Introducing ASPA Education’s Early Childhood Education Professional Development Program
ASPA Education is on a mission to equip early childhood educators with the skills, resources and confidence to deliver performing arts activities in early childhood settings.
We know that early childhood, the period from birth to aged five, is a vital period for children’s learning and development. For early childhood educators, this means there is a small window of opportunity to set young children on a successful path for future learning. ASPA Education’s new Early Childhood Education (ECE) Professional Development Program aims to empower early childhood educators with the knowledge and confidence to maximise these opportunities! With over a decade of experience delivering high-quality performing arts programs, ASPA Education is ready to unleash the potential of early childhood educators with the tips and tools to deliver simple, high-quality music and movement activities. Read on to find out how we do it!
The Benefits of the Performing Arts in Early Childhood
The positive impacts of regular participation in music, dance and play-based learning in early childhood have been widely studied across the world. Research has shown that exposure to music in early childhood helps children to speak more clearly, develop a larger vocabulary, and strengthens their social and emotional skills. By engaging in music activities including singing, percussive music making and dance, children enhance their listening skills, auditory development, fine and gross motor co-ordination, memory, pre-literacy development, creativity, flexibility and more. Beyond early childhood, music training has been found to be related to better language and mathematical skills, higher IQ and overall greater academic achievement.
The Early Year Learning Framework for Australia (EYLFA) supports the research that promotes engagement in the performing arts in early childhood settings. For educators wishing to align their lessons with the EYLFA, ASPA Education has developed our ECE Professional Development Program to align with key curriculum outcomes in a simple and achievable way.
Why choose our ECE Professional Development Program?
With so many wonderful benefits of Performing Arts, we want to ensure that Early Childhood Educators have an extensive pool of knowledge to be able to achieve these benefits. Not only that, we want educators to have the skills to be able to keep their classroom engaged, which we know is no easy feat!
“Our program makes teaching performing arts activities accessible to all educators, giving them confidence to lead singing, movement and team building activities to their children.
Our songs have been composed and our dances choreographed to engage children through exploration and play while building their confidence, develop their sensory and emotional regulation, impulse control and fine and gross motor skills (including cross body movement).” – Jess Huggett, ASPA Music and Education Manager
Whether you’re new to the Early Childhood education space or hold a wealth of experience as an educator, ASPA Ed’s ECE Professional Development Program follows a unique learning model that ensures we customise our program to suit the needs of you and your centre. We cater to those who want to upskill, find confidence, enhance their musical knowledge, improve their classroom management style, learn new content to keep the lesson fresh and more.
What will educators walk away with?
Over four sessions, our encouraging, experienced and professional ASPA Ed instructors will work with educators in your centre to deliver our ‘Observe-Participate-Reflect’ learning model which ensures educators are guided to a point where they can deliver performing arts activities independently.
“Our resources are theme based which are fun, promote further enquiry and capture children’s imagination. They are a great foundation to further expand learning and give freedom for educators and children to add their own creative components.” – Jess Huggett, ASPA Music and Education Manager
Our ECE Professional Development is unique in its parallel learning approach: both educator and children learn alongside each other. With ongoing support and guidance from our experienced ASPA Ed Instructors; new singing, movement and drama activities; a themed song and dance; and digital resources for future use, the value of this program stretches far beyond the four sessions with ASPA Ed. We aim to equip educators with a launch pad of tools and resources to spring from – our ECE Professional Development Program is only just the beginning of your creative path.
