Working with Babies and Children

From Birth to Three

Jools Page, Cathy Nutbrown, Ann Clare

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781446289815
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Working with Babies and Children is essential for all who work with children under three due to its combination of theory and practice, clear writing, and pedagogical material. The Second Edition contains extensive updates on policy, new case studies, and activities from current settings. This revised edition emphasizes:

• child development and learning
  
  

• attachment/key person relationships
  
  

• planning the environment for babies
  
  

• understanding every child
  
  

• working with parents
  
  

This book will be useful to those on initial training courses, such as Foundation degrees, NVQ, BA Education and Early Childhood Studies, and for managers and practitioners undertaking CPD.

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Chapter 1

What Do We Know about Children Under Three?

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This chapter will discuss:

• The need for research and what it tells us about:
  • Literacy, language and communication
  • Learning, development, cognition and play
• Little voices – important messages

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Why we need to know about research

In this first chapter we consider some of the things that research tells us about the needs and development of babies and toddlers. It is often the case that practitioners working with the youngest children know the children well, know the activities and environments which work best for babies and toddlers, and have learned alongside other colleagues how best to support young children’s developmental and learning needs. There is much good practice to be shared and celebrated in the birth to three field of early years provision and such practices have often remained hidden. For it is only in the last decade or so that work with children under the age of three has been regarded as part of the field of ‘education’ – and even now some still struggle to acknowledge that children under three need ‘education’ as well as ‘care’.

In the last two decades successive UK governments have recognized the importance of early education for children under five, and babies and toddlers are now firmly fixed in the education and care agenda of government in the UK and other countries around the world, with issues relating to the quality of provision made for them becoming central to policy (COAG, 2009; Dalli et al., 2011; DfE, 2012a; French, 2007; Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010; Tickell, 2011; Nutbrown, 2012; Welsh Government, 2011). With these shifts in policy, come new responsibilities for all those who work with and for young children. There is increased accountability (DfE, 2010, 2012a, 2012b; HMSO, 2006; Munro, 2011) – an inevitable consequence of increased recognition and funding (DfE, 2012b) – and there are added pressures to provide high-quality care and education which has the capacity to meet all children’s learning and developmental needs (Penn, 2011; Sylva et al., 2004; Tickell, 2011). With this increased responsibility and accountability comes the need for all practitioners not simply to rehearse effective practices and to provide good experiences for babies and toddlers, but also to know why they do what they do. This is even more important in an ever changing world where economic policy levers and drivers can result in a shift in funding priorities, almost overnight. Practitioners must be ready to respond to change but, more importantly than ever before, practitioners must understand the research and theory which underpins their day-to-day work and decisions; for without such theoretical knowledge what they do can lack rigour and a rationale. It is like a building without foundations. Practice without theory, though it might look acceptable on the surface, is empty of a fully justified basis for what happens, and thus carries the danger of doing things ‘because we do’ rather than adopting (or rejecting) practices because there is a clearly understood basis for that decision.

Research is for all practitioners

Research is for everyone who work with young children. It is important to know what research can tell us about babies and toddlers and to know how others have observed and interpreted the things young children do. It is important to understand different viewpoints on work with children under three so that a variety of ideas can be considered and developed to inform modern practice. Research can provide a basis for challenging ideas or for adapting practice. Research-informed practice can make practitioners more secure in their practice, and more open to self-reflection in the light of new thinking and knowledge. Drawing on research as well as practice and experience can, in effect, help practitioners to draw a more detailed ‘map’ of the terrain in which they work. They can use the knowledge generated by others as well as their own knowing to guide their practice and develop their own unique pathway of interactions with young children.

What does research tell us about babies and toddlers?

In recent years studies of babies and toddlers have come more sharply into focus, particularly since UK government policies have begun to embrace the learning and development needs of babies and children under three within statutory provision. See for example: the English Early Years Foundation Stage (DfE, 2012a), and the Scottish Pre-Birth to Three (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010). The same is the case in Australia, where the first nationwide Australian Early Years Learning Framework (COAG, 2009) is now in place.

The landscape is changing. The boundaries of ‘education’ are no longer fixed at the school starting age. Therefore, we suggest that all research on and with our youngest children is important, regardless of its disciplinary origins. However, many studies are still concerned with literacy, language and communication and learning, development, cognition and play. There is still a need for more research on how babies and toddlers learn and develop, and for studies that help us learn more about the lives of our youngest children. Research that informs us about how babies and toddlers spend their time and who they spend their time with, helps us to understand how to plan for their individual and holistic needs. Early childhood education and care in the twenty-first century is informed, as Penn (2011) says, by a shifting global perspective of children and childhood. Nevertheless, the way in which young children learn and develop is central to our understanding of their needs, so in order that practitioners can plan for the specific needs of very young children they must have a thorough knowledge of child development.

Literacy, language and communication with babies and toddlers

In recent years studies in Australia, New Zealand and the US have focused on aspects of literacy (Dearing et al., 2009; Lee, 2010; Ravi, 2007; Riedl Cross et al., 2011). As Communication and Language is now recognized in the EYFS (DfE, 2012a) as one of the prime areas for learning alongside Physical and Personal, Social and Emotional Development, it is vital that the messages from research are utilized. In her research overview for the National Literacy Trust, Hamer (2012: 19) concludes that, ‘The home learning environment, and in particular the communication environment, for babies and toddlers during the first 24 months influences their language acquisition and their performance at school entry’. Thus Hamer reinforces that it is what parents do in the early stages of development that really has an impact on the outcomes for children as they progress through life. In this overview Hamer recommends that practitioners be aware of this fact and work in partnership with parents to promote early literacy at home as well as in the setting, a strategy that has long been argued for and developed by Nutbrown et al. (2005).

This emphasis on the home learning environment is also seen in the UK where the attention paid to literacy and its importance in the early years has been evidenced by the Bookstart Programme which has grown over the years and has now become an established feature of early literacy promotion within the UK from birth (Bookstart, 2011).

In the US, Barlow (1997) reported on the effectiveness of the Born to Read programme which targeted children deemed to be ‘at risk’ of reading failure and developmental delay. In her review of the project, Barlow claims that the programme reached children ‘during the years most crucial to brain development’ (1997: 20). Most studies claim that early engagement with books is a ‘good thing’ for babies and toddlers. Many suggest ways in which parents might engage more fully in their young children’s exploration of books, and emphasize the importance of spending time in talking with their youngest children. This is true of practitioners too. However, Macrory (2001) claims the emphasis needs to be on knowing and understanding how individual children make sense of language and how they use it, thus avoiding using books in a meaningless way with young children that they are unable to relate to.

Research into the development of language and communication includes studies of the beginnings of speech (Caulfield, 2002), the development of language in bilingual babies and toddlers (Pearson, 1998), the use and development of baby signing (Acredolo and Goodwyn, 1996; Goodwyn et al., 2000; Thompson et al., 2007; Vallotton, 2009, 2010, 2011a, 2011b) and communication with babies with hearing impairments (Yoshinaga and Stredler-Brown, 1992). In a recent study of babyrooms in England, (Goouch and Powell, 2012: abstract) found that: ‘many of the practitioners were not routinely, incidentally or intuitively talking to the babies in their care, nor were they aware of the importance of doing so’. This highlights the continued need for those working with young children to understand the crucial importance of talking with babies and toddlers.

Learning, development, cognition and play

In a study of nearly 50 toddlers aged around 18 to 30 months in full day care, Kowalski et al. (2005) examined the toddlers’ emerging pretend play. Using videotaped observations the research team assessed the play environment in terms of (a) the provision of play materials, (b) the quality of care and (c) staff attitudes towards play. The toddlers’ weekly attendance pattern was taken into consideration when observations were analysed. They found that toddlers who attended childcare for at least four days a week had better play encounters with pre-school-aged peers than those who had less frequent attendance. Perhaps there is something to learn from this study about the benefits to young children of spending time in mixed age group settings rather than being confined to the ‘toddler room’ where they are separated from the older pre-school children. In a study of the experiences of children under three in day care, Clare (2012) found that children also benefited from the time they were able to spend with the older children in nursery settings. The benefits were recognized in the opportunities for children to become scaffolders of each other’s learning as well as in the opportunities for children to engage in play and learning within a more family-like structure. Siblings were able to play alongside each other, younger children were able to be exposed to more challenging resources, and there was often less need for children to make high numbers of transitions as they moved through the nursery.

In a study of mathematical development of 50 one – three-year-olds, Miyakawa et al. (...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Note on Terminology
• List of Tables and Figures
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• 1. What Do We Know about Children Under Three?
• 2. Looking Beyond What We Already Know about our Youngest Children
• 3. Policies for the Youngest Children
• 4. Planning for Early Learning and Development
• 5. Environments for Learning
• 6. Understanding Every Child
• 7. Planning for Positive Transitions
• 8. Permission to Love Them
• References
• Index