Health professionals have always monitored the development of babies and young children, and early years practitioners are now following suit in carrying out their own kind of observations. Birth to Three Matters, the framework for the under-threes, advocates careful observation, as does the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. But how does monitoring children's development affect our practice with children?
Most early years professionals recognise the need to monitor development as a key way in which we can best care for and stimulate children. The more we know about a child, especially if we think about their interests and the way in which they are playing, the more it can help us to plan effectively.
It also allows us to pick up on any difficulties that the child might be having and allow for early intervention. This is essential in a child's early years when, for example, an undetected sensory impairment may have knock-on effects on their behaviour, socialisation and self-esteem.
Milestones
While the potential benefits of monitoring children's development are obvious, in practice the actual tracking of development is not quite as straightforward as it may appear.
First of all, some kind of agreed benchmark needs to be established so that professionals know what they are looking for. The idea of 'milestones' was born of the notion that some markers in the child's development journey were significant. By associating ages with these markers, some measurement of a child's development in line with other children of a similar age would be possible.
Expectations of children's development have varied across time. Truby King's 'Mothercraft' manual of the late 1930s suggested that a baby's bowel training should begin on their third day of life and that 'babies can be trained to leave off their napkins altogether by about ten months of age'.
Milestones for language development were also different. By the child's first birthday 'he should be saying a few short, simple words'. This is in marked contrast to a recent edition of Mary Sheridan's From Birth to Five Years (Routledge, 8.99) which puts the first few words at 15 months.
There is a lesson to be learned here. Knowledge about child development is not stagnant and neither is society. This means that today's expectations are not necessarily enduring ones, any more than those of the past.
Collecting information
As well as the difficulty in establishing a reliable benchmark for children's development, it can also be hard to collect information about children objectively. If we are working with children, it is to be expected that we have some type of an emotional attachment to them. When it comes to recording, however, this can interfere with our objectivity. It is easy to put a tick on a checklist because the child is nearly able to do something, while an observer who is not familiar with that child would leave it blank.
In the same way that we are not robotic, neither are children. A child's response to a situation may vary according to whom they are with, the time of day and what they are doing. Using unfamiliar adults to assess children may seem like one way to gain objective information about their progress, but the resulting emotional stress on children can change their responses. Evidence shows, too, that children's responses change when they know that they are being watched or are being asked to perform a task.
Holistic approach
Given that measuring development is not that easy, how can we try to pull in information? Ideally, the answer is to employ a variety of strategies, as no single method is without its disadvantages. Planned observations need to sit beside informal 'snapshot' recordings, and colleagues who may see children in different situations, such as at lunch time, need to be asked for their input too.
Strong relationships between practitioners and parents or main carers are also important. We need to find out about children in their 'other worlds'
so that we can take a holistic approach to monitoring. Parents and carers have a different perspective, seeing their children in smaller and usually less structured environments. Their focus in terms of looking at development may also be different. As one parent of a child put it ,'I don't care about Robert's ability to kick a ball. I just want him to be invited by another child to come home for tea.' Such comments are indeed a reminder that measuring development often reflects what professionals and educationalists perceive as important.
Using information
Time spent monitoring children can so easily go to waste if the information is not actively used. This is not about target setting or providing information for bureaucrats, but using the information to benefit the child.
Noticing that a child is intrigued with a certain play material or is hesitant about going to the toilet should mean that we are able to respond more sensitively and fine-tune our approach to the child. It also requires that we are reflective practitioners, especially in situations where parents tell us that the child at home is very different to the one we see at nursery.
Finally, it is worth remembering that each children is unique. While monitoring children's development is worthwhile and potentially beneficial, we must never forget that comparing and labelling children can have perilous consequences. Children are, after all, setting out on a long learning journey.
Student links
This article links to unit C16 of the NVQ 3 in Early Years Childcare and Education.
Evidence collectorIf you are a student, you may wish to carry out the following observations. Remember to consult with your supervisor and/or the parents if necessary.
Observations
* Carry out two observations on a child using different recording methods, such as a checklist and a snapshot narrative.
* Consider which recording method generated the most information about the child.
* Explain how this information could be used to plan more effectively to meet the needs and interests of the child.