CHCFC503A: Foster social development
in early childhood
Provide opportunities for social interaction
Contents
Plan and provide opportunities for different forms of social
interaction between children with respect for each child’s needs,
interests and developmental stage
Planning opportunities for social interaction
4
Using everyday experiences and routines to foster social
development
5
Extending social skills through planned activities
6
Role of learning centres in developing social skills
8
Using an experience plan format
8
Working with children of different ages
14
Encourage children to interact with a variety of people and to
initiate and develop contact with others, as appropriate
15
Setting up the environment to promote cooperative interactions
16
Using dramatic play to foster social development
19
Arrange the environment to encourage interaction and also
accommodate a child’s need for privacy, solitude and/or quiet
21
Celebrate special occasions in culturally-sensitive ways
22
Integrating culturally-relevant experiences
22
Celebrating culturally diverse special occasions
22
Respect children’s choice to watch and observe
24
Structure experiences and equipment in ways that promote
cooperation and conflict resolution
25
Fostering conflict-resolution skills
25
Foster and respect children’s own grouping choice
27
Promoting friendships and group membership
27
Talk about and respond to children as group members as well as
individuals
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Identify and monitor children’s social skills and development
Stages of social development
30
Monitoring progress in social development of individuals and
groups
35
Promote and support the use of social skills relevant to the
transition to school for children of an appropriate age
37
Transition to ‘Big School’
37
Appendix 1: Learning centres
38
Setting up areas
38
Using learning centres
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Appendix 2: Planning experiences in children’s services
Experience plan format
References
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Plan and provide opportunities for
different forms of social interaction
between children with respect for
each child’s needs, interests and
developmental stage
Planning opportunities for social
interaction
Do you remember your first friends? Why were you friends with them? Was it
their Lego or Barbie collection? Was it because they were next door or across the
road? Did you have a ‘best’ friend at school? Why were they ‘best’? Do you
remember joining a large group of children you didn’t know—you might have
changed schools or perhaps it was a sports or social group. How did you feel?
What helped you make friends?
Good friends
Children are born with social skills and temperamental traits, which they develop
throughout the early years in many different ways. Children are not born knowing
how to play cooperatively, maintain friendships, enter group activities or even
accept responsibility for tasks. All these are learnt through direction, observation
and the example of adults and older children around them.
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Everyday living requires a multitude of social skills. For example, just to get
through the morning with those people you might share a house with may involve
the need to take turns in the bathroom without conflict and being aware of
other’s moods in the morning and how to manage them. Perhaps the social skill of
turn taking is also used when waiting to board public transport, or you may need
to use the complicated rules of driving courteously and considerately with others.
Humans often live in built-up areas where social skills are important so that the
sharing of space can occur with minimum conflict.
We learn these skills through guidance, practice and often through opportunities
for social play with other children where we could practise them without fear of
‘getting it wrong’.
Using everyday experiences and
routines to foster social development
Everyday routines and experiences provide many opportunities to support and
model appropriate social interactions with children. Let’s think about the
beginning of the child’s time in care and identify the social skills that can be
modelled or fostered at this point.
Use arrival time to foster social development
Arrival time
Does the child greet caregivers and other children? Are they greeted back
appropriately? Are the carers there to welcome them? Is the body language of
carers welcoming, modelling acceptance and friendly interactions? Does the
environment allow children to move smoothly from welcoming to group activity?
Does the child know how to join a group? Are groups accepting of the child’s
attempt to join them?
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An example of a successful arrival time can be seen in the following scenario:
Maria is standing by the door as the children arrive at 9 am for preschool.
She greets every child and parent by name and asks them how they are.
She quickly tells them some of the things that they are going to be doing
at preschool today. Sonya and Alison, the other two caregivers, are
standing nearby ready to help children and parents with information or
settling in. They then direct them to an activity that has been set up ready.
When a tearful Jasmine arrives clutching Mum’s leg, Maria gets down to
Jasmines eye level and says: ‘Hi Jasmine, you seem a bit sad today.’ She
then goes with Jasmine and her Mum to settle Jasmine and assist her with
separating. Sonya takes her place at the door, greeting the children and
their parents and siblings.
Can you see in this scenario that the staff have worked out a routine for greeting
the children and settling them into the day of preschool. They greet children and
parents individually and immediately respond appropriately to the emotional
states of the children. Think about how arrival times are managed at the centre
you work in or one where you have done a placement. If possible, observe an
arrival time and note down if the children were greeted, the tones and body
language used, and whether they were invited to join an activity or group or
whether they had to manage this themselves.
Let’s now look at some other everyday or routine experiences and how they can
be used to foster social development. Think about meal times—always a good
time to develop social and prosocial skills.
Activity 1
Extending social skills through planned
activities
You can help children with their social skills through your direct involvement in
their activities. Children love to join adults in the sandpit, at the paint corner or in
the dress-up box. Talk about what you are doing while you are playing, eg ‘I really
like this red. I think I will make the cow red too.’ This encourages the children to
begin discussing their own work.
In dramatic play, it is often useful to take a role in order to encourage children to
join the play, and then to gradually withdraw your role so they are playing
together. Caregivers should observe each child’s level of play, eg solitary, parallel
or associative. While the child’s choices of play levels must be respected, if a child
is showing they would like to play more with others sometimes they need adult
help to do it. Cues that they would like to play with others include prolonged
watching of a group at play, saying they want to play too, crossing the play
boundaries so they are almost in the group, or even disrupting group activities.
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When a child indicates they want to play with others but doesn’t know how, it is
useful for the caregiver to match the activity to the child’s observed ability level
and provide them with practice in the type of play they are interested in, either
alone or in parallel play with others, until they are confident with the activity. Play
with the child yourself to model social skills of playing together, then invite that
child and another child with less skills to join the group. Verbal cues might need to
be suggested to the child to keep them in the play, eg ‘You tell Michael ‘I want to
be the bus conductor!’ Once the play group is formed you can foster further social
skill development through suggestions on plot or props, though only when this
would not be seen as taking over the play too much.
In planning activities, you need to consider how your setting up will foster or
inhibit social play. For example, one paint easel on its own does not necessarily
foster social development, though it might open up opportunities for conflict
resolution! Several easels clustered so the children can share the paints and
discuss their work will foster their social skills. Read on to learn more about
setting up learning centres to develop social skills.
Place easels together to encourage social skill development
Let’s examine an area typically found in a children’s service to see how it can be
used to foster social skill development. The aim here is to think about how you
might adjust the area depending on whether you are working with younger or
older children, and the setting you are working in.
Photo of preschoolers working at a table
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Craft area—preschoolers
Craft trolleys can be positioned so that children working on different activities can
share and discuss their choices, ask others to help them find some item and so on.
Craft should allow for children to make choices about whether they want to work
on their own or work with others on a group project.
Adults should be involved in group projects, using opportunities to encourage
children to cooperate, resolve any conflicts or disagreements, to discuss their
work and plan together.
Craft area—older children
Involve children in planning craft activities, eg group collages, posters or
construction works.
Children can bring in ideas and materials to discuss and develop projects around.
Children can develop, write out and display their own agreed rules for activities in
the craft area.
Activities may be more functional, eg posters for a dance or vacation care activity.
Role of learning centres in developing
social skills
If you wish to recap your knowledge of learning centres then go to Appendix 1.
Using an experience plan format
You may already understand the planning process and know how to complete an
experience plan format. For a general overview go and read Planning experiences
in children’s services in Appendix 2.
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Case study: Ling
Time to meet Ling: She is 4 years and 3 months old and is new to the centre.
English is her second language and she is becoming quite proficient in it. Read
some of the observations written by her carers:
23/2/03: Ling has now been in the centre for three weeks. Her English is
remarkably good even though she has only been in Australia for six
months. She is keeping to herself at this stage. When 3.6-year-old Aimee
approached her with a puzzle, her face lit up. Aimee and Ling played with
the puzzle for five mins. Aimee then said ‘Let’s go to the home corner.’
Ling followed and played with Aimee for the rest of the morning.
2/3/03: Aimee is away today and Ling played by herself much of the day.
4/3/02: Ling, Aimee and Sarah were all at the lunch table, Aimee and
Sarah were talking about a show they had seen on TV. Ling appeared to be
listening intently to the conversation.
We are operating here with compartmentalised information about Ling that only
tells us a little about her. What makes her tick? What does she like to do? What
stimulates her? In what areas is she clever and able? You should know much more
about the children you are planning experiences for. While it is difficult to plan
meaningful experiences from snippets, we are going to do that for the purposes of
this exercise.
Looking at the above information, we can see that Ling is relatively new to
Australia, though her language skills seem to be quite proficient. She is beginning
to form a friendship with Aimee. The question I would now be asking myself is
how can I help Ling further in her socialising in the preschool setting? How can we
build on these skills so that she is confident to join a variety of groups?
To this end I would like to facilitate Ling in her efforts to join groups. So far the
experience plan would look like this.
Learner’s name: MS
Plan number: One
Name of experience: Dramatic play
Date/s presented:
23/02/2005
Number of children: 2–4
Names and ages of children:
L (4.3)
A (3.6)
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
In the observations (23/2. 2/3 and 4/3) of Ling, I have noticed that she is beginning
to form a friendship with Aimee and join in experiences with her. I want to extend
Ling’s friendship group and abilities to join in with other groups of children.
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Reasons for choosing the experience
This should be a short statement that gives the reasons for doing the experience.
There may be several reasons why you have chosen this experience. You may
have planned this one experience for a number of different children but for a
variety of different reasons. It may be a physical experience for one child but a
social/emotional activity for another, and yet for another there may be a
problem-solving emphasis. You may be following up on a child’s interests,
introducing a new idea or following up a seasonal or unexpected event.
There is no one right way to write this section but generally it will include:
•
•
•
the observation/s that the experience relates to
clear, valid reasons for doing this experience
brief background information if appropriate.
Identify developmental priorities or learning opportunities
The next section is of course the developmental priorities or learning opportunity.
Think about the developmental domain we are looking at. In this topic we are
talking about fostering social development. This immediately gives us a clue that
we are hoping to develop some elements of this domain. Our developmental
priorities might be to:
•
•
extend Ling’s friendship group
enable Ling to, with the aid of a teacher, join a group of children in the
home corner.
Look at the following reasons for choosing the experience and the subsequent
developmental priorities and decide if they meet the criteria set above.
Remember we are looking to plan social experiences.
Example 1: Reasons for choosing the experience: Kiara (nine months old)
hid her face in Mum’s shoulder when I approached her.
Developmental priorities:
To foster Kiara’s social development
Kiara will engage in a trust-building game with me for several minutes.
This is an appropriate social rationale and developmental priority. Could you see
that this experience had appropriate linkage between the reasons for choosing
the experience and the developmental priorities? By involving Kiara in trustbuilding games like ‘Round and round the garden’ for example we will be helping
to improve her social development as we will be helping to create a secondary
attachment figure for her. If her carer engages Kiara in these kinds of activities,
she will gradually build up trust and attachment with her.
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Activity 2
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
Setting up the learning environment is the next part of the experience plan. This
should be one of the easiest sections to do. The key here is to be thorough. If
someone else is going to take your experience, they need to be able to prepare
appropriately. To this end you again need to be specific. So far our experience
looks like this:
Learner’s name: MS
Plan number: One
Name of experience: Dramatic play
Date/s presented:
23/02/2005
Number of children: 2–4
Names and ages of children:
L (4.3)
A (3.6)
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
In the observations (23/2. 2/3 and 4/3) of Ling, I have noticed that she is beginning
to form a friendship with Aimee and join in experiences with her. I want to extend
Ling’s friendship group and abilities to join in with other groups of children.
What materials do you need for Ling’s experience and where are you going to
set it up? Look at this example below:
•
•
•
•
Home corner set up with a variety of different utensils and objects from a
variety of countries. Ensure there are chopsticks, bowls and food from the
Chinese culture.
Display a picture of families from a variety of cultures having a meal.
Ensure a Chinese family is featured.
Ensure the space is large enough for four children to fit in comfortably.
Set up in the normal space for home corner.
How will you involve the children in your experience?
The procedure comes next. This is a step-by-step description of the activity. What
exactly are you going to do and in what order? What questions are you going to
ask? How are you going to introduce the activity to the child? How will you
conclude it?
Have a look at the following procedure for Ling.
How will you involve the children in your experience?
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Introduction
Either invite three children into home corner or wait until three children either similar age
or younger than Ling are in home corner.
As the play begins, invite Ling to join in with the play. Tell Ling that there are some things
in home corner that she may know how to use.
Main body
Take Ling to home corner, model asking the children if I can play with them. Encourage
Ling to also ask if she can play with them. Ensure all the children know each other’s
names.
Allow children to take lead in play but ensure that teacher is involved in the experience
facilitating Ling’s efforts to join in.
Ask Ling to show everyone how to use the chopsticks. Talk about the pictures of the
different families on the wall. Encourage the other children to try to pick up objects with
chopsticks if appropriate.
Conclusion
If appropriate, gradually withdraw support as Ling becomes more comfortable in the
situation.
Evaluation
The next part is the evaluation. Here you summarise exactly what happened. Did
the child meet the objectives? What could you have changed?
Look at the evaluation for Ling in her home corner experience.
Reflection and evaluation of the experience
Ling achieved all the developmental priorities and more. She initially was a little shy with
the other children, but asked if she could join in after observing me doing so. She stayed at
the activity with the three other children for over 15 minutes. She showed us all how to
use the chopsticks. We had a great time trying to pick up some small objects that we
found in home corner.
I found that initially Ling needed the support of a carer, but after 5–10 mins I was able to
successfully withdraw myself from the play experience. She was able to sustain the play
with the other children for another 5–10 minutes. She was talking and interacting with all
three children. She seemed to take real pride in the fact that she could manipulate the
chopsticks.
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Ling’s completed experience plan
Learner’s name: MS
Plan number: One
Name of experience: Dramatic play
Date/s presented: 23/02/2005
Number of children: 2–4
Names and age of children:
L (4.3)
A (3.6)
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
In the observations (23/2. 2/3 and 4/3) of Ling, I have noticed that she is beginning to form a friendship
with Aimee and join in experiences with her. I want to extend Ling’s friendship group and abilities to join
in with other groups of children.
Identify developmental priorities/learning opportunities
To extend Ling’s friendship group.
Ling will, with the aid of a teacher, join a group of children in the home corner.
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
Home corner set up with a variety of different utensils and objects from variety of countries. Ensure
there are chopsticks, bowls and food from Chinese culture.
Display picture of families from a variety of culture having a meal. Ensure a Chinese family is featured.
Ensure space is large enough for 4 children to fit in comfortably.
Set up in normal space for home corner.
How will you involve the children in your experience
Introduction
Either invite three children into home corner or wait until three children either similar age or younger
than Ling are in home corner.
As the play begins, invite Ling to join in with the play. Tell Ling that there are some things in home corner
that she may know how to use.
Main body
Take Ling to home corner, model asking the children if I can play with them. Encourage Ling to also ask if
she can play with them. Ensure all the children know each other’s names.
Allow children to take lead in play but ensure that teacher is involved in the experience facilitating Ling’s
efforts to join in.
Ask Ling to show everyone how to use the chopsticks. Talk about the pictures of the different families on
the wall. Encourage the other children to try to pick up objects with chopsticks if appropriate.
Conclusion
If appropriate gradually withdraw support as Ling becomes more comfortable in the situation.
Reflection and evaluation of the experience
Ling achieved all the developmental priorities and more. She initially was a little shy with the other
children, but asked if she could join in after observing me doing so. She stayed at the activity with the
three other children for over 15 minutes. She showed us all how to use the chopsticks. We had a great
time trying to pick up some small objects that we found in home corner.
I found that initially Ling needed the support of a carer, but after 5–10 mins I was able to successfully
withdraw myself from the play experience. She was able to sustain the play with the other children for
another 5–10 minutes. She was talking and interacting with all three children. She seemed to take real
pride in the fact that she could manipulate the chopsticks.
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Working with children of different ages
It is not uncommon to work with children of different ages. It is to be expected in
out-of-home care, family day care, and in some long day care services that use
‘family groupings’. When different ages are placed together, there are advantages
in that younger children have the opportunity to learn skills from older children,
and older children have opportunities to develop pro-social behaviours through
caring for the younger ones.
When planning for mixed-age groups, one strategy is to leave activities as open as
possible. For example, a trolley of craft or painting equipment can be used by
children according to their abilities, whatever their ages. Balls will be used by all
children for simple throwing games or through to organised basketball or soccer.
In mixed-age groups, older children who are having problems in their social
relationships with same-aged peers can practise their social skills without feeling
the need to compete. Older children are less threatened by younger children and
will share their emotions and discussions with them more freely. It can be a
powerful intervention for children with social problems.
Working with different age groups together increases prosocial behaviours and
learning, but caregivers must ensure that the children have opportunities to work
together, with their peers, and alone if they wish. Older children are not a
substitute for adult caregivers, and older children will have a need to sometimes
work separately from younger children.
Group projects or other projects the caregiver may come up with themselves,
encourage children to work together for common goals and interests.
Activity 3
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Encourage children to interact with a
variety of people and to initiate and
develop contact with others, as
appropriate
Developing cooperative behaviours
Caregivers can foster children’s social skills through their modelling of prosocial
behaviours and their interactions with the children. Research tells us that the
most effective way of fostering children’s social development is reasoning and
modelling by adults with whom the children have a warm and positive
relationship. Caregivers can encourage children to extend their skill through
verbal and non-verbal interactions, reinforcing, modelling and sometimes
teaching, as well as with the activities and the environment they create.
Consider this scenario:
Ben is caring for a group of children 5–7 years of age. They want to play
soccer but don’t agree on the rules. Alice (five years) has shoved Joel (six
years) over a point of scoring and Joel looks like he is going to cry. Ben
moves over to them and puts his hand on Joel’s shoulder. He lowers his
body level, looks Alice in the eye without smiling, and says firmly: ‘Alice,
when we play together we cooperate. We don’t push or shove or call
names. Please apologise to Joel and then we can begin getting agreement
from everyone on the rules.’
You can see that Ben kept his body language consistent with his spoken message.
He made sure his head was at the same height as Alice’s and made eye contact.
He used a firm tone to convey a serious message and directed Alice towards an
appropriate response. At the same time he comforted Joel with body contact,
recognising his distress non-verbally. Ben knows, however, that in AngloAustralian culture most six-year-old boys don’t like to make it too obvious they
have been upset by five-year-old girls, and Ben would await further cues from Joel
as to whether he wanted more comfort than that.
There are many other strategies caregivers can use to extend children’s
conversational and social skills. These include:
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•
•
•
•
•
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always remembering to address children by name, using the correct
pronunciation
inviting children to activities or just letting them know you are available if
they want to talk
speaking politely to children, using polite forms, such as saying ‘excuse
me’ when you need to interrupt one of their conversations
demonstrating you are listening when they speak to you, through your
attention and body language—the occasional absent-minded ‘mmmmm’
is not good enough
inviting children to extend on what they are talking about, eg ‘What
happened next?’
remembering personal details about the children and using them as
conversation-openers, eg ‘How’s your older sister going in her new job?’
allowing silences when you are awaiting a response from children—
sometimes it can take a while for children to get their thoughts together.
These and other practices in communication all demonstrate that you have
respect for the child as a social being. One important aspect of respecting the
child is respecting their right not to participate in social events. There will always
be a variety of reasons why children will choose to watch an activity rather than
participate.
Activity 4
Setting up the environment to promote
cooperative interactions
When planning an environment the caregiver must look for a balance between
spaces where children can be alone or talk quietly with a friend, through to spaces
for large groups to play boisterously together. When planning provisions, the
opportunities for fostering social skills in each should be considered.
It is also important to allow children control over their environment through
providing routines they can easily become familiar with and can be taught how to
master, such as washing hands, getting lunch from bags or even putting clothes
on and off for outdoor play. If the child can accomplish these routines
independently, they will feel more competent and comfortable in their
environment.
The planning of the environment, the care routine and fostering self-help skills
with children increase their social competence. Planning care routines and
fostering self-help skills are discussed in other learning topics, so let’s focus on
how to arrange the physical environment to foster social skills.
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First, look at your space. Be aware of all the nooks and crannies and the
placement of doors, water troughs, large immovable objects and soft rugs. Then
think about how the children move around it. Get down and waddle around. Then
you can start arranging the room. Thinking about where items could best be
placed first is much better than adopting a trial-and-error approach and only
moving objects after children become crowded and fights break out.
Provide comfortable areas away from active areas
Place quiet areas away from active areas or thoroughfares. Use soft furnishings
such as sofas and cushions to make sure children and staff are comfortable in
these areas.
Place noisy activities such as blocks on carpets so that the noise does not
dominate other activities.
Use carpet in a noise activity area
Place messy experiences near water and on lino, to reduce the ‘mess stress’.
Make sure materials are child-accessible
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Make sure materials can be accessed by children, eg on open, child-height
shelving.
Encourage children to make the space their own through decorations and by
incorporating their suggestions where possible.
Display children’s own work
Change surroundings, give different
choices
Provide experiences that offer a choice to play together or alone
Make sure experiences offer a choice to the child of playing alone or together. For
example, bikes and tricycles can be played as a lone activity or you can have traffic
signals and perhaps traffic police to allow children to become more aware of each
other.
When planning experiences you need to consider how your setting-up will foster
or inhibit social play. For example, one paint easel on its own does not necessarily
foster social development, though it might open up opportunities for conflict
resolution! Several easels clustered so the children can share the paints and
discuss their work will foster their social skills.
The following suggestions about setting up environments to promote
relationships and positive interactions are based on ideas from the NSW
Curriculum Framework (Stonehouse, 2002).
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•
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Allow sufficient space so children are not forced into close contact with
one another.
Provide experiences and play spaces that allow children to play alone or
with one or two children depending on their social capabilities.
Provide safe spaces for children to withdraw to if they get overwhelmed
or if they need privacy or solitude.
Arrange equipment and materials in a manner that encourages children to
socially interact with one another, e.g. provide opportunities for simple
turn-taking, eating in small groups at meal times.
Provide experiences that encourage parallel contributions or require two
or more children to participate or complete, e.g. group art/craft activities,
see-saws.
Set up experiences so children can work beside one another and see what
others are doing.
Provide soft comfortable furnishing, both inside and outside, that
encourage warm physical interactions, e.g. lounges, piles of large
cushions, beanbags.
For further information read the chapter entitled ‘Physical environment as
teacher’ on pages 101-108 of the NSW Curriculum Framework.
Using dramatic play to foster social
development
Imitative and dramatic play is observed in children from infancy. Imitative play is
the beginning of dramatic play. The infant or toddler will simply copy or imitate
their carers in many of the day-to-day tasks and routines. This is demonstrated
when you see the toddler sweeping the floor. Dramatic play is much more
complex and involves taking on roles. You see dramatic play in preschoolers who
declare, ‘I’m the Mummy, you’re the Daddy and Sarah is the baby.’
The child is using this time to explore their world and their role in the world. By
being involved in this form of play – initially alone and then with peers – the child
is getting the opportunity to explore their strengths and their understandings of
the world around them. Providing appropriate props (real ones where possible) is
one way of encouraging dramatic/imitative play in infants.
Apart from providing appropriate props, materials and environments the child
care worker also needs to consider what role they will take in relation to
supporting dramatic play. Some people believe that adults should not intervene
nor become involved in children’s dramatic play as they tend to take over and
redirect play themes. On the other hand adult involvement can be seen to enrich
the play experience as they help sustain play for longer periods and aggressive
and destructive play is minimised when adults are involved.
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Some appropriate roles that the adult can take include:
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•
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Providing meaningful and culturally relevant play materials.
Showing genuine interest in and respect for children’s play themes and
ideas.
Monitoring children’s needs during play.
Observing and intervening when necessary or appropriate.
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Arrange the environment to
encourage interaction and also
accommodate a child’s need for
privacy, solitude and/or quiet
Accommodating a child’s need for privacy, solitude or
quiet
While it is important to foster friendships and encourage children to engage with
others, there are times in our lives when we do need to be alone with our
thoughts. Privacy and solitude are usually quite difficult to find when you are in a
room with 20 or 30 people in it. Do children need privacy? Do they need solitude?
Of course they do. At certain times children will need to be by themselves.
Reasons may range from they’ve had a late night the night before and are tired, to
conflict with others. Whatever the reason is, we need to structure our
environment to provide this solitude.
Our challenge is to do this in a manner that is still safe and meeting the
regulations. Some ideas include:
•
•
•
•
using shelving and dividers to create small spaces for children to sit in and
play
setting up tents or cubbies for children to crawl into
having a quiet sleeping area
helping children tell their peers that they need some time alone.
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Celebrate special occasions in
culturally-sensitive ways
Integrating culturally-relevant
experiences
It is vital in today’s society to ensure that we are integrating culturally relevant
experiences into all aspects of our program. When multicultural education was
first mooted as being extremely important, the impression at times was received
that we ‘did’ different cultures. Often children and carers went on a little ‘holiday’
where they learnt all about that culture. This was called by some researchers the
‘tourist approach’. To be truly inclusive our efforts to show diversity should not
rely on a ‘tourist approach’. This thematic approach does not acknowledge
diversity in the most appropriate way.
Culturally relevant experiences need to be incorporated into all aspects of our
program and day. These types of experiences can start with something as simple
as having cooking implements in the dramatic play area from the range of cultures
represented in your centre. This, however, leads us to ask: ‘What if the majority of
children are from Australian culture? Do we only provide Australian cooking
implements?’ Of course the answer is ‘no’. Think about your own kitchen drawers
and cupboards. Many Australian people will have a variety of Asian cooking
implements, for example chopsticks, a wok, a steamboat, rice bowls or sushi mats
just to name a few. To be inclusive we need to look at not only our micro
community but the larger community around, and represent it also.
Celebrating culturally diverse special
occasions
In other topics you may have identified a range of celebrations appropriate to
different cultures and religions. While remembering that not all people from a
particular culture will celebrate all special occasions, it can be enjoyable to
celebrate with friends in child care where this is appropriate.
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Exploring common celebrations together can help children acknowledge their
differences positively. Some families won’t celebrate Christmas, some will
emphasise the religious aspects of the time, others will see it mainly as a family
and holiday time. It is important that caregivers do not place their own values on
any of these approaches but that they emphasise the different ways of
experiencing the same event.
Celebrating special, culturally specific occasions with children and their families
makes them feel special and valued by the service, as well as enriching the other
children’s knowledge of the culture. For example, you can celebrate Succoth, the
Jewish autumn thanksgiving festival celebrating the Jews’ sheltering in the
wilderness in ancient times, by inviting a Jewish family who celebrates this festival
to help build a shelter in the playground and tell stories about the ‘40 years in the
wilderness’.
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Respect children’s choice to watch
and observe
Respect children’s choice to watch
Sometimes children are not ready to join in and are quite prepared to sit and
watch. They may eventually join in or may decide to go to another activity. In the
picture above, the carer could call out to the child to come and have a look at
what she and the other children are looking at. If however, the child still
preferred to sit and watch, the carer should not insist, but respect the child’s
decision not to join in.
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Structure experiences and equipment
in ways that promote cooperation and
conflict resolution
Fostering conflict-resolution skills
Conflict between children is inevitable
Some conflict is inevitable while children are learning new social skills. It is
important that the caregiver has a realistic idea of what children are capable of in
their different social interactions at different ages and have a range of strategies
to foster these skills appropriately.
Distraction will often work better with two- or three-year-old children than
reasoned discussion, while you will rarely get those in middle childhood to
cooperate without reasoning with them. Children will experience conflict because
of a range of things—someone having a bad day, a child trying to enter a group
aggressively, too little equipment or poorly thought-out environments, a
difference of opinion or something being considered ‘not fair’. It is important that
caregivers have realistic ideas of what children of different ages are capable of in
conflict situations. Redirection will often work better with two or three year olds
than reasoned discussion.
Both children and adults can gain positive learning through conflict. Learning to
resolve conflicts positively is an important part of social-skill development.
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When you have a conflict with someone, how do you feel about that person?
Often at the time you feel like you hate them for making you feel uncomfortable
but usually you can see that your relationship with them is separate to the
conflict. Children rarely make this separation and conflicts can appear intense as a
result.
Consider this scenario:
Rory has taken Oliver’s game and Oliver has stormed over to where Rory is
playing with others, yelling: ‘I hate you! Give it back or I will hit you!’ Rory
gets up, ready for a fight.
In situations such as this the caregiver should be very calm, modelling reasonable
conflict-resolution skills. Helping the children to identify the problem and allowing
both children to have their say is important. Encouraging them to work towards a
situation where both could be satisfied would be best. If your workplace values
children working together to solve problems then children will begin to use these
skills more regularly with others. Through emphasising a pro-social, cooperative
and empathetic environment in your centre, conflicts will be reduced as children
learn new ways of solving conflicts.
Activity 5
Role modelling and conflict resolution
The role modelling of the caregiver is very important in the area of conflict
resolution. Caregivers need to be aware of their own biases in regard to each child
so that these do not affect their ability to model conflict resolutions effectively.
Activity 6
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Foster and respect children’s own
grouping choice
Promoting friendships and group
membership
Belonging to a group and having friends is often considered something fairly vital
to developing appropriate social skills and being able to function within society.
Friends provide support and give feedback about who we are.
Stage
Concepts
Characteristics
Infants
Like to be with people but do not
understand the concept of friends
Usually engaged in solitary play
Toddlers
Understand that we have people we
call friends
I play with this person.
They will react in certain ways
I spend time with this person
What we are together we do certain things.
Preschool years
Beginning to form distinct friendships
I play with this person and don’t fight with
them.
I see this person often and spend time with
them.
I describe my friends by their physical
characteristics – what they look like or like
doing.
I share toys with this person.
I learn what behaviours are acceptable.
School age
Friendships mature and grow
I can now talk about the qualities of my friends.
We both give and take to maintain the
friendship.
We offer support.
We are loyal and defend each other.
Adapted from Nixon and Aldwinckle (2003)
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Childcare workers need to be aware of opportunities where a remark, a comment,
an action or a question might lead the children to reflect more about their groups
and friends.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Assigning children to do jobs in pairs can foster friendships and social
confidence, especially if a shy child is paired with a more confident one.
Acknowledge friendships by listening to children when they talk about
their friends and ask them questions.
Encourage group discussions that encourage self-discovery, eg my
favourite colours or foods or time of day.
Observe children and be ready to step in if friendly overtures are ignored
or knocked back by others. Often children do not recognise the cues of
others and need them explained.
Help children recognise how their behaviour will affect their ability to be
liked by others; also help all children develop their conversation skills
through modelling, open questioning and friendly body language.
Your skills in arranging a play group for an activity can ensure that lessconfident children are included from the beginning of the activity and
don’t have to try and enter the group once play has started.
As children become more interested in talks, encourage discussions about
friends, socially respectful behaviours, working in groups and other
aspects of social skills.
Activity 7
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Talk about and respond to children as
group members as well as individuals
We can use this picture again to demonstrate how carers talk to group members
as well as individuals. The carer is talking to a small group of children about
something they are looking at. She can ask the child sitting by himself and
watching, whether he would like to join the group. Then she is talking to an
individual rather than to the group. Groups can be informal as this or on a more
structures basis as this:
Structured group of children
Structured groups are usually bought together for a purpose, as in the picture
above—a music demonstration. When talking to groups such as these, we tlsk in a
more formal way and have usually thought about what we are going to say before
we start to talk.
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Identify and monitor children’s social
skills and development
Stages of social development
As with all domains of development, the children will grow and progress in their
social development in the first 12 years of life. Read on for specific information
about the child’s journey towards being a social person.
Social development through infancy
During infancy, the child is beginning on its discovery of itself as a social being.
During this stage there will be a number of different skills and behaviours learnt.
As a child progresses through infancy, we find that the child is both growing
physically and also socially and emotionally. In this topic we are going to mainly
discuss the social aspects of the child’s development.
Emotional development is examined in a different learning topic. You will find,
though, many textbooks talk about them together as these two domains work
very closely together. At times it may seem that we are talking about emotional
development. We are, however, not looking at emotions exactly, but rather how
the child is learning how to control these emotions in a socially acceptable
manner.
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Read what Liam’s mother has to say about his social development.
Social development
Here is Liam, he is 10 minutes old. He is lying in my arms,
looking around, very quiet. For the past nine months he has
been developing at an amazing rate, now his journey towards
adulthood begins. We’ve put him on my breast soon after birth
so he can drink the colostrum which will help his immunity and
also to help he and I to bond. At the moment he would be very
happy to be with whoever is caring for him. It will take some
time for true attachment to form between us.
Newborn
Liam is now six weeks old. He and I have been getting to know
each other. I’ve discovered that Liam can very effectively
communicate his needs to us. He appears to be looking very
intently at who ever is around him and also appears to look with
interest at the environment around him. He has just started
giving us a true social smile when he sees us talking to him. We
made such a fuss when he smiled for the first time. He is happy
to be with anyone at this stage, though he seems to recognise
my voice and smell.
Six weeks old
Liam has been growing up so very quickly. He is able to
communicate with us in many different ways. He now knows to
laugh when we tickle him and likes to engage in any games that
we play with him. He will still happily be nursed by other people
providing he is not hungry or really tired.
Three months old
Now Liam is six months old and he seems such a big boy. He is
definitely a ‘slow to warm up’ temperament type. This means
that he will respond to new situations and people slowly. He
appears to be a little shy. This is interesting because his sister is
an easy temperament type and responded to all people quite
cheerfully.
Six months old
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At nine months, Liam is laughing lots at different things. We
don’t need to tickle him to get him to laugh, just pulling faces
often works or putting a nappy on his head and saying ‘boo’. He
gets angry a little more often, especially if he can’t reach
something or his sister takes something off him.
Nine months old
He is now showing some attachment behaviours. He has
demonstrated a variety of proximity seeking behaviours such as
crying, laughing to gain our attention and of course has started
to demonstrate stranger anxiety. When strangers come along
now, he tends to cling to me more and will often hide his face or
cry if I go to give him to them. He appears to have become much
more fearful in the last couple of months. He seems to be taking
cues from us as to how to react in some situations. For example
when he saw his sister and Dad approaching his cousin’s very
large Rhodesian Ridgeback and patting him, he appeared to be
more comfortable approaching the dog. This social referencing
is becoming much more apparent as he gets older.
Now he is twelve months old, he is in the peak of separation and
stranger anxiety. He wants to be with me more than anyone
else, though Dad will do. He is still though a happy and
contented baby who will laugh when we do funny things and
tries to stay as close to me as possible in new situations. He
appears to be a securely attached baby as he is able to explore
new environment, even though he will take a little time to warm
up and uses me as an anchor or secure base in which to explore.
Twelve months old
Social development: 18 months to 5 years
Listen to Liam’s social development from 18 months to five years. The 18 month
to three-year-old child is developing a range of social skills and behaviours. The
three-to-five-year-old child is further developing their range of social skills and
behaviours. They are beginning to widen their social circle much more to include
people other than the immediate family. We see the beginning of friendships
forming. We see an increased ability to share and take turns. Prosocial behaviours
such as kindness and altruism begin to emerge. All these skills make it much easier
for the preschooler to operate in the social world.
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Eighteen months old
Two-and-a-half years old
Preschooler 1
Liam is now a toddler at 18 months. He is
exploring his environment much more actively,
but still uses me as a safe harbour or anchor. He
will move away from me a little and become
engrossed in his play, then he’ll suddenly realise
I’m not right there, so he looks around and
comes back to me. It is almost like he needs to be
‘topped up’ with security. New people or events
will ensure that he seeks me out. When he looks
in the mirror at himself and we ask him who that
is, he will say ‘Liam’ (well, his version of Liam). He
is fairly placid and even tempered, though gets
frustrated if there is something he wants and
can’t have it. He has developed a secondary
attachment for his carer Dawn. He will protest
initially when I leave, but will quickly calm down
and is generally happy most of the day in care.
Between the ages of two and three we are again
seeing gains in Liam’s social development. He
appears to watch his sister very closely and wants
to keep up with her in every aspect. He doesn’t
however like to share any of his toys with her.
Sometimes it looks like he will by giving her
something, then ten seconds later will demand it
back. He also has difficulty waiting for his turn. It
is much better to ensure that I have two of
everything. His stranger anxiety and separation
anxiety appear to have settled down. He quite
happily goes to his caregiver. He loves spending
time with Dad and will copy everything he does.
He appears to have a good self-concept and is
developing a positive self-esteem. He really
enjoys the praise he receives and will respond
really well to this.
Liam’s preschool years have been absolutely
delightful. He is developing a lovely personality
and appears to be a really happy and settled
child. He loves giving people cuddles and usually
has a big smile on his face. However saying that,
all situations are not rosy! He started preschool
when he had just turned three, one day a week.
It was fourth term and there were lots of big five
year olds who were ready for school. He was
visibly upset every morning which made it quite
difficult to leave him. We persevered and
breathed a big sigh of relief when Christmas
holidays came about. He was not happy about
being in the Christmas concert at preschool.
While everyone else was singing the songs, Liam
sat in the front row with his hands cupped
around his jaw and a distinctly unhappy look on
his face. ‘You might say I’ve got to be here, but it
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doesn’t mean I have to join in or enjoy it’ was the
message that was conveyed to the audience. Half
way through, he got up and went and sat on
Dad’s lap for the rest of the concert. It was
obviously too much too soon for my ‘slow to
warm up’ lad. Fortunately after the Christmas
holidays, when he came back to preschool, he
settled in very quickly, with little or no separation
anxiety. It’s almost like he knows what to expect
now so it’s ok to be here.
Liam is starting to form a friendship. He has
started playing with one particular child Alex. I’ve
asked his teacher who he was so we can foster
this friendship outside preschool too. He will talk
about Alex being his friend and looks forward to
seeing him at preschool. Over the two years he
was at preschool he has spent much of his time
with him and seems to prefer his company over
any other child.
Preschooler 2
Preschooler 3
I am beginning to see a number of different prosocial behaviours. We have lots of discussions on
being kind to people and why we are kind to
others. He is beginning to be able to empathise
when people are upset. Saying this however he
seems to fight with his sister just as much. They
both want my undivided attention at times which
makes it difficult. Liam is anxious to keep up with
his big sister in all pursuits. He will copy her in
most situations and can be frustrated if he can’t
do what she is able to do. However he often
seems to be able to complete many of the skills
she is able to do at an earlier age.
Social development through the school years
A child navigating through the social minefield of school has the opportunity to
refine many of the skills they have been exposed to in preschool. They are usually
exposed to a much larger number of people, both adults and children, on a daily
basis. School brings a whole new set of norms and behaviours that must be learnt
for the child to be able to interact appropriately.
School-aged children are usually being influenced greatly by their peers. Inclusion
or exclusion from games and friendships seems to be a common bargaining tool
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to manipulate others to come around to their way of thinking. At this stage
children see friendships as meaning ‘you have to do what I do and think and say
the types of things that I say’. A sensitive caregiver is required in these situations
to help children come to terms with the differences between them and also help
them value and respect the differences in others.
Working out what the rules of not only the classroom but the playground are and
conforming to them is often a major challenge for some children. Some seem to
effortlessly glide through this process; other children tend to find their initial days
(and many subsequent ones) a social battleground.
As a carer we need to be ensuring that we are discussing the different situations
that arise within children’s lives in the playground. Why do people behave in
these ways? What can you do about it? How should you react? What is socially
appropriate in this situation?
Within the school-aged range, children are able to form friendships and work
together in groups to achieve a range of goals. They understand the social
pragmatics of socially appropriate behaviours but will still test the boundaries and
limits set for them.
Activity 8
Monitoring progress in social
development of individuals and groups
How do we monitor the social progress of the children in our care?
Of course the most obvious answer is through gathering information about the
children. There are a variety of methods of gathering information that you can use
to document and monitor children’s social development. Both formal and
informal methods of observation can be used. We can also gather information
from secondary sources and build up background information about the child to
supplement direct observations of children. Valid, reliable and authentic
documentation will go a long way to helping us determine the social capabilities
and well being of the children in our care.
So which methods are better for gathering information about the child’s social
development? Narrative and open-ended methods of observation such as running
records, anecdotes and jottings can be very useful. Checklists and rating scales can
help us focus on particular behaviours and characteristics of development but are
closed ended and therefore the amount of information they provide is limited.
Sociograms and time and motion studies are effective for collecting information
about social interactions and emotional behaviour. Sampling methods let us focus
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on specific behaviours so we can analyse their patterns of occurrence or identify
the triggers and reinforcers associated with the behaviours.
Annotated photographic studies and work sample collections can also be used to
document aspects of social development and give insights into the emotional
wellbeing of the child. These methods also allow children to be more directly
involved in the observation process. They can revisit their learning in particular
situations and the observation process can be enriched by recording their
comments and insights. Photographs of children engaged in group activities allow
them to see and talk about themselves as part of a social group.
You can find out more information about observing, interpreting and
documenting information about children in the relevant chapters of the Exploring
and Extending texts. There are also many texts which specifically address
observation methods - see the resource section at the front of this learner guide
as well as the reference list.
http://siksik.learnnet.nt.ca/PDF/02_K-12/StudentEval/0022972.PDF
http://para.unl.edu/para/Observation/Intro.html
When observing children and trying to identify their social development, the
following list of significant behaviours will be a useful reference.
Infancy
Toddlerhood
Preschool
School age
first social smile
actively explores
environment
may be unsettled in
new situations
uses caregiver as a
secure base to
explore environment
begins to demonstrate
prosocial behaviours
able to interact with a
large range of people
and situations
successfully
initially happy to be held
or fed by anyone
responds socially to
games and tickles
temperament type
emerges
demonstrates
attachment behaviours
demonstrates stranger
anxiety
demonstrates separation
anxiety
uses cues of others to
gauge response to new
situations (social
referencing)
36
recognises self in
mirror
develops secondary
attachments
still may
demonstrate
stranger or
separation anxiety
can share and take
turns with others
development of
friendships
imitates behaviours of
others
can work in small
groups with other
children
learning the ‘rules of the
playground and school’
able to share and take
turns
developing a range of
friendship groups
self-esteem developing
imitates behaviour of
others
developing selfconcept and selfesteem
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How does this information help you plan for social experiences? There are a
number of situations where you will need to plan for social development. These
may include:
•
•
•
•
new children settling in
dealing with group situations
entry to play situations (access rituals)
dealing with inappropriate behaviour.
Now it’s time to practise your skills in planning for a child’s social development.
Observe some real children and begin to practise interpreting those observations.
Promote and support the use of social
skills relevant to the transition to school
for children of an appropriate age
Transition to ‘Big School’
Social readiness is seen as a key factor in children starting kindergarten in
Australian schools. In the past children were expected to start school in the year
they turned five. Now day’s parents have the choice to send their child in the year
they turn five or as late as the year they turn six. NSW public schools have a cut
off date of 31st July. If a child turns five previous to this they may start school in
that same year. Any child turning five after the 31st July must begin school in the
following year. Some schools offer a program called ‘Kindy Start’. This is a
program where children attend school for a half day session, once a week over a
number of weeks. During this time children are observed and monitored for their
readiness for school. Catholic schools have a system of assessing children for their
readiness and interviewing parents prior to the child beginning school.
Signs a child may be ready are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
When the child has reasonable control over their behaviour
The child can cope with minor problems
The child can seek help from adults when required
The child can occupy themselves
The child can solve simple problems on their own
The child shows respect for others belongings (toys, games etc)
Can initiate contact with other children to create friendships
Activity 9
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Appendix 1: Learning centres
Learning centers are areas of space, both indoors and outdoors with a particular
collection of materials and resources designed to encourage children to explore
and learn at their own pace. They are usually planned around an interest of a child
or group of children or set up to challenge and stimulate the children to explore
and investigate the possibilities. Learning centres provide opportunities for
integrated learning across all areas of development.
Some learning centres will be set up for weeks or longer, with additions or
subtractions as the children’s interest, learning and development of skills
develops. Others might last only a few days. If it is not possible to leave learning
centres available at all times (space restrictions), set up the learning centres in the
same place every day – predictability and sureness are important for children.
Setting up areas
Reading area
Reading area
This would be a space in the environment which is comfortably furnished and
inviting to both children and adults. It needs to be able to accommodate a child
looking at a book alone, with a couple of other children or with an adult. This area
should be situated away from high traffic areas and in a quieter space in the
environment with boundaries created to give the area an ‘enclosed’ and special
feel.

38
Furniture and accessories may include a sofa, large cushions, book stands,
soft rugs, fabrics draped over to form a canopy and maybe a table where
children can sit and read if they choose.
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
Pictures, posters and photographs can enhance the area/environment
when they are associated with children’s interests.

In the book area, rather than changing all the books at once,
consideration should be given to the interests of the whole group of
children and develop their knowledge with the inclusion of new books.

Displaying and caring for books is an important aspect of this area. Books
need to easily accessible to the children and displayed at their eye level.
Display the books facing outwards and maintain an aesthetically appealing
aspect, replacing the books on the shelf after use. If books are piled one
on top of another, this is giving the children a message that books are not
important. Talk with children about caring for books and model respect
for these resources.
Writing area
Writing area
A table with a variety of pens, pencils and papers, envelopes, computer, examples
of print forms, staplers, paper clips, bookmaking, hole puncher (this may be
transferred to the creative area). Store these materials attractively in small boxes
or small baskets on shelving close by.
Creative area
Creative area
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Set up in an area with open shelves so that children can access a variety of
materials easily- paste, paints, scissors, sticky tape, string or wool, collage
materials (you may wish to present these in colour coordinated shades), easels,
table, drying racks, examples of beautiful art work on display, noticeboards for
children to display their work, pens, bookmaking, hole puncher (this may be
transferred to the writing area). Again, make sure the materials are stored in
attractive containers.
Nature area
Nature area
Set up in a quiet but noticeable area with shells, pieces of seaweed al placed on a
tray of sand, books on shells and the beach, pictures of shells and the seaside,
magnifying glasses, a poem about the beach written on a poster on the wall and
materials for children to use to draw or paint the things they see.
Visual arts areas
Visual arts area
Visual arts areas are always present in preschool and long day care settings,
though may be known as the craft or collage area. They provide a perfect
opportunity to develop social skills. Some considerations when setting up the area
include:

40
craft trolleys can be positioned so that children working on different
activities can share and discuss their choices, ask others to help them find
some item, etc
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
craft should allow for children to make choices about whether they want
to work on their own or with others on a group project

adults should be involved in group projects, using opportunities to
encourage children to cooperate, resolve any conflicts or disagreements,
discuss their work and plan together.
Working with older children allows you to further extend both children and the
environment. Some adjustments to a craft area for older children include:

involving children in planning craft activities, eg group collages, posters or
construction works

allowing children to bring in ideas and materials to discuss and to develop
ideas around

letting children develop, write out and display their own agreed rules for
activities in the visual arts area

making activities more functional, eg posters for a dance or holiday care
activity.
A designated area for feltboards and pieces, magnet boards and pieces, letters
and symbols, pictures and charts, puppets, book making materials.
All of these can be integrated into other learning centres. Remember, an
integrated approach encompasses all areas of learning.
Clay area
A special space where the clay and tools can stay (perhaps in a small cupboard)
continuously. Children can revisit the area to continue their works, with clay in
accessible bins, tools to use with clay, a little water in small containers to moisten
the clay, book showing pictures of made clay pieces or objects that the children
are interested in, to use as provocations. A nearby display of claywork to remind
children of previous experiences.
Music centre
Music area
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Music centres for preschoolers can:

be set up as a permanent area with a wide range of instruments on open
shelves

provide a choice of instruments for children to be able to access in small
groups—ensure multiple instruments are available so different children
can play the same instrument at the same time

have a variety of music for children to play along to in small groups.
Provide a range of CDs for children to choose from collaboratively.
For older children:

provide blank manuscript paper so children can collaborate with others
and the teacher to compose their own music

encourage children to form a band and learn songs or accompaniment to
songs

include more tuneful equipment such as a keyboard or guitar.
There is potential to foster children’s social development in all activities,
structured or unstructured, in the child’s day. Children’s individual abilities to use
these opportunities will vary according to whether they are shy, aggressive, have
friends in the activity, or just how they are feeling at the time. However, the skill
of the adult in supporting their social development is a crucial part in allowing
them to get the most from activities.
Science and technology area
This would be an area when children can explore the natural and physical world
by observing, classifying, communicating, measuring and making predictions. It
should foster a ‘hands-on’ approach rather than in producing an end product.
Science and technology involves:
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
discovering living things, for example, human body, animals, plants and
insects.

experiences that require exploration and experimentation of forces,
motion, machines, wheels, light and sound.

investigating and exploring the natural world such as: weather, soil,
rocks, sun and moon.

discovering and exploring how things work such as: pulleys, gears, ramps,
inclines, wheels, balance scales, nuts and bolts, machines, connectors,
magnets, electrical circuits and switches, electricity, telephones,
computers, digital equipment, household electrical products and so on.
The list is endless.

observing and analysing experiences that involve dissolving, evaporating,
changing shape/consistency, heating, mixing, freezing and absorption.
Cooking experiences are an important component of this topic.
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The science and technology area should be set up with equipment to facilitate
children experimenting with all these concepts. Equipment need not be expensive
and can include such items as: magnifying glasses, magnets, prisms, torches,
kaleidoscopes, bots, screws, springs, compass, microscopes, scales, tweezers,
stethoscope, bones, shells, globe of the world…
A ‘medical centre’ children dressed as medical staff, a skeleton and other
medical equipment
Displays
Displays can enhance children’s learning when associated with children’s interests
and emerging skills. Display children’s work and quality adult objects nearby to
the learning centres.
Using learning centres
Learning centres have an important role to play in developing children’s problemsolving skills. Learning centres can be set up for children of any age or ability. Even
infants have commercially-made ‘learning centres’ that can be purchased for
them, consisting of knobs, buttons and dials that can be manipulated in different
ways to make a variety of noises. You can make similar learning centres for small
children yourself with items such as bicycle bells and cotton reels on sticks—the
same principle of exploration can be applied to all age groups.
A learning centre is like a study area, somewhat separate from the free-play areas
in order to invite quiet reflection or discussion with others. Learning centres
encourage problem solving and learning in an open-ended manner, providing a
range of materials and resources for children to pursue current interests. Learning
centres may from time to time focus on particular areas of group interest such as
outer space or volcanoes, but at other times it will be the focus of individual or
small-group research into the world around us. The focus of topics within a
learning centre should be open and child-centred, not imposed by adults who
think it is time to ‘do’Spring.
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Learning centres can be an area where there are a variety of tools and resources
to pursue an idea, eg general information books, paper and pencils or crayons,
books for collecting information, perhaps a computer. Children should feel
comfortable about asking for or choosing any materials they need for their
research. Caregivers should be alert to what topics are being pursued at the
learning centre in order to help with resources.
Consider the following example:
David and Bronwyn are discussing what they did on the weekend. David
said his Auntie gave him a kite that is great to fly. Bronwyn says she would
like a kite and David suggests they make one. The caregiver says she has a
book of paper-kite designs they could look at in the learning centre. They
might like to try some of the designs with the paper there, but they can
come and get her if they need any help.
Having an area dedicated to learning and problem solving at all ages indicates to
the children the importance you put on this part of their development.
Encouraging children to try things for themselves also indicates a respect for their
abilities; at the same time, help should be freely available and children should feel
comfortable asking for it when needed.
Dramatic play area
This learning area provides children with opportunities to roleplay and imitate the
world around them.
Older infant dramatic play will focus on direct imitation with familiar items that
reflect the child’s home and cultural environment.
Toddler dramatic play extends on the familiar home and cultural environment
themes to include bathing dolls, washing up and dress-up clothes. Other familiar
and relevant focuses such as simple shops, hairdressers and the bus or train are
introduced
Pre-schooler dramatic play is more imaginative and complex involving focuses
that are familiar as well as new and unfamiliar. Concepts such as school, hospitals,
camping and space travel could be used to extend the children’s play.
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Dramatic role play in a restaurant: children acting as waiters and diners
School-aged children will enjoy experimenting with clothes, costumes and
dramatic roles. Focuses will usually reflect the children’s current interests as
talent quests, singing and dancing competitions and comedy skits.
Physically active play area
This learning area provides children with opportunities to develop confidence
using their existing and emerging gross motor skills. Once the key gross motor
skills (walking, running, jumping, hopping etc) are evident, the child is offered
opportunities to enhance their stamina, flexibility, co-ordination, spatial
awareness and balance.
For infants, physically active play needs to focus on supporting emerging
locomotion skills and developing muscle control and strength.
For toddlers, physically active play needs to focus on engaging toddlers’ active,
exploration of their newly found mobile abilities. Provide simple activities that
offer repetitive opportunities to practise emerging gross-motor skills.
For pre-schoolers, physically active play need to consist of safe activities that
challenge the child’s existing skills and extend their ability to integrate a number
of gross-motor skills together.
Challenging gross motor skills
For school-aged children, physically active play should focus on developing
confidence and participation in gross motor leisure and sport pursuits.
Opportunities to practise specific skills related to specific games and sports should
be made available.
Manipulative play learning area
Infant manipulative play focuses on supporting emerging fine motor and
manipulative skills, including eye-hand co-ordination.
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Toddler manipulative play focuses on offering opportunities for toddlers to
practise existing and emerging fine motor and manipulative skills. Simple activities
that focus on fine motor, manipulative skills required for self-help tasks are ideal.
Pre-schooler manipulative play focuses on offering opportunities to practise and
extend the child’s existing fine motor and manipulative skills. Children in this age
group need to develop a preferred hand to consolidate these skills and develop
stamina and control. Using additional equipment such as scissors and drawing
implements with precision is also an important emerging skill.
For school-aged children, manipulative play focuses on offering opportunities to
children to extend their fine-motor and manipulative skills by applying them to
specific leisure tasks and activities.
Literacy learning area
Infant and toddler literacy focuses on carer interactions and revolves around
conversations, songs and fingerplays between infants and carers. The sharing of
good quality picture books and poster/picture discussions where the carer takes
an active role is crucial to the child’s developing understanding of language.
Labelling of key objects and using key words, such as ‘toilet’, in the child’s first
language is also critical. The ability to pick up a book and ‘read and look’ at it from
left to right is also an important focus that is learnt spontaneously.
Pre-schooler literacy extends to include opportunities to integrate existing literary
skills with new emerging skills. Pre-reading skills such an emerging understanding
of the relationship between spoken and written words and their meaning is an
important focus. Interest in other languages and other methods of writing also
emerges. Pre-schoolers also use their manipulative and fine-motor skills to ‘write’
with writing implements.
School-aged children enjoy creating meaning using their literacy skills. Leisure
pursuits that involve written self-expression are popular—eg, writing letters,
making cards and sending emails.
Creative art learning area
Infant creative art learning areas should primarily focus on opportunities for
exploratory play involving sensory manipulative materials.
Toddler creative art learning areas continue to focus on sensory manipulative
materials and exploratory play with a gradual move toward art activities requiring
the use of specific equipment—eg, the use of paint-brushes, dough rollers etc.
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Pre-schooler creative art learning areas should provide opportunities for
exploration and choice. Children are given opportunities to engage in self-chosen
art activities that interest them and challenge their emerging creativity and
imaginative skills. An emergence of goal orientated art and craft is evident.
School-aged children will enjoy opportunities to choose provisions and art
activities.
Maths learning area
To extend children’s emerging cognitive skills and problem solving abilities we
may introduce opportunities to learn key mathematical concepts. We can
introduce opportunities to develop:

pattern making

sequencing

ordering

one-to-one correspondence

rational counting

grouping by a specified criterion.
Comparative concepts related to length, weight and height can also be
introduced. You can also introduce the use of scales and rulers for weights and
measures. Monetary concepts and measurement of time are examples of other
challenging additions to this area.
Science and technology learning area
Research indicates that children from as young as two years have an awareness of
technology based items such as television, video recorders, cameras, mobile
phones, computers, game consoles. The introduction and use of these provisions
needs to be carefully considered. Many of the learning possibilities offered by
these provisions are best suited, and most valuable, to older pre-schoolers and
school-aged children who have had previous opportunities to participate in
beneficial social free play.
There are limitless learning possibilities in this curriculum area. Any focus should
come directly from the children’s interests and enquiries.
Toddlers and younger pre-schoolers will be fascinated by familiar events and
discoveries such as weather patterns, bugs, gardening, sea creatures, and floating
and sinking objects.
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Older pre-schoolers will begin to hypothesise about their discoveries and
interests. They will enjoy opportunities to test hypothesises using simple science
experiments such as water evaporation or magnets. Other interests might include
the life cycles of frogs and machinery and how it works.
School-aged children make gigantic leaps in this area and may develop interests in
a variety of subject areas such as electricity, bodily systems, mechanics and fuel
powered systems. As their awareness of their wider community increases,
interests in topics such as recycling, pollution, endangered animals, nuclear
power, and water conservation may develop.
Here are a variety of indoor and outdoor centres
Learning area
Outdoor learning area
Learning area
Visual arts learning area
Outdoor learning area
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Learning centre
Learning area
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Learning area
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Appendix 2: Planning experiences in
children’s services
How do we actually know what to plan? Throughout the day you will be observing
the children according to a system set down by the service you are in. Planned
experiences should be based on our observations and information gained about
children. You need to look at the skills the child is capable of and ask yourself how
you can extend this child. You may also need to help a child develop some specific
skills. Remember, though, the Curriculum Framework cautions us about taking a
deficit approach. We need to be always seeing the child as capable and
resourceful.
The planning cycle can look something like this:
Planning cycle
Round with arrows connecting the words: observe; determine strengths, interests
and emerging skills; plan provisions; implement experiences; evaluate
Your plans may be based upon any of the following:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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the observed interests of the children
social, cultural and community values and happenings
people in the social environment
teachers’ interests
things in the physical environment
all the daily tasks of living together
curriculum resource materials
a new idea or topic
following up an unexpected or interesting event.
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All your plans, however, should clearly link back to the children that you are
observing and documenting.
Read the section beginning ‘A word about documentation, planning and
evaluation’ on page 133 of NSW Curriculum Framework.
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCSWR/_assets/main/documents/childcare
_framework.pdf
Here the author discusses and describes the approach taken in the Framework to
documentation, planning and evaluation. Think about the following:
•
•
•
•
Why is careful planning important? Why do we need to document it?
Why does the Framework recommend several different ways of collecting
information?
What should you be doing when observing children?
Where will you be gathering your information?
From reading the information in the Curriculum Framework you should see that
there is much more to providing for children’s emotional development than just
providing a series of activities. Over the past few years we have seen changes
occurring in planning and programming in children’s services. Older methods of
planning were based upon fostering observable skills and behaviours. These
planning formats would have you writing very specific behavioural objectives.
With this method it can be easy to fall into the trap of the deficit approach.
Current methods of planning tend to be more holistic and de-emphasise
outcomes, focusing on creating a broad range of possibilities and opportunities
for children.
These methods ask you to identify a ‘learning intent’, a ‘planning focus’ or a
‘teaching point’. The main things to keep in mind are why you are providing the
activity and what you think or hope the children will get out of it. What are the
‘learning opportunities’?
In order to do this you need to be observing the children very closely and
documenting the information you find. Curtis and Carter (2000) (p xvii) tell us:
‘becoming a keen observer is a way to learn child development, to find curriculum
ideas and meet requirements for assessing outcomes. It’s also a way to keep from
burning out in a stressful job.’
They go on to say in another section: ‘Working with children in this way is quite
different from focusing on the pre-planned goals and objectives of most
curriculum books. It also goes beyond traditional observation practices in early
childhood setting, in which teachers collect data primarily for the purpose of
assessment and measuring outcomes. While this is a valid use for observing, it is
more limited … .’ (Curtis and Carter (2000) p 2)
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You need to be very aware of and involved with the children in your care in order
to plan effectively. It’s not enough to do just a running record and come up with
an activity idea.
As a child studies learner, you are required initially to use a planning format that
contains some very specific information. While this type of plan is not used in the
field on a day-to-day basis, as a learner it is vital to master it to ensure that your
experiences are carefully thought out as well as being developmentally
appropriate. You will need to check with your facilitator about the exact planning
format they expect you to use.
Experience plan format
You will find that most experience plan formats will have space for the following
information.
Plan number
Number each experience plan for easy access and cross-referencing to
developmental data.
Experience name
Name your experience to give the reader some idea of the type of experience that
it will be. This will allow you to cross-reference also.
Child or children
Give the names and ages (years and months) of the children for whom the
experience is planned. For a large group, indicate an age range rather than
individual names and ages.
Reasons for your experience
•
•
•
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Clear, appropriate reasons justifying why you have chosen this experience
need to be explained. These should be based on the specific skills,
capabilities and interests of the children.
Briefly describe what you have seen or know about the children that
justifies the experience.
Cross-reference to observation, background information, journal entries,
previous experiences offered, etc, to clearly showing how your plan links
to what is known about the children.
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Identify developmental priorities or learning
opportunities
Give details of the area of development that you are intending to support and/or
the things that you want the children to learn from this experience. These
priorities or opportunities should indicate the main focus of the experience but
not predetermine or limit the learning opportunities children may experience.
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
for this experience
You need to give enough information about the appearance, location, timing,
supervision, guidance and limits required, health and safety considerations and
materials so that someone else might easily implement the experience.
How will you involve the child in the experience?
You must describe the procedures and strategies you will implement to support
development and learning in enough detail so someone else could implement
your plan.
Some questions to answer when completing this section include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
For group experiences how will you gather the children together, settle
and gain their attention?
What steps need to be followed to implement the experience?
What is your role? What will you do and say during the experience?
What strategies will you use to promote and reinforce learning?
How will the end of the experience be communicated to the children if
appropriate?
How will you finish the experience and move the children onto another
experience?
Is there any cleaning up to do?
Reflection and evaluation of the experience
There are three main things to address in the evaluation:
•
•
What the child did—Did they enjoy the experience? How exactly did they
respond? Be specific and give specific examples. Briefly describe what
actually happened.
What you did—Were you effective in your role? Was your preparation
and planning effective or could it be improved? Did you follow the
children’s lead? Did you say and do the right things?
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•
Whether the experience supported the areas of development and
learning you identified in planning—perhaps the child went well beyond
your expectations. Why were you successful or otherwise? Did you need
to modify your plan in any way? Did you provide a suitable learning
environment?
Follow-up ideas
Suggest follow-ups in terms of children’s needs and interests or what you may
need to do to improve your own performance.
Here is a blank Experience plan
Experience Plan
Learner’s name:
Plan number:
Name of experience:
Date/s presented:
Number of children:
Names and age of children:
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
Identify developmental priorities/learning opportunities
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
How will you involve the children in your experience?
Reflection/evaluation of the experience
Follow up ideas
Case study: Jaiyra
It is time now to practise writing experiences for children. The first place to start is
our observations. Here is the developmental summary of 23-month-old Jaiyra
which was described in the framework document:
http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/DOCSWR/_assets/main/documents/childcare
_framework.pdf Page 135
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Developmental summary for Jaiyra
Name: Jaiyra
Age: 23 months
Date: February 2002
Contributing information:
Aleisha (mum), Scott (dad),
Susannah (teacher)
Categories of info
Notes
Provisions
Family situation,
religion, culture,
current events, other
Baby Cody now 8 mths,
grandparents visited for 4 weeks
– left two weeks ago. J is the
eldest grandchild & grandparents
spent a lot of time with him. At
home is challenging all requests,
mother thinks he has realised
that he has to share her time and
attention now that Cody is more
active and sleeps less.
Extra attention where possible, as he
misses this.
Recent
accomplishments,
successes,
achievements
Increasing vocab. Speaks clearly,
manages self-feeding with ease
using fingers, excellent climber
Encourage use of language, acknowledge
success in eating, provide opportunities
to climb safely – watch him when he is
outside in the older children’s play area,
as he will try to climb anything.
Major developmental
tasks currently working
on
Enjoys talking, interested in large
motor skills, particularly climbing
and running, having trouble
coping with sharing adults’
attention.
Engage in conversations, try to give extra
attention.
Main interests
Enjoys books. Spends time
‘reading’ by himself. Asks for new
books to be read aloud to him.
Ensure books are of interest to him; try
to find books about babies.
Particular strengths
Language skills
Lots of conversations, as above, and
opportunities to climb safely.
Climbing skills
Challenges
Coming to terms with Cody’s
increasing competence. J
challenges adults here and at
home. Is having trouble
separating from mum.
Give choices where possible; be firm
when there can be no choice. Be sure
adult is able to help J and his mum
separate. Establish a ritual and try to
stick with it.
Likes and dislikes
Loves fruit and enjoys books
See above
Other
Mum and Dad seem pretty
worried.
Try to reassure parents that J’s
behaviour is normal for age; give them
all the good news about J that we can.
Some provisions that might be suitable for Jaiyra include:
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•
•
•
dramatic play area set up as a home with babies, change tables, clothes
and other ‘baby’ items.
Read book about a new sibling. Talk about new babies and how people
feel when a new baby comes along. As Jaiyra is only a toddler ensure
language simple and appropriate.
When ever possible label emotion terms so he can begin to match his
feelings with the words. Tell him what other people are feeling.
After looking at the above provisions it is time to plan one of them. Practise doing
so yourself and then at the end of each section compare your answers with mine.
Please remember our ideas may be different but it doesn’t necessarily mean yours
are wrong. Check all the way through that you are putting an emotional emphasis
on the plan and have sufficient detail. Someone else should be able to pick up
your plan and do it as you have planned.
Let’s start by choosing one of the above experiences. Begin with the dramatic
corner being turned into a baby bathing/changing/feeding area.
Jaiyra: dramatic play experience
Planning format
Learner’s name: MS
Plan number: One
Name of experience: Babies/Dramatic play
Date/s presented: 4/10
Number of children: One
Names and age of children:
J (23 months)
Reasons for choosing this experience
In this section we need to be giving clear, appropriate reasons justifying why we
have chosen a particular experience. These should be based on the specific skills,
capabilities and interests of the children. We also need to cross-reference to our
observations and background information.
There may be several reasons why you have chosen a particular activity. You may
have planned one activity for a number of different children but for a variety of
different reasons. It may be a physical experience for one child but a
social/emotional activity for another, and yet for another there may be a
problem-solving emphasis.
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Jaiyra: reasons for choosing the dramatic play area
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
In the observations of Jaiyra, he appears to be unsettled by the arrival of a new baby and
the challenges of dealing with this situation. He appears unsettled when Mum leaves and
seeks adult attention. By involving him in caring for a baby, I am hoping to give J the
opportunity to care for a baby and take on a nurturing role.
There is no one right way to write a rationale but generally it will include:
•
•
•
the observation/s that the experience relates to
clear, valid reasons for doing this experience
brief background information if appropriate.
Developmental priorities or learning opportunities
In this next section we need to identify the details of the area of development
that we are intending to support and the skills or learning we want the child to
experience. The priorities or opportunities should indicate the main focus of the
experience but should not predetermine or limit the learning opportunities that
children may experience. Remember you must link back to your reasons for
planning this activity. What do you want or expect the children to be able to
achieve? What might they get out of this experience?
My reasons for presenting the dramatic play area set up for babies for 23-monthold Jaiyra were based on the emotional domain, to give him the opportunity to
come to terms emotionally with having a new sibling.
Jaiyra: developmental priorities/learning opportunities
Identify developmental priorities/learning opportunities
Focus: Jaiyra will have the opportunity to express his emotions regarding a new sibling
through dramatic play.
Priorities/Learnings
caring for and nurturing a baby
labelling emotion words – happy, sad, grumpy
bathing a baby
When you look at your developmental priorities or learning opportunities you
should be able to say whether the experience supported the development of the
area and skills or learning that you had identified. If the developmental
opportunities or priorities were not demonstrated by the child then you need to
look at your observations and the experience to ensure that you are providing an
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experience that is developmentally appropriate for this child. Learners often find
this section one of the areas that requires most practice. Remember, when
identifying developmental priorities or learning opportunities you need to ensure
that they are specific and relate clearly to the reason and the observed needs,
capabilities and/or interests of the child.
Describe how you will set up the learning environment for this
experience
This should be one of the easiest sections to do. The key here is to be thorough. If
someone else is going to take your experience, they need to be able to prepare
for the experience appropriately. Therefore you need to be specific. What books,
songs or equipment are you going to use? Where in the room do you want to set
up the experience?
The preparation for Jaiyra’s experience might look like this:
Jaiyra: How I would set up the learning environment
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
Dramatic play area set up on outside verandah.
Clear away tables/chairs kitchen area and replace with bedroom furniture.
Have several cots set up with change mats on tables.
Ensure supply of cotton balls, water, towels, face cloths.
Have two baths with 5 cms of water on low tables.
Adult needs to remain with experience to provide support and encouragement at all times
and to supervise the water as many of the children in the room are nearly two or older.
How will you involve the children in the experience?
In this section you must describe the procedures and strategies you will
implement to support development and learning in enough detail so someone
else could easily implement this experience. What exactly are you going to do? In
what order? What questions are you going to ask? How are you going to
introduce the activity to the child? How will you conclude it?
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Jaiyra: How I will involve Jaiyra in the experience
How will you involve the children in your experience
I will invite Jaiyra into the dramatic play area by saying, ‘Jaiyra, come here and look at this.
Would you like to help me bath some babies?’ If Jaiyra appears to be willing I would take
him to the dramatic play area and say, ‘Look here, two baths and some babies to wash. Do
you want to give the baby a bath?’ I would wait for Jaiyra’s response. If Jaiyra is still willing
I would say: ‘What do we need to do first?’ I would accept Jaiyra’s response and then talk
him through the process. I would describe what Jaiyra is doing and reinforce how we need
to care for the baby, saying things like: ‘We need to carefully take off his clothes. Gently
wash him. Let’s give the baby a kiss.’ I will use words to convey emotional states whenever
I can. ‘The baby really likes getting a kiss, it makes him happy.’
I would stay with Jaiyra the entire experience, encouraging him to care for the baby, giving
him one-on-one attention. When Jaiyra has finished bathing the baby we would dress him
and put him to bed or feed him depending upon what Jaiyra says we should do. When
Jaiyra begins to lose interest in the experience I would transition him to another
experience of his choice.
Evaluation
The next part is the evaluation. Here you summarise exactly what happened. Did
the experience support the areas of learning and development you identified?
What could you have changed?
Jaiyra: evaluation
Evaluation
Overall the experience was very successful. Jaiyra was very keen to bath the baby and was
very talkative throughout the experience. He seemed to really like the one-on-one
attention. When another child wanted to join in, initially he seemed reluctant to let her. I
said, it’s ok Jaiyra, Sam just wants to bathe a baby too. There are two baths here so she
can use that one. While I was doing this I made sure that my arm was around Jaiyra giving
him physical comfort and reassurance that I was still there.
Jaiyra was able to successfully bathe the baby. He knew all the steps involved with bathing
the baby. I verbalised these throughout using words such as gentle and softly. I
emphasised the importance of not letting the baby put his head under. At the end of the
experience Jaiyra gave the baby a kiss and put him to bed. He appeared to be very
interested in the nurturing role and liked giving the baby some attention. We were able to
use a number of different emotional terms throughout the experience such as happy, sad
and angry.
Follow up
After we have evaluated the experience it is time to suggest follow-up
experiences or strategies in terms of children’s needs and interests or what you
may need to do to improve your own performance. They should link very closely
to the experience and may be a follow-on of this experience or something that is
on a different topic.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC503A: Reader LO 9309
© NSW DET 2010
59
Jaiyra: completed plan
Planning format
Learner’s name: MS
Plan number: One
Name of experience: Babies/Dramatic Play
Date/s presented: 4/10
Number of children: One
Names and age of children:
J (23 months)
Reasons you have chosen to present this experience
In the observations of Jaiyra, he appears to be unsettled by the arrival of a new baby and the challenges of
dealing with this situation. He appears unsettled when Mum leaves and seeks adult attention. By involving
him in caring for a baby, I am hoping to give J the opportunity to care for a baby and take on a nurturing
role.
Identify developmental priorities/learning opportunities
Focus: Jaiyra will have the opportunity to express his emotions regarding a new sibling through dramatic
play.
Priorities/Learnings
caring for and nurturing a baby
labelling emotion words – happy, sad, grumpy
bathing a baby
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
Describe how you will set up the learning environment
Dramatic play area set up on outside verandah..
Clear away tables/chairs kitchen area and replace with bedroom furniture.
Have several cots set up with change mats on tables.
Ensure supply of cotton balls, water, towels, face cloths.
Have two baths with 5 cms of water on low tables
Adult needs to remain with experience to provide support and encouragement at all times and to
supervise the water as many of the children in the room are nearly 2 or older.
How will you involve the children in your experience
I will invite Jaiyra into the dramatic play area by saying, ‘Jaiyra, come here and look at this. Would you like
to help me bath some babies?’ If Jaiyra appears to be willing I would take him to the dramatic play area
and say, ‘Look here, two baths and some babies to wash.’ Do you want to give the baby a bath? I would
wait for Jaiyra’s response. If Jaiyra is still willing I would say ‘What do we need to do first? I would accept
Jaiyra’s response and then talk him through the process. I would describe what Jaiyra is doing and
reinforce how we need to care for the baby, saying things like. ‘We need to carefully take off his clothes.
Gently wash him. Let’s give the baby a kiss.’ I will use words to convey emotional states when ever I could.
‘The baby really likes getting a kiss, it makes him happy.’
I would stay with Jaiyra the entire experience encouraging him to care for the baby giving him one on one
attention. When Jaiyra has finished bathing the baby we would dress him and put him to bed or feed him
depending upon what Jaiyra says we should do. When Jaiyra begins to lose interest in the experience I
would transition him to another experience of his choice.
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC503A: Reader LO 9309
© NSW DET 2010
Evaluation
Overall the experience was very successful. Jaiyra was very keen to bath the baby and was very talkative
throughout the experience. He seemed to really like the one on one attention. When another child wanted
to join in, initially he seemed reluctant to let her. I said, it’s ok Jaiyra, Sam just wants to bathe a baby also.
There are two baths here so she can use that one. While I was doing this I made sure that my arm was
around Jaiyra giving him physical comfort and reassurance that I was still there.
Jaiyra was able to successfully bath the baby. He knew all the steps involved with bathing the baby. I
verbalised these throughout using words such as gentle and softly. I emphasised the importance of not
letting the baby put his head under. At the end of the experience Jaiyra gave the baby a kiss and put him to
bed. He appeared to be very interested in the nurturing role and liked giving the baby some attention. We
were able to use a number of different emotional terms throughout the experience such as happy, sad and
angry.
Follow up ideas
Give Jaiyra more opportunities to care for the babies in a one-on-one situation. Use experiences like
feeding, nappy changing and other caregiving situations.
Gradually introduce other children to play alongside Jaiyra to share my attention. Plan experiences for
Jaiyra and one other child.
Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC503A: Reader LO 9309
© NSW DET 2010
61
References
Curtis D and Carter M (2000) The Art of Awareness: How observation can
transform your teaching, Redleaf Press, MN
Stonehouse A (2002) NSW Curriculum Framework for Children’s Services: The
Practice of Relationships: Essential provisions for children’s services, NSW
Department of Community Services, Office of Child Care. The Curriculum
Framework can be downloaded from the NSW Department of Community
Services’ website at http://www.community.nsw.gov.au.
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Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCFC503A: Reader LO 9309
© NSW DET 2010