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Presenter: Sheila Degotardi
Minds at play: How play harnesses infants’ and toddlers’ unique ways of thinking and learning?
In this workshop, participants will explore the potential of authentic and meaningful play experiences to foster infants’ and toddlers’ thinking skills. Using practical examples, Sheila will illustrate the emergence of two play types - exploratory and pretend play – and provide an overview of how these two kinds of play capture infants’ and toddlers’ unique ways of thinking and learning. Participants will have the opportunity to consider how to create effective learning experiences and environments, and interact with infants and toddlers in ways that promote their learning through play.
Biography
Sheila Degotardi is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and the Director of the Centre for Research In Early Childhood Education at Macquarie University. Sheila researches and teaches the topic of infant-toddler pedagogies and learning in early childhood education centres. With a deep interest in relationship-based pedagogies and very young children's thinking, she investigates the nature of social interactions between children, their educators and peers, to consider how these interactions contribute towards very young children’s learning. Sheila works closely with the early childhood community to support professional practice, and as has published widely on infant-toddler pedagogies, including her book "The Relationship Worlds of Infants and Toddlers", published by Open University Press.
Presenter: Dr Tracy Redman
Talking the talk
In this workshop Tracy will present empirically proven strategies for enhancing your language interactions with infants and toddlers, and share the research that tells us why and how these strategies and concepts are important for young childrens’ language learning that underpin later academic success. You will have the opportunity to practice some of the strategies, and do an audit on your room to see how providing a language-rich environment can support educator interactions.
Biography
Tracy has had many years in the early childhood sector, incorporating a vast range of roles and responsibilities, including over 20 years as an early childhood teacher – 16 of those as owner/teaching director of her own long day care centre. Overlapping with this, Tracy has taught early childhood students from certificate III to master’s degree level qualifications, during which time she has written many units and resources for certificate III, diploma, and bachelor’s degree courses. She has also worked as a consultant for government and non-government agencies writing resources such as THE PAK (The Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Kit). Tracy is currently the Project Manager for the Observe, Reflect, Improve Children’s Learning (ORICL) project led by Macquarie University, and the Teachers in Early Education (TEE) project led by the University of Sydney. Tracy’s passion is in supporting infant and toddler educators to spontaneously enhance their language interactions during a normal work day.