eliminating recess for students at risk for school failure may be counterproductive.
Finally, it is recognized among educators that recess represents the most powerful strategy to get the most children to participate in physical activity.56 In its “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,” the US Department of Health and Human Services recommends 1 hour or more of physical activity per day, with a major part of the hour dedicated to moderate to vigorous physical activity at least 3 times per week for children and adolescents.57 Physical education curricula should enhance attitudes, habits, and behavioral skills that result in continued physical activity throughout life.14 Overall, recess offers the most available opportunity for children to play and to engage in physical activity, followed by physical education classes and after-school activities.58
Reduced Out-of-School Opportunities for Play
Children cannot play safely outside of the home in many poor communities—urban, suburban, and rural—unless they are under close adult supervision and protection. This is particularly true in areas that are unsafe because of increased violence or where other environmental dangers exist.11,12 In the past, when neighbors knew each other and often supervised each other’s children, there was an extra layer of protection for neighborhood children when they played outside. In today’s society, it is not unusual for neighbors not to know one another. Therefore, parents are alone in protecting and supervising their children, which can severely limit outside playtime.
Children who are not engaged in play and physical activity outside of school hours spend time engaged in sedentary activities, such as viewing hours of television, playing video games, or listening to music. This time is often spent in isolation without social interaction and without adult supervision. In sharp contrast to the benefits of active, creative play, there is substantial evidence that excessive screen time has adverse effects.59,–64 The AAP policy statement on media education presented research that associates media exposure with negative physical and behavioral health problems in children, including obesity, violent and aggressive behavior, depression, anxiety, earlier sexual behaviors, poor academic performance and self-image, nightmares, and tobacco and substance abuse.63,64
The sedentary lifestyle is associated with obesity, for which children from low income and minority families are already disproportionally at risk.65 The AAP and others have reported that children who are obese in early childhood are more likely to be obese adults and to be at risk for the comorbidities associated with obesity, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, asthma, and sleep apnea.14,66,67 In addition to the long-term health effects, obesity may be associated with immediate social and emotional consequences, including low self-esteem, negative body image, depression, teasing and bullying, social marginalization, and discrimination.63,64,66,67 Obesity can have socioemotional effects on academic achievement and opportunities and can, therefore, thwart educational trajectories associated with long-term success.66,67
Although lower-income parents have the same desires for their children to succeed and reach their full potential as do parents with greater economic and social assets, they must focus primarily on the family’s day-to-day survival. When food and shelter are at risk, ensuring time for the children to have free and creative playtime may not be a priority. Economic hardship is a major obstacle for these families, in which the parents are more likely to have a lower educational level or be single heads of households. Minority households (black and Hispanic) and immigrant parents are at increased risk of having children who live in poverty.1,68 There is more likely to be a history of substance abuse in poorer families. The neighborhoods in which they live lack community resources, such as community centers, parks, and fully equipped supervised playgrounds that offer safe places for children to play and to gather. Children have fewer opportunities to participate in organized sports. Because of fear of violence, families do not venture outside with their children for fun physical activities, such as walking, bike riding, swinging, swimming, playing tennis, or jogging.11,12,69 In a safe environment with community resources, these activities would not be an additional financial burden to already challenged families.
Poor families may also be at a disadvantage in a material-driven culture in which marketing messages, often claims without proof, abound about what children need to prosper. They may absorb the messages that the best toys are those that are the most expensive or that children are only academically prepared for preschool if exposed to a variety of enrichment tools and activities that claim to produce high-achieving children. Parents who cannot afford these market-driven materials may feel disempowered to actively play with and enrich their children using the most effective known tools—themselves. Children’s creativity is enhanced with the most basic (and least expensive) toys, blocks, dolls, and art supplies. Children’s academic preparedness may be most developed with low-cost time spent reading with parents. They will learn to love books when they associate quality time with their parents with reading.70
Lower-income parents may have fewer resources, including time, to invest in playing with their children. Because play holds so many benefits, including fostering connection between parents and children, less play may be an added, although rarely mentioned, risk of poverty. No one is certain what skills will be needed for our children to be best prepared to lead us into the future, but we do have insight into which character traits will produce children capable of navigating an increasingly complex world. These include confidence, the ability to master the environment, and a connection to others. In addition, to be resilient—to retain hope and to be able to overcome adversity—young people need the added character traits of honesty, generosity, decency, tenacity, and compassion.71 Children gain these essential traits within a home, when parents and children interact in a supportive manner and share unconditional love.71,–76 Play is a time-tested way for families to have these types of interactions.
What Are the Solutions?
Because there are many causes for the decreased amount of play in the lives of lower-income and poor children, there is no single solution. In addition, simplistic proposed solutions might not take into consideration the complex interplay of factors that have led to decreased play, including the need for safety. For example, if a child does not reside in a safe neighborhood, it may be unwise to simply propose more outdoor child-centered play. Similarly, it may be naïve to insist on more recess without simultaneously coming up with solutions that address the very substantive issue of educational disparities. It is critical, however, that as strategies are developed that address educational needs and safety, the recognition of children’s need to play be strongly advocated, because play is known to promote healthy development and resilience.46,52,55,58 To effectively preserve play in the lives of economically disadvantaged children, its presence in schools, communities, and homes must be supported.
In schools, the need to support social and emotional learning and healthy child development must be held alongside the need to increase academic scores. Otherwise, school engagement might suffer and efforts at creating a better-prepared generation might fail. The bottom line to school engagement is that schools should be the kind of places that children and adolescents want to be. This means that educators and policy makers must make opportunities for lower-income children to gain the benefits offered from physical education, recess, and the arts so they can reach their highest potential for cognitive, social, and physical development and so children and adolescents will like school. Advocates can also promote programs such as Head Start, the purpose of which is the promotion of school readiness for low-income children. Head Start provides an environment that enhances students’ emotional, social, and cognitive development and has demonstrated effectiveness.77 One of the keys to the success of Head Start has been the involvement of parents in social interaction with their children in playing, reading, and reading-related activities.78
Policy makers and community leaders must work together to prioritize the need for safe spaces for families to gather and for children to play. Supervised after-school programs can be critical to children who live in communities where outside playing might be dangerous or unsupervised. Community-based programs that offer a wide variety of services, ranging from homework assistance to athletic programs and from character development to the creative arts can contribute heavily to the positive development of youth. Keeping school facilities open for use by community families in the evenings and on weekends when they are usually closed may increase engagement in these activities. Communities can also offer strategies to link families at or below the poverty level to early education, health care, family support, and parenting education.
Parents of all income levels should use time together at home to engage in both free and structured play with their children. Playtime is bonding time for families. A first step may be education about the value of play that simultaneously refutes false notions that for play to be effective, it must involve expensive toys. Parents from across the economic spectrum need to understand that it is their presence and their attention that enrich their children and that one-on-one play is a time-tested, effective way of being fully present. In parallel, we must be sensitive to the fact that time itself is a commodity when struggling for economic survival. The most comprehensive solutions, therefore, must address broader economic disparities and other factors that create stresses for economically disadvantaged parents.
Certainly, these solutions are broad and societal, going beyond the purview of the pediatrician’s office. But as child health professionals committed to the attainment of optimal physical, mental, and social health and well-being for all infants and children, pediatricians have a role in advocating for broad-based solutions that will preserve child play.
Advice for Pediatricians
As caring, objective child health professionals, pediatricians have a natural role to advocate for the conditions that allow for the optimal physical, emotional, and social development of children and adolescents. Because play contributes substantially to the healthy development and well-being of children, it is important that pediatricians promote the inclusion of play in homes, schools, and communities.†
Pediatricians can educate parents about the importance of free, unstructured play in the normal development of children.
Parents may be influenced by marketing messages that suggest the best toys are those that are financially out of reach. They should be educated that simple, inexpensive toys, such as dolls, jump ropes, blocks, balls, and buckets, are more effective in allowing children to be creative and imaginative than more expensive toys, which can make play a more passive and less physically involved experience.
Pediatricians can educate parents about the benefits of using play as an opportunity to engage fully with their children. Playtime offers opportunities for parent-child bonding. Playtime offers parents the opportunity to promote healthy social-emotional development in their children through active engagement and shared imagination.
Pediatricians can encourage parents to use love and understanding to encourage children to try again even when at first they fail. Parents can be informed that positive reinforcement goes further than negative responses as children engage in play alone and with others.
Pediatricians can use well-child encounters to educate parents about the benefits of play to enhance physical activity that can help prevent childhood obesity. Parents should be educated about the potential for lifelong obesity in obese children, the lifelong health morbidities associated with obesity, and the long-term psychosocial impact of obesity.
Parents should be encouraged to participate in physical activities with their children that will not have a financial impact on the family.
Pediatricians can provide parents with information about resources that can provide financial, educational, and mental health assistance to families that have been marginalized by poverty. This may address the underlying stressors that interfere with parents’ ability to engage fully in play activities.
Pediatricians can educate parents about the negative impact of media exposure on children and encourage them to limit screen time and substitute other activities, including playtime and outdoor activities, for screen time. This is an opportunity to educate parents about the AAP recommendations regarding no media time for children younger than 2 years and fewer than 2 hours per day for older children.
Pediatricians can provide parents and families with information about community resources that provide physical activities for children, such as team sports and camps. They should provide information about organizations that provide “scholarships” or grants that pay for activities that have associated costs.
Pediatricians can educate parents about the importance of children’s play outdoors in nature. Spending unstructured time in nature, surrounded by dirt, trees, grass, rocks, flowers, and insects inspires children’s play and offers physical and emotional benefits.
Pediatricians can advocate for safe play spaces for children who live in communities and attend schools with a high proportion of low-income and poor children by emphasizing that the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing.
Pediatricians may consider offering presentations to help educators, community leaders, faith-based groups, and politicians understand the developmental benefits of play to children.
Pediatricians may advocate for policies that reduce educational disparities while supporting the inclusion of recess, physical outlets, and the creative arts as means to enhance social and emotional learning and school engagement.
Children who live at or below poverty level in the United States experience educational and health disparities from early childhood. These children deserve additional resources to achieve academically, foster school engagement, and develop their social and emotional competencies. Many children reside in families that face stresses related to daily survival, including whether they will have food or safe shelter, leaving less energy to focus on enrichment opportunities, including play. Some live in neighborhoods where violence may be the norm and children playing on neighborhood playgrounds the exception. School systems are focused on overcoming their academic deficiencies in a safe environment often at the expense of time for arts, recess, physical education classes, and after-school activities that include playing, despite evidence that supports that what happens in play contributes substantially to social and emotional learning, even in the classroom.
Regardless of their socioeconomic status, all children have the right to safe places to play regularly, during which they develop cognitive, communication, problem-solving, negotiation, and leadership skills. They have the right to engage in safe and regular physical activity that will decrease the incidence of lifelong health disparities. The physically and emotionally healthy children of today will become the productive citizens who will contribute positively to society in the future.
Regina M. Milteer, MD
Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MSEd
Council on Communications and Media, 2011–2012
Deborah Ann Mulligan, MD, Chairperson
Nusheen Ameenuddin, MD, MPH
Ari Brown, MD
Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH
Corinn Cross, MD
Holly Lee Falik, MD
David L. Hill, MD
Marjorie J. Hogan, MD
Alanna Estin Levine, MD
Gwenn S. O’Keeffe, MD
Wendy Sue Swanson, MD, MBE
Former Executive Committee Members
Gilbert L. Fuld, MD, Immediate Past Chairperson
Tanya Remer Altmann, MD
Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD
Benard P. Dreyer, MD
Regina M. Milteer, MD Kathleen G. Nelson, MD
Donald L. Shifrin, MD
Victor C. Strasburger, MD
Michael Brody, MD – American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH – American Public Health Association
Brian Wilcox, PhD – American Psychological Association
Gina Ley Steiner
Veronica Laude Noland
Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health, 2010–2011
Benjamin S. Siegel, MD, Chairperson
Mary I. Dobbins, MD
Marian F. Earls, MD
Andrew S. Garner, MD, PhD
Laura McGuinn, MD
John Pascoe, MD, MPH
David L. Wood, MD, MPH
Ronald T. Brown, PhD – Society of Pediatric Psychology
Terry Carmichael, MSW – National Association of Social Workers
Mary Jo Kupst, PhD – Society of Pediatric Psychology
D. Richard Martini, MD – American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Mary Sheppard, MS, RN, PNP, BC – National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
George J. Cohen, MD
Karen S. Smith
This document is copyrighted and is property of the American Academy of Pediatrics and its Board of Directors. All authors have filed conflict of interest statements with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Any conflicts have been resolved through a process approved by the Board of Directors. The American Academy of Pediatrics has neither solicited nor accepted any commercial involvement in the development of the content of this publication.
The guidance in this report does not indicate an exclusive course of treatment or serve as a standard of medical care. Variations, taking into account individual circumstances, may be appropriate.
All clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics automatically expire 5 years after publication unless reaffirmed, revised, or retired at or before that time.
The word “parent” is used in this report to represent the wide range of adult caregivers who raise children.
The guidance in this report is offered by the AAP and, therefore, is targeted to pediatricians. Other health professionals who serve children and adolescents, including other physicians, pediatric and family nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are welcome to consider incorporating this guidance into practice.


For example, have group members go Scenario 3.5: Two students in a Psychology class are conducting an empirical investigation for a final paper/project, which the professor has agreed will be written jointly. Explore criteria for making spending decisions; Understand the role of spending in their lives; What students will do. There are multiple solutions for this simple problem (2+5+3, 2+8+0, etc. Clinical decision-making (CDM) is a dynamic activity in which the nurse builds a case in which hypotheses are accepted or rejected based on collected data, better defined by Barrows & Pickell (cited in Robinson 2002, p. 1) Clinical decision making is the formulation and revision of hypotheses throughout a patient encounter. Step 5: Consider the consequences of your solutions. Here is our list of the best problem solving games, activities and exercises for adults. Divide the learners into groups and ask them general questions such as where should we go on our next field trip or what is your favorite holiday destination. Model for making decisions. Emotional Intelligence is the new smart and we bring you 50 practical Emotional Intelligence examples you can apply as well. The Financial Literacy Project uses the project management process to promote the importance of financial literacy, including spending and saving, credit and debt, employment and income, investing, risk and insurance and financial decision making. 5. Make spending decisions based on scenarios.
3 Ethical Dilemma Questions. For example, a homeowner deliberates about how to deal with an outbreak of dandelions on their lawn. This exposes them to both the This may include researching, talking to friends, assessing experiences, and/or talking to experts. 1. It can be applied to a plethora of relevant classroom dilemmas like solving a peer conflict and/or how to use time wisely during study hall. Use the 71 social problem-solving scenarios to have your students get great experience practicing how to solve a social problem. Type up several fictional scenarios for teenage decision making with positive and negative outcomes. If a leader doesnt have the confidenceto stand by their choices, its unlikely they will carry any weight with their team. Their relationships and their success largely depend on decision making. Make spending decisions based on scenarios. A decision to do nothing is still a decision. example suggesting just going out for pizza and getting to know each other a little better, or going to a movie theatre to see a movie rather than at Pre-K decision-making skills: Here's what you need to know for your child. Explain that decisions are made based on a variety of 2.5 Reward a Job Well Done. Present students with a scenario and ask them to list the pros and cons of two or more decisions in the scenario. 20. How is my financial decision-making process different from others? For example, one student wanted to ask his peers a question about a nearby local schools dress code decision. Help teams overcome obstacles. but first secure your desk so that no sensitive information is at risk. Multi-step tasks mimic real-life decision making, and a timer adds a gaming element to increase engagement. The decisions they By the time students are in middle and high school, they're making decisions with profound and lasting consequences that greatly influence their health and happiness. decision. The first step in improving the student decision making process is to teach them with practice. Military decision making process. Effective decision-making examples have many colors based on perspectives and scenarios. Also called group decision making or collaborative decision making. Then ask them to pick the best decision based on their discussion of the pros and cons. +VE: She will feel proud about her accomplishments; she will get the phone she really wants. Pages 62 This preview shows page 10 - 16 out of 62 pages. For example, a scenario may be as simple as ''June was one point away from a Ensure the questions you ask are relevant and will consider all factors. Dr. Randy Schroeder provides the insight you need to be a leader-parent. Summary. Data driven decision-making skills. In group discussions, use these eleven manners I cheated in the maths paper yesterday. Follow up activity: Ask students to write rules for a fair vote. This paper "Clinical Decision Making in Nursing" focuses on the fact that recent policy changes and trends in professional development in the health care system have entrusted nurses with greater responsibilities in patient care. 3.1 Related Posts. Decide whether to agree or disagree with other students spending decisions. Place two of the four boards end to end on the ground or floor. A1: You are a receptionist of a 5* hotel. As the students explore the data, they also can click on icons that will reveal teacher discussions about the topic in a chat-room environment. Voting staff expanded retail hours to gauge impact. What decision do you have to make? This exposes them to both the Workplace decision-making skills example. Invite students to anonymously write down and submit any problem or issue they might be having at school or at home, ones that they cant seem to figure out on their own. Have students role play through the decision-making process and explain their actions. 4. Selecting a location for a new restaurant. This prepares them to make big decisions that impacts their future. Following the decision-making process, the teacher will discuss the protective factors that lead to positive decision-making, and the risk factors that lead to negative decision-making. When people make decisions they may be pulled in different directions by different influences. All organization members will determine final Many of these doomsday scenarios can be eased with an increased emphasis on information security, and companies are starting to go all-in on cyber security measures. Identify the decision. Medical decision making skills. Problem solving games are activities that require players to use critical thinking skills to solve puzzles. Many actions are included in role-playing. To do this, you must right-click and print this page. Step 7: Evaluate The Outcome. Deciding to grant a refund requested to a customer. Overcoming a delay at work through problem solving and communication. We have mentioned two relatively common call center dilemmas that you may likely face at some point in your career. For example, some kids have to decide what college they want to go to, if they want to go to college at all, or what career path they want to take. Objectives. Renee even asked Rich if he could pick up alcoholic beverages for them. Scenario planning can be an effective tool in the decision-making process. It often takes a crisis for organizations to stand up and take action. However, it's often too late, and many org's do not survive the upheaval. Scenario planning, as a part of ERM, helps org's recognize and react to changes before a crisis. Look over the writers ratings, success rating, and the feedback left by other students.
View Decision-making_Scenarios_____.doc from ENG 33 at Jose Rizal University.
Step 5: Consider the consequences of your solutions. Types of decision making modelsRational decision making models. This type of decision making model is the most common type that you'll see. Intuitive decision making models. This type of decision making model is dictated not by information or data, but by gut instincts. Creative decision making model. Decision making is the action or process of arriving at a conclusion of accepting an important option by weighing the other alternative possibilities. Alternate options: If you find that you have a group of students who would not actively participate in role play there is an alternate option found below. For this problem solving activity for older kids or teens, you will need four 26 boards. As the students explore the data, they also can click on icons that will reveal teacher discussions about the topic in a chat-room environment.
Refining rough draft proposals. Student A really enjoys statistics, so they volunteer to do all of the data analysis and write up the results section of the paper. The decision-making process was developed by the school community in 1976 in order to ensure a more effective process that involved the maximum number of students in decision making. Mountaineer Andrew Brash tells how, while at the top of Everest, he saved a life others thought lost.
Decision Making Examples. 2.3 Hit and Run. There often is no right or wrong answer to situations or scenarios. Decision Making Worksheet 1. Describe what you will do. Try to calm down the guest and solve any issues they have. Maintains a consistently professional demeanor, regardless of the situation, with both customers and co-workers alike. For example, a child who is invited to two birthday parties has to solve the problem of which one to go to. Scenarios are used as the basis from which to evaluate the use of the components of evidence-based practice in decision making, yet there are few examples of a standardized process of scenario writing. Lets see how we can do this in a few simple steps. They consider hand weeding and herbicides but decide to do nothing at all. What possible actions could you take? presence of positive mood in leaders at work creates more effective and broader thought processes in certain types of decision-making abilities (George, 2000). 2.1 The Life Boat. We double-check all the assignments for plagiarism and send you only original essays. Here are some ways to help your students become thoughtful, engaged and productive decision makers in 2020 and beyond. This may be perfectly reasonable. Email and SMS Notifications. Explore criteria for making spending decisions; Understand the role of spending in their lives; What students will do. Cindy is 18 years old. Drama and arguments are bound to follow. Each scenario attempts to identify the following: The audience(s) for the evaluation; What information the audience needs for making decisions; What tools and methods are to be used in obtaining this information; Describe the problem. For example, offer a choice to have a swimming party or an indoor climbing party for a birthday.
2 Moral Dilemma Scenarios. Sexual assault involves a loss of control, and what the individual needs the most is to regain that control by making decisions about their own treatment and judicial options. While some businesses use the analytic hierarchy process, it is often used in academic or policy-related scenarios. Places for Student Decision-Making in Schools. Consider your values. So as health educators it's critically important that we explore ways to empower our students to become confident decision-makers. The following are the seven key steps of the decision making process. Enter the D.E.C.I.D.E. The process is designed to help students in: Defining problems and needs. Conclusion. Correcting a mistake at work, whether it was made by you or someone else. Adopt a Grandparent Organization. Alright, with all that said, its time for appraisal examples. In fact, information security analyst jobs are projected to increase by 18 percent by 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Decision Making Skills and Goal Setting: Lesson Plans Summary: Activities to be used in a lesson on decision making and goal setting. Important in business and managerial jobs. Are able to make decisions under pressure. Create formal decision rationales to improve decision making. These are just a few examples of ethical dilemmas posed by the online world, and oftentimes kids too young to engage in ethical thinking are in possession of a connected device that asks them to make decisions like these all the time. I was nervous but I ended up copying few sums from Lucy, sitting next to me. On other occasions, students have suggested having circle conversations to discuss weekend plans. Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the decision-making of nursing students during team based simulations on patient deterioration to determine the sources of information, the types of decisions made and the influences underpinning their decisions. He actively seeks out information related to his job to stay up-to-date with new company policies, procedures or his personal job role. \Crucial for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. That same child will use decision-making to pick out birthday gifts. For example, smoking marijuana vs. what to wear to school. Discuss the skill of making decisions and teach your children to make considered choices. Below is an example of an ill-structured scenario: opic:T Organizational Leadership Subtopic: School Excellence and utureF Direction them in the decision-making process. Remember that there is no right approach; each situation will always be different. The first step in making the right decision is recognizing the problem or opportunity and deciding to address it. to unethical practices in the course of one's work is related to ethical decision-making. All of the steps will be discussed with examples. The body of your paper must be 69 pages and include at least 6 references. Sometimes, I initiate circle conversations to reengage students. Decision making is an important life skill for students to develop and practice in a safe environment. Here, we use the term ethical decision-making and responsibility for this component in order to emphasize the ethical dimensions of what it means to make decisions that are both personally and socially responsible. In these lessons, the students were given the responsibility to initiate and direct their own activities. They make a determination as to whether or not their decision solved the problem. Opt for a problem-solving attitude, as opposed to a thats not my job approach. There are countless number of things that circulate in a teenage mind especially because they lack the emotional maturity to take the wisest decision. 2. Dilemma 1: Possible Learning Disability. Identify a faulty machine as the source of disruption in the production process. Jackie also uses role-playing activities to help her students think through social decision-making. Give candidates enough time to formulate their answers. Example activities include escape rooms, Sudoku, and murder mysteries. Determining the ownership structure of a new business. Since Map is an interface, it can be used only with a class that implements this interface. Your paper must be in current APA format including title page, abstract and reference page. How is my financial decision-making process different from others? 1) Save her money until shes has got enough money. Divide your group into two teams with an equal number of children on each team. A quick activity where students can develop decision-making and problem-solving skills. Decision Making: The officers will make major decisions about funds, decisions involving events, meeting times, and activities as a group. This gives them a chance to make decisions about real life issues in a low risk environment.
1. The US Army uses this distinct seven-step plan to make operational decisions. Hiring 2 employees after interviewing 41 candidates. Students will identify three types of decision making. Steps Involved In Decision Making Process for Students 1. You have many decision-making examples in daily life such as:Deciding what to wear.Deciding what to eat for lunch.Choosing which book to read.Deciding what task to do next. You are very polite and you can deal with annoyed guests. 2. In some scenarios, it is necessary for a person to be on their own or take responsibility for their actions. Ways to Use the Difficult Scenarios in Your Classroom The scenarios can be helpful discussion starters, as they connect the work of researchers to settings that may be familiar to your students. The next step is to gather information and examine the available resources. In A Pickle Decision Making Activity from Carol Miller. students or employees. Now that we know the importance of good decision making skills for students we must know how to develop and improve the decision making skills for students. Role-play: Traveling. Decision Making: The officers will make major decisions about funds, decisions involving events, meeting times, and activities as a group. Decide and act. The paper "Ethics vs Law in nursing" scrutinizes that nurses should abide by administrative law and statutory law regulating the nursing practice. onflicts that may exist between ethics and the law in nursing PracticeIn arriving at professional decisions, nurses may be caught up between two conflicting sets of demands, one deriving from the mission of the profession and the other The process is designed to help students in: Defining problems and needs. List the options. Decisions taken by children affect their mental health and wellbeing. Interactive elearning examples including case scenarios, branching, storytelling, gaming, assessments and more to inspire your elearning designs. Types of Decision Making Skills with examples. Decision making means choosing to make a decision because you wish for something to occur that is not occurring at the present time.. Examples might include deciding whether to tell an adult about a friend's drug use, shoplift a T-shirt they can't afford or plagiarizing a paper. Good decision-makers: Evaluate circumstances, consider alternatives and weigh pros and cons. Adopt a Grandparent Organization. It takes about 12 years of life for children to develop the cognitive capacity for ethical thinking. You may use deductive reasoning when finding and acquiring a job, hiring employees, managing employees, working with customers and making a variety of business or career decisions. 2. Similar to team decision making, but generally has a healthcare focus. 2. Set the other two parallel to the first two about two or three feet apart. Adapted from How Rude! In a Jar: Prompts, Tips, Skits, and Quips About Social Skills, Good Manners, and Etiquette by Alex J. Packer, Ph.D. With summer right around the corner, teens will be spending a lot more time with their friends. 6.
3. In some cases, both approaches are incorporated. In this section of our website, Successful Projects provides scenarios and situations that instructors can use in the classroom. People with analytical skills can examine information, understand what it means, and properly explain to others the implications of that information. Use critical-thinking skills to reach objective conclusions. IDEAL Decision-Making Scenarios As students present their solutions to the class, use these ideas to guide your discussion. Consider the fact that these types of questions require thinking through a situation and evaluating given facts. Responsible decision-making is the ability to make sound judgments about your behavior and how it affects others.
Below is an example of an ill-structured scenario: opic:T Organizational Leadership Subtopic: School Excellence and utureF Direction them in the decision-making process. You are used to quality service and luxury, but this hotel doesnt offer it. 2. From small, everyday choices to larger and more consequential ones, students face a myriad of decisions with ethical implications. Invite a Guest Speaker to Talk About Democratic Decision Making. Begin by placing students into teams and providing them with a set of decision scenarios. Decisions taken by children affect their mental health and wellbeing. How Decision Analysis Saved a Man's Life on Mount Everest. Weigh the consequences. Label the box The Problem-Solving Box.. Games for youngsters such as Uno, Chess, and Ludo have numerous alternatives present. Explain that decisions are made based on a variety of Whether decisions are made quickly or with time to process, understanding how school law should guide your decision making will protect you and your campus from any legal issues. National Standard 2.1, 13.1, 13.6 Student Prior Knowledge: For example, 2 + _ + _ = 10. Therefore, create social problems that the student experiences and needs help solving. Your dad told you to clean up your toys, but youre having fun. List both the negative and positive consequences. Students will relate responsible decision making with effective career and life planning. We also used several examples from literature. Decision making is the action or process of arriving at a conclusion of accepting an important option by weighing the other alternative possibilities. In this final step, children consider the results of their decision. Decide whether to agree or disagree with other students spending decisions. Play with 13 examples of branching scenarios from a wide variety of scenario-based training and consider questions that help you think about your own design.
Literary examples. n Have students identify three decisions they are trying to make (e.g. 7. Strong influences may be orders from a commanding officer, boss, friends, or by rules and laws. Problem-solving as a group. The rational model of decision-making is a necessary skill in managerial and business jobs. Decision Making Examples. Ages 4-7. You may wish to teach a strategy to encourage full participation as students list pros and cons. In a stage play, for example, it is the choosing of character or action. Frame the questions using hypothetical job-related scenarios to assess candidates way of thinking. Now that organizations are prioritizing fully remote or blended working models, such scenarios are impossible to ignore. The easiest way to introduce this process to students is by example. Professionalism. Rational decision making. Examples of decision making scenarios from left to. 2.2 Sarcastic Friend. Background: Missed, misinterpreted or mismanaged physiological signs of deterioration in hospitalized patients lead to What is important to you? n Have them use the decision-making process sheet to This example was used to illustrate the roles of head and heart, and to demonstrate the trade-offs that may occur in decision-making between stakeholders and across value dimensions. An overview of long term goals with examples for job interviews, employees, businesses and students. Use these scenarios as a basis for engaging in conversation about making decisions between right and wrong. It helps children to become responsible and independent. taking a vacation, moving away from home, buying a car, changing jobs, etc.) Resolving an issue with a difficult or upset customer. Now, lets see how to perform a few frequently used operations on a Map using the widely used HashMap class.And also, after the introduction of Generics in Java 1.5, it is possible to restrict the type of object that can Plagiarism Free Papers. Determine why this decision will make a difference to your customers or fellow employees. 1. This two-player logic game ranks second in our list of problem solving activities for high school students. For example, a decision guided Let us now go through some activities for decision making skills that will help in developing decision making skills in students.
Collect data. For this activity, identify whether each of the given scenarios involves conduction. Several of the students were naturally drawn to the humanities, and they Try to avoid calling the manager. The purpose of this assignment is to develop the ability to apply professional values, codes of ethics, and a decision-making model to the process of ethical decision making. Steps of the Decision Making Process. Presenting their view of problems and/or proposed solutions. For example, having students on an adult task force and having a student action forum where students identify important issues the school should address.
Problem Solving Scenarios 1. 2.4 Third Strike. All organization members will determine final Stay informed 247 about every update of the whole ordering process. Improving decision making. Outlined below are some examples of scenarios in which it makes sense to do an evaluation. Scenario planning is a process to support decision-making that helps urban and rural planners navigate the uncertainty of the future in the short and long term. Explain your decision. Identify the Issue. Grade 8, Setting Goals 2: Decision-Making 6. A brainstorming session to generate potential names for a new product is the convenient. Practice the decision-making model in your classroom, perhaps as an anchor chart. In this method, a decision is made with the most important issues considered or weighted more heavily, and higher on the hierarchy, than others. Cindy's parents and her 23-year old brother Rich are going away for the weekend. When students have written rules, they might like to try out some - either within the class, with another class in the year level or with a buddy class. Avoiding summit fever he came back to summit another day. Example ethical decision-making scenario. Quarto. Activity 1: Decisions, Decisions. The game's choices aid in It helps children to become responsible and independent. Thoughtful decisions will require students to apply the full decision-making process. The decision-making process was developed by the school community in 1976 in order to ensure a more effective process that involved the maximum number of students in decision making. In these lessons, the students were given the responsibility to initiate and direct their own activities. Evaluate the options. Activities for Decision Making Skills: Indoor games/board games. Objectives. Part of critical thinking is the ability to carefully examine something, whether it is a problem, a set of data, or a text. Ask questions that need concrete answers to improve the decision making process for students. Performing Various Operations using Map Interface and HashMap Class.