Care and Education in Early Childhood

A Student's Guide to Theory and Practice

Audrey Curtis, Maureen O'Hagan

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317857594
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The authors draw on their extensive early years experience to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the key issues in the field of early childhood care and education. In this fully updated and revised new edition, rewritten to include the new Early Years Foundation Stage, students will find that this text now meets the needs of students on Foundation degrees, Early Childhood Degrees and the new Early Years Professional qualification.

Topics covered in this essential textbook include:

• an overview of the principles of effective practice discussions on equal opportunities and children's rights
• an update of the latest development theories relating to brain development and how children learn and the difficulties children may face in their learning
• investigations into what working with parents really means
• consideration of the different early years systems in operation
• summaries of key management issues and useful information on how to address them
• comparison with European perspectives on early years care and education
• the importance of play in children's early learning.

Readers of this second edition will also find the expansion of existing chapters in order to include topics such as inclusion, transitions, child protection in relation to the internet and partnerships with parents. The book covers the whole age range from birth to eight years with a special section on the birth to three years age group. Each chapter is fully referenced and has case studies or reflective practice boxes within the text.

Informative and engaging, the book challenges the reader to think about how underlying theory may be reflected in practice. It will be essential reading for all students who are studying for early childhood qualifications at levels four, five and six.

1 Principles and values of effective practice

This chapter examines the underlying principles that underpin early years practice including the National Occupational Standards Principles and Values. It also looks in depth at other areas such as equality of opportunity, anti-bias practice, celebrating diversity and the reflective practitioner.

One of the most important aspects of the early child care and education worker is that they should be able to operate effectively within their job role. All underlying principles of practice should reflect the requirements of the Children Act 1989 as a minimum. In addition to this there are basic rights for the child as laid down in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Effective practice must be an underlying principle for all workers, not just the managers of the setting. It is only by ensuring that practice is effective can you be certain that the children are receiving the best quality of care possible. This chapter will examine the underlying principles of good practice and the reflective practice, which is needed if the child care and education worker is going to deliver a high-quality service. It is important that all practitioners reflect on their practice so that they can assess how things have gone and whether there is room for improvement. Practitioners also need to be aware of the different sets of underlying principles and values that affect their day-to-day practice.

A good starting point is the Early Years Foundation Stage principles that are fundamental to the work of all early years practitioners. These are grouped under the following themes:

• A Unique Child – every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Positive Relationships – children learn to be strong and independent from a base of loving and secure relationships with parents and/or a key person.

• Enabling Environments – the environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.

• Learning and Development – children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates and all areas of Learning and Development are equally important and inter-connected.

(Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage 2007)

The Practice Guidance which accompanies these principles offers very clear ways in which these can be implemented by the practitioner.

There is also the Statement of Underlying Principles and Values, which are incorporated into the National Occupational Standards (NOS) in Children’s Care, Learning and Development. These have been written and published by the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC). There are three principles and eight values; the principles are part of the NOS and the values are demonstrated by practitioners in their day-to-day work.

The principles are as follows:

1 The welfare of the child and young person is paramount.

The Children Act 1989 makes it very clear that the welfare of the child is paramount. Therefore children must come first. Children must be listened to and their opinions respected and treated seriously. In managing children’s challenging behaviour, the child care and education worker should emphasise the positive aspects of behaviour and physical punishment must never be used.

2 Practitioners contribute to children’s care, learning and development, and safeguarding, and this is reflected in every aspect of practice and service provision.

The first five years of a child’s life is a period of rapid growth and learning. Therefore children need activities that will stimulate their social, physical, intellectual, linguistic, emotional and moral development. The early years curriculum should be linked with a child’s stage of development that can be ascertained by careful observation of the child and discussions with the parents and family. From September 2008, the Early Years Foundation Stage will ensure that children’s learning is not only appropriate for their stage of development but is stimulating and meets the needs of all children. The child’s progress will be monitored, recorded and shared with the parents.

3 Practitioners work with parents and families who are partners in the care, learning and development, and safeguarding of their children, and are the child’s first and most enduring carers and educators.

Early years care and education workers must respect a child’s parents and family and work with them in planning the care for their child. It is to be remembered that the parents and family will know more about the child than anyone else and, in addition to respecting opinions, etc. of parents and carers, they must also be given regular information about the child’s development and progress. Child-care workers must comply with parent’s wishes for their child and family, cultural and religious values must be respected.

The values are intended for practitioners in order to inform them of what they should be actively demonstrating in their work. As they stand, the values would appear to represent the practical implementation of a number of different pieces of legislation such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Children Act 1989.

The values are as follows:

1 The needs, rights and views of the child are at the centre of all practice and provision.

It is important that all child-care practitioners are familiar with the legislation that relates to the rights of the child. They also need to be aware of the needs of individual children and how these can be met within the setting and by individual practitioners. Part of children’s rights is to be treated with respect by adults actively seeking and listening to their views.

2 Individuality, difference and diversity are valued and celebrated.

The UK is a pluralistic society and as such it is important that cultural diversity is appreciated and viewed positively, no one culture should be viewed as superior. Children should be helped to develop a sense of their own identity within their race, culture or social group. Children should be introduced to other cultures in a positive way and be encouraged to sample food, art, stories and music from different cultures.

3 Equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice are actively promoted.

The individuality of each child must be recognised and each child should be treated according to its needs. Each child should have the same opportunities to play, learn and develop according to their potential. Every child should be treated with equal concern, thus avoiding stereotyping and labelling on the basis of gender, religion, culture, race, class or ability. Early years care and education workers must not discriminate against any child or group/family. They must respect a child and their family’s race, religion, gender, culture, class, language, ability, etc. Expressions of prejudice by staff members, children or adults must be challenged and the victims should be supported. Early years care and education workers must work within the requirements of the laws, i.e. Children Act, Race Relations Act, Human Rights Act and the policies of the setting.

4 Children’s health and well-being are actively promoted.

Children’s health and well-being are presently at the forefront of much of the work being undertaken in early years settings and schools, particularly in relation to a healthy diet and exercise. Childhood obesity is becoming an important area of concern and practitioners must encourage healthy eating and exercise. Practitioners themselves should set an example by eating with the children and participating in outdoor activities.

5 Children’s personal and physical safety is safeguarded, whilst allowing for risk and challenge as appropriate to the capabilities of the child.

It is the responsibility of every child care and education worker to ensure that the setting is safe for the children and fellow workers. Daily work practices should ensure the prevention of accidents and the protection of health. Familiarity with emergency procedures and the recording of accidents must be adhered to. It is also part of the role of the child care and education worker to protect children from abuse.

6 Self-esteem and resilience are recognised as essential to every child’s development.

Lilian Katz (1995: 21) defines self-esteem as being ‘best characterised as deep feelings of being loved, accepted and valued by significant others’. Katz goes on to say that self-esteem is derived from the feelings that are linked with the individual’s evaluations of self. Children not only need to feel that they are loved and secure but also to know that they are respected and accepted by adults outside the family. Having a good level of self-esteem enables children to cope with criticism and negative comments about themselves. Practitioners are able to nurture a child’s self-esteem by having realistic expectations of the individual child and encouraging children to reach these expectations.

Resilience is linked with self-esteem, as how well children can cope with change, stress, uncertainty, etc., depends on how secure they feel in themselves. Brooks and Goldstein (2002) offer ten ways in which parents, early years practitioners and teachers can help develop and strengthen a child’s resilience (bear in mind that this list was originally written for parents, although the content is pertinent to all those working with children):

1 Be empathetic. See the world through your [the] kid’s eyes.

2 Communicate with respect. Don’t interrupt, or put them down. Answer their questions.

3 Be flexible. If we want kids to be flexible we must model that behaviour.

4 Give undivided attention. Kids feel loved when we spend one to one time with them.

5 Accept your kids for who they are. When kids feel appreciated for who they are, they’ll feel more secure reaching out to others and learning how to solve problems.

6 Give kids a chance to contribute. When we enlist children in helping others, we communicate our faith in their ability to handle a variety of tasks and give them a sense of responsibility.

7 Treat mistakes as learning experiences. Kids whose parents over-react to mistakes tend to avoid taking risks and end up blaming others for their problems.

8 Stress your child’s strengths. Their sense of accomplishment and pride gives them the confidence to persevere the next time they face a challenge.

9 Let your kids solve problems and make decisions. Instead of always telling children what to do encourage them to come up with solutions to problems.

10 Discipline to teach. Do not discipline in a way that intimidates or humiliates your child.

7 Confidentiality and agreements about confidential information are respected as appropriate unless a child’s protection and well-being are at stake.

Policies in the setting relating to confidentiality must be adhered to. Information relating to a child and/or their parents or family must not be disclosed unless it is in the interests of child protection. In the latter circumstances any disclosure should only be to other professionals involved in the case. Confidentiality policies should also ensure that information about working colleagues is not disclosed without permission.

8 Professional knowledge, skills and values are shared appropriately in order to enrich the experience of children more widely

In order to ensure the best interests of the child, when appropriate, early child care and education workers should confer with colleagues and other professionals from outside the setting for support and advice. Respect for other professionals’ opinions should be maintained and confidentiality observed at all times.

A number of the above principles and values overlap with other chapters in this book; however, there are other areas, such as the following, that are worth expanding upon.

Equality of opportunity is an expression that is used very easily but not always properly understood when it comes to integrating it into one’s own practices. All early years settings are required to have an equal opportunities policy but in many cases it sits in a folder on a shelf and is never monitored in terms of how it is being implemented. Equality of opportunity means that each child is given the opportunity to develop to his/her maximum potential. However, each child’s potential will be different, therefore each child should be treated according to their own individual needs. Some children’s needs may be greater than others and may, therefore, require greater input from the staff caring for them. In this context, ‘needs’ does not refer to children with special needs but to any need that a child may have, i.e. the need for outdoor play if they live in a high-rise flat. When a child is accepted into a day-care establishment, the first thing that should happen is that their needs are assessed and a plan is drawn up to ensure ways of meeting those needs. All of the staff caring for the child should have a copy of the assessment and the plan for addressing the areas where there may be need. In this way the staff team will be working together in the best interests of the child. There should be frequent reviews of each child’s needs and assessment carried out on a regular basis, as needs will change over time.

Anti-discriminatory/anti-bias practice is an area that directly affects the delivery of care that the child is getting. As human beings, we all have our own biases or areas that we do not feel comfortable about and therefore hold prejudices against. However, whatever these are they must not be allowed to affect the way in whic...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to second edition
• 1 Principles and values of effective practice
• 2 Children’s rights
• 3 How children learn
• 4 Language and language development
• 5 Working with the under-threes
• 6 Feelings and relationships
• 7 Working in partnership with parents
• 8 Play: all work and no play …
• 9 Management and leadership issues in the early years
• 10 Early years education
• 11 The primary curriculum at KS1
• Appendix
• Glossary
• Index