Assist Developmental Playgroup Staff For Children With Their Parents

The practitioner in an early years setting supporting children’s play learning and development is extremely important, as play helps stimulate the child’s brain, supports their needs on an educational level, as well as helping them with social difficulties such as building relationships, developing them and helping them gain confidence. Many people believe that a child learns best when they are motivated, such as Fredrich Froebel. He believed that children benefitted from all types of play. The McMillan sisters believed that outdoor play was extra important as they studied children who played and slept outside and discovered that they were the happier and healthier children in comparison to those who only played inside.

The Final Project will illustrate how family-centered programs, theories, and concepts support the early childhood classroom and the child’s family. The family-centered approach asserts that family involvement is important for a young child’s cognitive and social development. The Final Project, which will be presented via PowerPoint, will address the following scenario:

Setting : Observation took place in a classroom of Richmond Preschool . There were 18 children who are 4 years old, 3 ECE teachers and 1 volunteer during this observation.

The key to attain this solid foundation is through communicating effectively and clearly with the adults associated with the play setting. For example, it is important that parents and carers are aware of any issues that may have arisen during the session, any difficulties their child is encountering, or if their child has behaved or responded particularly well to a certain situation. Essentially, this involves being ‘updated’ on their child’s general behaviour and well-being. The importance of clear communication can be evidenced here. Being vague in ones communications can lead to problems such as misunderstanding, the child being reprimanded for something they didn’t do by parents, or by parents not grasping the full extent of the problem. Not only would this affect the support the child would receive, but many could argue that such misinterpretations or misunderstandings could result in conflict between play setting and parent.

Every kid and person must be respected and protected as an individual with his/her own specific needs and characteristics, who at the same time will be socialising with other individuals and their needs and personalities. Thus, when all being together we have to ensure that we are supporting them as individuals as the same time we offer them a comfortable environment to develop their socialising skills

Whatever age group or setting you are working with, you must plan an environment that encourages the development of the whole child. First of all you think about the different settings that children and young people aged 0-16 years may experience. These settings have both indoor and outdoor physical spaces that need to be considered. The layout of the physical environment is your team’s responsibility and contributes to giving each child positive outcomes in their learning, and development. The available space will influence the way the furniture and equipment is set out.

“Current theories about inclusive play revolve around the idea that play is important for life and that all play workers should be committed to creating play environments that are inclusive and that offer multi-sensory experiences for all children. Play environments should ensure children and young people can become involved in imaginary play and can help develop motor activity. They should also allow interaction in a safe environment. Play is seen as the language that can bring children of all different abilities together. All children and young people have the same basic needs and go through the same development stages, even though they may not all go through them at the same pace: some go through some stages more quickly than most, while others may become static in their development for a while. None of this should prevent access to any setting. Through play with other children they develop social skills and learn about behaviour, communication and friendship. Play is the tool for practical learning

The methods were completed by interviewing child-minder’s and giving parents questionnaires to get their opinions on role play and the house corner. It was found that there are mixed views regarding role play,

In this program our child care providers have a hands-on interaction with the children. They guide our early learners through child directed play. The child care staff provides different learning opportunities by supplying an array of activities based on the children’s interests. This program will allow the children an opportunity to become leaders in their learning, by exploring and discovering their play environment on their own, with peers and through guidance from the staff. Although we have many open-ended play opportunities, we will have a few structured activities for the children to participate in. We find it important to keep some structure within the daily schedule as this will allow the children the

In the pediatrician’s office that I work, there is a playroom for the children of parents that came to bring a sibling to the office. I work there at this playroom taking care of the children in this playroom. I often observe how the parents, usually the mother, interact with their children, and also how the children act when the mother needs to leave the room and when they come back. It was not until this week that I was able to name the interactions and to understand what is behind the children reactions. This week, in my developmental psychology class I learned about an experiment developed by Mary Ainsworth called ‘Strange Situation’ (Belsky, 2013, p. 115). In this experiment, a mother and a child enters a play room like the one that I work, and after the child is playing with the toys, a stranger comes in and interact with the child; after a while the mother leaves the room, the same way the mothers at the pediatrician’s office leave the playroom; after some minutes the mother returns and the stranger leaves the room; a couple of minutes after the child is situated again and playing, the mother leaves again leaving the child alone, and returns after another couple of minutes (Belsky, 2013, p. 115). While the researchers observed the children, their interaction with their mothers, and their reactions to the situations through a one-way mirror (Belsky, 2013, p. 115), I observed as the stranger that is in the room interacting with the child.

Friday October 30, 2015, I was able to assist Developmental Playgroup staff in caring for children while their parents attended a weekly Health Education and Literacy (HEAL) information session/class. There were a number of seven children present. Two children under the age of one, three children who were one and a half years of age, two children who were two and half years old, and an older child around the age of five. To care for the seven children, there were three staff members and a student intern (me).

Sit Down and Play (SDP)is a brief primary care-based program that facilitate positive parenting behaviors through take-home play activities. I was an intern and aid on need basis only. I attended weekly meetings about team collaboration and goal implementation. I prepared documents for consent and informing recruited parents. I contacted and administered follow-up interviews to parents. I watched the toddlers for parents attending focus groups. I distributed flyers to recruit parents for the focus group. I aided in preparing focus groups rooms. Since distributing age appropriate toys is important, I organized toys by age group and toys type. I also completed some data entry tasks on Google

A topic that I wanted to explore in more depth in this chapter is parents’ response to a child’s cry. I still start by acknowledging that this is something that I personally find extremely important. In everyday life, both at work and at times in personal settings as well, I see parents who do not respond to their child’s protests or cry because “they got upset over nothing.” I will honestly voice that this bothers me a lot. I have always loved children, and now as a family therapist, I believe that it is important to respond to children when they are upset, however, I do encounter some clinicians (especially with BHRS background) and a lot of parents who believe that when the “function” of the cry is to get attention or have the parent give-in,

“Mommy, don’t leave me!” Said by a new preschool student named Victor. Often times the first day for a new student is terrifying. They are brought into a new, unfamiliar environment and are forced to cope with a flood of new feelings. Victor has come to visit his preschool class a few times with his mother throughout the summer. This visit is unlike the others because mom is not there by his side throughout the day reassuring him everything is going to be okay. Instead Victor was told he is going to be doing big boy activities and be attending preschool with all his new friends. The first day of drop of did not go smoothly, which is to be expected. Victor clings to his mother 's side and burst into tears crying “mommy don’t leave me here”. I, Ms.Veronica approach Victor to reintroduce myself to him and start a conversation about his last visit and some of the fun activities we got to participate in. Victor has now calmed his body. I suggest to Victor we should give mom one last big hug and wave to mom out the window as she drives by to work. Victor complies; after Victor waves to his mother, he proceeds to begin to whimper. I notice he has a home toy and ask about his home toy. This seems to cheer Victor up as he begins to light up with excitement. As the day proceeds Victor becomes comfortable and is engaging in some play and conversation with some of the students. Victor tries his best to stay close to me throughout the day. As the end of the day approach I tend to my end

These group play sessions are a biweekly event that occurs at E’s house and are held in E’s living room. E has set up the living room to be a safe area where the children are