Opinion

Opinion: In my view - Our own key person

Of course I feel sad to learn of Elinor Goldschmied's death, but it is also an opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate her great contribution to early years practice, particularly work with children under three.

In an age where so many words are published, much of her work can be summed up in the three-word title of her book with Sonia Jackson, People Under Three. Indeed, the first word of these three tells the story of her work and contribution, to see and respond to babies and the youngest of children as 'people' with minds, feelings and viewpoints of their own.

I owe a considerable personal as well as professional debt to Elinor. While Dorothy Selleck and I developed our original study of children under three and their experience in nursery, it was Elinor who supervised and nurtured that work. Her rigour and clarity was uncompromising but she never lost her humanity and capacity to tune in to our feelings as we struggled to tune in to the feelings of the babies and young children we were observing. In that respect, she was a brilliant model of a 'key person' for us.

Her clarity about the key person role as well as her pioneering work on the Treasure Basket will be lasting legacies to early years practice. Given that she did much of the foundation work on the key person role in the 1980s and early 1990s, it may be that even Elinor would not have realised the great significance this was to have in the lives of children and families.

We now know more clearly what makes the difference between an enriching and a depriving nursery experience for a young child. Where emotional connections are valued and well developed, between practitioner and child, between home and nursery, then nursery can be deeply enriching for children and families. Children, and all of us, have Elinor to thank for that.

It is the extent to which each baby and child feels physically and emotionally "connected" to one or two key practitioners - the child's key people.