Early childhood education and communication Essay

Early childhood education and communication - Essay Example Communication starts at the time of birth and it ends only at the time of death. In education, teacher student communication is extremely important especially in early childhood education. A teacher with who has immense knowledge and academic credentials may not succeed in his profession if he has poor communication skills. Whatever the knowledge a teacher possesses, should be transferred to the students for the effective learning of students and communication is the only channel which is helping the teachers in doing so. â€Å"Learning is a process of information transfer and reception†(Information and communication Technologies in teacher education, 2002, p.18). Early childhood (from 0 to 5 years) is a period in which rapid child development happens. People often say that whatever the practices or knowledge learned during this period will remain in the minds of the child till the end of his life. Children during their early childhood spend majority of their time in schools. Since most of the current parents are working professionals, current children are getting less knowledge from their parents and school is the place from where they expect new information and knowledge. In short, elementary school teachers have huge responsibilities in shaping the future generation in the right direction. I do believe that elementary school teachers should have good communication skills in order to transfer their knowledge to the children. Importance of communication in teaching elementary school children Elementary school education requires the combined effort of teachers, parents and the caregivers. Children during their early childhood may not know the importance of education and teachers have the responsibility of informing the parents about the progress of the children in the classroom. â€Å"One way a preschool educator can communicate with parents is through a classroom newsletter. While a weekly newsletter is ideal, a biweekly or monthly newsletter is more realistic and easier for to accomplish† (Stewart, 2008) Newsletters can be used effectively by the preschool teachers to communicate properly with the parents of the children. These newsletters should contain enough information about the progress of the child in the classroom. Moreover it should contain details of home works children needs to be done with the help of their parents. The involvement of parents in the study of their children is the most i mportant thins thing in preschool education and for that purpose preschool teachers should communicate properly with the parents. Such preschool teacher parent communication will make the parents aware of the importance of works done in the classroom. Apart from new letters, periodical parent-teacher conferences are necessary to assess the progress of the children. In this conference, the teacher should provide the in depth details about the progress of the children to the parents. Newsletters cannot reflect the exact details about the progress of the children whereas face to face meetings between the teacher and the parents are necessary for the comprehensive discussion about the progress of the children. Teachers with poor communication skills may not arrange such conferences frequently and parents may not get enough information about their child’s progress. On the other hand, teachers with good communication skills will always arrange bimonthly or quarterly parent-teacher conferences to discuss the progress of the children. A parent teacher conference is a great way for parents and early childhood educators to get together to discuss the child in depth. One can listen to the parents as they voice their concerns about certain areas of their child’