Babies and young children are amazing! That has always been the view of the team at Norland Nursery. The learning and development that takes place in the first three years of an infant's life has consistently brought wonder to us. As a team, we have sought to ensure we provide the highest quality of care and learning experiences for the very youngest in our care, as we recognise that babies and young children really matter.
With the renewed focus upon the Prime areas of learning in the revised EYFS, Physical Development, Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Communication and Language have been brought to the forefront of our practice.
The revised statutory framework states that practitioners working with the youngest of children are expected to 'focus strongly on the three Prime areas' noting that these are the basis for successful and effective future learning (para 1.7).
Historically for many practitioners, Physical Development has not been viewed with such high importance, despite the neural science research findings including Gopnik et al (1999) and Greenland (2000) who have offered the cohesive links between physical development and babies' thinking. However, through the revised framework, it will now be the role of the reflective practitioner to address how they will support Physical Development as one of the Prime areas; fundamental areas of learning and development embracing the concept that muscles and minds are truly linked.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Within the revised statutory framework, the focus for Physical Development is to provide opportunities for babies and young children 'to be active and interactive', 'to develop their co-ordination control and movement' and to help children 'to understand the importance of physical activity, and to make healthy choices in relation to food' (para 1.6). All of these come together within the aspects 'Moving and handling' and 'Health and self-care'.
The Development Matters statements guide us gently, as practitioners, through the expected stages of learning for babies and young children within these aspects. Anne O'Connor offers in her practitioners guide to Physical Development (Nursery World, 25 June) a detailed exploration of the developmental phases and the theory behind them.
ENABLING ENVIRONMENTS
Creating an enabling environment that offers opportunity for babies and young children to develop and embed their physical skills requires careful attention to both the physical aspects of development as outlined above and also to the interconnected relationship that Physical Development has with all other six areas of learning.
Within an ideal setting, the Prime areas of learning and development will be subtly threaded throughout the whole nursery, with space, resources and staff offering a holistic learning experience.
At Norland Nursery we have taken advantage of the revised EYFS to take time to consider how we are using the space, resources and staff within our setting to promote the physical development of babies and young children.
Post and Hohmann (2000) suggest that, as practitioners, we need to provide an active learning environment that encourages the needs of babies and toddlers. So we have reflected on how the learning environment feels to the babies and young children who will be accessing it and how it meets their needs.
We have asked the questions:
- Is it physically comfortable?
- Are resources accessible?
- Are there suitable soft furnishings available without the space becoming overly cluttered?
- Do children have access to low-level windows that can connect them to the outdoors or between rooms?
- Does the environment enable children to move freely, to roll, jump, bounce, wriggle, climb and crawl, to stretch, to be quiet and to lie still?
These are just a few of the questions that you may want to begin to ask yourself too.
Creating spaces ...
To provide an ideal learning environment that promotes the physical development of babies and young children at Norland Nursery:
Movement and sensory exploration We have provided the opportunity for babies to use movement and sensory exploration to connect with and make sense of their immediate environment. We have achieved this by placing sheets of cellophane and emergency blankets, sheepskins and voiles on the floor for babies and young children to lie on, encouraging their motor co-ordination as they consciously move their limbs and gain control of their bodies.
We have also arranged furniture sensitively so toddlers are able to develop balance against them, using furniture to glide through spaces.
Most importantly we have created spaces in which children can move freely and safely - spaces for babies to lie on their tummies and backs, to stretch, to crawl and to experience the sensory-seeking movements such as creeping, climbing, swinging, spinning and rocking.
Very often the spaces used to care for the youngest of children are the same spaces that contain the furniture required to meet their physical needs such as cots and changing stations. With this in mind, we made sure that children also had plenty of space free from clutter, in which they are able to develop, practise and embed the wide range of gross motor skills needed for healthy physical and brain development.
Spaces for sensory play opportunities are freely available to the children at all times. These include a range of malleable play materials such as dough, clay and gloop, wet and dry sand, and water, all of which encourage manipulation and so support fine motor control.
Outdoors
Providing opportunity for babies and young children to explore the outdoor learning environment has also proved invaluable in promoting their physical development. It is a space that is promoted for children to access freely throughout the day.
Babies have safe spaces that they can lie within and crawl through such as the willow igloo. Toddlers have a sensory beach in the garden that enables the physical skills of pushing, pulling and digging to take place as part of their play. Balancing, stepping, climbing, twisting and swinging can all take place between the trees and climbing centre. Swirling and dancing on the stage are all wonderful opportunities for developing physical skills.
Peace and quiet
Places for babies and young children to be quiet, and to be rested has always been of priority for us as a team at Norland Nursery. Within the Birth to Three Matters framework, as discussed by Ann Langston in Nursery World (EYFS Best Practice: Back to basics, 11 June), the need for children to be rested and protected was highlighted, and we feel this should be a priority when planning for young children's healthy growth and development.
As a team, we have reflected upon the spaces that we have created for privacy, rest and sleep. To ensure that these places are calm and conducive to rest, we have reduced the constant background noise, offered the children a sense of belonging by making sure that they always have their own cots and comforters and that their key person settles them down to sleep.
We also encourage babies and young children to sleep outside, free from air conditioning and central heating. We have created a space in which babies can sleep in the fresh air, surrounded by pots of lavender to stimulate relaxation and to the sounds of wind chimes and the wind rushing through bamboo.
THE KEY PERSON ROLE
To be effective, a learning environment requires 'in tune' practitioners, and sensitive use of the daily routine by the key person can help to support babies' and young children's physical development.
At Norland, we make the most of mealtimes to develop children's physical skills as they anticipate food, moving towards feeding themselves initially by grasping foods in their fingers as the new textures of foods are discovered, before handling cutlery and a cup independently.
We also ensure that we approach nappy changing and other physical care routines with sensitivity and respect for the needs and rights of the child - something we'll be looking at in more detail in Part 2 on Personal, Social and Emotional Development.
OBSERVATION AND ASSESSMENT
Using the knowledge of the child, gained through observations and the sensitive and responsive role of a key person, we are able to plan appropriate experiences that promote future physical development for the babies and young children within our care.
Our observations need to consider both what and how children are learning, as well as the effectiveness of the enabling environment and the practitioner support in promoting a child's physical development (see box, page 25). Some of the key questions that we consider when reflecting on our role in promoting physical development include:
- What activities are the children engaging with and how?
- Do the resources challenge the child appropriately?
- Are resources freely accessible, even to the youngest of children?
- Can the child control the direction of the activity?
- How is the adult offering responsive interaction, facilitating future learning opportunities?
When considering the physical development of the child, we would also consider:
- the expected and actual birth date of the child
- the context of the child - what has the home learning environment offered?
- what development progress has been observed to date - is the child continuing to make expected progress, or are they consolidating their growth and learning?
- whether the learning is sequential, for example, a child goes from lying, to rolling, to sitting, to crawling, to standing and walking
- if there are any patterns in the child's play that can support physical development, such as a love of trajectory movements linked to climbing, jumping, sliding.
Don't forget that the simplest of everyday opportunities promote physical development, many of which take place in the daily routine and often go unobserved, for example, walking up the steps to enter nursery, cutting up lunch, helping to tidy up, sweeping the floor or wiping the table.
Our assessments are recorded in the children's learning journeys and will now also be incorporated into the Progress Check at Two (see box).
We are confident that if within our practice we continue to use the principles of the EYFS: recognising each child as unique, caring for our babies and young children in secure positive relationships supporting and encouraging them to play in enabling environments - the physical learning and development of babies and young children will be sure to happen.
Clare Crowther is head of Norland Nursery, Bath, www.norlandnursery.co.uk
Clare and her team were involved in the consultation of the revised EYFS, trialing the revised framework at Norland Nursery, together with the know-how guidance for the two-year-old checks. They are sharing their experiences of working with the youngest of children at the forthcoming Norland Conference, What Matters to Children? (13 October 2012)
OBSERVATIONS
It has become widely accepted that in order to plan effectively and efficiently for children to learn we need to take time observing them, truly getting to know them before sharing our understanding of their learning and development with others to gain a full perspective of the child.
Observation methods can take many forms, making note of the child's interests and their reactions to opportunities, their preferences, and the skills we see them consolidating, so that we are able to make a formative assessment of the child.
For us, as practitioners, this is an ongoing process outlined in paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2 of the revised statutory framework, which states: '(Assessment) involves practitioners observing children to understand their level of achievement, interests, learning styles... to shape the experiences for each child.'
When we observe a child, it is important to note:
- how the children are learning, as well as
- what they are learning.
Some of the questions that we ask include:
- What activities are the children engaging with and how?
- Do they have a particular curiosity or interest?
- Are they engrossed in their learning, showing focus and concentration?
- Are they determined in their approach or do they try to find new ways of doing things?
- How are the resources presented to the children?
- Are they open-ended and relevant to the children's interests?
- Do they challenge the child appropriately?
- Are the activities linked to previous experiences?
- Are resources freely accessible, even to the youngest of children?
- Can the child take control of the activity's direction?
- How are the adults involved?
- Are they a play partner, facilitator, supervisor, adviser?
- How are we encouraging children to participate or share in their ideas, thoughts and feelings?
Within the revised EYFS, there is a much greater focus on how children learn. The characteristics of effective learning - 'Playing and exploring', 'Active learning' and 'Creating and thinking critically' - are seen as underpinning all learning and development. Within the Development Matters guidance, the first two tables illustrate how as practitioners we can observe learning and what we can do to support it.
TWO-YEAR-OLD CHECKS
Our understanding of child development and the Characteristics of Effective Learning are essential when we come to complete the two-year-old checks.
The progress check required for children at two years aims to provide parents with a short written summary of their child's development. It enables the strengths to be identified along with areas where the child's progress is less than expected, allowing for early intervention to take place.
Key points to remember when completing the two-year-old check are to:
- involve parents and carers in the writing of the summary
- encourage parents to share the summary with their health visitor and other professionals who may be involved with the child
- use a best fit judgement
- use the summary as the basis for future learning and development opportunities
- use the summary to focus strategies and activities that you plan to implement to promote the child's development
- use the summary to identify if and what additional support may be required.
FURTHER READING
- People under Three: young children in day care by Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson (Routledge)
- Birth to Three Matters: supporting the framework of effective practice by Lesley Abbott and Ann Langston (DfE, www.education.gov.uk/publications/)
- Working with Babies and Children: from birth to three by Cathy Nutbrown and Jools Page (Sage)
- Key Persons in the Nursery: building relationships for quality provision by Peter Efler, Elinor Goldschmied and Dorothy Selleck (Letts)
- How Babies Think: the science of childhood by Alison Gopnik, Andrew Meltzoff and Patricia Kuhl (Pheonix)
- Creating places for birth to threes from Community Playthings, www.community playthings.co.uk