activity 2

Bowlby’s theory of attachment

John Bowlby’s attachment theory stated that a child’s need for a bond with its mother was innate.  Bowlby stated this and must be stricken between mother and baby by the time the baby is five months old. He claimed that this bond with the primary care giver (preferably the mother) is essential to child’s future mental well being and that a significant disruption of this bond within the first five years of the child’s life will affect he child’s personality development in later life.

Due to Bowlby's theory we realise how significant the transition to nursery is. Therefore nurseries have put in place solutions to make this initial separation from the parents easier on the child, for example the settling in period which allows the child to visit and take part in activities at the nursery with their parent present for smaller and smaller time periods each time.


Piaget's theory of cognitive development

Piaget stated that to learn children must explore the world around them and through doing this they develop different schemata, the process of how we do something for example to open a door you must first push down the handle and then pull the door towards you. He believed that in future circumstances the child assimilates and accommodates this schemata to new doors. Piaget believes children progress through four stages of development four different stages of development. The sensory motor stage, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. He believed that children cannot understand a concept before they have reached that cognitive stage.

Piaget's theory has ensured that in early years education children are given the opportunity to explore their surroundings. It has also created the understanding that children must be given the time to learn at their own stage and that they cannot be pushed to learn concepts above their stage of development.

                     

NC Childcare Activity 1

I am currently completing my placement at Glencairn Nursery in Greenock. Glencairn is a private nursery that cares for 25 children from the ages of two through to five. The children are split into four different groups, one for each key worker. The key worker is responsible monitoring the well being and progress of each child in their group however the children are not educated separately in there group and all get the opportunity to take part in every activity. As a result of this I also get the opportunity to work with all the children and all age groups.

I help the children fun and exciting activities that support and encourage the children in all aspects of their development. I support the children in other activities set up such as construction activities (lego, sticko bricks, etc), games, writing and drawing activities, singing and reading.

The nursery currently a three year old child diagnosed as on the autistic spectrum. As the child is so young it is yet to be determined how sever his autism is. In order to help fully support this child and his parents a child psychologist comes once a week to observe and work with this child. The nursery has also sent the child's key worker to a course to better understand autism and how to deal with it. This will allow her to provide the best possible care for him giving him the best education possible and helping his parents to judge whether he should continue his education in main stream school or whether he requires specialist attention. There are no children in the nursery who have been diagnosed with dyslexia as at this stage of their development the symptoms would not be apparent.  

From this experience I hope to gain valuable experience in al aspects of working as part of a nursery team. As I have been placed in a private nursery I will take every opportunity to learn about how this differs from a government run nursery, as any further placements may not offer this. It also gives me the opportunity to work with children of two years old giving me experience on how to adjust activities for a wider age gap and different stages of learning and development. From my experience at placement this year I hope to become more confident in my abilities and be able to use my initiative more freely without doubting myself. This will be imperative in my future career as I will be responsible for the education of a group of children and will have to have faith in my ability to do so to make sure they receive the best opportunities possible. Throughout my placement I will take all criticism and feedback on board so as to become the best early years care officer I can. I take care to watch the goings on and the activities of the other staff members, so that I can gather as many ideas as possible for future activities of my own so that I can plan a large variety of activities and give the children I work with as many different experiences and opportunities for learning as possible.