Early Childhood Education and Care

This case study explores the topic of early childhood education and care in a long day care setting. It discusses the diverse group of children, communication strategies, behavior management, and ways to identify and cater to children's interests. The study also provides suggestions for decision-making and involving children in the process.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
CASE STUDY TWO - LONG DAY CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
1. The group of children is diverse in terms of age, socio – cultural background, family
financial status, physical and cognitive abilities as well as behavioural variations.
These are also factors that will influence the language use by the teachers in the
classroom. The staff will have expectations that the children will be responsive to
their directions and will provide appropriate feedback for the communicative stimuli.
2. Respectful verbal communication strategies include greeting the class at the
beginning, asking about the children’s day, how their previous night/weekend was,
what they wanted to do that day, informal and interesting small talk.
Respectful nonverbal communication include using appropriate positive body
language, proper use of positive and playful gestures, nodding, smiling and leaning
forward to show interest.
3. a. Jelena could tell Sandra that her comments are directed towards the
abilities/disabilities of a child in an inclusive classroom and therefore this type of
selective targeting is not appropriate.
b. Jelena could explain to Sandra that the use of words like shame, genius or phrases
like ‘poor little love’ etc negatively impact the child by highlighting their superiority
or inferiority to them.
c. Jelena could tell Sandra that her choice of words impact the mentality of a child and
they might either get attached or detached from her. In either case, it is detrimental for
the other children as it might indicate bias towards/against one or a few children in the
class.
4. In such cases where the cultural differences are highlighted, I could tell the children
that the other ‘friend’ of theirs ‘talk’ or ‘dress’ different because both of them belong
to two different cultures. I can try to signify the importance of cross cultural
communication by telling them that the world is a very big place and there are many

2EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
different and interesting things like cultures. I would tell them that they are very lucky
to be friends with someone who is from different cultures. Depending on the
frequency or intensity of the interactions, I would also use multimedia technology to
showcase the rich global cultural diversity.
5. The first strategy that the staff can use is to showcase appropriate behavior in class to
the children by using media. Secondly, these behaviors can also be made to identify
with the children through the use of positive reinforcement by highlighting the
positive aspects of behavior to them. Finally, instead of punishing a student for
negative behaviour, tell them that their actions will reap better reward if they did like
this… or like that…
6. Reward – by providing rewards for positive behaviour
Engage in activities like ‘good behaviour game’ where good behaviour is the expected
outcome.
Provide positive reinforcement by telling the children what kind of behaviour is
‘good’ and what kind is ‘bad’.
7. The factors that the staff must take into account while dealing with these kinds of
behaviour are the students’ social, economic, cultural, familial as well as behavioural
backgrounds and characteristics.
The staff could apply limits to the behaviour management policy by highlighting
which aspects of behaviour is appropriate in a classroom based on the factors
identified above.
Negative reinforcement and punishment should not be used as they negatively
influence the children’s mentality and can instil fear, dislike or even aggression
towards the educators or education n general.

3EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE
8. The staff can identify the children’s interests by engaging them in a variety of tasks
that highlight specific areas of interest for the children and finding who performs
better in which task.
The staff can regularly consult the children about what they would like to do by
introducing a series of newer tasks every day to the class and asking for opinions.
The staff can encourage the children to express their interests and develop new ideas
by introducing less scaffolded activities for the children to partake in.
9. a. I would suggest that all children be first showed a video of a bunch of children
having fun at a beach, followed by asking them what they think of the video and
whether or not they would want to go to the beach to play one day. I will write all
their points on the board indicating that all their suggestions are acknowledged. I
would use targeted questions like pros and cons of playing in a beach to help the
children reach their decisions.
b. The first thing I will do is to prepare an alternate feasible plan for every suggestion
that has been given by the children. If something turns out to be out of the league that
will be explained to the children in terms of stating the alternative as a better option.
For instance, if a child suggests that there should be one beach ball for everyone to
play with, I would suggest that if there is one beach ball, everyone can play ‘who gets
the ball first’ and then everyone would have fun. This would also take care of the
alternative activity to the one suggested by the child.
In order to show that the child’s decision has been acknowledged, I would try to
create a poster or a chart where everyone’s opinions and ideas will be listed and
provided a pictorial form. If I provide every child a copy of the poster, it would show
that all their ideas have been taken into count regardless of the final decision.