Why is the practice important?
Educator-to-educator talk is important because it maximizes the learning time for children. When adults in the learning environment communicate with each other about routines, expectations, and transitions, it creates a consistent, smooth-running, organized learning environment. For very young children, educator-to-educator talk also promotes continuity of care by ensuring that everyone on the team knows an infant’s feeding schedule, when and how they transition to a nap, and other individual preferences to ensure consistency and predictability. Educator-to-educator talk develops collaboration and communication between the adults in the environment and models what teamwork looks and sounds like for children and adults.
Sustaining Children’s Cultural, Ethnic, and Language Identities
- Encourage staff to learn about each other’s cultural communication practices.
- Share information about communication styles (formal, informal, verbal, nonverbal) that may affect day-to-day communication.
- Discuss personal values about child rearing and education because it may affect priorities for communication.
- Encourage family members to embrace their role in educator-to-educator talk. This might mean volunteering in the learning environment, reading books, singing songs, or teaching new vocabulary. Ask families how they’d like to participate in other classroom or socialization activities. Family members are an important part of educator-to-educator talk! Connect with families to learn about their communication preference at home.
- Honor and respect different ways of interacting socially.
Practices for Children with Disabilities or Suspected Delays
- Develop individualized teaching plans and a child’s individual goal(s) during socialization ahead of time, so that adults can use educator-to-educator talk to confirm that one adult will focus on an individualized teaching plan.
- When children need extra adult support to take part in an activity, routine, or interactions, all adults need to know what support will be used and what it means. For example, if an adult says, “It looks like Sara wants a turn. Could you check-in with her and help her?” all adults need to know how to help Sarah in a way that matches her learning needs.
- Adults can support each other by checking modification plans to make sure the modifications are given and by communicating what has been done and what needs to be done.
- When an adult sets up for an activity or routine, they can communicate to the other adults that the activity is ready, with individualized accommodations or modifications, and that the planning form is on the wall.
Practices for Children with Disabilities or Suspected Delays
Infants – Early On
- Since infants are cared for based on their individual cues for feeding, sleeping, changing, and play time, educators should discuss what they are going to do ahead of time. For example:
- Teacher Gavin: “Teacher Biftu, I’m going to feed Addison a bottle now because she is hungry. Then I will sit on the floor with her and the other infants. I see Keeva may need a nap soon, could you check on her and see if she needs help?
- Teacher Biftu: “Yes, I will. I was thinking the same thing. Keeva has been rubbing her eyes. After she falls asleep, I’m going to help Taye take a nap. He is starting to look sleepy.”
- Communication with families is key when caring for infants. Educator-to-educator talk might be about conversations with families at drop off or pick up or notes the families write on infant daily sheets. These conversations can support educators in reading infants’ cues and better understanding what the infant might need differently during that day.
Toddlers – Emerging Skills
- Educators who care for toddlers engage in educator-to-educator talk continuously throughout the program day. This might include talking about the many transitions that occur during the toddler years, switching from two naps to one nap to no nap, learning to use the toilet, and increasing independence.
- Since toddlers go through many transitions in toddlerhood and are developing independence, educator-to-educator talk might include discussing a change in a child’s daily schedule or a new skill the child is learning and practicing. For example:
- Teacher Marquell: “Teacher Irene, I talked with Avi’s family this morning, and he hasn’t been taking naps over the weekend, so maybe we should offer him some books to read during nap time? What do you think? Do you have other ideas that could help?”
- Teacher Irene: “That sounds like a good idea. I was meaning to tell you, yesterday on the playground, Charlotte climbed up the climbing gym all on her own! I hadn’t seen her do that before. She was so excited.”
- Communication with families is key when caring for toddlers. Educator-to-educator talk might be about conversations you have with families at drop off or pick up or sharing the notes the families write on daily communication sheets. When you communicate these conversations with the entire education team, you support educators in providing consistency between home and school.
Preschoolers – Increasing Mastery
- Educators who work with preschool children engage in educator-to-educator talk continuously throughout the program day. This might include talking about learning goals, a child’s interests, peer relationships, planned activities, and adaptations or modifications.
- Since preschool children engage in social play often — like pretend play, creating new games with their own rules, and collaborative problem-solving — educator-to-educator talk might include discussing peer preferences or trends in the social games that children are engaged in. For example:
- Teacher Asia: “Teacher Jesse, I have noticed that Zoia and Logan have been playing together every day this week. They have been building animal enclosures in the block area.”
- Teacher Jesse: “I’ve noticed that too! Logan’s uncle told me that they saw Zoia’s family at the zoo a few weeks ago. I wonder what kind of animals we can add to the block area to support their play?”
- Communication with families is key when working with children in preschool. Educator-to-educator talk might be about conversations you have with families at drop off or pick up. When the conversations between a family and one educator are communicated with the entire education team, these conversations support consistency between home and school.
See
The videos in the playlist are short examples of practices that facilitate educator-to-educator talk in early childhood learning environments. As you watch these videos, think about what you already do to effectively communicate and what additional practices you can implement to support diverse communication styles.
