Children's Learning in The Early Years - Essay Example

End of Assessment Part My Practice and Professional Development I consider my development as a professional working with children to havestarted way back when I was 16. At that age, I worked as a voluntary Health Care Assistant in a paediatric ward in a major hospital in Portugal for two years. My work there taught me all the fundamental skills of caring for vulnerable patients such as sick, special needs and young children. I found my work experience at the hospital rewarding and challenging and it inspired me towards a future career in child care. Over the years, I have gained more skills and knowledge through my experiences as a baby sitter and childminder for private families and from my studies in Communication Skills and Nursing. Currently, I have worked as an Early Practitioner Behaviour Manager for the last three years at a community children’s centre caring for the very young. Likewise, my first hand experiences as a mother to my child definitely helped in sharpening my skills in child care. Aside from working with children, I also work with adults. My job requires that I work with a team of colleagues. We support each other and plan together for the children. We also need tohave daily contact and work in a partnership with parents, which gives me an opportunity to share and gain information about the childs needs and development. I have parents evening twice a year where I gather observations, profiles and individual reports and share it with the parent/ carers of my key children. I also get to network with various professionals from different agencies involved with the welfare of children and am one with them in ensuring the children’s health, safety and protection. My work experience has gained me adequate knowledge and skills in child care and development. Having worked within the Early Years sector I know and understand how essential it is to ensure that the children’s learning environment needs to be caring, well organised and welcoming with visual positive images (e.g.) multicultural, posters. I have settled young children into new routines. I have also enjoyed witnessing the development of children, encouraging them to rise to challenges set for them. The resulting show of pride and achievement is wonderful to see. It is so rewarding observing how independent they become. I work alongside our ethos and values which is, learning through play and ensuring all five areas of Every Child Matters are maintained on a daily basis, (Stay Safe, Be Healthy, Enjoy and Achieve, Make a Positive Contribution, Achieve Economic Well-Being), which of course links in : with the Commitments within the EYFS. Working with a new EYFS means I have to assess, work, support, plan and observe children aged six months to five years and that includes children with special needs. I ensure all children cover the four themes (Unique Child, Positive Relationship, Enabling Environment and Learning Development) when I plan and observe. Personalised learning through differentiating activities to the child’s needs plays a key role in my planning. In addition to observing the child’s interest, in identifying their next steps and using this to guide my planning. Part 2: Working With Children in the Early Years 2 (a) Children’s learning and learning through play Play is a child’s world. It is an avenue where one can be free to be oneself without anyone imposing rules or restrictions to conform to society’s standards. Play offers many benefits that foster children’s learning. It engages the mind to actively imagine various scenarios for fun or for problem-solving. Babies and toddlers play in order to get to know their world – how things work, how people react, etc. They get to explore and discover things that otherwise they will not learn about if they do not actively engage in play. This free exploration is considered Heuristic play by Holland (2003) and encourages it without adult intervention. Adults provide simple materials and allow the child’s imagination to take off. “The child learns from observing directly what these objects will ‘do’ or ‘not do’, in sharp contrast to much of the ‘educational’ equipment which has a result predetermined by the design which has been devised by the adult maker (Holland, 2003, p. 142). Not only will heuristic play stimulate a child’s thinking, but it also develops his creativity as he will see in his mind endless possibilities in imaginatively transforming ordinary objects into various things with various functions. In my experience, I have observed that young children learn better in play- like settings because they retain concepts better when learned in the spirit of fun (See Appendix 1) . Macintyre (2003) discusses the value of play in all the developmental areas of children. Children love games that stimulate thinking. Such cognitive benefits extend to their real lives as they make decisions, compare and contrast things, use their imaginations and thinking critically and creatively. Play also engages the body. Certain games involve gross and fine motor coordination. Running around, jumping, tumbling and other physical activities help them be physically fit as well as release tension. Much practice in physical play develops their muscles, agility, flexibility and endurance. Socially, play fosters the development of friendships, coaxing children out of their shells. As they play with other children or adults, they get to know about how other people behave, think and feel. They also get to learn socially acceptable behavior like not hurting others and playing fair. Most importantly, they get to know themselves better- how they react to certain situations in the play setting. Play may also be an outlet for emotional release. Young children use role play or puppet play to process experiences they do not fully understand. Doing it over and over helps them realize what was wrong or right in confusing situations. Resolving issues in play may also be therapeutic for some children. 2 (b) Principles of policy and practice The Children Act 1989 covers the following: “reforms the law relating to children; makes provision for local authority services for children in need and others; amends the law with respect to children’s homes, community home, voluntary homes and voluntary organizations; makes provision with respect to fostering, child minding and day care for young children and adoption and for connected purposes.” (DfEs Children Act and Reports, 1989; 2004). This act is further polished with Children Act 2004 and provides a wider strategy for improving children’s lives. “The overall aim is to encourage integrated planning, commissioning and delivery of services as well as improve multi-disciplinary working, remove duplication, increase accountability and improve the coordination of individual and joint inspections in local authorities” (DfEs Children Act and Reports, 1989; 2004). The key outcomes of children’s growth and development detailed in the Every Child Matters report and represent a considerable shift in focus for staff providing public services for children. (Baxter & Frederickson, 2005). Being so, a number of agencies providing services and support to children in need and their families are concerned in upgrading the quality of their services. They also find themselves collaborating with a number of other agencies which also provide services for children and families. In the organization where I work we have partnerships with Sure Start, the Area SENCO, Occupational Therapy, Educational Psychologist, Speech Therapy, Social Worker’s, Teachers and the Dietician in order to meet our childrens individual needs. We also believe in strong partnership with parents/carers to participate in the daily routine of the children. Section 10 of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on each children’s service authority to make arrangements to promote cooperation between itself and relevant partner agencies to improve the wellbeing of children in their area. “The duty to make arrangements to safeguard and promote children’s welfare supports effective inter-agency work. Local Authorities, therefore, should: make staff aware of the arrangements being made by other agencies under section 11 of the Children Act 2004. This will help to ensure children and families have prompt access to the services (universal, targeted and specialist) they require, recognizing the range and diversity of their needs and strengths in order to achieve the best possible outcomes for children; ensure other agencies to whom the duty to make arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare applies are aware of the LA’s responsibilities including how those staff undertaking social services functions will respond to referrals regarding a child’s safety and welfare.” (HM Government, 2007, p. 37). 2 (c) Theories and research that underpin practice Vygotsky (1978) believed that children’s intellectual development is influenced more by social context than by individual experiences. His theory places a great deal of emphasis on effective social interaction. In my work setting, children are usually engage in group activities. I observed that within groups, a lot of ideas are shared and tried out collaboratively. Older children can also teach one another some concepts and skills. They bring to a group setting their own individual strengths to share. Another theory Vygotsky came up with is the concept of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). He defined the ZPD as the distance between a child’s independent problem-solving level and that obtained under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Wertsch, 1985). Wells (1997) cautioned us, however, that a ZPD is formed not just within an individual learner, but in the interaction between the learner, coparticipants, and available tools during involvement in a common activity. ZPDs, therefore, depend on the quality of the total interactive context as well as individual. This proves that a young learner’s exposure to peers, teachers and other adults and learning materials greatly influences his development. An example is a child reading at his own developmental level. The teacher knowingly introduces a slightly more difficult reading activity to him in the expectation that her student will be able to do it, even if he finds it difficult at first. “Such cognitive apprenticeships are, of course, inherently reliant on a mentor or guide who effectively uses “scaffolded instruction.” (Bonk & Cunningham, 1998 p.40). As the term implies, scaffolds are temporary supports in the process of learning which are gradually taken away when the student is already capable of learning without them. As a child worker, I provide scaffolds for the children under my care. I help them out and I little by little, I withdraw my assistance until they can manage on their own. Most of the time, I try to challenge them with a slightly more difficult task that I know they can do if they try hard enough. (See Appendix 2). 2 (d) Curriculum frameworks and assessment The early years are when children build up a lot of academic skills. It is a time when children are all eager learners, as learning new skills brings them novel experiences. These skills are developed through their constant practice of learned skills that are second nature to them… speaking, listening and interacting with others. The key aspects of learning enumerated by EYFS are incorporated in the planning of a high quality curriculum for this stage. Children’s early thinking, communication and social skills develop with organized and well-planned learning activities such as coming up with imaginative and well-thought of responses to reading and correlating it with their own experiences. Listening to stories not only engages their imaginative thinking but also provide opportunities to develop self-awareness and an understanding of various feelings and management of different situations the characters in stories go through. Children in the early childhood stage are motivated to learn how to read and write and do math activities. Such skills are mostly learned through creative and fun activities. Collaborative learning ensues when children learn to share, take turns and listen and respond to their peers. Communication skills are likewise developed as they present, discuss and explain their ideas to others. In the process, they gain new words and expand their vocabularies. Adults must be supportive of helping them understand how they learn and think best to reach their learning goals (Primary National Strategy, 2006). In my own work setting, we do a thematic curriculum and plan stimulating and fun activities apt for the children’s developmental level. We discuss creative ideas to promote the learning development of children and ensure that the environment is conducive to learning (See Appendix 3). Activities such as arts and crafts, pretend play, number and letter activities, etc. are done by the children. Outdoor activities are likewise planned for with activities such as fence-painting, gardening, and simple games. We do follow the children’s lead that is why planning also needs to be flexible. Assessment of the skills they gain and develop is documented from my own objective observations of their activities and behaviour in the natural setting. The children are observed in terms of their motor skills, cognitive skills and socio-emotional skills. These observations, I write down as a narrative report to share with parents and to keep in file. Along with it, I maintain a portfolio of work samples for each child to support my observations. 2 (e) Children’s status, welfare and learning The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989) declares that "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth", Article 2.2 further details, “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the childs parents, legal guardians, or family members.” A trained child worker should know how to assess a child suspected of child abuse or neglect. The initial assessment should address the following questions. (Hallett, 2000, p. 110) What are the developmental needs of the child? Are the parents able to respond appropriately to the child’s identified needs? Is the child being adequately safeguarded from significant harm, and are the parents able to promote the child’s health and development? What impact are family functioning and history, the wider family and environmental factors having on the parents’ capacity to respond to their child’s needs and the child’s developmental progress? Is action required to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child? Upon confirmation of the abuse, a child protection plan is devised. The outline child protection plan should (Hallett, 2000, p. 130): identify factors associated with the likelihood of the child suffering significant harm and ways in which the child can be protected through an inter-agency plan, based on the current findings from the assessment and information held from any previous involvement with the child and family establish short-term and longer-term aims and objectives that are clearly linked to reducing the likelihood of harm to the child and promoting the child’s welfare, including contact with family members be clear about who will have responsibility for what actions – including actions by family members – within what specified timescales outline ways of monitoring and evaluating progress against the planned outcomes set out in the plan; and l be clear about which professional is responsible for checking that the required changes have taken place, and what action will be taken, by whom, when they have not. In my practice, it is imperative that children stay safe within our setting and also outside of it. I follow my setting’s Child protection policy whereby any suspicious looking injury, comments made, change in behaviour is handled sensitively, quickly and logged word for word where possible and handed over to the Child Protection Officer. 2 (f) Working with parents and inter-professional collaboration Child workers need to establish a strong partnership with parents since both home and school or child care environment and the people children encounter in both have great influence on their learning and development. Parents have information about their child’s innate personality and behaviour from the home while teachers and child workers have information on the children’s socialization and learning in school or child care center. “Practitioners need to know the children and to understand enough of their cultures to be able to construct an appropriate curriculum. This is where they gain one great benefit from contacts with parents and where the parents also have much to gain since, while practitioners are learning what they need to know, they are also sharing information about how they work, which is invaluable to parents when they help their children at home” (Hurst & Joseph, 2003, p.89-90). Likewise, collaborating with other professionals for the best interest of children is ideal. “Multi-agency working is essentially about bringing together practitioners with a range of skills to work across their traditional service boundaries.” (Every Child Mattters: Changes for Children). Many agencies are after safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Every Child Matters defines such as : “protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.” (HM Government, 2007, p.11) Collaboration among parents, practitioners and various agencies and working towards the goal of achieving the highest possible outcome definitely yields a lot of benefits not only for the children (and their families) receiving the support but also for the staff of the agencies. A review of school-based interventions in the UK to enhance children’s well-being suggests that schools can play a valuable role in providing a base for multi-agency support for children and families within local communities (Stratam, 2006). References Baxter, J. & Frederickson, N., (2005) “Every Child Matters: Can educational psychology contribute to radical reform?” Educational Psychology in Practice, Vol 21, No. 2 Bonk, C.J. & Cunningham, D.J. (1998) “Searching for Learner-Centered, Constructivist, and Sociocultural Components of Collaborative Educational Learning Tools” in Electronic Collaborators [online] www.publicationshare.com/docs/Bon02.pdf (accessed 20 March, 2009) DfEs Children Act and Reports, (1989; 2004) [online] http://dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreport/#1989 and http://dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreport/#2004 (accessed 20 March, 2009) Hallett, C., (2000) “Children’s Rights”, Child Abuse Review Vol. 9: 389–393 HM Government (2007) “Statutory guidance on making arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004” Every Child Matters Change for Children. London: Department for Education and Skills Holland, R.(2003) ‘‘‘What’s it all about?’’–how introducing heuristic play has affected provision for the under-threes in one day nursery ’in Devereux,J. and Miller,L.(eds) Working with Children in the Early Years, London, David Fulton in association with The Open University (E123 Reader). Hurst, V. & Joseph, J. (2003) “ Parents and practitioners: sharing education” ’in Devereux,J. and Miller,L.(eds) Working with Children in the Early Years, London, David Fulton in association with The Open University (E123 Reader). Macintyre, C. (2003) “Studying play from a developmental perspective” ’in Devereux,J. and Miller,L.(eds) Working with Children in the Early Years, London, David Fulton in association with The Open University (E123 Reader). Primary National Strategy (2006) Primary Network for Literacy and Mathematics. Crown copyright. Statham, J. (2006) Research And Practice Briefings: Children And Families. Research in Practice publications The OpenUniversity (2003) E123 Working with Children int he Early Years, Milton Keynes, The OpenUniversity. United Nations (1989) Convention on the rights of the child (Geneva, United Nations). Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wells, G. (1997). “The zone of proximal development and its implications for learning and teaching.” [online] http://www.iose.utoronto.ca/~gwells/zpd.discussion.txt (accessed 22 March, 2009) Wertsch, J. V. (1985). Vygotsky and the social formation of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Appendices Appendix 1: Example of Interactions with Child at Play Child’s name and age: Sydney, 2 years old Activity: Sydney is playing by the kitchen at the Dramatic Play Area during Free Play time in school I believe my interaction with Sydney was appropriate. I smiled at her as I approached her and greeted her with a warm hello. I squatted, an arms’ length away, and leaned slightly toward her, to have a face-to-face communication. These non-verbal signals make her feel my interest in her work. I always mentioned her name while I was talking to her and maintained frequent but not continuous eye-contact to demonstrate interest. I responded positively with respect to the communication style used by the child. When asked what she was doing, she answered “Breakfast”. Children her age usually respond to questions with a word or two. I elaborated on her answer by phrasing her answer to make a sentence. I responded, “Oh, so you’re preparing breakfast”. When asked who it was for, Sydney just looked at me. Children her age are not so verbal and it would be easier for them to choose from different options rather coming up with their own answer. So I provided her with choices. “Is it for Teacher?” I asked. This time I had a shake of head as a negative answer. “Is it for Daddy?” I again asked. She said “No”. “Is it for Mommy?” And this time, she said, “Yes”. I responded with an approval and praise, “Wow! I think Mommy will love the breakfast you prepared for her. Good Job!” Appendix 2: Example of Scaffolding An example is teaching young children to read their names. At first, they are provided with a nametag with their picture on it alongside their name, with the first letter written in capital letter, and of a different color from the rest of the name. Example As children gain exposure to the nametag and associate themselves with it, they also associate their picture with the printed word. Constant exposure to it makes them familiar with the letters of the word, as guided by its colored, capital letter. Later on, the picture may be removed until they can recognize their name without the picture cue. Still later, the color of the capital letter is changed to match the color of the rest of the name, the way the name should be read. The learners get to read their names on their own, plainly printed on a card, or written on the board. Appendix 3: Sample of Lesson Plan Popcorn-Making Activity: Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the children should be able to: 1. recognize that they have 5 senses to help them learn about their world. 2. follow the steps and directions from a recipe. 3. express themselves through language. 4. cooperate and take turns with their classmates. Name of Activity Concepts Learned Skills Learned Activity Flow Popcorn making Various senses and how they function Observing change from corn kernels to popcorn Following a recipe following a sequence/ directions skill in reading and following steps in a recipe perceptual discrimination language expression taking turns association of learning with other relevant life concepts Make a popcorn recipe using graphic items and numbers that Nursery children can easily read. Make sure the steps are easily followed. Show the utensils and ingredients that are needed to the children and discuss what each item is for. Cook the popcorn with the children, being mindful of pointing out to the recipe where they are in each step. Ensure the safety of the children by covering the pot and keeping the children at a safe distance. Heighten sensorial awareness by pointing out to the sound and smell of popcorn being cooked. Eat and enjoy the popcorn with the children. Read More