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Book extract: From Birth to Three: An Early Years Educator’s Handbook, by Julia Manning Morton

In an extract from her book, From Birth to Three, Julia Manning Morton talks about how to support positive dispositions for learning

As an early years educator, the ideas you have formed about cognitive development will have been influenced by your study and also by your life and work experience. These will influence your pedagogical approach to supporting children’s thinking and learning:

In reality, effective educators combine these approaches according to the context and the needs of the child at the time. There are times when you are very involved in children’s play and learning. At other times, you will be actively noticing and thinking about what a child is doing, storing this information in your mind for later discussion and planning.

Mostly, effective educators provide a sensitive balance by maintaining an attentive presence; not interfering in children’s play and explorations but being available should they be invited or the child need their support; sensitive to moments when they might extend a child’s thinking through suggesting ideas, materials or actions without disrupting the child’s flow of thinking or autonomous action (Fisher 2016).

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