Listening to Young Children

Listening to Young Children is centred on the belief that children have the right to a voice, and that their ‘voice’ is valued. By listening to the thoughts, ideas and contributions of children we can help them to achieve their full potential by valuing their participation in matters that affect their lives.

Technology has an exciting part to play in giving a multimodal communication tool to children. Beliefs, interests, and ideas can be expressed and shared through visual, sound and video mediums. We have started to deliver Early Years projects that empower practitioners to work collaboratively, to develop their ICT skills and to use ICT as ‘Listening tool’ with young children.

‘Listening to Young Children’ was the focus of our 2005 Foundation Stage conference. Following this we took part in a national ICT project through the Primary National Strategy, supporting ICT as a 'listening tool' in the Foundation Stage.

Fifteen settings who expressed their interest in developing and strengthening the ‘listening approach’ within their classroom participated in this exciting project. Each setting received two digital cameras and a memory pen to support data transfer.

The focus of the project was around putting digital cameras into the hands of children, exploring their ‘voice’ and interests through this process. Practitioners were encouraged to begin by observing the role play area in their setting and to look at how digital imaging can help to capture and build on children’s ideas.

Main Findings:

At early stages of the project the following opportunities were enabled:

to use ICT to review practice
increase children’s access and hands on experience with ICT
to provide support through resources, training, and visits to strengthen a ‘Listening to Young Children’ approach across Ealing
to reach practitioners in schools
to provide paired learning experiences that build team work and promote a reflective culture amongst setting teams
to empower and give experience to two new trainers in ICT projects (Ruth and Ellie)

The impact of the project was measured through the following tools:

Reflective Questions at the end of the training session
Reflective Questions asked of the practitioners during the visit
Practitioner Competence Scale
ECCERS ICT Scale

Note: The case studies have been collected in the first visit to settings two weeks after the training. They capture the beginning stages of reflective practice in the area of Listening to Young Children.

For conclusions and recommendations from the Primary National Stategy on Improving the use of ICT in the Foundation Stage click here.

You can download your copy of the Listening Stories Template modelled at the 2005 Listening to Young Children conference below.

See more samples of work by the staff and children at Grove House Children’s Centre and Greenfield’s Children's Centre.

www.childrenscentres.org.uk