Reggio Emilia and the arts approach: Two exceptional examples of multimodal learning in early years

The Reggio Emilia approach offers children a unique experience of self-exploration embedded in the arts. This has strong links with multimodal teaching and learning. This is based on the argument that they both offer children the opportunity to communicate in multimodal ways such as drawing, drama play, gestures, music and speaking whilst placing children at the centre of their learning. This paper focuses on the concept of multimodal learning and discusses the Reggio Emilia approach and the arts approach in an effort to create links with the contents of multimodal learning. Furthermore, it compares and contrasts both approaches and identifies similarities and differences.