What is Early Childhood Education?

As an early childhood educator I’m often asked why a child would need a teacher before the age of 3.  The first few years of a child’s life is significant in setting the groundwork for later learning, therefore, it’s beneficial to identify and address a child’s needs early on.  Most children are curious, actively explore their environment, and engage in a variety of play activities.  However, there are times when parent or other professional is concerned with a child’s play and development and will refer then for an assessment of early learning and play skills. 

The following 5 sub-categories are evaluated when using the HELP (Hawaii Early Learning Profile Activity Guide) strands curriculum-Based Developmental Assessment for B-3 years.  This assessment tool is linked directly with a variety of parent and professional curriculum activities and strategies. 

Here the goal is that we observe the child using a variety of play appropriate for their age.  Some children will successfully engage in the same play activity over and over rather than expand into more complex play.  For instance a child will line their cars up but seem to refuse to follow the example of sending them down a ramp or zooming them across the floor.  In other words they aren’t using the same toy in a variety of play activities.  As an early educator I model for parents how to promote multiple play activities using the same object.  I also encourage them to stay with the a toy and play with it in different ways before bringing out a new one. 

A child may have difficulty in this area:

1. If they won’t search for a hidden object even when they saw the parent place a cover over the toy they were just holding. 
2. Appear to see a toy they desire and make no apparent attempt to figure out how to get that toy.  For instance, even if the motor system impairs their ability to move to the toy they could pull the blanket the toy is on to make it move to them.
3. If they don’t understand that pushing a button causes an action.  For instance, they like the action but don’t seem to show the initiative to push the button on their musical pop-up toy. 

As an early educator I would show the parent how to set up the activity to help their child be successful and to recognize their child’s needs.  For instance play hide and seek using a sound toy so they could still hear the toy and be motivated to search.  My role is to help the parents understand the areas that are involved in problem solving to teach them how to modify their interactions with their child so the child can progress in their problem solving abilities. 

 This is play that uses an object in a purposeful manner- ie/ using the comb on the baby dolls hair.  A child may know how to use the comb on their hair but can’t seem to understand how to pretend to use the comb on the dolls head.  As an educator I help the parent understand how to encourage their child to move away from the personal use of the object into pretend play with that same tool.  We learn new skills by imitating other people’s actions.  An inability to observe then practice what we see can hinder our intelligence. 

Concept Development:

A child demonstrates delays in this area when they don’t recognize that pictures represent an object or category.  For instance, the picture of a ball represents the ball we play with; is the object big or little; does this animal live in a zoo or farm?  The child that presents with delays in concept development may show little interest in books because they don’t understand the relationship between pictures and their experiences.  As an early educator I model for the parent how to use age appropriate books as well as age appropriate expectations for how their child interacts with books.  We may create a book of family members or favorite toys to stimulate their interest in looking at books and understanding that pictures represent objects in their environment. 

Discrimination and Classification Skills:

 When a child is unable to sort objects according to similar characteristics such as color, shape or size they are demonstrating difficulty with discrimination and classification.  Once again I model for the families how to break the activity down to the level that their child understands and help their child practice sorting and matching using familiar and unfamiliar objects. 

Attention Span:

If attention span interferes with play and learning Early Education may be helpful.  Every child has had times in their life when they find it difficult to attend and/or listen.  As a teacher my job is to determine if this is due to a delay or if it is age appropriate behavior. If it is determined to be a delay the next area of focus for the educator is to determine if the attention challenge is due to external or internal factors. Is the environment too stimulating and unpredictable, is the child failing to engage in eye contact, is the child tired or hungry or is the child unable to focus his attention to complete a task.  Based on the findings, the educator and parents work together to determine what strategies may be effective in promoting greater attending from their child.