The Abecedarian Approach

The Abecedarian Approach is a set of strong teaching and learning strategies that builds strong adult-child interactions.

 

Language Priority
One key area of learning in the early years, language is probably the most closely related to future academic success. Language Priority involves adults focusing on language to communicate and convey ideas, feelings, instructions, interaction during daily activities and even print awareness.

Enriched Caregiving
Adults attending to young children through daily, repeated caregiving routines present many opportunities for learning; in particular, the aspects of Enriched Caregiving (Caregiving, Emotional, Educational) allows the adult to support the child’s basic needs, growth stimulation and learning development.

Conversational Reading
More than just following the words of the book, the adult engages with one or two children through an active ‘back and forth’ conversation while reading. The focus of Conversational Reading is on the child learning to coordinate attention with the adult reader’s.

Learning Games®
A set of educational games that focus on active participation (‘back and forth’ exchange) between adult and child. Even if the activity focused mostly on motor skills, the adults still need to talk to the children and to elicit age-appropriate language from them.