Toddler Room Observation

The most popular method for educators at the centre to build on children’s comments and conversations is by talking with them, particularly by talking through processes or experiences as they are happening. With infants this process of talking through experiences and processes seems more like narration. Spending time in the infant room feels solidary as I talk to myself for most of the day, however it is important to remind myself that the child is learning through my one-sided conversations. Baby’s language develops socially, they listen to those speaking around them and then begin to internalise the words that are high frequency (Clarke, 2004). As they develop their vocabulary grows as they build their repertoire through socialisation. Research

shows that babies can identify, sort and remember objects and events before they are able to vocalise the language to match these objects and experiences. If I sit in silence with a baby I am not giving them words to filter for importance or to associate with objects and experiences. Instead I must talk through everything I am doing with them so that they may develop language. The first three years of life is especially important for language development, research shows that language skills are enhanced with frequent and positive interactions in high quality care settings (Li et al., 2013).
The educators at the centre ask for permission from babies to change their nappies.

They are not expecting a response but instead showing that they respect the baby and they are developing their language. They talk through everything they are doing at the centre for example the educators announce when lunch enters the room and will describe what they will be having for lunch. They will tell the children in what order they will be having lunch, that they are going to wipe their hands and then after lunch they will change their nappy and then they will have a sleep. The same is done in the toddler room, the educators will speak almost the same amount to a toddler that can utter a few words as they will a baby who can only babble. In the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten room educators question children more. They use open-ended questions to prompt children to engage in conversation. For example, they will not ask a child what toy is their favourite, instead they will ask why they like that toy the most. By asking children open-ended questions educators are keeping conversations going and role modelling how children can do the same with their peers. They are also prompting children to reflect on why they make certain responses. A child that answers that blue is their favourite colour they are asked to reflect upon why this is

so.
With an increase in the demand for child care educators are becoming regarded as one of a child’s main carers. As they spend so much time with children and are familiar with child development an educator may be the first to notice that a child could benefit from additional assistance with learning language. My mentor suggests that this is a very sensitive topic to address as none of the educators at the centre are language specialists and therefore have no authority to diagnose any children as needing extra help. The best method for educators to get more information about the child’s development is by asking the child’s family lots of questions. Questions such as “how are they going?”. They may make comments to parents beginning with “We’ve notice that”. Through documenting and sharing learning stories with families, educators can collect evidence to present to families to back up their opinion that the child could benefit from extra help. Family partnership meetings are held at the centre between the team leader and the child’s families. This meeting would be a good time for the team leader to present evidence collected by educators to the child’s family.