Child Development: How Young Children Develop And Learn

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No doubt you’ll have been amazed by the questions your child raises, and marvelled at how quickly they absorb new knowledge and skills. Understanding how young children develop and learn is vital to providing them with the ideal early learning environment and framework.

So how do children come to understand the world around them in these early years?

 

Exploration and experiences: How to inspire children’s learning 

Children naturally love learning. The key is to encourage and guide their curiosity into self-driven learning, supported by safe and high-quality interactions with educators.

The importance of play

Evidence has shown that an experiential learning approach with both structured and spontaneous teaching strategies results in the best outcomes. Play is a vital part of this, as it’s how children begin to develop their social, cognitive, logic, language and physical skills from a very early age. Our own early childhood program values outdoor spaces just as much as structured classrooms, providing diverse opportunities for both pre-planned and free play.

Play helps children to develop patience and empathy, learn social cues and understand how the world around them works.

The importance of questions

Children have innate curiosity, and their questions help them form understandings about the world based on what they see, hear and experience. Our own curriculum, based on the Reggio Emilia educational approach, helps children to form and test their own hypotheses about the world through self-driven learning and expert guidance from educators.

Curiosity-led learning can help children learn about everything from the natural environment to crayon-based colour theory.

The importance of relationships

As a child wonders and expands their knowledge, it’s crucial that they have solid, trustworthy relationships to ‘bounce off of’. It’s when a child feels safe, secure, supported and encouraged that their learning truly flourishes. We are highly selective in who we choose to join our team, as we know what a critical role caring teachers and educators play in children’s learning and development.

A child who feels safe, encouraged and cared for has the support to develop a lifelong love of learning.

Other key factors in early learning

Finding the ideal learning environments for your child

Our Early Learning child day care in Mornington, Ballarat and Penrith are equipped with experienced educators, environments, nutrition and learning frameworks to give your little one the very best start.