EEC Family Child Care Curriculum Resource Guide

International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy, 2015

2000

Caring for infants and toddlers has long been conceptualized in Western society as mothers' work, and consequently devalued. Alternative care for infants and toddlers has lacked a knowledge base like that undergirding preschool education. Factors impeding research on infant/toddler care include strong ideological opposition to nonmaternal care, the custodial tradition of child care, and the medical model used for training caregivers. The lack of a coherent knowledge base has resulted in a dearth of suitable language to describe the essential features of infant/toddler care programs. Language drawn from medical and educational models lack appropriate metaphors for the caring relationship at the heart of infant/toddler care. Anthropology provides a suitable framework for examining the work of infant and toddler caregivers which emphasizes the processes of care. When the caregiving relationship represents the core around which the curriculum is constructed, the knowledge base becomes clear-research and literature examining the importance of relationships to infant and toddler development and that relating to how infants and toddlers make sense of their place in the world. Metaphors from this research can help caregivers better understand and talk about what they do. Three curriculum frameworks for infants and toddlers may be incorporated: (1) attachment; (2) caregiving; and (3) play. Planning for infants and toddlers begins with the participant observation characteristic of anthropology, with such observations used to develop a picture of the strengths and interests of very young children. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (A. Maslow, 1970) may be used as a framework to identify needs. The summary of strengths, interests, and needs may be used to develop a program plan based on the relevant curriculum framework. (Contains 52 references.) (KB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.

2008

March 2013 • 324 pages Paper (978-1-4462-0712-3) Price £21.99 By examining how young children develop and learn from conception through to the age of eight, this book explores ways for you to enhance your professional practice in the early years.

2014

The literature review confirmed the importance of a play-based relational pedagogy but also highlighted the fact that understandings of what constitutes quality for two-year-olds are complex and still emerging. Key informants also identified the importance of a pedagogical approach that was play-based, child-led and looked to combine elements of care and education. In terms of the preparation needed to work with two-year olds, key informants supported the current drive by Government to up-skill the workforce but felt that further steps were needed, specifically a minimum Level 3 qualification for all practitioners and continued work towards ensuring qualifications are robust in their content and assessment processes. Many key informants also acknowledged the role of study at degree-level in deepening practitioners' understanding, helping to develop their skills in reflection and to foster the skills, knowledge and characteristics regarded as necessary for working with two-year-olds. Across all levels of qualification, they stressed the critical need for practitioners to have a sound understanding of child development. Finally, in addition to delivering high quality support for children, key informants emphasised the importance of relationships with parents and carers, and the need for practitioners to be sufficiently skilled in working with families. • Support for communication and language and for personal, social and emotional development (two of three 'prime' areas of the EYFS), as well as the pedagogical principles of child-led practice and playful learning, were identified as the most critical dimensions of good quality provision for two-year-old children by survey and case study participants. • Despite widespread recognition of the importance of outdoor play in the early years literature and in the key informant interviews and case study settings, fewer online survey respondents selected movement and physical development -the third prime area of the EYFS -as one of their three key dimensions of quality. This may indicate a need for further efforts to raise awareness of the importance of movement and physical development. • Partnership with parents was recognised by participants throughout the study as a key component of good quality for two-year-old children, and particularly so for children who might be experiencing disadvantage or who have additional needs. • The early years workforce was recognised as the cornerstone of quality for young children. Staff experience in working with two-year-olds, and having an overall well qualified staff team (i.e. a high proportion at Level 3), were identified as two of the most important factors in workforce quality by online survey respondents. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) This term is used commonly in international literature as an all-encompassing term for early years provision. In this report we use it in particular to refer to the work of practitioners who are involved in both educating and caring for two-year-olds. Day-care (nursery) Provision of ECEC for children from three months to five years, including offering funded early years education places, within the private or voluntary sectors. Full day-care refers to provision for a continuous period of four hours or more in any day in premises which are not domestic premises. Playgroups and pre-schools: Provide short sessions of care and education for two-to five-yearolds. Usually provided by the voluntary sector; sometimes run by parents and paid staff together. This provision is directly maintained by the local authority and operates throughout the school year. Early education places are offered either by a stand-alone nursery school or by a nursery class or Foundation Stage Unit within a primary school. Childminder -Self-employed providers offering care for children from birth upwards, in their home, for a fee. Childminders mentioned in this report will have completed additional training to provide the free early years education entitlement. Facilities where children under five attend day-care for no more than five sessions a week, each session being less than a continuous period of four hours in any day. Where two sessions are offered in any one day, there is a break between sessions with no children in the care of the provider. Children's Centre -provide a variety of advice and support for parents and carers. Services vary depending on the nature of the centre, but those in this study provide ECEC for children under the age of five, including offering funded early years education places. Services may be provided at one site or via several sites. Can be part of the private and voluntary sectors. Manager: in this report we use 'Manager' to refer to any person who has specific responsibility for managing the two year olds offer in a setting.

PsycEXTRA Dataset

2004

Topic Child care (0-5 years) Research Context Recent research has emphasized the long-lasting effects of early environmental influences 5 and their significance for emotional security, cognitive development, and learning skills. Indeed, the effects of child care need to be addressed by examining the nature of child care experiences and accompanying family experiences. Early research on the effects of child care has largely ignored selection biases, and such biases may still be undercontrolled in research. But attempts to disentangle family from child care effects may also lead to underestimating child care effects, 5,7 given the reciprocal effects between child care and families. Thus, for the past decade, research into the effects of early child care for infants and toddlers has been based on an ecological model of development that addresses environmental influences in family and child care contexts in conjunction with child characteristics and how experiences in one setting may shape the effects of experiences in the other. Key Research Questions Widespread concerns about the effects of routine nonmaternal care in a child's first 2 years of life have focused primarily on how such experiences may affect the developing mother-child relationship, but have also addressed effects on a child's developing language and cognitive development, social competencies, problem behaviours, and peer relations. An additional focus has been the concern that parents may suffer a loss of influence over their children's development when non-parental caregivers provide significant amounts of care on a daily basis. Recent Research Results Child care and the mother-infant relationship. The NICHD Study of Early Child Care is considered to be the most thorough investigation to date of the effects of child care on infant-mother attachment. Contrary to meta-analytic findings of the earlier literature that Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development