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Documenter: Brittany Ly

Age group of children: 12-18 months

The centre I did my placement is Explorers Early Learning Williamstown, which is inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy. There are 10 rooms in the centre with different age-group from Nursery to Kinder. The centre is designed to stimulate children’s creativity, exploration and sense of belonging. The indoor and outdoor program are given all day to let children have free choices in exploring their environment. Moreover, the sustainable practices are embedded in the program included: worm farms, animals, compost bins, community gardens, recycling stations and natural play spaces.

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How does social-emotional skill support children development?

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Based on my observation during the first week of my placement, children in the Pobblebonks’ room developed their social skill by communicating with educators and their peers. Through the conversation with educators and by interacting, children developed their communication skills verbally and non-verbally. In the first observation (date 11/05/2021), children enjoyed their time with the educator by singing together the song “row row your boat”. Children learnt how to say some words and sounds when they sang repeatedly. In the second and last observations (date 13/05 and 14/05), children did art activity with educator by re-creating Aboriginal flag and pasting star and moon shapes to celebrate Ramadan festival. Children are interested in feeling the texture of the material such as cotton, paper, glue. There are some words that children said through the activity “Soft”, “Star”, “Stamp”, “Tap”. The educator supported children by scaffolding their learning by showing them how do and kept asking open-ended questions and interacting with the children. Children could learn and express their feelings through their conversations with the educators.

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Based on my observations, I can say that “children have a strong sense of identity.” (EYLF outcome 1) as they feel safe, secure and supported with the educator. When interacting with others, they also learn to behave with care and respect. Additionally, they are effective communicators (EYLF outcome 5) by interacting with their peers and educators verbally and non-verbally for a range of purposes. On the other hand, they also have a strong sense of wellbeing (EYLF outcome 3), because they engaged nicely with others. Children are confident and involved learners (EYLF outcome 4) since they used different tools and materials to create their artworks and transfer what they have learned from one context to another. Moreover, children are contributed to the world since they learnt about cultures celebrations and had knowledge about Aboriginal’s flag. (EYLF outcome 2)

As I observed, children feel comfortable and attached to educator, they will be able to express themselves and they are more likely to have the confidence to explore the world. The educator responded to children in a warm and loving way, it helps children to learn about their communication, behaviour and emotions. According to John Bowlby’s theory, he believed that children developed a strong bond or attachment to the person who cared for them most closely. (Yorganop 2016) On the other hand, the observations also showed us that children learnt from others, more knowledge people, by watching what they do and doing things with them. It links to Lev Vygotsky’s theory, “children have two level of ability, what they can do on their own and what they can do with help from someone else. Someone with more skill can help them reach a higher level. This is called scaffolding.” (Yorganop 2016, p.10) Scaffolding is important as it allows them to learn new knowledge that then opens new opportunities for further learning According to socio-cultural theory, children are positioned as learning through the belief system to which are exposed and through their interactions with others. Vygotsky believed that social environment as being instrumental to a child’s learning which means that learning with and from others is prioritised. (Nolan& Raban Bisby 2015) Through communication with other children could develop their social and emotional skills which is very helpful for their development. Because of communication is fundamental to children’s development, it is the foundation of relationships and necessary for learning, play and social interaction. In addition, in social- behaviourist theories, it strongly claims that “children learn as a response to their environment through their interaction with it.” (Nolan & Raban Bisby 2015) Furthermore, children have a ‘hundred languages’ since they have many ways to express themselves and relate to the world (Moss,2016) Thus, our role as the educator is supporting children with their social and emotional skill.

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Young children are capable of experiencing and expressing a wide range of emotions. Through their positive interactions with caregiver, children learn to feel good about themselves and enjoy relating with others. I would actively promote children social and emotional skill in different learning experiences for both indoor and outdoor program. Because I believe that through play, children can practice understanding, expressing and managing their feelings.

First, I would build relationship with families by communicating, getting to know and understand about children’s diversity so that they feel safe, secure and comfortable in the room. Families will be welcomed to the room by friendly conversation, happy smiles and culture inclusion. Moreover, family’s photos will be displayed in the room to make children feel comfortable.

On the other hand, imaginative play will be provided in the room. By providing puppets, toys and old clothes, children can explore their creativity and use their imagination. For instance, children could pretend to take care for a baby doll.

In the book corner, emotional books will be provided such as the series “When I’m feeling” by Trace Moroney. Educators will read the books with children in group time or one by one. The stories that feature characters who are experiencing feelings that the children are going through is helping children in this age group to label emotions. For example “ I am sad because my friend is not here.”

Moreover, for creative expression, children will listen to and learn different songs to dance to and sing along to. I would provide a large variety of music for them. I would also teach the children different dance moves and actions to the music. For example: “If you are happy and you know”. Through teaching songs to the children, this will assist their vocabulary.

For literacy and numeracy area, children will practice and learn their colours, shapes, emotions, animals, transport and counting. I would encourage the development of their language skills while reading and singing with the children. Colour, shapes, emotions, animal, transports, and counting books are provided to enhance the children’s vocabulary.

Furthermore, children also have the opportunity to explore messy play such as: sand, mud, and paints. Children can happily slap sand, make big angry paint stroke and stomp in mud.

In addition, for daily practice, I would encourage children in turn taking, sharing with children because it helps to arrange developmentally appropriate experience that promote social and emotional learning. Educators also being warm and responsive with children to make them feel comfortable to show their feelings. I would also respond to children’s signals and preferences. Educators will have frequent face-to-face interaction such as making eye-contact, smiling and laughing together. Moreover, I would provide opportunities for children to interact with others so they will learn how to play with others. As children play with their peers, some conflicts may arise. I would help children in problem-solving and make choices as appropriate for their developmental level.

Finally, indoor and outdoor program will run the whole day if possible so children will be able to make choice wherever they want to be. Educators will give plenty of playtimes to let children have as much time as possible to explore where the play takes them. By doing progressive meal, it means that children will be able to continue to play and join the meal when they are ready.

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1.     Early Years Learning Frameworks, viewed 05th April 2021.

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf

2. Moss, 2016, "Loris Malaguzzi and the schools of Reggio Emilia: provocation and hope for a renewed public education", viewed 20th May 2021.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1365480216651521

3.    Nolan & Raban-Bisby, 2015, “Theories and perspectives,Theories into practice: understanding and rethinking our work with young children and the EYLF", Teaching Solutions, Blairgowrie, VIC, pp. 5–14.viewed 30th March 2021.

4.    Yorganop, 2016, "Theories and theorists in early childhood: who they are and what they tell us? Ideas for practices", viewed 30th March 2021.

http://web.archive.org/web/20180316184334/http://ipsuwa.yorganop.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/combined-theorists-resource.pdf