The Holistic Care and Development of Children from Birth to Three

An Essential Guide for Students and Practitioners

Kathy Brodie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138211032
• eBook ISBN: 9781315453750
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Holistic Care and Development of Children from Birth to Three provides students and practitioners with the knowledge and understanding they need to meet the complex needs of babies and toddlers. With a focus on the fundamentally holistic nature of young children's development, and emphasising the role of play, and the emotional and physical environment throughout, the book shows its reader how to maximise each and every opportunity for learning when caring for the under threes.

The text addresses both theory and practice, foregrounding the vital link between the two as the reader learns how to integrate theoretical approaches into their own setting and ways of working. From personal, physical, social and emotional development, to cooperation with parents, SEN and enabling environments, a wealth of topics are discussed in the depth and detail required to ensure that children can be given the best possible start in their critical first three years.

Throughout the book, the following features help the reader to reflect on, and develop their own practice:

• 'Case Studies' put key topics in context
• 'Reflective Questions' help the reader test and consolidate their knowledge of key topics
• 'Review your Practice' boxes invite the reader to reflect on their own practice
• 'Further Reading and Research' suggestions inspire independent study in key areas.

The book is also supported by a companion website featuring links to relevant videos and articles, as well as an interactive flashcard glossary.

1 Introduction to holistic development

The first years of life are a critical opportunity for building healthy, resilient and academically competent children, young people and adults.

Burton, 2015

All areas of learning and development are intricately intertwined, young children develop and learn holistically and their emotional and social development seems to form the bedrock of other areas.

David et al., 2003: 76

Introduction

Children’s development from birth to three is an explosion of learning, growth and progression in every aspect. This is a vital time and getting it right at the very beginning lays the good foundations for subsequent development. This is being recognised more and more, especially with initiatives such as 1,001 (conception to age two years) Critical Days (Leadsom et al., 2013) and encouraging Early Years Teachers to work in baby rooms in preference to pre-schools (Hadfield et al., 2012).

The surge of young children’s development between birth and three may or may not match some theories, ‘norms’ or typical development for any number of reasons. Each child develops and learns uniquely, depending on their unique circumstances. Children in the same family experience life differently, depending on their sibling position in the family, the family circumstances, and living conditions at the time of their birth, their own biology, as well as any number of other situational differences. Even twins are likely to have different perspectives. There may be noted similarities when you start to observe children, but care must be taken not to over-generalise or apply theories unthinkingly. Part of supporting holistic development is not only recognising the links but also viewing development from many perspectives. Reflection and thought is essential to stop practice becoming too focused on one or two areas of development over all others.

Holistic development

‘Holistic’ goes across content (enjoying and making books comes under every area of the English curriculum, the Early Years Foundation Stage, for example) as well as the areas of learning and development. Working in the baby room or having babies in your setting requires practitioners to have an immense range of skills, for example: ‘being there’ both physically and emotionally; sustained interactions (talking, eye gaze, cuddles) with babies and adult conversations with parents; high levels of care and intuition to pick up on the small cues that indicate stress or happiness as well as thinking about early education. This complexity and variety of communications in a fast-changing environment means that the practitioners for this age group must be flexible, responsive and closely attuned with the children in their care. Yet practitioners in the baby room may still be the least valued in a setting (Powell and Goouch, 2012).

The importance of holistic development in the birth to three age range

Holistic means dealing with something as a whole, even if you can subdivide the whole into separate areas. Holistic child development is where every area of learning, development and growth is entwined with every other. For example, this can be envisioned as a ‘mat’ woven with the different threads of learning and development, as in the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum – Te Whāriki; or a complex spider’s web of criss-crossing strands of development, reinforcing and supporting each other to make a strong and resilient whole. In addition to New Zealand, Germany and Denmark both employ ‘a holistic perspective and objective for Early Childhood Education and Care, as do other Nordic countries, emphasising the importance of socio-emotional development’ (Wall, Litjens and Taguma, 2015: 41).

In practice, holistic development means that, right from birth, the learning, growth and development of young children are interdependent and concurrent. Babies and children don’t arbitrarily subdivide their learning into neat little boxes and choose one day to learn how to talk, the next day how to sit up and the next day to count blocks. This will all be happening all at once, in a matter of minutes in the life of a baby. However, there are some very well-recognised and researched groupings of areas of learning that seem to develop simultaneously. For example, ‘language and thought are developmentally linked and each promotes the development of the other’ (David et al., 2003: 13). Inevitably, the corollary to holistic learning is that if there are areas of developmental delay, this may influence the other areas of learning and development.

It is therefore proposed that the ‘pedagogy of care’ is the most appropriate for the birth to three-age group (Ionescu and Tankersley, 2016: 22), because care and learning are inseparable in this holistic approach.

Quality in the birth to three age range

Mathers et al. (2014: 5) identify four key dimensions of pedagogy when practitioners are working with the birth to three-age group:

1 Stable relationships and interactions with sensitive and responsive adults

2 A focus on play-based activities and routines which allow children to take the lead in their own learning

3 Support for communication and language

4 Opportunities to move and be physically active.

They go on to state five ‘key conditions’ for quality:

1 Knowledgeable and capable practitioners, supported by strong leaders

2 A stable staff team with a low turnover

3 Effective staff deployment (e.g. favourable ratios, staff continuity)

4 Secure yet stimulating physical environments

5 Engaged and involved families.

These findings probably reflect the pedagogy and good practice already in settings (for example, all three prime areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) are represented here). However, it is interesting to note that this research is drawn from reviews conducted in the US, Australia, New Zealand as well as the UK, demonstrating that quality and good pedagogy crosses international boundaries. Similarly, David et al. (2003: 14) note that practitioners are a key part of holistic care and development: ‘For babies and young children, being cared for and special to someone is important for their physical, social and emotional health and well-being’.

Quality interactions

Having ‘quality’ interactions with children is desirable at all ages. However, it can sometimes seem easier to sit talking to a chatty pre-schooler about their latest discovery or their newest toy than to have a quality interaction with a pre-verbal toddler who is still learning how to control his or her emotions. Nevertheless, any interaction, whether they are verbal or shared joint attention or proto-conversations, should always be considered to be a vital part of a baby or child’s holistic development.

Sustained shared thinking

Sustained shared thinking was defined as ‘an episode in which two or more individuals “work together” in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative, etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend’ (Sylva et al., 2004). Note that there is no age limit and that this is a two-way exchange, with both adult and child or baby getting something from the exchange.

Older toddlers can often be found having an in-depth conversation of their own devising, where they are trying to work something out together or negotiate a game plan.

Playful interactions

Not only do children need to play, but practitioners need to ensure that their interactions are playful, i.e. interactions rather than interrogations or interruptions or interference. This is especially important for younger children, because they don’t yet have the ability to walk away or ‘object’.

Educational curricula

Many curricula are moving towards birth, or even antenatal, care and education as the importance of birth to three is recognised. The guidance for the EYFS has been adjusted to reflect the wide range of progress that can be made during the birth to three age range. The Scottish curricula start at pre-birth, and in Wales the early years are defined as ‘the period of life from pre-birth to the end of the Foundation Phase’.

Early Years Foundation Stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS, 2017) is the statutory (mandatory) framework for all early years providers in England, maintained schools, non-maintained schools, independent schools, all providers on the Early Years Register and all providers registered with an early years childminder agency. The inspecting body for the EYFS is Ofsted (or for independent schools, their own inspectorate). The legal provision on which it is based is twofold – first the learning and development aspects of the framework and second the safeguarding and welfare. These are section 39(1)(a) of the Childcare Act (2006) and section 39(1)(b) of the Childcare Act (2006), respectively (EYFS, 2017: 3).

There are several supporting, guidance documents that accompany the statutory document, the most applicable being Development Matters (Early Education, 2012), which has guidance on child development so that practitioners can see at a glance the types of activities and environments that support children in the different areas of learning and development in various, overlapping, age bands. Development Matters also details the Characteristics of Effective Learning, which describe the ways in which the child engages with other people and their environment...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• A visual tour of The Holistic Care and Development of Children from Birth to Three
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction to holistic development
• 2 Personal, social and emotional development
• 3 Physical development
• 4 Language development
• 5 Play and holistic development
• 6 Early mathematical development
• 7 Cognitive development
• 8 Special Educational Needs
• 9 Suitable physical environments
• 10 Effective partnerships
• 11 What does the future hold?
• Index