Compiling Listening to young children, by Penny Lancaster and Vanessa Broadbent, involved more than 500 children and practitioners from more than 30 educational, social care and health settings.
The integrated resource pack uses the visual arts as a medium for children to express their thoughts and feelings about different experiences.
It includes a CD-Rom, practitioner handbook and case studies offering 11 'shared experiences' to help practitioners build reciprocal relationships with young children. The topics include visual walks, music and dance, musical conversations and creative design and problem solving.
Speaking at the pack's launch last week, Margaret Hodge, minister for children, said, 'Listening has to become embedded in the day-to-day practice of all who work with children.'
Dr Gillian Pugh, chief executive of Coram Family, said there was still an assumption in the UK that 'children under eight can't speak for themselves'
and that they should be seen and not heard. She added that the project to develop the resource, set up in 2000, was 'about seeing the world through the eyes of young children' and 'recognising that even tiny babies have ways of communicating with us'.
The Listening to Young Children project has received funding for a further three years to develop a training, development and consultancy service to support professionals in the educational, health and social care sectors in developing their listening skills with the under-eights.
The resource pack fits in with the objectives of Birth to Three Matters and the Foundation Stage curriculum. It is published by the Open University Press, costing 125 plus VAT. It can be ordered via the website www.openup.co.ukor by phoning 01628 502 700. For more information on the Coram Family's Listening to Young Children project, contact Penny Lancaster on 020 7520 0357 or e-mail penny@coram.org.uk.
* There will be a good practice guide to listening with children in the 23 October issue of Nursery World.
She added that although the Government was getting better at listening, it was essential to ensure that the role of an independent children's commissioner to listen to children and young people in England had credibility and 'doesn't just become symbolic icing on a cake'.