K2C2 K2C4 Importance of being heard and expressing themselves

K2C2 – Why it is important to give all children the opportunity to be heard and how you do this in a group.

K2C4 – Why it is important to give children sufficient time to express themselves in their own words.

What activities could you provide for a group of children to enable them to speak out loud?

• Group time show and tell.
• Group lead activities.
• Group reading story time. Encourage younger children to spots letters they recognise or to perform jolly phonics actions (such as first letter of their name) or to retell the story.
• Individual reading, speaking about what or who they enjoyed in the book, predicting ending of the story.
• Home corner, encourage children to role play, share and socialise with peers.
• Singing and rhyming, recognition of song or rhyme repeated patterns and actions.
• Outside play.
• Use puppets to retell story or in a game.
• Cooking, ask them to name the ingredients, talk about the processes and ask them to predict the outcome.
• Craft, encourage children to talk about their drawing or model, how they made it, what is going on in the picture, what different materials did they use.

Why is it important to give children sufficient time to express themselves in their own words?

• Showing our understanding and respect.
• Giving children confidence and self esteem.
• Encouraging independence.
• Children can express their feelings and views.
• Encourages socialising skills.
• Gives children choice.
• Showing we understand their needs.

This post is part of the 201 Contribute to positive relationships • NVQ Level 2 section, which forms the Childcare Learning And Development website.