ECA Learning Hub

Every child has the right to both feel included and be included. Educators play a vital role in ensuring that every child is aware of this right.

In this module, you will learn how an inclusive framework can support you, as an early childhood professional, in creating a culture of responsive and respectful relationships with children, their families, those you work with as well as the community you are a part of. You will also understand how to apply inclusive practice through critical reflection and how creating a culturally safe space can help children form positive attachments and develop a strong sense of belonging and identity.

By understanding the essential role inclusion plays in supporting those who have been impacted by adversity, you will be able to identify and address barriers caused by exclusion. Specifically, you will be able to:

• recognise exclusion
• understand why inclusion is important to removing exclusion as a barrier
• identify who is more likely to experience exclusion in Australia
• understand how exclusion normalises adversity and the cycle of disadvantage
• examine how inclusive practice can help you recognise and celebrate diversity.

This module will also delve into how early brain development, experiences and relationships can have a lifelong impact on children’s sense of belonging and connection to their community. It will explore the impact of trauma and explain how educators can support children facing both exclusion and adversity. The focus of this module is on building respectful, ethical and supportive partnerships with children, families and communities using a rights-based approach.

Music has long been regarded as an important part of early childhood education. In this module, explore music as an integral and vibrant part of a child’s family, community and culture, and how it can be utilised as a powerful tool for learning and development. Written by Dr Amanda Niland, this module is a vibrant look at the foundations of music, ‘musicking’ and musical skills — for both educators and children.

For young children, music can be a way of:

• connecting with others
• expressing themselves, and
• exploring and making meaning through their senses.

In this course you will:

• understand the central role of music in children’s lives
• explore how music contributes to children’s sense of belonging and developing identity
• examine the ways in which music can support and enrich children’s learning and development in communication and language, social skills, motor skills, creative and flexible thinking
• view music as both a mode of communication and an expressive art form and children as capable musicians, and
• discover strategies and resources you can use to increase your confidence and ability to share in music-making with young children.

In this course, we focus on how to help children learn to manage their own attention, emotions, thinking, and behaviour. Self-regulation develops rapidly in the early years, through experiences and relationships that shape brain development. What can you do to support children to develop these critical skills?

After completing this course you will:

• discover why self-regulation is a critical skill that develops in early childhood and underpins all future learning and wellbeing
• explore the educator’s role in supporting self-regulation development through reflective practice, strong relationships with children and families and embedding self-regulation support strategies into all aspects of planning and the curriculum
• examine how play, the use of language, group games, and music and movement experiences can all support children’s self-regulation skills.