Personal development is difficult to quantify but early years practitioners can set examples and provide experiences for children to learn to respect others, writes Julian Grenier
How you go about learning matters more than what you learn in the early years. Long-term research projects in Britain, New Zealand and the United States have all emphasised the crucial importance of children developing a positive disposition to learning in early childhood.
Young children need opportunities to develop their confidence, autonomy, feelings of wellbeing and belonging, and persistence in solving problems. They need to be protected from situations of failure, which might give them a long-term dislike of education. They need to find appropriate ways of expressing how they are feeling and ways to understand how other people feel.
Of course, you cannot make a real distinction between children's disposition to learn, and what they learn. Children are unlikely to be well disposed to learning in an environment that bores them. Planning that emphasises what children ought to know, and fails to build on what they actually do know, will not help them.
For learning to take place, there has to be a secure attachment, but the nature of this attachment will be different for each child. One child may need to spend a great deal of time right next to their important adult. For another child, the attachment will be more like a safety net. It will become something that the child knows is there, but needs only quite rarely.
The adult's role can then shift towards being an advocate for the child's interests and needs, ensuring that the child feels a sense of belonging in the setting, and that there are planned experiences which meet the child's interests and development. For example, if a child is hitting out and finding it difficult to share, an adult who is advocating for the child's needs may decide that the child needs some protected time with a piece of equipment before they are ready to tolerate other children joining in.
Experiences in the Foundation Stage can help children to broaden their horizons, to discover that other children and families are different, and to learn positive attitudes to diversity. The models that practitioners provide will be important. Practitioners need to listen carefully to what children say, and to help them to feel that they belong by ensuring that they see images and equipment that relate to their experiences in their families.
Children need opportunities to explore their emotions safely in the setting. Practitioners can help children by modelling ways of putting feelings into words - 'you look like you're really angry about that' - so that children can explore alternatives to hurting or shouting.
Recently at Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, one child felt upset because she was unable to join in with a game that a small group were playing. But the group of children felt that their game would be spoilt if someone else joined in, because they had decided on the roles. When a practitioner encouraged all the children to sit down together, they were able to listen to how the first child felt sad about being left out, and they were able to negotiate a role for her to play in the game. The practitioner helped the children by showing how important it was to listen to what everyone thought. By suggesting solutions, but allowing the children to accept or modify them, she gave them just the right mixture of security with the freedom to make their own decisions.
Julian Grenier is deputy head of Woodlands Park Nursery Centre, part of the London Borough of Haringey's Early Excellence Network
References
You can find out more about international research into the benefits of early childhood education and care on the internet:
- New Zealand: http://www.nzcer.org.nz/research/compchild.htm
- Britain: http://www.ioe.ac.uk/cdl/eppe/
- The United States: http://www.highscope.org/research/resper.htm
Case study: crash course
William is a three-year-old at Woodlands Park Nursery Centre. At home, his favourite play is rough and tumble. He likes playing with his trains and cars, making them crash and fall off bridges. He likes playing with Playmobil people, and often creates sequences of fighting between them. It is the sort of play that people can find difficult in early years settings, or even try to suppress. However, William's play is full of fantasy and rich detail. Often William will load the crashed cars on to a transporter lorry and take them off to be mended. William is fascinated when he sees his father fixing things at home with the screwdrivers, and relishes the chance to use them on his cars and trucks. The screwdrivers soon turn into tools for 'chopping through ropes' and then into swords for a knight. His dressing gown cord becomes a 'special magic belt' for catching people.
Judy, William's key person, wants to support and develop his play in the nursery. She creates a huge scene of a car crash using crates and other materials outside, and the children dress up as firefighters rushing to the scene of the accident. William's fascination with crashes is extended during an activity where he drops stones down drainpipes into a water tray, relishing the splashes this makes.
Nursery staff encourage William to take responsibility for the feelings of other children while he plays. They help him with phrases like, 'You might need to ask first before you start playing that game', and they help other children to feel confident about saying whether they want to join in with his games, or not. The team's planning builds positively on William's interests and patterns of play, and also helps him to develop his awareness of how other people might be feeling.
Ten key points
Use these ten key points as possible starting points for discussion at meetings with staff or parents and carers.
1. Do you plan for children's personal, social and emotional development every week?
2. Are practitioners always good models? By being polite, listening carefully, and being respectful of other people's views, practitioners can show children by example how to deal with difficult situations and conflicts.
3. Are children encouraged to become autonomous learners? It is important that they can access equipment when they need it to pursue their learning.
4. Does your setting help children to be assertive and make other people understand their feelings? In dealing with an incident where a child was hit by another, you could encourage the first child to say, 'It hurt me when you did that'.
5. Do your displays, books and general resources promote a positive view of the diversity of society and families?
6. Do you emphasise respect for others? Some issues around play are complicated, especially playfighting and weapon play. It is important to consider ways of allowing children to develop their play while ensuring the needs and rights of others are respected. This is preferable to banning play fighting or gun play.
7. Do you encourage children to negotiate solutions to difficult issues?
8. Do you have ways of helping each child to feel a sense of belonging? You could ensure that special interests are catered for, and that there are objects of cultural familiarity for every child.
9. Do you involve parents in your planning for personal, social and emotional development?
10. Does your planning help children to broaden their horizons? This could include experiencing something awesome, like taking the lift to the top floor of a big building, or watching a butterfly slowly emerge from a chrysalis.
