1.1 Explain The Importance Of Strengths-Based Activities

Every child is an individual – with different needs depending on their age and abilities. You must think about this when planning activities.

When I am planning work an individual I will observe them and assess how they liked the activity, if it kept their attention and if they were able to do it and if not what they require practice on. By observations and assessments I can plan work for the child I know they can achieve and enjoy. The child’s interests are paramount so what they enjoy is essential to my planning.

As a childcare practitioner it is important that I am able to recognise when a child in their early years may have a range of learning needs. To be able to understand the way I need to work with others to ensure that the learning plan that is in place for this child has a positive impact on their health, development and learning. To ensure I am offering an inclusive practice where the child is supported and feels valued and is helping them towards achieving the Five Outcomes of The Every Child Matters Framework.

Practitioners can support children by setting up a range of activities that include all stages of maths development and meets individual needs. In my placement, they have jigsaw hop-scotch in the 3-5-year-old room. The children need to put the pieces in the correct place to be able to complete the hop-scotch. This allows the children to work individually or together to put the number in the correct order. This allows the children to recognise numbers as well as develop the child’s physical development. Then the practitioner can observe and assess if the child can count any higher and the child’s development which will allow the practitioner to plan using the EYFS Development Matters (Early Education, 2012) for support to allow the child’s development to improve but still meeting their individual needs.

In order to apply theories and models of child development to support children’s development we must get to know each individual child by building a good relationship with the children through play, communication and answering to their personal needs. Observation and assessment is also key so that we know what each child is capable of and what they are working towards/could be encouraged towards. Good communication with parents is also beneficial as it helps the carer to see what the child is doing at home and to identify if there are things they do or don’t do at nursery that is different from home. It also helps to work out ways of encouraging development at home and at nursery.

| Good way of seeing where the child is with their development – do they need encouragement in a certain area?

Strength is that part of your intellect or nervous system that is more effective and productive than other parts. Throughout your experience of life, your actions or reactions drive different thoughts, behavior and emotion in your brain. The requests that are processed more efficiently and rapidly are known as your strengths. Nowadays, strengths-based approaches to work and life are gaining a lot of popularity and often they are used to improve leadership and create more productive and efficient work teams.

engage effectively with children to encourage the child’s participation and involvement in planning their own learning and development activities.

Effective practice can support children’s well-being and development when looking at a child’s health and physical development. Effective practice means ‘About ensuring that all children get optimum benefit from their experiences in the EYFS. This apparently simple outcome can only be achieved when adults work together to get to know the children s that they can support their play, development and learning.’ (Early years’ matters,2017.) Children’s well-being means the quality of the child and how their life is, and to ensure that they child is happy, comfortable and stable throughout their everyday life. Children all develop at different stages, whether this is through additional needs or family issues or they might have a gap in there learning.

“By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied.” (PH.Ds, Clifton, O., Anderson, E., Schreiner, L., Pg 26) When I read this quote in our StrengthsQuest text I felt as if I was describing my own personality while starring at myself in the mirror. If there was a sentence to explain “Chrissy” this would be it, or at least a very good candidate when summarizing my number one strength. After completing my StrengthQuest survey online and analyzing my results with the three people who

A holistic approach to learning and development implies that one must look at the child as a whole, as well as the way in which they interact with their surroundings. It recognises that children develop in their own time and are creative, competent and independent thinkers. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Development Matters government document provides statutory requirements that early years practitioners must implement (Early Education, 2001, p.1). The document states that there are 4 themes of the EYFS which reinforce the guidance given. These include: the unique child, positive relationships and enabling environments. See Appendix 1. If each theme is successfully practiced, then there will be effective learning and

Problem solving approach is a traditional and foundational aspect of general Social Work practice. It is based on identifying a problem or set of problems facing a client and formulating a framework of possible options with the hope of fixing the problem or improving the situation. Although, the worker may guide the client and inform them of the possibilities and options available, the client is still solely responsible for their own choices and actions. The formal application of this principle is the definition, assessment, setting of goals, intervention and resolution.

In a study done by Itai Ivtzan, Ryan M. Niemiec, and Charlie Briscoe (2016), they performed an experiment to show that Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP) programs would improve the overall welfare of the lives of those who were part of the MBSP group compared to those who were in the no-intervention control group. The hypothesis of this study was that, “participants in the MBSP group would show higher levels of wellbeing, as predicted by higher scores on the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), Flourishing Scale (FS), the Positive Psychotherapy Inventory, and the Signature Strengths Inventory (SSI), compared to participants in the control group” (Ivtzan, Niemiec, & Briscoe, 2016). To perform this experiment, two groups of people were created from the general adult public. The first group was made up of twenty participants whom did not receive any intervention. The second group was made up of those that were put into the MBSP group. The MBSP group was made up of nineteen participants, which were later split into two groups, a group of nine and a group of ten. The MBSP groups performed one right after the other, each group was to complete eight weeks of intervention. This intervention was performed online and participants would log on and complete two hours of practices and exercises. Participants in both groups filled out a self-report questionnaire, that took around five minutes to complete, to get a baseline

Being able to identify and understand children who are suffering from poor self-efficacy or who come from a low socioeconomic background is

Ray and Joe communicate with each other as demonstrated by Ray's behavior of looking at Joe at the examination.