Recognising Learning in toddlers

[muttley]

Hi Everyone,

I love reading the different topics on the forum as I am new to child care and I get lots of ideas here.

I do, however, have a question.
How do you go about recognising learning in children aged 18 months to 2 1/2 years old?
It is something that I am struggling with as I don't know what is learning and what is playing.
Thanks in advance for your help.

[Lorina]

Hi Muttley,

Welcome to Aussie Childcare Network!

There is not much difference in playing and learning. While children are playing they are actually learning. This is what is so great about play based learning... All activities, experiences, games, etc that are planned for are done so for a reason. Each of these have a specific goal (EYLF L/O) that each individual child may achieve through that particular play. For example: you see a child playing with a puzzle, they are learning the following:

EYLF L/O -
3.2: Children take responsibility for their own health and physical well being. This evident as the child playing with the puzzle engages in increasingly complex sensory motor skills.

4.3: Children transfer and adapt what they have learnt from one context to another. This is evident as the child completing the puzzle make connections between experiences, concepts and processes.

Have a read through the following article: Understanding the EYLF. When you get to each of the learning outcomes and their sub outcomes you will see a yellow box which lists all the "evidence". This is how you can justify that the children are learning through their play.

Hopefully this makes sense ,

Let me know if you need more helps and I'll see what i can do,

,
L.A

[muttley]

Thanks LA for your reply. I have read that article several times and I am still confused.
How do you know if you are using the right learning outcome for the activity?
I have been working at a LDC for 12 months and have just completed my cert 3 and hope to go on to do my diploma.
Thanks again.

[cathiek]

Sometimes more than one learning outcome can be attached to activities, you just need to focus on the one you have set as the outcome for the child. So perhaps you are looking at fine motor skills with the child using scissors on playdough. You could also include a myriad of other outcomes that could also be looked at, but if fine motor is your focus ensure you maintain that as your focus with the others being incidental outcomes.
Sometimes it is really hard to work out which one is the main, but you don't have to discount the others, it is all part and parcel of their learning, things don't always have to occur separately.