The Early Childhood Educator for Certificate III

The Early Childhood Educator for Certificate III

Walker and Miller

Chapter 14

CHCECE010

Support the holistic development of childrenin early childhood

Instructor Resource Manual

Model answers for Certificate III Chapter 14 CHCECE010 Support the holistic development of children

ELEMENT 1

Activity 14.1: Develop some ideas for equipment, materials and games to improve Joel’s fine and gross motor and fundamental movement skills. Joel (5 years 6 months) is becoming interested in team sports but needs support to improve games skills such as throwing and catching and dodging.

Gross motor: Provide opportunities for early team games such as mini parachute games; bean bags/balls; target games and games with bats etc. to encourage gross motor development, physical stamina, the development of games with rules (created by the children) and learning to take turns and leading towards cooperative play behaviours.

Fine motor: Provide a range of different sized balls and different objects to strike balls with both one hand and two hands.

Fundamental movement:Continue to extend balancing; running; jumping; catching; side galloping; overarm throwing; leaping; kicking; dodging and two-hand striking an object. Focus on coordination, strength and agility, and spatial awareness (able to understand one’s own position and the position of other objects in space, which is essential for understanding direction and distance when playing games).

ELEMENT 2

Activity 14.2: Consider a child who is continually pushing their way past other children who are being knocked over or disturbed in their play. Think about the different approaches you would have if the child was an infant, a toddler, a preschooler or a school-age child. How would you initiate a one-to-one interaction with the child? How would you developmentally appropriately help the child to understand and accept responsibility for their own actions?

The response should consider how children learn about relationships and how to function socially via their interactions and experiences with others. So, communications need to be positive. The text prior to the activity indicates developmentally appropriate practices relevant to this activity:

Very young children will learn by our body language and our conversations with them that their actions are inappropriate. With guidance and one-to-one interactions, they will begin to learn about acceptable behaviours. Children need to first learn to recognise their emotions before they can learn how to regulate them and then learn that they need to accept responsibility for their own actions.

This learning of social expectations will take time and, as a child gets older, they will become more strongly influenced by their peers and also be even more in need of being able to ‘fit in’ socially. Piaget’s Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) was considered in Chapter 9. It is regarded as an egocentric stage because infants and toddlers are very much focused on their own needs but during this stage young children do begin to understand that an action causes an effect. During Piaget’s Pre-operations stage (2–7 years), children are still usually only capable of considering their own point of view but gradually become aware of other people’s needs. Piaget called this ‘decentering’.

Seven- to twelve-year-olds demonstrate more logical thinking and are more capable of thinking of the consequences of their actions. Piaget called this the Concrete Operational stage, which leads into the Formal Operations stage in adolescence. Understanding that children go through these developmental stages will help us to determine our expectations for each child taking responsibility for their actions.

ELEMENT 3

Activity 14.3: What sort of experiences could you offer an infant, a toddler, a preschooler and a school-age child and a preteen so they could practise social skills?

The text immediately following the activity suggests examples:

For an infant—rolling a ball and encouraging them to roll it back to you and respond to their cues.
For a toddler—playing alongside them while they are engaged in an experience, demonstrating how to take turns and treat other people gently.
For a preschooler—spreading a large piece of paper over a table and suggesting that you and some other children draw a picture together.
For a school-age child—joining in a board game and negotiating rules.

Other suggested strategies are to initiate interactions and join in play and social experiences with the children and encourage their ideas.

Activity 14.4: Consider the following scenario. How would your reaction differ if it was an infant, a toddler, a pre-schooler or, a school-aged child? Amanda is showing signs of frustration and is beginning to become upset. She has already lashed out at another child and has thrown the resource she was engaging with away. How will you acknowledge the child’s feelings and support her to see mistakes as opportunities to learn and also to feel better about herself? Discuss your responses with a peer or a supervisor.

The text prior to the activity outlines developmentally appropriate ways to support a child’s emotions. Young children will be learning how to recognise their emotions and how to self-regulate their behaviours. An educator’s support to label their emotions and discussions about a range of strategies to make informed choices about their behaviours will aid their understanding. Very young children will need comfort and support and calm, gentle words expressing what has happened. Educators can help older children by asking open-ended questions about how they’re feeling and why they think they feel that way and by providing resources (games and books and posters etc.) that will help them explore a wide range of emotions.

ELEMENT 4

Activity 14.5: Consider the following scenarios. How would you intervene and intentionally scaffold the child’s level of understanding so that the child is now more able to continue and extend their learning? What sort of open-ended questions would you ask? What additional resources would you provide for additional practice? How will you break the task down into a step-by-step process that you can explain and demonstrate to the child? What other methods will you use?

Joan (9 months) has been trying to make a tall tower with building blocks that are different sizes.
Jim (30 months) is trying to use a bike with pedals for the first time.
Jamie (4 years) is trying to work out how to make the weighing scales balance in the role-play shop.
Jack (6 years) is trying to work out how to make the gears work on an action building set.

Response should demonstrate a student’s:

awareness of different stages of development and the form of language and vocabulary to use
understanding of Vygotsky’s theories about the ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (ZPD) and the term ‘scaffolding’ (which is attributed to Bruner)
ability to ask open-ended questions about what a child thinks they should try next and to explain to children at different stages of development a step-by-step process (e.g. how to turn the pedals on a bike) without over-directing and encouraging a child’s problem-solving
knowledge about the types of resources to provide for practice. For example, provide:
a range of alternative building blocks including ones which are all the same size to the infant
different vehicles with pedals to the toddler
a range of objects to be weighed and different weighing scales to the pre-schooler
a range of resources with gears to the school-age child.

ELEMENT 5

Activity 14.6: Access copies of children’s books at your library. Select at least one for each stage (infant, toddler, preschooler and early school-aged). Practise reading the books; deciding how you will make the book interesting for the child; how you will hold the book; and what questions you will ask while you’re reading.

This will be an individual response based on the resources selected by the student. Suggestions to facilitate literacy development can be found in the text immediately prior to the activity.

ELEMENT 6

Activity 14.7: Consider the table below, which has five sample suggestions for resourcing the learning environment to offer challenge, intrigue and surprise for different stages of development. Which of the suggestions will suit the following children’s expressed ideas? Can you think of any additional ideas?

An infant (0 to 12 months) who is showing an interest in movement and people’s faces.
A toddler (12 months to 3 years) who is showing an interest in mending things like his father.
A preschooler (3 to 5 years) who is showing an interest in playing games with their peers.
A school-age child (5 to 6 years) who is showing an interest in learning about sustainability.

Stage/age of development / Suggested play experiences/resources to promote learning and wellbeing
Infants / Mobiles
Singing/rhymes/music
Rag dolls
Infant mirrors
Infant gyms
Spinning tops
Toddlers / Cubbies
Toy cars and garages
Child-sized work benches
Train set
Dough activities
Construction
Preschoolers / Trikes and bikes
Talking tubes
Small world equipment such as castles and doll houses
Dress ups
Puppets
Jigsaw puzzles
School-age / Board games
Sports kits
Construction sets with gears
Musical instruments
Books
Gardening

Infant – all of the suggested experiences/resources

Toddler – toy cars and garages and child-sized work benches.

Preschooler - small world equipment such as castles and doll houses and talking tubes.

School-age – gardening activities and books about sustainability.

Activity 14.8: How will your assistance differ for different ages of children? Will it just depend on their ages? For example, Sammy is trying to play with a ball. How different will your assistance need to be if the ball rolls under the outdoor climbing equipment where a group of children are playing and he is a 12-month-old mobile infant/a toddler/a preschooler/a school-age child?

The text immediately following the activity suggests:

Assisting children in the situation will be very different, not only because of their age, but also because of their confidence and abilities. The infant, for example, may run after the ball and not consider the safety aspects of the other children perhaps sliding or climbing down onto him. The preschool child may not require any assistance as they will be able to retrieve the ball themselves safely and without disturbing the other children’s play. A school-age child may not be able to follow the ball because of mobility issues.

Activity 14.9: Think of some things that inspire and give you a sense of awe and wonder. Would those same things be suitable for children? If not, what are some things you would introduce to children? For example, documentaries about nature are always astounding, but are they appropriate for young children? What would be a more active way for children to learn about different species of animals or the power of waterfalls or great human endeavours they might one day aspire to?

Plus, how do you think you could inspire children to treat others as they would like to be treated? Could you perhaps use some of the lessons learnt from nature (the connections between people’s actions and animal and plant wellbeing, for example)?

Individual response but should be based on the text prior to the activity.

Activity 14.10: Revisit Elements 3 and 4 to refresh your memory about how to assist children to see their mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow and how to provide opportunities for scaffolding learning and development. How will you apply this to a young child (4 years old) who is becoming upset because the mud pie he is trying to make keeps collapsing?

Consider the strategies you will use including the sustained shared conversation you will have with the child.

Individual response but should be based on the text prior to the activity.

End-of-chapter review questions

What strategies will you use to holistically support an infant’s development and learning?
What strategies will you use to holistically support a toddler’s development and learning?
What strategies will you use to holistically support a preschooler’s development and learning?
How would you provide a variety of experiences to support the different areas of children’s development (including a combination of physical, creative, social, emotional, language and cognitive)?
How would you provide a variety of learning environments to support the different areas of children’s development (including a combination of physical, creative, social, emotional, language and cognitive)?

For all of the above, a student should be able to demonstrate knowledge of the following.

The ECA Code of Ethics
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
How to access and navigate the following to find areas relevant to this unit of competency:
the National Quality Framework
the National Quality Standards
the relevant approved learning framework.

Introductory-level child development for children, including:
early brain development
the importance of the early years for subsequent educational success
foundational knowledge of developmental theory.
Aspects of poor early childhood development, such as:
poor diet
lack of play
limited stimulation of brain development
lack of materials and resources
inconsistent or non-existent emotional support or comfort
trauma
other life experiences which interrupt appropriate childhood activities, and their potential long-term harmful impacts
biological and environmental influences on development
symbol systems including letters, numbers, time, money and musical notation.

IRM CH 14 The Early Childhood Educator for Certificate III

by Walker and Miller