Unit 2 – the Developing Child

Unit 2 – The Developing Child D1) The main aspects of social development for Children aged 4 years are; * They like playing and socialising with other children as this helps progress things more like speech, confidence and social skills. * Take turns and share (most of the time); may still be rather bossy. * Seek out adult approval. So if they were to hurt themselves they would still go to an adult or when they are tired they would still go to an adult for comfort. * Understand and obeys simple rules (most of the time). Capable of feeling jealous, for example if you were to show another child more attention than another child, this child would become jealous and may show anger. * Begin to understand things more like, danger, feelings and reasons toward things. * Have more of an imagination, for example they may have imaginary friends and can make up stories. Children with learning disabilities might not reach these mile stones like children without disabilities. Childcare workers need to plan for these children so that they can meet their individual needs.

According to Tassoni, page 41, “For children, this area of development is important too, as they will want to play with other children and have to learn to share and be with others in group situations, such as in school. D2) The main aspects of social development for children aged 5 years are; * Now choose their friends, for example, they have certain friends they like to play with. * Takes turns, shares (sometimes) for example, when drawing and sharing pencil crayons. * Enjoys co-operative activities and also group play. * Says please and thank you when offered something to eat or drink. Shows kindness to other children, inviting them to play and being helpful. * Resolves conflicts before seeking adult help. * Carries on with conversation with adults and children. D3) One suitable method of observing the social development of children aged 5 years could be to carry out a time sample observation. This is used to record the time, interaction, who their socialising with, so I would write down the initials of the child they were socialising with, the activity like drawing or painting, and the comments that I would write about the whole observation.

I could record this by taking photos and then storing them into the child’s personal records and development file so I could use this as evidence towards their development and social skills with other kids. I would carry this out for 5 minutes every half hour, during the course of the morning. D4) One advantage of this observation method would be that you are able to observe the child to find whether they are struggling with anything like a subject, and we are able to see if they’re not socialising very well or whether they are withdrawn.

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One disadvantage of this method is that the child maybe camera shy and may stop socialising and interacting once I start to take photos of the development that is taking place. This would affect the whole observation as there will be no progress being made so I would not be able to record anything. D5) A child’s social development may be affected by the transitions in their lives such as a family member, they may have bonded with, could have died and this would affect the child a lot.

Such as, the child may start showing aggressive behaviour towards people and may get frustrated easier when they find a task difficult. This would make the child regress. A positive transition could be that if the parent or parents take their child to places such as play areas, the child would be able to socialise with other children and they will see their parent socialising with other parents. This would make the child to be more confident and help make friends easier. This would positively influence the child to socialise and interact with other children.

D6) Snack and Meal times help support a child’s social development. It helps because the children are more likely to sit next to their friends. While they are eating they lunch, it is common that most children will tell each other what they have to eat and drink and if they have animal shaped biscuits they may play a little game like zoos, and this helps their imagination and social development. This is called associative play. D7) Inclusive practice means that everyone should be included into activities, no matter what their nationality is, or their sex or whether hey have disabilities. It is important to include everyone in activities because if someone was left out, it may make them feel unwanted, lonely, may make their confidence drop, they may show anger and it will also cause unwanted behaviour. Everyone should be included in activities as it helps make new friends, boost self-confidence and help them socialise better. All activities should meet the need of all children especially if there are any disabilities. C) If a child was in a nursery and a parent was to give birth to a baby, this may affect the child which is in nursery.

It may affect them because the new born baby will be receiving a lot of attention so this may make the child in the nursery, feel left out as the child is used to being the only child and all the attention being on them. This will cause anger and the child may stop sharing things with other children and become selfish and the child may regress in everything they have accomplished, such as they could wet themselves, behaviour will become bad and they may also stop talking about issues.

B1) When a child is moving house a practitioner can support the child in this transition by making it a fun process and a fun thing to be doing. The practitioner could ask what colours their bedroom is going to be, what they are going to have in it and where they want everything to be placed. Practitioners can even make their time at their setting as fun as it can be so it takes the situation of the child’s mind or they could even read them a story about moving house to help the child understand it is not always a bad process.

B2) Observations can be used to identify individual needs. Observations are important to be carried out because it identifies if a child is struggling in a certain area for example, they may have problems with numbers like counting, spelling simple words, participating in group activities or trouble socialising. Once the problem is identified then the person observing can the deal with the problem and help the child where they are struggling. This is why it is important to observe each child separately and carefully.

A*) It is important that practitioners understand, the pattern of development of children, from birth to 16 years because; at each age and stage there are different mile stones for them to reach. These are like goals that are set to be accomplished. The practitioners need to know this so they can help the child progress in what the child is capable of achieving. If the practitioner did not know the milestones for each stage then the practitioner could be holding the child back or aiming to high for what they want the child to do.

Also at each stage the child will show different behaviours and the practitioners need to know what they are, otherwise the practitioners might think it’s inappropriate. They might tell them of when the child is actually showing behaviours that are expected in a child of that age. The behaviour may be caused by learning disabilities, so the practitioner would need to know how to handle the situation appropriately, or even call in a professional to help the need of that child and help the child progress.

A*) Routines are important for young children because it adds structure to their day. This helps because they like to know what is coming next so they don’t get confused. The main parts of the routine, e. g meal times, coming in in the mornings and home time, in a setting should be kept the same daily this could include, children coming in in the morning and hanging their coats and bags up straight away, then sitting down for circle time and share news with their friends for 15- 30 minutes, then they will have free time to do messy things or play what they want to play to socialise.

Free time gives the children the opportunity to develop their physical skills and social skills. After free time they will be called for snack time. During snack time it is important for children to get the right nutrients for the energy they need and use. Then they will have free play again for about an hour and a half then it will be lunch time, then story time, then they would be told to go and get their coats and bags to go home. Then the children will be called out one by one when their parents can be seen.

When I was in placement at a nursery I saw they had a set routine that met the needs of every child, this worked because the children were aware of what is going on and what is happening next. I saw that this also helped their behaviour because they knew what they were doing as soon as they came in. Therefor in the future when I work with children I will know that keeping to a set routine, helps get through the day easier, without any confusions or uncertainty and everyone including staff knows what their role is for the day. Penny Tassoni Childcare and Education Cache Level 2 Published by Heinemann 2007

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