Why Is This So and How Would Effective Communication Be Used by an Early Childhood Educator in the Course of a Day?

"Communication is the basis of human interaction. We are involved in it everyday of our lives. In educational environments it is happening all of the time and at a frenetic pace." (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2007, p. 212)

So why is Effective communication one of the many skills required by educators? And how does an early childhood educator in the course of a day use effective communication?

Interpersonal communication is probably the most important type of communication used in an educational setting. Interpersonal communication is to engage in dialogue with at least one other person. An educator will communicate with wide range of people. As well as the children, the teacher will need to communicate with colleagues, parents, carers and members of the community. As an educator, it is important to build relationships with all these people; some will be more substantive than others. Relationships with students, colleagues and parents are particularly significant and communications with these three probably happen on a daily basis when teaching in an early childhood environment.

"Effective communication is that of which produces the intended results, that is, the receiver receives the message the way the sender intended." (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2007, p. 217)

Effective communication is so important when teaching young children because a child's mind may take something said so differently to the way a teacher may have meant for it to be heard. For example, in the story book Ramona the Pest written by Beverly Cleary (1976), A young child attending Kindergarten for the first time was told to 'Sit for the present.' The child waited all day but a present never arrived. It is important for an early childhood educator to know how to educate children with effective choices of particular words. Words, which may have more than one meaning, may confuse a child into thinking something else that was not intended.

When teaching young children it is important to remember how delicate their feelings may be, and how you as an educator are playing a huge part in what they learn. It is important to learn how to communicate without blaming, judging, criticising, preaching, ordering, labeling, threatening, being sarcastic, patronising and contradicting. These are known as roadblocks, these are destructive in the teaching-learning process.

"They (roadblocks) often perpetrate an uncritical acceptance of the way things appear rather than considered view of the situation." (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2007, p. 219) Anyone can label a child as naughty. A professional educator would look at why the child is acting a certain way? It is important for an educator to be able to communicate the underlying problem, which may be making this child act out. As an educator they need to be able to explain this to the parent or carer without over stepping the boundaries. It is important for the educator to be assertive but not over powering.

"Assertive people stand up for their rights while always upholding the rights for the other person" (Downing, 1995). This is important when talking to a parent because at the end of the day the parent will need to decide what is best for their child, An Educator needs to know how to effectively communicate with the parent and should never make a parent feel like they're not doing the right thing. An early childhood educator must always respect the parent's views and belief's when it comes to the child.

"Effective communicators have a large range of communication skills they use; they also have the ability to choose which ones are more appropriate in any given situation." (Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu, 2007, p. 219)

An early childhood educator needs understand the different communication skills and when they need to be used. The way an educator might talk to a child who is acting out needs to be different to the way a child who is doing the right thing needs to be spoken to. Although both need to be said in a positive manner both children need to understand whether or not their actions are acceptable.

Specific verbal skills will enhance the interpersonal interactions you have in your classroom as well as in a wider school community.

Some important skills outlined by the New South Wales Department of Education are that an early childhood educator needs to, speak clearly, concisely and simple, choose words that person listening will understand, say exactly what is meant, keep to the point and choose the most appropriate time and place to say it. These skills need to be applied when interacting with children and adults.

For example, if a educator asks her class to pack away there activity and retrieve a certain book from their bag and open it to a certain page all in on sentence without first making sure the children have stopped to listen, there is a chance some children are going to get confused.

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