Introduction
Snacking for children in their early years continues to be a contentious issue, particularly when discussing healthy eating and language growth. The consensus is that a healthy meal routine provides children with important nutrition and energy to support their growth and development. Additionally, establishing a good meal routine helps manage children’s appetite. Nonetheless, language development influences other aspects like literacy, cognition, and social skills. In this respect, an experiment was conducted by an Illinois institution to demonstrate teachers’ role in developing language skills and good eating habits among toddlers (Snack Time). Early childhood education and interventions impact children’s language growth, health, and development.
Discussion
The setting of the experiment has tools and resources that support early childhood care and education. Three caregivers prepare snack time for four children, presumably 2 years old and younger. The caregiver understood their roles and worked collaboratively to make snack time more fun and fulfilling. One of the instructors sings with the children to support their language growth (Snack Time 0:18-0:022). In addition to developing their sound awareness, singing helps build children’s listening and comprehension skills. The caregiver understood that skill development is crucial for the toddlers to enjoy their snack time.
Moreover, musical experience accelerates brain development during the early years of development. During the experiment, the children swayed along as one of the boys imitated the teacher, which helped make the transition and mealtime easier. The other children used their voice to express pleasure in response to the caregiver’s interaction. Therefore, the experiment evaluated four primary aspects of language development between caregiver-toddler interaction namely communication ability, comprehension, expression, and learning attitude.
Conclusion
In this regard, caregivers should pay attention to the characteristic of language and non-verbal cognitive abilities, which reinforces other basic skills during early childhood development.
Work Cited
Snack Time. Illinois Early Learning, 2017. Web.