The time has come for you to go back to work and here you are, looking for a good daycare for your child. OR… perhaps you feel that its time junior attended playschool or a pre-school, even? So choosing the right establishment, one that allows your child to be the best they can be, is crucial.
However, once you open up those brochures, all sorts of unfamiliar terms swarm your vision and you feel like it’s time to go get a dictionary. Well then, do not fear, for we are here to help you fully understand what your brochure is saying. Here is a list of common terms used (and their explanations), found in the preschool, playschool or daycare brochures so you know you’re making the right choice.
1. Affective Development. The area of a child’s development refers to personality, emotionality, making friends, social skills, and the child’s perception of his or her self.
2. Assimilation. Proposed by a theorist named Jean Piaget, this term is used in the early childhood theory to describe how a new idea or concept is fitted into what a child already knows.
3. Assessment (as in Child Assessment). Information that is gathered to make an appraisal of a child or judgement about the child’s development, abilities, or needs.
4. Attachment. A long-standing emotional tie. The key signs of attachment between a child and an adult are when you move away the child looks at you; The child moves toward you when returning after separation; The child goes to you for comfort; When you are present the child feels safe and begins to gain the confidence to look around, explore and leave your side to play with other children or to explore objects and their environment.
5. Centre. A licensed and regulated facility for children up to 6 years of age which includes: kindergarten, childcare, daycare, language centres, early learning centres, nursery school, and Montessori.
6. Co-construction. This refers to learning together and acknowledging that the child can have expertise. Co-construction is about the child’s knowledge and understanding being considered and treated as valid by the adult (while the adult is willing to share and develop their own thinking).
7. Cognitive Development. Also known as intellectual development. The word “cognitive” is about the intellectual mind and how it works — how knowledge is learned and the way knowledge is used.
8. Consonant. All the letters of the alphabet except a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.
9. Day Nurseries. Mostly private care providers, offering to care for children from 0–5 years. Children are cared for in age groups and take part in a wide range of activities. Day nurseries have fixed opening times and most are open all year round except weekends and public holidays.
10. Development. Physical and mental growth and other changes that occur to a child as a result of natural maturation or by learning or both maturation and learning.
11. Early Childhood Education. A process whereby young children learn and develop knowledge, skills, and understanding. This term is used as a phrase to describe all licensed and regulated early childhood services.
12. Egocentrism. Not having the ability to see things from another person’s perspective, or not realising that others’ viewpoints can differ from one’s own.
13. Emotional, Behavioural, and Social Difficulties. This describes a child whose behaviours hampers his/her educational progress and is persistent over a significant period of time.
14. ESAL. English Spoken as a Second Language. A person practices ESAL when a language other than English is the primary one used to communicate.
15. Gifted. A child or children with advanced ability or skill in comparison to other children of the same age or when a child has a particular talent or skill such as in mathematical thinking or art.
16. Group size. The specific number of children grouped within a centre who interact with the same teacher(s) in an assigned space or classroom.
17. Guided participation. When a young child or young children are guided to learn what is needed to be learned to be a part of a playgroup.
18. Licensed size. The total number of children a centre can have on the premises for care and education at any one time.
19. Metacognition. This is an important term that is not well understood. It means thinking about cognition. Thinking about one’s mind, one’s knowledge, how it is organised, and what one has learned.
20. Motor Development. Also known as motor skill development, it is about how a child develops physical skills in using his/her body.
21. Motor Skills. There are two broad types of motor skills that young children develop: fine motor skills, using the smaller muscles, for example, doing up buttons on cardigan; gross motor skills, for example crawling, climbing, and skipping.
22. NQT. Newly Qualified Teacher — A teacher who has just been awarded the qualified teacher status.
23. Outcomes. Changes in a child’s skills, ability, attitudes, behaviour, understanding, and knowledge that are expected as a result of attending an early childhood program or receiving services, or being exposed to particular experiences or equipment toys.
24. Pedagogy. The art and science of teaching and learning; The function of a teacher.
25. Peers. Other kids who are the same age or maybe of the same developmental level. They are not necessarily friends.
26. Preschoolers. Children between the ages of 3 and up until 5 or 6 years of age before attending primary school.
27. Private Early Childhood Services. A centre or home-based licensed and regulated service that is owned and managed by an individual, family, business partners, company, or co-operation. Such services may be owner supervised where the owner works daily within the service as a member of the staff and thus has a personal commitment to the other staff, children, and families serviced.
28. Qualified Teacher(s). One who has successfully completed his or her early education and/or play-center training courses.
29. Read at home. One on one time listening to your child read out loud to you. Reading material can be a book your child picks out or one from school, a magazine, newspaper, etc.
30. Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLD). A specific rather than general learning difficulty. For example dyslexia or dyspraxia.
31. Speech and Language Therapy. Speech and language therapy can help children and adults with speech, language, and communication difficulties.
32. TA. Teaching Assistant — A person that provides extra help for students in the classroom.
33. Toddler. In research, this generally describes a one to a three-year-old child. However, in practice the descriptor of “toddler” is often applied to an infant who begins to walk independently. This may be at 10 months or 18 months for example.
34. Learning Dispositions. A term that lacks precision but remains popular with early childhood professionals. It is usually taken to refer to a child’s orientation to learning. In a critical review of the concept, Jane Bone (2001) makes the point that “capturing” dispositions is not possible, either on paper or in real life. In the attempt, early childhood educators might be involved in a process at odds with current ideas of equitable practice (source: Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 2001).
35. Mainstreaming. Also known as ‘integration’. When children with special learning needs and disabilities are enrolled in the same early childhood programme as other children and have opportunities to do the same activities.
36. Scaffolding. Unlike the kind in construction sites, scaffolding in terms of early education and development means adults’ support of a child’s efforts. A process of graduated assistance that helps to raise the level at which the child is capable of working.
