Discussion: Listening to children

[arlene]

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[arlene]

As a starter, when it comes to really listening, I am ware that I can speed along to where I think the child is going…I have been practising patience to allow them enough thinking and speaking time to fully answer. I like the way reflecting back simple words they have used tends to work to keep them talking yet demonstrates that they have my attention.

[Joleyroberts@e.essexprimaryscitt.co.uk]

I work part time at my setting and the children often want to all talk to me at once! I have complete freedom within my planning and over time have left much longer spaces dedicated to SST and to being able to really listen to the children.

I do need to work on techniques with some children – particularly in the preschool room who will interrupt other children and interrupt their flow of thinking ab=nd expressing themselves.

[arlene]

This is very familiar.
I do find it challenging to get my first speaker to pause so that I can then pause and explain that the second speaker needs to wait until I have returned and finished speaking with the first…tenth!
This is egocentrism, eh?

[hayleyauffret]

In my setting I think our intention to listen to children is quite clear through our documentation particularly. We use documented learning which we display within rooms and also within folders. On this we document the child’s voice by capturing exactly what they have said, and also by using pictures of what they are doing/pictures they have taken. This is also what directs our planning as it is based on what the children are interested in, therefore what they express to practitioners will be acted upon. E.G a 2 year recently has been talking about spiders and webs, within the room we set up a provocation of a web made of tape across a tray to see what he would do, his keyworker also shared activities with his parents around spiderwebs. Following this the child (and some peers) wanted to recreate the web on the following day. I think most importantly is that the planning is led by them and their interests.

In regards to British Values the connection is through listening to children and respecting what they have to say and their ideas and also treating each child and their ideas equally. Furthermore I think that by listening to children in this way, it respects different cultures and beliefs.

It links to cultural capital as it allows children to have experiences they may not have at home – which by listening respectfully to children Practitioners are able to discover.

[hayleyauffret]

Not sure how helpful/easy it would be to implement but what about a talking stick? (or other object)

[arlene]

Oh yes, I’ve seen circle time make good use of a talking stick.
Perhaps, when I’m randomly ganged up on, I could carry a token in my pocket. If interrupted whilst listening to another child, I could give the interrupting child the token to hold to remind me they are next and assure them that I will listen. I will think on that.

[hayleyauffret]

I like the sound of something you can carry with you – which the children can then learn to recognise they are important and listening to.

[Nicola Robertson]

I really like the token idea Arlene. It is going to be tricky to adjust when all of children come back into my setting.

[HollyMelton381]

Evenning Ladies, here is my listening to the children input, I’m sorry if I have waffled.

As a setting we try to create an environment that is calm and nurturing, by doing this we hope this encourages every child to feel safe and secure. BY creating this environment we aim to give the children the confidence to find their voice and be heard by adults and their peers. Staff always ensure that they are available and ready to listen. Staff get down to the child’s level and try their best to allow the child to speak, before responding. Sometimes this is difficult not to jump in and speak for them or question and is something that we all struggle with at times and find ourselves biting our tongues, we are only human after all! We use in the moment planning at our setting and our play is led by the child, but as part of our daily routine we do group circle and story times, but the activities or story is chosen by the children so they have an input into their adult directed learning. In a way we listen to the children through the child led play as it is their choice what they play with or engage in. As an adult we are their to listen and respond as and when directed or invited by the child. In the moment planning can have its downfalls as sometimes I find that children can be engaged in the same play for long periods of time which is brilliant, but can be difficult when we are trying to get observations or wow moments as we find ourselves not wanting to repeat what we send to their parents.

Our setting is attended by children from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. As the staff in the setting all have a British cultural background we like to listen to the parents about their cultural beliefs and we feel it is important try to celebrate these alongside our own. By doing this we hope to make our families feel more welcome in our setting and want them to feel like they are apart of a wider family network.

It is important as a setting we allow the children to have a voice and be heard. As well as having a wide range of cultural backgrounds we are also set in an area of high social deprivation. Making it even more important for the children to have a voice and to be heard as they may not always have this opportunity at home. So it is vital that we listen to the children and allow them to share their personal views, opinions and ideas and to let them know that this is ok and that they can be different to what their friends say and think.

[Nicola Robertson]

I don’t think I have managed to add my listening activity, as I have just checked and can’t find it. I anybody spots two from me please let me know and I shall remove one.

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[IrenaBaruch]

I think our setting has good opportunities for the individual child’s voice, input, recognition to be heard and noticed. We are observing and listening to the children constantly. We have a lot of children with EAL so although we promote verbal communication, especially through our circle times, where music, song and rhythm are used, it is through this observation often that you really begin to get to know the child. We have a very wholesome lunch everyday that we share and this is often a nice place for the children to communicate their thoughts, ideas, reflections and observations. It has become a sacred time, a time where the children have learned to listen to one another. This can often be the place that the teacher can draw upon the child’s voice and ideas and use them in further planning ideas. Eating and sharing food seems to relax everyone and can bear some very fruitful conversations.

We also have a sharing circle everyday, a space where children like to share an object from home, or a thought that is important to them. Parents often send photographs so that we can put them up and the children can connect to each other, like for instance if the child has just celebrated a important festival for them in their family or a birthday, where they bring a photo from every year of their life so far. The children love to share ‘their story’ and their friends love to listen!

Storytelling and visual puppetry to stories are used regularly in our setting. Listening to stories has promoted the skills in the children to be able to listen to one other, as well as build up the own picturing and imagination skills. I regularly have open ended toys, like different shaped wood, alongside different felted puppets (often they represent the different communities that are within our group at that time) for the children to make up their own stories; a powerful way for even the youngest children to express themselves.

Even though it is not classically a ‘listening to children’ as its not verbal communication, we take a lot of notice of the children’s drawings. How and what they draw is often a strong communication with us of where they are in their lives and how they feel in the world.

Here is my son’s 6 year old drawing (he attends my setting but not in my group) I find it really interesting the earth, the grass, the tree, himself, the sun but a cloud above him. He is a very happy boy but its like the situation with covid is that ‘cloud’.

Sorry for the long text, its just some of my thoughts around this idea.

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[EmmaW]

I had put this under CPLD day 7 interim task but here it is again so the discussions are all on the same post. I have attached the Critical Thinking task on the other post, if anybody would like to add theirs too!

‘Listening to children’

I think my setting is good at listening to the children but there is always room for improvement.

Since starting this course, actively listening has become a big part of my daily routine. I talk to the children as soon as they come into the classroom in the morning and listen to them when they tell me about their morning so far, their evening before or the weekend – or whatever thought is in their head at that moment, it might be the unicorn they are having round for tea later, or superman that they saw on the way to school! Sometimes these conversations begin to involve the whole of the class and can inform planning and provision for later in the day.

When having circle time, I ensure that each child has a chance to talk. I ask questions based on what they are telling me and make notes afterwards so that I can remember for another time. This shows the children that I am interested in them as a person and have listened and taken account of what they say.

Our day is heavily timetabled and there is little scope for impulse and in the moment planning, however, when possible I do incorporate aspects from the childs thoughts, interests and ideas.

I think this helps the children to know that we are listening to them and that hopefully, if they had a problem that they needed to talk about they would be more inclined to approach me and tell me than if I had just dismissed what they were saying and had not actively listened to them.

[Joleyroberts@e.essexprimaryscitt.co.uk]

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!!!!!

[arlene]

After reading the article on the Mosaic approach I have reflected back to a recent freshen-up of our own outdoor setting.

It now strikes me that the all decisions leading to the end results were made on the day by volunteering staff and their family members. We actually changed around the locations of play zones and we added a tented area (in the hope of having extra outdoor shelter for C-19 management during the upcoming colder winter period). I now feel that a lot of what was achieved had adult practicality as the driver.

The change around did seem to come as a surprise to the children returning from their half term break. It did not seem welcomed by all; I observed some looking a bit confused and hesitant upon entering the area.
I now view this as adults interfering with their play space without invitation. Of course, we applied knowledge of the interests followed by the cohort yet, I do wonder what they would have asked for themselves. If all staff had been present or engaged in discussion, would they have agreed or suggested other approaches?

The one adaptation that does not appear to have been the success the adults intended was the introduction of the tent. I have observed that it is infrequently used by the children unless adult-led. It actually occupies the largest space of our outdoor provision. I believe it will be reviewed soon.

If I happen to become involved with future provision redesign, I would approach with different thoughts on seeking for and listening to the child’s voice.

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