3 Musts For Preschool Parents

I am excited for the new school year to begin.  Over the next few weeks all the NSC affiliated cooperative preschools will have Fall Orientation.  Although orientations are informative and necessary to get us all on the same page going into the school year they can be long and sometimes an overload of information.  I try and keep my part of orientations brief as the focus is on the nuts and bolts of starting preschool.

In preparation for working as an assistant teacher in the classroom there are 3 things I would like every parent to do.

1. Avoid saying, "Good Job".  (More on that in another blog post)
2. Use Descriptive Commenting. (DC)
3. Play, explore, have fun and follow the children's lead.

Descriptive Commenting is a way of communicating with children that shares in the child's enjoyment of an activity.  Descriptive Commenting is commenting on exactly what you observe without value judgments or quizzing.  For example when a child is building a tower with blocks simply say, "You are putting the red block on the green block" or "I see you are stacking the blocks". At the play dough table a comment might be, "Sam is rolling the play dough and Jane is pounding it with a cup" or during outside play a comment might be, "You are going up the stairs and down the slide!"

Teacher Tom is brilliant at using the term "I wonder" as a way to avoid questioning and quizzing kids yet opening up possibilities for extending the child's play, creativity and scientific process. For example if a child is painting and about to mix blue and red paint rather than asking, "What color do you think blue and red make?" or informing, "Blue and red make purple", you'd say, "I wonder what color it will make when you mix blue and red".  

Descriptive Commenting may be referred to as "broadcasting" because it can be like a sports commentator describing the action on a playing field.  Although DC is sometimes called a "running commentary" I think talking to children continually while they are playing is intrusive.  We all need mental as well as physical space to play, create and experiment.

Descriptive Commenting can also be very helpful in handling conflict in the classroom.  As happens with young children there will be times when they grab toys from one another, push, crowd and hit.  When you observe these behaviors  intervene by gently putting your arm around or between the kids to stop the physicality of their conflict (safety first).  In the case of a child grabbing a toy from another child say, "John is playing with that.  You can have a turn when he is done." If there is another toy that is the same or similar you can say, "Here is one for you".  Very young children will likely be upset when they have to give a toy back and sympathizing can be helpful., "I know you want to play with that. It is hard to wait".  In instances of hurting behaviors we make the observation, "You hit her.  Hitting hurts and that made her cry. Let's be gentle."  In all cases of conflict give the child an alternate, more acceptable behavior such as, "You can say, "I want a turn" or "You can say, "stop".  

Descriptive Commenting can be a great tool for extending a child's vocabulary, encouraging social skills and emotional literacy as well as engaging with children in the classroom.