Category: Free Essays

Lifespan development entails various elements such as change, and movement from one life stage to the other. Trying to understand early childhood development using life span approach has many positive implications to early childhood professionals since it will help them in playing an important role in helping children and their families develop sound social policies. Lifespan development results to life transitions and can be associated with various skills such as fine motor skills, overregulaization, centration and private speech among others. Some of the lifespan developments are permanent while others only last for a while. Lifespan development is used to describe growth progression through several stages. Development is used to measure the level of maturity.

To illustrate this I chose a 3 year old girl. This little girl is a pupil of a daycare center. I got to know the girl because my daughter works in that institution. The girl’s mother works in the same institution and this was one of the reasons I considered using the girl in my case study since her mother would help me in giving answers for questions I needed in order to identify certain special skills. In order to understand early childhood development skills interviews concerning various observations and interactions both physical and social were used in order to determine which skills the child had.

The main objective of conducting this project was to identify various skills and changes that are associated with three year old child. The girl I used represented a sample of three year old children. Three years in childhood development is a transition period and its during this age that a child is able to start learning about himself and the surrounding world. As a result this stage is considered a preoperational stage since the child learns a lot in this age. According to Piaget’s theory, its during this stage that children develop private speech and show animated thinking since they can not manipulate information mentally (Goetz & Allen, 1986).

Most of the developmental skills such as child rearing styles, gender identity and centration are acquired at this age. The family has been keen in helping this girl develop at this age. Usually her mother who is also the teacher for the daycare center has developed a consistent schedule since at this age it’s important to train the girl on rituals that are associated with this preoperational stage. By doing this project I wanted to determine the level of maturity and skills of the three year old girl. To determine the maturity level I used various action and skills that are associated with children aged 3 years.

Physical development refers to changes and improvements in physical parts. Some of the attributes that are used to describe physical development include control, movement, coordination and manipulation. For a child of three years, these improvement attributes are easily scored by analysis the performance of the child. For girl used in this project showed various physical developments. The girl was able to hop on one foot one of the coordination physical development associated with three year old child. In addition, the girl’s walking coordination is good hence she was able to walk in a line.

This girl like other children of three years was able to walk on toes. The girl also was able to wash her hands, brush teeth and retrieve own drink. The girl also enjoyed helping in household chores as well as she is able to put on shoes. These are some of the physical developments that are expected for a three year old child. These activities define the over regularization skills that are associated with three year old child development. The child at this age tries to learn almost all aspects of life.

In addition other physical development skills that this girl showed was that she does not wet her bed occasionally as children of her age are expected to. The girl has also ready learned how to use toilet. When got doing something wrong, the girl feels shamed and has already learned to differentiate between similarities and differences. The girl also showed she has gender identity skills by being able to differentiate parents’ gender.

In addition, the girl showed the following motor physical development. She was able to walk with a swift this showed that she had better walking coordination as the walking was almost adult style.

The girl was also able to run around obstacles and to catch balls throw overhead thou inconsistently. Her in ability to catch the ball consistently showed that the girl’ centration skills were not fully developed. The girl who was interviewed and observed during this project could ride tricycle and was able to alternate feet when climbing stairs. Hence the child demonstrated fine/ gross motor skills (Esther, 2010). Fine motor skills are used to determine development requiring smaller movements and interactive capabilities such as movements that require use of hands, and legs. Demonstrating fine motor skills shows that the child is able to use both her hands and legs properly. Gross motor skills on other hand are used to show a child’s ability to move various body parts as expected at that age.

The girl’s ability to solve puzzles and manipulate clay and figure paints clearly demonstrates her development of fine motor skills. Another aspect that was used to determine the physical development of the child is through studying her language and thinking development. The girl showed to have developed some of these skills since she was able to understand some concepts such as concerning now, later and soon. In addition, the girl was able to match pictures with objects and to recognize cause and affect relationship. Developing of puzzles of 5-6 years child is an appropriate behavior for 3 years age and can be used to indicate fast development phenomenon. Cognitive development refers to ability of a child to learn and solve problems.

For 3 year old kid, cognitive development enable the child to learn how to draw some images, build blocks with the intention of making specific structures such as trains, towers or buildings. In addition a three year old child enjoys showing what they already know. The child also likes seeking attention and making comments especially on stories touching family events. Another cognitive development for three year old child is that they are able to construct a sentence of three or four words and also are able to pluralize items, produce verbs and also to negate ideas by using no, and not. This cognitive development noted showed that the girl had already developed private speech skills. Private speech skills enable the child to pass information as per their understanding and require one to have the ability to negate ideas, to differentiate ideas that are in plural among others. Private speech enables individuals as they develop to correctly pass their information.

The girl who was used for this project has most of the attributes associated with cognitive development for three year old child. The girl enjoys following directions and orders skills which are also associated with pre operation stage. In addition the girl speech is understandable and is able to construct 3-5 words sentence. The girl is also able to match pictures to objects. Like other children of her age are expected to the child learns by doing and through sense rather than being told concerning something in order to understand. From the project it was noted that the child is in preoperational stage and has developed her initiative Vs guilt aspect. The initiative V guilt aspect was demonstrated by the girl’s ability to feel guilt when found on the wrong (Esther, 1986). This can by illustrated by her cognitive development of being able to follow orders and to try to learn things by doing them. All the cognitive development behavior that was observed in this girl rhyme with those expected for children of her age.

Social and emotional development

Some of the skills that are associated with this social and emotional development of children aged 3 include gender identification, centration and sociodramatic play. Some of the skills that can be used to show centration include liking to help in household chores and being more bossy hence making demands and orders to their parents and care givers. The girl used in the project showed this skill since she at her own will enjoys helping but also her own will chooses not to obey and orders her will to be done. This shows that her social and emotional development is self centered; it’s her own will that determines if she can help or share or not. In addition, the girl demonstrated sociodramatic play by her skills that enables her play pretty well with other children thou it was also observed that she prefers playing alone implying that this social emotional development has not fully developed.

The following social and emotional development skills were also noted about the girl, child rearing skills which are mostly employed by children when they notice other people feelings and moods. When her mother is sad or angry the child tries employing these social and motional development skills by trying to be too sweet (MamaHealth.com, 2009). The child rearing skills are developed by child to show her concern for other people just the same way she expects to be shown concern.

It was also noted that the girl expresses some animistic thinking social and emotional skills since she does not like sharing especially when instructed unless on her own will. Other social and emotional skills that the girl shows which are associated with her age is the ability to realize her own limits and hence seeking help for what she can not achieve on her own.

Conclusion

Early child hood development entails the acquisition of various skills. It’s the skills that a child acquires that can be use to determine if the child’s development is regular or not. Unlike other forms of growth, development milestones can be identified at the first glance. There are several separate development areas which should be analyzed when analyzing life span development. These separate development areas were in this project analyzed and used to identify certain special skills associated with them.

The development analysis not only identifies certain developments but also is used to detriment the stage and how the development ahs occurred. For instead when determining physical development of the girl, the research did not just observe if the girl is able to walk bit also tried to probe further and identify how she walks, if she has steady pace and if she is able to put one foot in front of the other. It’s through analyzing these developments that one is able to determine the development skills that a child at a given age has already achieved and which ones they have not.

It was noted that the girl showed gross/fine motor skills development and this was determined by the research observing the girl’s general ability which are associated with 3 year old development. In addition, by identifying the activities that the girl is able to do with her hands such as manipulating clay it was concluded that the girl’s physical development was rhyming with that of three year old child. The girl’s cognitive and social and emotional development also rhymes with that of three year old children.

These were determined by the observation of various skills such as private speech development, identification of some child rearing styles associated with this particular age and demonstration of sociodramatic play which are also reflected in various development theories such as Piaget’s cognitive development theory. The family especially her mother has played an important role in fostering the girl’s development. The mother has developed a schedule on the activities to be done and this can be attributed to the girl’s ability to do things even beyond her age such as solving puzzles for 5-6 year children. In addition, the family’s effort to train the girl to use potty at 1 and half years also can be attributed to the girl’s successful lifespan development.

CHILD LABOUR AND INDIA- AN ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY PROVISIONSINTRODUCTION

Child labour has been in India from a long time in some form or the other. Practice of child labour in match box industries, glass bangle industries and is very commonly seen in cheap restaurants and dhabas etc. Generally speaking child labour can be said to be the exploitation or abuse of children in factories, industries etc, who are below the age specified by law working (mentally or physically) to earn for his/her own survival or to support his/her family partially or fully, and which prevents his/her social and education development may be said to be “child labour”. The reasons which are generally responsible for child labour may include [1] :

Poverty,

Ignorance,

Illiteracy,

Population explosion,

Lack of knowledge of their own rights,

Big amounts of debt on the parents,

Large size of family but not enough income to support such big family,

Lack of social security scheme in the country,

Weak enforcement of labour laws.

According to an U.N.O report India has the maximum child labour in the world i.e. approx 20 per cent. [2] On the basis of Census 1991 and various governmental and non-governmental organizations following are the number of child labourers in India [3] :

Census 1991 – 2.63 crore,

Organization research group, Baroda, 1994-95 – 4.44 crore,

Centre for concern of Child Labour – 10 crore.

Extra-governmental volunteer organization – more than 5 crore.

The numbers may vary according to different organizations but the fact is clear that the numbers of child labourers in India are in crores, which is again a pathetic sight, especially with all the various child labour legislation and the Constitutional provisions. In a report by the Labour Ministry every 4th child is a child labour, aged between 5-14 years and there is one child labour in every three families. [4]

But it’s not as if Indian governments haven’t done anything about this grave social stigma, over the years it has enacted many statutory legislations and Constitutional provisions in order to eradicate the problem of child labour, to name some of them, we have:

Labour legislations:

The Child Labour Act, 1986,

The Factories Act, 1948,

The Mines Act, 1952,

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009,

The Minimum Wages Act, 1948,

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000

Constitutional provisions [5] :

Article 24 provides: strictly prohibits children to work in hazardous environment.

Article 21, 45 gives the right to education to all the children below the age of 14years.

Article 39 declares the duty of the State to provide the children a free facilities to develop in conditions of freedom and dignity in a healthy manner.

India is also a party to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1959. India is also a signatory to:

ILO Forced Labour Convention (No. 29);

ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105);

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

World Declaration on the Survival,

Protection and Development of Children.

The Government of India adopted the National Policy for Children (NPC) in August 1974. This Policy provided that [6] “It shall be the policy of the state to provide adequate service to children both before and after birth and through the period of their growth, to ensure their full physical, mental and social development. The State shall progressively increase the scope of such services so that, within a reasonable time, all children in the country enjoy optimum conditions for their balanced growth.”

Indian is also a party to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1959 and Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1992 and has formulated its labour laws in accordance to International Labour Conference resolution of 1979.

The first part of the paper aims to look into the various legislations relating to child labour. In the second part we shall look into the various precedents set by the Supreme Court of India on the issue of child labour and finally the conclusion.

Chapter 1

CONSTITUTIONLA AND STATUTORY PROVISIONS

Constitutional provisions

The government of India has enacted various labour laws has in accordance to International Labour Conference resolution of 1979. The Constitution of India, through various articles enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, lays down that:

Article 21 (A)

The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to 14 years;

Article 24

No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment. The word hazardous employment in Art 24 also includes construction industry, also in P.N. v. U.O.I [7] , it has been laid down that Art 24 is enforceable even in the absence of implementing legislations; [8]

Article 39(e)

States that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength;

Article 39(f)

States that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment [9] . Hence Art 39 in whole requires the state to ensure and protect the children and provide proper child care.

Article 45

The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years

The framers of the Constitution imposed a duty on the State under Article 45 as one of the directive principles of the State Policy to provide free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 year with the sole objective of completely eradicating illiteracy and child labour. Also many of the states had passed various Acts providing for free and compulsory primary or elementary education to children. But unfortunately years after the commencement of the Constitution the goal set by this Article which was to be achieved in 10 years, have yet not been reached. But the provision in article 39(f) and 45 of the constitution gave certain directions in providing a better quality of life of children employed in the factories.

Labour legislations

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986:

The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 13 occupations and 51 processes that are hazardous to the children’s lives and health listed in the Schedule to the Act [10] .

The Factories Act, 1948:

The Act completely prohibits children working below the age of 14 years [11] . It further states that if a child is between 15 and 18 years of age, can be employed in a factory only if he has a certificate of fitness granted with reference to him under section 69 which is in the custody of the manager of the factory. The Act also says that no child shall be employed or permitted to work, in any factory for more than four and a half hours in any day;

The Mines Act, 1952:

The Act prohibits the employment of children in mines, who have not completed their 15th year.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000:

This Act was last amended in 2002 in conformity with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child covers young persons below 18 years of age. Section 26 of this Act deals with the Exploitation of a Juvenile or Child Employee, and provides in relevant part, that whoever procures a juvenile or the child for the purpose of any hazardous employment and keeps him in bondage and withholds his earnings or uses such earning for his own purposes shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable for fine.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009:

The Act states that all children aged 6 to 14 years shall be provided free and compulsory education. It further states that all private schools should allocated 25 per cent of their seats for disadvantaged and differently abled children.

Chapters 2

Precedents set by Supreme Court

Though the government of India has enacted various labour legislations to prevent child labour still there are some contradiction among them, mainly the definitional debates on child labour as different legislation provide different definition of a ‘child’. Section 2(ii) of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, defines ‘child’ as ” a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age”; Section 2(c) of The Factories Act, 1948 defines ‘child’ as “a person who has not completed his fifteenth year of age”; Section 2(e) of The Mines Act, 1952 defines ‘child’ as “a person who has not completed his fifteenth year”; Section 2(c) of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, defines ‘child’ as” male or female child of the age of six to fourteen years”; Section 2(k) of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000 defines ‘child’ as “a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age”; Section 2(c) of The Plantations Labour Act, 1951 defines ‘child’ as “a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age”

Hence, we can clearly observe that these legislation are at contradiction to each other in defining who’s a child and setting an uniform age limit. Therefore the centre and respective state governments should set a uniform universal minimum age of the child as these contradictions adversely affect the objective of protection from child labour and providing a better educational and social development to children of India.

Following are few of important Supreme Court cases that have helped in framing better laws regarding child labour:

In Democratic Rights V. Union of India [12] , it was contended that the Employment of Children Act, 1938 was not applicable in the matter of employment of children in construction works, as it was not mentioned in the act. But the court held even construction work is a hazardous employment and no child below the age of 14 years can be employed as given under Art 24 of the Indian Constitution, even though construction industry has not been specified in the schedule to the Employment of children Act, 1938, thus the SC rejected the contention.

In Salal Hydro Project vs. Jammu and Kashmir [13] , the Court has restated the principle laid in Democratic Rights V. Union of India [14] that Construction work is hazardous employment and any child below 14 cannot be employed in this work.

In Sheela Barse and others vs Union of India and others [15] , Bhagawati, C.J. quoted from National Policy for the welfare of Children incorporated to provide better social and educational development to the children of India : “The Nation’s children a supremely important asset. Their nurture and solicitude are our responsibility. Children’s programme should find a prominent part in our national plans for the development of human resources, so that our children grow up to become robust citizens, physically fit, mentally alert and morally healthy, endowed with the skill and motivations needed by society. Equal opportunities for development to all children during the period of growth should be our aim, for this would serve our large purpose of reducing inequality and ensuring social justice”.

In M.C. Mehta v State of Tamil Nadu & Ors [16] , the SC gave direction to the Union and state governments to identify all children and withdraw them from working in hazardous processes and occupations, and to provide them with free and proper education as incorporated into the Constitution, Artcle 21-A. The Court also directed the Union and state governments to set up a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund using contributions from employers who breach the Child Labour Act.

In Unnikrishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh, [17] the SC held that every child has the right to free education till the age of 14 years. Artcle 21-A which was incorporated into the Constitution, reflects this standard.

CONCLUSION

It is said that “child is the father of man”, and the children of our country are our biggest asset. The government of India has enacted several laws in order to provide healthy social and educational environment for the children. But in spite of all the laws enacted, problem of child labour still persists in our Indian society that is because child labour laws are themselves flawed in some way or the other or suffer from poor implementation of programmes. Though awareness towards child labour has increased and now there are several NGO’s trying their best, but today what we require is to take concrete actions, the central and respective state governments need to provide for better machinery for enforcing child labour laws. Unless this is achieved our country won’t be completely free the burden of child labour.

Young children learn through exploration, active participation and through imitation and as such quality arts programme comprising of all art forms – visual art, music, media, dance and drama should be included as part of the curriculum in the early childhood classroom. As stated by Spodek,1993 (cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 2001) through participating in the art activities children are able to express themselves and it provides opportunities for development of creativity , symbolizing and enhances their learning about aesthetics which further helps them gain academic knowledge. Smith, 1982 (cited in Wright, 1991) mentioned that children are able to organise their experiences and know about themselves and their world through participating in the arts. Dyson (1990, p.52) further stated that ‘art and play have critical roles in children’s growth as symbol makers ‘. Like play, art is voluntary and intrinsically motivated as children are free to choose the content and direction of the activity. There are no external demands or expectations and children are free to explore, experiment and investigate with the people, objects and materials provided. He also mentioned that children pursue art activities for intrinsic pleasure rather than external rewards. Furthermore, the gestures and first words children use during make – believe play reflect upon people’s action’s and things around their daily lives which is the early understanding of symbolisation as well as the basic foundation that develops into drawing pictures, spoken and written words in their later stages. Based on my practical experiences in the classroom and as well as through the readings from books I believe that arts is just as important as any other subject in the curriculum and children do learn and develop their physical, intellectual, emotional and social skills through participating in the arts activities. It is also a requirement by the Ministry of Education that the arts be included as part of the curriculum in the Singaporean classroom. (cited in Framework for A Kindergarten Curriculum in Singapore, 2006).

This essay is a brief attempt at looking at the importance of the arts in the education of young children drawn from two art forms which are music and drama.

According to Isenberg & Jalongo, (2001) four types of learning are promoted through the arts and they are 1) knowledge about the arts 2) skills in the arts 3) dispositions towards the arts and 4) feelings about the arts. As knowledge about the arts is developed through sensory experiences and explorations of materials, children provided with such opportunities to observe, explore and discover about the world, develop their cognitive ability and it further enhances foundation for later learning in the preschool years whereby they use symbols, language and make – believe play develops. Skills in the arts are developed when children are allowed to explore and experiment in a safe and healthy art environment provided with a variety of tools and materials under the guidance of an adult who has already acquired these skills. For example, children creating a paper use the skill of printing, painting, tearing, rolling, and colour mixing. They use their fine motor skills, eye – hand coordination and social interaction skills. Throughout the activity they engage in the process of problem solving as they experiment with colour and texture to create the paper. There is a certain amount of trial and error while they experiment with the tools. Self – expression as children are able to use their own imagination and creativity to express themselves while creating the paper. (Isenberg & Jalongo, 2001) Vygotsky, according to Berk, (2000) viewed children’s cognitive development as a socially mediated process whereby processes and skills are transferred and supported from more knowledgeable adult as children try new tasks. He also believed that as long as children acquire language, their ability to communicate with others leads to changes in thought and behaviour that vary from culture to culture. As such, the third type of learning – dispositions towards art depends on the adult being the role model and the interaction with more competent peers and teachers to support the child to participate successfully in the arts. Providing feedback as stated by Wright, (1991) is part of summative assessment that guides children’s learning and helps them acquire the elements, concepts, forms, and vocabulary about the arts. When children are given opportunities to respond to art works created by others, for example, when they are taken for visits to art galleries and teachers model ways to respond thoughtfully while viewing the works by professional artist children learn to respect the work of others and when teachers value children’s work and display them, these develops their sense of efficacy and enables them to have positive feeling about the arts.

On the other hand, Swanwick, (1998) mentioned that the three elements of play applicable to learning through the arts are mastery, imitation, and imaginative play. Mastery involves learning of a skill associated with an art form for example children learning to make finger puppets for a drama performance or trying to keep to the rhythm while experimenting with a musical instrument during a musical percussion session. Children being able to identify things and people other than themselves as well as learning how to express sympathy, empathy and show concern explains the expressive nature of the art form known as Imitation. Based on my classroom experience, preschoolers making musical sounds for pigs running away from the wolf and moving their bodies to suggest movements of a wolf and expressing through facial expressions as an angry wolf for a drama performance of the story Three Little Pigs are examples of imitation. Imaginative play focuses on the structure of an art form. Examples of imaginative play during the Three Little Pigs drama are when children experiment with different musical instruments until they are able to create the sound that best resembles the pigs running away from the wolf and when experimenting with the different ways as they can move that suggests the movement of the wolf. Swanwick, (1998) also suggests that all three elements of play must be in action for all ages in order to learn through the arts.

Isenberg & Jalongo, (2001) claim that music contributes to the total development of the child – cognitive, physical, social, emotional, cultural and aesthetics. In my centre, we have a music and movement area equipped with a variety of musical instruments like bells, tambourines, triangles etc. Children participate in music and movement activities whereby they move as well as sing along and play musical instruments. Through these activities children develop their large muscles of their bodies as they invent actions to go along with the songs .They develop fine motor skills as they play musical instruments and become aware of beat, tempo, and pitch. These activities also build kinaesthetic intelligence. Gardner, (1973, cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997) Children gain experience with music and use of language as they sing the songs for instance when singing the song ‘If you happy and you know it clap your hands ‘they link words with actions and focus on the sequence and task and all these involves children’s ability to process mentally the tone, rhythm, and melody and thus involves thinking skills and cognitive connections between music and learning. As mentioned by Isenberg & Jalongo , 1997 that Bruner’s three learning stages – enactive, iconic and symbolic suggests developmentally appropriate musical experience for children and they add that Bruner’s enactive stage relates to Piaget’s(1952) sensorimotor stage and Erikson’s (1950) trust-building stage where physical activity and music are intertwined. Thus, musical activities stimulate the children’s senses, cognitive development and also build social relationships. Children’s creativity is enhanced when they are asked to decide on the other actions and movement apart from those suggested by the teacher. As stated by McAllester, (cited in Isenberg & Jalongo, 1997) music encourages participation, sharing and cooperation .Through participating in the musical activities, there is cooperation and sharing when children get together and work with a partner or in a group and these develops their social skills. Music is also an excellent tool to familiarise children with the different culture. When children are given the opportunity to experience and listen to different cultural music, they begin to appreciate and understand what each ethnic group is about.and these develops their aesthetic skills and understand the art form.

Cornett (1999) supports the need for teachers to integrate creative drama in the classroom as she states that drama being a part of everyday life, prepares an individual to connect to real life situations.

Cornett (1999) adds that when children are participating in the drama, they are able to look at problems from different points of view, respect diverse thinking, and realise that there are many ways to settle one problem. She further states that through drama, children learn to exchange feelings and emotions with each other. This enhances their personality development.

Cornett (1999) also states that personal development takes place when children control their body and words as they express ideas and feelings during the drama activities. She also indicated that positive self – image and confidence are developed through the problem solving situations.

Cornett (1999) reiterates that children engaging in situational confrontations during their role play, also become aware of the different emotions people feel for example happiness, sadness .anger, fear. She adds that the children learn that these feelings can be dealt with, thus developing a tolerance towards them.

Isbell & Raines (2007), agree that social skills can be developed in drama as children working in a group overcome difficulties through problem solving skills. They experience working with peers as they negotiate plans to stage the drama. During interactions, children learn to negotiate with each other, work cooperatively, and develop respect for each other.

In my centre, besides the dramatic play in the home corner, my class of four year olds involve in simple puppetry and mask drama using rhymes and children’s stories. Rhymes like ‘This little pig went to market’ are taught to children using puppets and later children retell the rhyme using the puppets. In addition, children take turns to dramatise the rhyme – each child given a mask of a pig (mask designed and made by child), actions like going the market, eating roast beef are incorporated. Puppets and mask are excellent props in focusing children’s attention. Through such activities children are able to participate in dramatic action using the element role, as they pretend to be someone other than themselves. Language is enhanced as they retell rhyme and children are able to express ideas and feelings through dramatic movement. (Isbell & Raines, 2007)

.As mentioned above, experts strongly believe that musical activities and drama enables children to develop their physical, cognitive, social, emotional and aesthetic skills as well as to provide opportunities for development of self – expression, creativity, symbolizing all of which enhances their academic knowledge .There are many opportunities for children to learn and develop skills, knowledge and processes through participation in the arts , as such having discussed the benefits and leaning outcomes of children’s participation in the arts , I strongly believe that the arts is important in the education of preschoolers and all art forms should be integrated into the preschool curriculum with equal emphasis as any other subject in the curriculum.

Learning of children in early ages

Question:

Consider the ways in which children learn to read and write. Illustrate, using Kenner, Al-Khatri, Kwok, Kim and Tsai’s study (2004) how young children pay attention to directionality, shape, size, spatial orientation in producing different writing scripts.

Introduction

It is necessary to encourage the children towards learning since childhood. Motivation towards learning and thinking is important when child is young because at that time, child grabs the thing easily. If child gets training about the importance of learning and practices writing in the early childhood, then it will be beneficial for his rest of life. It is a fact that a child changes in a lot of ways during the years of primary school. These years are so much important to develop a habit of learning and thinking in the child. Cognitive development is necessary to be developed in young children. Cognitive development includes learning skills such as languages, strong memory, planning and paying attention to the work. In these initial years, parents have to play their role. (Australia, 2012)

By the help of different activities, parents can motivate the children towards learning new things. But it is also a fact that training young children is not an easy task. It is neither easy for the parents and nor for the teachers. By the help of various sessions, activities and games, we can encourage children towards learning. Child sometimes faces difficulty in learning different stuffs at a time but with the passage of time, he becomes habitual. In the book, Becoming Biliterate Kenner C. (2004) explains about child’s learning of different languages. He also discusses about different ways by which we can motivate young children to read and write. Furthermore, in the paper, we will look on different ways of teaching children in young ages and also discuss relevant techniques.

Emergent literacy

Term Emergent literacy defines the interaction of young children with books. This term explains that when a children is in the state of learning something and when he is not in a position of writing or reading some stuff. Marie Clay used this term for the first time. Emergent literacy is process that starts from the birth of a child and continues until and unless child trains in writing or reading in a conventional sense. This term is used in the field of psychology, linguistics, sociology and education. (Anon., 2011)Process of reading and writing starts in the young ages of an individual. A child tries to contact with different types of communication from the beginning. It is observed that most of the children starts recognizing different signs and symbols in the age of two or three years. It is because of the fact that every time, their mind is in the state of learning and interacting with different things. As far as this matter is concerned that either the child starts writing first or reading, it varies from child to child. But researches show that most of the children face difficulty in reading during their early ages and start writing quickly.

Issues in the acquisition of literacy

Acquisition of literacy for the young children is not easy. Although, child starts observing all the things by using his five senses but still some guidance is necessary. By the help of guidance and training, child learns the things easily. There are different issues that a child faces in the acquisition of literacy especially in terms of learning second language. Learning of different languages becomes a big problem for young children. In the article, Literacy and Second Language Acquisition: Issues and Perspectives, Weinstein (1984) explains that there is a strong relationship between the acquisition of second language and literacy. Author explains that understanding different languages and learning second language is difficult. (WEINSTEIN, 1984)In another article by Philip and Mikko (2003), it was explained that most of the children in European countries complete their acquisition of language before starting their early school education. English is at the top in the acquisition of languages. Children learn English easily as compared to other languages. (Philip H. K. Seymour, Mikko Aro, Jane M. Erskine, 2003)Another issue that is faced by the children in learning is their mental state. It is not always necessary that mental state of every child is same. Therefore, we cannot apply same strategies for all children. Some children do not grab these thing quickly and to develop the sense of learning in them, it is necessary to apply alternate techniques.

How young children learn different writing systems

There are different writing systems working in the world. It is not necessary that everyone knows all writing systems. Most of the people knows one or two writing systems usually. Talking in terms of learning different writing systems for the children, it is good to trained them in their early ages. For example, if a child is born in Europe and parents want him to become familiar with English writing system, then they have to guide him about English writing alphabets in the early ages. There are basically two types of writing systems. First type is known as alphabets and second type is called as Syllabaries. Both types are divided on various sub divisions. List of major classification is as following.

Consonant alphabets
Abugidas
Alphabets
Syllabaries
Semanto-Phonetic writing systems
Undeciphered writing systems (Anon., 2007)

Now, the question is how young children learn different writing systems? There are different ways by which we can guide young children in learning various writing systems. First way to improve literacy is by teaching Morphemes. Morphemes is a collection of words that consists of different units of meaning. By the help of morphemes, children can easily pronounce the words and spell them. Teaching morphemes is a best way to teach vocabulary to the young children. (Nunes, T., and Bryant, P, 2006, pp. 14) Another way to teach different writing systems to the children is by using cardboard books. Parents can use different pieces of clothes, and cardboard books to teach different alphabets to the children. Colorful pictures can play an important role in attracting the young children towards learning.

Writing different scripts and the design of symbols

For writing a particular language, specific writing system is used. Writing system is usually known as Script. On the other hand, symbols are also used to guide children about languages. Types of scripts are as following.

Script support
Alphabets
Right to left alphabets
Syllabary
Syllabic alphabet
Ideographic script

Depending upon your language style and script, you can teach your child about the language. If we take the example of English writing system, then it is seen that it starts from the left hand side whereas in case of Arabic, script starts from right hand side. So, it is necessary for the parents that they teach child about these basics. Suppose, you are from the Arabic background and make familiar your child with the Arabic writing system, then it is necessary for you to focus on the Arabic writing system. You should select those books and cardboards on which Arabic words are written so that your child starts recognizing these words. Following is an image that tells you about the basic Arabic writing system.

Another way of guiding your child is through symbols. You can teach your child by using different symbols and pictures of something. In the early childhood, child easily understand words by the help of its illustration. Kerner (2004) focused on the illustration of symbols and pictures. (Kenner, C. Al-Khatib, H., Kwok, G., Kam, R. and Tsai, K, 2004, pp. 35),

In this picture, we can see that with all the English alphabets, different pictures are used so that child cane identify the word easily. By the help of symbols and pictures, identification of words become easy.

Embodied knowledge

In order to teach the children to read and writing, actions also play a great role. Education in which body involves actions and knows how to act on something is called as Embodied Knowledge. The best example of this type of knowledge is riding a bicycle. Almost, everyone knows how to ride a bicycle and we do not need to memorize the procedure of riding bicycle. This is a type of knowledge that is automatically imprinted in the mind of an individual. It can be said that embodied knowledge is present in our unconsciousness. Children learn this knowledge by observing the environment. Embodied knowledge is somewhat similar to the Cognitive science.

Conclusion

To conclude the entire discussion, it can be said that parents can play an important role in teaching their child in early years. Young children are quite sensitive and in the early ages, their care is the duty of parents. Parents should teach their child by using techniques and activities. Before sending the child to school, a child should have a basic sense of recognizing and understanding different words and things. So, that he may not face any difficulty in future.

Works Cited
Anon., 2007. Types of writing system. [Online] Available at: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/types.htm [Accessed march 2014].
Anon., 2011. what is emergent literacy?. [Online] Available at: http://www.lincoln.dubuque.k12.ia.us/School-Wide/Literacy/EmergentLiteracy.htm [Accessed march 2014].
Australia, c. o., 2012. About thinking and learning. [Online] Available at: https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/sites/default/files/public/KMP_C3_CDTL_AboutThinkingAndLearning.pdf [Accessed 2014].
Kenner, C. Al-Khatib, H., Kwok, G., Kam, R. and Tsai, K. (2004), Becoming Biliterate: Young Children Learning Different Writing Systems, Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham Books.
Nunes, T., and Bryant, P. (2006), Improving Literacy by Teaching morphemes, London, Routledge.
Philip H. K. Seymour, Mikko Aro, Jane M. Erskine, 2003. Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94(2), p. 143–174.
Seymour, P., Aro, M., and Erskine, J. (2003), Foundation Literacy Acquisition, in British Journal of Psychology, 94: 143-174.
WEINSTEIN, G., 1984. Literacy and Second Language Acquisition: Issues and Perspectives. TESOL Quarterly, 18(3), p. 471–484.

In this essay it is required to choose and evaluate one of the seven learning areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage 2012 (EYFS), as well as including the influences on the making of EYFS (2012) and the principles, beliefs and values that led to the creation of a national framework for early childhood education. These beliefs and values underpin the approaches to learning and teaching in the EYFS. The essay will also include the current practical, theoretical and legislative context; that has given rise to the EYFS.

The specific area of learning that the assignment focusses on is ‘Communication and Language (CL) in the EYFS. In particular how this is supported by the practitioner. In addition I will discuss different theories that influence work with under lives. To conclude, the essay will examine how play and exploration form a crucial part of the principles of the EYFS (2012) as well as observing the part they play in the teaching practice in the setting and how it develops children’s education.

The EYFS (2012) is divided into seven areas, three of which form prime areas of learning; Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Communication and Language. In addition the are four specific areas of learning reformed to as Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World and Expressive Arts and Design. However it is important to remember that each area connects to the other. Underlining the curriculum is believe that develop and learning is holistic. (Martello, 2013)

Moving on to the term curriculum, the general definitions, refers to the course of deeds and experience through which children grow to become mature adults. Kelly (1999) prescribed curriculum of seen in school it is prescriptive, and is based on a more general syllabus which merely specifies what topics must be understood and to what level to achieve a particular grade or standard. She mention about curriculum as, ‘All the learning which is planned and guided by the school, whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside the school (Quoted in Kelly 1983: 10; see also, Kelly 1999).

However Saracho and Spodek (2002) mention that curriculum developers to establish goals, develop experiences, designate content, and evaluate experiences and outcomes. They go on to say that most curriculum developers consistently use such terms as curriculum planning, curriculum development, curriculum implementation, and curriculum evaluation, and many others to describe curriculum related activities.

Moving on to early years curriculum, Bruce (2000) who is a social learning theorist influenced by the work of Froebel, in considering early childhood education, looks at the three parts of the curriculum which are the child (context) the people and places and the content which is what the child knows and wants and needs to know. In consideration of Bruce, Saracho and Spodek theories, Practitioners acknowledges that the best way to prepare children for their adult life is to give them what they need as children. Children are whole people who have feelings, ideas and relationships with others, and who need to be physically, mentally, morally and spiritually healthy; with Bruce Practitioners are contracting the early year’s curriculum by stressing that the context of child’s life is considered play.

At the heart of the EYFS is ‘Play’. The word ‘play’ can come in many definitions but Bruce (2000) suggests that play co-ordinates learning. However, Jennie Lindon (1999) defines play as giving children a range of activities that involve their own interests and the satisfaction that results. The writer believes that this happens in the setting as children are motivated and they feel that they have ownership and control over their play. The practitioner in the setting does not take over the activity because then the activity will stop feeling like play to the children. Bruce2000 and Lindon 1999 both agree that play should be open-ended as well as having the idea that play is a mechanism for the integration of learning; this is especially relevant to what takes place outdoors, and the reason would be for the greater autonomy children have both to direct their learning and to interpret their sensory experiences.

In addition the Early Childhood Education (2012) is usually defined as before the age of normal schooling in other words the term relates to educational programs and strategies geared toward children from birth to the age of eight. This time period is widely considered the most vulnerable and crucial stage of a person’s life. Early childhood education often focuses on guiding children to learn through play. The term often refers to preschool or infant/child care programs. It refers to the formal teaching of young children in the setting outside the home.

Childhood education often focuses on children learning through play, based on the research and philosophy of Piaget (). This belief is centred on the “power of play”. It has been thought that children learn more efficiently and gain more knowledge through play-based activities such as dramatic play, art, and social games. This play theory stems from children’s natural curiosity and tendencies to “make believe”, mixing in educational lessons.

At the setting every day children play in the garden which provides an environment which allows Child A, Child B and Child C to freely explore their feelings, ideas and relationships. It supports their learning as well as developing the use of the natural world that stimulates and shape their play (this is shown in assessment A – Observation one). This helps the writer who is a practitioner considering play and its role in learning to be useful when he can focus on different areas of development while still acknowledging the complete nature of play and that any episode of play would be embracing more than one, and possibly all of the seven educational areas, mentioned above, at the same time.

History

The EYFS 2012 is at the heart of nursery education and now the way forward is in working in partnership with parents. This is presently being practised involving the seven areas set out by the government.

The historical background is located in the new labour’s national childcare strategy. The hope was to create a national framework curriculum for under-fives. It created a framework that replaces the three previous early year’s documents – Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage, Birth to Three Matters and National Standards for Under 8s Day-care and Child-minding. These were, in effect, updated to be manageable with common principles that everybody involved in early years will be working towards:

‘The overarching aim of the EYFS is to help young children achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes of staying safe, being healthy, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution, and achieving economic wellbeing.’

(EYFS Statutory Framework, p7)

Setting-

The school is a mixture of cultures and ethnicities, like every other school in Central London. It is a primary school for children three to 11 years and most children who attend live in the surrounding estate. Within the setting there are more children from a Bengali background. In order for observation to be effective it is important to deliver the knowledge in a way that adults and parents can understand and make sense of it.

Curriculum Area Communication and Language – Observations

The curriculum area of development I chose is Commination and Language which is a prime area. I believe that the area works all round and is used in child life regular has being part of them. (See Appendix 2 – Observations)

Piaget () cited in theories of Childhood (2000) describing what I was trying to discourse, that of the mental structures or “schemas” of children as they develop from infants to adults. Piaget () goes on to say that through their interactions with their environment, children actively construct their own understanding of the world. Child A, B and C’s were observed to reflect the development of their logical thinking and reasoning skills in “periods” or stages, with each period having a specific name and age reference. (See Appendix 2 – Observations)

However, according to Vygotsky (year) mention that language is a social concept that is developed through social interactions. He mention on his books about the 20th-centur of Soviet psychologist that, language is acquisition and it involves not only a child’s exposure to words but also an interdependent process of growth between thought and language. His theory of the “zone of proximal development” asserts that teachers should consider a child’s prospective learning power before trying to expand the child’s grasp of language.

I focused on three children in the planning file in assessment A which I outlined the seven main areas of development. I maintained an on-going observation to see how the curriculum is supporting their learning in term of planning activates and implementing and reviewing and evaluation achievements if set targets fail. The EYFS (2012) encourage in working in partnership with parent which help the writer to link the learning and extend the child knowledge and understanding and gives the parents an insight of their child’s progress, in maintain a good relationship with parents as well as enabling the child to develop in the seven areas of EYFS 2012.

Child A was observed in many areas of the school as well as involving all areas of his learning. He is 4 years of age and has shown on-going progress in his learning development. He is now writing and drawing meaningful pictures that are well in his stage of development (See appendix 2 – Observation)

Child A took part in acting out the story that Child B was reading and later this developed in both of them going on to making the own story out of Lego (See Appendix 2 – Observation 1). I done a number of observations on Child A and in his Literacy activity, he has the capacity to explain and write a few words after phonics about the picture he saw. He has good use of sentence to tell us what he drew and what he wrote (See Appendix 2 – Observation 4). As the EYFS (2012) stresses about the particular importance to Communication, Language and literacy, it recognises its important contribution to children’s learning, wellbeing and belonging. (REFaˆ¦http://www.ncb.org.uk/media/58917/factsheet_6_finaltemplate_ready_comm_lang_lit.pdf )

Communication and Language is an important in the role of play. As EYFS identifies children’s ability to communicate ideas, express feelings and share them worth others as one of the seven key areas of development in early years. Young children aged 3-5 are naturally sociable and curious and interested in communicating with other people in a variety of ways including eye contact and developing language. Communication and Language is the fundamental to young children’s learning and development because it is a fundamental aspect of life. It enables the formation of relationship and friendship and exploring feelings. Children learn to communicate in lots of ways, not just through speech, but also using gestures, signing and others bodily expression, creative skills such as drawing dancing and through their play.

Child B is five, she has maintained a steady progress according to her profile and from the observation (See Appendix 2). Child B drew a picture and was able to write her name. she was also able to explain with eqse that the picture was about her best friend.

I had assisted a few of the children with writing the names and finding out which can sound out the letters. Each child was given a name card which had different sahpesaˆ¦..

Child C enjoys playing outside either sitting watching other children playing games and then participates in chasing on another. He also sits to look at books with his friends and likes to point out things of interest. He represented a kite with his hands, attaching a small string to his finger. The Practitioner then helped him to make a real kite which he flew outside (See Appendix 2 _ observation…) In Literacy Child C finds it difficult to understand what sound goes with what pictures, needing more time and practice to help him concentrate to take more care in his understanding skills. Overall he did well.

By observing Child C he displays a lot of symbolic play this goes into developing literacy with good and emergent language portraying his development of representational thoughts. Both literacy and symbolic play require the ability to use words, gestures, or mental images to represent actual objects, events or actions.

Symbolic play is also seen in Child A and B, allowing them to imagine with no objects at all, it is useful for Practitioners to use props and substitute actions of all types, and evokes imaginary situations through words. However Piaget (year) mention that symbolic development are seen in the child’s being able to take on a variety of diverse roles in collaboration with peers, engaging innovatively in fantasy.

The above mentions the importance of the role of planning and assessing which a process is of activates that helps to identify areas of learning like Children A, B and C. as well as moving displaying the children’s next levels. They all have different learning abilities, (as every child is different) by doing observation this gave working Practitioners a clear idea when we do our planning. All children in the setting had an assessment file, which is kept in the record file to monitor areas of concerns and areas of development. In the setting Practitioners need to deliver good quality of support for encouraging learning and the development of play.

Conclusion –

The bases of the conclusion I believe that the EYFS 2012 has been successful in ensuring that there is consistency of care and standards between early years settings, planning across the ages is unified making monitoring easier, good practice is shared with other settings. But the most importing of all is promotion the areas of development that planning for children’s specific needs. This is done by analyzing all the areas of development and the setting can see how each area interlinks with others.

However I gained that including communication and language to be in curriculum for the children needs to be followed and learned to enable good planning and upon looking the type of records of how vital it is to keep these up to date. In the setting it is delivers the EYFS. The curriculum has several millstone that a child’s needs to reach. Children are, monitored has several milestone that child needs to reach all and all practitioners and teachers deliver high quality support for leaning and play.

If I had to change the essay I would have talked about all the areas rather than focusing on one aspect. I also feel that this particular module gave me a greater insight to paper work, like the cycle of observation assessment and planning. By inviting the parents into the setting it is very helpful to get the whole picture of the children. In my opinion, this is proving to be successful as who well know better about the child then the parent.

2,500 Words

Appendix One – Permission slip

The father to Child A gives permission concerning Abdul to take pictures, drawing and any other effects to help him to complete his task. I also give him permission to look at my child’s profile or anything related that he might need to use.

Parent ______________

Abdul Ali

The mother to Child B gives permission concerning Abdul to take pictures, drawing and any other effects to help her to complete his task. I also give him permission to look at my child’s profile or anything related that he might need to use.

Parent ______________

Abdul Ali

The father to Child C gives permission concerning Abdul to take pictures, drawing and any other effects to help him to complete his task. I also give him permission to look at my child’s profile or anything related that he might need to use.

Parent ______________

Abdul Ali

—————————————————————————————————————-

I __________ Mentor for Abdul at the school, give him the permission to take a serious of observation on Child A, B and C to complete his task.

Teacher ____________

Abdul Ali

Appendix Two – Observations

Play is the most important part of the childs development. Play allows the children to enhance their physical development, psychosocial development and cognitive development. Most parents see cartoons with their children as a way to help their child learn. I have watched many children’s television programs like blue’s clues, the go show, and Dora the explorer, to understand how these television programs help in children and baby’s development. I chose the Dora the explorer cartoon show to enhance my understanding about the child development. Dora the explorer is an animated children’s television show. Dora the explorer show programmed to engage preschooler activities in a play-along, computer-style adventure. Dora the explorer is an example of physical development. Physical development focuses on the physical growth and the development of both gross motor skills (e.g. Walking, jumping) and fine motor skills (e.g. Finger movements, eye coordination) control over the body. Dora the explorer on-screen character talking with the child encourages the child to take part, label objects, songs and dance actions allow for movements with control and coordination. ” Dora the explorer” animated also influences the cognitive development theory, cognitive theory is a change and stability in mental ability such as learning, thinking, and memory. The Dora the Explorer allows the children to think of a way to get out and to get to their destination, so this helps children gaining knowledge and solving problems in daily life, which enhances their memory capability. Television provides the children with a valuable tool at home for great learning. Another theory is influences psychosocial development by Erik Erikson to get through the idea of personality. Watching and learning from on screen shows allow children to gain knowledge of social learning; this enhances their self-esteem, learning about the culture and society and teaches them how to interact with people. Cartoons also use expressions that allow children to copy and apply in daily life. Learning new expressions from play allows children how and when to show the emotions. These allow the children to encourage self-awareness about the world around them. The play is very essential for child development.

Reading books to young children is the best way to promote language development and language skills like speaking, reading, and listening. Book reading is good for a child’s development to gain imagination. Reading books to children at home can encourage their reading skills. Books should have something like shapes, short stories, pictures, bright colors that children will find interesting, enjoyable, and fun. This will help develop a sense of reader appreciation. When children have books in their home, they are more likely to sit down and read them. Parents can and should encourage an appreciation for reading (Elrod, n.d). When reading a book to children the reader needs to keep few things in mind for best results. The books you choose for the children need to be short and simple, attractive, use appropriate language, speak clearly, slowly, and use the expression, as some children learn verbally and some non- verbally. Reading books to children that influence the social learning theory by Albert’s bandura. “In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning. Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways” (McLeod, 2011). Children learn many different ways; some learn quickly by visibly, for example, books that got colors, picture, and shapes with it and some learn verbally, for example- imitating the expression and words. Using various techniques to enhance language development, tunes of the voice and getting them to turn the page that influences the theory of positive reinforcement. If imitated behaviors and consequence are satisfying so the child is likely to perform behaviors. If parents are encouraging and giving them positive feedback, then the behavior is likely to repeat as it provides the child with strengths. Simply using the booking reading tools at home helps them learn.

Children are very sensitive. We need to handle them with care. So far, the information I have gained through the education of play and language development of babies, and children provided me with a greater understanding that could influence my future practice as a health professional. Skills that I have gained from the knowledge of reading books to children are to create an environment that allows children to understand their personality, which will help children to be more interactive. As a health professional, I build a warm and open environment for children to feel secure. In order to achieve my nursing practice, I need to use or put the techniques in my practice, and they are distractions, communication, and education. Have a conversation with children for example- about their favourite show, asking questions with slow pace and allowing them to answer and educating them for being healthy. This will enhance their understanding while mine. The use of distraction techniques in my practice can enable me to complete a difficult task with children like taking medicine; I can get the child to act like a super hero and be strong and asking them to stand straight like a strong soldier. These skills can help me to build a trust and a relationship when I am working or handling kids. Building a relationship creates an environment where children feel secure take risks.

In my conclusion, “play is a cherished part of childhood that offers children important developmental benefits and parents the opportunity to engage fully with their children”. Thus Influences children and babies physical development, cognitive development and psychosocial development. Play allows children to learn new things and to understand the world around them. Reading books is another important aspect to enhance their development. Reading books to children will help children gain language skills. I have gained many skills that can be relevant or may influence my nursing practice as a health professional .The knowledge of children and babies about their play and book reading. I learned many techniques that will make my nursing practice easier when I have to assess children and babies. Distractions, communicating techniques are helpful in nursing practice. Communicating with children about their favorite shows and asking them questions. Thus, all knowledge I have gotten of the play and book helpful.

Initially, this essay illustrates the importance of play by describing its categories. Play theories are briefly demonstrated and divided into classical and contemporary ones. Thereafter, it mentions the characteristics of language through the theories of two highly respected scientists, Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget, in order to understand the correlation between language and play development. It also illustrates the existence of nine basic communication skills and why non-verbal and verbal communication is so important. Moreover, this essay analyzes research which explains the direct relation between play, language and communication. Through detailed references, the idea that the role of play is salient in a child’s development is supported. Next it illustrates the importance of finger, mime and rhyme play to explain that even the most common games possess a significant role in language and communication development. Last but not least, it analyzes how play reinforces the literacy development and finally demonstrates the opinion of the writer.

The Importance of Play

Arguably, play is a vital part of children’s development which has many implications in their lives. Despite the difficulty of referring to a commonly accepted definition, play is a vital part of the developing child (Sheridan & Howard & Aldelson, 2011). It is a fundamental action which occurs throughout children’s lives and is divided into two categories, free play and structured play. To be exact, free play is an action where the child can choose the rules and the form of play, without the participation and the engagement of an adult. Hence, the child becomes the leader of play (Tassoni & Hucker, 2000).

Moreover, many researchers have claimed that free play offers more educational opportunities to children. Whereas structured play is defined as an action which is directed by adults and limits children’s learning potentials. Adults are protagonists and possess a primary role in this type of play. For this reason, Thomas, Howard and Miles proved by a study they conducted, that free play, in other words playful mode play, is capable of fostering children’s ability to learn. They state that through this mode children’s communication is benefited, because playfulness creates the ability to enhance various types of behaviors. As a result, educational settings use the playful method to foster children’s language and communication development (McInnes & Howard & Miles & Crowley, 2009).

It is of importance to mention that there are play theories which are separated into two categories, classical and modern theories of play. In particular, classical theories consist of the Surplus Energy Theory, Recreational or Relaxation Theory, Pre-exercise Theory and the Recapitulation Theory of play (Sheridan & Howard & Aldelson, 2011 & Stagnitti, 2004 & Tassoni & Hucker, 2000). Modern theories concluded by the Arousal Modulation Theories of Play, the Psychodynamic Theories of Play, the Cognitive Developmental Theories of Play and the Sociocultural theories of Play. The last category is divided into two sub-categories which are the Play as Socialization and the Metacommunicative Theory (Stagnitti, 2004). Moreover, there are five types of play, which are cited as physical play, play with objects, symbolic play, socio-dramatic/pretence play and games with rules (Whitebread, 2012).

The above five types of play help children to expand their abilities not only in the language and communication domain, but also in the physical, cognitive, social and emotional domain (Sheridan & Howard & Aldelson, 2011). According to the constant evolution of language and communication, play and its benefits in this domain must be analyzed in depth, in order to evaluate children’s developmental potentials through play.

Language and Communication

Language is a strong communication tool (Moyles, 1989) which fosters children’s abilities. Through language we can live the past again, evaluate the future and use this vital tool when we face complex situations (Crain, 2000). Also, many developmental theorists have tried to explain, how children adopt primal abilities as they grow up and some of them, have given special emphasis to the language and communication development and how it is related to play. They have evaluated children’s development from birth to adulthood.

Vygotsky, who was characterized as the ‘Mozart of Psychology’ (Gray & MacBlain, 2012, p.85), claimed in his social constructivism theory, that language is the cultural tool which facilitates the processes of thinking and learning. It was his firm belief that children must comprehend language, in order to interact in the society. Hence, according to Vygotsky, play and language are interrelated (Moyles, 2005). Due to the fact that through play children master communication skills, they interpret the use of objects and imitate the attitudes and the habits of adults (Gray & MacBlain, 2012). In addition, he stated that children gain knowledge when they participate in social communication and consequently, they adopt new meanings. Therefore, according to Vygotsky, children act in the zone of proximal development (Whitebread, 1996), which means that every child has limited potential when accomplishing an activity but he can expand his skills with suitable help (Lindon, 2001).

However, another respected scientist Piaget did not lay emphasis, as Vygotsky did, on the importance of language during children’s development. Piaget stated that language mechanism is used by the young child only to express some basic satisfactions and not to foster more complex functions such as thought and logic (Gray & MacBlain, 2012). Furthermore, Piaget’s opinions did not promote children’s abilities; instead he undervalued them, by applying activities that were too complex for children competence (Whitebread, 1996). On the contrary, some scientists argue that children’s thought, starts to function logically as they learn how to use language. This happens because language skills are difficult for children to assimilate, but when this gradually occurs, logic develops (Crain, 2000). Nevertheless, Piaget did not support the above notion by mentioning that logic derives from actions (Gray & MacBlain, 2012).

On the grounds that language is an integral part of communication, it is important to pinpoint some of the skills that children develop in this domain. In other words there are nine basic communication skills.

Initially, children learn to request reinforcement, to request assistance, to accept and reject offers. Furthermore, they respond to the order ”wait” or ”no”, they respond to directions, follow a schedule and finally they are able to make a transition from one place to another (Frost & Bondy, 2002). For instance, when children pretend to be a patient in a hospital, they learn when they have to wait their turn in order to be examined by the doctor and they give orders such as ”wait”, “stay”, “come”.

Communication is a complex function. Before the emergence of words, children can communicate adequately before adopting language production and language comprehension (Sheridan & Sharma & Cockerill, 2008). The above aspect describes the non-verbal communication type which is very important. Newborn babies communicate non-verbally to express their needs. Facial expressions, body language, proto-sounds and perception of feelings are the attributes of non-verbal communication (Whitehead, 1999).

Hence, adults start to communicate with children initially non-verbally and eventually verbally. Research proves that conversation between children and adults which contains a large number of open questions is essential because children have the opportunity to respond to spoken language. In other words, when children feel that they are active participants in an adult-child conversation, they feel playful which is salient for the development of language (Howard & McInnes, forthcoming).

Fostering Language and Communication Skills through Play

To begin with, studies have proved that there is a strong connection between language and play. A research which was conducted in Japan in 1989, showed remarkable signs that play and language are strongly correlated. Specifically, the four children who participated in this research were observed twenty times each in a free play mode, where the adults had a passive role. The intention of the study was to analyze early language development and play development (Ogura, 1991). Thus, six features of language were illustrated in order to analyze the findings better. These were the emergence of first words, naming words, vocabulary spurts, word-chains, nonproductive two word utterances and the emergence of productive two-word utterances (Ogura, 1991 p.278). Furthermore, this research divided play into thirteen subcategories. The findings showed that children managed to obtain the ability of naming words because they had been involved in preverbal communication. Also, children began to name objects when the conventional naming act category of play appeared. Furthermore, words and sounds have a strong relationship with each other. It was proved that children through the functional relational manipulation play and the container relational manipulation play, managed to adopt the above important function and the production of first words as well. Moreover, it was stated that early language development is related to subsitutional play. Also, this study illustrated that the environment plays a major role in the development of symbolic play. As a result, language is influenced by social interaction. Moreover, children’s vocabulary spurts appeared in subsitutional play. Word-chains appeared when pretend doll play, subsitutional play and pretend other play took place during the observations. In addition, the fifth language category appeared with planned play and combinatorial symbolic play. The last language category was related to planned play (Ogura, 1991). Undoubtedly, this paper shows the unique interrelation between language development and play.

Researchers evaluated the connection between symbolic play with play materials and symbolic play with play situation. Firstly, during children’s play with unstructured play materials, they found that children who are at the age of three to four could imitate the activities of adults. However, in structured play children were able not only to imitate but also to engage slightly in role play. At the age of four to five children’s unstructured play evolved and they started to express questions and ideas with the mediate tool of spoken language. On the contrary, in structured play they used more conversation. This study showed that in the first type of play children at the age of five to six used their body language and voice to clarify a situation. Also, both in structured and unstructured play, children preferred to play in groups of their own gender. We can notice that structured materials are better for younger children because they do not put limitations on their ideas while playing. In other words, younger children need to enhance their expressive ideas by playing with structured play materials to be adequately prepared for school (Umek & Musek, 2001).

At the same time, symbolic play related to play situation showed that phonetic imitation (Umek & Musek, 2001, p.61) is promoted and that at the age of four children use social speech. Moreover, they use social markers, in order to speak like adults (Ervin-Tripp, 1973). Later, at the age of five children use metacommunication in their play. Metacommunication is very important because children can discuss play. They stop in order to negotiate the next step of the game. Indeed, it promotes dialogue among peers. It is very important because it can be used as scaffolding to children’s language development (Andersen, 2005). According to this study, metacommunication levels are higher when children are older. Moreover, the same study proposes that it is better and more helpful for children to play in mixed groups rather than in groups with members of their own age. Hence, children can play in the zone of proximal development. Therefore, they foster their language and communication skills. Again, this study shows us that play which is dependent on materials or situation is correlated with language development.

Apart from the above studies there are play activities which enhance language and communication skills. For instance, children are benefited by mime because they develop an alternative thought. This occurs by observing various children demonstrating their thoughts. Consequently, they can think of more complex situations and they are able to express their ideas with enriched vocabulary. Furthermore, finger play helps children with the counting process (Woodard & Milch, 2012). Moreover, rhymes can provide many opportunities for children to enhance their language skills. According to a study, rhyme awareness helps children to recognize phonemes which are very important for reading skills. The sensitivity to rhyme enables children to group words together with the same spelling features (Bryant & MacLean & Bradley & Crossland, 1990).

Play Fosters Literacy

Vygotsky evaluated the role of make-believe play in children’s development and he argued that literacy is enhanced by play. He describes that children initially act spontaneously when they play, and the process of learning happens with their will. On the contrary, when children go to school they must change their behaviors to a planned and a structured environment. Vygotsky stated that make-believe play is the important mediate tool for children to adopt written language and to succeed in school (Roskos & Christie, 2007).

Furthermore, drawing is considered to be a necessary play for children. Research has shown that children can expand their ‘graphic vocabularies’ and they can represent their meanings, which means that through drawing communication is enhanced (Whitebread, 2012). Besides, Vygotsky’s research has shown that drawings in early childhood are connected with the ability of writing and spoken language, which means that the meaning of children’s drawings is not only the drawing as a picture but the drawing as an expressive tool of their thoughts (Roskos & Christie, 2007).

In conclusion, it is worth mentioning, that in children’s play the repetition and the renaming of play materials fosters the ability of the direct relation between words and the objects they portray. The above function is called metalinguistic awareness and it has been proved that it is necessary for written language (Roskos & Christie, 2007 p.193).

Conclusions

It is clear, therefore, that the above essay illustrates the direct correlation between play, language and communication. Despite the fact that it has been proved that play fosters the learning process, there are still opponents of this view, who state that formal learning strategies are better than playful approaches. However, this essay contradicts the notion of formal learning methods by supporting the theory, that play does enhance language and communication by citing adequate bibliography to prove it. Children can reach high standards in the learning process of language because during play they are motivated and are not possessed by the feeling of fear (McInnes et al., 2009).

To sum up, due to the fact that play has been decreased in school settings, it is salient to ensure that play must exist in preschool and in the first school years of a child, because “a child is always above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he were a head taller than himself” (Roskos & Christie, 2007, p.199).

Zafi is the eldest child and he has two younger siblings. He was an average student in primary school with no discipline problems. When he was 11 years old, his father passed away. After the death of his father, his mother holds two jobs to make ends meet. His mother relies on him to take care of his two younger siblings as she is always not at home. Currently in secondary two, his academic result is very poor. In class, he would keep to himself and would shy away from classroom activities. He would sometimes cheat in tests and exams. The reasons he gave for cheating are, not having the ability to do it and he does not want his classmates to think that he is stupid. His form teacher tried many times to meet his mother to discuss about his cheating behaviour and poor academic performance but she is always busy with her work. After school, Zafi would meet up with his neighbourhood friends. Most of them are drop outs. They constantly told him to quit school and to enjoy life just like them. Zafi enjoys spending time with them as he thought they understand him best. They would also smoke and drink alcohol. He would only return home very late at night or not at all.

Zafi’s father had passed away and his mother is too busy working to support the family. There is almost no interaction between Zafi and his mother and there is no other important adult to supervise him at home. In short, the parental involvement is almost non-existent. Using Bronfenbrenner Bioecological Theory and Baumrind Parenting Style Theory, I would relate how Zafi’s parental interactions and parenting style affects his context of development.

Bronfenbrenner Bioecological Theory

According to Bronfenbrenner, the lack of parental interaction is the most destructive force to a child’s development. [1] Urie Bronfenbrenner says that “there are two environmental conditions that are necessary for human development. The first is that one or more adults must love the child unconditionally; the second is that the adults must encourage the child and spend time doing joint activities with the child in and out of the home environment”. [2] Zafi’s mother loves him unconditionally but she is too busy to show it and she is also unable to spend time with any of her children. Therefore, the two important conditions are not met.

Bronfenbrenner also developed a Bioecological Theory to explain how the child’s environments can significantly influence his cognitive development and his growth. The theory consists of 4 systems nested around each other with the child being in the innermost. The 4 systems developed by Bronfenbrenner are: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. [3] The microsystem is where a child has direct interactions with parents, teachers, peers and others. In Zafi’s case, he has very little interaction with his mother and he spends most of his time with his neighbourhood friends. Too little interactions with his mother causes a break down in his microsystem and the bad influence he is getting from his neighbourhood friends is not helping in his positive growth and development. The second level is the mesosystem. Mesosystem are linkages between microsystems such as between a child’s teacher and his parents, and relationships between students and peers. His teacher tried many times to create a linkage with his mother but failed due to her busy work schedule. This contributes to a break down in his mesosystem. The third level is the exosystem. Exosystem are external experiences in which a child does not have an active role but still influence the child’s developments. In this case, his mother’s busy work schedule is the exosystem. Her two jobs require her to work long hours and irregular shifts. This resulted in her having very little face time with her children. The last level is the macrosystem. Macrosystem consists of things that influence and sometimes support the child such as cultures, norms, and laws.

The break down in his microsystem will affect the other systems as it disabled him to explore other parts of his environment. Without the presence of proper supervision or love, Zafi will try looking for attention in inappropriate places. These behaviours will give rise to problems such as little self discipline and no self direction.

Neglectful Parenting

According to Diana Baumrind, parenting styles come in three main forms; authoritarian parenting, authoritative parenting, and indulgent parenting. Eleanor Maccoby and John Martin expanded BaumrindHYPERLINK “http://www.law-of-attraction-parenting.com/baumrind-parenting-style.html”‘HYPERLINK “http://www.law-of-attraction-parenting.com/baumrind-parenting-style.html”s research and added another parenting style, Neglectful or Uninvolved Parenting (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). [4] The degree of supervision and discipline shown by Zafi’s mother is minimal, and there is no consequence for unacceptable behaviour. She does not deliberately encourage Zafi to self regulate his behaviour and there is very little communication between them. These are the characteristics of neglectful parenting. Even though she fulfills her children basic needs such as food and clothing, sadly, she is detached from their life. She is also psychologically unavailable to her children. Neglectful parenting style rank lowest across all life domains. Children with neglectful parents tend to lack self-control, have low self-esteem and are less competent than their peers. They often engage in high-risk behaviours and are vulnerable to substance abuse. [5]

Interventions

Bronfenbrenner said that to ensure healthy child development, one or more adults must love the child unconditionally and they must spend time doing joint activities with the child in and out of the home environment. However, in Zafi’s case, this is not possible for his mother. What she could have done to increase the level of interaction with her son is by communicating with him more through the phone. During her short breaks at work, she could have called her son to ask about his day at school, find out whether he has eaten and to also provide psychological and emotional support in case his son is upset over a school event such as a failed test. This way, the child knows his mother cares for him and he can also feel his mother’s love and affection. She should also try to take at least a day off weekly to spend valuable face time with her children. If it is not possible, she should ask her parents for help in taking care of her children while she is at work. There must be at least one adult present at home so that the child would not feel neglected.

As for the teacher, he needs to be flexible to adjust to the parent’s inflexible work schedule. If meeting with the parent in person is not possible, he should at least keep in close contact with the parent through the phone and to update her about her son’s learning progress and behaviour. In doing so, he is successful in creating a linkage with the parent. Once there is a linkage, it will be much easier for both teacher and parent to work together to ensure the child’s healthy development. The teacher can also educate parents about the developmental needs of children. Research indicates that family involvement in schools increases student achievement (Henderson & Berla, 1994). [6] The benefits of parent and family involvement include higher test scores and grades, better attendance, more completion of homework and more positive attitudes and behavior.

Next, I would relate how Zafi’s parental interactions and parenting style affects his self and identity development.

Self-Esteem

Children look to parents and other important adults for evidence that they’re smart, capable, etc. This evidence may be in the form of encouragement, praise for accomplishments, awards, etc. If the evidence is not present, low self-esteem develops. [7] This explains why neglectful parenting results in children with low self-esteem. Low self-esteem can have a big negative impact on academic performance. Once a child does poorly in school, he will start to think poorly of himself and it may cause him to underachieve or make him give up completely. Children with low self-esteem tend to be lonely in school as they find it hard to make new friends. They would shy away from classroom activities as they do not want to appear incompetent. Resisting negative pressures would also seem difficult for these children. [8] Looking at Zafi’s case, it is obvious that he is suffering from low self-esteem. He is doing very poorly in school and at home he never gets the encouragement he needs to make him feel better. He is also not motivated to study as no matter how well he performs, his mother is not there to praise or acknowledge his accomplishments. In class, he is afraid to get involve in classroom activities and he constantly keeps to himself. He is also not able to resist negative pressures from his neighbourhood friends. As he spends more time with them, he developed a sense of belonging towards them and this sense makes him want to be like them.

Interventions

It is important that teachers look out for and help students who are suffering from low self-esteem as it can affect their academic performance and also their overall well-being. Teachers should be paying more attention to students like Zafi. They tend to have low self-esteem due to the lack of attention, love and affection. Students with low self-esteem will say things like, “I know that I will fail” or “I hate myself”. They tend to avoid getting involved in new activities and would have trouble making new friends and mixing around. Stresses faced at home such as parents arguing a lot and difficult lessons can have a negative impact on a child’s self esteem. Some of the things that teachers can do to improve students’ self-esteem are, to always accentuate the positive, avoid criticism, set realistic expectations for the students and give them the opportunity to tell the class things they like about themselves. Those with very low self-esteem will have problem with even saying two things they like about themselves therefore, the teacher have to provide prompts for these students.

Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory

Erik Erikson highlighted the importance of relationships with others in the formation of one’s own identity. He believed that personality develops through eight stages of life. He suggested that at each stage of life an individual is confronted by a crisis (Erikson, 1950). At this age, Zafi is going through stage 5 crisis of Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory which is Identity versus Role Confusion. In this stage, adolescents struggle to resolve the question of “Who am I?” They move from their parents to peers as a point of references. They strive to clarify their own personalities. They are often observed to imitate the attitudes and actions of others they admire. In Zafi’s case, his neighbourhood friends are his only point of reference. As he respects and admires them, he chose to imitate their attitudes and actions. He would smoke and drink alcohol with them till late at night.

Interventions

In Identity versus Role Confusion stage, adolescents will move to peers as a point of reference. As Zafi is not close to anyone else in school, he is left with no choice but to see his neighbourhood friends as references. What can be done by the teacher is to introduce buddy system to pair up low self-esteem student such as Zafi with a higher self-esteem one. The higher self-esteem student may be able to help Zafi with his studies and thus increasing his confidence and self-esteem. Zafi may look up to his buddy as his role model and thus imitate him instead of his neighbourhood peers.

The teacher should also provide plenty of opportunities for students to explore identity issues as they relate to understanding who they are as individuals. An activity such as making a collage about themselves or writing their autobiography is a good way for them to explore themselves. The teacher can also enhance students’ self esteem by encouraging the students to substitute negative self-statements with a positive one.

Lastly, I would relate how Zafi’s parenting style affects his moral development.

His mother neglectful parenting style resulted in him lacking self-control, having low self-esteem and feeling less competent compared to his peers. His low self-esteem caused him to have low self-confidence which led him to believe that he does not have the ability to pass his examinations. As he does not want his classmates to think that he is stupid, he decided to cheat in his tests and examinations.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

The reason why Zafi cheated is based on self-interests. From his reasoning, his moral development is in Level 1: Preconventional Reasoning; Stage 1: Punishment-Obedience, of Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. His reasoning is characterised by a focus on the consequence experienced by him as a result of his actions.

Interventions

To minimize cheating, teachers should clearly spell out the consequences of cheating and to consistently follow through with these when cheating does occur. Teachers can also help students overcome the need to cheat by providing the student with extra help and reducing student anxiety. Student anxiety can be reduced by emphasizing that mistakes are okay and a part of learning.

The purpose of this writing is to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the term ‘normative development’. I will analyse Daniel’s (child I carried out my child study on) learning and development in relation to my knowledge and understanding of normative development by referring to the Early Years Framework Stage (EYFS) (Scottish Government, 2010). I will show evidence of my knowledge and understanding of two theorists, in which will relate in some way to Daniel’s learning and development. I will show how I supported and provided suitable learning opportunities for Daniel, by referring to all three visits. From this, I will evaluate and reflect on my ability to do this by using the Pre-Birth to Three Guidance (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010) and refer to my own experience and suggest some challenges for staff caring for babies in early childhood centres.

Dryden et al. (2005) utters that every child is a unique individual and will develop at different times and in different ways throughout their life.

Child development is holistic; a child cannot have cognitive development if they do not have language development. When a child develops, the development does not progress in one area and discontinues in another. (Doherty and Hughes, 2009)

‘Normative development’ means stages of development that the majority of children of that specific age are expected to achieve. (Meggit, 2006). I will use the (EYFS) (Scottish Government, 2008) to illustrate Daniel’s (twenty four months old) stage in learning and development.

The EYFS (Scottish Government, 2008) suggests that children aged between sixteen and twenty six months are expected to show signs of using one and two word utterances to express simple and more difficult messages. Daniel demonstrated this on all three visits, however was most evident on visit two when we went to the park. Daniel mainly used one word utterances, such as ‘up’, ‘o’ (go), ‘oggie’ (doggie), ‘you’. He endeavoured to use two word utterances on visit two and three when he said, ‘the water’ and ‘Nana you’. I took pictures of toys and characters from his favourite programmes and put together a book to help support Daniel’s language development.

Not only do children need to hear language being spoken to develop their language development but social interaction is needed also (Bruner, 1983 cited in Doherty and Hughes, 2008, p.311). A ‘Language Acquisition Support System’ (LASS) (Bruner, 1983 cited in Doherty and Hughes, 2009, p.311) is a group of approaches used by parents/carers to further promote the development of language. This approach is where the adult speaks to the child at a more advanced level than the child is capable of creating on their own (Doherty and Hughes, 2009). On visit two, Daniel uses his hands to splash in the puddles and says to myself ‘you’. I used the scaffolding approach and responded by asking, ‘Would you like me to use my hands to splash in the puddles with you?’ By using the scaffolding approach and asking Daniel if he would like me to join him, has helped me evaluate my practice by referring to one of the four key principles in the Pre-Birth to Three Guidance (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010) ‘Respect’. I respected Daniel’s wishes about what he wanted to do; he made an informed decision by allowing me to accompany him in splashing in the puddles. (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010).

‘Responsive care’ is another key principle and is defined as:

‘building close relationships with children, being observant of them and meaningfully involved with them.’ (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010, p.23)

I was tuned into Daniel’s wishes by observing him and reading his signals. By doing this, I noticed he was extremely engrossed with playing in the puddles. I went over and became involved in what he was doing by participating alongside him. Daniel then presented what most children of that age are expected to show between the ages of sixteen and twenty six months – signs of looking for ways to get attention from others by pulling them into social interaction. (Scottish Government, 2008) Daniel also demonstrated he could use his growing physical abilities to make social interaction (Scottish Government, 2008) by using his hands and feet to splash in the puddles to obtain my attention.

In accordance with the EYFS (2008) children aged between sixteen and twenty six months are expected to look to others for reactions which test what they know about themselves. (Scottish Government, 2008). This is clear on visit one when Daniel sat on his mother’s knee, holding onto her hand, whilst he watched the television. John Bowlby’s theory highlighted the significance of the attachment between children and their main guardian (Sayers, 2008). Daniel showed he had a strong attachment with his mother. Mary Ainsworth established the ‘strange situation’ (Dryden et al. 2005, p. 78) where the baby and mother are in a room playing, the mother then leaves the room, leaving the stranger in the room with the baby. The majority of the time, this experiment resulted in the child being apprehensive and uneasy at their mother’s disappearance. (Dryden et al. 2005). On visit one, Daniel showed signs of anxiousness when his mother left myself in the room with Daniel as she went to answer the door.

Daniel also displayed on visits two and three that he can:

‘Make choices that involve challenge, when adults ensure their safety’ (Scottish Government, 2008, p.31).

I used Lev Vyostsky’s idea of the ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD) (Pound, 2005, p.40) to support Daniel’s learning and development in this situation. The ZPD is the space between what a child can do by themselves and what they can do with the support of a person who is more skilful. (Pound, 2005).

On visit two, Daniel indicated he wanted to go on the climbing frame by saying ‘up’. I assisted Daniel with his permission and ensured his safety by going up the climbing frame behind him. Visit three, Daniel also demonstrated this stage of development when he began to climb up the chute backwards at the swimming baths. I ensured Daniel’s safety by modelling how to go up chute the correct way and by holding his hand to climb the steps.

I can relate my practice to the key principle ‘Relationships’ in the Pre-Birth to Three Guidance (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010) as I strongly believe a connection was made between Daniel and I when I helped him climb up the climbing frame on visit two. Also, on visit three when I modelled and helped him climb the steps on the chute by holding his hand. A further key principle I can relate my practice to is ‘Responsive care’ (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010) because I readily responded to what Daniel wanted to do, I believe Daniel began to trust myself and felt safe and secure when I assisted him. (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010)

As previously mentioned, Daniel and his mother have a strong attachment. Daniel showed anxiousness when he was left in the room with myself on visit one when his mother went to answer the door. This could be a possible challenge for early childhood practitioners working with this age group as Daniel may take a while settling into nursery as his attachment with his mother is very strong. It is clear Daniel is still uncertain when being left alone with strangers – myself on visit one. Other members of staff/adults may walk in and out of the room who Daniel do not know, which may result in him getting upset, which again could challenge practitioners.

Consulting with Daniel’s mother, she informed me that Daniel has never attended play group but interacts well with Dion (Daniel’s mother’s friends little girl). On visit one Dion came to visit Daniel and I observed how they interacted with one another. Before long, Daniel hit Dion because Dion wanted her wellington boot back. This may be a possible challenge for practitioners working with this age group as Daniel does not know at this stage how to play with other children because he has not had the experience. He also demonstrated aggressive behaviour towards Dion which may be a further challenge for practitioners.

The adult to child ratio for under threes is one adult to five children. Daniel is an only child and thrives to gain adult attention. Daniel’s needs are responded to immediately by his family as he is an only child, it is certain from visit one if Daniel does not get what he wants he will cry. This may be a challenge for practitioners as each are responsible for five children and may find it difficult to respond to every child’s needs.

It has been said that parents are their child’s main educator (Whalley, 2007) and is therefore extremely important to involve them in their child’s learning and development (Ward, 2009). Throughout the child study, I involved Daniel’s mother through initial meetings to discuss Daniel’s interests, general information, his learning and development and what my next steps were in taking this further. Throughout the child study I respected and valued the information Daniel’s mother gave me in regards to Daniel.

“For children to develop successfully and reach their full potential, a strong positive relationship between parents, teachers and professional caregivers is essential” (Hobart and Frankel, 2003, p.1)

A relationship was built between Daniel’s mother and I as we both connected and came to agreements on suitable learning opportunities for Daniel. Trust was also created as Daniel’s mother allowed me to interact and devise appropriate learning opportunities for Daniel’s age and stage of development. (Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2010)

In conclusion,

References

Doherty, J. Hughes, M. (2009) Child Development: Theory and Practice 0 -11 England: Pearson Education Limited

Dryden, L. et al. (2005) Essential Early Years Abington: Hodder Arnold.

Hobart, C. Frankel, R J. (2003). A Practical Guide to Working with Parents. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd.

Pound, L. (2005) How Children Learn London: Step Forward Publishing Limited

Learning and Teaching Scotland. (2010) Pre-Birth to Three: Positive Outcomes for Scotland’s Children and Families: National Guidance. Glasgow: Learning and Teaching Scotland

Scottish Government (2008) Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. Nottingham: Scottish Government

Ward, U. (2009) Working with Parents in Early Years Settings Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.

Whalley, M and the Pen Green Centre Team. (2007) Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning (2nd Edition) London: Paul Chapman Publishing

I have chosen to do my essay on the challenges of keeping children safe in the virtual world. I will include the following in my essay -: the historical context of this topic, the possible challenges of keeping children safe in the virtual world such as grooming, cyber bullying and many more. Ways we can keep children safe in the virtual world; for example educating children, how to report online abuse and relating to theorist ideas on this theme. I also will talk about the current policies that are in place, why this issue is relevant and why these policies have been introduced. Then I will talk about how this can be put into practice and how this will make a difference on how people work.

The first online child abuse images started in the mid 1990s. In 1998 the parliament passed the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA which addressed online privacy and safety risks for children under age 13. COPPA need Web site companies need to take steps to avoid collecting personal information from children. In August 2003 the Internet Advisor for the National Child Helpline, joined members on our Your Child’s Safety board to answer their questions about child safety online. In April 2006 the Government set up CEOP, the ChildHYPERLINK “http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB&rlz=1T4HPEB_en-GBGB319GB320&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB,tl:1&q=child exploitation&sa=X&ei=IGsNTdrVJsyLhQeYy423Dg&ved=0CD4Q0AEwBA” Exploitation and OnlineHYPERLINK “http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK|countryGB&rlz=1T4HPEB_en-GBGB319GB320&tbs=ctr:countryUK|countryGB,tl:1&q=online protection centre&sa=X&ei=IGsNTdrVJsyLhQeYy423Dg&ved=0CD8Q0AEwBA” Protection Centre, to tackle abuse and educate parents and children about personal safety online. In September 2007, the Prime Minister asked Dr Tanya Byron to lead an independent review into child safety online and in video games, this documentation is called ‘safer children in the digital world’ this was published in March 2008. In April 2008 the home office task force on child protection on the internet published a guidance note offering good practice recommendations for the providers of social networking sites. The aim of the guidance is to enhance the online safety of children and young people and was drawn up in consultation with websites, mobile phone operators, children’s charities and academics.Privacy Protection Act

I will define the word risk this is to do with a child put themselves in danger and wanting to take risk to explore the world. Encarta defines ‘risk as; chance of something going wrong: the danger that injury, damage, or loss will occur’. Smith, C., Stainton-Rogers, W., and Tucker, S (2007) pg 220 state that ‘Whereas other terms – such as ‘hazard’, ‘threat’, and ‘danger’ – always carry a negative meaning aˆ¦ risk taking is much more ambiguous: except that is, risk taking by the young’. From this quote you can see that risk is part of everyday life and children need to experience this to develop knowledge and understanding of the dangers of online activities. Poor areas of society are more at risk of getting abused because of the lack of knowledge online. Bryon, T (2007) pg 22 states that ‘Research highlights that children from more deprived backgrounds may be more at risk online because of a lack of confidence with new technology’. From this we can interpret that it is very important to teach children about this topic in schools, so that these disadvantaged children can get more understanding on the risks of web 2.0 such social networking sites. Children behaviour of risk taking online such as posting inappropriate images online, giving stranger’s personal information.

The internet is a world wide web where millions of people use this resource for education purposes, to stay in contact with friends via social networking sites and for fun such as play games online. ‘Some 99% of children aged 8-17 access the internet’ (Ofcom, 2008). You can assess the internet through mobile phones, computers and game consoles e.g. PSP, Nintendo wii, PS3 and the Xbox 360 all have WIFI on their systems which enable children to use the internet.

There are three aspects of risk online which are as follows; content this is to do with inappropriate images on the internet such as pornography. Contact this is to do with seeing a child in the real world, whom you met via chat rooms or social networking sites. Conduct this is to do with uploading images on the internet that are not suitable for the virtual world or it could be bullying other people on the internet.

Cyberbullying means online bullying. This type of bullying is hard to pick up than normal bullying because this type of bullying can be received anytime and anywhere via mobile phones or emails. Forms of Cyberbullying are grooming, abusing child online, briber the child and cybersex this is to do with the offender tries to persuade the child to talk about sex on the internetaˆ¦ This type of bullying can lead children to be emotionally abused. Emotional abuse is when children need unconditional love and care. They are sensitive and can be harmed by constant taunting, threats or made to feel guilty leading to loss of self confidence and self esteem. The physical indicators are poor speech and stammering or stuttering. The behavioural indicator are attention seeking, telling lies, withdrawal, constantly needing attention also little or no self esteem. ELABORATE

Ward and Siegert 2002 pathway model this is to do with sex offenders, offending on the internet to abuse children. In this model there are five pathways which are as follows intimacy deficits this is to do with the offender will abuse when lonely. Distorted sexual scripts this is to do with lack understanding from child about sexual abuse. Emotional dysregulation this is to do with not able to control feelings and behaviour. Multiple dysfunctional mechanisms ward & Sorbello 2003 pg 17 state that ‘reflect on history of sexual abuse or exposure to sexual material’. Anti-social cognitions this is to do with the offender having attitudes and beliefs of abusing. Ward & Sorbello, 2003 pg15 state that ‘one primary mechanism will exert a primary causal influence, the others only exerting a harmful effect due to the driving force of the primary deficit’ This is saying that only one will take effect first then the rest will integrate during the process of abusing.

Anonymity this is to do with children talking to people who they don’t know via the internet dangers of this could be sexual abuse – Adults such as paedophiles will use wrong age and pretend to be the same age as chose children they want to offend. CEOP (2007) suggest ‘within the virtual world when vulnerable children with a poor sense of self and low self esteem are ‘seduced’ and flattered by others who represent themselves falsely within the virtual world e.g. online predators pretending to be children’. This process can lead to grooming a child for sexual pleasure. Sexual abuse is when an adult or at times an older child uses a child for sexual gratification this means forcing a child ton carry out sexual acts including sexual touching, oral sex and intercourse. The effects of sexual abuse is are long lasting and highly damaging. It can cause problems in adult personal relationships children who are abused this ways can become abusers themselves. The physical indicators are bites, underwear showing signs of blood stains, swelling out of the vagina or anus etc. The behavioural indicators are depression, poor concentration; a child may reveal signs while using anatomically dolls, sexually explicit language and eating or sleeping problems.

This type of bullying can effect children’s confidence and lead to risks such as suicide threats and they may murder their selves for the repeated abuse online. Finkelhor’s four precondition model of paedophilia the four models are thinking about doing sex with a child they want to offend via online contact, making excuses this is linked to grooming the child, creating the opportunity by persuading the child to meet them in the real world and the final stage is doing sex with the child or sexually abuse the child when they meet them in reality.

Victims targeted are mostly girls because the sex offenders are usually male so they are more likely to abuse girls not boys. ‘There is a particular risk of ‘grooming’ practices through popular online services such as instant messaging and social networking sites with strangers using them to make contact with under-age girls, sometimes by adopting a fake persona’ (CEOP, 2007). But also CEOP are creating a leaflet targeting teenager boys to inform them that they may be in danger of this too not only girls.

Children try to hide what they are doing online from their parents, which concern the parent on what their child are doing and viewing online. Older children do two things at the same time such as doing homework and on social networking site. But when parents check on what their child are doing, they will pretend to be doing their homework. Bryon, T (2008) pg 46 states that ‘Multi-tasking is common, with young people using chat functions whilst doing their homework and able to quickly shield this from parental view’. The reasons behind this could be that the child wants their own personal space or independence without parents telling the risks. Some children may think that the parents will not understand the new technology.

The other side of the spectrum can be the benefits of the virtual world for children they are having the opportunities for learning, for play, for Communication, for skill development, for creativity and for having fun. ‘Benefits of the medium include: facilitating learning; communication; and civic participation’ (Bentivegna, 2002). This is important for the child because they will be able to communicate to people in the virtual world and they can do their homework on the internet for research and revision.

You can keep children safe in the virtual world by teaching the children of the dangers of the virtual world and how to stay safe this can be done through teachers and parents. But parents will need to gain knowledge on this topic. Research shows that parents don’t understand the risks very well. ADD QUOTES AND STATISTICS

Understanding what online abuse is, if you think this may be bullying you should report this via CEOP is a company that was set up by the government in 2006 or IWF. Which are organisations that can help children whom are getting bullied in the virtual world and inappropriate content online and stop chose offenders from re offending other children who are on the social networking sites. .

Providing support for the sex offender; organising schemes to try stop these people from abusing children online. An example of this could be circles of support accountability. This was created to help the offender whom experienced loneliness or who has low self esteem, so this may make them abuse children online for fun.

Use of parental controls: to control the content that your child can use such as blocking pornography pictures. Keep computers in a central location such as living room, where you can observe what your child is doing online. Having computer in the child’s room will create a greater risk for children being abused online. The offender will know that no one is around the child and he or she is alone, through the use of webcam.

Providing rules for children on how to stay safe online such as do not give out personal information online to a person you don’t know, this can be linked to the stranger danger scenario because if you saw a stranger you would not talk to them in reality.

Always ask your children what they have been doing on the internet, this way they can tell you if there were any unwanted content on the computer while they were surfing the internet such as abuse. ADD REFERENCES

This is a relevant issue because children and young people are very vulnerable in the virtual world. So it is our duty to protect children from harm this can be linked to the children’s act. Children Act 1989 is an act of parliament, which puts the benefit of children first, to care for children from harm and you, must work with parents at any time possible this act states that requirements of children are the most important…

Sexual Offences Act (2003) sets out a new legal framework to protect children from sexual abuse this covers internet pornography, grooming & exploitation. This Act will put restrictions on convicted sex offenders. This policy has been introduced to give more support to police on how to convict offenders and also it promotes internet safety. This is a good policy because it will keep children safe online because the offenders have restriction on contact with children, so they can’t abuse children on the internet.

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 this is a worldwide agreement that relates to all children and young people under the age of 18 years. The children should be protected from harmful influences such as abuse. This has been introduced because they wanted to keep vulnerable children safe from harm and protect the child from abuse which can have a negative impact such as low self confidence or self esteem. ELABORATE

Another policy is the communication act 2003 section 127 is to do with misusing public computer to send inappropriate messages. The act states that ‘Anyone who sends a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or is of an indecent, obscene or menacing character (other than in the course of providing a programme service) by means of a public electronic communications network, or who causes such a message or matter to be sent, is guilty of an offence’. This means that if an offender sends a child messages via the internet that are not appropriate for their age. If the offender is found guilty he/she can be given a prison sentence for no more than six months.

Debate around protecting children (the protective or preventive state)

On my brothers school website they have a side panel that says ‘e safety’; which gives advice on staying safe online. This can be used by both parents and children whom use the website to see how to keep their child safe online. The government are advising schools to include internet bullying on their bullying policies. REFERENCES

In conclusion it is very important to protect children from the risks of the virtual world because it is easier to abuse a child online than in reality. Another factor is that it is harder to pick out a child who is being abused online without the child reporting this incident to organisation such as CEOP, IWF and many more that can help stop the offender.

Critically evaluate the practice implications (in as far as this is possible) i.e. what difference will it make to the way you work?

This is a theoretical essay that needs to focus on wide relevant reading and research whatever the focus. You can refer to relevant practical applications e.g. in school but back this up with reading as well. If you are referring to a personal experience you may frame it e.g.

A recent placement experience in a local primary school setting demonstrated the importance of including this subject at a number of levels to ensure the protection of children as recommended by Bloggs ( 2208:9) who states ‘ written policies that have been negotiated with all interested stakeholders are fundamental to ensuring that these issues are given appropriate prominence in any education environment’. This was expressed in a number of ways and included…

Bibliography – USE JOURNALS

Byron, T (2007) safer children in a digital world: the report of the Bryon review. Department for children, schools and department for culture, media and sport, London

Grabber, C and et al (2009) E-safety and web 2.0 for children aged 11-16.

Goodman, A & Kennison, P (2008) children as victims. Exeter: Learning matters

Smith, C., Stainton-Rogers, W., and Tucker, S (2007: 220) ‘Risk’ in Robb, M (ed) Youth in Context: Frameworks, Settings and encounters. London: Sage Publications and the Open University Press.

T. Ward, D. R. Laws, & S. M. Hudson Eds. (2003) Sexual deviance: Issues and controversies. London: Sage.

Websites used

www.CEOP.police.uk assessed on 10th December 2010 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/21/notes/division/5/2/1/96 assessed on 12th December 2010