Early Childhood Blog

by SarahJane Mukherjee

Concerns remain high about the impact of the pandemic on children’s education, and initiatives to assist children in ‘catch up’ remain under the spotlight. However, as we emerge from this latest period of lockdown, PlayFirstUK, a group of academics from different universities, has written to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson to suggest that focus be placed on children’s mental health, and instead of ‘catch up’ children be allowed to play with friends and be outside in a ‘Summer of Play’. In anticipation of a potential perceived play/learning dichotomy, they write, “This is not an either-or decision. Social connection and play offer myriad learning opportunities and are positively associated with children’s academic attainment and literacy.” Implicitly, PlayFirstUK highlights that literacy is not confined to learning phonics and building sentences.  Yet, one challenge is that while it is accepted that children learn through play, it is not always immediately obvious how or what they learn in relation to literacy.

Here I outline how role-play offers opportunities for literacy learning. The research I draw on, taken from my own PhD study, on was conducted in a classroom with small groups of 4-5 year old children, yet the beauty of role-play is that it is unconstrained by location and takes place in gardens, kitchens, dens, cardboard boxes and under tables.  Furthermore, expensive and purposely designed props are not required.  The heart of role-play is the social connection and language interaction between the children. Typified by dialogue performed as a character, i.e. where the children ‘are’ the doctor, patient, shopkeeper, there is also language organising the role-play (who takes which role, direction of the action, comments on props).  Also present is language sparked by the play but not directly related.  Characteristically the children move seamlessly between these functions and the interwoven threads together provide a rich and dynamic linguistic context through which children develop literacy.  So, what is it that role-play offers in terms of literacy?

With the availability of pencils and paper, children will write a shopping list or capture details of a patient at a doctors’ surgery.  Emergent literacy is well-established in the literature, and in addition, these moments of literacy are accompanied by the children talking about the writing.  Thus, role-play becomes a meaningful context for children to write and talk about writing.

While not as visible as writing nor the immediate focus of early literacy programmes, the development of semantic fields, cause and effect and decontextualised/ abstract language are important for a child’s developing literacy and ‘academic’ language more broadly, and these aspects are found by paying close attention to the language interaction.

Semantic fields are foundational in a child’s development of their vocabulary.  Through the linguistic context of role-play, a child has the opportunity to do more than memorise a new sequence of sounds, but learn how new words are embedded within semantic fields and how they fit within particular grammatical structures and collocations. Learning the word thermometer in the context of a doctor’s surgery, a child develops their understanding of the semantic field around medical equipment and the opportunity to be able to use the word for themselves in this context.

Secondly, the ability to express and understand cause-effect relations in language is of huge importance for the expression of academic meaning.    In role-play children have opportunities to negotiate meanings and relationships between ideas and justify their position to their peers. Children use and practise the language of cause and effect to justify their adherence to their own guidelines for the play or justifying particular roles.

Thirdly, props (whether realistic or not) appear to act as a bridge between the here and now, towards the expression of abstract concepts, important for later literacy.  Opportunities open for the children to shift their understanding from the contextualised nature of the item e.g. a thermometer, towards a more abstract explanation of the implications for a high temperature.

While potentially reassuring to understand that ‘literacy’ may be happening in role-play, more reassuring would be to understand how these moments of learning are created.

Opportunities for learning are created by the children’s dialogic interaction through repetition.  Sometimes subtle lexicogrammatical shifts within the same turn are seen where the children practise, thereby experimenting with their developing language.

In a group the children position themselves as experts and treat each other as such.  Their expertise is seen through the children both offering new information to the group and responding to their peers’ questions as they explore the props and position themselves as an ‘expert’ doctor, shopkeeper or restaurant owner.

Thirdly and notably, children create long language exchanges.  Often prompted by a  question, the children co-construct knowledge over a series of turns.  Looked at this way, exchanges where the children do not quite achieve a ‘correct’ answer are also of value.

In summary, even if language in role-play does not quite yet adhere to conventional grammatical rules, or if there appears to be a disagreement about a prop or action, or children’s responses to questions are incorrect, the children learn important literacy skills from and in collaboration with each other as they learn language, through language and about language in the most social of all play, role-play.

To round up our final reports from the recently attended ‘Bicycles, Bricks, Vision & Determination’ conference run by Sightlines, here are  reflections from Jackie Musgrave, Karen Horsley and Lucy Rodriguez-Leon. You will gather from reading their feedback that the conference proved not only to be informative but also a thought -provoking and, in many ways,  empowering experience for the team.

‘Loris Malaguzzi’s pedagogical influence and contemporary importance’ – presented by Professor Peter Moss, reflections from Jackie Musgrave.

Every time I hear Peter Moss speak, I always feel sorry for him.  The reason for this is that he is usually delivering similar messages about the importance of Early Childhood and how it has been even more overlooked  over the last 10 years or so, for instance the situation in relation to the pay and status of the workforce, the lack of commitment from government to invest and so on. So each time I hear Peter speak he sounds more despairing of the situation. However, I was intrigued when I attended this conference because he sounded really hopeful.

Peter spoke about Malaguzzi’s influence on Early Childhood on what would have been his 100^th birthday, well actually 101^st because the conference was meant to happen last year. I am always fascinated by the historical context of issues and this was explained very clearly in the presentation.  Reggio Emilia approaches emerged in response to the influences of fascism in Italy following the second world war.  Malaguzzi was conscious of the dangers of people conforming and obeying the fascist rule, and especially aware of the impact on children. Consequently he developed a vison of children thinking for themselves which influenced his pedagogical approach.  Therefore, the Reggio Emilia philosophy was born out of adversity and the desire by Malaguzzi to recognise the richness of children, their 100 languages and to remind us that children are citizens with rights.  He recognised that societies can rob children of their 100 languages.

Peter highlighted, how. 75 years after the end of the second world war, we are now in another global crisis which is curtailing children’s rights in a similar way; children are being denied their right to education, health and play. This is where I got really hooked in; Peter stated that crisis can bring opportunity to help shape and create positive impact.  He reminded us of Malaguzzi’s beliefs about the importance of language, not just for children, but for all of us.  He urged us to use affirmative language in the words we select.  I took this to mean that we can use this opportunity to change the discourse around children, avoiding deficit language, promoting the affirmative, engendering a sense of hope, encouraging us all to take responsibility, demonstrating the power of the collective.

So  how can we as Early Childhood @ the Open University use language to make a positive impact for the children we indirectly work for? Via twitter, in our writing and research, at conferences, within and beyond The Open University?  Let’s discuss….

‘Democratic alternatives in education: Provocations from the Portuguese MEM (Modern School Movement)’ – presented by Dr Diana Sousa, reflections by Karen Horsley.

Diana began with her own Early Childhood memories (childhood photographs) as a time when she experienced the freedom to be, discover herself and begin to understand the values of democracy. She was part of the first generation of young children in Portugal to experience kindergarten, which were introduced as part of the democratic shift in education at the fall of the country’s dictatorship in 1974. So like Reggio, the movimento da escola moderna (MEM)/ Modern School Movement emerged from the mid 60’s from the ‘jolt’ of dictatorship.

MEM was started by 6 teachers in the mid -1960s who began exchanging their ideas about democratic education at a time when such ideas were supressed by the dictatorial powers that were in control of Portugal. It has similar beginnings to the developments in Reggio in recognising that democracy does not evolve naturally, its development cannot be taken for granted but requires nurturing through participation.

As a pedagogical movement MEM is informed by the thinking of Freinet (cooperative pedagogy); Helen Keller (inclusive practices), Vygotsky, Bruner and Freire. Teachers are regarded as both actors for social change as well as being learners. They interrogate the idea of democracy and also whether children, parents and professionals have the freedom they need to express who they are and who they want to be within the Early Childhood Education community. Everyone’s participation is integral.

Diana then took us through how the principles of MEM are enacted in Portuguese early childhood settings. Key points were:

• An emphasis on intergenerational groupings
• Flexible use of space organised by the participants
• Each morning the children’s council meets where children decide what they will do for the day
• There is rich ongoing project work – child led with members of the community coming in.
• Emphasis on slow pedagogy- this level of participation needs time
• Rich texts and documentation by the children are used to make their experiences visible – ‘texts’ include drawing, writing and thinking.

Diana ended the presentation with a thought- provoking quote from Sousa Santos

‘Alternatives are not lacking in the world. What is indeed missing is an alternative thinking of alternatives’ (Sousa Santos, 2019, online)

‘Truths and Transformation – where now and how?’ Panel and Discussion with Peter Moss, Karyn Callaghan and others, reflections by Lucy Rodriguez-Leon.

I attended this final session of the Sightlines conference. It was really inspiring to participate in discussions with practitioners here in the UK, and from across the globe. The session was mostly breakout group discussions, for delegates to pick-up the themes and topics from previous sessions such as the ‘right to subjectivity’, children’s competencies and democratic education.

There were a few key take-away messages that caught my attention.

• The power of community within Early Childhood Education Care. The sector needs to work together to develop a powerful collective voice. The incredible work in Italian communities and in Portugal are all examples of what can happen when a few women come together with conviction and purpose.
• Trust should be reciprocal – When children come to ECEC settings, they place an enormous amount of trust in practitioners, trust that they will be kind, fair, keep them safe and provide for their physical, social and emotional needs. In return, we need to trust children, trust that they are the experts in their own lives and capable of seeking out the experiences that will enable them to develop.
• Reggio is not a ‘one-off’ – these movements are widespread across Italy and other countries. There are numerous examples of ‘doing things differently’ – and examples of community approaches to ECEC that sit within a global progressive education movement.
• Collectively, there can be a push-back against the accountability culture and a change in perspective of what actually matters for young children. Much of what is measured, doesn’t matter, and what really matters, often can’t be measured.
• Optimism and invitation – antagonism between the sector and policy makers is not helpful. As a community, we can ‘invite’ wider society to see things differently and move forward in small steps.

It was notable that many of the themes discussed and debated aligned with perspectives in our Early Childhood modules (E109, E110, and E229) which reminded me that, as the Higher Education provider for so many EC students, we really are integral to the ECEC community and sector.

A lovely blog written by one of our associate lecturers, Dr Renu  Bhandari. 

COVID lockdowns have taught everyone the importance of the outdoors and its role in mental health. As we emerge from COVID gradually the importance of early years professionals using the outdoors for psychological, social, emotional well being of children cannot be denied. Natural open ended, freely available resources help in creating learning environments that are free of all. Outdoor environments can enable children to engage in imaginative, creative play and take on the challenge of the outdoors. Outdoor play does not require large spaces and a large investment. The key investment in making the most of outdoor play is imagination, free play, cooperation and large sums of creativity within a safe, natural environment.

Many traditional Indian games are set in the outdoors, teaching children the value of the environment and giving them an opportunity to connect with nature (Prakriti). The Indian culture and traditions hold nature at the centre of all exploration, risk taking, fun and teaching children the importance of the outdoors. Some traditional Indian games cited in folklores are even used now in settings for children 4 years to 14 years. Traditional games with sticks (Gili Danda), stones (Pithu, Gutte), body (kabaddi) and rope (Rasa) are used extensively. Some games like Posham Pa are played with micro tunes that help the young players to build rhythm, language and new words.

Pithu- This is a game played in two teams with a minimum of  two members to twelve members. The game is played with a stack of seven flat stones which are piled in a circle. A ball is then thrown by a team member of the first team to unstack the stones. The team then works together to rebuild the stack of stones in the order the game started off with. The other team members pass the ball around and hit the members as they attempt restacking the stones. Each time the ball touches the team member they have to leave the game and pass the challenge to the rest of the team. To start the Pithu, the two teams explore the outdoors to find stones that are flat shaped and can be stacked well. Going out individually or in pairs to do this can be an enriching experience and time to bond with the team members. Once the stones are collected and ready the teams then take turns to decide which team takes the turn first to hit the stack. This game calls for strategy (Hindi word -Rananeeti) and planning (Hindi word-Yojana). The two teams have to work together, plan and guess the moves of each player to make sure that the task of restacking the piles of stones is achieved. The value of perseverance and hard work is a theme throughout this game.

Early years settings can create an inclusive environment by embedding traditional Indian games in practice. Involving children of different abilities, needs, cultures, religion and beliefs in activities can be easily created through these games. These games can help professionals learn from the past to make the best of now and the future along with language learning. They can act as a social psychological “cushion” for children with special needs. All early years professionals can create a “window to another culture” that sets in motion children’s creativity, agency and control through the use of these traditional Indian games.

‘How Does Learning Happen?’ Ontario’s vision for education

Continuing our series of thoughts, impressions and feedback from the Sightlines conference series, John Parry reports back on the session he attended which considered the way that early childhood education is developing in the Canadian state of Ontario.

Introducing…

It may have been the end of the day for us in the UK but for our seminar presenters Karyn Callaghan and Kelly Massaro Joblin it was 11am on a bright, near freezing winter’s morning in Canada. Karyn, an Early Childhood academic as well as president of Ontario Reggio Association, and Kelly, an Ontario government advisor on Early Childhood, have been at the forefront of championing change in the early years curriculum within the state over the last six years. Their session promised to reflect on the progress and ongoing struggles connected to shifting the state provision for very young children from the established developmental/’school readiness’ agenda to a more holistic child centred approach.

The context

In order to orientate us listeners and watchers Karyn and Kelly first provided some helpful context:

• Ontario is a state of 14.7m people, so under a quarter of the population of the UK but in terms of land mass over 4 times as big (the presenters live a 15 hour drive away from each other).
• 462,000 pre-school children attend 5500 programmes/ provision across the state. Some provision is directly funded by the state but all settings are licensed by the government.
• A patchwork system exists as in the UK. Families pay subsidised ‘fees’ and non-state provision is run by a mix of profit and non-profit organisations.
• Early Childhood educators are seen as professionals (they must hold a diploma in early childhood education after completing a two year training programme). However the profession remains a low pay sector.
• Children move to Primary school in the year they turn 4 but then enter a two year kindergarten programme that is state funded. There is no assessment prior to school entry.

The established view

Before talking about the more recent changes that have taken place in Ontario’s early childhood education Karyn and Kelly emphasised the powerful foundations that had propped up the system for previous decades. As they talked about early childhood provision being seen primarily as a support for parental employment and preparation for school, it all sounded depressingly familiar. Similarly the curriculum that fed into this established system, known as ELECT (Early Learning for Every Child Today), bore a chilling resemblance with the frameworks that continue to dominate early education in the UK. ELECT, which had been in place in Ontario since 2007, was:

• developmental in principle and structure, defining hierarchical skills in social, emotional, communication, cognitive and physical domains for children aged birth to 8
• used to ‘informally’ assess children and as a checklist of progress to school readiness
• entwined with the system of quality assurance and inspection that determined funding for settings and promoted competition between provision.

Unsurprisingly as Karyn noted  ‘the developmental discourse although critiqued has become so dominant that many practitioners cannot consider another perspective’

The shift

Karyn and Kelly then shared the cycle of events and innovations that generated the beginning of the shifts away from this established view to where early childhood education is today in Ontario. As always with fundamental change much could be attributed to the circumstantial, being in the right place at the right time, as to the inspirational.

In 2010 following a change of state government early childhood was taken into Ministry of Education and out of Social Care. At the same time the Ontario Reggio Association was formed, committed to make as Karyn said ‘the possible, visible’. The Ministry under new directorship was willing to listen and visited settings recommended by the Association that were taking a Reggio informed approach. Ministry advisors also accompanied educators from the Association on a study trip to Reggio itself. Two key documents resulted from this extended period of dialogue and shared learning:

‘Think, Feel, Act’ (2013) – a resource document for provision from current research demonstrating the positive impact of Reggio informed approaches.

‘How Does Learning Happen?’ (2014) – a new curriculum framework.

Karyn and Kelly explained that the key aspect of ‘How Does Learning Happen?’ was that it was not a top down imposed framework but was ‘developed out of dialogue and a relationship’. They recollected that even the title caused a stir as it had no ‘air of authority’, it is a question that invites you to think about learning, everyone’s learning.

Significantly the new curriculum does not draw on a developmental framework but takes as its focus Engagement, Belonging, Well-being, and Expression, looking at these from the perspective of ‘Goals for Children’ and ‘Expectations’ for settings.

Today in Ontario

Although ‘How Does Learning Happen’ was formally embedded in the pre-school and Kindergarten curriculum in 2016, it has not replaced the developmental ELECT framework but co-existed alongside it. There is still resistance to the new approach often from Teacher Education establishments who teach the early childhood diploma and retain a strong commitment to the perceived objectivity of developmentalism. Karyn and Kelly believe that more recognition was seeping through and that the recent extraordinary events created by the pandemic had reinforced the importance of learning based on relationships. However they noted warily that because early childhood education in Ontario was due for review in 2021, the future of ‘How Does Learning Happen?’ remains in the balance.

Personal Reflection  

Looking back at the session it’s hard to imagine what it would take for a framework like ‘How Does Learning Happen?’ to exist alongside the current curriculum in early years in England. With the revised EYFS still appearing to be rooted in compartmentalised areas of learning and an ages/stages structure, that particular window of opportunity for change seems to have passed. In the session Karyn reminded us that Peter Moss has in the past observed that unless the dominant discourse can be interrogated and ‘made to stutter’ new ideas and practices will have little chance to flourish. So as researchers and academics, practitioners, and parents we need to continue to ask those critical questions and make the alternatives persistently visible.

Last month we reported on Eleonora Teszenyi’s attendance at a Sightlines conference seminar. We thought you would like to hear about another one this month so Jo Josephidou is going to discuss her response to the seminar ‘The Women and the Schools of Reggio Emilia’ presented by Professor Sabine Lingenauber and Janina L. von Niebelschütz.

Why did you choose this particular session?

This session seemed to encompass two key research interests of mine – gender and early years pedagogy. Malaguzzi has long been one of my educational heroes  because I appreciate his view of children as competent and strong as illustrated in his moving and challenging poem ‘A hundred languages’. In addition to this, I have always been in awe of the fascinating work produced  in the  Reggio settings and in particular the children’s drawings. Although I was drawn to the session by an interest in Malaguzzi’s work, he was hardly mentioned at all in the seminar; instead the spotlight was shone on the courageous, determined and inspirational women who had played a vital role in establishing this world renowned educational provision for children. They had established this ground-breaking work in a country recovering from occupation, war and fascist ideology. I know this area of Italy quite well, having lived and worked there, yet there were some connections I had failed to make. This realisation made me reflect on the connections I may also fail to make in the context of ECEC provision in general with its highly gendered workforce. Suffice to say, I was blown away by the session, by its sense of energy, its casting of new light on familiar ideas and the status that it gave these strong women of Reggio Emilia.

What are the key points you have taken away?

I was reminded of the wider purposes of education; we become so fixed on accountability agendas within our own context such as: are the children achieving a good level of development, what progression are they making towards the Early Learning Goals, how are they getting on with phonics? Yet here was presented an education system that was a continuation of brave women’s struggle against fascism. Not only that, it was a continuation of their fight for equality with men. One of my favourite books, and one  I return to often, is The activist teaching profession by Judyth Sachs (2003); here Sachs challenges us to think about our role in educating children in terms of ‘How to be, How to act and How to understand’ (p. 15). But what are the links between activism and quality early childhood experiences in the context of the United Kingdom, from which I write? How should we be, act and understand? One current example perhaps is the coming together of practitioners, consultants, parents and academics to contribute to Birth to Five Matters, a redrafting of the non-statutory guidance in England. This redrafting is a rejection of the DfE compiled document by those with a wealth of experience and understanding of how to engage with young children in care and educational contexts.

How will it impact on your future research and work?

Attending this session has opened my mind to other possibilities; it is a reminder to look at what is not said and who is not seen to be speaking. It is a reminder to look beyond the louder voices to the whispers in the background; this notion interests me when I consider the voice of Early Years practitioners in my own context where their voices are often said to be silenced (Brownhill and Oates, 2016).  I have also begun to question my own assumptions and how I have been socialised into the discipline of Early Childhood; for example, a potential lack of criticality in my hero worship of Malaguzzi. As I pondered on this  idea within the session, I had an opportunity to pose a question to Sabine Lingenauber; I asked, out of genuine curiosity, what had led her to consider this piece of research on the Women of Reggio. She explained how it had been a chance conversation, whilst visiting the city of Reggio Emilia with her students; she had encountered one of these woman, women she calls ‘witnesses’, who was now in her nineties. This chance conversation also made her question her assumptions about the Reggio approach and triggered this research interest.

Do take time to look at the beautifully presented website, which contains details of Lingenauber’s research, complete with videos and interviews; I hope you are as inspired as I have been!

The Early Childhood team were recently delighted to have the opportunity to attend some of the sessions from the Sightlines conference. The Sightlines Initiative is an organisation which, in their words, is ‘the UK reference point for Reggio Emilia’s preschools’. We thought you may enjoy hearing about some of the sessions we attended; in this post we asked Eleonora Teszenyi her thoughts on the session Walking on Threads of Silk by Marina Castagnetti.

Why did you choose this particular session Eleonora?

The title caught my attention because it sounded very much like one of those projects of the Reggio Emilia preschools that are documented and kept in the archives of the Loris Malaguzzi Centre. And sure enough, it was. Although the talk did not include references to this project, instead it was used as a simile for practitioner reflections: because it is like walking on threads of silk – delicate yet strong, interwoven with every fibre of practice and representing the very being of the early educators of the Reggio Emilia Preschools.

What are the key points you have taken away?

So many points were poignant for me and I will only list just a few:

• In documenting children’s learning (or making their learning visible), photographs are viewed as the language that captures the aesthetic dimension of communication ideas and which creates and strengthens relationships.
• The right to subjectivity. The right of the child, the pedagogue and the family to subjectivity and this was taken in the context or discourse of documentation, illustrated by a quote from Malaguzzi: “The discovery of children’s competencies is one of the greatest discoveries, most productive and most generative discoveries ever made, also in terms of subjectivity and right.” (This was a verbatim translation of a small section of one of his speeches.) Pedagogical documentation gives visibility to the capacities that we credit children with, and through this, adults are able to participate in the construction of children’s knowledge. Documentation captures the processes of how children build knowledge; it makes the intentions of the child visible when often these very subjective underlying thought processes are invisible.
• I loved how Marina referred to what could be seen as an ‘error’ or a ‘mistake’ as the representations of endless possibilities. Children privilege knowledge through transformative action. In the process of transformation the child anticipates, conjures, tries out and checks, co-ordinates meanings that are progressively born from actions, transgresses, negotiates, adjusts, issues things from hands and mind.  We see things that truly belong to children.

How will your learning from this seminar impact on your future research and work?

Apart from feeling an urge to be back in practice with children, I will think about ‘right to subjectivity’, give it meaning in relation to our Children’s Rights in Hungary project. I think these sentiments just underscore how I understand the significance of listening to young children and see them as experts of/in their own lives.

Thank you, Eleonora!

By Jackie Musgrave (Programme leader, Early Childhood and Education Studies [Primary], The Open University.

The state of children’s health has been a cause for concern since the start of this century, not just physical health, but mental health conditions are increasingly being recognised and diagnosed in young children. In England in 2017, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reported that 10% of children were diagnosed with a mental health condition. The figures are similar in Scotland and Wales whilst in Northern Ireland, it has been stated that more than 20% of young people suffer from ‘significant mental health problems’ by the time they reach age 18. Many other children show signs associated with mental ill-health, such as anxiety and depression, but are not formally diagnosed. There are multiple factors that influence children’s enjoyment and experiences of life; some are ‘within’ each child, such as their personality or level of resilience. External factors also influence children’s mental health, such as living conditions or family and other relationships. In addition, there are global influences, such as a country’s geographical location and political situation, as well as health-related global events, such as the Covid pandemic.

The current focus on and awareness of young children’s mental raises some very important points that I would like to discuss and would welcome your thoughts about. First, I think it is helpful to be aware that children have always experienced mental health illness, but it wasn’t always recognised as such. This lack of recognition was partly because of the status of children in society. In the 19^th century, many children lived in extreme poverty and for those who were not part of a family, were vulnerable to exploitation by adults. The novels of Charles Dickens illustrated the hardship that children endured, think of Oliver Twist, an orphan forced to work as a thief living with a gang leader in circumstances that we consider to be child slavery. Or think about the small boys who were forced to climb up chimneys to clean them, often being ‘encouraged’ to do their job by having a fire lit in the grate below their feet, so they would climb up quickly. It was not an unknown event for the chimney sweep boys to get stuck and die in the chimneys. Moving forward to the second world war, (1939-45) children as young as 3 were taken away from their homes and families in the city centres to rural areas to reduce the risk of injury or death because of the enemy bombs.

The ‘evacuees’ were homed usually with people they didn’t know for the duration of the war. Whilst many survived the experience, some endured sexual and physical abuse and it is likely that a significant number of evacuees experienced feelings of sadness, despair and abandonment because of the separation from their parents and families. As we know now, adverse childhood experiences can cast as Michael Rutter (1998) said, ‘a long shadow’, often into adulthood.

The second important point that I would like to raise is that, even though it appears that there is an explosion in the number of children with a diagnosable mental illness, the increase is partly because of our increased knowledge and awareness of this issue. Some children have always shown the signs and symptoms of mental illness, but it wasn’t recognised as such.

The final important point I would like to make is that despite the gloom that is often portrayed in the media about children and their mental health, there is a great deal that all adults can do to improve children’s mental health. This is especially the case for practitioners working with very young children. Think about the principles that are embedded in practice, such as communicating with and listening to babies and young children. Forming positive and caring relationships with children in the absence of their parents while the children are in your care and how your knowledge of each unique child enables you to identify and meet their needs. Creating an environment that gives them opportunities to play, indoors and out, to make friends and explore, all of the everyday routines and practice that are part of high quality education and care contribute to children’s wellbeing and in turn this can promote good mental health. Of course, this is not in anyway intended to trivialise the matter, sadly some children will develop a diagnosable mental health condition that require interventions to try and minimise the impact on the child and their family. However, please remember that what you do every day, and may take for granted, can contribute to improving babies and children’s wellbeing and supporting their mental health.

Early Childhood @ the Open University have produced a course, ‘Supporting children’s (0-8) mental health and wellbeing’. This introductory course is free and can be accessed online here

References

Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2017) State of Child Health Report Available from https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-02/SoCH%202017%20UK%20web%20updated%2011.09.18.pdf accessed 29 February 2020

Rutter, M., Giller, H. and Hagell, A. (1998) Anti-Social Behaviour in young people. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Further reading

BBC (2019) Is young peoples’ mental health getting worse? Available from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47133338 accessed 20th September 2019

What a superb (and really helpful!) post by Early Childhood (E109) Open University  student Kathleen Davies

Feeling enthusiastic to study and excited at the prospect of learning about a subject I have never studied before I must admit I felt quite confident approaching my first assignment. I had looked at the ‘all weeks’ tab on the study planner and got an idea of the pace expected. I had written all the hand in dates of each assignment in my new study diary and even printed off a very useful combined study schedule and ‘blu tacked’ it to the wall as if to display to my family my new status as ‘Student Who Is Organised and Ready To Study’.

Beginning the course was great, I watched all the useful video clips about getting organised and time management. My plan was to absorb as much as humanly possible in order to have the skills ready in my arsenal before they were required. Like a student ninja – poised, ready. Happily the prep was made easy by all the resources made available to us as OU students. My eyes widened with glee at the numerous databases the OU subscribes to. I joined in a library adobe connect room about how to find information and research a topic. I bought a Totum card (student discount at 37? Yes please). I did a Welsh quiz in our Wales Student Union adobe connect room. I booked onto my course tutorials. For the whole year. Then seemingly out of the blue, yesterday I realised my first assignment is due next week. TMA01.

O.K. we’re here, we can do this, I can do this, just me. I’ve done the prep, this is what I’ve been training for, this is what I signed up for. Wax on, wax off.

The long and short of it is, I approached my neatly arranged desk at various times over 3 days and wrote not a single word of that assignment. I procrastinated like a pro. The laundry had to be done, a phone call must be made, I didn’t have the right study sweets. Eventually I had to challenge myself. What exactly is going on here? I like studying, I’m GOOD at studying, I know how to study. I did the library adobe connect room thing for goodness sake, get on with it!

I did a quick online meditation with someone on Instagram (more procrastination?). I came to understand it was my little not-so-friendly self-esteem beast rearing its ugly head and if I didn’t face it I would be staring dead eyed at a blank computer screen forever more.

I thought I was over this, not gonna lie, feelings of not being good enough, not intelligent enough, not capable enough, not…enough. But this time things are different. This time I have chosen my topics just because I fancied learning about them. This time I’m a bit older, a bit more battle scarred and to be honest, I have more pressing things to be getting on with. Like the uniform wash, which is genuinely more important than an essay about the maturationist viewpoint.

This time I have no-one to prove anything to except myself. This new line of thinking gave me the confidence to not be perfect, and to not worry if I didn’t get everything exactly right first time round. That coupled with the supportive environment I have found at the OU reminded me that I am capable. The way that all the weeks are laid out really helps to break everything down into smaller more manageable chunks, and during the online tutorials and video clips online it has been emphasised that most OU students have busy lives and priorities. That made me feel part of a group of people all taking names in the morning and writing essays in the evening and made me feel less alone and like it was do-able.

I went back to the assessment guide and I wrote some notes. I re-read the study materials this time looking for evidence of what I wanted to say. I wrote the first half of the assignment (I knew I enjoyed this!). The next two days I spent chewing over the video materials I had watched in the online activities while I made a cup of tea, or washed up lunch boxes, and when I returned to the assignment it was on my chrome book on my lap in the living room after the school run one day.

I wrote the TMA and asked a friend who is a social worker to look over it to make sure it made sense. That was today! So I’ve got some time now to sleep on it and return to it with fresh eyes before submitting, however, I am feeling quite happy with my first assignment. Hopefully the wall to climb over for TMA02 is a row or two of bricks lower when I come to it.

Every success with your assignment Kathleen!

This post is written by Karen Douthwaite who is an Associate Lecturer in Early Childhood here at the Open University.

2020, a year like no other, has seen us adopt new ways of living, in which maintaining distance has been key to our physical health, but has doubtless been a strain on our emotional well-being. As adults we have grappled with the need to keep apart from the people and activities we love, swayed by the ‘science’ that in doing so we protect the lives of others. For our youngest citizens, the daily graphs that represent our predicament, offer little comfort for their changing worlds where their nurseries have closed and grandparents have remained behind closed doors. As we as adults have maintained our connections through phone calls and webchats, how can we understand the ‘new normal’ that is experienced by our very young and pre-verbal children, or know whether they continue to thrive and be emotionally well?

These are questions that some of our second year Early Childhood students at the Open University have been considering by exploring images of children in the Hold Still exhibition hosted by the National Portrait Gallery to capture our lives in lockdown. Woven amidst the images of health-workers, home hair-cuts and painted rainbows, are images of children making sense of their changing worlds. We see a one-year old boy beaming around the edges of his dummy as he touches the window where he can see his grandmother, lips pressed towards him; a scene his mother titles ‘glass kisses’. In one image, two young children occupy a small balcony on a second floor flat, sharing their only outdoor space with a line of washing, as they read books and soak up the sunshine. My favourite perhaps, is an image of 4-year-old Isobel sleeping soundly in her bed next to an I-pad on which Grandma can be seen reading a bedtime story. New norms, new ways of maintaining meaningful relationships.

Through their studies, our students will be reflecting on the importance of listening to children as active contributors to society, and considering the merits of different methodologies for tuning into children’s perspectives to co-construct ideas in which their views hold value. Approaches, for example such as those promoted in the city of Pistoia in the Tuscan region of Italy. Here, documentation such as children’s drawings and work, as well as photographs and narratives of their play, act as a ‘window and a mirror’ making children’s learning visible to the whole community (Barr and Drury, 2017 p3). Or perhaps Alison Clark’s ‘Mosaic approach’ in which children, valued as skilled communicators, take their own photographs and give detailed accounts of their everyday experiences, creating a picture that enables adults and children to learn together (Clark, 2017). Indeed, images submitted for the Hold Still exhibition were submitted by photographers as young as 4-years old.

The exhibition gives us a starting point for connecting with young children’s perspectives of lockdown, and if we could build a mosaic around these by interviewing the children and their parents, observing their actions and exploring children’s own documentation, what could we learn – both about them, and from them? I would like to ask Isobel what her favourite stories are to share with Grandma, and how characters can come alive over the internet. I would ask the children on the balcony how small spaces can become a rewarding place for learning, and I would ask one Mum how much our spirits can be lifted by making time for glass kisses.

Let’s keep listening and learning together…

References

Barr, M. and Drury, R. (2017) ‘” Documentation” in Pistoia preschools: A window and a mirror’, International Research in Early Childhood Education, 8 (1) pp. 3-20.

Clark, A. (2017) Listening to young children: a guide to understanding and using the mosaic approach. London: Jessica Kingsley.

By Professor Jane Payler

‘Why would anyone want to come into the early years sector any more, the pay is  dreadful, we are undervalued by the Government and even though we desperately want to  give our staff more money, we can’t. The 30 hrs and the free entitlement has had an impact  on how on parents view our profession.’ (Payler & Bennett, 2020:37)

There can be no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial role that ECEC plays in our society. In spite of confusing and changing messages to the sector from the government in the early stages of the pandemic, the country was reminded nonetheless that ECEC provides a key service, caring for and educating our richest resource as a nation, our current precious youngest citizens and our future adults. Yet, we have a sector that has been let down by a lack of coherent government strategy and investment for workforce and professional development over the past ten years. Just as the quality of our teachers in schools, their training and the resources available to them are crucial to the quality of older children’s education, so too is the quality of experiences for young children dependent on staff, their training, professional development and the level of resource available for ECEC provision. We have a sector working hard to do their very best for young children and families. But instead of seeing government-led development and improvement since 2010, we have seen the sector let down in England by insufficient funding, a loss of strategy to ensure a well-qualified graduate-led workforce and a huge loss of local authority resource for training, quality improvement and support (e.g. see Pascal et al. 2020 here). In this context, our research funded by Montessori St. Nicholas Charity examines the workforce and professional development issues faced by Montessori settings in England (see our full report here). We found that although Montessori settings in the survey had well qualified, experienced staff and higher Ofsted ratings, there were nonetheless threats to maintaining qualification levels, difficulties in professional development and poor external recognition of Montessori qualifications. The range of difficulties faced in Montessori settings regarding professional development are mainly high costs, staff cover, poor timing of courses, accessibility of courses and difficulties in deciding which courses are worth doing. Settings reported fewer accessible choices for professional development at greater costs and with less assurance of making the right choices for quality enhancement and value. The future supply of a trained Montessori workforce was seen to be insecure and currently has limited diversity, while Montessori provision is more likely to be in areas of lower disadvantage and, within settings, higher qualified staff are usually deployed with older children. Young children, their families and the ECEC workforce deserve better.

References

Pascal, C., Bertram, T. & Cole-Alback, A. (2020) Early Years Workforce Review: Revisiting the Nutbrown Review – Policy and Impact. London, Sutton Trust. Available at http://www.crec.co.uk/docs/Early%20Years%20Workforce%20Review%20for%20Sutton%20Trust%20August%202020.pdf. Accessed 20.9.2020.

Payler, Jane and Bennett, Stephanie (2020). Workforce composition, qualifications and professional development in Montessori early childhood education and care settings in England. Montessori St. Nicholas Charity, & OU, Milton Keynes, UK. Available online at http://oro.open.ac.uk/72360/1/Open%20University%20Montessori%20final%20research%20report%2021%20Sept%202020.pdf. Accessed 25.9.2020.