‘I do it all the time! My mam does it!’ Leveraging the familiar to enhance communication skills in early years educators

ABSTRACT

This paper outlines the use of Learning Language and Loving It™ – The Hanen Program® for Early Years Educators/Teachers (LLLI) with Early Years Educators (EYEs) as part of a community-based early years Continuing Professional Development (CPD) intervention. Trainer sensitivity to the cultural use of questions by EYEs was used as a means to raise awareness of their interactions with young children, and this emerged as a key catalyst for reflective practice and improved interaction with children. EYEs reported increased awareness of their own interaction skills while recognizing the limiting effect of directive questioning in conversations with children. In sessions, they shared their challenges and outlined positive effects of child-led interactions. This paper argues that LLLI provided time and space in group and individual sessions to allow participants to explore their own communication practices and concludes that CPD with EYEs should place more emphasis on their role in developing oral language, literacy and social skills through interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education
• speech and language therapy
• phatic communication
• interaction
• continuing professional development
• reflective practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nóirín Hayes, PhD., is a developmental psychologist and Visiting Professor at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. She is author of a number of books, reports and research policies. Her specialist field is early child development and learning, with particular interest in early learning, wellbeing, pedagogy and children's rights.

Tríona Rooney, BSc. Clin. Lang. (Hons.) is a Senior Speech and Language Therapist working with Preparing for Life. Her current role involves training and coaching of early years educators on facilitating oral language development in children as part of the Strengthening Foundations of Learning initiative.

Notes

1 The Free Pre-school Year initiative is the ECCE programme designed to give children access to a free pre-school year of appropriate programme-based activities in the year before they start primary school.