The 5 areas of development assessed by the study cover:
**Communication – which links in the EYFS* to communication and language.
**Personal-social skills – which links in the EYFS* to personal, social and emotional development.
**Gross motor skills – which links in the EYFS* to physical development.
**Fine motor skills – which links in the EYFS* to physical development.
**Problem solving – which links in the EYFS* to the characteristics of effective learning.
*EYFS - early years foundation stage - the statutory framework in England.
We can read these statistics and worry about the next cohort of children – we can blame the pandemic and staffing crises in early years – or we can think positively about what we are doing to change the direction of the tide.
I find ‘So, what are you doing about it?’ is a powerful reflective tool to help reframe many different situations ... including this headline hitting negative DfE report ... into a positive outcome for the children.
Children are struggling with communication and we know that there are very long waiting lists to get them support – so, what are we doing about it?
**We are tracking children’s progress to help us spot where they might need extra support.
**We are using strategies such as reading books, singing songs and rhymes, daily conversations and interactions, storytelling and role play to help children ‘catch up’.
**We are keeping parents updated and encouraging them to read books to their child at home.
Children are struggling with personal-social skills – we see them finding it hard to make friends, communicate with their peers (this is closely linked to communication) and collaborate during activities – so, what are we doing about it?
**We are sitting and engaging and playing with them every session.
**We are modelling the skills they need to be good friends and friendly with other children.
**We are directly teaching them how to manage their emotions and recognise how others are feeling.
Children are struggling with their gross motor skills - we see them tripping over, falling off chairs, unable to run or balance during their play – so, what are we doing about it?
**We are doing professional development opportunities to learn more about how to support gross motor skills – for example, the DfE ‘Help for early years providers’ website.
**We are including more dancing and action songs and rhymes into our daily music and movement sessions.
**We are getting children outside and active every day, modelling how to use play equipment and encouraging them to take carefully managed risks.
Children are struggling with their fine motor skills – we notice that they cannot use a crayon or chalk and utensils during mealtimes – so, what are we doing about it?
**We have resourced the environment to ensure we have mark making opportunities everywhere, inside and in the garden.
**We have talked to parents about the importance of encouraging independence, so children are putting on their own coats and shoes, pulling up socks, helping with tooth brushing and eating with a spoon at home.
**We set out daily ‘fiddly fingers’ fun challenges for the children to complete and we show them how to do them, so they are learning from our modelling.
Children are struggling with their problem-solving skills – we notice they cannot complete simple jigsaws or finish tasks without looking to an adult for help and they struggle to guess / predict for fear of getting it wrong – so, what are we doing about it?
**We are playing games like noughts and crosses and Simon says.
**We are planning treasure hunts in the garden and scavenger hunts at the park.
**We are allowing children to make mistakes and learn from what they have done.
In addition to these findings from DfE, early years practitioners note children are struggling with their personal, social and emotional skills such as separation anxiety, self-regulation and behaviour – so, what are we doing about it?
**Practitioners are attending training to learn more about, for example, positively supporting behaviour and teaching self-regulation skills.
**Children’s wellbeing is monitored using the Leuven scales, to quickly note any changes to wellbeing which can be supported with parents.
**Parents are involved in their child’s care and updated regularly about how they are getting on and what activities they can do with their child at home to support them in the setting.
I hope this blog helps you to see how reframing what is quite a negative report into a positive outcomes for the future can help to strengthen our resolve to keep the child where they should be – at the centre of everything we do.
By the way, those who know me will know how hard it was to repeatedly end a sentence with ‘it’ but this is a reflective thought process, about supporting children’s development, not semantics!
Chat soon, Sarah.
Photo credit - balancing logs in the garden | Katherine Mounsher.
DfE report cited in blog - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-development-outcomes-at-2-to-2-and-a-half-years-annual-data-april-2022-to-march-2023