Child-led learning

[Speekee]

Hi all,

Would you mind sharing with me your thoughts and experiences on the subject of child-led learning?

As we continue our research into how best to structure Speekee 2 we find ourselves very interested in this concept.

Can part 2 of our program be led out front by the children who have learned Spanish from scratch with Speekee?!

Have a great day,

Jim

[Maquenzie]

I don't own any of your products, but I do try to have a more child-led approach so I'll speak to that.

One video program I've used with my (now) 24 month old is Preschool Prep Company.  We watched the DVDs together and I tried some various ways to use the sight word flash cards with her.  Mostly, I *watched her* to see what she naturally wanted to do.  I noticed she liked to put the cards into little cracks (which was actually pretty annoying--I'd find them in all the cracks between furniture and floor etc.).  So, capitalizing on this desire, I made her a box with a slit on top that would fit them.  I just cut a slit in the lid (and added tape for softer edges) on an empty clear plastic bin.  She would then read a card from a stack and put it in the slot.  This greatly increased her attention span for reading these flash cards. To further promote child-led learning, I placed this box down low where she could reach it anytime.  She still asks to do "words" with me several times a day! I believe she's using these cards more than if I had them elsewhere and brought them out on my timetable and using them in the ways that came naturally to me.

Anyway, many of the child-led aspects would likely depend on the presentation by the parent/caregiver.  Some ways children will want to interact with the materials will be individual to the child, so a product with more flexibility and/or variety of presentation ideas would lend itself easier for a more child-led approach.

I do think some activities are more universal in children and are a part of their development.  Maria Montessori has researched and written at depth about these types of things (general things most children enjoy doing, even repetitiously, at certain ages). For instance, I would think a lot of toddlers would enjoy putting cards into a slit in a box.  Many kids that age also enjoy stacking objects.  So, I think an educational product that makes use of the types of activities it's target age-range enjoys doing over and over and over would be more successful.

[Kerileanne99]

Absolutely! My two-year-old is most definitely attracted by kiddos her own age in videos...actually, she prefers slightly older kids or tiny babies, but this might be her preference...I think the success of YBCR and especially Signing Time with her came from the fact that she could see real children, in her own age range, on the videos...in fact, she will completely ignore Signing Time while Rachel, the adult host, is signing, but will actively engage when other kiddos are on...
Hope this helps..

[TeachingMyToddlers]

I would love to see "matching" books with very simple, large font that reinforces the concepts. That would be very cool. Or very BOLD oversized on-screen karaoke style captioning that highlights as songs are sung.

[Tanikit]

Kerileanne there does seem to be something about real children that attracts babies on TV/DVDs - my sister and I could both show our children DVDs with real children in them from before a year of age but they were not a bit interested in cartoon characters until after about 2 years of age. Obviously we did not let them watch much at all, but these were the products they went for.

As for child led learning in other areas - every time I take my daughter out (11 months old) and she seems interested in anything I'll talk to her about it and tell her about it. I let her do what she wants to and all the while communicate with her. She is now starting to show a bigger interest in the flashcards so we will use these more now.

[lzp11]

I love the idea of child-led learning.  We just signed up for a trial of Speekee last week and my DD aged 33 months is really enjoying it - she has asked to watch the first episode every day for the past 3 or 4 days!  i also really like having a curriculum to help plan our learning and that it involves simple bite sized activities that only need take a few minutes if you have a very active toddler who has a short attention span (I do!).

I like the mixture of puppets and real Spanish children.  DD definitely responds more to the children than to the puppets - she's not so keen on the songs that only involve the puppets.  I have also found that the interactive conversational element in the first episode has been really helpful.  This is repeated several times (e.g. como te llamas... me llamo... etc) and I have been able to pause the programme and ask the same question to my daughter.  This is the first time after showing quite a range of spanish DVDs that she has been willing to reply!  She will say "muy bien" "me llamo..." and "y tu"!  I am very excited about that    I don't think that I have seen this in many other teaching materials for young children which tend to emphasize flashing words etc, but have less emphasis on drawing the child into getting involved and answering questions etc.

But, to comment on your original question, whilst I love the idea of child led learning, I would be less enthusiastic about having non native spanish speakers involved.  As a parent who speaks some spanish but with an English accent, I think it is really important to be exposed to the correct accent as much as possible on teaching materials such as DVDs etc.  If there are children on the DVD also speaking with a very anglicised accent then I would be worried about this confusing the child and making them less likely to make the effort to try to pronounce the language more correctly.  Having said that, there is nothing DD likes better than seeing someone else make a mistake and being corrected so watching another child modelling how to learn a language could work very well!  But could you use native spanish speaking children pretending to make mistakes and being corrected?! 

What type of child led activities did you have in mind?

[aangeles]

Out of the 6 languages my daughter is learning (English, Mandarin, Spanish, French, Tagalog, and Hokkien), two are non-native languages (Spanish and French) and I rely heavily on software, DVDs, audiobooks, music CDs, and apps to teach her these 2 languages. I try to choose only products using the immersion method and native speakers. While I have nothing against child-led learning (in fact, my daughter loves seeing babies and children on her videos), having non-native speakers would most likely turn me off a language learning program.

[NadiaD]

Can part 2 of our program be led out front by the children who have learned Spanish from scratch with Speekee?!

My answer too would be 'no'....as well

We like the Speekee the way it is: interactive full immersion  and native speakers!

[gigo]

hey , I love to know about this program! it is nice for my baby to learn this

Tks

[Speekee]

Wow! So many replies, I am not sure where to begin. Thanks everyone!

I love the simplicity in WATCHING what the child does and responding to that. Perhaps that is the answer I have been looking for.

As one of Speekee's co creators, I have noted with interest your comments about non native speakers, and I am reminded of my experience teaching English as a foreign language - I am the only native speaker in this case and one of the ways I use to get the students (my experience is mainly with adults) speaking is to practice with each other. They are happy with this as long as I am there to assist as they go along. This said, it is not my intention for Speekee 2 to show non native Spanish learners as teachers.

I am happy to hear Speekee - rightly! - described as being interactive. This was one of our key aims during product development. We thought long and hard about how a video could interact with the viewer, and we settled on Speekee using the phrase '¿Y tú?' - And you? - as an invitation for the child to repeat what has just been said. Feedback from parents tells us this concept is sometimes latched onto by their children and sometimes not; we knew that not everyone would understand what Speekee was asking the viewer to do!

There are plenty of smart young learners who understand all the nuances of Speekee, and it's these I particularly have in mind when I talk about Speekee 2 being child led.

I can tell you that your responses are already helping me shape my thinking. And I am quite happy to share a little with you about what we have currently in the planning stages.

Put simply, we are working on increasing the interactivity of Speekee TV. As it is an online video series it lends itself to other online activity. What do I mean by this? Well, we are currently discussing ways in which we can get the learner more involved in the whole Speekee experience...

For example, guided 'virtual' communication with the Spanish children who feature in the program. Such messages would be solely in Spanish, in keeping with the immersion ethos of Speekee. And when I say guided I mean that the communication should be seen by the parent for what it is: another Spanish learning tool, Speekee-led of course. As for the child, I feel intuitively that the older Speekee viewers will be delighted to call the likes of Lucía, Antonio and Ana Belén their 'friends'!

We shall see... it's all in the initial planning stages at the moment, but with regard to the child-led part I can imagine some of the communications becoming more flexible, allowing the child to expand on the Spanish they have learned through Speekee. Then if we carefully WATCH what develops naturally we will know precisely how Speekee 2 should look and feel.

Without any previous knowledge of the subject, I was wondering if Speekee 2 could be wholly child led. With thanks to your input it appears unlikely, and so to summarise my thinking today: from a new interactive feel to Speekee we shall discover what the learner needs to learn in Speekee 2 (-; (-;

¡Perfecto!

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