TCHR5009 Theory To Practice: Education and Care for Infants and Toddlers Report 1 Sample
Assignment Brief
Rationale
Students will reflect on their learning about theoretical perspectives and practices to develop their own teaching philosophy for teaching infants and toddlers. Students will reflect on this philosophy and how it may translate to practice.
Task Description
Part 1: Professional Philosophy (750 words)
Develop your professional philosophy statement for working with infants and toddlers in an early childhood setting. Consider important aspects of infant and toddler learning, health and safety and development. Consider unit topics such as relationships, quality, attachment, brain development, routines and the physical and human environment. You can also include topics that are of interest to you.
Part 2: Critical Reflection (750 words)
Critically reflect on your philosophy above, and identify 3 anticipated challenges you may face when putting your philosophy into practice. How do you intend to overcome these challenges? Analyse according to the set text, and the National Quality Standard and Early Years Learning Framework .
Task Instructions
• This report is comprised of two tasks and should be presented in ONE Word document.
• Cover page:
Include an APA formatted cover page Formatting your assessment for APA 7th (scu.edu.au)
• Complete professional philosophy (750 words) and critical reflection (750 words)
• Complete one APA formatted reference list
• If you have used Grammarly Premium upload My draft essay prior to ANY editing to the ‘Pre-editing draft’ portal in Turnitin.
• Check draft with draft checker on unit site
• Once complete, submit final task via the Turnitin link in the Assessment and Submission section of the unit site.
Referencing
APA7th referencing format is required with a minimum of 5 references. Sources should include relevant early childhood policy and peer-reviewed literature. Students must use the unit textbook.
Solutions
Part 1: Professional Philosophy
Philosophy Statement 1: Nurturing Individual Growth
To deal with infants and toddlers unique and capable characteristics are required to understand the incredible growth and provide a supportive environment. This philosophy helps to maintain a warm, responsive and safe environment for each child who can develop at their own face. Understanding and observing each child's needs helps to provide physical, social, emotional and cognitive development support (acecqa.gov.au, 2022). The individualised care and different engaging activities help to stimulate exploration and curiosity. Building strong and trusted relationships with both children and their families maintains a holistic approach in which childhood development is improved significantly.
For infants understanding their interest in texture and providing sensory toys helps to encourage tactile explanation. For toddler understanding their early verbal skills to engage in more conversational activities encourages them to express themselves. This approach helps to feel understood and supported by children (Franklyn et al. 2022). This process helps to improve the willingness and self-confidence of the children. Prioritising open communication with the parents to share their observations and inside about their child's needs and interests also helps to improve the overall caregiving process (McGlade et al. 2023). By walking together, a cohesive support system can be created that reinforces the child's development. Maintaining health and safety is also very important. Ensuring a safe and hazard-free environment is one of the best practices for nutrition and hygiene. Emotional safety to the child's cues requires patience and empathy. Through all the different philosophies successful infant and toddler care can be done for university assignment help.
Philosophy Statement 2: Promoting Holistic Development
This process includes addressing different aspects of infants and toddlers such as cognitive, emotional, social, and physical. In this process, they understand the quality of relationships and secure attachment. By creating a trusted environment, the children feel valued and secure which is very important for their healthy brain development. Emotional security allows the children to express their confidence and curiosity in the environment (Finlay-Jones et al. 2021). Quality interaction improves the engagement of the children through responsive caregiving and recognising their needs. Maintaining eye contact and speaking gently throughout the process improve the sense of connection and trust.
The routine plays a role in promoting a sense of stability and predictability. Giving them a consistent routine for their daily activities such as meals, playtime and naps helps the children what to expect. The physical and human environment of infants and toddlers need to be carefully designed to provide support to their holistic development (Franklyn et al. 2022). Creating a safe, clean and stimulating space where they can explore their learning process also improves positive interaction among the children. At the time all the elements are integrated accurately into the care process then the development milestone along with the strong foundation of lifetime learning is made.
Philosophy Statement 3: Child-Centred Education Philosophy
“Child-centred Education Philosophy” plays an active role in stimulating the children's early brain development. In addition, it also has been evaluated that this type of philosophy is very beneficial for the children to develop their critical thinking and reinforce their memory. This type of philosophy provides several types of opportunities to the children for maintaining the social interaction. Aside from that, it also has been considered that “Child-centred Education Philosophy” is one of the most essential philosophies for the children to learn the rules and develop their self-control.
Moreover, it also has been centralized that implementation of this type of philosophy plays an essential role for recognizing the individuality that is very advantageous for the children to celebrate their uniqueness (Floom et al. 2020). The “Child-Cantered Education” approach is very helpful for fostering the “Intrinsic Motivation” that encompasses the special beliefs of the “Montessori method”. On the contrary, this Child-centred approach is beneficial for promoting academic growth, and it also encourages the children to face different types of challenges and maintain the responsibilities they will mush in the future.
“Child-centred education” seeks to furnish a “natural flow of activity and spontaneous growth” for the children. In addition, it also has been considered that the teacher's role is to inspect and guide the children and stimulate them. Through the implementation of this type of philosophy, learning takes place as toddler strives to converge their own interests and needs. In the end, it can be said that the “Child-Cantered Education Philosophy” plays an enthusiastic role in developing their “genuine self-esteem”. This philosophy is very helpful in creating Progressivism inside the classroom and for that children would be accomplished to explore different types of innovative ideas and construct several types of knowledge that are based on their own experiences and observations.
Part 2: Critical Reflection
Anticipated Challenge 1: Balancing Individual Needs with Group Dynamics
One expected difficulty of the philosophy which focuses on the development of every child and the whole person is the difficulty in attending to the needs of each child while observing the structure of the group given management. Every child is unique and therefore grows differently, learns differently and has special requirements and preferences. Attending to individual and adaptive activities can be difficult in a profit and fast-paced centre that is more focused on groups.
About this challenge, I will have to use some of the strategies that are used in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS). Educators’ interactions with children and respect for their needs and rights are introduced in the EYLF as educators’ awareness of children’s learning capability and choice, while the NQS focuses on creating a partnership with each child.
One of the ways of ensuring that individual requirements are met in the classroom as well as meeting the class norms is handling differentiation. Credited to professionalism, I will be able to provide assorted teaching learning resources and arrange for certain activities that will help children within their stages of development as well as interests hence keeping all of them occupied. For instance, during playtime, I can arrange various learning centres with items ranging from simple ones for younger infants to puzzles and interactive games for toddlers. The above strategy helps children to engage in activities that they are developmentally able and interested in.
Another useful method is to arrange focused small-group activities. Grouping children into smaller groups based on age development and learning profile helps in serving the children in a better way. This can be rather helpful in managing the class population better and in seeing to it that the children each get the attention they deserve.
Cooperation with families should be encouraged and an essential part of the strategy. As much as possible, I want to be able to stay open with the parents and engage them closely in the learning process of their child for additional insights and specific information on the child’s tendencies and interests. This partnership assists in developing a homogenous and supportive context that is provided at home, and early childhood setting.
Anticipated Challenge 2: Maintaining Consistency and Routine
Another difficulty is maintaining consistency and routine, yet at the same time being highly sensitive to the children’s needs and moods. Activities should be regular to create a dependable schedule that is very important for babies and toddlers. Nevertheless, young children are ever so unpredictable in terms of needs and interests and this may at times necessitate the adoption of an irregular schedule which interferes with everyone’s schedule.
As stated by the EYLF, it is significant to establish a schedule that is stable and consistent since it contributes to the children’s capacity to regulate their behaviour and provide a feeling of safety. Thus, the NQS also attaches great concern to maintaining a more predictable and more structured environment. To address this issue, I will implement incorporated and complex schedules that can accommodate the children’s learning disparities as well as support orderliness and consistency.
In achieving this one can maintain what is referred to as core activities which comprise feeding times, nap times and washing times and these are consistent throughout the day. These include the core activities where I can embed options that can be adjusted according to children’s interests and development. For example, the time allocated to physical activities might be set, but the games that are played during that time can depend on the wishes or developmental level of the children.
Anticipated Challenge 3: Balancing Child-Led Learning with Curriculum Requirements
Promoting a Child-Centered Education Philosophy involves the following issue how to maintain a child’s autonomy in a learning environment whilst addressing state-prescribed curriculum or national standards. Child-adaptive approaches focus on the principles of play, respect for children’s choices, and activity based on children’s initiative. At times, it may not fit well with the proforma of early childhood education and care frameworks.
To address this issue, I plan on combining the concept of Child-Centered Education Philosophy and the guidelines of EYLF and NQS by including an emergent curriculum approach. This includes proactivity in designing or selecting experiences that are in tune with the child’s development status, as well as being developmentally appropriate in relation to learning benchmarks. For instance, if children are intrigued by nature then I can be able to schedule lessons that develop the issues that spark their curiosity such as Science through nature project that enhances scientific concepts and Literacy science.
References
acecqa.gov.au, 2022. BELONGING, BEING & BECOMING. Accessed on: 11-07-2024 at: https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf
Finlay-Jones, A., Ang, J. E., Bennett, E., Downs, J., Kendall, S., Kottampally, K., ... & Ohan, J. L. (2021). Caregiver-mediated interventions to support self-regulation among infants and young children (0–5 years): a protocol for a realist review. BMJ open, 11(6), e046078.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/11/6/e046078.full.pdf
Floom, R., & Janzen, M. (2020). A critique of a child-centered curriculum. Journal of Childhood Studies, 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-5446.1998.00155.x
Franklyn, N., Kesavelu, D., Joji, P., Verma, R., Wadhwa, A., & Ray, C. (2022). Impact of Key Nutrients on Brain and Executive Function Development in Infants and Toddlers: A Narrative Review. Journal of Food and Nutrition Sciences, 10(1), 19-26.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dhanasekhar-Kesavelu/publication/362552266_Impact_of_Key_Nutrients_on_Brain_and_Executive_Function_Development
_in_Infants_and_Toddlers_A_Narrative_Review/links/6559c091b86a1d521bf4e51d/Impact-of-Key-Nutrients-on-Brain-and-Executive-Function-Development-in-Infants-and-Toddlers-A-Narrative-Review.pdf
McGlade, A., Whittingham, K., Barfoot, J., Taylor, L., & Boyd, R. N. (2023). Efficacy of very early interventions on neurodevelopmental outcomes for infants and toddlers at increased likelihood of or diagnosed with autism: a systematic review and meta?analysis. Autism Research, 16(6), 1145-1160.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/aur.2924?download=true
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