Tiny Talks on Early Learning

“Use your words.” “Wait your turn.” “Clean up.” “Calm down.”

We say these things to young children every day, but have we stopped to consider just how many skills are involved in meeting those expectations?

In this episode of Tiny Talks on Early Learning, Jessica and Venay welcome back Steffani Hammitt for a conversation about the difference between telling children what to do and actually teaching them how. Together, they unpack the executive function and social-emotional skills behind everyday classroom expectations, explore how play naturally supports skill development, and discuss why individualized support matters—especially for neurodivergent children.

From navigating transitions and frustration to rethinking school readiness, this conversation challenges educators to replace repeated correction with curiosity, intentional teaching, and developmentally appropriate support.

1. Telling isn't the same as teaching. Instructions like “use your words” or “make good choices” aren't enough if children haven't learned the specific skills needed to follow them.
2. Simple expectations require complex skills. Cleaning up, waiting, sharing, and handling disappointment involve executive function, emotional regulation, flexibility, and frustration tolerance. Breaking tasks into smaller steps makes them more manageable.
3. Play is powerful practice. Movement games, pretend play, building activities, and everyday interactions give children natural opportunities to strengthen impulse control, working memory, problem-solving, and social skills.
4. Individualized support isn't lowering expectations. Visual schedules, movement breaks, sensory accommodations, and other adjustments can help neurodivergent children access learning and demonstrate their abilities.
5. Curiosity changes our response to behavior. When repeated reminders aren't working, consider what the child's behavior might be communicating and what skill or support may be missing.

Choose one instruction you find yourself repeating in your classroom—“clean up,” “wait your turn,” or “use your words,” for example.

This week, try something different:

• Identify the specific skills involved in meeting that expectation.
• Break the task into smaller, manageable steps.
• Model or practice the skill with children during a calm moment.
• Notice what changes when you teach rather than simply remind.

Remember: If telling them seventeen times hasn't worked, maybe it's time to try showing them a different way!

Episode Description

Why do some children crave spinning, climbing, and jumping while others avoid those same experiences? And what does movement have to do with attention, self-regulation, and school readiness?

In this follow-up to our conversation about the eight sensory systems, Jessica and Venay welcome GRECS colleague Vicki Giles back to Tiny Talks on Early Learning for a deeper look at two often-overlooked senses: vestibular and proprioception.

Together, they explore how these systems help children develop balance, body awareness, coordination, and an understanding of movement and pressure. From sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding behaviors to the importance of everyday physical activity, the conversation challenges educators to rethink how they support children's developing bodies.

And the best part? Supporting sensory development doesn't require expensive equipment or complicated activities. Sometimes, it's as simple as letting children carry their own backpacks, push a wagon, climb, or help clean up.

Key Takeaways for Listeners

1. Movement is foundational to development. The vestibular system supports balance, movement, and posture, while proprioception helps children understand where their bodies are in space and how much force to use. Both contribute to the skills children need for everyday activities and learning.

2. Sensory needs look different for every child. Some children actively seek movement, pressure, or physical contact, while others find those experiences uncomfortable. Recognizing these differences helps educators respond with understanding rather than assuming a child is simply being difficult.

3. Everyday responsibilities can be powerful learning opportunities. Pushing chairs, carrying materials, sweeping, pulling wagons, and manipulating playdough all provide opportunities for children to develop body awareness, coordination, and control.

4. Sensory experiences can support regulation. Movement, physical pressure, and comforting touch may help children feel more settled and connected. What works for one child—or even for the same child on a different day—may not work for another.

5. Children don't outgrow their need for movement when academics begin. Physical activity remains important as children enter school and face greater expectations for sitting, focusing, and completing tasks. Movement should remain part of the learning day, not just a reward for finishing work.

Episode Challenge: Make Room for Movement

This week, take a closer look at your classroom routines and ask yourself: Where might I be doing something for a child that they could safely do for themselves?

Choose one everyday opportunity to step back and let children take the lead. Maybe it's carrying classroom supplies, pushing a wagon, helping prepare the rest area, or moving materials from one place to another.

Notice how children respond. Who eagerly takes on the challenge? Who needs encouragement or a little extra support? What do you learn about their confidence, coordination, and sensory preferences?

Remember: Supporting sensory development doesn't always mean adding something new to your day. Sometimes, it means making more room for children to do what they're naturally driven to do—move, explore, experiment, and grow.

Early literacy is about much more than recognizing letters, practicing sounds, or learning to hold a pencil. Before children can become confident readers and writers, they need opportunities to move, talk, play, explore, build relationships, and make meaningful connections to the world around them.

In this episode, Jessica and Venay welcome early childhood author and speaker Stacy Benge, author of The Whole Child Alphabet: How Young Children Actually Develop Literacy. Stacy explains how physical, cognitive, language, and social-emotional development all contribute to literacy—and why concentrating too heavily on early academic instruction can cause us to overlook the foundations children need first.

The conversation explores surprising connections between movement and literacy, including the roles of balance, core stability, crossing the body’s midline, and developing hand strength and coordination. Stacy also distinguishes between playful adult-directed activities and true child-led play, where children decide what, how, and how long they will play.

Together, they discuss creating classroom environments that protect uninterrupted play, using children’s interests to guide materials and experiences, navigating academic expectations, and helping families and decision-makers understand that play is not time away from learning. It is one of the primary ways young children learn.

Key Takeaways for Listeners:

1. Literacy development involves the whole child. Physical development, language, thinking, relationships, emotional security, and play all help build the foundation for later reading and writing.
2. Movement supports literacy in ways we may not immediately recognize. Balance, core stability, crossing the midline, visual tracking, and hand coordination can affect how children eventually read, write, and use classroom tools.
3. Hands-on does not automatically mean child-led. An engaging activity planned and directed by an adult can be valuable, but child-led play gives children control over what they explore, how the play develops, and how long it continues.
4. Children connect with print when it carries personal meaning. Their own names, the names of important people, and words connected to their experiences are often more meaningful than teaching letters in a predetermined order.
5. Educators can support play without directing it. Careful observation helps teachers recognize children’s interests, document learning, and introduce materials that allow their ideas to grow.

Early childhood work can be heavy. The expectations. The responsibility. The emotional investment. The constant pull to give just a little more—even when there isn't much left to give.

But there is beauty here, too.

Recorded live at the Gulf Coast Early Childhood Summer Symposium, this conversation wasn't exactly the one we planned—and we're so glad it wasn't. Leadership consultant Krystal Hardy Allen invited Rochelle Wilcox, Executive Director of For Providers By Providers, to pull up a chair, and what followed was a candid conversation about burnout, leadership, the historical undervaluing of caregiving, and what it means to care for the people who spend their lives caring for others.

Jessica, Krystal, and Rochelle explore the pressure to earn rest, why good work is so often rewarded with more work, the realities facing the early childhood workforce, and the responsibility leaders have to truly see the people they lead.

And then they turn toward the beauty: the child you watch grow up, the educator you helped develop, the person who felt seen because you showed up, and the spaces that remain different because you were there.

It's a conversation about knowing what to carry, what to release, and why this work is still worth doing.

• Rest doesn't have to be earned. Caring for others shouldn't require running yourself empty first.
• We have to care for the carers. Small acts of recognition, support, and relief can matter—especially when larger systemic challenges can't be fixed overnight.
• Hard work shouldn't automatically be rewarded with more work. Healthy leadership recognizes contribution without making overextension the standard for excellence.
• Heart work still deserves professional value. Loving children and finding purpose in early childhood education does not diminish the need for fair compensation, sustainable businesses, and investment in the workforce.
• Legacy lives beyond the moment. The beauty of the work can be found in the children, families, colleagues, and communities that are different because you were there.

Rochelle talks about the "cape" caregivers and leaders learn to wear—the belief that carrying everything is somehow evidence of how committed, capable, or valuable we are.

This week, identify one thing you're carrying that doesn't have to be yours.

Maybe it's a task someone else can handle. Maybe it's guilt about taking a break. Maybe it's responsibility for an outcome you couldn't control. Maybe it's simply the belief that you have to do more before you've earned the right to rest.

Name it. Put it down—even temporarily.

Then ask yourself:

What becomes possible when I stop measuring my value by how much I can carry?

Because sometimes honoring the work means honoring the person doing it, too.

It’s easy to encounter a child who is angry, disruptive, withdrawn, hungry, or struggling and focus on the behavior in front of us. But what happens when we ask a different question: What might this behavior be telling us about the child?

In this special Tiny Talks and UNrattled Cross-Talk episode, Jessica and Venay are joined by Joshua Jones, Director of the HALO Program at USA Health, for a personal conversation about childhood, connection, and prevention.

Together, they reflect on the “little” versions of themselves and the experiences adults noticed—or missed. For early childhood professionals, their stories are an important reminder that the child in front of us is always more than the behavior we see, and that noticing, getting curious, and building consistent relationships can matter long after a child leaves our classroom.

What You’ll Take Away

• Look beyond the behavior. What we see may be only one part of a child’s story.
• Relationships are part of prevention. Consistent, caring adults can be powerful influences in a child’s life.
• Notice without assuming. Children and families may be navigating challenges we cannot see.
• You don’t have to fix everything. Pay attention, get curious, build connection, and help families access additional support when needed.

Because before every headline, there was a child—and sometimes making a difference begins simply by noticing them.

What happens when we put the word “just” in front of our work?

Recorded live at the Gulf Coast Early Childhood Summer Symposium, Jessica and Venay sit down with educator, speaker, and advocate Rachel Giannini to unpack one small word with a surprisingly big impact. Together, they explore why early childhood professionals often minimize their roles, how language shapes the way we value our profession, and why recognizing your own expertise is an important part of advocacy.

Because you’re not just a teacher. And the work you do is anything but small.

Key Takeaways:

1. Drop the “just.” Your role and your work matter.
2. Own your expertise. Early educators know this field from the inside.
3. Your voice is advocacy. Change requires educators to speak up.
4. Words shape value. How we describe our work influences how others see it.
5. Children know your worth. To them, you have never been “just” their teacher.

What happens when we put the word "just" in front of our work?

Recorded live at the Gulf Coast Early Childhood Summer Symposium, Jessica and Venay sit down with educator, speaker, and advocate Rachel Giannini to unpack one small word with a surprisingly big impact. Together, they explore why early childhood professionals often minimize their roles, how language shapes the way we value our profession, and why recognizing your own expertise is an important part of advocacy.

Because you're not just a teacher. And the work you do is anything but small.

Key Takeaways:

1. Drop the "just." Your role and your work matter.
2. Own your expertise. Early educators know this field from the inside.
3. Your voice is advocacy. Change requires educators to speak up.
4. Words shape value. How we describe our work influences how others see it.
5. Children know your worth. To them, you have never been "just" their teacher.

Welcome back to Tiny Talks on Early Learning for Season 4!

As we begin a new season, Venay and Jessica reflect on the current landscape of early childhood education, the challenges families and educators are navigating, and the opportunities we have to better support young children during their most critical years of development.

Together, they discuss the themes that inspired this season's conversations and why topics such as children's mental health, family support, educator well-being, and community connections deserve our attention now more than ever.

Key Takeaways for Listeners:

• Early childhood lays the foundation for lifelong learning, health, and well-being.
• Children's mental health begins at birth and is strengthened through safe, responsive relationships.
• Supporting young children also means supporting the families and educators who care for them.
• Early childhood professionals need fair compensation, meaningful resources, and recognition for their essential work.
• Strong connections among families, educators, and communities help children—and the adults in their lives—thrive.

What if parent-teacher conferences became opportunities for real connection instead of rushed conversations? In this special Cross Talk episode of Tiny Talks on Early Learning and UNrattled: A Podcast for Parents, we're joined by Dr. Tricia Shelton and Paula Reese to explore practical strategies for building stronger partnerships between educators and families. Inspired by Dr. Shelton's new book, Partnering for Success: Strategies for Effective Parent-Teacher Conferences, this episode shares relationship-centered tools that help conferences feel more collaborative, inclusive, and supportive for every child.

Key Takeaways for Listeners:

1. Parent-teacher conferences are most effective when they focus on partnership, not performance.
2. Strength-based communication helps build trust and opens the door for productive conversations.
3. Preparation and intentional listening can transform conferences into meaningful relationship-building opportunities.
4. Inclusive communication practices are essential for supporting children with diverse developmental needs.
5. Small changes in how educators approach conferences can lead to stronger family engagement and better outcomes for children.

Episode 6 of 6 - A Limited Podcast Series

In this final episode of Voices of Alabama Families, we look ahead—exploring the hopes, values, and changes families across Alabama want for the next generation. Through heartfelt reflections, contributors share a vision of a future where children feel safe, seen, and free to be who they are, while also emphasizing the importance of protecting what matters most—connection, community, and care.

At the same time, this episode does not shy away from what needs to change, from the role of education to the ways communities show up for one another. Grounded in both hope and honesty, The Future We Want for Our Children reminds us that the future isn't something we wait for—it's something we actively build through our everyday choices, our willingness to listen, and our commitment to creating a better world for the children who will shape what comes next.