Early childhood development- role of technology

The philosophy of early childhood education wouldfocus is on development, growth and learning of children. Teachers must understand the different stages of development, educate the child and carefully note the implication of their teachings to children. Early childhood education requires a comprehensive and friendly curriculum that clearly assesses the needs, interests and strengths of children, putting into consideration their cultural and social contexts. The dimensions to be addressed in early childhood educations would involve teaching that would enhance development and learning, creating a caring environment for children to learn in, strengthening the teacher-parents relationships and an assessment of learning and development of children.

Higher order thinking skill is a level where children would understand facts and connect them to other concepts and apply them to solve new problems (Sternberg, 2007). The strategies to be used that would likely lead to higher order thinking skill would involve teaching of concepts from basic to complex. Childrenneed to understand basic concept before proceeding to sophisticated ones lest they memorize the complex concepts. Another strategy would be to teach them how to make inferences at an early age.i.e. a teacher may make slogans and have the student infer. One of the most common strategies that is mainly used is the use of visual presentation. The use of pictures to relate it with certain concepts improves their thinking skills (Nevis, 2002).

Early childhood experience is characterized by development needs that technology can generously provide; needs such as manipulation of symbols and exploration that would make the learning experience interesting. Technology use in classrooms is to differentiate, expand and make the overall curriculum enjoyable. In addition to this, technology integration would prove its usefulness if used in serving children with specific learning disabilities.

References

Kostelnik, M., Soderman, A., &Whiren, A. (2011). Developmentally appropriate curriculum: Best practices in early childhood education (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Nevins Stanulis, R. & Manning, B. H. (2002). The teacher’s role in creating a positive verbal and nonverbal environment in the early childhood classroom. Early Childhood Education Journal, 30(1), 3-8.

Sternberg, R. J. &Grigorenko, E. L. (2007). Teaching for successful intelligence. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wardle, F. {2000). How children learn: The order in mess. Children and Families, 14 (4), 82-83.

NAEYC (1996). Position statement on technology and young children – ages three through eight. Young Children, 51 (6), 11-16.