My thought/ramblings
In terms of our setting I feel that some staff are certainly stronger than others at listening (really listening) to children and that on a day to day basis this can change. I think it’s a skill that develops with time and practice. There are certainly techniques to make it easier, including circle time, turn taking, being at a child level and looking for opportunities to engage with children who have a ‘quieter’ voice. It is also impotatnt to reflect on some childrens behaviour and that they may be behaving in certain ways because they feel they are not being listened too, and of course that needs to be addressed immediately.
I do think we are well trained to tune in quickly to anything regarding disclosure – child protection, but I think that is almost a different kind of listening. Almost like a red button is switched on!
We have a wide variety of cultures and different family structures attending our setting and we like to celebrate this diversity. Taking the opprotunity to listen and share cultures is an impotant part of our setting and is a wonderful opportunity to engage with the whole family. We have a map in preschool with strings and pictures, conecting children to where their family lives, including extended family.
In terms of cultrual capital – engaging with family and listening to children can only build your picture of a child. It underpins all planning, meaning the unique child is supported through all events in there life. I do believe at our settign we have a good picture of all our children, it simply makes your job easier if you understand the full picture!!
Our setting are about to create access for the preschool children to a little free flow garden – I think this will be a lovely focused zone to enhance oppoutunities for listening, away from the busy room. Also, this will provide an oppourtnity to share meal times outside which, I think will provide time to build another regular sharing listening time.
I really liked the idea of building in more time to share ‘what I’ve played with’ moments too (I think this was in a video yesterday or someone mentioned it). Although, we know what children are playing with because we are observing them, I think we might miss oppourtunities to hear them explain their playing and reflect too. (I think we make assumptions about what they are playing).
At the moment I think our listening skills are really being utilised. Our limited contact with parents and family means we are listening for more information to buid our pictures, which ultimately is a good thing as maybe its really helping us to practice our skills and ‘tune in’. Even more so contending with masks!!!!!
