General Methods of Teaching (EDU 301)

Lesson No. 24

EARLY YEARS
EDUCATION

Objectives:
By the end of the lecture, you will have:

 Reflected upon the importance of knowing developmental

milestones.
 Identified role of partnership education in early years.
 Reflected upon the use of play in early childhood education.
 Identified different kinds of play in ECE.

Outline:

• Pre-schooling
• The important things in pre-school education
• Pre-schooling research
• Importance of milestones
• Brain development milestones/ activities
 Morning greeting
 Finger-play in preschool
 Story time
 Free play
 Snack and circle time activity
 Art activity
 Physical development milestones
• Jumping
• Finger play
• Art activity
 Social development milestones/ activities
• Seating arrangement of class
• Physical development
• Snack & circle time activity

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Pre-school and infant educations are different from other education.

Child’s rights convention of 1989 has mentioned that “Education is
basic right of every child.” It is a basic right of every child but it is
usually considered as part of formal education. Different countries
have different age levels of formal education i.e. some countries
provide it at age 6, some at 7 or 8 etc. The age before formal
education or proper schooling in which the child learns or gets basic
education is known as early childhood education.

Pre-schooling:
The names that different countries use for pre-schooling or
early childhood education is: -
 In British English, Nursery School or simply “nursery.” - In
the Unites States pre-school and pre-K are used.
 In Pakistan, there are different names to be used in private sector.
i.e. Montessori education, kindergarten education, play group,
toddler or kids’ education etc.
 In public sector, the term mostly used is “Kachi Class”

The names may be different but umbrella term for it is “Early

Childhood Education.”
Developmental milestones of pre-school education are different from
those of formal education.

The most important things in pre-school education:

 Physical development, in which cross motor development and fine
motor development is included.
 Cognitive development, mathematics and language development
can be part of it or it can be separated.
 Similarly, social and emotional development.

Pre-schooling research:
A study by Stanford University on 14,000 Kindergarteners revealed
that while there is a temporary cognitive boost in pre-reading and

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math, pre-school holds detrimental effects on social development and

cooperation.

Milestones in early years:

Here is a question, which will help in understanding.

By age 3 years, the average child can balance on each foot for how
long?
a. 3 seconds
b. 4 seconds Answer is: a
c. 6 seconds
d. 2 minutes

At age 3 years, the average child can name how many colors?
a. 0
b. 1 Answer is: b
c. 4
d. 8

By age 4 years, most children can ….

a. Copy a square
b. Copy a circle Answer is: b
c. Copy a cross
d. Draw a person with 6 body parts

What is learnt from the above questions?

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General Methods of Teaching (EDU 301)

If we are going to teach in early childhood school, what have we

learnt?
Being a teacher, I need to know different milestones for early
childhood education to:
1. Plan age appropriate teaching and learning activities.
2. Carry out fair assessment of young children.
3. Give useful feedback to children and their parents.
4. Ensure holistic development of children.
Being teachers, it is important for us to know early year milestones
and we need to device our activities; teaching as well as learning
activities according to those identified early year milestones.

Brain Development activities:

 Morning greeting: There are brain cells in the minds of the
children, but the connection between these cells are missing. This
morning greeting provides the environment which helps in
building the connections. The important role in this regard is of
language.

 Finger play in pre-school: By a couple of months of age, babies

can process the emotional colors of language (prosody).

 In fact, toddlers can memorize nursery rhymes because rhymes

have prosody. Finger play is important in developing connections
in brain. As the preschool teacher raises her voice an octave draws
out her vowels, the child’s brain responds by sending even more
chemical and electrical impulses across the synapses.

 Story time needs to be an integral part of early years of

education. Because through story, a child gets language
development, social development and social interaction.

 Free play: It is not necessary that every school follows teacher-

oriented activities i.e. the teacher always tells a story. But a
teacher must give the students free time so that they can do
something in groups either they could play together. Research
says, “During free play, pre-school children interact with one
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another. As they communicate, whether through beginning

language or more sophisticated use of words, the neurons in
their brains are making more connections, critical for
reinforcing learning.”

 Snack & circle time activity: This activity is important because

the children can interact with one another more easily while
having their snacks. Their social interaction is more at this time
and most importantly, they learn sharing here; sharing of ideas in
adult life comes only if someone experiences these things in early
childhood. Sharing at early ages starts with little things e.g.
snacks, toffees, chips, biscuits, lunch etc.

 If the children do not share these little things at early ages then
they would not share their ideas in their future lives. So, snack
time activity is very helpful in learning of vocabulary, sentence
construction, and their social development.

 Circle time activity: As the early childhood teacher focuses her

attention on each individual child in the large group activity, the
child must think about the topic for the day. The child’s brain will
be active as she/he retrieves from memory something special.

 Art activity: Art is very important in early childhood education as

it helps in brain development.

Physical Development Milestones:

 Jumping: A teacher must give the students the opportunity for

jumping exercise. They are not jumping alone; there are other
students as well. So, this activity is not only for physical
development but social interaction as well.

 Finger play: When the students are learning rhymes, they must
always be taught through actions. Its purpose is brain development
and mortar development. When the children use their mortar
muscles and fin muscles, as a result their mortar development
takes place.
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 Art activities: All art activities are part of physical development.

Art should be an essential component in pre-school education
because it is directly related to physical development.

Social Development Activities:

 Seating arrangement of class: Seating arrangement of a class

should be in such a manner that the children can easily interact
with one another and they could work together. They could share
ideas.
 Physical development: Through physical development activities,
the children gets social interaction as well.
 Snack time & circle activity: In snack time & circle activity, the
children share their ideas with each other. So, it also results in
social development.

Vygotsky’s theory: Vygotsky’s theory included four major ideas.

They are:
1. Children construct their own knowledge.
2. Language plays an important role in cognitive development.
3. Learning can lead development.
4. Development cannot be separated from the social context in
which it occurs.

It is very important for us to understand this theory and to use it in

our teaching. Because this theory is very much applicable in early
childhood education. Teachers must focus on language development.
Because learning can lead to development. Teachers must focus
on social context because social interaction is helpful in social
development of the children. When social development takes place,
then ultimately, children increase their vocabulary and language
development. Vygotsky’s theory provides us with an integrated
perspective that teachers must provide such opportunities to children
in early childhood education which leads to language development.
Language cannot be developed in isolation.

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