It is widely accepted that children develop holistically and to enhance their whole development we must provide them with a comprehensive programme that gives them active learning experiences. All children should be supported in their learning and their experiences extended in a variety of ways that are appropriate to their stage of development.
Play Together Creche is committed to developing a curriculum that incorporates child development, creates a child centred play based environment, which enables young children to actively pursue their own learning, based on the above principles.
Policy and Procedure
Staff will provide balanced intervention and support to encourage positive attitudes towards learning and play.
The Whole Child Perspective requires that the outcome of children’s development be recognised and taken into account. The following are the outcomes taken from the Whole Child Perspective that must be considered when working with children:
Physical and Mental Well-being
This dimension is concerned with growth and development as well as physical and mental health. Service providers should ensure that the appropriate accommodation, supports and opportunities are put in place, both indoor and outdoor, to promote all areas of children’s physical and mental well-being. The provider should promote the health and well-being of children, ensure nutritious diet, prevent the spread of infection and take positive steps to prevent harm to them.
Examples of Physical Development
To allow children to develop both gross and fine motor skills, physical control, mobility and co ordination and their mental well being Play Together Creche will provide suitable equipment, small and large, indoors and outdoors.
• To help this development all areas are supervised and children can play safely
• Gross motor skills are encouraged through outdoor play, skipping, running, games, climbing frames and slides etc
• Fine motor skills are developed with a wide range of equipment i.e. crayons, scissors, paintbrushes, puzzles, pegs and boards etc
• There is a wide variety of natural materials, sand, water, clay etc. to enhance technological skills
Emotional and Behavioural Well-being
This area concerns children’s feelings and actions. It includes their growing ability to adapt to change, to cope with stress and to demonstrate self-control. It also covers children’s ability to empathise with others and behave in a socially responsible way. Service providers should ensure that children are treated with respect and dignity at all times. Children should be supported to form positive attachments to their carers’ and other children in the service through strong affirming interaction. Children should be supported to develop a strong sense of self-esteem and self-confidence in an environment of emotional warmth and approval. Consistent boundaries are important to children’s sense of security. Children should not be subjected to any degrading or abusive language or behaviour.
Examples of Emotional Development:
• Healthy emotional development is promoted in a relaxed and secure environment
• This helps children to identify names and explore their feelings both positive and negative
• Adults allow the children to express their feelings and help them to grow in self- esteem and self-confidence. This will help their relationship with other children and adults
This dimension covers all areas of cognitive development, educational attainment and active learning from their surrounding environment. An environment that engages and enables, that responds and stimulates in support of active learning, should be provided with the appropriate access to resources, materials and social interaction to stimulate (empower) cognitive and linguistic capacity in accordance with each child’s needs and abilities. The opportunity to learn through play is of particular importance.
Examples of Language Development
Childcare workers should be aware that children’s language develops at different rates therefore the variety of activities and opportunities for language must be as wide as possible. Childcare workers in the service play a vital role in helping language development by:
• Talking to the children and giving them the opportunity to practice listening and speaking
• We provide a variety of groups: e.g. books, posters, interest tables to talk about and discuss
• Everything in the room is labelled with symbols e.g. shapes, jigsaws and patterns. Boxes that contain toys are labelled showing those toys etc
• We encourage conversation in groups of different sizes. From one to one to small groups — on to the whole group
• We also provide a quiet time for all the children to expand their listening skills
• We use rhymes and songs to allow children to play with words Examples of Intellectual Development:
• To develop intellectually a child must be helped to learn how to learn
• The children are encouraged to solve problems
• There is always sand and water for the children to play with. These develop concepts such as volume, weight, quantity, shape, size etc
• There is also the natural material used i.e. wood, clay leading them into appreciation of science and math
Spiritual and Value systems Well-being
This covers feelings, experiences and beliefs that stimulate self-awareness, wonder, reverence and the meaning and nature of life and death. Each child’s own traditions of belief and observance of religious duties should be respected by the service provider and by other children in the service. Children’s developing sense of knowing right and wrong should be nurtured.
The diversity of children’s experiences, culture, gender, social background and traditions should be nurtured and valued by the service provider. The provider and staff must actively promote equality of opportunity, participation and anti- discriminatory practice with regard to all children in their care. This includes the promotion of mutual respect between children in their care.
This includes the competencies that all children require in order to look after and respect themselves. Service providers should seek ways to support children’s own capacities for self-care.
Children’s capacity for development along this dimension is more likely to be met if they have a sense of belonging and in situations where changes of carer are kept to a minimum. Service providers should seek to support, work with and actively involve each child, child’s family/carers in the child’s development by providing opportunity for on-going communication about the child. These should include on-going updates of the child’s activities and regular reviews of the child’s well-being.
Play Together Creche encourages an ethos of peer education. This involves the child’s ability to make friends and feel part of a peer group. Service providers should seek to support children’s capacity for social development through providing opportunities for the co-operation, collaboration and friendship to develop friendships and co-operate with others. Children should be protected from bullying and assisted in learning skills to manage bullying behaviour. The importance of play in learning valuable social skills should be recognised. Opportunities should be provided for children to contribute to the shaping of the service. Opportunities for children to participate in and understand the wider community should be part of the service provision.
Examples of Social Development:
• Particularly relevant aspects are stories, songs, make believe play, outings and group projects
• The adults provide opportunities for the children to play together in settings that encourage them to learn and assert themselves and fit in as part of the group
• The adults are sensitive to the children developing play and avoid unnecessary interruption
This concerns children’s growing understanding of their capacity to engage with others and realise the impact of their actions, appearance and behaviour on others.
Service providers should support children in their understanding of others and learn to engage in social situations.
(The main text under the nine headings is taken from the National Childcare Strategy - The Whole Child s Perspective)
Child Development Milestone Guidelines
Play Together Creche caters for children from 12 months. The following is a guideline to staff in relation to development milestones according to this age/stage. Staff will have knowledge of these milestones to assist them in their observation of children.
If staff have concerns in relation to a child they will advise parents to seek help from a professional or local Health Services.
Remember the milestones outlined below are guidelines only. Children develop at different stages and in different ways. Children should not be over or under challenged in relation to activities. Play material and equipment should be chosen to suit the needs of each individual child.
The following questions may be asked as general guidelines:
By 12 months of age does the child?:
Motor Skills:
• Drink from a cup with help
• Feed her/himself finger food like raisins or bread crumbs
• Grasp small objects by using her thumb and index or forefinger
• Use his/her first finger to poke or point
• Put small blocks in and take them out a container
• Knock two block together
• Sit well without support
• Crawl on hands and knees
• Pull him/herself to stand or take steps holding onto furniture
• Stand alone momentarily
• Walk with one hand held
• Cooperate with dressing by offering a foot or an arm
Language and Social Skills:
• Babble, but sometimes “sounds like” talking
• Say his/her first words
• Recognise family members’ names
• Try to “talk” with you
• Respond to another’s distress by showing distress or crying
• Show affection to familiar adults
• Show mild to severe anxiety at separation from parent
• Show apprehension about strangers
• Raise his/her arms when he/she wants to be picked up
• Understand simple commands
Sensory and Thinking Skills:
• Copy sounds and actions you make
• Respond to music with body motion
• Try to accomplish simple goals (seeing and crawling to a toy)
• Look for an object he/she watched fall out of sight (such as a spoon that falls under the table)
By 18 months of age does the child?:
Motor Skills:
• Like to pull, push, and dump things
• Pull off hat, socks, mittens
• Turn pages in a book
• Stack two blocks
• Carry a stuffed animal or doll
• Scribble with crayons
• Walk without help
• Run stiffly, with eyes on the ground
Sensory and Thinking Skills:
• Identify an object in a picture book
• Laugh at silly actions (as in wearing a bowl as a hat)
• Look for objects that are out of sight
• Put a round lid on a round pot
• Follow simple 1-step directions
• Solve problems by trial and error
Language and Social Skills:
• Say 8-10 words you can understand
• Look at a person who is talking to him
• Ask specifically for her mother or father
• Use “hi” and “bye” and “please” with reminders
• Protest when frustrated
• Ask for something by pointing or by using one word
• Direct another’s attention to an object or action
• Become anxious when separated from parent(s)
• Seek attention
• Bring toys to share with parent, act out a familiar activity in play (as in pretending to take a bath)
• Play alone on the floor with toys
• Compete with other children for toys
• Recognise herself in the mirror or in pictures
• Seem selfish at times
By 2 years of age does the child?
Motor Skills:
• Drink from a straw
• Feed him/herself with as spoon
• Help in washing hands
• Put arms in sleeves with help, build a tower of 3-4 blocks
• Toss or roll a large ball
• Open cabinets, drawers, boxes
• Operate a mechanical toy
• Bend over to pick up a toy and not fall
• Walk up steps with help
Sensory and Thinking Skills:
• Like to take things apart
• Explore surroundings
• Point to 5-6 parts of a doll when asked
Language and Social Skills:
• Use 2-3 word sentences
• Have a vocabulary of several hundred words
• Say names of toys
• Ask for information about an object (asks, “shoe” while pointing to shoe box)
• Hum or try to sing
• Listen to short rhymes
• Like to imitate parents
• Sometimes get angry and temper tantrums
• Act shy around strangers
• Comfort a distressed friend or parent
• Take turns in play with other children
• Treat a doll or stuffed animal as though it were alive
• Apply pretend action to others (as in pretending to feed a doll)
• Show awareness of parental approval or disapproval for her actions
• Refer to self by name and use of “me” and “mine”
• Verbalise his desires and feelings (“I want cookie”)
• Laugh at silly labelling of objects and events (as in calling a nose an ear)
• Enjoy looking at one book over and over
• Point to eyes, ears, or nose when you ask
By 3 years of age does the child?
Motor Skills
• Run around obstacles
• Walk on a line
• Balance on one foot
• Push, pull and steer toys
• Pedal a tricycle
• Use a slide without help
• Throw and catch a ball
• Manipulate play dough by making things like balls, snakes and other objects Sensory and Thinking Skills
• Understand concepts like grouping and matching for example recognising and matching colours
• Organise materials for example stacking blocks or rings in order of size
• Draw, name and briefly explain what the picture means to him (the drawing starts to take on somewhat recognisable pictures)
• Actively seek information using why and how questions
• Tell you his/her full name and age
• Concentrate on an activity for longer periods of time (between 5 and 15 minutes)
• Start to show an awareness of past and present (yesterday/today)
Language and Social Skills
• Follow a series of simple directions
• Share toys, taking turns with assistance
• Initiate or join in play with other children and make up games
• Pretend to go shopping, go on holidays, be an animal
• Use and understand sentences
• Understand sentences involving time concepts for example “Granny is coming tomorrow” and narrate past experiences
• Understand comparisons such as big and bigger, small and smaller
• Follow a series of two to four related directions
• Sing a song and repeat nursery rhymes
By 4 to 5 years of age does the child?
Motor Skills
• Walk backwards
• Jump forward many times without falling
• Jump or hop on one foot
• Walk up and down steps without assistance, alternating feet
• T umble or try handstands
• Use a safety scissors without assistance
• Cut on a line continuously
• Print a few letters
Sensory and Thinking Skills
• Play with words, create sounds and make rhymes
• Point to and name colours
• Understand order and process
• Draw people usually with detail such as hair, eyes, nose, ears and mouth
• Count - up to 10.
• Tell you their address, where they live
• Tell a story with a beginning, middle and end
Language and Social Skills
• Show some understanding of reasoning for example ideas about good or bad behaviour
• Compare themselves with other children
• Develop friendships with other children
• Understanding or showing an awareness of other children’s feelings
• Retell a story (although sometimes the facts may be confused)
• Combine a variety of thoughts into one sentence
• Use words like ‘can’, ‘will’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, and ‘might’
• Understand the comparatives like loud, louder, loudest
• Listen to longer stories being told
• Understand sequencing of events when clearly explained for example, ‘First we put the plug into the drain hole in the bath, then we turn on the taps to run the water and then we get into the bath to wash’