OUR TIME: FIDDLE-DEE-DEE Week 4

FOUNDATIONS OF LEARNING
CONVERSATION SKILLS: The echoing in the Tick Tock vocal play begins as imitation but can develop through improvisation on the part of the teacher or the children. The exchange, whether imitative or improvised, allows children to experience the give and take of conversation. This is vital to the development of conversation skills which is an important element of social development.

PRAISE THE ACCOMPLISHMENT: In acknowledging a child’s choice to participate it is important to praise the accomplishment rather than to make a global comment such as “Good girl!” or “Good boy!”. When the latter type of praise is used frequently, there is the danger that the child might interpret the absence of such praise to mean, “I’m a bad boy” or “I’m not good enough.” Example of appropriate praise include the following: “Great job. You played the drum!”; “You’re good at that!”; and “You did it!”