Tda_2.2

Unit 2.1: Child and Young Person Development 1.2: Communication and intellectual development, for example, can be affected both positively and negatively by social, emotional and behavioural development. An example of this relates to a young pre-school boy that I know who does not seem to be given the opportunity to socialise with other children. This boy spends much of his time strapped in a pushchair when he could be running around with his older sister and her friends and their siblings after school during the period when children are allowed a bit of time to play on the school ‘trim trail’. This young boy is well able to walk, run etc. yet seems to have been conditioned to just sit, in a very passive manner, in his pushchair because that is what he always does when out with his mum, as this makes things easier for the mum. I have noticed that this boy is unresponsive when spoken to and that his speech is very late to develop. He does not have any known learning difficulties, but in my view has not been given ample chances to develop his communication and social skills and enjoyment because he does not spend time playing with other children / is not given ample chance to develop his communication skills through quality interaction with his mum. The boy also has a ‘dummy’ most of the time which I believe affects his ability to develop his speech at his age. A child who does not get enough opportunity to socialise and play with other children would have their communication development affected, and this for example, would in turn affect their social, emotional and behavioural development. A child who does not begin to practise interacting with others at the age before they get to a school setting would in my view very likely have their self esteem affected as they would find it hard to navigate the social ‘codes’ and norms for their peer group, and I think would become aware that they lack the skills to make friends, ‘read’ others etc. Also, in relation to the scenario I cite above I could also say that the lack of opportunity for free physical play and experimentation out of doors could very well also affect social, emotional and behavioural development in terms again of general self esteem, and more specific developments such as gross motor skills and social skills such as turn taking. Another relevant example here could also be the fact that many of the children in the year 1 class with which I work have been found to have quite poor ‘physical literacy’ skills. An example of one of the tests related to their ‘physical literacy’ is being able to push themselves up from the floor in a crab type pose. Many children lacked the strength (called ‘core’ strength) and the co ordination to be able to do this. When a child has not developed their gross motor skills they will find it harder to tune their fine motor skills to be able to write well[1] for example, which then affects their communication and intellectual development. 2.1: The kinds of influences that affect children and young people’s development include their social and economic background, health and their environment. For example, a child who comes from a very financially secure background is quite likely to have well educated parents, in turn it is also likely that these parents are able to model positive social behaviour for the child, who during their formative years will imitate this and will be likely to develop good and positive social and communication development. Their environment may also be contusive to encouraging positive social development; if they are from a financially secure background then there is a pressure and stress removed from their environment that could potentially have a positive effect on all of their general development, but of course if their emotional and physical development needs are not met (and these are not necessarily of course in any correlation to economic background) then any advantage the positive social behaviour may have benefitted from would be offset by the lack of these development needs being met. The areas of development are indeed clearly very intricately linked. If a child suffers from poor health, for example they live in a damp home and suffer bad asthma then their physical development is likely to be curbed as they may often be prevented from playing outside due to illness brought on by their asthma, for example or by the fear of their parents that they may make themselves ill by physically overdoing it. If a child lives in a very deprived general environment then they may miss out on opportunities to develop their social, emotional and behaviour development, such as taking part in out of school activities because their parents may not be able to afford to pay for them- e.g. Swimming lessons or dance lessons. Activities such as these can enhance a child’s self- esteem and social skills as well as promote and develop their physical development. Also in terms of their background and environment, the influence of economic situation is very important as an aspect that could affect children’s development: Parents with good financial security for example can choose what area they live in. In being able to do this they are able to choose to bring their children up in a better environment, in turn enhancing the opportunities for general positive child development. A ‘good’ area / environment will have less crime (less stress for families and safer; so giving children more freedom to develop), less anti- social behaviour (less negative models of behaviour), better accommodation (less stress for families and less likely to be an overcrowded situation), less litter and rubbish dumped (less negative behaviour for children to potentially imitate) and less graffiti etc (again less negative, disrespectful behaviour for children to potentially imitate). Families who have no choice where they live, for example they have been allocated social housing in an area which has a bad and negative environment have far less control over the aspects of life external to their immediate home life that will affect the development of their children, particularly in relation to social development as they grow older. 2.2: In relation to describing the importance of recognising and responding to concerns about children’s and young people’s development I can cite a situation that both the class teacher and myself within my work setting noticed and responded to. A boy joined our class being unwilling and seemingly incapable of doing things independently; including getting himself changed for p.e. At the age of 5 it is generally expected children can dress and undress themselves and it was a concern that this boy could not do it! The development aspects here were physical development- having the co ordination and it seemed strength to be able to pull jumpers over his head, also intellectual and emotional development in terms of the fact that he did not know how to take his jumper off or put his sock or trainers on when so many other of his class mates could do so with relative ease. The class teacher spoke to the boy’s mother and she told her that she had always dressed the boy herself as it was easier when she had so many children to get ready in the mornings. The mother was asked to support her son at home in learning to dress and undress himself independently and I also spent time during pe changing time talking him through how to do it- making sure I was not doing it for him. It was amazing how quickly he learnt and he was very visibly pleased and proud of himself when he realised he was actually able to do these things for himself! In learning this the boy will have been improving his quite poor co ordination skills which will help him with other aspects of his physical development and his gross an fine motor skills which ultimately will help him with his writing which he also very much struggles with, for example having the necessary control to form his letters properly. Another example from the setting in which I work relates to concerns over a pupils behaviour whilst in class: A girl whom when in the classroom setting was not making progress as she would just sit doing nothing if not constantly prompted and prompted to do her tasks. When the class teacher found out more about the child’s home environment it came to light that the child has a huge amount of brothers and sisters at home and her mother finds it very hard to support them in ‘doing’. The child it seems, does not get support at home with her reading, or other things that would help her at school, she seems content to just sit in class doing nothing at all, and so I imagine may simply be used to doing that at home perhaps. The child missed playtimes for not doing her work, or not doing enough and this briefly had an effect of ‘waking’ her up, so she proved she is capable of perseverance towards the school work that we do know she is certainly capable of at least trying to complete. We also set up reading interventions so that the lack of reading practice at home could be part compensated by extra reading at school, this also means she gets extra 1-1 interaction with the class teacher or me which can help with her self confidence development. We also set up sessions for the child to go and work with the school learning mentors for a period each day where they give her work to do that she must complete on her own. Due to concerns about her intellectual development the child has had tests related to her communication skills and she has come out to be only slightly below average in language skills for her age. We have used much positive praise when she does get on and have a go in class and this seems to have a bit of effect but there are still days when she appears to be permanently day dreaming and very disengaged with her class work; but our perseverance knows no limits! I have watched the child on the playground playing with her peers and she becomes a different child- very animated and seemingly energetic, the opposite of how she is within the classroom setting. Although when it is free ‘choose’ time in the classroom she is also quite animated and chatty! I will continue to encourage her to engage with her class work with the same enthusiasm. 3.1: The transitions experienced by all children and young people include: separation from their main carer when starting nursery, going to school, going from reception class to year 1, going from the infant to the junior section of the school, going to secondary school and the onset of puberty. 3.2: Transitions that only some children and young people may experience include: Moving house, moving schools (from on area to another), bereavement and gaining a new sibling. 3.3: Going from reception class to a year 1 class for example can have quite a significant effect on a child’s behaviour. Pre-school and reception learning activities involve learning through play and when children progress to year one the playing is taken from their school day! They may have an element of choosing or plan and do a chosen activity time, but the majority of their day becomes a sit at your table and work time. Many children at the beginning of year find this a shock and whilst they feel pleased to be grown-up enough to be in year one and no longer the youngest in the school they clearly miss what they saw as all that play time they had before. A child I work with became quite frustrated when he entered year one and did not want to sit down and do his work when he was told to. He kept saying he wanted to play and it turned out that he had been behaving in a challenging way at home after school too. The child found the transition very hard and he found the work very tiring and so by the end of the day he would be exhausted and very quick to get very angry and frustrated with his mother and family. I think many children ‘regress’ back to behaviour more fitting to their younger selves when they feel they are not ready for certain transitions. The boy has settled well now and has accepted he must work at his writing etc now he is big enough to be in year one. I believe parents, teachers and other school staff must be ready for, and be understanding of such challenging behaviour when transitions that seem so natural to us pose problems for children and young people. The class with which I work has seen at least 5 children join us after the beginning of term. These children who are new to the school were not there in reception and so were completely new to the school and indeed the local area. One child who started about 2 weeks into term found it very difficult to settle into school. Due to the problems he had he was missing out on aspects of his development as they were all set back due to the clear emotional turmoil he was experiencing. Every morning he would cry when dropped off and take quite a long time to feel better enough to join in the learning. He clearly felt quite isolated and shy and refused to take part in the morning shake-a-wake sessions despite much encouragement from both staff and fellow pupils. The child would also get very upset about seemingly small things and showed a lot of anxiety. He would also ask me many times during the day when it would be home time. He needed a lot of reassurance, which he did get. He would cry at dinner time so much that he couldn’t eat his dinner. The child took about two weeks to begin to settle in to the school and his behaviour began to change in that he began to start making friends and to relax enough to begin to enjoy and engage well with his class work, this was a relief for all concerned, and lovely to see. Then, after being with us for about 3 weeks I was very surprised to learn that he was going to start another new school the next week. I felt this was a great shame for this boy (although obviously did not communicate this to him!) who clearly does not cope well with changes and who had gone through such emotional turmoil getting used to a whole new house, area, class and school. He was genuinely very upset every time he was crying, and I imagine he would have gone through it all again when he started yet another new school. Children learn and develop so much in the first few weeks of their transition to a year one class (as they continue to do throughout school!) and this boy missed out on all that, and I believe his self confidence and social development will have taken a knock with all the inconsistency. I very much hope he is now settled at a school where he will be staying. ----------------------- [1] http://www.schoolsparks.com/early-childhood-development/gross-motor