Learning & Development: Under threes - How amazing

Your smiles are amazing - you first smiled when you were 26 days old and you've been smiling ever since! Now you smile and giggle with your whole body. What a joy you are ...'

These words open our new book, Working with Babies and Children: From Birth to Three (Sage). Written by a mother to her baby in her 'Baby Diary', this extract tells us how important closeness, love and positive early relationships are for babies. We know so much more now about the needs of babies, and practitioners who work with babies know how amazing they are in the ways even the youngest ones seek, from the moment they are born, to make sense of their worlds.

Research and practice

Research into the development of babies' thinking and the place of new attachment theory in modern practice provides practitioners with clearer ways of understanding how their work can support babies' holistic development and underpins the utter joy of working with young and developing minds, bodies and souls.

It is often the case that practitioners working with the youngest children know the children well, know the experiences and environments that work best for babies and toddlers and have learned alongside other colleagues, how best to support young children's developmental and learning needs. There is much good practice to be shared and celebrated in the birth-to-three field of early years provision. Such practices have often remained hidden, until recently, regarded as a relatively unimportant area of work. It is only in recent years that work with children under the age of three has been regarded as part of the field of 'education'.

Developing policy

Babies and toddlers are now firmly fixed in the education and care agenda of government in the UK and other countries around the world, and issues relating to the quality of provision made for them are central to policy (DfES, 2002, 2003; Learning and Teaching Scotland, 2005).

With this relatively new shift in policy comes new responsibilities for all those who work with and for young children. There is now increased accountability (DfES, 2007) - an inevitable consequence of increased recognition and funding (DfES, 2002, 2007), and there are new pressures to provide high-quality care and education which has the capacity to meet all children's learning and developmental needs (Sylva et al, 2004; CWDC, 2006; DfES, 2007).

Developing practice

Increased responsibility and accountability now means that practitioners must not simply rehearse effective practices and provide good experiences for babies and toddlers, but they must also know why they do what they do.

Practitioners must understand the research and theory which underpins their day-to-day work and decisions, for without such theoretical knowledge, everyday practice can seem to lack a rigour and rationale. It is like a building without foundations. Practice without theory, though it might look acceptable on the surface, is empty of a fully justified basis for what happens and thus carries the danger of doing things 'because we do', rather than adopting (or rejecting) a practice because there is a clearly understood basis for that practice.

Developing brains and the role of the adult

In The scientist in the crib Gopnik et al (1999) draw on theories of children's thinking and learning to demonstrate the capacities of babies and toddlers to learn and to illustrate the complexity of their learning abilities. Developmental psychology has provided some evidence to help us to understand why some elements of practice have always been enjoyed by babies. Gopnik and Schulz (2004) show how infants and young children are born 'pre-programmed' with an innate ability to learn from imitation. Meltzoff and Prinz (2002) show how babies can understand and imitate some quite complex actions by others. The giggles of delight from babies in response to adults who play 'peek-a-boo' with them show how interactive, responsive and reciprocal exchanges between adults and children are much more than just simple fun.

It is not necessary for early years practitioners to understand the physiology of the brain, or to be fully conversant with the development and functioning of the nervous system. Nor is it necessary to be aware of the detail of the complex field of neuroscience and neuropsychology. If anything, neuroscience gives a confidence to trust what we see in babies, that the complex and rapid development which takes place in the first year of life is fuelled by nature and supported and extended by the environments and relationships in which children are nurtured.

However, it is vital for babies and young children to be assured that their special adults are 'tuned in' to and recognise their unique ways and differing needs.

Trevarthan's work (2002) shows that babies' environments for learning should be tailored to support their thinking. Babies are active in their development. As Crain (2003, pp11-12) notes, 'Children enter the world with an inborn growth schedule that is the product of several million years of biological evolution. They are pre-eminently "wise" about what they need and what they are ready and not ready to do.'

Developing relationships

David (1999) reminds us that babies focus first and foremost on people, and relationships are central to positive experiences for babies and toddlers, a view echoed by Elfer et al (2003). Emmie Pikler's work in Hungary as far back as the 1940s was built around her belief that babies and young children need an environment where they are respected and nurtured to become emotionally and socially mature individuals.

When we think of babies learning, we can think of infant-appropriate pedagogies: those of listening (Rinaldi, 1999, Scott 1996), of looking and of loving (Page, 2008). For children, learning is about self, and place and space and people; learning is created from the essential ingredients of respectful, reciprocal loving relationships.

MORE INFORMATION

Working with Babies and Children: From Birth to Three by Cathy Nutbrown and Jools Page is published this month by Sage

- Sage is offering a 20 per cent discount on Working with Babies and Children plus free p&p to readers of Nursery World until 1 December 2008. Call Customer Services on 020 7324 8703, or visit www.sagepub.co.uk/education and quote the reference: UK08LE002

REFERENCES

- Crain, W(2003), Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement-Oriented Society. NY: Henry Holt

- David, T (1999), 'Valuing Young Children' in Abbott, L and Moylett, H (eds) (1999) Early Education Transformed. London, Falmer Press

- Department for Education and Skills (2002), Birth to three matters: a framework to support children in their earliest years. London, DfES/Sure Start

- Department for Education and Skills (2007), Early Years Foundation Stage: Setting the Standards for Learning, Development and Care for Children from Birth to Five. London: DfES/Sure Start.

- Department for Education and Skills (2003), Every Child Matters: green paper, London, HMSO

- Elfer, P, Goldschmied, E and Selleck, D, (2003) Key Persons in the Nursery: Building Relationships for Quality Provision. London: David Fulton.

- Gopnik, A and Schulz, L (2004), 'Mechanisms of theory-formation in young children', in Trends in Cognitive Science, 8. 8.

- Gopnik, Meltzoff, Kuhl (1999), The scientist in the crib: Minds, brains and how children learn. New York: William Morrow.

- HMSO (2004), Children Act 2004. London, HMSO

- Learning and Teaching Scotland (2005), Birth to three: supporting relationships, responsive care and respect. Scottish Executive

- Meltzoff, AN and Prinz, W (2002), The Imitative Mind: Development, Evolution, and Brain Bases. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

- Page, J (2008), 'Permission to love them ... but not too much!' in Nutbrown, C and Page, J (2008), Working with Babies and Children: From Birth to Three. London: Sage

- Pikler, E (1940) What Can Your Baby Do Already? Hungary. English translation, Sensory Awareness Foundations' Winter 1994 Bulletin.

- Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (2000) Curriculum guidance for the foundation stage. London, QCA

- Rinaldi, C (1999) The pedagogy of listening, paper given in Reggio Emilia, Italy, 28 April

- Scott, W (1996) 'Choices in learning', in C Nutbrown (ed), Respectful Educators - Capable Learners: Children's Rights and Early Education. London: Paul Chapman Publishing

- Sylva, K, Melhuish, EC, Sammons, P, Siraj-Blatchford, I and Taggart, B (2004), The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Technical Paper 12 - The Final Report: Effective Pre-School Education. London: DfES/Institute of Education, University of London

- Trevarthan, C (2002), 'Learning in companionship', in Education in the North: the Journal of Scottish Education (10) pp 16-25