Early Childhood Education: How to Make Silent Children Lively

A few months after school started, the little girl Qingqing caught my attention. When I came to the garden in the morning, Qingqing almost never greeted the teacher. The teacher greeted her on her own initiative, but she never spoke. In corner activities, Qingqing is often a bystander, rarely chooses toys actively, and often needs to find games with the help of teachers. She is passive in cooperative games in which her peers participate, and she is often at a loss. Of course, in collective teaching activities, Qingqing is very disciplined and can concentrate on listening to teachers and children, but she never raises her hand to speak. Occasionally, the teacher would let her talk, but her expression and body movements showed retreat and rejection. Therefore, Qingqing gives many people the impression of silence, timidity, shyness and lack of confidence. Class one in middle school is my new class this semester. Naturally, getting familiar with and understanding the children in this class has become one of my main tasks at this stage. Facing the silent sunny day, I am both worried and curious. I wish I could do something to help her. So, I thought of consulting some materials first, so as to grasp the characteristics of children of this age more deeply and accurately. From the relevant information, I learned that there is a sign called "children's selective mutism", which is very similar to Qingqing's description. Selective silence refers to children's silence on some occasions due to psychological and spiritual factors while gaining basic language expression and understanding ability. Because of its distinctive selectivity in scenes and objects, it is called "children's selective silence". The essence of "children's selective mutism" is that children have difficulties in social adaptation, not language itself. There is no organic damage to the vocal organs and auditory organs of such children, and there is no abnormality in their intellectual development. Of course, whether Qingqing really suffers from "children's selective mutism" still needs comprehensive examination and evaluation by professional institutions, but it seems that it is not the time yet. So, after discussing with two other teachers in the class, we decided to communicate with Qingqing's family first to see what we can do for the children together. Grandma is responsible for picking up Sunny every day. In order not to cause "misunderstanding" and "panic" of family members, we naturally introduced the children's daily performance in the garden to Qingqing's grandmother, and raised our doubts about Qingqing's silence and refusal to associate with others. We told Qingqing's grandmother that we really wanted to help Qingqing adapt to the collective life in kindergarten with our family. At the same time, in order to let parents know more about their children, we also provided Qingqing's parents with some information we collected about "children's selective mutism". Moreover, we also agreed to use the "integral method" to encourage Qingqing to take the initiative to say hello to the teacher every morning. The next morning, Grandma Sunny told us that in the evening, Sunny's parents attached great importance to these materials and were willing to cooperate with the teacher to help Sunny integrate into the group more quickly. Parents told Qingqing that if she saw the teacher every morning, she would say hello to the teacher and get a five-pointed star when she got home. If she has many five-pointed stars, she will realize her most wanted wish: traveling and flying. We are glad to hear this news, and we are very grateful to Qingqing's parents for their active cooperation. Therefore, we also told Qingqing that if Qingqing can take the initiative to say hello to the teacher every morning, the teacher will also send her a beautiful sticky paper as a reward. Going in and out of the garden every day, Qingqing greets the teachers with her grandmother's repeated encouragement. Although her voice is as light as a mosquito's call, we find that the time for psychological preparation is getting shorter and shorter when she says this sentence. Later, as long as she walked beside the teacher, Sunny could blurt out greetings and her expression was no longer afraid of shyness. Qingqing's parents are very busy at work and seldom come to pick up their children in person. In order to increase the frequency of personal communication with us, we communicate with Qingqing's mother through letters and emails. From Qingqing's mother's letter, we know that Qingqing likes the sticky paper given to her by the teacher. If it sticks to her hands, she can't tear it off, so she can show it to her parents when she goes home. The family reward scheme is also progressing smoothly. Sunny counts the number of five-pointed stars she gets every day. In order to encourage Qing Qing to speak more boldly, parents also adjusted the reward method: speaking loudly can get two five-pointed stars; If you can say hello to unfamiliar people, such as parents' colleagues or friends, you can also reward a five-pointed star ... The information provided by Qingqing's mother not only increases our confidence in changing our children, but also allows us to adjust and adjust our strategies in time. After discussion, we decided to encourage Sunny to raise her hand in group activities and speak out boldly when she needs help. But in line with the principle of respecting children, don't force her to speak, but give priority to encouragement to help her build self-confidence and trust with teachers and peers. It's nice and quiet to take a nap in the sun. We praised her in front of the whole class and let the children learn from her. In the corner activities, we encourage Qingqing to introduce her works boldly. In the collective, we consciously give Qingqing some tasks, such as asking her to count the number of children who come to the park today and let her do sports. We found that Qingqing began to be willing to participate in these activities. Although she always uses few words when she speaks, her voice is still very light and she seems very shy. Usually, we don't deliberately talk to Qingqing, let alone force Qingqing to talk, but when Qingqing encounters difficulties and asks the teacher for help only by expression or eyes, we will deliberately turn a blind eye or ask her to express it in words. As long as Sunny speaks, we will respond and encourage with a smile. In class, Sunny has two very steady friends. Although Sunny always plays a passive role with them, we actively encourage Sunny to associate with her friends. The new year is coming and the semester is coming to an end. In five months, Sunny has changed a lot. These changes are observed, captured and recorded in detail: "There are no towels." As usual, the children washed their hands in the bathroom before lunch. Sang Ni was the last child to wash his hands. When she tried to wipe her hands with a clean towel, she found that the towel was gone. Sunny hands kept splashing water, but two eyes kept looking at me. Obviously, fine fine wanted her movements to let me know that she needed a clean towel. I pretended not to see it. Seeing Sunny still looking at me, I leaned down and asked her softly, "Sunny, what's the matter?" Qingqing hesitated for a moment and whispered, "There is no towel." "Oh, yes! Just tell the teacher! The teacher will help you get another piece. " In the afternoon, grandma Qingqing came to pick her up. I praised Grandma Qingqing for telling the teacher that sunny was very happy today that there was no towel. Grandma was happier than Sunny. Playing the piano at the class performance, the children who are learning to play the piano are scrambling to perform for everyone, only Sunny didn't say anything. I asked Qingqing if she would like to perform on stage, but Qingqing saidno. When she got home that day, Qingqing told her family that playing the piano required reading the piano score, because there was no piano score, so she couldn't play it. The next day, Qingqing brought the piano score, and grandma said that she would play it for everyone today. Before lunch, I specially invited the whole class to listen to Sunny play the piano. I asked Qing Qing, "Which song did you prepare today?" Qing Qing said, "Etudes." The beautiful piano music ended, and the children gave Sunny a warm applause for her performance. I asked the children to talk about their feelings when listening to Qingqing playing the piano, and everyone said a lot of encouraging words. Qingqing stood on the stage, listening to the praises of her friends, with a sweet smile on her face. "I have 35 stars!" Every child in our class has a pad, which is specially used to stick stars. A certain number of stars can be exchanged for prizes. At an award ceremony, as usual, the children eagerly counted their stars and excitedly told the teacher the numbers, louder and louder. In order to hear the children clearly, I have to ask them to raise their hands to speak. Suddenly, I saw Qingqing's little hand in the arms of the children. I asked her how many stars she had. Qing Qing said happily and loudly, "I have 35 stars!" " "Qingqing changed from reticent to bold and confident, and her change gave us the following enlightenment: 1. Teachers should win the trust of children. Children with "children's selective silence" refuse to speak on some occasions, but can communicate normally on other occasions. The occasions for refusing to speak are generally public places or crowded places, especially in unfamiliar environments or in front of strangers. These children are usually timid, dependent, shy, sensitive, withdrawn, fragile and lack of opinions. However, some children show obvious aggressive and disobedient behavior at home and get angry easily. Therefore, teachers should first take the initiative to care about such children and let them build trust in teachers, such as holding his hand, touching his head and patting him on the shoulder when getting along with children; Let him make friends with lively and friendly children consciously; Minimize the chances of him sitting alone. 2. Teachers should not be eager for success. Teachers should give children a relaxed and free environment, and don't blame children because they don't want to talk. Because of the teacher's anxious mood and emotions, children will be more nervous and unwilling to talk. Therefore, on the one hand, teachers should pay attention to children's daily performance, on the other hand, they should not ask children to change immediately, but should try to find effective ways to solve problems step by step. 3. Encourage and support children's growth in effective ways. When the child is silent, don't pay too much attention, but take the method of diverting attention to relieve the child's nervousness. At ordinary times, teachers should pay attention to understanding the hobbies of such children, design some questions that they are interested in or easy to answer, and make them realize that it is not difficult to answer questions, so as to gradually overcome psychological obstacles. 4. Home synchronization, * * * promotes children's growth. Family is the most familiar and relaxed environment for children, and parents are the closest people to children. Achieving * * * knowledge with parents is the key to promoting children's change. Sang Ni's change is very important to gain the support of her parents. The native land creates some opportunities for Sunny to get along with other companions, such as deliberately arranging Sunny to take a child home, and two adults to exchange visits or travel with their children on holidays; Parents consciously let their eyes participate in the reception of visiting guests and exercise their children's courage. Qingqing's parents also consciously let their children participate in housework, and always give timely encouragement to what their children do, such as "Baby, your chopsticks are so neat!" " "Baby, you cleaned the table very clean today!" Positive comments from parents greatly increased Sunny's self-confidence. Childhood is a critical period for a person's psychological development. The phenomenon of children's silence in the collective may affect the development of children's social communication ability. Teachers' early discovery and guidance will help to lay a good foundation for children's healthy and happy life.