Pedagogical Practices For Social And Emotional Development, Language Skills, Phonological Awareness, And Word Learning Essay.

Question 1

Question 1

To complete this task refer to your reading at the back of your assessment book:

• Belonging, Being and Becoming the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.

Note: To complete this task you will need to reflect on the knowledge you have gained in relation to social and emotional development.

Read the Learning Outcome and Indicator of the EYLF listed in the table below and suggest one pedagogical practice (educator strategy) that will support the achievement of the related group goals. Think about:

• The age of the group.
• Educator strategies.
• Routines.

a.Children will engage in routine self-help tasks.

b.Children will develop a trusting relationship with staff.

a.Children will engage in routine self-help tasks.

b.Children will develop a trusting relationship with peers.

a.Children will reflect on their actions and consider consequences for others.

b.Children will confidently explore and engage in the children’s services environment.

Question 2

To complete this task refer to (pp. 160 –161) of your textbook ‘Frameworks for Learning and Development‘.

Identify the language skills for each age group.

Question 3

To complete this task refer to your reading:

• Phonological Awareness.

Research has shown that phonological awareness is related to the child’s ability to learn to read. Phonological awareness develops along a continuum, from simple to complex.

Refer to the reading and provide a practical example of how educators can support children’s learning and development for the following levels of the continuum. You are to cover each of the following in skills in phonological awareness continuum:

• Listening
• Rhyming
• Alliteration
• Sentences and words
• Syllables

Question 4

To complete this task refer to your reading:

• Letters and Words.

a)What benefits do children derive from learning specific skills related to letters and words?

b)Explain why teaching the alphabet using the “Letter of the week” is not a best practice model within the early years?

c)List five activities/experiences that educators could provide children that will support them to gain knowledge of letters and words in a meaningful way.  

There  must be a combination of using resources at the “centre” and those that you can create with toddlers/children.  You will need to select two (one of each)  and implement in the classroom.

Question 5

To complete this task refer to (pp. 19 – 24) of your reading:

• Literacies, Communities and Under 5’s.

Consider the different types of texts referred to in the reading and prepare a list of resources and/or experiences you could add to the environment to support the children’s interest in trains.

Question 6

To complete this task refer to your reading:

• Let the children play. Natures answer to early learning.

The children in the preschool room move the tunnel away from the obstacle course to play a variety of new games with it.

a)Describe  the reasons Hewes gives for why children’s opportunities to play are under threat.

b)What is Rubin, Fein & Vandenburg’s definition of play behaviour?

c)How can  educators facilitate and support children’s play?

You are supervising the preschool outdoor area and hear your colleague say to the children “Put the tunnel back near the obstacle course where it is meant to be, I hope you will then use it properly or I will have to pack it away”.

d)What would you say to your colleague to assist her in understanding the nature of spontaneous play?

Question 7

To complete this task refer to your readings:

• Belonging, Being and Becoming the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.
• Code of Ethics.

Part A: Written questions

Question 1

Toddler Group (18 months – 2 years) Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity Indicator: Children feel safe, secure, and supported
Goals	Pedagogical practices
a. Children will engage in routine self-help tasks.	Self feeding should be encouraged with the help of pedagogical practices. Infants will be provided with finger foods as well as liquid foods like milk in feeding bottle. Educator will encourage them to hold the bottle by themselves while drinking (Sumsion et al. 2009).
b. Children will develop a trusting relationship with staff.	The educator should show warmth and welcoming attitude towards the children. The children should understand that the educator is happy to see them, sharing as well as laughing with them.
Preschool Group (3 years – 6 years) Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity Indicator: Children feel safe, secure, and supported
Goals	Pedagogical practices
a. Children will engage in routine self-help tasks.	The educator will introduce spoon as well as fork to the children (both made of plastic and does not have sharp edges) for eating fruits and cakes. Plenty of time will be provided to the children for practicing.
b. Children will develop a trusting relationship with peers.	Children should be encouraged to platy with each other. Group activities (both indoor and outdoor) like planting trees and gardening should be introduced where children will work as a group.
Toddler Group (18 months – 2 years) Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity Indicator: Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
Goals	Pedagogical practices
a. Children will become aware of the how their actions affect others.	The educator should answer and react appropriately to the curiosity of the children.
b. Children will confidently explore and engage in the children’s services environment.	The educator should provide independency to the children while continuously looking after his or her activity. Children should be allowed to go creative and interactive. Persistence and creativity enables children to participate in and gain from learning
Preschool Group (3 years – 6 years) Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity Indicator: Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
Goals	Pedagogical practices
a. Children will reflect on their actions and consider consequences for others.	Educator should start one to one interactions with the children along with organizing learning environments in a way that will promote small group interactions as well as play experiences.
b. Children will confidently explore and engage in the children’s services environment.	Educators should acknowledge as well as respond sensitively to the cues as well as signals provided by the children along with responding sensitively too the attempts of the children to initiate conversation as well as interactions. Educators should provide support and secure the attachment with the children through consistent as well as worm nurturing relationships.

Question 2

Identify the language skills for each age group.

Approximate Age:

• 0 - 3 months: Attending to voices as well as sounds
• 3 - 6 months: Recognising facial expression as well as tones of voice (John-Steiner and Mahn 1996).
• 6 - 9 months:
  • Attending to voices as well as sounds
  • Recognising facial expressions as well as voice tone
• 9 - 12 months
  • Responding to commands or requests like come here, sit down.
  • Understanding gestures like waving hand for saying good bye.
  • Babling
  • Understanding simple questions
• 12 - 18 months
  • Talking turn as well as vocalizing others
  • Recognizing the name of few objects
  • Responding to their own name
  • Following simple instructions like give the ball to mummy.
• 2 - 2 ½ years
  • Having approximately 50-100 words in their vocabulary by 2 years.
  • Joining 2 words together like “ daddy go”
  • Comprehending one key word in a sentence
  • Pointing to main body parts, clothing items, toys and food when asked
• 2 ½  - 5 years
  • Naming actions
  • Using at least 50-100 words in their vocabulary.
  • Talking about present events.
  • Asking What, Where, Why, When& How
  • Using nearly 1500 words in their vocabulary by 4 years

Question 3

Refer to the reading and provide a practical example of how educators can support children’s learning and development for the following levels of the continuum. You are to cover each of the following in skills in phonological awareness continuum:

Listening: In order to make the children pay attention to phonemes, the educator can sing a already known poem with wrong words. For instance, if the educator sing “Dow, dow, dow your boat, gently down the stream”, the children will automatically say that “no, its row”.

Rhyming: Educator can encourage the children to join in as well as repeat rhyming songs, poems and finger plays.

Alliteration: Educator can provide the students with a word and tell them to recognize a word with similar initial sound

Sentences and words: Educators can provide the children with all the words of a simple sentence and ask the children to construct it correctly.

Syllables: The children should be taught to clap syllables of own name as well as familiar words.

Question 4

1. What benefits do children derive from learning specific skills related to letters and words?

According to Lundberg, Frost and Petersen  (1988), the understanding of the alphabetic principle by the children is a predictor of their future reading success. Learning the skills associated with letter s and words helps the children to recognize and name letters, recognize the beginning of words known by them, especially when it comes to their own name.

1. Explain why teaching the alphabet using the “Letter of the week” is not a best practice model within the early years?

The letter of the week is not considered to be the best practice since it possesses several limitations. Firstly, it is highly time consuming. Since one letter is focused per week. Secondly, since letter of the week focuses on letters an sounds in isolation, it becomes difficult for students to understand and apply letter-sound knowledge to real reading and writing (Heroman and Jones 2004). 

1. List fiveactivities/experiences that educators could provide children that will support them to gain knowledge of letters and words in a meaningful way.  
2. Teachers can display the alphabet by posting the alphabet at the eye level of the children.
3. Teachers can incorporate group reading in order to enhance the knowledge of words.
4. Teacher can keep alphabet books in the library area so that children can explore them together.
5. Teachers can incorporate children while singing the alphabet song. This will help the later to get familiarize with the names and the orders of the letter.
6. Teachers can introduce shapes to the students.

Question 5

Consider the different types of texts referred to in the reading and prepare a list of resources and/or experiences you could add to the environment to support the children’s interest in trains.

Types of texts	Resources
Everyday Texts	Bus tickets, Graffiti, receipts
Paper-based texts	Books, journals, photos, newspapers
Oral texts	Oral stories, talking, conversations, oral recounts as well as procedures
Digital Texts	Telephones mobile phones, e-mails, CD-ROMs, DVDs (Jones Diaz et al. 2001)
The arts	Opera, dance, drama, music
Texts of popular culture	Star wars, Footy show, Winnie the Pooh, Pokémon, Sea Change

Question 6

1. Describe the reasons Hewes gives for why children’s opportunities to play are under threat.

According to Hewes, the physical as well as social environments of the childhood in the western world have got changed dramatically in the past decades. While children are spending significant amount of time in peer-group settings, these settings are more focused on structured educational as well as recreational activities that in turn is leaving little time for participation in a self initiated, open ended free play. The author is concerned about the fact that the access to outdoor play opportunities in natural environments of the neighbour is gradually vanishing  due to the safety concerns of the parents.

1. What is Rubin, Fein & Vandenburg’s definition of play behaviour?

According to Rubin, Fein and Vandenburg, play behaviour can be defined as controlled by players, non literal, intrinsically motivated and free of externally imposed rules. The author stated that ideal play behaviour should be characterized by the active engagement of the players.  

1. How can educators facilitate and support children’s play?

According to researchers, educators should focus both on facilitating the spontaneous free play of the children as well as promoting playful approaches to early learning. The role of the educator is to motivate the children to play and  pay close attention to them while they are playing. They should also support the learning play of the children by becoming co players, providing guidance when the game becomes frustrating or requires additional knowledge or skills (Hewes 2006).  

Question 2

You are supervising the preschool outdoor area and hear your colleague say to the children “Put the tunnel back near the obstacle course where it is meant to be, I hope you will then use it properly or I will have to pack it away”.

1. What would you say to your colleague to assist her in understanding the nature of spontaneous play?

I will educate my colleague about the importance of letting children play freely without any constraints. I will help him/her to understand that free playing will help his/her student to be innovative, making the world more interesting to them.

Question 7

Scenario 1

1. How has this experience supported the sense of community within the service?

This activity helped the children to understand thee concept of relationship and community. They understood that parents and siblings are a major part of the community they belongs to. This experience has therefore promoted the mental health as well s wellbeing of the children.

Scenario 2

1. What ethical issues have Raoul’s comments raised?

Some parents feels uncomfortable to let their child gain knowledge about same sex couples at such a young age. Considering the fact that families across the world are diverse from having same sex families to having different religions add culture, children needs to understand and accept the diversities (Australia 2006).

1. What opportunities could you provide for the children to investigate these ethical issues?

In order to investigate the issue, the following action can be taken by the educator;

1. Firstly, educator should initiate a group discussion based on different types of families.
2. Educators needs to educate the children about the cultural as well as religious diversities across the world.

Question 8

Checklist of milestones for 1-2 years

		Yes	NO
Social and Emotional	Likes to hand things to others
	Sometimes have temper tantrums
	Afraid of strangers
	Shows defiant behaviours Gets exited while playing with other children
	Demonstrate independence
	Demonstrate affection to family
	Explore alone but needs parents to be close by
Physical	Walks alone
	Pulls toys while walking
	Gains the potential to walk steps and run
	Drinks from cups
	Eats from spoon
Cognitive	Posses knowledge about ordinary things like telephone, brush, spoons
	Points to one body part
	Scribbles on his own
	Points to get the attention of others
	Scribbles by their own
Communication	Utters several single words
	Says as well as shakes head
	Points to people  or things he or she wants
	Follow simple instructions
	Knows names of familiar people and body parts

Question 9

1. Identify the Quality Area and element from the NQS that relates to children’s agency.

The quality area from NQS that relates children agency includes the quality area 1.

1. Identify the sub-elements within Learning Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity that relates most closely to children’s agency.
   • Children feel safe, secure, and supported
   • Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience and sense of agency
   • Children develop knowledgeable and confident self identities
   • Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
2. Identify the element in QA3 Physical Environment that relates most closely to the provision of creative experiences in children’s services with regard to resources.

• Outdoor and indoor spaces, buildings, fixtures and fittings are suitable for their purpose, including supporting the access of every child.
• Premises, furniture and equipment are safe, clean and well maintained.

1. Identify the sub-elements within Learning Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners that relate to children’s creativity in regards to learning.

4.2 Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesizing, researching and investigating

4.3 Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) 2011)

4.4 Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials

1. Which sub-elements within Learning Outcome 5: Children are effective communicator’s, link to children’s creativity in regard to communication?

The sub element 4.4 that is, Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies and natural and processed materials, link to children’s creativity in regard to communication.

Question 10

1. What do Drew and Rankin (2004) define as the threekey goals for engaging in the creative arts? 

The three goals of engaging in the creative arts includes communicate, think and feel. The chief objective of creative art, as per Drew and Rankin (2004), includes expressing thoughts as well as feelings through movement and express visual perception.

1. List and describe Drew and Rankin’s  principles of using open ended materials and provide an example for each (Drew and Rankin 2004).
2. Children’s spontaneous, creative self-expression increases their sense of competence and well-being now and into adulthood
3. Children extend and deepen their understandings through multiple, hands-on experiences with diverse materials.
4. Children’s play with peers supports learning and a growing sense of competence.
5. Children can learn literacy, science, and mathematics joyfully through active play with diverse, open-ended materials.
6. Children learn best in open-ended explorations when teachers help them make connections.
7. Teachers are nourished by observing children’s joy and learning.
8. Ongoing self-reflection among teachers in community is needed to support these practices.

Question 11

1. How does Kable (2010) define loose parts?

According to Kable (2010), loose parts can be defined as the materials that can be carried, moved, redesigned, combined, lined up and taken apart as well as put back in multiple ways.

1. Why should play spaces include loose parts?

The chief reasons are:

1. Children can themselves decides how they wants to use loose parts
2. It enhances the imaginative and imaginary power of the students
3. Loose parts can be manipulated as well as adapted in several ways
4. It encourages open-ended learning.

Question 12

1. How is creative movement defined by Bergstein Dow (2010)?

According to Bergstein Dow (2010), creative dance can be defined as an art from and the human body in movement is considered to be its medium.

1. What are the four basic elements of dance?

The four basic elements of creative dance include space, time, ranges of movement and energy.

1. What are the benefits of dance for young children in Early Childhood settings identified by Bergstein Dow (2010).

According to the researcher, creative dance posses the potential to open up a series of imaginative possibilities for the children. Besides that, it has all the benefits of physical activities and thus accelerate children’s physical development (Dow2010).

1. Describe onemovement and/or dance activity for each age group

One of the dance activity that can be described includes a jumping activity when the children moves their head, arms, shoulders and fingers.

Question 13

1. How do Leong and Bodrova (2012) describe dramatic play?

According to Leong and Bodrova (2012), a dramatic play can be defined as the fantasy world created by children where imagination and language skill gets enhanced and their social skills get developed.

1. List some of the benefits of well-developed play on development.

Question 3

Some of the major benefits of a well developed play are that it enhances the imaginative power of the students, enhances their social communication skills as well as language skills (Leong  and Bodrova 2012).

1. What reason is given by the authors for suggesting that educators must support (engage in intentional teaching) play?

Educators must support play to assess the social learning ability o the students as well as their behaviours.

1. The authors have developed a strategy for assessing and scaffolding children’s play which they refer to as PRoPELS. What are the key components of this concept?

Planning the children’s play, their ability to take on and maintain Roles, usage of Props, Extended time frame, children’s use of Language, and the quality of play Scenarios.

1. List and describe the five stages of children’s make-believe play as suggested by Leong and Bodrova (2012).

The five stages are Plan, Roles,Props,  Extended , Time frame , Language and  Scenario.

Question 14

1. Explain why this strategy is appropriate for a group of preschoolers?

Eric Carle pictures are collages not paintings. According too him he had began with using tissue papers and continued by using different types of colours and acrylics. This strategy is appropriate for children it helps the children to create pictures using his or her imaginative power. It enhances their knowledge of shades as well as develops their motor skills.

1. Explain how this experience challenges children’s thinking?

This experience challenges students thinking since it is different fro the conventional painting they are used to. Children need to think about which colour paper should be used in order to create the picture he or she wants to create,.

In this scenario the educator chose to provide an experience which she believed would provoke children’s interest.

1. Explain why it is essential to introduce children to new knowledge and skills which may not arise if the educator were to only follow the children’s current interests?

Children should always be introduced to new knowledge ad skills in order to develop their imaginative ad critical thinking capacity. They should be compelled to move out of their comfort zone and practice curriculum that are new to them.

Question 15

The educators in the children’s room collaborate to plan further experiences on the interest in water buffalos. How can the educators use intentional teaching to extend the children’s learning as a follow-up from the visit to the farm where the children saw the water buffalo?

In order to extend the learning as well as follow up of the children from the visit of the farm, the following steps should be taken by the educator.

1. The educators can ask each of the student that what have significantly caught their attention in the firm
2. Then the educator can provide the children with information about water buffalos. Since the child already poses knowledge about buffalos it will become easier and interesting for them.  

Part B: Case Studies

1. What advice/information would you provide Bella’s parent?

I, as a educator will provide comfort to Bella’s mother and educator him about the impact of genetic factors that impose adverse impact on the development of the child. Along with that, I will suggest Bella’s parent’s to take initiatives in order to make her muscle developed. Apart from this, I will also suggest walker for her. Since a walker will involve putting her toes n the ground and she will also have to struggle for pushing the walker to move ahead, the whole act will enhance her muscle development. Finally, I will suggest them to consult a pediatrician so that they can find out whether Bella is suffering from low muscle tone or not.

Case study 2

1. How can the educator intervene to assist Erin to appropriate pro-social skills?

Thee educator should provide Erin two or three options of games that she usually likes to play. Along with that the educator can suggest that he/she can play with her, if she wants to. While playing with an alternative game, the educator should educate Erin that Charlie is her friend and if he wants to play by his own, Erin should respect his opinion. The educator should also suggest Erin to ask Charlie that she would like to play with the floor puzzle once he finish playing with it.  

Case Study 3

1. Explain how you could apply Vygotsky’s theory working with Rabiyah?

As an educator, to apply the theory of Vygotsky, I will do the following:

1. I will talk to Rabiyah’s father and request him to demonstrate his hobby o all the students of the classroom including Rabiyah.
2. I will demonstrate different ways by which patents are formed.
3. I will provide Rabiyah books that will enlighten her about the patterns that originated in different countries.
4. I will also help her to explore the nature in order to assess  patterns that are formed naturally  
5. What everydaymaterials could you provide for Rabiyah to create patterns?
6. Books for looking for patterns
7. Paper and pencils for creating patterns
8. Tissue rolls
9. Allow her to explore patterns in the environment.

Case Study 4

1. What additional resources could you add?

As a educator, I will like to read out the book “The hidden treasure” as well as discuss the story with the children. In order to enhance their excitement, I will advice them to bury the gold in the school playground and go for a gold hunt.  The additional resources will be spade, bucket, compass, notebook, pencil and binoculars.

1. How could you include maths and literacy in this experience?

I will include indications of the directions like east, west, north and south. I will also ask them to design maps as well as clues that can be found the treasure.

Reference List

Australia, E.C., 2006. Code of ethics. Early Childhood Australia.

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), 2011. Guide to the National Quality Standard.

Dow, C.B., 2010. The Power of Creative Dance. Young Children, 31, p.30.

Drew, W.F. and Rankin, B., 2004. Promoting creativity for life using open-ended materials. YC Young Children, 59(4), p.38.

Heroman, C. and Jones, C., 2004. Literacy: The creative curriculum approach. Teaching Strategies.

Hewes, J., 2006. Let the children play: Nature's answer to early learning. Early Childhood Learning Knowledge Centre.

John-Steiner, V. and Mahn, H., 1996. Sociocultural approaches to learning and development: A Vygotskian framework. Educational psychologist, 31(3-4), pp.191-206.

Jones Diaz, C., Beecher, B., Arthur, L., Ashton, J., Hayden, J., Makin, L., McNaught, M. and Clugston, L., 2001. Literacies, Communities and Under-5s. Sydney, NSW Department of Education and Training and NSW Department of Community Services.

Leong, D.J. and Bodrova, E., 2012. Make-Believe Play. Young children, p.29.

Lundberg, I., Frost, J. and Petersen, O.P., 1988. Effects of an extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool children. Reading research quarterly, pp.263-284.

Sumsion, J., Barnes, S., Cheeseman, S., Harrison, L., Kennedy, A. and Stonehouse, A., 2009. Insider perspectives on developing belonging, being & becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 34(4), pp.4-14.