Multimodal Learning and Play : On-Demand Webcast

Multimodal learning encapsulates learning and thinking beyond written text, words, and conventional conversation.  Multimodal learning can be defined as the process of learning in which the learners can use different ways of communicating beyond reading, writing, and speaking.  Multimodality recognises that meaning making is not limited to only linguistic modes of communication and learning.  Meaning is made in increasingly multimodal, digital, and social ways.  It is important to recognise the social and cultural uses in multimodality to understand and communicate meaning.   

Modes of learning include insights into important aspects of cultures or groups of people and modes are therefore influenced by cultural and social structures and help create and interpret meaning.  By recognising multimodal ways of knowing and learning we support children to develop their own identity instead of pushing our cultural identity and ways of knowing onto the child.   

Viewing children’s learning in a multimodal way is an important skill necessary to support early childhood learning and thinking as very young children, as typically they do not yet have reading and writing skills, with many still learning to speak in a way that allows them to engage in communication and learning through more linguistic pathways.  

In this webcast, we will identify and unpack many different modes of learning in the early years, and discuss ways we can support, foster, and recognise them in practice. 

NQS – QA1, 5 

EYLF – Outcome 5:  Children are effective communicators.