Development Of Structured Teaching Methods And Sensory Resources

A practitioner’s role in meeting children’s learning needs are to understand and work with each and every child’s learning needs. They can do this by providing different opportunities to individual children because each child is unique and learns differently. The practitioners’ role would therefore be to plan and resource an environment that is challenging and helps children learn in many different areas of their learning.

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.

As child practitioners we must work on our skills in communicating with children because the way we communicate with them is important not only for their communication and language development, but also the development of our relationship with them. Young children often aren't able to express their thoughts and feelings in words, or express them poorly. Because of this, it's important that child practitioners can listen carefully and help children to learn how to express themselves and also provide what they need.

As an early years practitioner it is your job to ensure that you meet children’s learning needs and understand and work with all children’s learning needs. It is important that you provide different kinds of opportunities also focus on individual children’s learning needs each and every child is unique and all learn at different rates. When in a setting it is important that you plan an enabling environment that children will find challenging but will allow them to learn in different areas.

Practitioner’s expectations should be to become a valuable practitioner, to be reliable and build good relationships with children and parent carers, encouraging play whilst learning, and by having children’s best interests e.g. physical activities, outings, this would help them to enjoy their growth in knowledge and assist in enhancing their development as a whole. Also practitioners should work as a team with other staff members and parent/carers in order to support the children to promote the children’s initial learning so that the children will feel confident and would be able boost up their self-esteem, and this will also help them in their future, and prepare them in further education when they move onto school. Also the

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.

‘Early years practitioners have a key role to play in working with parents to support their young children. This should include identifying learning needs and responding quickly to any difficulties. Wherever appropriate, practitioners should work together with professionals from other

Montessori’s teaching approach aims to develop all aspects of the child mentally and socially (Pound, 2012). Montessori cautioned teachers to remember that children need to be allowed to do basic tasks to learn for themselves (Mooney, 2000, p.28). The role of the teacher in a Montessori setting is mainly observation of the child, encouragement, preparation of the environment, leadership, fostering the child’s independence (Mooney, 2000, p.29), and keeping a complex and delicate balance between each role. (Miller, 2010, p.79). Both theorists acknowledged that children learn best by doing and through repetition of tasks (Mooney, 2000, p.29). Large blocks of time for free work and play, should be scheduled as this was part of the Montessori legacy, this can also be seen in Steiner settings. (Pound, 2012). The teacher should also give children responsibility for keeping the setting space clean and tidy and allow the children to structure their own play. (Mooney, 2000, p.29). Steiner’s role of the teacher is comparable. Steiner wanted to create an education which gave children ‘clarity of thought, sensitivity of feeling and strength of will’ (Pound 2012, p28). Like Montessori the role of the teacher is all about observation, the teacher needs to be both interested and observational of the child’s basic needs to fully develop the child both

“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

When learning becomes fun the teachers find it less challenging for trying to keep the child engaged in the activity at hand. The job of the educator working with a play-based curriculum is to facilitate play, to draw out and extend what children learn through play (Play Based Programmes, 2015). Children have a variety of play spaces available that mimic their regular world around them, each space can be intertwined with another centre such as combining the truck centre with the block centre, or adding in some zoo animals to the area. The play based approach can be used by children of all abilities, it allows children to play independently or as a small group, and allows the children the opportunity to bring their home life into their play.

The terms “play”, “learn” and “teach” are commonly used in the early childhood sector. This essay attempts to define and interconnect these terms to produce a holistic understanding of how play can be used as a medium to help children learn.

What children can do today with assistance will eventually be able to do this without assistance in the future (Passer et al., 2014, p. 443). My daily practice with children has changed as per the changes of childcare over the past few years. We have gone from theme based learning to planning per children’s interests. This stems from theories such as Vygotsky on scaffolding and zone of proximal development. This is my daily exercise by offering experiences that children can build upon by observing and scaffolding to help them discover new skills (Obukhova & Korepanova, 2009, p. 27). I am cognizant of the abilities of the children in my care and build upon those strengths to support them in their play experiences. Vygotsky’s theory has placed emphasis on my practice as we have launched a play based learning environment where children learn through play. These theories are relevant to practice today because they are the basis for planning activities and experiences that can enhance those skills in the stages of

Describe why this knowledge is of value to professionals working in the early childhood sector, and make recommendations on the knowledge professionals should have in order to support children with SEN learning from and through play.

Firstly, the classroom structure of the Montessori classroom invites children to learn with an independent, hands-on experience. There are plentiful stations set up around the room that allow students to learn various skills at their own pace. Traditional schooling programs however have limited activities for independent skill discovery. Most skills are taught and demonstrated through a teacher, without the students being able to practice themselves. Conversely, in the Montessori setting, “Children are

Montessori education is a different approach to teach preschool age children; in this method the students are allowed to guide their own learning. This alternative to the traditional way of schooling has been around for over a century. Due to a Montessori classroom being a unique environment, the activities that happen there are often different from the activities in a traditional school. One of the main views of Montessori practitioners have on children’s learning is that they develop and learn in different ways and also at different rates.