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why it is important to listen to the voice of a child.
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Listening is defined as
Developing skills and understandings Young children may also gain new skills as their confidence builds. These can include social skills, such as being able to talk to children who they have only just met, and to adults. Listening activities may offer children the opportunity to gain additional practical skills, for example, how to operate a camera. Listening to young children can create the time and space in which they can reflect on their early years experience and in so doing, help them to process and understand what is happening. ’It’s not so much a matter of eliciting children’s preformed ideas and opinions, it’s much more a question of enabling them to explore the ways in which they perceive the world and communicate their ideas in a way that is meaningful to them’. (Tolfree and Woodhead 1999, p.2) Reciprocal process Working in a more democratic way with young children can relieve practitioners and parents from the burden of needing to know all the answers. Listening to young children may reveal different possibilities for engaging children and new interests to explore together. Child protection There is the possibility that listening to young children may lead to some children sharing serious concerns. This is more likely to be the case if listening is embedded in everyday practice and if listening to children is not limited to adult- led agendas. Such circumstances may be rare but reflect the responsibilities that come from taking children seriously Child protection There is the possibility that listening to young children may lead to some children sharing serious concerns. This is more likely to be the case if listening is embedded in everyday practice and if listening to children is not limited to adult-led agendas. Such circumstances may be rare but reflect the responsibilities that come from taking children seriously Benefits to practitioners and parents Challenges assumptions Listening to young children can challenge assumptions and raise expectations. Seeing and hearing children express their interests and priorities can provide unexpected insights into their capabilities. Practitioners and parents may see children in a new light. Benefits to early years provision Opportunity to reflect on practice The sharing of children’s perspectives can provide the chance for early years practitioners to reconsider the relationships they have established with young children as well as to rethink routines and activities. This process of reflection can be ‘contagious’ in a multiagency environment, with changes to one service’s practice leading to changes in neighbouring services.
outcome of a consultation so children can see how their views have been taken seriously and where and why it hasn’t been possible to act on their suggestions. Patience and timing Effective listening takes time. Patience is essential when working with very young children, especially if they have communication difficulties. Listening requires us to be sensitive to timing. The best times for listening will vary according to individual children’s emotions, feelings and routines. How we ourselves are feeling will also affect how well we are able to listen. Children’s timing may be different from our own. Children may choose to express their feelings and wishes at the very moment we are least prepared. Imagination We must use all our senses, not just our hearing. This includes using our eyes, sense of touch, and smell, in order to listen to how children are communicating to us. We need imagination in order to design ways of listening which are enjoyable and varied and which take into account children’s different strengths and abilities. Imagination may often be required in order to act upon young children’s ideas and expressed interests. Ways of listening We can use a range of ways of listening to young children, a selection of which are listed below. Different tools have strengths and limitations. More than one approach can be used at the same time. Choosing which to use will depend on our skills, those of the children we work with and their ages, and the time, space and resources available. Several tools use the arts, whether visual arts or performing arts, as a means of listening. Observation is an important starting point for listening to young children. This builds on a strong tradition within early years practice of using observation as a tool for understanding young children’s abilities, needs and interests (for example, Paley 1981 and 1997). Interviews are among the most popular method for gathering the views of older children and adults. This formal talking needs to be adapted to be appropriate for young children. Group interviews can be used, following a similar approach to ‘circle time’ (Miller 1997). Interviews can be conducted ‘on the move’ (for example, Clark and Moss 2001). Child-to-child interviews offer a different approach where older children can act as consultants to younger children (for example, see Johnson and others 1998). Children can respond to formal and informal opportunities for talking (Cousins 1999). Still and moving film can open up new ways of young children communicating their perspectives. Projects have used single use cameras, ‘polaroids’, digital still cameras and video cameras with children aged three years and above (Clark and Moss 2001; Lancaster and Broadbent 2003). This builds on innovative work with older children, where photography has proved to be a valuable medium for
children to communicate their perspectives about their schools and neighbourhoods (for example, Smith and Barker 1999; Morrow 2001). Walker (1993) has described this as the ‘silent voice of the camera’. Listening to children takes place through the process of the children choosing and taking the images, as well as in discussing the final product. Performing arts and play can provide a natural way for young children to communicate with adults. Role play activities can include the use of toys and puppets as ‘intermediaries’ in consultations. The Daycare Trust (1998), for example, used a teddy bear as a starting point for young children talking about their nurseries. Visual arts provide a variety of different ‘languages’ for young children to communicate their perspectives. This links to Malaguzzi’s idea of the ‘hundred languages of children’ (Edwards, Gandini and Foreman 1998). Visual tools for listening can include painting and drawing (Lancaster 2003; Coates 2003) and model making and map making (Hart 1997; Clark and Moss 2001). Listening to children while they are in the process of making is often as important as talking about the final product (Coates 2003). Children can demonstrate their interests and priorities through the visual arts. This may include children with linguistic communication difficulties or other disabilities who might find a formal interview difficult. Artists and community arts teams may be a useful resource for practitioners to call on for consultations, in addition to practitioners’ everyday work on listening. Possibilities and challenges What possibilities are there for listening to young children and what are the challenges? Possibilities There are many possibilities for including young children’s views and experiences. Here are some suggestions, but there will be others according to the context you are working in. Times of transition – Listening in imaginative ways can support children as they adjust to change. This might be a whole class event such as starting in a new class or moving classrooms, or on a personal level helping children talk about a new sibling. Assessment – Children can play an active role in recording their progress and identifying what they have enjoyed or found difficult. Involving children in this way can also open up further channels of communication with parents. Internal audits – Listening to young children could add to annual reviews and help to identify activities, places and people of importance from the children’s perspective. Parent’s centre – Listening to young children can be the focus of work with parents/family members and carers and their children, looking at different ways children, from birth, listen and communicate. Outdoor environment – Listening to how young children use existing outdoor provision can be an important starting point for planning change. Indoor provision – Listening can reveal concerns about how children can or cannot access resources and equipment. Challenges