Most parents are thrilled when their baby utters their first words, but how are the needs, rights and wishes of pre-verbal babies recognised? How are their voices heard?

Ascribing “voice” to very small children when they can’t even speak yet may seem unusual, but recent research undertaken by a team from Strathclyde’s Institute of Education focused on methods to support understanding of even the littlest of little people. This is essential work given Scotland’s commitment to children’s rights - tiny babies have rights too, even if they express them using their bodies and facial expressions rather than spoken words.

Recognising the whole child

In their work, the team adopt a philosophy of recognising the whole child. Most researchers work with older children and tend to use interviews, but babies, too are capable of expression through behaviour, actions, eye gaze, turning away when bored or uninterested, flinching, dissenting, raising their hands to be lifted, and even through silence.

What makes the research so powerful is that it supports grown-ups to think differently, to consider how we listen and respond to that expression, that voice. The work is designed to be used during formal and informal education for early years practitioners, supporting them to interpret non-spoken expression, and to overcome or reposition a personal agenda which might prevent active listening and appropriate response. There is often a professional culture in early years settings whereby practitioners work closely together and with the children. A commitment to ‘voice for all’ is fundamental to this close work, and it leads to deeper learning and engagement between adults and children.

Attunement

Anyone who has ever really observed nursery, kindergarten and early years workers may have noticed that they are already highly skilled at “attunement” – in fact, seeing early years workers discover that they are the experts when it comes to communicating brilliantly with babies and toddlers is just superb. Indeed, this is an important area of professional learning in early years, recognising that children’s spoken language is not necessarily the most important, even if it is sometimes the loudest!

Getting to know the children

An additional, vital element of the research is learning to behave appropriately when it comes to listening to the smallest children e.g. getting right down on the floor beside them to join their world rather than expecting them to join yours. A mental shift is required from anyone making this commitment - asking yourself, what can this child teach me? Even the smallest children are not a blank slate, they’re not coming to you with nothing, they come already crammed with expression.

For the Strathclyde team, it’s all about spending the time getting to know the children and parking your own adult agenda. It’s entirely possible to find great ways to communicate through arts and play activities, and the team have even used innovative approaches which allow the children to indicate that they consent to join in with an activity or a game - by wearing a tiara or a hat. Getting to play with the children is an added bonus!