Study Purpose And Literature Review

Early childhood is the most important phase of development in one’s lifespan as the experiences during childhood sets the course for later stages of development. It has been noted that a mother’s actions during pregnancy may influence the development of an infant. The developmental influences include prenatal, perinatal and neonatal environments. (Santrock, 2002) Although babies come into the world with no say or control over which family they will be placed into, or the environment in which they will begin to live in, theorists agree that the first two years are crucial, with early emotional, physical and social development influenced by the infant’s biological and environmental factors (Sigelman, Rider, & De-George Walker, 2013). The

The state of early childhood profession has rapidly been changing because of the current trends, policies and movements in the rapidly changing 21st century world. This report articulates the key issues of diversity of the early childhood settings, a number of models of early childhood education and care, diversity among people, the status of early childhood profession, the belief that the profession suits female than male, the poor status of the profession and less pay than other professions associate with the early childhood profession The study consisted of analysing the strengths and challenges of the early childhood profession. The study methods of analyses include the National Quality Framework, The National Quality Standards, Assessments

The Ecological Systems Theory was founded by Urie Bronfenbrenner. This theory focuses on the impact of the environment on a child’s overall development. The identifying characteristics of Bronfenbrenner’s theory are the five systems used to organize external influences within a child’s development. These systems are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Each system is aligned with specific interaction levels. The microsystem is considered to be the most intimate of the levels, in which development is dependent on the immediate environment. The immediate environment would include adults, peers, and siblings with influence to learning new behaviors and the environment in which the

The ecological system theory developed by Urie Bronfenbrenner views the child development as being in a system of connections affected by many levels of the surrounding environment (Berk,2006). This approach discussed by Berk (2006) starts with the inner most layer of this system being the microsystem. This system is made up of all the settings that personally interact and influence the child. Explained from Laser and Nicotera 2011) the immediate influences from the microsystem for an infant starts with the home and the interactions the child has with their parents or caregiver. This level in the system helps the child form social relationships that later in their life will take part in activities outside of the home. This type of involvement builds on the child’s physical skills (playing at the park, or out on recess) and cognitive abilities (involvement with preschool, schools and daycare). For Walter, many of

This influential piece of legislation arose from the Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’ and identifies five outcomes for all children:

Striving to provide high quality childcare provisions that support children’s development to reach their potential.

When educators in a childcare centre can examine their written documentation on each child, they are able to realize which methods and programs are a success and the ones that need improvement. Through this, the centre can offer the best possible programs and teaching methods to fit their children's needs and circumstances. Without proper record keeping, the centre would have no way to re-examine its actions.

Similarly Bronfenbrenner recognised the importance of primary carers to children, his ecological system proposes that children are affected by many social factors and those closest to the child have the greatest impact. In the ecological system the parents and family are represented by the micro system, they are closest to the child and have the most influence them and their learning potential. (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Therefore it is essential that the early year’s educator has a positive relationship with the parent for consistent and effective learning at home and in the setting. As well as recognising that parents have influence on their children the ecological system shows the environmental factors that have impact on the child and family; Bronfenbrenner defines the next layer of the ecological system, the mesosystem, as “the relationship between factors within the microsystem” (Kay, 2008:269) this means that the relationship the parents and educators within the child’s setting has an influence on the child; affirming just how crucial it is for practitioners to be in partnership with parents.

Early childhood is one of the most critical developmental periods in a human’s lifespan. The child transitions from infancy and begins the essential changes needed before the next developmental period begins, middle childhood which begins at six years of age. Development refers to “the orderly patterns of change, as well as continuities that occur in an individual through their life span” (text, p3). Human development is determined by both genes and environmental influences or nature and nurture. Nature refers to heredity which is the passing of traits from parents to their children and maturation which is the changes biologically programmed by genes (text, p7). Nurture refers to the changes that occur due to the individual’s environment

The model enables child caring agencies to organize and deliver quality care of children according to research-informed principles based on the best interest of the child. The aim of CARE is to bring agencies’ current practices closer to well-researched best practices in residential care and to help them achieve congruence between all levels of staff in order to improve how the agency works as a whole. Based on six guiding principles, the CARE model is designed to profoundly influence the way residential childcare professionals think about working with children. CARE principles include: Developmentally Focused Family Involved Relationship Based Competence Centered Trauma Informed Ecologically

I have had previous educational programming experience for over ten years. Depending on the childcare service, the programs have varied which enabled them to service the children, families and communities. With the programs, I have concentrated on the documentation that supports the quality outcomes. I have utilised the principles and practices from frameworks such as the Early Years Learning Frameworks (EYLF), to implement and plan the program. When I undertake the programs, the key issues are capturing children’s voices and ideas in planning documentation and evaluation. Gathering and analysing information about children such as their knowledge, abilities and understanding is part of the ongoing cycle in planning documentation and evaluating

The values and principles that underpin the childcare sector work along side the laws, rules and regulations that I follow in my everyday work at my setting. They govern things such as how many children can attend my setting, how many staff I have working each day, making sure that the children’s wants and needs are met and that they are always the main focus of any planning I do. For myself it means that I have to always make sure that I keep myself up to date with any changes in these laws and regulations and that I keep myself up to date with any training so I can always provide the best possible care I can. When planning I try to use many different curriculum’s but always making sure that they are flexible and is based upon the values

A recent study sought to determine the association between young children’s behavior and the continuity of care between parent and provider behavior and attitudes A study conducted by Ispa, Jean M.; Thornburg, Kathy R. (1993) investigation the difference between parent and childcare providers being significate

In ecological theory, these systems are nested with the child at the core, embedded within his/her immediate family environment. The system with the closest proximity to the child is the microsystem; this includes the child and family, peers, neighborhood and school. A critical impact on development occurs within the immediate environment of the child due to proximal

The research authors completed a study on the “specific” role of the child life therapist (CLT) in a hospital in Australia, to assess and measure the role of the CLT for the support of patients with initial burn dressing changes vs. a patient without the support of a CLT referred to as “standard care” in their Burn unit (Hyland, D’Cruz, Harvey, Moir, Parkinson, Holland, 2015). The purpose of this study was to measure if the presence of a CLT helped reduce the patient’s level of pain and anxiety in comparison to standard care in a patient’s initial burn dressing change or up to 5 days post injury.