Book Review

Listening to Young Children: The Mosaic Approach

Second Edition

Alison Clark & Peter Moss

This book is a highly recommended read.

The Mosaic approach has been developed with three and four-year-olds in an early childhood institution, and has been successfully adapted to work with children under two, children for whom English is an additional language, practitioners and parents. The approach attempts to find practical ways to contribute to the development of services that are responsive to 'the voice of the child', helping practice to catch up with rhetoric.

Recognising children's competencies is key and so is everyone being involved in 'meaning making' together.

It is a multi-method approach in which children's own photographs, tours and maps can be joined to talking and observing to gain a deeper understanding of children's lives.

This book is a very accessible read and the report is helpfully split into three parts-the first part describes the framework for listening that was adopted; the second part details the development of the Mosaic approach; the third part explores the practicalities, pitfalls and potential for developing this framework in early childhood facilities.

Martine Horvath
Early Years Educator, Nov 2011

The Mosaic approach is '... a way of listening that acknowledges children and adults as co-constructors of meaning... an integrated approach which combines the verbal and the visual.' Since the first edition of this book was published 10 years ago many early years practitioners and researchers have become much more aware of the importance of including young children's perspectives on the services on offer to them. In Listening to Young Children the authors write from the standpoint that, '... children's perspective are not just a necessary part of exploring the quality of provision, they are integral to the quality of provision itself.'

The book looks first at the original research project which created the Mosaic approach 'framework for listening', then at the development of the Mosaic approach during the study and finally at the potential for developing this framework on a wider basis in early childhood institutions. The text is clearly set out and accessible with numerous examples featuring children of different ages. These are very useful in helping the reader to see the relevance of the approach to their own practice.

All practitioners interested in enhancing young children's participation will find this book useful. It is also a valuable tool for students and researchers seeking a greater understanding of young children's lives in their early years settings.

Early Years Update 92: October 2011

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