Ensuring Children Can Choose How to Say ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’
Sineád was an early year’s educator in a preschool. She noticed that children were sometimes uncomfortable with the way educators welcomed them to the preschool or said goodbye to them. She saw that children have different preferences about how they like to be welcomed and how they like to say goodbye. She also observed that the same child might like different ways of saying hello and goodbye from day to day.
• She asked the verbal children to tell her all the ways they like to say hello and goodbye and observed the preferences of the pre-verbal and early verbal children.
• She regularly asks children if they want to add new ways to the poster of saying hello and goodbye.
• She made two big posters with pictures of the children’s preferences. These posters are on the door on the way in and out of the preschool, and each child chooses their individual preference when they arrive and when they are leaving.
• Children have a variety of ways of indicating their choice. They can choose for themselves by pointing to their preference, they can tell educators what way they want to be greeted, or they can ask an educator, parent or carer to help them choose their preference.
How the children were ensured SPACE, VOICE, AUDIENCE and INFLUENCE
Space: 
• The children feel safe to express their views because they can choose the way they want to say hello and goodbye.
• Each child can take as much time as they like choosing which way they want to say hello and goodbye.
• All children’s choices are acted on in an inclusive way.
Voice:
• Children who need support to choose how to say hello or goodbye are supported by educators, parents or carers.
• Children can ask to have other ways of saying hello and goodbye added to the choices on the charts.
• Children are offered different ways of giving their views by either pointing to their choice, asking an adult to point for them or telling educators their choice.
Audience:
• Educators show they are ready and willing to listen to children’s views by enabling children to make their own choices about how to say hello and goodbye every day.
• Educators make sure that children are told or shown that they can make their own choice about how to say hello and goodbye.
Influence:
• Children know that they are having an influence because educators listen to and act on their daily choices about how they want to say hello and goodbye.
• The children are given feedback by educators because the educators act on the daily decisions children make about how they want to say hello and goodbye.
• Children can see the impact of their views on how to say hello and goodbye and know they can change their minds from the morning to the evening and from one day to the next.
• Children themselves are the key decision-makers as no-one else influences their choices about how to say hello and goodbye.
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