UNIT 2: POSITIVE RELATIONSHIP

Task 1: Recognise how positive relationships promote children’s well-being.

A positive relationship is a big factor in promoting children’s well- being, besides caring for their physical and emotional needs objectively. It lays excellent foundation as good values can only flow through love and respect. Children not only felt loved but learn to love and respect. Below are the ways on how children could obtain positive relationship which could prepare them to become well- balanced and happy individuals.

Family is the first people that children meet after they have born. Therefore, family determines how a child would grow up. A strong family relationships is the main source of safety, love and secure, which is the key factor in determining good well-being.  Parents, through a warm care, good conduct and a well- balanced lifestyle contributes greatly to the development of their children; emotional, physical, mental, and behavioural. Their children would feel secure and act as shown by their parents. This is because young children learn through copying. It is clearly shown by the research of Albert Bandura in Bobo Doll Experiment. According to Bandura (1961), children can acquire social behaviours by observation and imitation.

When children are being sent to nurseries or preschool, they build a relationship with their key person. Key person relationship provides love and security outside the home. They support the children in playing, sharing, and also showing how to co-operate. The opportunities to take part and explore in the early years setting could widen the potential of children to choose and make decisions, thus enhance their confidence.

                Starting from the age of three, children learn to choose their best friends. Children could share good values with their friends which is so easy to happen as they play and talk to each other. Some parents might have another child’s name mentioned for a good example whenever they need their children to do something good, or avoiding something that is bad. Having friends gives fun to the children’s everyday activities besides develops the sense of awareness of others.

Even the children are at a very young age, they have the right for professional relationships.  The professional relationship needs to be practised by anybody who deals with the children. The content of this relationship is, respecting and valuing strengths, skills, and knowledge. The children’s self- esteem will be built through recognition of their contribution. Suitable words should always accompany whenever correcting the children’s mistakes in any situation, and not by shouting and humiliating them.

At times, children behave in difficult manners. The role of a positive relationship, by understanding feelings in the stressful events, helps the practitioner to deal with the behaviour and, in turn, teaching the children to try to recognise their own feeling and how to manage that. When good examples are shown, they help the children to understand other people’s feeling and become more caring towards others.

As a conclusion, positive relationships can promote children’s well- being. This can be achieved by strong family relationship, key person relationship, a controlled friendship, professional relationships, and best reactions at difficult times.

               

Task 2: Analyse the importance of the key worker system for children.

A key worker, according to EYFS Principles, is a person who has a special responsibility for working with a number of children, giving them reassurance to feel safe and cared for. Another role of a key worker is to build relationships with their parent carers. The key worker system is really important to meet the individual needs of children in the setting. They are the named member or staff with whom a child has more contact. They shows a special interest in the child through close personal interaction day to day.

                The first importance for the children is the feeling of safe and secure through a settle and close relationship. At the beginning, children are most likely to experience anxiety when they separate with their parents. Therefore, an assigned key worker helps to ease the emotions and feelings of the children’s transition from home to the setting. They will spend some times with a child in their care, one- to- one to get to know the child’s need and so that the child would have someone they can rely on when they need help and to trust. An effective practice would also provide a second key worker when the main key worker is away. This way will help the children to become familiar and confident with the setting hence develop the feeling of trust, safe and secure. 

                Secondly, the key workers keep records of development and progress to be shared with the parents and other professionals as necessary. With the records, the key workers are able to discuss any progress and concerns with the parents, that is the key carers of their children. Some information is needed to be shared with the professionals, which means the appropriate people, especially when there is an emergency situation involving the children. Here, the key workers need to share the information, for example when identifying the additional individual needs of the children, when a safeguarding concern is raised, when a child needs an emergency care, and when required by Ofsted. With this shared care, the needs and well- being of the children could be achieved.

                A key worker also plays a very important role in the children learning. The next thing after safety and security for the children to engage in learning is the key worker’s support during the activities. During the implementation of the activities, a key worker helps children to gain confidence, resilience and life skills according to their own pace of learning. The key worker also observes and monitor children's progress closely and notices changes and behaviours. In some situation, an effective key person role can avoid or tackle possible abuse of children from other parties. However, the close relationship shown by the key worker does not undermine the parents’ ties with their own children.

                In conclusion, the key worker system is important for the children. The importance should be able to be received by the children through a secure relationship, keeping records of development, and support throughout the process.

Task 3: Explain the benefits of building positive partnerships with parents for children’s learning and development.

Parents are children’s first teacher while children are their most valuable possession.  Parents put their trust on the practitioner, at the same time building a partnership with the staff members in carrying out the development process for their children. They are the source of knowledge about their children’s interest and particular needs, hence active communications between parents and key workers are expected to occur frequently. The key workers also should be approachable in a way of welcoming the parents and children, being respectful and friendly, so that they could build the trust and confidence of parents with the setting, thus ease the sharing of information between them.

                To ensure that the children will receive the advantage of this partnership, both parties put the need of the children in the first place. The specific information shared by the parents will help the staff members to be more knowledgeable about the children’s individual or additional needs such that related to illnesses, disabilities, or allergies. Therefore, the settling would be easier for the children and parents. Quick responses could be obtained for a particular difficulties. The discussion and sharing could be done at any convenient time, such as at picking up and dropping off time, a two- way diary or another slot that is agreed by both key worker and parents.

                It is crucial that the effort of developing the children does not stop when they leave the practice. Hence, through partnerships in observation and assessment, the key workers share the progress of the children with their parents. The key workers would also suggest for the parents to try out similar activities or extend the learning at home. Parents also could share the progress at home through photographs or the works by the children. If the children are identified to show a pattern of behaviour or personal learning interest, the key worker and parents could offer the same experience at home and in the practice to encourage further learning. For example, when a child is identified to like a heart shape, they could provide lots of related activities such as counting heart- shaped biscuits and so on.

                A positive partnership also is an opportunity for the practice to share the information about the curriculum. This is best done in a group parent meetings. In this meeting, parents would gain information on how the setting plans and assesses a child’s learning. Besides explaining the importance of the process, the practice could highlight high-quality learning experiences with no concrete outcome and emphasise the importance of child- initiated learning. Furthermore, they could discuss appropriate expectations and context for learning. The understanding of this matter will help parents to make a rational expectation towards the learning and development of their children as well as giving full support in any phase they might face.

In general, when practitioners and parents working as a partner, the children will get a positive impact on their development. The partnership can achieve the goal through the sharing of information about the needs, observation, assessment, and the curriculum. 

Task 4: Describe how to develop positive relationships within the early years setting, making reference to principles of effective communication.

Effective communication is necessary to form a positive relationship in the early years setting. It became the basis of the duty staff members in sharing responsibility insights with colleagues, build partnerships and collaboration with parents and professionals, and meets the needs of children. While foundations in effective communication are mutual trust and respect.

Communication is divided into verbal and non-verbal. Most of the people assume that effective communication is built from a manner of speaking, but in fact, most of the effective communication contributors come from a variety of factors. In the early years setting, it is very important for the practitioners to create a friendly environment and effective in conveying information. This can be experienced when parents and children first come to the setting. To create this environment, several factors should be taken into accounts such as space, light and layout, using visual support, clear and consistent routine and so on.

When making verbal communication, it is really important for the staff members to give their full attention and use every possible mean such as the eye contact, gestures, listen attentively and give response.  This way would not only build positive relationships, but it also helps the children to learn to communicate and to express themselves. To enhance this skill, practitioners can assist the children on how to communicate their thoughts, ideas, and feelings, build up a relationship with adults and their friends. The activities that can be done to practice this skill on a daily basis are reading story book together, songs, rhymes, and art, as long as the practitioner encourages the children to communicate.

                Sometimes, the practitioners will face with some difficulty during communication. The challenges need to overcome as soon as possible so that it would not affect the development of the positive relationship. In the aspect of language development difficulty, the key person can identify and respond to this matter at the early stage, for example, autism. When a child is identified to have the symptoms such as does not make eye contact, does not respond to his or her name, and so on, the practitioner with her knowledge could discuss the problems with the child’s parents and professionals. Besides that, using visual support can offer a great advantage for the practitioners to communicate with the children when they have faced some hardship to express themselves due to limited vocabularies or conflicting with their emotions. Speaking slowly and carefully would help to reduce the difficulty in the effective communication.

The effective communication in the early years setting also comes with the confidence of the practitioners. They could build confidence in their communication skills by practicing how and what they want to communicate, and role modeling good communication skills. The practitioners should also guidelines provided, such as “Every Child is a Talker (ECAT)” guidance.

In conclusion, a positive relationship can be developed by applying the principle of effective communication in the early years setting, which should be based on mutual trust and respect as well as having the goal to achieve the children’s need.

(Total words: 2015)

Reference List 

Department of Education (2014) Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335504/EYFS_framework_from_1_September_2014__with_clarification_note.pdf (Accessed 27 January 2016)

Early Learning HQ (2011) Effective communication in early years setting http://www.earlylearninghq.org.uk/earlylearninghq-blog/effective-communication-in-early-years-settings/ (Accessed 05 February 2016)

Extratime Key Working- what this means (http://www.extratimebrighton.org.uk/parent-and-carers/key-working-what-this-means (Accessed 27 January 2016)

Jane Drake (2006) Working with parents to support children’s learning http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/nursery-world/news/1080052/working-with-parents-to-support-childrens-learning (Accessed 04 February 2016)

Kids Helpline (2015) Family Relationship http://www.kidshelpline.com.au/grownups/news-research/hot-topics/family-relationships.php (Accessed 26 January 2016)

Melinda Smith, Jeanne Segal, and Ted Hutman (2016) Autism symptoms and early signs  http://www.helpguide.org/articles/autism/autism-symptoms-and-early-signs.htm (Accessed 07 February 2016)

Parents, Early Years and Learning (2007) Sharing Records with Parents http://www.peal.org.uk/media/3719/ce_11_sharing_records_with_parents.pdf (Accessed 04 February 2016)

Saul McLeod (2014) Bobo Doll Experiment http://www.simplypsychology.org/bobo-doll.html (Accessed 27 January 2016)

The Children Society (2012) Promoting Positive Well- being for Children, A report dor decision makers in parliament, central government and local areas http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/promoting_positive_well-being_for_children_policy.pdf (Accessed 26 January 2016)

The Early Years Foundation Stage (2007) Positive Relationships- 2.1 Respecting Each Other http://www.earlyyearsmatters.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/eyfs_positive_reln_respect(1).pdf (Accessed 26 January 2016)