1. Communicating and learning in early childhood
- How do children learn about the world around them?
- How do they learn to communicate?
- What kinds of experiences best support children’s cognitive and language development?
Consider…
Beth is giving her ten-month-old daughter Kaylee a bath. Kaylee is holding a washcloth and is surrounded by plastic animals and small buckets. As her mother watches, she sucks water out of the washcloth with a big smile on her face. Beth tells her, “that is soapy water; it’s yucky”. Kaylee laughs and continues to suck the water… Read more
Kaylee isn’t using words, but she is able to express herself. How does her mother show that she understands Kaylee?
Can you identify examples of communicating and learning in this short scene?
We know that during infancy and early childhood, developing communication skills and the capacity to learn grow at an extremely fast rate. Communication, particularly language, plays a major role in children’s learning. Language is a tool for thinking. Language allows children to imagine, create new ideas and share ideas with others. Language provides an amazing lens into the mind of a very young human. It also enriches parent/child relationships as they develop a new way of interacting.
In this clip, filmed in a home in rural Egypt, Mariam and her mother tell stories and exchange ideas while looking at an English-language children’s magazine. As you watch, consider how this type of interaction supports Mariam’s communication and learning.
How would you describe the interaction between Mariam and her mother?
How does Mariam’s mother nurture Mariam’s language and understanding of numbers?
Young children are born with an astounding capacity to learn, both in the amount and what they can learn. Children are experts as learners. Their abilities, personalities, prior knowledge and cultural expectations are a central part of how and what they learn.
The next video is an excerpt from The Beginning of Life documentary. In this clip, Dr. Gopnik and other experts talk about the fact that babies learn from birth – and even before!
How do we know infants are ready to learn at birth?
Why is this such an important message for parents?
Although brain development is “acultural”, cultural context is very important in determining how and what children learn and how they communicate. Listen now to Dr. Kang Lee, Canada research chair at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto, as he describes how early cultural communication norms are learned by infants.
Culture also shapes what skills children are most likely to develop in early childhood and beyond. For example, Penn (1999) describes that in the United Kingdom young children are expected to recognize basic colours (e.g., red, blue, yellow) as a result of preschool attendance. In comparison, Mongolian herder children, by the same age, will have learnt to distinguish about 320 horses through their colouring in different combinations of varying shades of black, white, and grey. Imagine how this activity helps children with an important visual ability to distinguish the horses – a skill that they will need as herders.
Can you think of ways your culture affects how you think and learn? Or, how culture might affect how you see the world and interact with others?
Can you think of other influences on the way you learn?
