Forming and Maintaining Relationships through
Verbal Interactions
Through my experience on placement I have learnt how important it is to form secure, positive and caring relationships with the children in your room. In order to maximise children’s learning and development they must feel a sense of belonging and safety in the environment. The Early Years Learning Framework explains, that trusting relationships are foundational for children in order to begin exploration and learning in the childcare setting ( Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009). Similarly Sims and Hutchins (2013) suggest that the majority of learning in baby and toddler programs occur through the strong relationships children form with educators.
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Strategies to Encourage Verbal Communication:
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One child in the toddler room came from a home with two deaf parents. This limited his exposure to verbal language and as a result he was very quiet and was hesitant to try and speak or experiment with making sounds. To encourage his communication my mentor teacher had a sign language chart of common phrases displayed in the room. She aimed to use the common signs such as ‘drink,’ at the same time she spoke to reinforce common words. This boy (Child L) attended a speech therapist that visited the centre while I was on placement. The speech therapist discussed ways my mentor teacher could encourage verbal language development from Child L. She discussed the strategies she had implemented during speech therapy sessions and ways my mentor teacher could apply similar strategies in the toddler room. My mentor teacher utilized her relationship with Child L to improve his speech by encouraging verbal interactions with herself, and through using items in the environment. Therefore illustrating how learning can be promoted by the relationship formed between a child and educator.
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By applying these strategies Child L is able to further develop his verbal communication. This will assist him to build his sense of identity and belonging to the toddler room.
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VIT Standards for Graduating Teachers:
This item links to standard 6; “Teachers use a range of teaching practices and resources to engage students in effective learning.” By using different strategies that were introduced by another professional (the speech therapist) to encourage verbal language development, and also through utilizing educator to child relationships to promote learning.
This item links to standard 6; “Teachers use a range of teaching practices and resources to engage students in effective learning.” By using different strategies that were introduced by another professional (the speech therapist) to encourage verbal language development, and also through utilizing educator to child relationships to promote learning.