Professional learning and development in home-based early childhood education and care : exploring the benefits for educator-child shared talk and children's social emotional and self-regulatory development

Abstract

Research shows that parent-child reminiscing conversations (shared talk about past events) impart benefits for children’s development across a range of domains. To date, there is limited research investigating whether reminiscing outside of parent-child context exerts similar benefits for children’s development. The current thesis sought to explore how participation in professional learning and development in home-based early childhood education and care (ECEC) impacted educators’ and children’s internal state (cognitive and emotion) language use during an educator-child reminiscing task and children’s social-emotional and self-regulatory development. In this study 17 educators and 21 children participated in at least one and up to three modules designed to support educators’ delivery of ECEC and promote children’s development. Results were analysed using a combination of visual observation methods, and statistical analyses were conducted to strengthen the conclusions drawn from findings. Overall results for educators’ and children’s language during reminiscing were inconsistent, although there was some evidence to suggest that participation in two or more modules may have promoted educators’ and children’s use of internal state language. Moreover, children who participated in the Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR) module demonstrated differential improvement on some measures of social-emotional and self-regulatory competence, which was evident up to two years following participation. Findings suggest that participation in RRR, which includes a reminiscing component, in home-based ECEC contexts may exert specific benefits for children’s social-emotional and self-regulatory development. Results are discussed in reference to past research on reminiscing and implications for children’s early learning and development in ECEC settings.