SFL Golden Nugget #2

Golden Nugget: Chapter #2
I spent a great amount of time reflecting on the idea that children need lots and lots of language to understand. Why I believe that this thought has turned over in my mind so much is because I am wondering were to draw the line between talking to much, and not talking enough with children. According to the DAP I thought that I should be speaking as little as possible. I had begun to associate speaking time simply with instruction time. When I reread, “Caregivers frequently talk with, sing to, and read to infants.” (p. 79). I realized how wrong I was and that it is not simply cutting the instruction time that is important but making instruction time precise and clear.
The example from the book that illustrated this idea best for me came from chapter 2. In chapter two one of the lead teachers was feeling overwhelmed by how many toddlers and babies were in her classroom. She requested more teacher aids to come and help protect the babies from the running and rambunctious toddlers. Her supervisor suggested that she teach the children what the rules of the classroom are, and why those rules make everyone feel safe, including the babies. Slowly the entire class transformed into a safe environment as the children learned what was appropriate and what was inappropriate behavior in the classroom. At the end of the example one of the two-year-olds stopped a younger child from toughing a toy block; all he said was baby.
This was a great story for me to learn from on multiple levels, but the first thing that I learned was about the ambiguity of language. One of the discouraged traits outlined in the DAP book is “Caregivers talk at toddlers and do not wait for a response,” (p. 94). I took this thought and applied it to the above situation. When the parents and lead teacher were saying such ambiguous phrases as: watch for the babies, be careful, and settle down they were talking at the toddlers. The toddlers did not understand these phrases. Most of the children were probably thinking, I am watching the baby while I jump over it, this is careful, or should I lay down? Such sentences are simply talking at children, because the teacher is not thinking about what the child’s response will be. When the teachers began to define clear limits: the trikes need to stay in this part of the room. The teacher was no longer talking at the children but to the children when she made sure that the children understood her.
I also made the connection that children are apart of the environment in the classroom, and that in order to have a safe environment the student’s need to be safe. It is easy to realize because it has been stressed so often in the DAP book that, “young infants thrive on responsive care giving, an engaging environment,” (p. 59). I had turned this idea into a simple check off list: lead-free, easy-to-clean paint; carpeting and flooring are easy to clean; diapering and food-preparation areas are separate; storage for disinfectants, gloves, and plastic bags is clearly labeled (p. 89). The list goes on, but it did not occur to me that having safety aware children in my classroom is a vital part of establishing a safe environment.
The other golden nugget that I learned was how to identify and correct a problem in the classroom. Babies getting stepped on is a big problem for a classroom. It was an easy enough problem to identify, but how the teacher corrected it is remarkable. She did not condone the toddlers, and tell them that they were being bad or wrong. Instead she realized that she had not clearly communicated with them the rules of the classroom and why those rules are important. She kept a DAP appropriate tone of voice as suggested being “the tone of the interactions is warm and caring; caregivers use pleasant, calm voices as well as simple language and nonverbal cues” (p. 91). Not only did she keep her voice down, but she identified the real problem. The real problem was not the children wanting to hurt or harm the babies. The toddlers were not bad or wicked, they simply did not understand. The lead teacher realized what the problem was; the problem was that the children did not understand. Then she addressed that specific problem.