Describe the development of children in a selected age range

At birth the child will need a lot of care. The child will not be able to do anything for themselves they have primitive reflexes such as sucking. By the time the child is 7 months they will be able to move their head on their own, and have stronger muscles they will be able to sit up without being held. The child might not be able to roll over or sit up from lying down yet. By 1 year the child should have learned to focus their vision, the child should be learning to walk by this age, some children will be able to walk on their own and other children may have to hold on to furniture to keep them stood up. The child would be able to hold things in the hand and pass the object from hand to hand. By 2 years the toddler should be able to follow simple directions.

They should be able to balance well and run and jump without falling over. They should be able to sort different objects by shape and colour. They should also be able to copy adult’s actions and express a wide range of emotions. By 3 years the toddler should be able to name different colours. They should have good balance and be able to hop. They should be able to say some words and be able to have a simple conversation. A 3 year old child should find it easy to pedal and steer a tricycle. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/toddlers2.html (2)

Age range 2 birth to 3 years – communication and language
At birth babies are not able to communicate with others through language, however they are communicating through gestures, sounds such as babbling and expressions, for example when they are hungry or the need their nappy changing they will cry and the parents will know what the child needs. By the time the babies are 3 months old they start to imitate the sounds they hear from other people. They will be close to saying words however will not be able to talk. At 6 months old the babies will start to be crying less and start to use their voice more to get attention, they will be starting to make coo sounds and babbling noises.

Describe the development of children in a selected age range, different from E1 and in two areas of development E2
Age range 1 – 3 – 7years’ – communication and language By the time children are 3 years they start to learn to play with other children the same age, part of this is because of their vocabulary, the children start to express themselves more although they will not be fluent in the English language by this time. They will also enjoy singing nursery rhymes a lot. By age 4 children will be very vocal and be able to have simple conversations with other people, although at this age some words could be hard from them to say. They will pick up new words easily when they have heard them. By 5 years the children will be able to have normal conversations with people, and will be learning to read and write, this will be difficult for the children at this stage as they might not be able to understand what they are meant to be reading or writing.

Age range 2 – 3 to 7 years – physical development
Age 4 children should be able to sort objects from smallest to largest in a line. They should be able to recognize some letters if they are taught about them, they might be able to write their own name. The 4 year old should be able to speak complex sentences and have normal conversations with other people. Age 5 children the child will have very good understanding with everyday life. The children will be able to hold a pen correctly when taught. They will want to ask lots of questions as they are very curious about different things. The child will be very active and want to run around a lot. The parent might notice that the child is become aware of what sex they are and might only want to play with children the same sex.

Age 6 children do not have much change from when they were 5 years old. The children will be able to write sentences, most of them will not need much help with writing words however with more complex words they will need help. The child will be starting to show that they want some independence, a chance to do things by themselves without being told how to do it. The child will want to have friends and the parent will see that their friends will not change each day; they will have to same friends every day. Age 7 children will want to make a lot of their own decisions; they will want to show other people what they are able to do. They will show a wide range of understanding, they will understand directions. They will be describing things in a detailed way. They will also be showing more concern for others before themselves.

Explain two theoretical perspectives relevant to the areas of development E3
Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky did a lot of research on child’s language development. His theory was that children are born with the ability to learn language rather than having to learn to learn language. “He was famous for suggesting that humans were born with language acquisition device (LAD). He said that this was not a physical part of the brain but a structure within the brain which allows babies to absorb and understand the rules of language” This is true, babies have no language, and as they get older they learn language in a certain order Throughout Chomsky’s experiment he found that if a child was not exposed to language throughout the first 10 years of life they would not be able to learn the rule of speech.

However there was evidence against this theory, for example a child called Genie was found at age 13; throughout her childhood she was punished when she made any sound, if she made a sound she would be strapped down. This means that when Genie was found she was not able to speak although she understood some words that were said. As she got older she made progress in speaking however she still did not understand the rules of speech. This evidence shows that children are able to learn speech after the critical first 10 years of life. Looking at this, I have observed children from a young age learning language and they seem to have the ability to learn words at a rapid rate. Arnold Gessell

Arnold Gessell theory was babies develop movement through three stages of their life.
1) Development follows a definite sequence
2) Development begins with the control of head movements and proceeds downwards
3) Development begins with uncontrolled gross motor movements before becoming precise and refined Gessell’s theory suggests that if babies do not carry out the procedures in the right order the child will not be able to progress effectively with their development. For example if the child does not gain control of their head they will not be able to sit up. I have observed that children are able and do seem to follow a certain pattern physically.

Show an understanding of diversity and inclusive practice
Structured narrative
A structured narrative is an observation concentrating on one child but also including children of the same ability. This observation includes giving the children an activity to do; I chose to ask them to move the hands on clocks to a time that I tell them. I thought it was a good idea to do this activity because it shows me how well the child I was observing done against the children with the same ability. Narrative

A narrative is an observation which is unplanned; this involves observing a child doing something with a friend or an adult. I chose to observe the child playing snakes and ladders with a friend. I wrote down everything the children were saying. This observation was interesting as it showed me how the child likes to communicate with their friends. Tick chart

A tick chat is an observation which includes doing an activity with a child, and writing down in a chart if they were able to do what was asked or not. I chose to show the child different coins. This observation was interesting as it showed me that the child was able to recognise a lot of different coins.

Explain how to maintain confidentiality throughout the observation
There are many ways that the practitioner can maintain confidentiality whilst doing an observation on a child. Whilst the practitioner is writing up the observation they will have to make sure they do not use the children’s names. They should not use the name of the setting in their write up. All the information about the children must be in a locked cupboard or a file on a computer with a password, the practitioner should make sure this happens. The information must not leave the setting. Before carrying out the observation the practitioner will have to make sure they have consent from the child’s parent saying that it is acceptable to observe the child.

Include references and a bibliography
1) Child care and education 4th edition
Tassoni P
First published in 2007
18/03/2013 10:41
“A holistic overview of development from birth to 16 years” “views of language development” – 20/03/2013 2:30
2) http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/toddlers2.html 12/03/2013 – 9:20
3) http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_par_012_language 16/03/2013 – 12:25
4) http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/positiveparenting/index.html 17/03/2013 –10:15
5)
23/03/2013 – 11:18

Discuss the child’s needs in relation to the selected area of development D1
Overview on observation 1
Looking at my first observation, I used the tick chart method. I chose to give the child different coins to see if he knew what the coins were. During this observation I found out that he was able to name all of the different coins however he did have trouble with some of them and it took longer for him to name them. Overview on observation 2

Looking at my second observation, I used the narrative method. I chose to observe the child playing snakes and ladders with his friend, this involved me writing down everything both the children said during the game. From this observation I noticed that the child was very enthusiastic about the game and new how to play it very well. During the game I noticed that he really wanted to win and was very excited when he was able to go up the ladders. At the end of the game he was happy that he won and started jumping up and down saying “I won I won”. Doing this observation it showed me that the child was able to read the dice and new how many times he had to move the counter and new what the snakes and ladders were used for.

Looking at my third observation, I used structured narrative method. I chose to observe a group of children changing the hands on a clock to a time which I tell them. This observation involved me telling the group a time to put on their clocks, and watching how well they do this. I based my activity more on one child rather than the whole group; I was observing how well the child done compared to the other children of the same ability. From this observation I noticed that the child was good at time, however I noticed that he struggled on times such as 5:25, I also asked them to do 6:40 to see if any of them knew what the ‘40’ meant, I noticed that one child from the group was able to do this. This is a good type of activity to do with children to see how much they have learnt from a certain topic. Comparison

Looking at the information from Meggitt et al (2004:95) children ‘begin to develop concepts of; time. From my information I can see that my child is able to change the time on a clock after being told. However he did not know some of the time, this will mean that he is learning the concept of time. Considering child’s needs

Looking at my first observation. By the time the child is 7 years old he should be able to recognise all different coins. The child is able to understand the different coins; I noticed that he was able to do this fairly quickly. Looking at my second observation. By the time the child is 7 years old he should be able to recognise the dots (numbers) on the die. He should also be able to know when his turn and his partners turn are. Looking at my third observation, by the time the child is 7 years old he should be able to understand the abstract concept of time. The child does have a good concept of time, however I have noticed that he doesn’t not understand 35 past and onwards.

Explain how the observations can be used to support planning to meet the child’s needs D2
First observation
Looking at this, I could ask my supervisor to do plan a lesson based around money. This lesson could involve the children having pictures of items they could buy from a shop with prices under them, the children could then have all the different types of coins and they will have to find the easiest way to get the right amount of money. Second observation

Looking at this, I could ask my supervisor to plan a lesson where the children could make their own game, writing the instructions with the game, and creating the board to play on. Third observation

Looking at this I would ask my supervisor to plan more activities to do with time so he can understand more about time. This activity could involve the teacher talking to them about the different times, pointing at a clock explaining what the times are, the children could then have clocks with different times on it, and they will have to write what the time is under the clock.

Analyse the issues which are essential to confidentiality and objective observation C1
It is essential for the practitioners to keep all information about any children confidential. All settings have to do observations on all children during their school years. The settings will also have policies and procedures to follow when doing observations.

When the practitioner decides a child needs to be observed they will have to get written consent from the child’s parent before they start the observation, they will need to get consent so the parent knows their child is being observed, also if the practitioner would like to take photos of the child doing the set activity. When they are carrying out the observation they will have to make sure they do not use the child’s name when they are writing about them. When they want to refer to the child in their write up they will have to use a letter or a number for example child A or child 1.

The practitioner should not use the child’s name in case for some reason the information leaves the setting, this is to protect the child’s privacy, also for the same reason they should not use the settings name. the practitioner must make sure that if the observation is hand written it must be in a locked cupboard, however if the observation is typed on a computer or laptop the practitioner must make sure it is saved in a file with a password, all practitioners that need to see the observation should know this password. All information must not leave the setting for any reason. If the child’s parent asks to see the results from the observation the practitioner will have to ask the parent to come in and see it.

Reflect on the implications for practice of the assessment of children through observation B1
There are many ways practitioner can assess children on their ability, one of them is through observation. There are also many things that the practitioner needs to worry about while preparing and doing the observation. When the practitioner is planning the observation she/he will need to think about the legal requirements set by the government. Legal requirements are;

Safe guarding the children
CRB check
Keeping all information about children in the setting locked away Data protection act 1998
The practitioner must make sure all of this is thought of during the preparation and running of the observation. Safe guarding the children will include not using the child’s name and using child A or child B. The practitioner must have an up to date CRB check in the settings files. After running the observation the practitioner must make sure that the information does not leave the setting and is also locked away, he/she must not talk about the observation to anyone outside of the setting. When planning the observation the practitioner will have to consider how he/she will undertake the observation with other children in the classroom.

They would have to think about what they would plan for the other children to do during the observation so they do not distract him/her. He/she will also need to make sure they know how many children they are observing. The practitioner will have to think about how they will carry out the observation, such as; will the child (ren) know they are being observed? Also how reliable is the observation, he/she will have to think if the child is just acting the way they are because they know they are being observed or is that how they are all the time? The practitioner may have to think if they will have to observe the child another time to see if the child acts the same or not.

Evaluate the influence of theoretical perspectives on aspects of practice which affects the development of children A
Piaget’s theory was put forward in 1896. His theory was that young children will answer questions wrong many times but in different ways until someone else or themselves prove that the answer they gave was wrong. For example a child might think that their teacher lives at the school because they always see her/him there and know where else, however the child will change the answer if they saw the teacher somewhere else such as the shop.(1) Piaget explained that children go through different stages and do not have the ability to understand different concepts, for example, if a child was shown 10 teddies in a line and were told that there were 10 teddies in the line, and then if someone moved the teddies so each teddy has a big space between them and asked the child how many teddies they think were now in the line, do they think there are more or less teddies than before.

The child would say there are more teddies because the line is longer. Piaget is suggesting that children will have to develop the understanding that thinks are not always what they appear to be. I have noticed that Piaget’s theory links to my setting. I have noticed this through teaching the children, when I ask them a question they may give the wrong answer until I or someone else explains to them how that answer they gave was wrong, they would then change to answer to the right one. I also noticed Piagets theory linked when I was doing my observation with a child about time, the child did not understand the concept of time because they could not see time. Bowlby had a theory about attachments; he believed that babies were born with an inherited need to form attachments. Bowlby believed that a baby’s first attachment would be their mother or father, this would mean the child would get very attached to one or both of their parents which would lead to feelings of anxiety. Bowlby also said that when the child started school they would become attached to their teacher.(5)

Bowlby’s theory could also link to children forming friendships with different children. When I did an observation on all children about who they were friends with, there were many children who didn’t have many friends within the classroom, this could possibly link back to poor attachment with parents.

Bowlby’s theory links to my setting with all of the children. I have noticed in my setting that all of the children are attached to the teacher. I noticed that there is one child in the class who is attached to one of the T.A’s. When I started my placement I noticed that the child was upset if the particular teacher wasn’t there.

Skinner had a theory about rewards and punishments. Skinner suggested that the way babies learnt to talk was through reinforcement for example if a baby were to make a gurgle noise he/she would get a smile or a ‘well done’ off of their parent this would mean the child would make this sound more often. However if the baby made a noise that no one understood they wouldn’t get any attention this would mean the child would stop making this noise. Skinner also suggested that positive behaviours are encouraged but sometimes it is not enough as children do not always respond to rewards, this could possibly lead to the child not doing that certain noise or action again.

This could also link to negative behaviour as some children may not receive attention when doing something/saying something even if it is not the desirable behaviour. I have noticed how Skinner’s theory links to my setting when I am teaching the children. I have noticed that if the child done something wrong such as running around the classroom and someone or myself tells them not to and that is was not a good thing to do they would not do it again. However if they were doing something right such as tidying the classroom without being asked if someone or myself praised them for this they would do this again.