Principals of child development

Principals of Child Development

• All aspects of child development are integrated
• There are several theories about how children learn and develop
• Every child is individual
• There are many factors that can influence children's development

Why do we observe and assess children?

• To check children's overall development
• To see if a child is progressing
• To help planning
• To evaluate activities routines or strategies used with children
• To learn more about children's particular needs
• To resolve a particular problem
• To report accurately to parents
• To report to other professionals

To check a child 's overall development 

• Doctors regularly check children to see if there are any developmental difficulties
• Important for detecting and diagnosing any problems early on
• A child may be assessed on entry to a setting so that the staff will know if the child has any particular needs also to keep track of the child's progress
• To see if a child is progressing
• Regular assessment are carried out to ensure that the child is progressing
• Overall development and in specific areas

To help planning 

• From assessment and observations early years practitioners can plan and develop activities for children

To evaluate activities, routines or strategies used with children

• After observations have been carried out, an early years practitioners can evaluate whether activities or strategies being used with the children are effective - perhaps a different approach needs to be taken.
• Change the routine - perhaps if the children are noisy after play?

To learn more about children particular needs

• If a child has an additional need, observations and assessment can be carried out to gain more information.
• This information can than be used to plan activities and strategies for the children
• For example as a result of your carrying out observations you find that a child's language skills are not developing well, what would you do?
• read to them
• talk to them
• speech therapist
• picture game
• Phonetics of the alphabet
• Songs / nursery Rhymes

To resolve a particular problem 

• Observations can be carried out on a children to find out more about a particular problem
• e.g.The child has no friends - observations could be carried out on the child's social interaction with other children.

To report accurately to parents

• Parents need to be kept informed of a child's progress
• Show the parents that their children is being seen as an individual

To report accurately to other professionals

• Record based on observation are often in reporting to other professionals
• E.g. When a children moves to school