A wealth of experience

Relationships

Babies and young children are social beings who need warm, affectionate, supportive relationships with the people who care for them and other people that they encounter on a daily basis in the home or the childcare setting.

They also find pleasure in the company of other children, so for example an 11-month-old might enjoy peeping through the porthole in the room divider at another young baby, or an 18-month-old might always want to be near his friend when he arrives at the setting.

Similarly, young children sometimes show that they feel upset when another child is sad, or will empathise with another by protectively putting an arm around a child who has fallen over.

Keyperson

Being away from home can be difficult for adults and children alike.

However, while adults can usually express their feelings to somebody else, even if that is only by telephone, babies and young children do not have the language skills to articulate their feelings, and must, instead, rely on other people to interpret them.

Having a keyperson in the setting makes this possible, since that person will learn to know and understand the child's characteristics and will be able to 'listen' with both their ears and their eyes to what the child is feeling or the message they are conveying at a particular time.

For example, on a hot afternoon Molly's keyperson may notice that she seems to be unable to play happily in her usual way, and instead of enjoying throwing the blow-up beach ball, she now seems fretful and indicates she wants the seal on the ball to be undone again.

Not getting the response she wants, she then lies across the ball, not crying fully, but whimpering and kicking her feet on the grass. Knowing Molly well, her keyperson will recognise her behaviour as uncharacteristic and may suggest to Molly that they should go inside for a cool drink and for a quiet time so that they can look at a favourite picture book together.

In other words, Molly's keyperson will have interpreted her non-verbal cues of being fretful and changing her request about the ball as indicators that Molly is too hot, possibly tired and needs a drink.

If Molly enjoys having a comforter, such as a teddy, she could now suggest that Molly might like to hold it for a time.

Environment

Like adults, children enjoy being in an environment that makes sense to them, where they feel at home, and where they know where to find things. A predictable environment does not have to be dull and boring, it can still be exciting and interesting and children who are given a lead by adults can contribute to keeping it organised.

Having small safe areas where young babies and children can enter by themselves gives them a sense of independence and, providing such places in a daycare setting, where a young child can snuggle in, is probably like arranging an oasis in a desert for a hot, thirsty traveller!

Similarly, ensuring that the space in which the children spend much of their time has a variety of surfaces, levels and things of interest to look at, listen to, talk about, and touch is really important.

Finally, displays should reflect diversity and should be changed regularly to reflect the children's changing preoccupations and interests.

Challenging experiences

Challenging experiences are experiences that give cognitive challenge, taking children just a little beyond what they can already do. When babies and young children arrive at a setting the whole place is new and exciting and everything competes for their attention.

This keenness to explore involves almost anything - books, toys, materials, soft blocks, baskets of interesting objects, surfaces, boxes and cupboards.

However, everything becomes familiar over a period of time and it is essential that practitioners continue to provide experiences that encourage children to want to find out, to join in and to investigate.

For a young baby it might be rolling a big soft ball to them to put their arms round, while one-year-olds may be finding the different skills needed to handle plastic bottles that look the same but feel different because they are filled with water, jelly or strips of cellophane paper. For two-year-olds lifting light, sealed, empty cartons, to build a wall can be a real challenge, extending the skills learned in playing with bricks and blocks, so that children feel a sense of mastery and pride in something they have achieved.

Flexible routines

A routine is, by definition, something predictable that stays much the same. However, there are wide differences between rigid and flexible routines.

Rigid routines are those that occur in spite of the children, the weather, the unexpected visitor and the dry nappy that doesn't need changing.

Flexible routines, on the other hand, are those that flow with the child, adapting, at times, to new situations such as stopping to watch when a crane loading timber on to the building site next door comes into view.

Individual needs

Every child has some individual needs, whether they are simple ones like always having a hug before their parents can leave the nursery, to much more complex ones, which require special care and attention from an individual keyperson who may need to work with a variety of other people in meeting the child's needs.

In both cases, childcarers spend a great deal of time in finding ways that they can support individual children so that they will benefit fully from what the childcare setting has to offer. This will always include talking to parents and carers to get to know as much as possible about what the child is like and what can be done in the setting to support the child's needs. It may also include talking to other professionals about the child and learning more about particular conditions. Finally, it may involve training colleagues so that in one person's absence, there are other people who can tube feed a child or monitor another's mood swings.

Transition

Most transitions are planned in advance, and take place over a period of time, beginning with discussions between the child and their parents and the current keyperson about the reasons for the move and how it will be managed. These discussions may be in the form of stories, songs or pictures as much as conversations and will be different depending on the child's ability to understand and the age or stage that they are at.

Even very young babies should be told that they will be moving from one place to another and every effort should be made to prepare them for what will be a huge event in their lives.

Ideally, babies and young children should experience as little major disruption to their lives as possible and if a move occurs within a setting it should preferably mean that the keyperson moves with their key children.

However, if the child is to move to a new setting, then obviously this must be taken into account and planned for accordingly.

Preparations for moving might include paying frequent and gradually ever longer visits to the new setting. The visits could start with a brief visit, leading eventually to a visit where the child - with the child's and parent or carer's agreement - stays in the setting until the parent or current keyperson returns to collect them. In this way children are able to get used to the idea they will move on from where they are at the moment and will be able to feel some sense of control over what is happening.

It is important for adults to acknowledge to the children that they may feel sad to leave a particular person or place and to reassure them that the reasons for the move are not related to anything they have done or the way they have behaved.

It is also important for adults to realise that babies and young children may experience a sense of loss as they move from one person or place to another, no matter how welcoming the new keyperson may be. However, they should reassure the child that they accept their feelings and that when those feelings go away, as they will, the child will learn to enjoy the new place and get to know the new people.

Finally, it is important also to acknowledge that practitioners too may find it difficult to cope when a child who has been in their care for a long period of time moves on. Supervision with a line manager in the setting is useful in allowing practitioners to talk about and come to terms with their experience and to support them in helping the child to move on confidently.

Records

Change is a fact of life for all children both at home and in the childcare setting since neither they, nor childcare staff, remain in a particular setting forever. It is important, therefore, that records are always carefully maintained so that even if unexpected changes occur, all the important information about the child is available for the person who takes over their care.

This can reduce some of the difficulties for the child in adjusting to an unexpected change and, if the substitute carer is a familiar staff member, the child may find the adjustment less problematic.