Week 9 Reading Blog

What?

This week I wanted to learn more about language development and more specifically how children use language to represent their understandings and I will be able to support this learning. Since reading about babies and toddlers I have since become interested in their learning and how it differs from older children. I have also been curious to learn more about the way babies communicate non-verbally when they are unable to communicate using spoken language and which signs they display to be able to interact with adults and other children. Therefore the two readings I selected for week nine were:

- ‘Talk To Me, Baby’ by Betty Bardige and M. Kori Bardige (2008)
- ‘Infants and Toddlers Exploring Mathematics’ by Eugene Geist (2009)

My reasons for selecting these readings in particular were that they both provided practical examples of contextualised behaviour, therefore allowing me to reflect on what I had experienced. Both articles also broke down the learning into observable categories, which would be handy for future use. As I sometimes have trouble breaking the learning down whilst observing and figuring out what to look for I wish to develop my skills in this area by reading about specific behavioural signals that I can refer to when analysing the learning that is taking place.

Now What?

The main points in both articles emphasised the importance of interaction in early language, literacy and numeracy development and how when we interact with children we often modify our language use to scaffold their understanding, introduce them to new concepts and vocabulary and support their interest by engaging them in new experiences that appeal to their curiosity (Bardige & Bardige, 2008; Geist, 2009). The article by Bardige & Bardige (2008) identified that children begin to develop their language from before they are born and begin to develop their initial understandings based on interaction and imitation. When a child is unable to communicate verbally they use gestures and similar verbal sounds (baby ‘babbel’, p.6), before progressing to single word utterances and finally multiple words to form sentences.

Similarly in the article by Geist (2009) children begin to develop numeracy skills right from birth through interaction and everyday experience. Geist (2009) describes the role of the educator as very important in scaffolding learning when they ‘...offer materials and activities that provide appropriate levels of challenge, help children question their own assumptions, and encourage them to think about and recognise relationships between objects’ (p.40). Here are some examples of learning provided by Geist (2009, p.40), which could be overlooked, yet provides valuable mathematical understandings:

 

 

 

(Geist, 2009, p.40)

 

Now What?

It is important for educators to understand the interconnectedness of literacy and numeracy and how simple, everyday learning experiences can provide beneficial understandings and concrete representations. For example, before reading these articles I would have been unaware that simply drinking out of a round cup is part of literacy and numeracy development, or the value of purely reading to a child and just talking in aiding language and communication development. With this knowledge I feel I am more capable at being able to scaffold children’s learning during spontaneous learning situations.

 

References:

Bardige, B. & Bardige, M. (2008). Talk to me, baby! Supporting language development in the first 3 years. Zero to Three, September, 4-10

 

 

Geist, E. (2009). Infants and Toddlers Exploring Mathematics. Young Children, 64(3), 39-41.