Nursery World - A Unique Child: Inclusion

Dolls with their own personas and life stories are being used by
some practitioners to help raise issues of equality and encourage
children to think critically. Vicky Hutchin explains.

One of the trickiest aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) for practitioners is to support three-, four- and five-year-olds to 'think critically', an important aspect of the Characteristics of Effective Learning. Even trickier for many of us is raising issues of equality with young children and helping them find ways to combat stereotyping and prejudice. However, there is one highly effective and very practical strategy that helps us address both these issues. This is using Persona Dolls to tell stories.

Supporting young children's thinking skills can be a challenge because it involves interacting in particular ways that might not come naturally - trying to 'get inside the children's heads', asking open-ended questions, encouraging them to express their thoughts and ideas, and finding the spark that will ignite their interest and ways to extend their thinking further.

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