Good Communication Skills Are Essential

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Early childhood educators spend much of their time engaging in various forms of communications. These communications vary from verbal to non-verbal and formal to informal, all of which are essential to interact or connect with a number of key stakeholders within the learning environment. Teaching is not solely about the transfer of knowledge; educators must facilitate two-way participation and communication to engage and motivate, offering a unique experience through which the child will learn something new (Graham-Clay, 2005 p.118). For this reason, effective communication skills are an essential component of teaching in an early childhood learning environment. Good communication skills assist teachers to facilitate learning, cultivate good teacher-parent relationships and create a positive and productive learning environment. Effective teaching is based on a foundation of good communication skills which motivate and facilitate learning. The classroom is a place where the communications are constant, and they involve numerous people with varied experiences, learning styles and interests (Marsh, 2010, p. 182). Teachers must be proficient in adjusting communications to ensure each child is receiving and understanding the messages sent. Communications must be clear and precise, language must be age-appropriate, and instruction must be sequential and integrated, so that the student can construct meaning (Eggen & Kauchak, 2010, p. 243). Vygotsky’s theory of social constructivism emphasises the importance of language and communication on a child’s cognitive development. This theory states that learning is meaningfully constructed through interactions with teachers, students and more capable others (Powell & Kalina, 2009, p.241). In contrast, Piaget’s theory of individual constructivism suggests children construct their own learning using internal processes (White,
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