Learning to communicate in young children's classrooms

Dorian de Haan

pp. 67-86

in: Bert van Oers (ed), Developmental education for young children, Berlin, Springer, 2012

Abstract

This chapter addresses the process of communication in Developmental Education. Teaching children how to construe meanings through communication with others is the core of Developmental Education (DE). Communication is at the heart of DE activities. From a Vygotskian point of view, the chapter describes some interactive processes in the development of young children's abilities to collaboratively make meaning and exchange communicative intentions. The chapter addresses questions like: How do educators communicate with young children in the context of their cooperative activities? How can they encourage children to communicate with each other? On the basis of classroom research of children's communication and the roles that teachers take in this communicative activity with the children, different strategies of communication in children's play are discussed, particularly with regard to vocabulary and narrative structure.