Fostering Communication and Expression in all Forms

This is an interactive, virtual training session.

Educators will be encouraged to participate through voice and video in order to collaborate with each other and to practice skill development.

How Does Learning Happen? Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years (2014) states that expression as a key condition for learning.

It is the expectation that early childhood programs foster communication and expression in all forms and that the image of the child that is upheld is that every child is a capable communicator who expresses himself or herself in many ways. From infants to school age, children are able to be active social partners who can initiate and respond to communication exchanges.

This webinar will focus on the many “languages” children use to communicate and will delve deeply into the concept of “voice”.

With many opportunities for participants to interact and offer their own voices, we will consider what authentic conversations look like in contrast to traditional communication methods of giving instructions, telling children what to do, and correcting their behaviour.

Communication in all its forms also focuses on creative expression. Ways to create and design together with children will be shared in this session and reflection questions will be offered so that you can consider communication and expression from the context of your own practice.

This session will be facilitated online via Zoom and you will receive a link the day before the session takes place.

About the Presenter:

Dr. Diane Kashin, RECE

Diane is a registered early childhood educator who started her career teaching at a child care centre where she later assumed a supervisory position. In the early nineties Diane moved to York Region and was the child care coordinator at the York Region District School board. She taught at Seneca College until retiring in 2014 at both the degree and the diploma level and was instrumental in the development of the Bachelor of Child Development degree program at King campus.

Diane is a graduate of the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education/University of Toronto. Diane’s doctoral thesis on emergent curriculum was published in 2009 and she has co-written three ECE textbooks including Outdoor and Nature Play in Early Childhood Education (2019). From 2014 to 2018, Diane was a lead researcher with Okanagan College in the development of an open access, web-based learning resource designed to increase the capacity of early childhood educators to offer outdoor and nature experiences for children funded by the Lawson Foundation.

Diane is the past president of the Association for Early Childhood Educators of Ontario and current coordinator of the York Region Nature Collaborative which provides Land-based learning experiences for educators, children and their families.

Diane writes a blog to support professional learning in early childhood education, Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research and loves to engage in continuous professional learning through social media platforms. Diane presents workshops, webinars and keynote addresses in Ontario, across Canada and internationally.

For more information about this training and other professional development and training opportunities offered by York Region, please visit our Eventbrite Page or email capacitybuilding@york.ca.

York Region Children’s Services