Contemporary Approaches for Teaching Communication and Literacy in Early Childhood Education

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
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Introduction
Physical, environmental and social dimension are involved as a child learns to talk.
Language acquisition and literacy in a multilingual classroom can be challenging for both the
students and the educators. Good communication is important for successful learning and
educators all around the world had been adopting several learning approaches for facilitating
literacy and communication in a multilingual and diversified classroom.
This report has criticized and analyzed the contemporary approaches required to teach
communication to children in their early years. It has also pointed out the pros and cons of
inclusive education in a diversified classroom.
Contemporary approaches for teaching communication, language and literacy to the
diverse learners in an early childhood setting
The number of multilingual students are on the rise and these students bring a fund of the
linguistic and cultural knowledge in to the schools and involve with literacy in a variety of ways.
Hence, these classrooms have become rich sites of demographic, linguistic, cultural and literate
learning. While the population in the schools have started to diversify, the ways children are
being taught have become regulated, standardized and monitored (Machado, 2017). These
standardization is often in compliance with the dominant culture or the language. In spite of the
challenges, the emerging community of the scholars have developed several instructional
approaches, whose objective is to support the home heritage, culture and language practices
(translanguaging, biliteracy and culturally sustaining pedagogy).

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
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Some of the general recommendations that has been provided by Fellowes and Oakley,
(2011),to enhance communication skills among the diverse learners includes – frequent talking
with the babies, cuddling of babies and using hands on parenting, Using high pitched vowel rich
singsong speech styles the most of the adults undertake while interacting with the babies
(Machado, 2012).
Games can be make out of an infant’s smile, sounds and the movements if the infant is
unresponsive. The vocal play of the infant should not be interrupted.
Early childhood classrooms might have diverse learners with varied range of disabilities
like stuttering and cluttering children. In such cases teachers will have to be patient enough and
listen to whatever the child is speaking. Children can come with selective mutism, where a child
an speak, but they choose not to. In such case helps can be taken from the counselors. The avid
talkers and the shouters should be engaged in quite play activities. Teachers can often change
these types of behaviors by the discussion of the “inside voices (used in classroom) and the
“outside” voices (to be used in classrooms) (Machado, 2012). In case of interacting with children
having disabilities literacy can be provided by using specific media and tools, creating visual
aids that clearly depicts or clarify the instructional intents, such as using posters of different signs
with drawings, use cues like flashing lights or music for gaining attention, if necessary
(Machado, 2012).
In play based approaches, educators can engage in word play, chimes, rhymes and fun-to-
say short expressions. A toddler can be encouraged to make sounds by providing with
noisemaking toys. Children are engaged in different types of play, through which they explore,
think, create, imagine, take decisions, solve problems and interact with each other (Fellowes &