Zachary Price and Stephanie M. Moody

Ms. Rivera, a pre-K teacher, is conducting a small group phonics activity where children are matching beginning sounds to letters. She holds up a picture of a rainbow-swirl lollipop.

Ms. Rivera: Where does this picture go? A child, Laila, points to / r /.

Ms. Rivera: Huh? No, it’ s a lollipop. / l /. So where does it go?

Laila points to the / l / category and looks away. She seems frustrated.

In the opening vignette, the picture was intended to represent the / l / sound. But when Laila saw the rainbow swirl of the lollipop, she thought the word was rainbow and responded with that in mind. Ms. Rivera registered this as a mistake and guided Laila to the“ right” answer.

What happened between the two was a communicative mismatch, in which a child’ s response makes sense based on their own experience but is interpreted as a mistake without exploring why. Early childhood educators can overcome communicative mismatches by using the practice of deep listening, which describes a way of interacting with children that prioritizes understanding over evaluation and relationships over right answers.

Deep listening involves a shift in instructional interactions. On the one hand, studies have shown that teachers tend to ask a question, hear a child’ s answer, evaluate whether this is correct, then move on. On the other hand, research consistently shows that when children

28 Educating Young Children

Fall 2026