Promoting Young Persons Development

Promoting Young Persons Development
Questions
When assessing development the following things need to be taken into account:
Confidentiality
Most parents are happy for observations to be carried out on their child. Yet they will not want people who have no involvement with their child reading the reports. This means any paper work, documents, observations or anything else that relates to the child, must be stored securely and any discussions about a child must only be done so with other colleagues and proffecionals who have the right to know.

Children’s wishes and feelings
All children have rights. There will be times when it won’t be appropriate to assess or observe a child. This could be if the child is upset, we would leave the assessment for another day. We must also always remember the way we write about the child while doing observations. A good tip is to ask ourselves if we would like a child in our family to be written in such language.

Ethnic, linguistic and cultural background
Sometimes the behaviours, skills and interests children are shown is dependent on their ethnic, cultural or linguistic background.

Disability or specific requirements
Children with disabilities or specific needs may need extra consideration when observations/ assessments are carried out. E.g. a child with dyslexia will need additional time to sit an exam. Not understanding a childs disability can lead a practitioner to underestimate the childs abilities.

Avoiding bias
It can be difficult when a practitioner has a strong relationship with a child to be objective. It is still very important that the childs development is properly assessed. In many setting a child is observed by different people, as they may notice other elements about the child.

Person centred approach
Person centred approach means that all plans that involve supporting an individual should be focused on their needs and interests. We should involve them in the planning process as much as possible.

Child centered approach
Child centered approach takes into consideration what is best for the child. It is also important not to segregate the child, when planning try plan activities that will involve other children aswell.

It is important to have a child centred approach when working with children and young people so that the child is always the main focus. We promote this in our setting by having regular planning meetings were we discuss individual children and what benefits they will gain from planned activities. We also offer one to one time where the child in focus does special exercises or planned activities.

Features of an environment that promotes the development of childen

High – quality policies in place and followed
The need for policies and procedures follows on from the need of settings to follow legislative requirements. Policies must be reviewed, updated and evaluated to check for effectiveness.

Meeting individual and group needs
As part of the requirement to personalise childrens learning and development opportunities, EYFS settings need to show how to meet individual and group needs.

Stimulating and attractive
Young children learn through using their senses. The environment for them needs to be visually attractive and interesting to them. Activities and play opportunities need to be stimulating.

Well planned and organised
Working with young children and babies requires you to be very organised. Every child has their own needs, interests and personality. They need the opportunity to explore. This is why we plan effecticely and everyone in the setting must be organised.

My own practice can effect children and young peoples development by:

Ensure all adults are aware of childrens development needs.

Plan activities to support every childs development

Have a good balance between child led and adult led activities.

Have good staff relationships.

Ensure enough time is given for one to one or small group work.

Five different approaches to supporting positive behaviour are:

Modelling: children learn a lot of their behaviour from adults, and those around them. We in the setting can promote this by being a good role model, always being polite and considerate and also showing patience. The negative side to modelling is we cannot always vet what a child sees or hears. They may not always have good role models at home. Things like television and computer games that are likely to be viewed by the child should always be evaluated.

Speech and language and communication difficulties: Children that have difficulty expressing themselves often find it harder to manage their behaviour. The positive to this is that once a delay or problem has been identified we can then work towards dealing with behaviour problems linked to the language delay. We can look at ways of improving communication by using pictures or systems such as makaton. Negatives are the delay itself, and having time to work with the child. although a qualified speech and language team will be requested.

Time out: The idea of time out is not to punish a child, but to give them time to calm down and step back from the problem. Older children benefit from time out, especially as an adult can talk to them and give them a reason as to why they need to calm down. The negative for this is that it does not work so well with younger children. It is also important that the child does not feel rejected. Reinforcing positive behaviour: children are more influenced by positive reinforcements than by punishments. Rewards for positive behaviour can be stickers, praise or extra attention. This works well as the child enjoys the praise they receive. The timing is crucial, a reward needs to happen quicky after positive behaviour. It is also important we don’t reward too often. The negative is that children can become persistant if the reward is given too often. They will come to expect something for positive behaviour rather than the behaviour becoming the norm.

Boundary setting and negotiation: For young children learning about behaviour is also about understanding boundaries. This works well with older children as they can help set the boundaries, it also helps children recognise and take responsibility for their actions. The negative is that with younger children we have to simply tell them the boundaries and reward positive behaviour.