Which letter is this? CLICK

Which letter is this? >CLICK< by Vandhana Prakash

The use of computers in an early childhood centre is commonplace nowadays. Children’s interaction with educational games and programmes are able to enhance their literacy and language skills (Isikoglu, 2003). Furthermore, children in early childhood programmes are more likely to gain access to the computer. This enables them to expand their cognitive knowledge about the world as well (Hong & Trepanier-Street, 2004). The children at my centre are a mixed age group. I observed that while the older children are inclined towards playing the educational games, the younger children also like to observe and ask for a turn. Sometimes, the younger children are more excited about using the computer. One morning, I noticed a young girl, K, taking an interest in the computer.

K is a two and half year old girl who loves to play in the family corner. One particular morning, I noticed her observing the other children having turns on the computer. Then, she would go off to play with her favourite doll and return a while later to look at the game. After morning tea, the sun was out so most of the children decided to play outside. This gave K an opportunity to use the computer. After having a ten minute turn, K went to play with her doll again. Then, she would return after a while to see if she could have another turn on the computer. All this while, she carried her doll with her. For example, if she was feeding her doll, she would bring the spoon and doll along with her while on the computer. It was fascinating to see her eyes light up and how quickly she became accustomed to using the mouse to click on wanted icons. The game that she was playing was based on literacy. The child had to choose different shapes and colours to create a piece of art. For example, various shapes would be displayed and K would choose one. The chosen shape would then move to the centre of the screen and the voice would ask K to choose a colour from the list given. Each time a shape or colour was chosen, the voice would name them. K also had the opportunity to play another game. This involved recognition of letters and letter sounds. A letter would be displayed in the middle of the screen and the voice would sound the letter. Then, K had to choose the letter from a list of three letters displayed at the bottom. These experiences allowed K to be exposed to various forms of literacy.

The learning that occurred for K was pivotal in starting her recognition of shapes, colours and letters (Ministry of Education, 1996). Although, K is only two and a half, computer programmes such as these allow her to start gaining recognition of literacy elements. For instance, the more she listens to the sound of a letter while looking at it, the better she can start to link the sound and symbol together in the future (Hamer & Adams, 2003). Likewise, she will gain knowledge of shapes and colours by choosing the wanted icons in the programme. This also allows her to create an image that she has envisioned (Donahue, 2003). For instance, if she chooses a circle, she thinks of a colour for it. Her mind will produce an image of what the finished product will look like. This allows her to choose the colour from the list provided. Therefore, this programme helps K to use her imagination as well. This became evident when I praised her for her creation and she said, ‘That’s my ball at home,’ (she had made a green circle). So, it is not only selecting a random colour or shape. Moreover, the novelty of being able to use a computer allowed K to keep coming back for more turns. She was fascinated by the idea of using a mouse and looking at the screen display. Hence, this fascination fuelled her interest in learning about the various colours, shapes, letters and sounds. Furthermore, the fact that she had her doll with her indicates that she still wanted to go back to her imaginative play. So, it was not as if she was on the computer for long periods of time and did not engage in other aspects of play. She just found time to keep on coming back.

Computers are a valuable resource for children in today’s day and age. Society is enriched with a myriad of technological advances now; imagine the developments that will occur when children like K become adults. That is why we, as educators, need to utilise various forms of technology (Smorti, 1999). This will help children to keep in touch with the advances that occur and at the same time, be able to enhance their learning of the curriculum at the centre through the use of these measures (Wood, Specht, Willoughby & Mueller, 2008).

References

Donohue, C. (2003). Technology in early childhood education. Childcare Information
           Exchange. 6, 17- 20.

Hamer, J and Adams, P.(2003). The New Zealand early childhood literacy
           handbook. Auckland, New Zealand: Dunmore Press.


Hong, S. B., & Trepanier-Street, M. (2004). Technology: a tool for knowledge
           construction in a reggio emilia inspired teacher education program. Early
           Childhood Education Journal, 32(2), 87-94.Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Isikoglu, N.(2003). New toys for young children: integration of computer
           technology into early childhood education. The Turkish Online Journal
           of Educational Technology, 2 (4), 27-34.

Ministry of Education.(1996). Te whāriki: he whāriki mātauranga mo
          nga mokopuna o Aotearoa. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media.


Wood, E., Specht, J., Willoughby, T., & Mueller, J. (2008). Integrating computer
          technology in early childhood education environments: issues raised by early
          childhood educators. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 54(2), 210-226.
          Retrieved from EBSCOhost.