I loved reading Sandra Smidt’s book, An ABC of Early Childhood Education: A Guide to some of the Key Issues. It’s so wonderfully laid out and easy to read. It’s based on research but written so that anyone can understand it with lots of stories and anecdotes to keep you glued to the page. Here are some of her points in a highly summarized form. You can download the ABC of Early Childhood Education poster here.
Asking Questions
Children not only ask never-ending questions with their words (when they have the opportunity), they also demonstrate questions through their actions. For example, Sally might not ask you how something works but if you watch her play you can guess what questions she’s asking herself.
Vygotsky considered asking questions as highly important in developing higher level thinking skills. In Reggio Emilia-type schools listening for these questions and encouraging the search for answers is central.
Are we listening and watching for the questions our children are asking?
Becoming a Reader
Two aspects of learning to read are having the ability to decode the words on the page and using those words to communicate and think. While decoding words is essential Smidt emphasizes the need to make reading a pleasurable, sharable, non-tested activity.
Are we reading lots of books to our kids and giving them a print-rich environment?
Collaboration
Collaborating is hugely important but to do it effectively children need to utilize all kinds of skills: negotiating, listening, communicating, questioning, deciding, agreeing and so on. Collaboration should also happen between children and their teachers, so that the focus is on what the learner needs rather than just on what the teacher wants to impart.
Are we actively encouraging the development of collaborative skills in our kids or are we just throwing small groups of them together and saying ‘go for it?’
Developmentally Appropriate Practice?
I hadn’t thought about the origins and philosophical starting point of DAP for a long time, so reading this section was a good reminder to be careful of superficial understanding. Working with children in a way that is developmentally appropriate sounds logical and sensible. However, the question is: who gets to say what exactly is developmentally appropriate? DAP developed from the white, Western, traditional family model and approaches the child as a stand-alone rather than as a child living in community. This viewpoint is not relatable to a high percentage of the world’s children so we should be careful when implementing what we think is appropriate in our own classrooms.
Do we respect the cultures of our children and embrace the fact that there is no one right way to do things? Do we acknowledge that there are many ways to parent, and that perhaps our own convictions might not work for everyone?
Emotional Development
Having the ability to understand and manage emotions is hugely important for growing children. Things to watch for: does the child show a wide range of emotions or only one or two over and over (this could be a problem); are they curious and do they adapt the way they play with specific toys; do they generally accept authority; can they initiate and maintain friendships; are they spontaneously affectionate? These are positive signs to look for as Smidt suggests we’re too often focused on the negative, trying to change or control ‘bad’ behaviours.
Are we encouraging and praising children as they learn about and deal with their own emotions?
First-Hand Experience
Children need to learn from their lived experiences where meaning is clearly attached and which do not require memory, before they can tackle more abstract concepts which tend to accompany formal schooling.
Are we giving children concrete objects and experiences to learn from? Can children make meaning from our teaching so that they’ll be able to expand on what they’ve learned later?
Guided Participation
In many cultures children learn skills by watching and copying others, often their parents or siblings. The great value here is that the activity is embedded in their lives and has a purpose and meaning that the child can clearly see.
Do we ever teach practical skills by engaging in the activity with children rather than instructing and then supervising? Do we respect the skills our kids are learning in their homes?
Higher Order Thinking
Smidt characterizes this as the ability to think abstractly and problem solve. She links it to other sections in her book such as asking questions, collaboration and first-hand experience, but also to culture, bilingualism, expert others and meaning. I particularly like her focus on the importance of attention and the need for teachers to encourage the use of multiple pathways for learning. We shouldn’t just be aware of what engages the group as a whole for eg, but what interests each individual child so that we can build our curriculum accordingly.
Are we encouraging higher order thinking by engaging children in activities they naturally love and will persist at?
Identity
Children develop their sense of identity through experiences and interactions with others. This includes the immediate and extended family as well as their communities. Identity is entwined with self-esteem and if children experience negative reactions towards themselves or their group it lowers their self-esteem and makes identity construction problematic.
Smidt suggests we encourage role play, allowing children to experience what it is to feel powerful or powerless, strong or weak and so forth.
Language Acquisition
Young children acquire language through listening and speaking, communicating with those around them and learning the ‘rules’ by accumulating examples over time. No one language is better than any other, all are used to communicate and share meaning. Do we praise the bilingual and multilingual kids in our classrooms for their cleverness in learning language so well?
Are we providing a language-rich environment? Are we singing songs, chanting rhymes and reading stories many times a day? Can our children see books and alphabets of their home languages?
Mark Making
Children start ‘writing’ long before they actually learn to do it properly! It’s commonly called mark making and describes the scribbles drawn by little ones when their intention is to communicate something in writing, just as they see others around them doing. And it’s not just scribble, they are already beginning to learn writing conventions while working on their fine motor skills at the same time.
Are we providing a print-rich environment in the languages of our children? Are there supplies handy for children to ‘write’ when they get inspired?
Neuroscience
We are learning more and more about the brain but are really only in the beginning stages. One of the most important discoveries has been regarding the plasticity, or flexibility, of the brain throughout life. Through everyday experiences and stimuli the brain adapts and changes. One interesting point Smidt makes is that neuroscience also has myths attached to it. One is that there are critical periods of learning as though if a child isn’t given the ‘proper’ stimulation from ages 1 to 3 they’ll have missed the boat. Plasticity continues throughout our lives, so we can always learn and develop our brains. And her second issue is the need for an enriched environment.
Scientists took rats from a sterile environment and placed them in a more natural rat-like habitat. They then demonstrated altered brain development. This was then extended to imply that children will do better in an enriched environment – except that young children do not generally live in a sterile environment. Smidt argues that the expensive educational toys people buy for young children are no great advantage. Living in a rural area or in poverty does not mean a child experiences less stimulation or positive experiences.
How do we provide a great environment for our kids’ brains? Do we rely on commercially bought products? Can we find creative and free ways to help our kids get their brains firing?
Outdoor Play
Playing outdoors gives children a greater opportunity to interact with each other in a more casual and larger-scale environment. Many countries now have laws that preschools must give their children access to the outdoors each day since research is consistently showing its benefits.
Are your little ones engaging in outdoor play that truly takes advantage of the natural environment? What could you do with your space to enhance it?
Play
Play is not the trivial activity that children engage in when they’ve finished their ‘work.’ It’s how they make sense of their world. They observe, explore, interact, ask questions and try to find answers. In other words, it’s a completely valid way to learn. Smidt (2015, p. 137) says it’s ‘serious, purposeful, often sustained, possibly intense, always self-initiated and engrossing.’
Do we know the interests and passions of our kids? Are we using those to create activities full of challenge and meaning? Are our kids being given the opportunity to choose for themselves?
Relationships
Children come to learn what is expected from them at school, at home, with their extended families and communities. For kids living across cultures these expectations can be quite different. For eg, we might expect children to look us in the eye when they speak, but this may be inappropriate at home. As teachers we need to be sensitive, aware and non-judgmental of the home cultures of our children. We also need to reflect on our own expectations that are based on our own cultural biases and genuinely mull over whether our expectations of our students are valid and in the best interests of each child.
Do we understand, and are we respectful towards, the sometimes conflicting expectations our kids face in their lives every day?
Significant Moments
When children do something for the first time, or make a leap in ability or understanding it’s called a significant moment! It’s a great time to praise and encourage a child. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering, for example, it might be the first time they put toothpaste on their brush without it falling off! Documentation is important in early childhood. Not so that we can prove to administration that we’re on top of things, but so that we are continuously and closely aware of our kids and how they’re learning.
Are we closely documenting our children so that we catch as many significant moments as possible? Are we encouraging children to teach each other?
Zone of Proximal Development
From Vygotsky, the ZPD is the gap between what a child can do independently and what they could do if they had a little help or support. Teachers often use this concept to imagine their kids’ abilities and skills gradually widening as the gap is closed and a new zone is needed to keep the child moving forward.
Are we challenging our kids adequately so they’ll move forward? Or are we challenging them too little or too much so that they give up either from boredom or anxiety?
To Finish
This post just scratches the surface of this very readable and interesting book on early childhood issues and I leave you with a quote from Vygotsky (1993, p.251) that Smidt emphasizes at the end of her book.
“Pedagogy must be oriented not to the yesterday, but to the tomorrow of the child’s development.”
We must teach what a child needs today, not what they needed yesterday!
Have you downloaded the poster yet?
If not, you can find the poster here!
Book Details
Sandra Smidt. (2015). An ABC of early childhood education: A guide to some of the key issues. Routledge Press. New York, NY.
Vygotsky, L. (1993). The collected works of L.S. Vygotsky, Vol 2: Fundamentals of defectology (R.Rieber & A. Carlton, Eds.) New York: Plenum
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