Nursery World - Learning & Development: Transitions

One child's disability and another's distress led to a surprisingly simple nursery resource with proven benefits for children's well-being and language development. Michael Jones explains how.

For some young children, the process of settling in to an early years setting can be prolonged, and sometimes traumatic. Parents and practitioners can also feel distress. As an Early Language Consultant for the Every Child a Talker (ECaT) projects in Thurrock and Bedford, I often talked to nursery staff about their various strategies for easing the settling-in process. We have found that all you need is a shoebox!

The idea started at Horndon Village Playgroup in Thurrock with Ruby, a three-year-old with a sensory impairment that reduces her mobility. Practitioners were concerned that Ruby might become a bit isolated, as other children where whizzing around and making friends while she was moving more slowly or preferring to stay in one place.

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