Chapter 1: The Unique Child

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.

 Our last visit to London, my relative there, Kak Nurul brought us to see her islamic primary school. In this picture we are with Kak Nurul's children, Khadijah, Maryam, and Muhammad. 

    During a few months before returning to Malaysia, I took an online course and supported financially by my husband (jazakallahukhair, love!). The course was Early Years Level 3. I have an interest for early years education, prior to the experience that I had with my children at home, the interest of home education, and early years program in the UK. I think it is worth it to learn something about their system, as a preparation for myself, at least to go through the early ages of my own children. But I really hope that I could contribute more to the Malaysian society in this field, even just through my writings.

My first time setting up a playgroup. I booked a university classroom and invited my Malaysian friends with their babies and toddlers. Alhamdulillah, everybody loves it.

   So here, and in the next post (InshaAllah), I would like to share my essays on the task of the course. Please bear with my weak English, as I hope the information could be understood by all of my readers especially my tutor, Kate Wake. Alhamdulillah, I'm so thankful that after I returned to Malaysia, I received the certificate of completing the course with 'merit'. Not bad, Alhamdulillah. Jazakillahukhair to my dear friend Auni Tuan Azmi for proofreading my essays.

Thank you for reading! I hope this could benefit lots of people, Insha Allah...

Rashidah

Well done - another good assignment which has achieved a Merit grade.  Feedback attached.

Congratulations on completing this course.  Your certificate will be ordered and sent out to you shortly.  You don't need to do anything else now.

I wish you every success in the future in your childcare career.  You may wish to do further courses with the Open Study College.

Kate

Disclaimer: This is just my essay and it is not 100% correct. It was based on my understanding on the notes provided and some online references, and was commented by my tutor.

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Explain the benefits for children when their individual needs are met.

A human, especially in the early years stage, develops greater than in any other stages. The basic concept that we all need to understand is that every child is unique, where they do not have the same set of strength and capabilities, social background, culture, and religion despite being in the same age group. Therefore, to achieve a successful aim of the early years education, practitioners need to meet various kinds of individual needs of the children.

                The most important need of the children to be satisfied by a caregiver is sleep. Having adequate sleep is extremely important in ensuring children’s good growth. Therefore, when a sleep pattern or duration is a bit unusual, parents or caregivers need to check if the babies are having any health problem.

                For toddlers, besides a good night’s sleep, afternoon naps are also essentially needed to retain the energy level throughout the day as they are undergoing a transition from the baby stage to toddlerdom. When appropriate time and space are provided for the toddlers to rest, they are more likely to be happy for any activities. For that reason, parents and caregivers need to check if the toddlers are getting enough sleep when they are irritable and falling asleep while doing an activity.

                Nutrition plays an important role in the growth and development of children. Parents and caregivers need to ensure that their children have breakfast to start a new day with enough energy. Besides sticking to a mealtime schedule, it is equally important to provide a variety of food according to the food pyramid, especially having fruits and vegetables during meal times. This could benefit the children in a way to supply energy that lasts longer, improve their concentration, learning, and behaviour as well as establish good eating habits for life.

                Hygiene is another aspect of the essential need of the children. For babies and some toddlers, diapers need to be changed when necessary. This is to ensure comfort and avoid problems with their skin. With the pre-schoolers that have been toilet trained, they need to be taught on how to wash their hands properly. In addition, the toilet facilities should be accessible for pre-school children, for example, appropriate size toilet seat, lower sink, and a soap dispenser that is easy to use. Parents and caregivers should also wash their hands after managing the children’s waste and before leaving the toilet in order to to prevent the spread of germs that can affect their health.

I can't really remember where this playground is. All I can say is, their playgrounds offer different, engaging, challenging, and fun play! Sometimes I dream to become a play speacialist too.. ;)

                Finally, is the children’s need to play. Children learn through play. Independent play provides various experiences and gives them opportunities to be creative.  However, they should still be supervised by parents and caregivers. Structured and organised activities are needed to identify the interests of the children. There are lots of fun and easy activities that are useful in introducing important skills such as reading and problem solving.

                In conclusion, there are many benefits that the children will receive if their individual needs are met by parents and caregivers. Such requirements include sleep, nutrition, hygiene, and play.

Describe how the principles of anti- discriminatory practice can be applied to practice

Discrimination is a treatment in which an individual or a group of people is treated more or less favorably than others. Discrimination arises from prejudice due to differences in gender, disability, social class, physical appearance, race and culture, family background, and traditions.

                The principle of anti-discriminatory practice could be carried out by welcoming children and parents with a warm, friendly smile and positive gestures. These actions, that need synchronization with the thoughts, would help practitioners to remove the prejudice and making children and parents feel more comfortable and confident.

                Children and parents may come from various backgrounds. Therefore, the information on the practice should be provided in clear, concise language, whether in spoken or written forms. The information might also be in as many languages as possible. On the other hand, if this cannot be met by the practice, it would be helpful to be ready with trained staffs who could deliver the information to particular children or parents clearly.

                For children, the use of toys plays an important role in supporting anti- discriminatory practice. The children should be allowed to play with any toys of their choice without having to face adults’ stereotypes for the toys in the aspects of gender, cultures, and religion. For example, a practitioner needs to let a boy play with cookery toys without commenting that they are just for girls. Besides that, the toys used should also represent different cultures and religions.

                Another way to promote anti-discriminatory practice in the different cultures, religions and traditions is by organising activities that introduce the celebration of multicultural festivals and events. This can also eliminate misunderstanding between practitioners, children, and parents. In addition, these kinds of activities, presented with explanations, can teach children to recognize the differences that exist in the environment. Meanwhile, throughout the daily routine at the practice, practitioners must be concerned about the meal that could be taken by the children according to their religious background and upon their parents’ requests.

                In carrying out the activities, practitioners need to take into account the different needs and abilities of each child in their care. Understanding the differences of the children will allow the practitioners to do the activities without placing the same expectations for every child. Therefore, the practitioners will understand the different learning outcomes shown by the children. It is also important to get all children in their care involved without leaving any of them behind.

Besides that, practitioners need to always be willing to extend their knowledge and share with others. The knowledge, for example about self- improvement, is really important to learn and be practiced. This could be done among the practitioners in a short session once a week, aiming to help each other through discussions on how to improve the practice, and how to help a child.

As for the conclusion, the practice of anti- discriminatory can be applied in many ways by the practitioners. This is important to raise educational standards, opportunities and develop the children socially.

Describe why it is important to plan activities that meet the individual needs of children.

                Children in the age 0- 5 years old develop greatly not just in the aspect of physical and intelligence, but emotional as well. Therefore, parents and carers need to be prepared with some knowledge and planning during this stage. This is because the children are absorbing almost everything they receive in the environment as their ‘foundation’ of life. It is not right to think that they are just playing to fulfil their nature, but it is important to plan for the activities that meet their individual needs as well.

                To start planning for the activities, a practitioner need to find out the children individual needs, interest and passions, fears and concern, learning styles, skills and previous experience. The practitioner would see that every child in his or her care as a unique individual. This is important because the practitioner could select the activities that are appropriate for the children in a group based on capabilities and interests. Alongside with the planning, the practitioner can prepare suitable materials and tools, for example, left-handed scissors for the left handed child and chunky crayons for the children that are just started to hold the pencils.

                In meeting the needs of the individual child, a practitioner can discuss with the parents so that they can share and value the parents’ view and thus, widening the perspective towards learning and development. Furthermore, the importance is to avoid the practitioner from making stereotype assumptions on a child. By understanding this matter could also help the practitioner to plan activities according to the children’s ability and prevent bias in the assessment.

Babysitting Kauthar. At first she cried when separating with her Mummy Kak Rus, but then she got deeply immersed in painting :)

                Having a variety of resources is really beneficial for the practitioner to plan the activities for the children. Idea from the internet, books, people or other practice that is managed and prepared properly can bring lots of fun for the children as well as giving them a wonderful learning experience. The idea that has been collected is kept into categories, like, art and craft, science, life skills, reading, mathematics, and so on, for easy access by the practitioner whenever needed.

Assessment that has been done during the activity is also useful for the practitioner to plan properly for the next activity. This process is done by actively observing, listening, and recording. The plan that has been made by referring to the previous assessment is important for the practitioner herself to study the learning styles of the children, and pick an activity that suits all children in many ways. This could eliminate discrimination that might arise among the children that show different response for the activity.

As for the conclusion, having activities planned is really important in a child’s day. However, the activities should not be too hard to be prepared yet purposeful, and the practitioner might want to be ready with any response from the children. The planning could be done through understanding the needs of the children, discussion with parents, getting the idea from plenty of resource and assessment on the previous activity.

Explain how the practitioner can promote children’s physical and emotional well- being within an early years setting.

A good development of children started with a safe and secure environment. Therefore, the practitioner should provide an optimum support to promote physical and emotional well- being within the early years setting.

Physically, practitioners need to provide sufficient and safe space for the children to play and explore. All practitioners at the practice should be aware with the potential hazards within the early years setting, as well as the surrounding environment. They also need to be trained to perform first aid whenever needed. Besides that, any accidents that happened need to be recorded in a log book for so that the practitioner could improve a certain situation or condition in the future.

For the emotional well- being, the first problem that might be faced by children is the separation with their parents. It is important for the practitioner to make the children feel secure for the first time the children begins at the early years setting. This could be done by spending time with the children on one- to- one basis. Through a respectful listening and understanding, the practitioners would be able to know the children’s individual needs. The practitioners also need to discuss with the parents to recognise the needs and routines of the children.

Separation is hard, for every little child, and mum as well. Picture: a key worker of Early Years Centre (EYC), University of Southampton. They were having a trip to the Burgess Library.

As the children develop through play, practitioners should provide a wide range of play facilities and activities that enhance the physical well- being. For the facilities and toys for the free play, early years setting needs to include a dramatic play area, large block area, sand and water activities, manipulative, art areas, and reading corners. Those areas might need to be arranged in a way that a group of children can play without disturbing the other children in other activities.

Opportunity for the children to express their opinion and feeling is another important aspect that needs to be taken care of. By providing choices to the children, the practitioners are encouraging them to make decisions every day, for example, to choose the toys and the things they would want to explore. The children should also be allowed to decide with ’no’, as this could train them to be a more confident and resilient young person. However, the practitioner needs to always get ready to help when the children are going over the boundary.

Like adults, children are no exception to the need of feeling important and appreciated. They also love to do meaningful things for the others. Hence, the practitioner can set some hands- on activity for the children to involve in, especially the activities that adults do. It could be planting seeds and taking care of it, easy bake- off to bring home for their parents, and looking after a pet at the practice. For every effort the children make, it should be appreciated by praises, good gesture, and rewards such as stickers, etc.

For the conclusion, physical and emotional well- being is really important to build a balanced person and this could be achieved in many simple ways in the early years setting.

(2005 words)

Reference List                                                                                                                                              

Babycentre, How much sleep does my toddlers need? (2015) http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a1051092/how-much-sleep-does-your-toddler-need (Accessed 15 January 2016)

Ginsburg K. R. (2007) ‘The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent- Child Bonds’, American Academy of Pediatrics, Vol. 119/ Issue 1 [online]   http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182.full (Accessed: 22 January 2016).

Lindon, J. (2003) Childcare and Early Years Education: Good practice to support young children and their families, London, Thomson.

LSE Staffs and Students, Health and Safety Policy (2014), http://www.lse.ac.uk/intranet/LSEServices/nursery/regulations/healthAndSafetyPolicy.aspx (Accessed: 22 January 2016).

Preschool Learning Alliance, Healthy eating for young children (2013) https://www.pre-school.org.uk/parents/support-advice/408/healthy-eating-for-young-children (Accessed 15 January 2016)

Woodlands Nursery and Preschool, Valuing diversity and promoting equality (2016), http://www.woodlandsnurserypreschool.co.uk/?page_id=270  (Accessed 18 January 2016)