ZERO TO THREE

How young children learn English through play As we release Learning Time with Timmy – our first app for early-years learners of English – Danitza Villarroel, a teacher on our Learning Time with Shaun and Timmy course in Chile, explains the importance of learning through play, and offers a few tips for teachers new to this age group. Teaching English to pre-school children can be daunting for teachers new to this age group. Young children have shorter attention spans than older children and adults, and they're still learning their mother tongue. But teaching these learners can be enormously rewarding once you've taken a few basic principles on board. The importance of active learning Active learning means fully involving children in the learning process. Does my toddler have a short attention span because she won’t sit still for a story? A: It is perfectly normal for toddlers to not sit still very long—period. Most don’t like to stay in one place for long now that they can explore in so many new ways—by running, jumping, and climbing. So, an adult’s idea of snuggling on the couch to hear a story may not be the same idea a toddler has for story-time. You may only be able to read or talk about a few pages in a book at a time. Here are some ways to engage active children in reading: Read a book at snack times when your child may be more likely to sit for longer.Offer your child a small toy to hold in her hand—such as a squishy ball—to keep her body moving while you read.Read in a dramatic fashion, exaggerating your voice and actions.

Early childhood development – it’s not rocket science, it’s neuroscience! - Kathy Brodie Early Years Training I was introduced to Mine Conkbayir when she contacted me about neuroscience informing early years practice, which I think is such an exciting, and growing, area of study. So I was very enthusiastic when she offered to do a guest post on this subject. Here she discusses how neuroscience can add another dimension to our understanding of child development: Like many individuals in this increasingly frantic world, I’m often busy juggling my responsibilities as a parent while I work and continue my studies – a very exciting journey as I try to achieve my PhD in early childhood education and neuroscience. Having been a lecturer across a range of child care and education qualifications for the past 14 years, I continue to be bewildered by the lack of consistently embedded teaching of neuroscience and early brain development across these qualifications. You may well ask ‘how?’

Moodle 0:03Skip to 0 minutes and 3 secondsKAREN HORNBY: Welcome to Tim and Paul. And we've got quite a few questions. There are some really interesting questions actually. And so we'll start with one that does come up quite often, which is about cognitive load. And Jean would like to know when children have gone from lesson to lesson to lesson all day doing something different in every lesson, do they already have cognitive overload before they even walk through the door of your room? 0:32Skip to 0 minutes and 32 secondsTIM JAY: So I suppose my response would be I think it's important to differentiate between-- cognitive load is kind of in the moment, a relatively short term issue. Importance of play for babies & children Play is more than just fun for babies and children. It’s how they learn best, and how they work out who they are, how the world works and where they fit into it. You can read this article in a selection of languages other than English.

I Said I Want the Red Bowl! Responding to Toddlers' Irrational Behavior Pin It Amelia, told that she can’t have a fifth book before bedtime, shouts: “You are the meanest mommy! You are not invited to my birthday party!” Derek, when offered a choice between carrots and cheese, not ice cream, before dinner announces: “I don’t like the choices you are choicing me!” Alex hurls a bowl of his favorite cereal off the table and screams, “I said the red bowl, not the blue bowl!” Listen to Your Mother Young children face a remarkable challenge in learning to use the language of their culture. Toddlers vary widely, however, in the rate at which they learn new words.1 A team of Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers set out to ask whether and how children's language environment can impact vocabulary development. In their study of mother-child pairs from low-income families, they found that mothers who used many different words (not just many words) had toddlers with faster growth in vocabulary use. During the toddler and preschool years, most children learn to use hundreds of words, combining them into sentences and engaging in conversation with others. From previous research, we know that variation in vocabulary growth relates to child characteristics like gender, and also to parental factors.

Thinking Together, University of Cambridge » Resources for Teachers This page has some resources for teachers and teacher-trainers to use to develop their own and their students' awareness of how talk is used in classrooms. Many more useful resources can be found in the books for teachers listed on the publications web page! For Teachers To Use With Children Thinking Together Talk Tally This a simple observation sheet which a child can use to record the kind of talk they observe when a group of other children are working together. Ground rules for talk: traffic lights This worksheet can be used as the initial basis for an activity in which younger children (6-8) consider together how to make their talk in groups most effective. (For more about 'ground rules' for talk, see the journal article Reasoning as a Scientist which is downloadable from the publications' journals page.)

Schemas in Children’s Play - N a t u r e P l a y Written by Clare CaroSchemas in Children’s Play are such an important concept when it comes to the development of our children that it’s worth taking the time to understand them so you can facilitate them when you see them.What are these schemas?Well it’s really a fancy word for the urges that children have to do things like climb, throw things and hide in small places. They appear through play; perhaps it is the way they choose to do things, or what they desperately need to do out of the blue! Bringing It All TogetherAfter looking at each schema individually to get to grips with what each 'urge' is all about we may already be able to recognise some of the different ways they can appear in your child.Rotation, Trajectory, Enveloping, Orientation, Positioning, Connection, Enclosure/Container, Transporting and Transformation are urges that show in all children starting as early as their first birthday, some times before.How Can Knowing About These Urges Help Us?

Let's Talk What do babies need in order to learn and thrive? One thing they need is conversation — responsive, back-and-forth communication with their parents and caregivers. This interactive engagement is like food for their developing brains, nurturing language acquisition, early literacy, school readiness, and social and emotional well-being.

Related:  English in early childhood   -  surani   -  zhiznos   -  fofoka10   -  katyjo78   -  miss_naomi   -  FutureLearn_EnglishInEarlyChildhood   -  lesiaua   -  natashabrova   -  Young Learners. How they learn   -  asterb   -  batistonf   -  ENGLISH IN EARLY CHILDHOOD BRITISH COUNCIL   -  elefon   -  andressabt_freitas   -  BrC learn kids   -  Early years   -  marta230594   -  nzkitching   -  ENGLISH IN EARLY CHILDHOOD (BRITISH COUNCIL)   -  Learning language and skills through play   -  English   -  tetkol   -  English in Early Childhood - FutureLearn   -  English in early childhood   -  Early Childhood Development   -  English teaching early years   -  volot_olga