Programme planning for Early Childhood Education settings
Children’s learning and development are the starting points for planning the curriculum, which is founded on educators’ understanding of current theory and on their understanding of each child’s knowledge, skills, interests, disposition, and cultural background.
Quality in Action, page 30
Early Childhood Education flowchart
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| Setting up an NZSL programme |
Suggestions
Early childhood staff can: |
| Identify the level of NZSL the children have when they enter the early childhood education setting. |
- talk with parents about their child’s prior experiences with NZSL and the Deaf community
- record signs that the children use.
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| Record and reflect on the level of support that the home and community can give to the NZSL programme. |
- identify the families who can support the programme by discussing each family’s experiences when their child enters the early childhood education setting
- make contact with the local branch of the Deaf Association of New Zealand to enquire about community support for developing NZSL and cultural awareness.
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| Assessment of learning |
Possible assessment techniques
Early childhood staff can: |
| Observe, record, and then reflect on the way in which children are acquiring and using NZSL during experiences in a familiar environment. |
- record observations on how the children are using NZSL in the early childhood education setting
- ask parents, either formally or informally, whether they have observed any signing in the home environment
- make video records of the children using NZSL while participating in activities in the early childhood education setting
- keep portfolio records that contain samples of the children using NZSL, eg video or DVD showing the children signing, photographs of children’s interactions with Deaf adults and children, photographs of the children at Deaf community events.
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| Identify children whose language development may be delayed. |
- systematically observe the child’s receptive and productive language use
- discuss their observations with the child’s parents
- contact a professional skilled in NZSL assessment to identify areas of delay
- plan, with parents and appropriate professionals, a programme to foster the child’s development in those areas, eg an Individual Development Programme.
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| Evaluating the programme |
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| Evaluate the quality of the NZSL programme and make improvements as they are needed. |
Early childhood staff can set up a system to evaluate the effectiveness of the NZSL programme by:
- noticing how the children respond to NZSL in the environment and what helps
- considering the NZSL skills and contributions of the adults in the early childhood education setting
- identifying the frequency of NZSL use in the early childhood education setting and planning for improvement.
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