OBSERVING COMMUNICATION

MY OBSERVATION:

My observation took place in a preschool classroom with four year-olds.  After an extended time of free choice play the teacher announced that it was time to clean-up.  She turned on a song that seemed to trigger, for most, a time of transition.  Many children stopped what they were doing and began to put the toys, games, and materials on their places on the shelves.  There was one little boy that continued to cut a piece of paper at the table.  The teacher told him twice "it is time to finish and put away the scissors."  This child did not respond and continued to cut.  After encouraging other children to clean up the teacher returned to the boy at the table and this time bent down so that she was eye level with him.  She put her hand on his so he would stop cutting and said, "I know you are working very hard to cut this paper, but we are getting the room ready so that we can go outside."  The little boy shook his head and said "no."  The teacher said, "If you would like to finish what you are doing you can put the paper in your cubby and finish it this afternoon, would you like to do that?"  The little boy smiled and nodded and stood up from the table immediately and put the paper in his cubby and put the scissors away.

REFLECTION

I was so impressed by this interaction because the teacher was able to get what she wanted and still value the needs and wants of the child.  Children do not understand the schedules that the adults in their lives make.  They become really comfortable with routines, but schedules are different.  A schedule has the influence of time restrictions.  Children are not usually opposed to routines, but often the adult time schedule does not coincide with a child's schedule.  One of our goals as early childhood educators is to see children truly engage in activities that are self-motivated.  When we force a child to stop what they are doing because of a schedule it sends a message that we do not value what they are doing compared to what we have planned.  When this teacher gave the boy the option to continue his cutting activity at another time he received the message that what he was doing is valuable, and it allowed  him to be more open to move on with the schedule.  

In order to communicate with children in this way the teacher used a step back approach that allowed her to look at the situation from the child's perspective and respond in a way that both parties got what they needed (Stephenson, 2009).  It is so important to effective communication for adults to remember that children are whole people with their own thoughts and ideas about what and how they want to do things.  It is harder to make a child understand our perspective as adults when we can not understand their perspective.  When the boy in the observation felt he was being listened to then he was immediately more willing to listen to what the teacher needed.

Key Points in Effective Communication Strategies with Young Children (Laureate Education Inc., 2011):

• Watch children's play
• Ask open-ended questions
• Go slow
• Be receptive to their oral and body language
• Be respectful of their ideas (do not laugh unless they are laughing)

I found this video does an excellent job of summarizing the important key elements of effective communicating with young children.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Strategies for working with diverse children: Communicating with young children. Baltimore, MD: Author

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-year-old. YC: Young Children, 64(2), 90-95. Retrieved from the Walden Library using the Education Research Complete database. http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=37131016&site=ehost-live&scope=site