Program Planning for Children

A quality early childhood education and care program relies on many factors, it is intentional and planned for the ongoing learning and development of all children.

The national education and care regulations remind us that we must:

• Plan in line with the learning outcomes of the approved learning framework
• Assess children’s developmental needs, interests, experiences and participation in the educational program, and their progress against the outcomes of the program
• Evaluate a child’s well-being, development and learning, for children over preschool age
• Use documentation purposefully, and consider how it will be used in the service
• Prepare documentation in a manner that is comprehensive to educators and families
• Display the program for access by families and regulators
• Make all planning information available, on the request of regulators and the family
• Inform families of the program, and their child’s participation in the service program
• Store and maintain individual planning documentation in line with confidentiality and privacy requirements.

When implementing the approved framework, it is important for all stakeholders involved to collaborate for quality outcomes.

Key stakeholders include:

• families and children
• staff within a service, including early childhood educators, teachers, directors, education leaders
• professional bodies such as paediatricians, child development specialists, psychologists, nutritionists and speech pathologists
• policymakers
• local government

For an effective collaboration, it is important for all stakeholders to maintain:

• Open, respectful communication
• Empathy and mutual trust
• Openness to others’ views, values and perspectives
• Shared decision making
• Clarity about roles and responsibilities
• Appreciation of each other’s knowledge and experience
• Willingness to negotiate and compromise
• Commitment to resolve tensions and conflicts
• Shared aims or goals—what is best for the child.

As educators and attachment figures we acknowledge that the parents and families are the experts in regards to their children; their personality, temperament, interests, strengths, emerging skills and development. The families can inform educators how their child learns best, and provide a wealth of knowledge that can be incorporated into the curriculum for the child. The family can also inform educators about the family’s values, cultural heritage, practices and beliefs, as to their child’s life and goals for their future. The family can also inform educators about the family’s values, cultural heritage, and practices and beliefs, as to their child’s life and goals for their future.

An ongoing process of gathering information from families, and sharing information about their children’s participation and progress in the program, is an imperative process for success. This communication also maintains a partnership with families who collaborate with educators as shared mutual decision-makers regarding their child. After all, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and given this community concept, a quality partnership is more likely to produce and support healthier children, positive well-being and more enhanced learning outcomes. Information may also come from secondary sources close to the family, including specialists, intervention support, child protection, assessments – or any information that may support an understanding of the needs, life and development of the whole child.

How can educators develop a partnership in planning with families?

All services have their own strategies for encouraging and promoting collaboration with families, usually beginning with the service philosophy. Does the philosophy specify their belief in mutually respectful and collaborative processes with families? Do they actively seek out families to contribute and ask for their input? Are there formal and informal processes for gathering and sharing information? Is it relevant to programming planning for the child?

All of the above may be relevant to the families of the service, depending on their needs.

Consider the following two (2) case studies with very different family situations. As you work through the scenarios, think about any other ideas you might suggest based on your practice:

Fellow educators can have a wealth of knowledge and experience to share. In most cases, a colleague would have advice or support to offer to help guide colleagues in almost any situation. Fellow educators may have supported the care and learning of a child, or group, before you, utilised the learning environment and considered many times how to support various outcomes for learning, including the entire planning and program process.

Transition information is extremely valuable, when one educator moves rooms and takes on another. They can inform you on what has happened so far in the lives of the children in the group, providing a helpful base for program planning, and a greater understanding of the children as individuals – the dynamics of the group and elements of the environment for consideration.

Educators of the service may observe valuable insights that you may have missed; in a shared yard, during family grouping, or covering a tea break. Without this insight, educators could be missing valuable information and a piece of the puzzle. Educators should critically reflect on children’s learning and development in collaboration with colleagues, to affirm and challenge practices.

How can educators develop collaborative relationships with colleagues for program planning?

There may be formal or informal processes for sharing such information within the service. There will mostly be formal processes for room, group or child transitions, and opportunities for sharing vital information with the next educator in the child’s life. Educators may jot down, add to the online learning portal, or have a quick verbal interaction surrounding the sharing of information. The service may use room or service meetings to share information regarding program planning, in line with the service’s processes, for the sharing of child and group information.

It is no secret that the role of the educator is a busy, yet important one. One of the challenges as the early childhood educator, can be managing and wearing the many hats, and still having time for your afternoon tea break. The role requires organisation, planning but also flexibility, where the educator must continuously observe children for emerging interest, skills and needs.

Watch

Explore some of the common roles of an educator in the following 3-minute video:

The roles of the educator

Learning about the child

Educators observe how children learn their learning styles – their skills, knowledge, emerging areas and capacities for learning. Educators also want to know who the child is as a unique individual; their temperament, personality, routines, comforts, fears, likes and dislikes. What are their cues? How do we know if they are hungry, tired or frustrated?

Understanding how they use their environment

Do children prefer certain play spaces? Do they prefer to be alone, or at least at certain times of the day? Do they choose group activities? What materials do they investigate? How do they investigate? Who do they involve? How much time do they spend in certain areas? Where are their areas of challenge and intrigue? Do they always use the same spaces and materials? Is it repetitive or varied? Do they try everything once and come back to one? Do they use items symbolically and in many ways? Is there an area they avoid?

Understanding their pre-social or social interactions

Do they discuss social interest or engagement? With whom? For how long? Do they play with selected peers or a variety, and what do they do together? How do they play together? Which social skills are they using?

Understanding their behaviour

Observing behaviour at different times of the day, and in different contexts, helps to support the program, and also the child’s emotional well-being and self-regulation. Educators may wonder, how does a child express, understand and share their emotions? When an educator can predict the times when a child is more tired or frustrated, they can be at the ready to jump in and support or engage further, in an experience that provides the necessary release or engagement. How does the child prefer their behaviour to be guided or supported? What works for the child? Educators may also look for changes in behaviour, where children may have learnt to manage social situations, or may suddenly struggle to self-regulate their emotions, impacting on physiological responses.

Understanding their development and learning

Frequent observations highlight any changes in development, analyse milestone achievements, or support needs. These observations support ongoing learning, challenges, and support for emerging skills and development enhancement. The educator must also be aware, through these observations, of any developmental challenges or concerns that may need further support or external services.

Understanding if the program has been effective for the children

Observing the children will tell an educator whether the program meets the needs and interests of the children. Educators may wonder whether the environment is suitable, if there are particular areas of interest that are busy, and, if the experiences are engaging, interesting and intriguing to the children. Observing the children will inform the educators if they are learning and developing from the experiences over time, and how they use the experiences and program. Is there an experience the children continually overlook? Use in other ways than designed; use in a different way than expected? Are the children meeting or working towards the outcome set? Are you facilitating a holistic program?

Where are we observing children?

Children should be observed in a range of settings and circumstances:

Watch

The following 2-minute video summarises the opportunities where we can observe children:

How do we use the observations?

The observation needs to be:

• Meaningful, relevant and purposeful
• Objective
• In the appropriate tense to the style of observation utilised
• Non-biased
• Depict what is seen and what is said, without assumptions or exaggeration
• Of individuals and groups
• Completed often in varying environments and play spaces, during social interactions, behavioural challenges or successes, transitions, entry and exit to the service, and routines
• Completed at different times/days of attendance
• Attempting to gather a picture of the whole child over time
• Completed at the necessary time, space and moment, when looking to observe a particular skill
• Informative and captures learning and progress
• Strength-based
• Able to capture the individual, their identity and culture
• Child-centred.

How do we document observations?

One of the challenges for educators has been the size of documents they feel they need to produce to prove their efforts in observing, interpreting, planning and evaluating children’s learning. Children should be observed using a variety of styles to gather a holistic view and understanding of the child. Depending on the need for the observations, there are many observations that can be utilised.

1. Photos/Videos

   These require a written caption to express any information that cannot be gleaned from the image, such as what was said, what happened before and after.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

   

2. Jottings

   Short notes of relevant and pinpointed information about the observations of children. These are written in past tense as they are recorded after the event. It is important for an educator to take a concern as to what they are taking photos of, and how many photos they are taking. Video and photos need to be meaningful, and protect the rights and privacy of children. Educators need to ensure when taking photos or video-taking (as well as all observation) that they are not missing out on experiences and engagement opportunities with the other children, as their heads may be buried in their iPad, camera or notebooks.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

   

3. Learning stories or narratives

   These are stories of a moment in time with a beginning, middle and an end. They will usually include children’s quotes, actions, photographs and reflections, and all in one observation. These often have the voice or collaboration of the families, or the child. Learning samples are written in past tense as the information is amalgamated at a later time, than the actual observation occurred. As these are a story they are often also written in present tense.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

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   You can download a copy of the sample learning story as a pdf file by clicking here.

4. Running records

   These are considered very time-consuming for educators as they need to include every element observed; from which hand a child picked up a pencil, to how long they stayed, and where they went next. They require dedicated time for the observer to detail the child’s every word and action in the set period of time. Today, running records aren’t used very frequently due to their nature, and the time constraints. They also can capture information that may be seen as less meaningful. These may be used when an observer is looking for a particular development or transition of the child, or where there may be behavioural or developmental concerns. They help to gather a larger picture of a child in a period of time. Running records are written in present tense, as they are written at the moment of observation.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

   

5. Language samples

   They are used when there are concerns about language predominantly, and capture a child’s linguistic efforts, and conversations with others. The language should be documented as said, with no alterations, so that a picture of the child’s language skills can be captured.

6. Time samples or event samples

   These are used to find out where certain behaviours or challenges may arise, it may be to see where a child spends their time, and how long they spend there. In some ways, it can be useful to see where children engage in the program, but it is rarely used for such purposes. Event sampling is a good observation to have, to try to assess when, where and why behaviours may be occurring. In a time sample, an observation of a child will be made every five minutes over a set period of time, usually an hour. The observations are only short, like a jotting, but are purposefully searching for who the child is engaged with, and with which experiences or material. A time sample will make evident a child’s level of participation in the program.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

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   You can download a copy of the time sample as a pdf file by clicking here.

7. Portfolios (art & created evidence)

   There has been a lot of debate within the early childhood sector regarding portfolios, as they are extensively time-consuming, However, on the flip side, are extremely enjoyable for the family, the child and educators to read through. They include artwork, learning stories (and sometimes other forms of observation), reflections, the child’s voice, and events that the child was involved with at the service, such as a farm day or crazy hair day.

   Most of the observations, and even images of the artwork, are posted on online sites, to minimise the use of paper, and are less time-consuming for educators to scrapbook together. Most educators who complete portfolios today include a collection of the children’s artwork, which they can then take home with them, and share at the end of the year.

   You can read more about portfolios on the Aussie Childcare Network website.

8. The child's voice

   This is a documentation of what a child has said. It may connect to an image or piece of artwork, or a photo, but often it is just the meaningful commentary given by the child at a moment in time. It often reflects their learning, especially emerging concepts. When educators promote children and ask relevant questions, children can express their interest, learning, what they are doing, and what they want to do next, as well as share valuable insights, which the educator then can capture.

   CLICK HERE TO HEAR AN EXAMPLE

   Click here to listen to a child’s voice.
9. Developmental checklists & summaries

   These are used to analyse children’s development at certain points of the year, or as required. They separate the domains, to gather a picture of where they are at, and the progression they have made. Developmental checklists are taken at moments of time, against a list of milestones typically expected within the age range. As they are one moment in time, it is important to remember that on that particular day, they may have been excelling, or may have been tired or struggling. So, it is important to consider this in line with various observations, taken within similar timeframes, so as to consider the whole child. A developmental summary will be an overview of the developmental evidence provided over a period of time and summarised. It will reflect goals and also learning outcomes.

   CLICK HERE TO SEE AN EXAMPLE

   

   This is an example developmental checklist, developed for families by the NSW Department of Education.

Educators use the observations and analyses gathered, to set goals for children and the group, using the approved learning frameworks. They consider what they have seen and know about the children, due to their information, and plan to achieve further outcomes extending on each child’s needs, planning for extended learning to support children as capable, competent people with agency, and the ability to make choices and decisions.

The cycle of planning, or planning cycle, provides visual guidance, reinforcing the process of planning, that is ongoing and continuous. From gathering information from family, colleagues, children, or observations – interpreting and questioning what we know and how we can further extend on the child’s learning; to making a plan and adding to the program, to meet further needs through an experience set for the child or group. Once the educator knows how to support the goals, they will implement them into the program, and then evaluate or reflect on the success, or what happened. This cycle then returns back to gathering information and begins again.

Once the educator knows how to support the goals, they will implement them into the program, and then evaluate or reflect on the success, or what happened.

Original diagram: ACECQA

In order to support children’s learning, needs, development and interests, an educator must ask themselves these questions:

• How will I utilise the learning outcomes?
• How does this incorporate holistic development?
• How will I support this through the experience, routines, environment and interactions/pedagogical practices?
• How will I utilise the EYLF practice and principles?

Let us return back to one of the children, Demi, from a previous case study, and also the learning outcomes:

• Learning outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity.
• Learning outcome 2: Children are connected with, and contribute to, their world.
• Learning outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of well-being.
• Learning outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.
• Learning outcome 5: Children are effective communicators.

Do you remember? Demi (12 months) arrived at the service, crying for around 10 minutes. The educator tried to soothe her by showing her the fish, and they fed it together. She slowly calmed her breathing and crying and reached out to the bowl saying “fishy, fishy”. Demi then walked to the window and pointed outside “birdy, birdy”. She eagerly watched for around five minutes and flapped her arms mimicking the action of the bird outside.

We might observe that we want to support goals, such as:

• Learning outcome 2 (LO2) for her to contribute to her world, since she has an interest in the world around her. This might also support her regulation and comfort into the program each day. We also know from Demi’s age that she is right on the cusp of separation anxiety age, where she is preferable to people she knows and wants to remain with, so it is important to build a smooth home-to-service transition, and create bonds and secondary attachments with educators.
• Learning outcome 3 (LO3) may also be relevant – in many cases multiple-learning outcomes may match.

You would consider how you would utilise pedagogies, and the principles and practices of the EYLF, to support Demi through such experiences as:

• Animals play, with wooden or plaster animals, for further interest in her natural world
• Babies, for further caring and empathy-based role-play and exposure
• Water play with sea creatures – for the sensory calming of the water and interest in her natural world
• Singing songs, or reading stories, with the educator about her world, or a shared interest.

Educators who are attempting to build a bond with Demi will share in her interest and excitement in her play. They will continue to support her emotional development as she settles into the room, developing a relationship that is built on trust, care and interest in her needs and wants.

Supporting emotional development

Emotional development is built on a consistent, predictable and nurturing environment, and like adults, children will have days when they are tired, unwell or full of life. Children are still deciding whether they feel safe and secure in the environment. They are learning slowly how to manage and understand their emotions and those of others; ultimately endeavouring to develop emotional competence – when a child develops positive feelings about themselves, can express their emotions positively, and build resilience.

For children, many of the needs in emotional development will relate to the relationships that they create with their educators, the interactions with these educators, and the persistence and consistency in meeting needs and affections within the program.

Knowing each child and how to respond to their cues is imperative, and at times different actions will get various responses from children. Babies, since their time in the womb, react to rhythm patterns, such as singing, soft talking and even music.

Many of their needs will be based on activities such as:

• Talking with the child
• Sharing in their emotions and responding empathically and supportively
• Music, rhymes, and games such as peek-a-boo, or completing the actions to row, row, row your boat
• Being read to, even if the children don’t appear to stay for the whole book
• Sensory exploration that is safe for the child’s age and stage, such as waterplay, sand play or playdough
• Figuring out how things work, especially if they have sounds or can react to their actions, such as with sensory tactile books, textured materials, or even when touching plants and animals (where safe to do so).

Let's look at FEELINGS ... feelings of self, understanding of feelings, and feelings of others.

Feelings of self

By around 18 months, children become more self-aware, and may understand such things as social referencing (what gestures or facial expressions mean), they may like to look at themselves in mirrors and begin to copy things they have seen, such as carrying around a handbag or smelling flowers.

Children begin to have similar patterns or reactions to emotions, which educators may be able to predict – therefore finding ways to support them through affection, distraction, or meeting particular needs, such as sleeping and eating.

From 4–5 years old, children are still trying to understand their own emotions, though they may begin to understand that they have emotions, and it is relevant for educators to assist in supporting their expressions of this through play, in such ways as:

• Dramatic play or role play, such as baby play or home corner
• Figurines or small-world play, such as dolls or animals
• Sensory experiences like playdough, goop, water or sand play.
• Art and craft
• Cars and trucks.

Many of these experiences assist children to express their feelings, thoughts and emotions through play, via an outlet that also promotes language, cognitive thinking, such as problem-solving, and social interactions.

Language is strongly connected with the ongoing development of emotions.

As children grow, they develop a need for further independence, playing out stories, making their own choices, and, asking if their ideas and opinions support their self-concept, self-esteem, sense of pride and connection to their community. Children will need support when they cannot manage or do not succeed in tasks, including self-care tasks like feeding, toileting or using a cup, but also during play.

Understanding of feelings

By around two months, infants are capable of discriminating among distinct expressions, including the intensity levels of some expressions. This doesn’t mean at this stage they can comprehend the emotions they are exposed to. This takes much more cognitive discrimination and social understanding.

Once children begin to understand emotions it is important to discuss and plan for their ongoing understanding, this will help them to label feelings so that they can tell others how they are feeling. It also supports their understanding and capacity for empathy and care towards others.

You may support this by:

• Having labelled emotion cards or games
• Playing emotion games at group times. E.g., show me a sad face, silly face, scared face
• Discussing feelings when you observe them. E.g., “I can see that you are sad that tina took the truck you were using”.
• During story time, discussing how the characters might feel
• Using feeling songs, rhymes, dances or stories to support the learning of emotions
• Continuing to provide pretend and dramatic play experiences for children to explore emotions
• Sharing your relevant and appropriate emotions, “I was so happy on the weekend because we got a puppy, I was so full of love for our new puppy. I was scared that he would hurt himself on our stairs though”.

Feelings of others

By toddlerhood, you may start to see children responding to babies by tickling them and saying, “it is okay”, or gently patting them, in an understanding of emotion. This is typically due to their experiences of how others respond in similar moments, or to similar emotions.

By age four, changes occur in the brain as it develops further, contributing to emotional development and the ability for children to have more intimate relationships. Even four-year-olds often feel overwhelmed by their feelings and find self-regulation challenging, but within this year a lot happens in terms of the settling of the emotions. By about five years old the child lets go of their egocentric nature and begins to embrace and accept the perspectives of others, leading to enhanced empathy towards others. Empathy is thought to be a precursor to such behaviours as compassion and helping those in need, predominantly developed through the experience of others who show, them and others, empathy.

Educators can enhance empathy by such experiences as:

• Demonstrating empathy themselves, especially in challenging times
• Encouraging others to reflect and consider how others might be feeling. E.G. Through storybooks, conversations and play
• Giving children opportunity to role-play, so that they may put themselves into the ‘shoes’ of others
• Helping others during routine times such as meals
• Helping others during play, where needed as a partner in play and encourager.

Supporting resilience

When children have been nurtured, supported and had healthy attachments, they begin to develop a positive sense of self and worth. This helps children to be able to manage emotionally and mentally when things are not successful, or there is a crisis, also called physiological resilience. Children learn to use cognitive processes and behaviours to guard against the negative effects of stress. Resilience is when a person can keep the balance between the stress and their mental state – through coping skills – picking themselves up when things go haywire.

Educators can support the resilience in children by:

• Encouraging them and supporting all efforts – not just the final product
• Giving physical affection and comfort when needed
• Encouraging trial and error, adaptive strengthening and self-regulation enhancement
• Learning coping strategies such as deep breathing, talking about their feelings, relaxing, active play, or reading a story when it all gets too much
• Building a sense of self-efficacy and perceived control.

Watch

The following 2-minute video explains the fundamentals of resilience, which is built through interactions between children and their environments:

Supporting self-regulation

Self-regulation is the body’s ability to modify physiological responses, such as behaviours to the demands of the environment – biological, cognitive, emotional and social – where children are learning to negotiate acceptable outcomes to emotionally charged situations in more effective ways. There is evidence to suggest it plays an important role in future social development, and pro-social capabilities such as compassion, sharing, and other caring behaviours, impacting holistically on the outcomes of a child’s life.

Self-regulation begins at birth, when babies begin to learn how to resettle themselves after having their needs met. There are cultural influences connected to selfregulation, where in various cultures there are different expectations of what children are expected to feel, and when, where, how and with whom, they express these feelings.

We support self-regulation by:

• Providing support when needed, and encouraging methods to manage feelings, and have a child’s needs met where possible
• Role-modelling emotional regulation through their behaviour
• Being responsive to infants’ signals and cues contributes to the development of emotion regulation. Educators can support emotion regulation by minimising exposure to excessive stress, chaotic environments, or over- or under-stimulation
• Giving children ample chance to practice regulation in safe, and supportive, environments through play and interactions.

Supporting social development

The social development of children is imperative to the skills needed to understand the world and how to participate in it. Humans are social creatures, and many say that we need to be social for our survival. Children learn social skills largely through their environment, observing how peers interact with others and their world, which will require lots of repetition and practice (due to the development of memory and recall). This is the time when we learn how to communicate and interact with others through listening, speaking and understanding, and using non-verbal gestures and cues.

Social development is seen even in infancy, when you can see a baby reacting to the actions and verbalization of their parent, learning how to reciprocate interactions when the parent reacts to their cues and coos. You can observe the serve-and-return actions occurring, this wires the brain and helps them to understand how to interact with others, hence, why the attachment period is so paramount. It is important to remember, as a young child learns to be social, they are still in the egocentric stage where they are partial only to their own thoughts, ideas and needs (perspective) – so although they may begin to socialise, often these needs by development, will come first. Data from Sander (1975); Sparrow, Balla, & Cicchetti (1984); and Sroufe (1989), as cited by Ray (2018), create milestones for the social development of children, regarding the achievements they need to make in each age group.

Social developmental tasks, contexts, and milestones across the first three (3) years of life:

Retrieved from Rosenblum et al., (2009). Infant social and emotional development: The emergence of self in a relational context.

Methods for support may include:

• Providing socially stimulating environments
• Providing opportunities for children to socialise and interact through small- and large-group activities, dramatic play, discussions, stories, songs and routines
• Supporting social interactions as they occur, have conversations and discussions around social topics, including social responsibility, respect and care for others
• Role models and positive social interactions with families, educators and children
• Providing opportunities for children to have solitude as well as social experiences
• Supporting age-appropriate independence, autonomy and agency, through activities that allow choice and encourage decision-making, such as having open-ended experiences, labelled experiences for self-selection, and asking the children where relevant
• Practising and supporting turn-taking and sharing, where developmentally ready. This will take time, sharing is hard
• Encouraging children to help and assist routines, with the educators and each other
• Supporting cooperative experiences such as building together, or creating a large collage
• Encouraging children to support each other, by role-modelling, and encouraging for various achievements. A fun place to start may be races or obstacle courses, where you can stand on the sideline cheering them on and hi-fiving for effort.
• Encouraging respect, care and empathy through role-modelling and pro-social-based experiences.

My world

This may include children learning about themselves and how they fit into their own world, by learning about who they are, the educator celebrating them, having mirrors available, family photos and discussions about their own life outside of the service. Small-world play encourages them to explore this, but also merge into their community through play.

Our world

Encouraging the children through experiences to learn about each other; singing name songs, asking each other and the group questions, show-and-tell, and having community experiences inside and outside of the service, to learn about the world outside of themselves. Children will begin to develop friendships, but often will need support to learn what is appropriate in regard to how we treat others (social conventions), appropriate physical space and affection.

The world

Environmental and social responsibility build a sense of citizenship in children, this is where they learn that they are a part of a bigger world and play a part in its survival and growth. This may look at caring for people, places and things, but also taking responsibility for their own actions, which develops slowly over time.

Supporting cognitive development

When we think back to Piaget’s research on cognitive development, he concluded that children largely learn and construct an understanding of their environment through doing, though children are predisposed to organise their thoughts and adapt to new ways of relating to, and understanding, the situational information, largely through sensory information.

Cognitive processes are in regard to thinking, reasoning and problem-solving, which are required to understand their world, and they may become compliant through cognitive development from an early age, through again, the attachment process. Children then learn about objects; how to use them, where to find them (memory, recall), matching, sorting, classifying, coding and following instructions or direction. The cognitive process supports other areas of development, especially language and communication, in order to convey and understand the meaning of symbols, non-verbal and verbalised speech. Recall Theory of mind as discussed in the last chapter; ToM is a large part of this cognitive process, as children use previous knowledge and experience to build upon further, to understand the perspectives of others.

Through cognitive development, the body and brain process information and the brain decides what to do with it and what it means; it collects the information, sorts the information, stores the information, and recalls it when required, in order to use it purposefully and meaningfully.

Methods of supporting cognitive development

For young babies, they are still learning and exploring their world, they use their senses to mouth, observe and touch their environment. Giving young children stimulation to consider this curiosity builds their understanding.

Supporting literacy

Exposure to communication in any form from a young age is vital to the growth of literacy skills. I.e., understanding that letters and sounds come together to make words, and, in a particular order, make meaning. Early literacy needs to be enjoyable for children and should create a love of learning once they begin high concepts, such as self-led reading and writing. These are practiced and learnt skills not innate, so forming a positive relationship with literacy early, promotes not just further understanding of these skills, but enjoyment. This affects children’s access to employment in their future.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Australia’s children report, (2020), around 95% of Year 5 students achieved at, or above, the minimum standard for reading skills. A number of factors affect successful educational outcomes during the school years, including:

• a child’s home environment, such as if books are available at home, and if parents read aloud to their children. (Children whose parents read to them every day at 2–3 years old had on average higher Year 3 NAPLAN reading scores than children whose parents read to them less frequently, according to Yu & Daraganova, 2015)
• attending pre-school programs has also been found to be positively associated with Year 3 NAPLAN results.

Literacy-rich environments and learning opportunities relating to literacy skills, are paramount for the exposure children need to develop these skills. These will include environments inclusive of:

• Ongoing developmentally appropriate communication, verbal labelling of items (i.E. Bottle), discussions, stories, rhymes and action dances
• Having books and written text available for children (this will include locker names, bed tags and item labels, with their contents)
• Supported emergent literacy stations and creative outlets for opportunities to write representation symbols, that later lead to letters and words
• Talk about letters often, and relate them to objects, along with their phonetic connections. E.G. “This is a tiger, ‘t’ for tiger, t, t, t for tiger”.

Supporting communication and language development

Establishing an understanding of literacy, words, sounds and their letters is a concept that takes time. Through repetition of modelled communication, experience and opportunities for practice, children learn many of the systems required for communicating and interacting with others.

Private or self-speech supports children’s rehearsal of language and helps them to problem-solve at the same time. For babies, language and communication starts with different sounds; cooing, crying and nonverbal communication such as eye contact, and smiling – and they begin to make noises at others.

Children begin to understand that words are symbols with mutual understanding, with the brain tailored to expect language to develop. Language develops in similar typical patterns culturally all over the world. These patterns include babbling (extended repetition of specific syllables), sing-song patterns of experienced language, and recognition of words (especially basic repeated words that they experience). Then, eventually, children repeat these, e.g. ‘mum’.

By the age of around 12 months children will use particular single words to have needs met, with common words or favourites, such as ‘dog’. They may also begin to place two words together, such as ‘mum, up’, anywhere from 12–21 months. By 13–18 months, children will have the vocabulary of about 50 words, and at around 18 months will learn three or more words a day. By the age of around two, children speak in multiword sentences, as in “I’m go home now”.

Supporting the development of language may include:

• Using age-appropriate language around children, and with children. Labelling objects for children, and actions or cues with words, help to match understanding. E.g. “clap, clap, clap”, while engaging in the action of clapping.
• Using clear, concise and correct language for children and allowing them to observe how your mouth moves to make the sounds, can help them mimic the behaviour and making of words.
• Using song and stories to share language. These are often repetitive for children of this age and have a rhythm or melody to them, which helps them to remember; and create a flow of the words, images, items or visual cues, helping them to find meaning in the words spoken. Ask questions about what they see. What happened? Who the characters were? How they felt? What the moral of the story was? Or, what it was about? Consider intrigue, “I wonder what will happen next?”. “What will they do?”.
• Take genuine interest and joy in children’s attempts to communicate, and support the extension accordingly. E.g. a child points to a fish, “fsh, fsh”; “yes, the fish is in the bowl. Swim fish, swim”.
• Encourage questions, and ask questions of children. Hypothesise, investigate and encourage curiosity with language – “How did that happen? Why did that happen?” “How do we make it longer/ brighter/bigger?”.
• Support further extension of vocabulary through everyday play and interactions. “I wonder what the ant is doing, hmmm, shall we investigate? Let’s find out more.” Providing an explanation of what the word means, helps the children to make connections, and repeating the word in similar circumstances helps them to retain the word.
• Incorporate a range of play to encourage use of words, and comprehension of words; including dramatic play, creative play, building and construction, and project work.
• Active games often help to sort words with actions (incorporating body knowledge and awareness) E.g., “hop, hop, skip, jump on the box”, hopscotch, yoga etc... Tell stories and encourage children to re-tell stories, such as “what did you do on the weekend? “Have you ever been to a farm, tell me about it?” Encourage children to be curious about their peers and ask each other questions.
• Encourage them to use communication to have their needs met and feelings understood, give them examples of vocabulary and ways to express themselves where needed, or, to extend. Supporting their ability to communicate regarding their well-being, encourages a skill required for emotional development in life. Encouraging this sharing also supports the concept that it is positive and helpful to talk about how you are feeling.
• Assist children to understand and use non-verbal communication through stories, songs, games, conversations and play activities.

Supporting STEM: Science. Technology. Engineering. Mathematics

STEM has been used in schools for many years, as a way of using interactive exploration and investigation to learn about science, technology, engineering and maths.

The disciplines support the creation of critical-thinking, science literacy and innovation. STEM encourages children to question others, question themselves, and even question the question. “Why is it important to find the answer to this, what makes it necessary for investigation and research?”.

Supporting STEM may be evident by:

• Investigating everyday observations or interests
• Creating surveys or questions for others
• Data collection
• Questioning why we do things, or why they occur
• Hypothesising. “What will happen if I add this oil to the water?”
• Comparing/sorting/classifying. “If I put all these stones together, will it be taller than the tree?”
• Basic coding. “Two steps towards the tree, three hops forward, two rolls backward”; creating a logical sequence to get a result, or a script for behaviour or instruction.

Supporting motor skills

Emerging self-efficacy, or understanding of basic need competencies, is still developing in childhood. These are largely learnt through exploration and play. Children go through many competencies in childhood and many large milestones are accomplished by their motor enhancement, enabling them to do more and more physically. Children learn motor skills through practice and play, manipulating, holding, grasping, moving, stretching, balancing, and coordinating, as well as coming to understand their bodies.

Cephalocaudal development occurs when the body progresses in development from the head to the legs (head to tail); Proximodistal development refers to the near-to-far development of the torso outwards to the extremities or limbs. This is demonstrated by how a baby starts by moving its head, then lifting and strengthening to steady it, rolling over, sitting, standing, walking, then developing skills so as to jump, kick and run.

They begin their fine motor skills by exploring their mouth, lips and tongue (needed for feeding), moving their body by accident, then on purpose, grasping and holding at around six months and then, clapping and scribbling. They develop various grasping grips over the next few years, leading them to manage drawing, writing, cutting, turning pages of a book, and eating.

Supporting gross motor skills may include:

• Facilitating a stimulating environment for babies and children, to be inspired to investigate and get to required movement
• Encouraging movement, and excitement over journeys and achievements
• Encouraging movement and body exploration by gently moving their body and limbs. For example, Clap hands, legs moving and touching feet
• Using mobiles to encourage reaching and stretching, along with moving legs
• Providing grasping objects; rattles and soft books
• Practicing tummy time for short periods of time, while engaging them to build their core strength
• Action/reaction toys
• Objects they can orally explore with safety and hygiene, and finger foods, sippy cups
• Supporting balance within a safe environment, for them to practise when sitting and standing
• Manipulative and sensory experiences, e.g., Water, sand, playdough and painting, to strengthen and move up and down, strengthening legs, arms and body
• Active dancing and action songs
• Going up and down stairs, travelling across rocks, through bushes, and over puddles
• Yoga and stretching activities
• Vertical activities, such as painting the fence with water, or clipping a large sheet of paper to a wall to paint on, and chalk wall drawings
• Active play such as obstacle courses, climbing, weaving around, in, under and over; swings, slides, balancing beams, running games, jumping games and ball play
• Riding tricycles, scooters or bicycles
• General routines such as toileting, eating meals, drinks, pouring own water, serving, setting the table and making beds; watering plants and digging the garden.

Supporting fine motor skills may include:

• Providing grasping toys and materials – larger, then later, smaller – to meet development and safety
• Providing opportunities to grasp and hold their own spoon, cup etc.
• Practicing clapping, bouncing and moving skills
• Searching for objects to gather; collecting flowers, stones, leaves and sand while outdoors
• Engaging in manipulative play, such as water play, ball play, sand play, and clay or playdough
• Providing art and craft, pasting, cutting and sticking items
• Painting, fingerprinting, and marble painting etc.
• Practicing zips, buttons, and putting on own shoes and socks
• Self-feeding and drinking; eating food with fingers or with cutlery, cup, sipper cup, pouring water and serving food
• Toileting and washing own hands
• Supporting construction both large and small
• Sorting and matching activities such as memory, ‘tap, tap’ with nails and hammer, card games and puzzles.

Holistic learning environments

When we speak about supporting various domains of development, in most cases, each experience will support numerous areas of development. Holistic development will not only cover a range of domains but also consider the ‘whole child’; their cultural contexts, experiences, nationality, social world, family context and spiritual being – engaging all aspects of the learner, including mind, body, and spirit.

The concept also incorporates the understanding of the interconnectedness of each, and their ability to impact on each other, and the child’s overall well-being. The EYLF states, “[educators]…see learning as a social activity and value collaborative learning and community participation. An integrated, holistic approach to teaching and learning also focuses on connections to the natural world. Educators foster children’s capacity to understand and respect the natural environment and the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the land”.

Holistic learning may be evident when:

• The environment is full of wonder and curiosity relevant to the children, their family context and their world
• The educators promote respect, care, kindness and compassion for the children themselves, others and their environment
• Children’s interests are pursued and extended
• The program supports and represents the children of the group
• The program is inclusive and without bias.

A curriculum is a framework to guide the learning. It is flexible and surrounded by theoretical perspectives and research. The program plan is the documentation of the experiences you have planned for the children of the group; incorporating service philosophy, connected curriculum, outcomes, practices, principles, and pedagogical practices, and learning and development.

You may be planning for:

• the group of children
• individual children (not all at once).

Watch

Watch the following half-a-minute video to see how quality early learning gives children opportunities to actively participate in the program:

NQS 1.3 Assessment and planning

The educators and coordinators take a planned and reflective approach to implementing the program for each child.

You will be using the goals you set (as you did in the observation activity earlier) to implement this. Before implementing, you would:

• Review the outcome and reflect on what it is you want the child/or group to work towards
• Consider the materials and resources you will need
• Ask how you will support the goal
• Ask how you will set up the environment, and where
• Ask what you will be looking for to know if it is successful, or further emerging
• Ask what the experience is you will plan. (By experience, this could either be an activity, materials, interactions, a group task or investigation. It could also be a project, a routine task, such as self-feeding, and managing separation from family in the mornings.)
• Consider holistic approaches
• Document onto the program, so that all stakeholders know what will be occurring in learning during the upcoming period.

The program will include:

• Spontaneous or child-led experiences
• Parent or family input
• Intentional teaching moments
• Planned experiences for the group
• Planned experiences for a certain number of children. (This will have an organised structure)
• The journey
• Indoor and outdoor experiences, or all-day indoor/ outdoor programs.

Guidelines

The EYLF does not inform on what documentation to use, how many observations to take, how many experiences need to occur at once, and so forth. It is meant to be adapted to the service and the group with flexibility and purpose.

The program must be comprehensive and readable to the needs of the stakeholder, using correct spelling and grammar, and be current. The program should not use too much industry jargon or terminology, which makes reading difficult for families.

An individual or small-group plan may include:

• The date and group, or name
• Description of experience and resources/materials required
• A transition strategy where relevant
• Where and when the experience will occur
• How the experience supports the child’s development, interest or needs
• Connection to the EYLF, outcomes, principles and practices, the educator's role
• Any further goals
• Reflection/evaluation
• Future planning ideas
• Critical self-reflection of educator's role.

The program

The program itself can take many forms; it needs to display what possibilities will be occurring in the room, such as:

• Planned experiences
• What did occur?
• Indoor and outdoor experiences
• Routine learning experiences
• Group-time learning
• Intentional teaching
• Spontaneous learning.

Some services use a formal template, others use butchers’ paper, and some even have ‘sticky notes’ attached. It is really up to the service’s staff to determine what it looks like and how it is created.

Watch

The following 11-minute video explains why documentation is so critical and identifies some of the different purposes of documentation. When adults engage in a variety of documentation practices, it can help them to assess learning, reflect on and adjust their teaching practices, support children to revisit their own learning, communicate with families, and advocate for their program.

Now is the time to analyse, what worked and what did not. What you changed and altered and why? What the children said and any new ideas they had. Did the children work towards the outcome on their journey? What did they do, achieve, say? What happened?

When evaluating progress or reflecting on the experience, it is important to remember that children demonstrate their learning and progress in many and varied ways; meaning that the methods of gathering, documenting and analysing evidence to assess learning also need to be varied.

• What do you want to evaluate?
• Why do you want to evaluate it?
• How will you assess progress?
• How did I use the environment, routines and time to support learning?
• Is the information informative, meaningful and purposeful?

What is next?

We are always thinking about what comes next, sometimes it occurs on its own, via the children, or with some facilitation from the educators, before we’ve even had a chance to document it – which is of course, fine and wonderful.

A great question to ask yourself often when reflecting on what is occurring in the room, is ‘why not?’. This encourages educators to be flexible and question their own practices. You will find that during, or after, experiences you will have many ‘leads’ for extensions of learning, that stem from the planned or spontaneous inclusion of the plan. These should be documented so that the cycle of planning can continue and begin again – remember the cycle, it is a working document, everchanging, moving, stepping away, and around, in order to meet the best learning outcomes for the individual child and the group.

Consider service policies and procedures, which link to the cycle of planning and children’s interest, development and needs. They should guide your practices along with the NQF.

Use the following questions to check your knowledge. You can check the correct answer by clicking on the 'Answer' button:

1. What are the steps in the planning cycle?
   Answer

   • Gather information
   • Question
   • Plan
   • Implement
   • Evaluate
2. Why do we observe children?
   Answer

   • Learning about the child.
   • Understanding how they use their environment.
   • Understanding their pre-social or social interactions.
   • Understanding their behaviour.
   • Understanding their development and learning.
   • Understanding if the program has been effective for the children
3. Why are families so important to the planning process?
   Answer

   Families are the experts of their own children; their personality, temperament, interests, strengths, emerging skills and development. The families can inform educators how their child learns best and provide a wealth of knowledge to inform the program for their child. The family can also inform educators about the family’s values, cultural heritage, practices and beliefs, their child’s life and goals for their future, and share information about experiences of the child and the family that may impact their behaviour, learning and development.

4. List the roles of the educator.
   Answer

   • The role model
   • The program facilitator and evaluator
   • The advocate and mediator
   • Partner in play and collaborator
   • The cheer squad
   • The teacher
   • The critical reflector
5. What is Learning Outcome 2? Consider three (3) methods to support this.
   Answer

   Children are connected with and contribute to their world.

   Three methods may include:

   • Caring for animals and gardens
   • Exploring the outdoors and natural materials
   • Learn about recycling and upcycling.
6. When do we assess goals and reflect on learning?
   Answer

   At all times, we are reflecting and assessing goals, but this might be broken down into a more formal time set, either weekly or fortnightly sessions.

7. How would we support resilience?
   Answer

   We support resilience by giving children independence and opportunities to practice new and challenging skills in a supportive environment. There is often, but not always, an element of risk. This helps children to be able to manage emotionally and mentally when things are not successful or there is a crisis.

8. Why do children need to develop self-regulation?
   Answer

   • To modify physiological responses, such as behaviours to the demands of the environment
   • So that children can learn to negotiate acceptable outcomes to emotionally charged situations in more effective ways
   • It plays an important role in future social development and pro-social capabilities such as compassion, sharing, and other caring behaviours, impacting holistically.
9. Name three (3) types of concept development.
   Answer

   For example: Sorting, classifying, categorising, assimilation, accommodation, adaption, spatial, direction, ordinal, shapes, measurement, pattern and structure and cause and effect.

10. Why is it important to be aware of the physiological signs and impacts on children, and their behaviour?
    Answer

    Educators need to look for changes in behaviour, where children are having to modify physiological responses, such as behaviours, to meet the demands of the environment and observe where children may have learnt to manage social situations, or may suddenly struggle to self-regulate their emotions, impacting on physiological responses.