L ' Association : Des Problems

It is an important part of a practitioner’s job to observe and assess children in order to establish where a child is at with regards to their development, health and well being and if they require extra support. The factors that need to be taken into account when assessing development are:

This section describes how we, as practitioners, monitor how the children are progressing and in which areas.

If a practitioner see that the child is struggling with certain things, there could be an influence on other areas of development, because as we know each area of development are connected, and practitioner can use special screening programmes what can help the to pick up any areas of difficulty that child maybe suffering.

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

To conclude, once the lesson has finished, the TA will provide feedback to the Teacher as to how and what the children learnt, if there were any areas of difficultly or if extension or different strategies were used to help the child learn, if the work was supported by the TA or if their work was independent. Having assessed the children’s work and passed on the relevant information, (this can be passed on verbally or by annotating the planning and by marking the children’s work) the teacher can then reflect effectively, update children’s progress on school monitoring systems and can now plan next steps for each individual child’s learning. Children all learn in different ways therefore the adult teaching needs to be versatile and have a variety of teaching strategies to enable them to assist in any given situation.

Information from carers and colleagues- the parents and carers would give helpful information that would tell the practitioners if the child has a disability and that would help tell whether they are going to need extra support. The parent knows lots about the child they would be able to tell if something is not right at home. The practitioners would notice if something is wrong at the pre-school if the practitioner is concerned about the child they would let the parent know if they think something is different. The parent could ask questions at parents meeting with the child’s key person about what the

When communicating with babies and toddlers parents often use baby language I.e. choo choo for train and woof woof for dogs but this will not help them later on when the time comes to go to school, as they grow the need to be taught the proper words for things as it will make it more difficult when they start school and it will confuse them. In early years at school they concentrate on phonics, numeracy and literacy this helps them develop their language and mathematical skills and helps them for the rest of their school life. Each child has a different way of learning. The TA must be able to communicate with each child regardless of their learning abilities. Communication can differ among different ages and stages as the younger children may have difficulties such as speech problems which in older children this may have already been addressed.

A two year assessment is carried out between the ages of two and three. Parents/carers/guardians are provided with a short written summary of the child’s development in the prime areas. Within the progress

. Sometimes it can be useful for a second person to assess a child as observations can be very subjective. It is also useful to use a wide variety of methods of assessment. Things need to be recorded according to what is exactly happening and should not be interpreted according to the assessors point of view.

1.1. When assessing development some factors need to be taken into account one of these is confidentiality, this means that you will need permission from a child’s parents/carers before doing observations, also when information is wrote down about a child is important that it is kept in a safe place were only the relevant people can access it. Also making sure that information about a child is only shared with parents/carers or colleagues and professionals that have the right to know. Another factor to take into account is a child’s wishes and feelings, this means to take into account the child’s wishes when doing an observation or assessment. The child may not want to be assessed at

It is important to observe the child carefully, closely and to listen to them in different situations to ensure that the teacher is clear about what their needs are, their strengths and difficulties. It is important to observe the

Therefore emphasis on the Reggio Emilia approach is placed upon children’s many ‘symbolic languages’; these languages help the child explore and being to develop their own view of the world. These languages are based on: drawing, sculpting, dramatic play and writing, in order to achieve the best in a child and basing activities on aspects of: creative thinking, exploration and discovery, free play, following the interests on the child, valuing and encouraging all ways children express themselves, allowing children to talk about their ideas and then to re-visit them. A child’s environment has always been considered important in their learning and features in the Reggio Emilia approach; this philosophy claims that a child’s environment is known as a ‘third teacher’ as children must be able to learn through their experiences of senses: touching, moving, listening, seeing and hearing; which all

I have always enjoyed working with these children, despite the challenges, because of the immense rewards that come with it. The greatest challenge for me is not always being able to understand their behaviour, speech, or needs. It is frustrating to want to give and do anything

The book has useful cartoon illustrations, and exercises that can help to improve any adult's ability to communicate and problem-solve with any child. The advice is appropriate for generally all adults and children.

It is imperative that practitioners are able to observe and assess each child’s development in order to gain a full understanding of their development and how they can build upon this in order to cater to the needs of the child and allow them to fulfill their potential. This is highlighted by Wheeler (2009, p.63) in stating that ‘Observations are fed into family worker and team planning so that future activities can be based on an individual child’s interests and patterns of behavior and thereby enhance their learning’.