Heuristic Play

What is Heuristic play?

When babies start to walk and become more independent they need an environment of discovery and investigation – Heuristic comes from ‘eureka’. This is the time when children will spend 30 minutes or more concentrating on seemingly random play. They like to post, hide, slide, pour, fill, put on, in and under.

Kathy Sylva and Jerome Bruner associated this concentration of play with cognitive development and educational progress. As practitioners we need to provide the environment and materials for children to be able to do this.

The environment

A clear space should be used, with all other toys and distractions put away. About an hour is needed (including putting out and clearing away). At least one member of staff should be fully dedicated to looking after this group of children. This is a great time to take photos and make observations. The time should preferably clear of distraction for adults as well.

An additional benefit is that whilst the toddlers are occupied with their play, other practitioners are released to settle in new babies or catch up on paperwork.

The resources

The resources don’t need to cost a fortune. You may have most of the items already in the nursery. And be creative. For example, if you are lucky enough to live near the leather museum in Walsall, you can obtain scraps of leather for free (and have the museum tour!). The resources should be kept in draw string bags with wide mouths so children can easily help to put the resources away. They should be kept in a special place and only brought out a few times each week. Just as with treasure baskets, the resources are limitless, but below are some examples:

• Woollen pompoms
• Small bags
• Bags of fresh herbs (thanks to Walsall Early Years practitioners for this great suggestion)
• Range of boxes that will slot inside each other
• Tubes which will slide inside each other (inside of foil tubes, kitchen rolls, cling films etc)
• Strips of materials with different textures
• Items with slots or holes (spatulas, rings)
• Jar tops
• Shells
• Corks
• Hair rollers of different sizes
• Chains of various sizes and shapes
• Variety of tins (with safe tops) such as golden syrup tins, biscuit tins

The items should be selected for their sensory properties, so natural materials are preferable. Smooth plastic, which gives very little sensory feedback, should be avoided.

A word on health and safety

Obviously as a practitioner you are not going to place your children in harm’s way. Some of these objects may be considered to be potentially dangerous, particularly for babies who are still putting things in their mouths. You know your children and what you would be happy for them to experience. You know which ones will always chew first, ask questions later, or see any object as a weapon! This is entirely at your discretion.

Items should be cleaned regularly and thrown away if broken or considered dangerous.

References

Goldschmeid, E and Jackson S, (1994) People Under Three young children in day care Routledge Oxon pages 128 to 141. This is the text on treasure baskets and Heuristic play, as well as key person and second year of life. Heuristic play is covered in much more detail with examples.

Hughes, A (2006) Developing Play for the Under 3s, treasure baskets and heuristic play, David Fulton Ltd Oxon. Just a small book, but practical with lots of ideas and a section on language on page 76. If you fancy buying just one, this would probably be your best value for money in terms of being immediately useful. The RRP is £14.99.

Nutbrown, C and Page, J (2008) Working with babies and children from birth to three SAGE London Page 155. This is a lovely section about heuristic play, with a great example of how it can work, and ideas for practice.Similar Posts:

• Treasure Baskets
• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Are you a Sparkly Thinker?
• Letters and Sounds
• Extending Thought in Young Children by Chris Athey

Heuristic Play: a simple guide is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

General Rule: No Plastic!

Children need to experience the sensation of touch. In this day and age most toys are plastic – smooth and uniform. How do you know what prickly means if you’ve never felt it? It is our responsibility as practitioners to give the children these experiences, in a safe, controlled environment. The treasure basket is full of sensations for the baby, from cold and heavy to wooden or shiny. Our role is to provide the experience and support the learning.

How to use the treasure basket

Have the babies sat comfortably in a circle, with support if they aren’t sitting confidently by themselves. The practitioners sit behind the babies, ready to intervene if necessary. Your role is to sit back and watch.

The treasure basket is put in the middle of the circle, so the babies can reach inside it easily. Allow them to explore each item. A baby may choose just to play with one, or may look at every item.

Sit back and watch.

Practitioners should be watching, but not talking. This is a fabulous time to make observations for profiles/learning journeys and taking photos. Allow plenty of time for the babies to investigate the whole basket. This could be 45 minutes or an hour! If you feel that something is dangerous then intervene.

A word on health and safety

Obviously as a practitioner you are not going to place your children in harm’s way. Some of these objects may be considered to be potentially dangerous, particularly for babies who are still putting things in their mouths. You know your children and what you would be happy for them to experience. You know which ones will always chew first, ask questions later, or see any object as a weapon! This is entirely at your discretion.

Items should be cleaned regularly and thrown away if broken or considered dangerous.

Treasure baskets should be treated with respect. They are best used maybe a couple of times a week, no more. This means the babies stay interested each time. You could also have several different baskets, with a theme such as shiny or wooden.

The Contents of the Treasure Basket

Items you might like to use for treasure baskets:
Natural:
Fir cones
Pebbles (large)
Shells
Large chestnuts and shells
Pumice
Corks
Loofah
Sponge
Apples
Oranges
Lemons
Driftwood

Wooden:

Spoons
Natural block
Egg cup
Coaster
Bowl
Raffia ornaments
Pastry brush
Pegs

Metal:

Bunch of measuring spoons
Tea strainer
Chains (different sizes and textures)
Large empty tin
Small saucepan
Whisk
Bells
Bowl

Others

Natural brushes
Leather goods
Fabrics of all  sorts – include ribbon, lace, velvet
Ceramic balls
Furry items
Rubber
Balls – tennis, golf
Thick glass – ashtray, candle holder
Mats
curlers

Smelly bags eg lavender, cloves, cinnamon

These are just a few ideas. Once you start going round your home and nursery you will see lots of things you can use. The kitchen is usually full of ‘treasures’, from ladles to wood spoons to pastry brushes.

You do not need to spend a fortune. Your biggest outlay may be the basket. Mine cost £8 from Au Naturale. The rest could be potentially free. Ask your parents, look for safe objects in the £1 shop.

References

Featherstone, S (2002) The little book of Treasure Baskets Featherstone Education Ltd
Goldschmeid, E and Jackson, S (1994) people under three – young children in day care Routledge, Oxon
Hughes, A (2006) Developing play for the under 3’s – the treasure basket and heuristic play David Fulton Publishers, Oxon

Websites

http://www.peep.org.uk/standard.asp?id=300 Peers Early Education Partner (PEEP) group was established in 1995.
It is an early learning intervention, which aims to contribute towards improving the life chances of children, particularly in disadvantaged areas. It concentrates on supporting parents/carers to develop three particular aspects of learning with their children:

• literacy and numeracy
• self-esteem
• learning dispositions

It has some great ideas in general and the page on treasure baskets is very practical

http://www.contentedchild.co.uk/howtouse.htm The contented child site has lots of useful ideas and comments. You can buy baskets from them as well (£30 – £50)
http://www.earlyexcellence.com/u3s/treasure_basket_collections.html?gclid=CNCsxMe27J0CFYwA4wodAkjwLA  Buy the treasure basket complete (£75)
http://www.playtoz.co.uk/ You can customise your basket (£55 for small basket)Similar Posts:

• Heuristic Play: a simple guide
• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Unicef Report on Childhood
• Are you a Sparkly Thinker?

Treasure Baskets is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Jean Gross, Communication Champion, has announced information which seems to show that having the TV on for a significant proportion of the day is having an effect on the speech and language of our youngest children (up to 7 years of age). This would seem to make sense. Distinguishing between two conversations can be difficult. As adults we know how hard it is to have a phone conversation and have someone else talking to us at the same time.

However, a closer reading of the research itself reveals a much less newsworthy story. The research was a simple online survey of families’ TV habits and the progress of children’s learning as reported by their parents. The survey itself makes no claims about the impact of TV watching – it simply shows basic facts (as reported by parents) about the amount of TV being watched, whether the children had TV in their rooms, when and how they read to their children, their children’s first words and observations about the children’s learning and development. No attempt was made in the survey to correlate the different areas (and with a sample size of around 1,000 it would have been difficult to do so accurately anyway).

In her interviews with the press, Ms Gross has superimposed the findings of the survey (for example, on the amount of TV children watch) onto previous tentative research showing that excessive TV watching can cause learning problems. This conclusion has been reported in the press articles as being factually “proven” by the research with lurid headlines such as the Daily Mail’s “The youngsters who struggle to speak because their parents let them watch too much TV”. This is a great shame, as it devalues both the original research and this survey.

The positive aspect of news reports like this is that it at least gets people thinking about the effects of the environment on children’s learning and development. And this should extend to our early years settings too. I often find in baby rooms that there is a CD of music on in the background, which is great – if the children are benefitting from it, rather than it just amusing the practitioners.

Children do need adults to interact with them, which the TV doesn’t do. But the interactions need to be good quality, with total involvement by the adult, as during sustained shared thinking, for example. In issue 7 of the iCan Talk series, it is the type of adult-talk which is shown to have a beneficial affect on the children’s interaction. This publication also highlights the important issue of practitioners having access to good quality training, to equip them to deal with speech and language problems.

Another environmental ‘noise’ is the practitioners talking to each other over the heads of the children. This has only fringe benefit for the children in the room. (Incidentally, it is amazing how quickly children pick up on the attitudes and language used between practitioners).

There is a myriad of research showing that background noise affects language recognition in adults as well as children:

In 2005, in a review of the current research in America, Anderson and Pempek found that background TV for young children was disruptive. They also concluded that considerably more research is needed on this subject.

Maxwell and Evans (2002) found that acoustically quieter classrooms for 4 and 5 year olds rated higher on language scales.

Van Engen and Bradlow (2007) found that background speech did interfer with a child’s sentence recognition.

Hygge et al (1992) found that both background noise and background speech affected normal hearing people.

The issue of background noise is a very important and long standing one which needs addressing. It is something which affects early years settings, schools and homes. It would benefit from an in depth, longitudinal study, across a multitude of environments, rather than a simple online survey.

That being said, I actually agree with the many of the conclusions and recommendations now being drawn from the survey. What I don’t agree with is that parents and practitioners should be presented with information which is misleading for the sake of a newsworthy headline.

References

Anderson, D and Pempek, T (2005) Television and Very Young Children American Behavioral Scientist

Hygge S,Rönnberg J, Larsby B, Arlinger S Normal-Hearing and Hearing- Impaired Subjects’ Ability to Just Follow Conversation in Competing Speech, Reversed Speech, and Noise Backgrounds Journal of Speech and Hearing Research Vol.35 208-215 February 1992.

Maxwell, L and Evans, G (2000) THE EFFECTS OF NOISE ON PRE-SCHOOL CHILDREN’S PRE-READING SKILLS Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 20, Issue 1, March 2000, Pages 91-97

Van Engen, K and Bradlow, A (January 2007) Sentence recognition in native- and foreign-language multi-talker background noise J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Volume 121, Issue 1, pp. 519-526

http://www.ican.org.uk/Resources accessed on 10 January 2010

Picture: woodleywonderworksSimilar Posts:

• Letters and Sounds
• Unicef Report on Childhood
• Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning 2nd Ed by Margy Whalley
• Extending Thought in Young Children by Chris Athey
• Sustained Shared Thinking – how important is it?

Speech and Language and TV – what is the evidence? is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

This book was recommended to me with the words “this will change the way you look at children’s learning forever”. Strong words.

The book is one of the results of the Froebel Early Education Project, which was run by Chris Athey from 1973 to 1978, at the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education, London. Tina Bruce was the appointed teacher. The children came from nearby Wandsworth, from a range of backgrounds. The project’s aims were to:

Observe and analyse, on a daily basis during a two-year teaching programme, children under the age of 5 in order to:

• Identify developments in each child’s thinking
• Describe the development of symbolic representation from early motor and perceptual behaviours
• Identify curriculum content assimilated to developing forms of thought (page 3)

Very wide ranging aims indeed. So how has the author, Chris Athey, approached this in the book? She has divided it into 3 parts: Events influencing the Project; the Findings of the Project and Later Patterns of Thought.

Part 1 is an overview of the political background and government initiatives, with an illuminating Chapter 4 about constructivist pedagogy, Piaget and how this fits with current theories. And here we find the motivation for the Project and the book:
Constructivists are interested in the processes by which children construct their own knowledge (page 43) and there is a great difference between ‘know-how’ and consciousness of ‘know-why’ (page 44).

Part 2 is a highly detailed breakdown of the observations, drawings, actions and dialogue that were observed during the Project. It is prefaced by the observation that in previous research it was content which was more important than form. So Eng’s observation of “jagged teeth” and “stairs” seem to show no correspondence in content – but when the zig-zag form is considered they are a common representation. The Project concentrated on form, which includes topological space, space notion and representation. As children develop they begin to develop perception (a face must include a mouth before it will elicit a smile, even at 5 months). Children must then use this perception to create their representations in drawings and 3D models.

Using these representations, Athey discusses 5 graphic schema in detail:
Lines; Core and Radial; Open and Closed Arcs; Zig Zags and Angles and Quadrilaterals. This also includes discussion on how the same drawing can be re-interpreted i.e. how Eng interpreted the jagged teeth as “aggressive” but the Project team interpreted this as open triangles (zig-zags schema). Each schema is discussed in detail with plenty of examples of how they may progress as the child matures. The most practical part of this is the subsequent analysis of the representations, with the details of form as schemas start to be combined and perfected.

This part of the book concludes with chapter 6 From Action to Thought. This chapter demonstrates how schemas become co-ordinated with each other and develop into systems of thought (page 153). Seven action schema have been considered in great detail, namely: dynamic vertical schema; dynamic back and forth; circular direction and rotation; going over, under or on top of; going round a boundary; enveloping and containing; going through a boundary.

Each has been sub-divided and considered with respect to Motor level (physical action); Symbolic Representation Level (drawing, models); Functional Dependency Relationship (how the schema is used during play, dialogue, early thought); Thought Level (demonstration, usually through dialogue, of how schemas have been used to create original thoughts) and Discussion (explanation of how children have moved through each area resulting in thought). Finally Thought as internalised action is discussed.

This was a truly fascinating chapter as it draws together all the theory and clearly demonstrates how understanding and building on children’s schema improves their cognitive functioning.

Part 3 of the book takes us even further on the children’s journey, demonstrating how (and examples of which) schema impact on speech, writing and complex concepts, in primary education. For example, levers and pulleys need comprehension of linear movement (dynamic vertical), rotation and going over.

The final chapter explores parental participation and extended experience. This details the learning journey that the parents also undertook during the Project. It is hoped here that this “great source of untapped ability and energy” is used to its full potential in the future. Personally I would have liked some more specific examples of the ways parents were involved and benefited from being a part of this Project, as this could help practitioners to engage more confidently.

Extending Thought in Young Children is a detailed analysis of a complex and long running project. Consequently the book contains plenty of technical language. It is this detail which makes it an excellent reference book. But it does make it a book to be read at several sittings.

There were loads of moments where, as I read a description of a child’s behaviour, the light bulb came on and previously unrelated behaviour suddenly came into focus. I recognised the form of many drawings, plenty examples of which have been illustrated throughout the book. One of the bitter-sweet comparisons is two sets of “draw-a-man” illustrations, one by Project children and one by children matched for age, sex, ethnic background and neighbourhood. The Project children perform significantly better. I couldn’t help feeling a little sad that not all children could benefit from being a part of the Froebel Project.

Finally, has this book changed the way I view children’s drawings, actions, dialogues, behaviour and thought processes? Absolutely. Forever.Similar Posts:

• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning 2nd Ed by Margy Whalley
• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• How Children Learn. Book 2 by Linda Pound
• How Children Learn Book 1 by Linda Pound and Kathy Hughes

Extending Thought in Young Children by Chris Athey is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

“This book is just one of the outcomes of a five-year research and development project at the Pen Green Centre for under fives and their families”. So starts this book and you know it is going to be full of interesting findings. Of course, it helps that Margy Whalley, who has been involved in education for 34 years, around the world, has been leading and directing the research programme.

The 12 chapters are each written by different authors, all of whom were involved in some way with the project at Pen Green, Corby called Parents’ Involvement in Their Children’s Learning (PICL). The authors range from teachers, social workers to researchers and education consultants.

The book starts with a background chapter about Pen Green and its endeavours. In the next chapter, ‘developing evidence based practice’, Margy Whalley discusses the way the project has developed. It contains some essential insights for anyone setting up research projects where children are being observed and details the additional benefits for the adults involved.

In ‘getting to know the families’ Colette Tait discusses how knowing the family situation is vital when planning meetings. From the shift patterns that parents work to the wording on the advertising flyers (mums prefer to “have a chat and a coffee” whilst dads prefer “coming to this meeting will make a difference to your child”).  It highlighted for me that you have to consider all the various home situations if you are going to engage parents successfully. Cath Arnold continues with this theme in further practical ways such setting up the room, which topics to cover, which theorists to draw on.

Chapter 5, ‘parents and staff as co-educators – ‘parents’ means fathers too’, by Margy Whalley and Trevor Chandler is inspirational. How many times have we heard “dads just don’t want to know”? This chapter shows not only how to involve fathers effectively but also the fantastic benefits to the child, father and other significant adults. This is essential reading for every setting and is the most comprehensive writing I’ve come across on the subject.

Cath Arnold writes an emotionally moving chapter about parents who find the services ‘Hard to Reach’, which, in the cases highlighted, means that the parents had had very negative school experiences themselves. This was stopping them getting involved with the centre’s activities – Kate says “I’m not the type – Pen Greeny”. So the two mums were interviewed and allowed to explain their own experiences, feelings and the consequences. In this way the barriers, including personal feelings and attitudes to other people, were identified so they could be overcome. Annette Cummings, in the next chapter, goes on to discuss the impact on parents’ lives, with some great case studies in the parents’ own words.

In chapter 8 we meet the Pen Green Loop, which is a feedback loop with the child in the centre, surrounded by parents and professionals and the Possible Lines of Development (PLOD) wheel. I particularly liked the PLOD wheel, as it has at the centre a small group of children, all of whom enjoy similar schemas. I often hear “how can we possibly plan for 40 different children? We can’t have 40 carpet areas!”. This is how it is done. First identify the children’s schema and then transpose this onto the centre of the wheel. There are 6 ’spokes’, representing the 6 areas of learning, where activities and ideas can be mapped out for the group of children with similar or overlapping schema. Genius!

Colette Tait discusses the Growing Together groups which are for the birth to 3 age groups, discussing how it evolved out of the PICL group. The value of video taping the parent child interactions and then reviewing these is emphasised.

In ‘deepening the dialogue with parents’ Eddie McKinnon shares with us some in depth conversations with parents about their children, and how, as a result of being involved with the project this has made parents more reflective in their own practice.

But what happens to the family groups when the children start school? Cath Arnold presents 3 case studies, following the parents through Pen Green and then into Primary school, with very positive results.

Finally we have Kate Hayward, a primary school teacher, who was concerned with her own interactions with parents at school. She followed the good practice demonstrated at Pen Green and reports how she reinvents the traditional ‘home-school book’ model when communicating with parents. This chapter ends with a glowing recommendation from the headteacher.

This book is an excellent reference book, steeped in thorough research and viewed through many lenses. The concepts are explained clearly and examples are enlightening. Each chapter is written so it can be read independently, which means an amount of repetition when reading the whole book. However, I found the reinforcement of schemas, involvement levels etc reasonably useful. I was asked a while ago “why do we listen to these ‘theorists’ about good practice?”, to which I answered that they had done research and then tested their theories, proving that it was good practice. I think this book demonstrates this point and beyond.Similar Posts:

• Extending Thought in Young Children by Chris Athey
• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• What is the purpose of an EYP network?
• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Unicef Report on Childhood

Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning 2nd Ed by Margy Whalley is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

Sustained shared thinking has been defined as

” an episode in which two or more individuals ‘work together’ in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend” Siraj-Blatchford et al (2002) Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early Years (REPEY), Dfes.

This is not a new concept, just a new name. Most early years theorist value the adult/child interaction, from Vygotsky’s social interaction and more knowledgeable other; Bruner’s discovery learning; Piaget constructivism right through to Lave’s situated learning.

But what does it look like in reallife, in the setting or school? It is those wonderful times that you get when you are totally absorbed with a child, whether is is in conversation or in an activity, with a genuine interest on both parts to find out more. The sort of thing that, often, you just have to tell someone else – “Josh and I have just had the best conversation about his grandad’s pigeons”, “come and look everyone, we’ve made this!” – those times when you come away thoughtful and you may find yourself thinking about the conversation later on in a quiet moment.

These can happen anytime, anywhere and only requires time and interest on the part of both participants. It can be on a one to one, but can also happen in small groups, especially when there is shared group interest. The important aspect is the ‘meeting of of minds’  and subsequent learning that occurs on both sides. 

The practitioner has the opportunity to learn extensive amounts about how the child sees the world, their level of cognitive development, schemas, community and self esteem (to name but a few!). The child may learn things such as social interaction techniques, how to think creatively, cause and effect and factual information.

If the theories about sustained shared thinking have been around for such a long time, and they broadly agree it is a good thing, why is this important to practitioners now? The answer is because it is now explicitly stated in the EYFS that sustained shared thinking should be a part of a child’s creativity and critical thinking (EYFS 4.3). It is also indirectly described in all of the six areas of learning and development (EYFS 4.4). This is because the longitudinal research project EPPE clearly identified that the ‘most effective settings encourage sustained shared thinking’ and that it is a ‘necessary pre-requisite for the most effective settings’.

Don’t forget, sustained shared thinking can also occur between peer groups as well, especially in settings where the older age groups are allowed to mix freely with the younger ones. Even with babies the thinking process can be shared, but instead of verbal language the practitioner has to be guided by the expressions and body language of the baby.

Time is often an aspect which is not discussed. If you are having an in depth discussion, one to one, with a child, then the other children will still need caring for by someone. If the practitioner extends the activity so the thinking and discovery can be ’sustained’ then there may be implications for the rest of the timetable (such as lunch times!). However, these are not excuses. Good practitioners should be flexible enough to work around this.

Therefore, the answer to “how important is sustained shared thinking?” is that it is fundamental to how practitioners approach children’s learning and development. This is supported by theorists and research. And it doesn’t cost a penny – how often can you say that about such a powerful learning tool?Similar Posts:

• Speech and Language and TV – what is the evidence?
• Are you a Sparkly Thinker?
• More men in childcare
• Unicef Report on Childhood
• How Children Learn. Book 2 by Linda Pound

Sustained Shared Thinking – how important is it? is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

In the Times Educational Supplement (TES) on the 23rd January there was an enlightening article about the Daycare Trust attracting more men into the Early Years sector.

The first reason given for the lack of men was the ‘work’s low status’. By whose standards? Is it because playing with the children is seen as a bit of an easy life?

The second reason given is low pay. The TUC and Daycare Trust found pay was between 19.60 pounds per hour and 8.70 pounds per hour in 2007. This was, presumably, in the state sector as pay in the private, voluntary and independent sector is much lower than this, as a glance at jobs advertised in the Nursery World Magazine indicates (and they tend to be the ‘best’ jobs!).

The third reason was the high proportion of women in the sector. I can sympathise and empathise totally with this, having previously worked in an industry predominantly male. However, if you have an interest and enjoyment of the work this should not stop you.

Marlon, an early years educator who is case studied in the article, says that he comes from a large family and always had children around. I think this is the key to the problem. Unless men are allowed to come into our nurseries and settings and enjoy being with children they will never aspire to work with them. Many women enter childcare after having children and enjoying the mums and tots sessions, or spending time at the nursery.

We should be encouraging our settings to involve dads and male carers more. They have skills and life experiences which should be shared. Children need all sorts of role models to help them make sense of the world. And what an excellent time to do it, when all sorts of stereotypes are beginning to be seriously challenged.Similar Posts:

• Treasure Baskets
• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Nobody, Nowhere by Donna Williams
• Heuristic Play: a simple guide
• Sustained Shared Thinking – how important is it?

More men in childcare is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

As practitioners we are always being reminded about taking photographic and video evidence of children during the day day because a picture can demonstrate a point really clearly. But how often do we find a book which takes this valuable advice? The first thing that you will notice about Tina Bruce’s book is the beautiful, full colour photographs throughout. These are often grouped so that the reader can see the process that is being described in the text.

The next thing is the way that the book can be read – either scanned through, picking out the information boxes or dipped into a chapter at a time or simply read end to end. With this in mind there is some repetition from chapter to chapter, which reinforces the central themes. These are:

1. Anyone can be creative
2. Good creativity needs incubation
3. There are 3 kinds of creativity: everyday, specialist and world shattering

It is often noted throughout the book that creativity is hard work, the environment need to support creativity, as do the practitioners, and that creativity is not producing a creation, but is a process. For me this was the most resonant idea in the book. Too often as practitioners we talk about ‘doing a creative activity’ meaning that we will expect the children to make something, often within our own, narrow adult boundaries. Were the children in your setting allowed to make their own Christmas card using any material of choice and own design? How long was the idea allowed to incubate? Did everyone have to do a card?

Tina Bruce concentrates on the aspects of creativity:

• emergent beginnings
• the process of developing a creative thought or idea
• the product which (may or may not) emerges and this could be a scientific theory, dance or poem!

Sometimes the children don’t even know what they are creating and our adult interpretation should not be forced upon them. In fact, Bruce notes that a clear idea may restrict the creative process.

The case studies bring the subject to life with examples I could easily relate to. Gradually the theory is built to a final chapter about the three kinds of creativity with powerful examples of how this is achieved in adulthood in the arts, humanities and science. The book concludes with a useful page of bullet points on how to cultivate creativity generally.

I was a little disappointed that there were no pictures of children in chapter 6 – Emergent Beginnings – which covers babies and SEN. Whilst there are excellent examples for toddlers, pre-school and older early years, there is much less about babies in general.

Nonetheless, it is a good read, and it is very useful to be able to access the book at the different levels. It is also a useful source of practical information on the process of creativity and how to encourage this within various settings. I would strongly recommend it to any practitioner who is interested in creativity.Similar Posts:

• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• How Children Learn. Book 2 by Linda Pound
• Extending Thought in Young Children by Chris Athey
• Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning 2nd Ed by Margy Whalley
• Heuristic Play: a simple guide

Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

I read with no surprise the results from the Unicef report, and the resultant reporting in the Times yesterday (11th December 2008). When all the hype and comment has been cleaned away the nugget of truth left is that a child from a disadvantaged background does not benefit from poor quality day care. Hardly earth shattering. Maria Montessori had spotted this over 100years ago. More recently the EPPE research has proved it. 

The interesting part for me was that the Times had chosen to dedicate two full pages and a half page of comment to this. There were even references to research – EPPE appears on both for and against childcare, again demonstrating a balanced piece of research. You do have to read to the penultimate paragraph before you come to the obvious conclusion -

 “Either the Government must help these mothers to recognise that looking after their young children is a serious job or they must provide these children from deprived backgrounds with highly skilled, well-paid nursery teachers who can help to improve their chances in life not damage them.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5321347.ece

(As an EYP I am assuming here that the author, Alice Thomson, is referring to a ‘teacher’ as all those who educate and care for early years children).

This did give me great hope that the discussion about early years education is becoming news worthy and of interest to the general public. If nothing else it prompts the questions which may be asked by parents – is my nursery/childcare arrangement of sufficiently good quality? Of course, demographics tell us that those parents who are most likely to be reading the Times have already worked this out for themselves. Those parents who need the help to identify a quality setting have been missed again. 

Similar Posts:

• Sustained Shared Thinking – how important is it?
• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• Involving Parents in their Children’s Learning 2nd Ed by Margy Whalley
• Speech and Language and TV – what is the evidence?
• More men in childcare

Unicef Report on Childhood is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.

As the title suggests this is the follow on book from How Children Learn by Linda Pound and is laid out in the same style, with key dates in the side margins and good, clear headings. The references are many and varied, and, more importantly, easy to find!

The major difference with this book is the depth of the content. As well as an overview Linda goes into more detail about the development of each theory, how they build on each other and they differ. I found the way that phonics, in various forms, has been in and out of fashion since the middle of the nineteeth century fascinating – there is a particularly good table which compares analytic phonics with synthetic phonics in the chapter about how children learn to read and write.

In the chapter about intelligence there are some mind blowing facts:

• The first series of tests for children, to see if they would benefit with mainstream schooling, were devised in 1905 (Simon-Binet tests). And I thought SATS were a modern demon!
• In 1967 Joy Paul Guilford suggested there are 120 elements which make up human intelligence.
• Scores in intelligence tests have been rising ever since they started (the Flynn Effect) - no-one is totally sure why.

Creativity is explored in the long view, from Freud to Pinker to Csikszentmihalyi, and then applied to the educational approaches. I found that this really made me think about what creativity is and why it is so important – and also why we don’t foster it more in our practitioners.

Conversely when Linda discusses progressive twentieth century theorists I felt that I had seen it somewhere before “individuality, freedom and growth”,”learning rather than teaching” and “a child’s life under his own direction is conducted all in play, whatever else we want to interst him in should be carried on in that medium”. The EYFS, maybe? No, progressive thinkers before the second world war.

The book ends on an overview of how children learn to talk including a very useful section on early years research.

Overall I would thoroughly recommend this book, especially if you have a particular interest in literacy, linguistics and intelligence or even if you have ever just thought ‘why do we do it like this?’.

Unlike book one, which I enjoyed as an interesting and informative read, I found this one really had me thinking and questioning my assumptions on phonics, creativity and intelligence. Linda deals with complex subjects and interwoven threads of theories comprehensively but clearly. It has inspired me to revisit theorists with a new outlook, particularly Gardner and Csikszentmihalyi, and has made me realise there is very little which is brand new in education!Similar Posts:

• Letters and Sounds
• How Children Learn Book 1 by Linda Pound and Kathy Hughes
• Cultivating creativity in babies, toddlers and young children by Tina Bruce
• Young Children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development by Marion Dowling
• The Jumbled Jigsaw by Donna Williams

How Children Learn. Book 2 by Linda Pound is a post from: Kathy Brodie: Early Years Training Courses and Coaching for Early Years Professionals

©2010 Early Years Training and Coaching. All Rights Reserved.