Technician

For this blog, I will discuss the aspects of being a Technician. There are numerous ways in which educators and parents can foster cognitive, language and communication development,motor and concentration skills.  This brings out the best in young children and nurtures their outlook in positive and confidence.
At the age of four years, the Cognitive Development of children is at an optimum level.  Their thinking and listening skills are at full capacity.  Children are able to hold their attention on a particular aspect for between ten to fifteen minutes.  Their imaginations are very vivid and they can remember past events and happenings very well.  Children can invent monsters and princesses, along with other scary objects readily.  Favourite songs and tunes come to mind easily as they recall familiar events and experiences.  It is at this time of children's development that concepts such as big, little, tall, short, bigger, smaller and so on can be readily understood and absorbed by children.  They can count five objects easily and adhere to following three instructions at one time.  New experiences and concepts can be introduced simply and readily for their young minds to absorb.  The spectrum of different colours is easily learnt.  Along with this, children of around the ages of four, will often 'who, what, why or where'.

Social and Emotional Development can be further encouraged, when children are given praise and encouragement when it is deserved.  Their self-confidence is generally at a peak and they are not adverse to being separated from their parents for periods of time. Children enjoy playing with their peers, sharing and co-operation.  However there are times when they can and will become verbally angry and jealous at times, if they feel irregular about circumstances around them. Language and Communication Development.is also at an optimal level.  Children use complete sentences,ask many questions and are aware of the power of words.  Being imaginative, children can also be bossy at times, so it is a good time to invoke socially acceptable words such as 'please' and 'thank you' into the minds of young children.    Muscle development is another field of growth whereby fine and gross motor skills can be learned and practised upon by children.  They need plenty of opportunities to exercise their young bodies.
Activities such as climbing up and down stairs, running, hopping on one foot, balancing for a few seconds on each foot, kicking balls forward, throwing them overhead and catching bouncing balls, helps to build their motor skills.  Playing hopscotch and other games of skill improves concentration and control over children's
Children can be taught how to grasp a racquet in their hands, to hit balloons with one hand at a time. Spatial awareness skills are used further when children learn how to stop moving balls by placing a plastic cone over them. Throwing a ball into a  large bucket from a short distance, jumping over lines using the same pattern of movement, walking up and down stairs with some precision, to a set pattern of movement builds gross motor skills and confidence for children in undertaking daily activities.  As children grow and learn, their confidence will increase and this will lead to them aspiring to perform more difficult tasks.

Concentration skills can also be encouraged by drawing simple objects, complete simple puzzles, printing and reading aloud.  Building towers with blocks, educators and parents reading to children, telling stories, writing, reading and teaching children new words increases their learning skills and capabilities.  Children can be taught how to read numbers, if educators print large sized-numerals, supplied with paper and note-books and writing materials.  Independence and self-esteem grows also when dress-ups and props are given for children to 'play out' their imaginations, along with 'grocery shop' play.   Numeracy skills can be further learnt by teaching children to sort and count rocks, leaves, silverware and other objects.  They can be shown examples of the words such as 'on, under, over, large, small, larger, smaller. big and bigger'.  Educators could write these words on large flashcards and show them to the children, placing the same relevant sized objects alongside of the flashcards.  Over time and with practice, children will understand these concepts of size and their differences.  Placing large sized picture books with relevant texts in a reading/library corner and having a good quantity of text books available for children to read in a comfortable, quiet corner of the children's centre or kindergarten will help them to consider literary learning.  Children also learn literacy in some of its many multi-modal ways, when they see and read relevant texts located in various rooms inside the childcare centre or kindergarten.  Outside technical knowledge can be given to children as they learn about the variations in height, the various shapes of playground equipment, the different lengths of tunnels that children can crawl through, water play areas and sand pits all add to children's knowledge and their tactile
and spatial awareness. Taken from the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, on page 46, learning is described as a natural process of exploration that children engage in from birth as they expand their intellectual, physical, social, emotional and creative capacities.  Early learning is closely linked to early development.   Consequently the learning framework which technicians provide, provides general goals or outcomes for children's learning and how they might be attained.  It also provides a scaffold to assist early childhood settings to develop their own, more detailed curriculum.  Learning outcomes of skill, knowledge or disposition that educators can actively promote in early childhood setting, in collaboration with children and families. leads further on to building learning relationships that further encourage children's learning and development.  Both the adult and the child have intent to learn from each other.


References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0TGczdbiV4

The Early Years learning Framework for Australia:  Belonging, Being & Becoming  (page 46)

Participant

This blog will focus on the Participation of young children.  I will discuss the literary and numeracy concepts being used by the children, up to the ages of around four years of age.

In the first U-Tube a young boy Layan is shown practising his reading skills from the age of 1 year and 5 months up to the age of 4 years and 3 months.  At the beginning of his reading development program, Layan is shown flashcards introduced by his mother.  She speaks out words such as tongue, nose and ladder: words that are known to the child.  His mother is encouraging and positive as Layan recites these familiar words, already known to him.  As words are pointed to in the book that Layan knows, this reinforces the learning process.  As time goes by, more and more words will be added to his memory. especially key words that are well-illustrated in an educational and functional book.   By the age of 2 years and 1 month, Layan can remember the word  'pillow', and by the age of 2 years and 4 months, he shows excitement at knowing learned words.  As Layan learns more sounds, he reaches the stage whereby at the age of 4, he is able to read the words 'Happy Birthday' on a newly received card.  Layan's reading skills continue to improve, as he can now read to himself out loud and is reading well by the age of 4 years and 3 months.

The second U-Tube clip is known as Wee Bee World.  This is a small clip that illustrates numeracy in a young animated setting.  The animated characters used are a bee, who is the principle educator in this small series.  Firstly a single giraffe and a lone monkey appear on an animated screen, where the number two is displayed as a bright and colourful number. Then a further giraffe is added along with the lone monkey. This naturally equate three animals. Lastly three giraffes are added to the screen with the monkey, equating to  four animal characters. This clip emphasises Basic Maths Skills for young children, being a passive way for children  to learn.


The next film clip that I observed is titled 'Teachers TV Drama 4 Learning - Maths Through Drama at Key Stage 1.

In this video clip the children are actively involved, as they sing to the cue of the drama teacher.  She has introduced drama into their maths learning and at around the age of four years, these young children are able to readily absorb creative and educational concepts easily.  At this young stage of their lives, children have vivid imaginations and much energy to match.  The talented teacher combined the concepts of maths learning with drama.  She brought maths into her role and found  that the children are keen to learn more.  They are naturally interested in solving maths problems, most likely because the teacher has introduced new maths learning in a fun way.  She made the comment that usually when the children finish their normal set work, they would put their work away.  The teacher commented that they continue to ask relevant questions about maths and numeracy (at their level), readily and easily instead.  In one of the drama skits, the teacher took on the role of a Chef.  She was able to incorporate maths learning into the world of cooking and undoubtedly the concepts of basic maths which the  children are already being taught, would become more meaningful to them.  This is because these skills are being introduced to their everyday world of cooking, (in this example) and at their present level of understanding.  This video highlights the relevance and importance of maths in many of the normal aspects of life.  Enabling children to understand the maths concepts in a creative and easy manner, will add encouragement to their future maths solving skills, encouraging them to solve these concepts in the real world and giving them a basis for future learning. 


References

1. 4 year old child reading - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WPZ4xG07qk
2. Teachers' TV 'Drama 4 Learning' - Maths Through Drama at Key Stage 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0u16p4wyoE
3. Adding For Toddlers, Pre-School and Kindergarten Children - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDuHlhbV920

User

A two year and a three year old boy and girl are playing together.  One of the children tends to 'lead' the play.  Their play is relaxed, being free from adult-instructed or educator-initiated rules or advice.  Each of the children are happily engaged in their own play, yet both interact socially.


A boy and girl are running down a footpath together.  The boy stops by a building and slides himself along the pavement, while the girl hops around near by him.  They both enjoy each other's company and their play is individual, yet co-constructed.  Often each child observes what the other child is doing.  The children do not always follow each other's play patterns.
The boy is not at all restricted in his play, at sliding, wearing no socks or shoes that may hinder his play.  They both observe a large trailer, the girl attempting to push it and then swing on it.  The boy moves around beside the girl and then he chooses to run away from her.  The girl runs to meet up with him, after he has run off from her. Then the girl pushes the boy on a tricycle, running after him again as he circles around a building.  The next action the boy takes is to ride upon a tricycle.  The girl consequently chooses to climb inside or a red and yellow plastic car-mobile that is positioned nearby.  The boy soon alights from the tricycle, then climbing back onto it, soon after. They play well alongside of each other and each participates in their own chosen course of play.  Although the children do not mutually take part in the same activities, they do enjoy each other's company and inspire each other to play at roles that are conducive to their vivid and unrestricted imaginations.

An educator could inspire the children to combine their play efforts in a more cohesive manner.  For example, he/she could encourage each child to take turns at riding on the tricycle and the car-mobile.  The children could be encouraged to ask questions as to what the trailer that is free-standing nearby, is normally used for.  Children enjoy free play and are naturally sociable beings. This is an innate trait within all very young and young children.  There are also times whereby children can be challenged in constructive play patterns.  As they mix with their peers, they absorb the ideas of their playmates;  whether this involves 'free play' or initiated or rote learning by their educators or parents.

When children 'play out' dramas in 'real life', they 'act out' their own made-up dramas. 
Taken from Page 7 of 'Teaching Literacy through Drama", 
it states that when a child is able to operate in abstract and imagined play-worlds with other children, the time is ripe for teachers and other empathetic adults to move in alongside the children, with a clear learning agenda.  Literacy skills are gradually learned as children learn to socialise, despite their playing solitarily, yet alongside of teach other.  Adults can act as models for the pretending process and demonstrate how language, gesture and action can be appropriately used to explore and open up a variety of situations.   During times of parallel dramatic play alongside another child or adult, children negotiate dramatic play with their peer/s or adults,  The end result is that they are participating in drama.  At times a child may well begin to play solitarily and dramatically by themselves, until another child chooses to join in, as is the case in the U-tube described above.  An adult looking on : (see Page 8), - may observe and support the children's play, interacting with them in their parallel dramatic play.  He/she can support and interact in or out of role, providing structure of shared drama experience in or out of role as the children's play progresses.  Referring to Page 9 of "Teaching Literacy through Drama". written by P. Baldwin and K. Fleming; Drama invites emotional engagement and a sense of identity as part of a group (this includes parallel play with another peer).  Play provides powerful contexts for speaking and listening, provides opportunities for the children to communicate their thoughts, ideas and feelings. provides a means of understanding symbolism and the juxtaposition of words and silence.  Should an educator or teacher have joined in with the children's play, they could have introduced significant opportunities for the stimulation of interactive pupil response, thereby creating a catalyst for communication by the children.   The educator or teacher could encourage story-making development in the children's play, involving the creation of imaginary characters, settings and plots. Mathematical development can be learned when a child or children enjoy dramatic play and imagined drama contexts.  Both the boy or girl are using their vivid imaginations while playing alongside of each other.   They are both engaging in abstract forms which they portray in visual and tactile form.  At the same time, the children are finding reasons for thinking mathematically in order to use and apply mathematics in a powerful imaginary context, giving motivating reasons for finding solutions and problem-solving.  When the children use the tricycle and the car-mobile, they are exercising mathematical skills and logical reasoning.  They both ride their 'vehicles' on the footpath, keeping safe and away from traffic or any obstacles.
Referring to the Early Years Framework for Australia curriculum booklet, play-based learning is described as a context for learning through which children organise and make sense of their social worlds, as they engage actively with people, objects and representations.  Therefore, the innate and natural abilities and desires of young children to join in aspects of play provides an indisputable foundation and unlimited scope for the development of very young and young children's literacy and numerical skills.  The 'free' and non-adult initiated play by the two children who I observed on the U- video website provides this evidence. 






References:

Youtube.com - How 2 year old and 3 year old toddlers play together - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_tmbZFSmRQ


Teaching Literacy through Drama:  Baldwin P. and Fleming K.:   RoutledgeFarmer, 2003
(Creative approaches)


The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia - P46
(Belonging, Being  & Becoming)

Barbara Furler.
St. No:  2075318