Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

AcknowledgementsThe authors and publishers wish to thankthe copyright holder, Caroline Meggitt forpermission to reproduce the diagram onthe six aspects of health (Figure 1,inchapter 6).The authors’ gratitude must also go to themembers of the Manchester MetropolitanUniversity Early Years Research Team,the‘Birth to Three Matters’ Steering andWorking Groups, the CCCUC Early YearsTeam and members of CISEC (the Centrefor International Studies in EarlyChildhood),and colleagues in other partsof the UK and other countries, forsuggested references, amendments andadditions, especially Tina Bruce, RebeccaGoldman, Lesley Staggs, Angela Nurse andKate Wall,whose thorough and supportivecritiques were most valuable.We should also thank the colleagues inso many fields and countries who havecarried out the exciting research aboutbabies and young children and whosework promotes the important message‘Birth to Three Matters.’ Most of all we wantto thank all the babies and young childrenwho have given us endless hours ofpleasure, as we have observed andinteracted with them. They have providedthe invaluable experiences that havehelped us understand and contextualisethe research.Tricia DavidKathy GoouchSacha PowellLesley AbbottAugust 20023

This review is primarily intended tosupplement the pack ‘Birth to ThreeMatters:A framework to support childrenin their earliest years’ and it is about thebackground research and thinking onwhich the pack is based.THE CURRENT CONTEXTThe expansion in childcare outlined in theNational Childcare Strategy and the GreenPaper (DfEE 2001) have provided excitingchallenges and opportunities for thoseinvolved in the creation and developmentof out-of-home experiences for youngchildren. The responsibilities that go alongwith these are enormous since, as theGreen Paper states, young children’ssubsequent development dependscritically upon their experiences in theearliest years of life.The deve l o p m e nt of a fra m ewo rk byGove rn m e nt to suppo rt pra ct i t i o n e r swo rking with children from birth to threeis a milestone in re cognising and va l u i n gour youngest children and the co nt ri b u t i o nmade to their growth and deve l o p m e ntby the adults in their live s. It raises thes t atus of wo rk with this impo rt a nt ageg roup and marks the co m m i t m e nt of thep re s e nt gove rn m e nt to suppo rting qualityand effe ct i ve pra ct i ce with children agedf rom birth to thre e.WHY BIRTH TO THREE?The age of three, traditionally the start ofearly years education in England, andrecognised by child development theoristsand educationalists alike as a valuablestarting point for education,is now viewedby many as too late to begin developingyoung children’s potential. Recentresearch,particularly in neuroscience,has pointed to the fact that in the processof caring for, and educating youngchildren,no time is too soon to begin,withstudies showing that right from birth (andeven before birth) children are alreadycompetent learners.Goldschmied and Jackson (1994) referto ‘people under three’, not babies,toddlers, or even children,but people withrights, which include being treated withdignity and respect.They also emphasisethe importance of good quality care beingbased not just on knowledge, but alsoon the ability of those adults to empathisewith them,and to understand theexperiences and feelings of young childrenimaginatively, especially when they areseparated from their parents.PRINCIPLES WHICH UNDERPIN THE FRAMEWORKIn the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’,the principles underpinning it areidentified from a number of sourcesincluding The Early Years CurriculumGroup (1989); Bruce (1987); Lindon (2001)and from other representativeorganisations, leading child care writersand experts. These are as follows:-Parents and families are central to thewell-being of the child.6 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Relationships with other people (bothadults and children) are of centralimportance in a child’s life.Babies and young children are socialbeings, they are primed to learn andcommunicate.Learning is a shared process.Caring adults count more thanresources and equipment.Schedules and routines must flow withthe child.The whole day matters;babies andyoung children do not split up theirlives into sections so neither shouldtheir adult carers.Children learn best when they are givenappropriate responsibility, allowed tomake errors, decisions and choices, andrespected as autonomous andcompetent learners.Children learn most effectively when,with the support of a knowledgeableand trusted adult, they are activelyinvolved and interested.Children learn best by doing ratherthan by being told.Children are competent learnersfrom birth.These principles are supported by researchevidence presented in this review.However, the resulting Framework steersaway from subject headings, traditionalareas of experience and distinctcurriculum headings and takes as its focusthe child. It identifies four Aspects ofdevelopment. These are:- A Strong Child;A Skilful Communicator; A CompetentLearner; and A Healthy Child. Eachof these Aspects celebrates the skilland competence of babies andyoung children and highlights theinterrelationship between growth,learning, development and theenvironment in which they are caredfor and educated.In this introductory chapter readers willfind:- information about the Framework‘Birth to Three Matters’ and the Aspectswhich form its basic structure; anintroduction to some of the issuesconcerning research and theory focusedon young children’s development andlearning;an outline of key researchconclusions on risk and resilience linkedto experiences in the earliest years; anda summary of key ‘messages’.Th roughout the text we have addedi l l u m i n at i ve anecd o tes about individualc h i l d re n ,o b s e rved by family membe r swho are both ex pe ri e n ced early ye a r sp ra ctitioners and re s e a rc h e r s. Some ofthese anecd o tes have been used to showt h at while re s e a rch can tell us much abo u tc h i l d ren and their capabilities in genera l ,t h e re are times when a child will asto u n dclose family members by what Ga rd n e r( 1993) called their flashes of bri l l i a n ce.In other wo rd s, we hope pare nts andp ra ctitioners will not only read the rev i ewwith inte rest but also with an open andc ri t i cal mind, re f l e cting on the ways inwhich the re s e a rch info rms and re l atesto their own int i m ate kn owledge andunderstandings about young childre n .7

For those who would like more detailabout the literature search process, theAppendix explains how the team foundthe reports on different pieces of researchand the kinds of information it seemedimportant to include. Following theintroductory chapter, there are five mainchapters to the literature review,containing the following:-a brief introduction to influentialtheories and philosophies concernedwith early childhoodinformation about research relatingto A Strong Childinformation about research concernedwith the baby and young child asA Skilful Communicatorinformation about research focusingon A Competent Learnerinformation about research onA Healthy Childand the review concludes with a furtherchapter providing some pointers aboutthe implications of the research forparents, policy makers, practitioners,trainers and researchers.The second chapter, which is anintroduction to theories and philosophiesexplains the ideas and thinking – ‘grand’or key theories – which have helped people‘make sense’ of what they believe to bepatterns in very young children’sdevelopment and learning. Thesubsequent chapters outline research,mainly that carried out during the last tenyears, and review research reports relevantto each of the four Components of anAspect of the Framework.RESEARCH,DISCIPLINES,ASSUMPTIONSAND VALUESOwing to the broad scope of thecomponents in the pack,and the numberof different disciplines, or areas of study,which inform the field of Early ChildhoodEducation and Care (ECEC) concerningchildren from birth to three, this literaturereview covers a huge number of fields ofknowledge, ranging from law, social work,health and medicine, to developmentalpsychology, linguistics, cognitive scienceand neurophysiology, policy studies andsociology. Such a review could also haveincluded other areas of knowledge, suchas historical studies of early childhood andchildrearing for example, because thesecould have provided insights into the waysin which our attitudes to and beliefs aboutyoung children and their place in societyhave changed, and, as a result, how theways in which we actually treat childrenunder three have changed. Societychanges over time and we can learn fromanalyses of these changes. However, toinclude all the fields and all the researchthat could be used would have resultedin an encyclopaedia,and taken far longerto compile than the time allowed.We can also learn from observations andex p l o rations of the ways in which peoplein other societies or co u nt ries tre at theirve ry young childre n ,w h at they be l i eveto be appro p ri ate provision for them and8 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

policies for families. So this lite rat u re rev i ewincludes some re po rts of re s e a rch fro ma b road as well as British ev i d e n ce. He rewe need to be cautious howeve r, be ca u s ed i f fe re nt co u nt ries have diffe re nt histo ri e sand what wo rks for one soc i e ty may not beri g ht for another for many diffe re nt re a s o n s( Au b rey 2001 ; Penn 2001 ). In particular weneed to be awa re of the assumptions andunderstandings about babies and yo u n gc h i l d ren which are preva l e nt in diffe re nts ocieties be cause these can affe ctre s e a rc h e r s, as well as pare nt s, p ra ct i t i o n e r sand po l i cy makers (David 1998 ; 2000 ).It is impo rt a nt to bear in mind that the keyt h e o ries and philosophies pre s e nted in therev i ew have been deve l o ped larg e ly inthe industrial and po s t - i n d u s t rial co u nt riesof the We s t / No rth (often called theMi n o ri ty Wo rld) too, and that accessto theories and kn owledge from theMa j o ri ty Wo rld co u nt ries could help usgain an even be t ter understanding ofyoung childre n’s enormous po te ntial andof how our assumptions may be limitingour ex pe ct at i o n s. At pre s e nt we havea c cess to far too little info rm ation abo u tt h e o ries and ev i d e n ce from Ma j o ri ty Wo rl dco u nt ri e s, so it is exciting that re s e a rc h e r sand wri ters are beginning to make suchi n fo rm ation ava i l a b l e. As Je rome Bru n e r( 2000 : ix) state s :-‘Th e re is nothing in the wo rld to matc hchild re a ring for the depth and co m p l ex i tyof the challenges it poses both for thosed i re ct ly ca u g ht up in its daily int ri ca c i e sand for the soc i e ty to which child andca re t a kers be l o n g. … To begin with, c h i l dre a ri n g, g i ven humans’ c u l t u ra la d a p t at i o n , is not stra i g ht - l i n eevo l u t i o n a ry ext ra po l ation of “b i o l og i ca ls pecies re p rod u ct i o n .” Cu l t u ra la d a p t at i o n , by any standard, is a big dealas well as a re ce nt one, pe rhaps only a halfmillion years old. Human immat u ri tyseems shaped (if a bit haphazard ly) to itsre q u i re m e nt s : not only to growing up pe rse (at be s t, rather a vapid idea) but tog rowing up Balinese or Ifaluk or Ja p a n e s e.And it is not only prolonged helplessnesst h at is special about human infancy, b u tits utter re l i a n ce on sustained andextended inte ra ction with a co m m i t te dand enculturated ca re g i ve r.’This chapter will now outline some of thekey issues involved in the study of babiesand young children.IS CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNINGCOMPARTMENTALISED OR HOLISTIC?In the past, information about children’sdevelopment and learning has oftenbeen presented according to aspectssuch as physical development; emotionaldevelopment; social development;cognitive development; moraldevelopment; aesthetic development.As Greene (1999: 255) points out, thereare now‘interesting signs of attempts to breakdown the long-standing barriers betweenthe realms of cognition,emotion,andsocial development…In recent years therehas been a welcome renewal of discussionof the need for an holistic model of9

promote and enhance an individual child’scompetences and skills compared withother children who are progressing alonga more conventional pathway.‘In the early years/SEN realm interventionis purposeful and designed to effectas close a match as possible betweena young child’s identified special needsand that provision or resources whichwill meet his or her needs and bestfacilitate learning and development’(Wolfendale 2000:4).This is best achieved through givinga child access to as normal a learningsituation as possible within an inclusiveECEC context, whether that be a homeor a group setting, where perceptivepractitioners can take advantage of those‘teachable moments’ (Wilson 1998: 92)which occur naturally during the courseof a day.CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY IN CHILDREN’SLIVES,DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNINGA further area of disagreement concernsthe question of the significance of theearliest years of life and whether whathappens during this period influencesthe whole life course. Certainly the Jesuitsbelieved this stage in human life to shapethe adult. Some psychologists havesuggested there are ‘sensitive periods’during babyhood, when certainexperiences are thought to have mostimpact. Others, such as Bowlby (1969;1973) claimed that there would be longlasting ill effects from experiences suchas institutionalised care during babyhood.As Bornstein (1999) argues, the idea thatearly childhood is especially important iscommon sense. This is the stage at whichthe nervous system is immature and at itsmost plastic and the prolongation of earlychildhood is thought to have adaptivesignificance.Thus it appears logical thatthe earliest years should cast an especiallylong shadow onto future life. Bornsteinstresses the complexity of factorsimpacting on this early development andthere are a number of research studieswhich confound the view that earlychildhood is a ‘critical period’ – meaningdamage in this stage will be irreparable.For example, Rutter’s work with theRomanian Adoptees Study Team (1998)shows how children subjected early tovery poor living conditions do catch upor at least are not irretrievably damaged.So Bornstein (1999: 29) concludes thatinfancy is ‘extremely important,…uniquelyformative, but not determinative’.Taking continuity to mean ‘smooth’development and learning, again thereare questions about whether childrenexperience ‘leaps’ in ability orunderstanding – for example in chapter6 in the section about brain developmentthe view of Gopnik et al (1999) ispresented. These American cognitivescientists argue that at around 18 monthsof age there is a change in children’s brainstructure because the children’s brains‘reprogramme’ themselves, as a resultof recognising that other people havedifferent minds/views/likes from their own.11

etween three and nine years old whichhave been enacted in the USA.In summary, the kinds of factors whichappear to be linked to risk of lessfavourable development and lowerachievement in learning include:-factors defined as within the child(intra-child),such as chronic illness,mental and physical disabilities. Thesemay be classed as biological (eg.genetic disorders, exposure in thewomb to the ill-effects of infectiousdiseases, drugs, alcohol); related totemperament – whether the baby is‘easy’ or ‘difficult’, babies with irregularbiological rhythms, irritable and hardto soothe babies – because these canput the parent-child relationship at riskand leave some children vulnerableto higher rates of anxiety in later life(Hirschfield et al 1992; Miller 1996)impaired parenting (for example,through severe parental mental illness,since this would probably mean thechild being exposed to a number ofinterlinked risk factors, including timesof parental absence; experiences ofviolence, impaired family relationships)(Engle et al 1996; Tebes et al 2001)social disadvantage, such as familypoverty, lack of access to medical care,racism and minority status, exposureto community violence – includingchild abuse (Cairns and Dawes 1996;Davies 1999; Lowenthal 1998).It is thought that where a child ex pe ri e n ce st h ree or more risk facto r s, both pare nts andchild may be come ove rwhelmed and ri s ka c c u m u l ate s, p a rt i c u l a rly if there are nop ro te ct i ve mechanisms in place (Ga r b a ri n o1993 ; Myers and Taylor 1998 ). Ad d i t i o n a l ly,the length of time a child ex pe ri e n cesrisk factors decreases the like l i h oodof be coming re s i l i e nt, p a rt i c u l a rly wherel i fe changes such as substitute ca re arei nvo lved (He n ry 1999 ; Ru t ter 2000).According to Davies (1999),the ways inwhich risk is likely to increase its impacton a child and place that child in aposition where it is difficult to cope withthe stress involved are:-that the child has insufficient copingstrategies. The younger the child themore likely the negative effect becauseof the child’s inexperience. Farver andFrosch (1996) studied children who hadexperienced natural disasters and theyfound that those under five years oldwere more severely affected than werethe older childrenthe absence or inability of parentsor carers who can support the childin copingthe existence of a number of risk factors– even a child with supportive parentsmay not be able to cope with life in anarea of poverty where violence iscommonplace. (A number of studieslink a wide range of risks to poverty andsocio-economic status. These arereviewed in chapter 6.)the child has become passive as a resultof too much stress (for example beingsubjected to frequent abuse)13

possible. Thus stage theories are thoughtto impose a uniformity of both structureand direction onto changes related tothe ageing process which may not beapplicable to the psychological aspectsof human beings. Although it is possibleto modify sensory systems and thestructure of the brain by behaviouralexperiences (Greenough et al 1987),experience impacts more strongly onpsychological development than uponphysical development (with the exceptionof certain illnesses, accidents and severenutritional difficulties of course). As a resulta child’s psychological development doesnot simply ‘unfold’. Because theappearance of teeth generally (thoughnot always!) follows a particularpredictable sequence, it does not meanthat the changes occurring in cognitivedevelopment, or attachment, or havinga concept of oneself will be the same forevery child in the world. So the questionis – does development simply meanadditions to children’s knowledge andabilities, or are there actually qualitativechanges in the underlying structure whichmean children approach tasks or see theworld in different ways when they areolder? The idea of waiting for a child todevelop, or mature, in order to be capableof learning something implies a belief ina pre-set, maturational stage theory,whereas it may be that an individual childrequires certain experiences from whichthey can learn something in order that thedesired development can then follow thelearning on which it depends. As Bee(1989) suggests following her reviewof development theories and research,the concept of stages seems initially tobe a neat way of organizing what weknow, describing changes with age, butthat once one embarks on a discussionof cognitive development the conceptseems rather ‘slippery’ (Bee 1989: 12).The idea that simple explanations couldbe found and then applied to childrenin any situation has also been called intoquestion. Even some of the highlyrespected ‘Grand Thinkers’ in the fieldof developmental psychology (suchas Bronfenbrenner, Bruner, Rutter, Baltes,Kagan, Donaldson) are willing to examinebasic assumptions, reflecting a‘changed consciousness and experienceaccumulated over the past decades toadvance an understanding of childrenwhich does better justice to their complex,changing and multiple ways of being inand with their worlds.’ (Greene 1999: 265).So, while research projects are oftenlooking for patterns which might actas guides to children’s development,it is important to acknowledge the uniquepath of each child’s development andlearning, together with the potentialinfluence of variations in culturalexpectations. In order to stress theimportance of recognising this flexibilityand complexity, the Framework ‘Birth toThree Matters’ uses four broad categoriesto discuss diffe re nt phases of deve l o p m e nt,based on the American High/Scopebandings. These equate roughly to:-16 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

0 – 8 months: Heads Up, Lookers andCommunicatorsDuring the first eight months youngbabies react to people and situationswith their whole bodies, neverthelessthey are competent in observingand responding to their immediateenvironment and communicatingwith those around them.8 – 18 months: Sitters, Standersand ExplorersDuring the period from eight to 18months when babies’ exploration of theenvironment becomes more intentionaltheir increasing mobility and languagedevelopment enables them to find outand understand more about their world.18 – 24 months: Movers, Shakersand PlayersFrom 18 to 24 months youngc h i l d ren begin to show incre a s i n gi n d e pe n d e n ce and obvious pleasurein mov i n g, co m m u n i cating andl e a rning through play.24 – 36 months: Walkers, Talkersand PretendersFrom 24 to 36 months children’scompetence at moving, talking andpretending is more and more evidentand they show increasing confidencein themselves and skill in makingrelationships. However, most of theresearch literature reviewed for this textuses the ages of the children who wereinvolved, and, where that is the case,we have done likewise.Pe rhaps above all, it is re cognition fo rm e a n i n g and how young children and thosea round them share meanings in human lifewhich is gaining asce n d a n cy amongre s e a rc h e r s, so it is essential to ackn ow l e d g ethe plura l i ty and uniqueness of childre n’sex pe ri e n ces due larg e ly to co ntextual andc u l t u ral diffe re n ce s. From a ve ry early agebabies and young children search for themeaning of the be h aviours and speech ofthose around them.Th ey often seem tore cognise those be h aviours which givesomeone powe r. For ex a m p l e, when Co ra l i ewas eight months old she beamed andt ri u m p h a n t ly waved the te l evision co n t ro lwhich she had managed to get hold of for thefirst time in her life. This object had meaningin her household – and she appe a red to haverealised that whoever held it had some sortof power (though she did not kn ow how to usethe co n t rol at that stage).Additionally, most psychologists no longerseek an answer to the question of whetherthe abilities and characteristics a childis born with (‘nature’) have a greaterimpact on their later achievements andpersonality than what they experience asthey grow up (‘nurture’). This thinking hasbeen superseded by the recognition thatboth are interdependent, a point which isfrequently reiterated throughout this text.DEFINING CHILDREN’S NEEDSIn attempting to establish evidence abouteffective practice in both home and groupsettings offering early childhoodeducation and care (ECEC) for babies andchildren aged between birth and three17

years, it is important to take accountof the kind of society in which childrenin England are growing up – that it is amulticultural,pluralistic, democraticsociety.This means that children’sneeds will be defined in particular ways.Clearly, all children need adequate andappropriate nourishment and rest;shelterand protection from the elements andfrom harm; warm, responsive andaffectionate relationships. Kellmer-Pringle(1980) suggested they also needopportunities to take responsibility and,of course, love, which is implied as a needby the United Nations Convention on theRights of the Child (UN 1989). However,many of the ‘needs’ that are consideredvital are so defined because of the valuesto which a society subscribes (Woodhead1990). Again,the call is for those of usin the field of ECEC to be aware of ourjudgements and the extent to whichwe are basing them on over simplifiedgeneralisations about children and theirupbringing. Martin Woodhead is notarguing that we should not define anyneeds, but that we should be able to saywhy we subscribe to those in whichwe believe:‘Children inherit a distinctively humannature as well as being brought up ina particular culture. Their dependency onothers to protect their interests during thelong period of human immaturity knownas childhood means that judgements mustcontinually be made by those responsiblefor them; although the length of theirdependency and the cultural articulationof what is in their best interests will varyfrom society to society and from timeto time. The challenge is not to shy awayfrom developing a perspective onchildhood, but to recognize the pluralityof pathways to maturity within thatperspective. This is all the more importantat a time when the influence of childpsychology is extending well beyond thesocieties (notably North America andEurope) from which dominant theoriesand research data have been derived.’(Woodhead 1990:73)Research has shown how children’s needsare sometimes wrongly stereotypedbecause of ill-informed attempts atculturally defining them (see for example,Currer 1991). Dwivedi (1996) providesinsightful and useful comment onprofessional inhibitions and clumsinessabout racial and ethnic issues, culturalvalues and ‘pseudo insight’. Perhaps thebest way for a community to define whatmembers regard as young children’s needswould be to adopt the approaches of theworld famous nurseries of Reggio Emiliain Northern Italy, where parents,practitioners and politicians meet regularlyfor discussions about the place of childrenin society, what childhood is for, and howbest to provide for them.WHAT THIS REVIEW DOES AND DOES NOT COVERThe rev i ew provides re s e a rch ev i d e n cea bout babies’ and young childre n’sd eve l o p m e nt and learning be tween theages of birth and three ye a r s. Si n ce thefocus of the pack,‘Bi rth to Th ree Ma t te r s :A fra m ewo rk to suppo rt children in their18 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

e a rliest ye a r s’ 1 , is the children themselve sand effe ct i ve pra ct i ce, this is what weh ave focused on in the rev i ew of re s e a rc hl i te rat u re.The re s e a rch re po rts used arel a rg e ly, though not exc l u s i ve ly, f rom theU K , No rth Am e ri ca ,Au s t ralasia and otherEu ro pean co u nt ri e s, (in other wo rds thei n d u s t rialised and info rm ation societies ofthe Mi n o ri ty Wo rl d ).In all we have prov i d e dre fe re n ces to more than 500 re s e a rc hre po rts and books about childre n’s learn i n gand deve l o p m e nt be tween birth and thre eye a r s. Our search of the data bases yieldedthousands of studies, m a ny of which wehad to eliminate (see Ap pendix ).Th u st h e re is a huge body of wo rk which co u l dh ave been included, but be cause of timeand space co n s t ra i nts some aspe cts we red e l i be rate ly eliminated and some art i c l e sl e ft to one side be cause their messageswe re alre a dy loud and clear from otherwo rk – we apo l ogise in adva n ce to thosewhose wo rk would have been includedg i ven more time. In addition, the focus hasbeen on the children themselves andalthough articles about po l i cy, for ex a m p l e,discuss issues which impinge on the live sof the childre n , these have not be e ncove re d, nor some of the more spe c i a l i s e dre s e a rc h ,such as that pe rtaining top a rticular medical co n d i t i o n s. Even someof the areas included could have be e nco n s i d e red in gre ater depth but we hopereaders will appre c i ate that each to p i ccould be – and often is – the focus of awhole book in its own ri g ht. As ex p l a i n e de a rl i e r, the sources of the lite rat u reincluded in the rev i ew we re larg e ly: -published boo k s, re fe reed pro fessionaland academic journ a l s, we b s i tes and someunpublished re po rt s, which can be fo u n dby sco u ring data bases in libra ri e s.The other main source of info rm ationwas co nt a ct with colleagues in the UKand abroad who have wo rked in the fieldfor many years (see Ap pendix 1).Following this introductory chapter, thesecond highlights some of the influentialresearch and theories concerned withearly childhood which have informedresearch and practice in England over thelast hundred years.In the third chapter of the review, A StrongChild, we present some of the thinkingand research findings related to a child’sgrowing awareness of self; recognitionof personal characteristics, preferences andcapabilities; the need for recognition,acceptance and comfort, and being ableto contribute to secure attachments; beingspecial to someone and exploringemotional boundaries; developing selfreliance as well as self confidence; andhaving a sense of belonging. The conceptof A Strong Child is one which runsthroughout the Framework ‘Birth to ThreeMatters’. We all want children to be strong,capable, confident and self-assured. Thevery early years are extremely importantfor babies and young children as theybegin on a journey of self-discovery from1The Framework in ContextIt is important that the Framework is considered within the context of the National Standards for Under Eight’s Day Care andChildminding (DfEE 2001) together with the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (DfES/QCA,2000) More detailedinformation about the nature of these links can be found on the CD ROM in the pack ‘Birth to Three Matters’ .19

a base of secure relationships with parentsand key persons. The beginnings ofautonomy can be seen in the relationshipswhich exist as babies and young childrenplay and explore in the context of a close,attentive and emotionally present adult.In order to become strong, the baby needsa nurturing environment in which theirkey person plays an essential role.By encouraging and supporting decisionmaking,empathising and providingopportunities for children,the key personhelps them grow emotionally and respondto successes and challenges. In theFramework, A Strong Child explores theways in which both the significant adultsand the physical environment have animpact upon children's developing senseof themselves and their group identity,their affective world and theirrelationships with others.The fourth chapter provides researchinformation and ideas about the babyand child as A Skilful Communicator.This includes:- being a sociable andeffective communicator; listening andresponding appropriately to the languageof others;and making meaning.To become skilful communicators babiesand children need to be together with akey person and with others in a warm andloving relationship. Being together leads tothe wider development of social relationswhich include friendship, empathy, sharingemotions and experiences and becominga competent language user. Early attemptsat finding a voice are rewarded in a varietyof ways, thus increasing babies’ and youngchildren’s confidence and encouragingthem to extend their range and increasetheir skills. Part of that, but by no meansall,is simply learning to make sense of thesounds around them. This is not a simpletask,as they have to begin to distinguishbetween the sounds of the language,including intonation patterns and widerenvironmental sounds. From as early asseven months, a baby responds differentlyto some sounds over others and is ableto distinguish sound patterns. Babies usetheir voices to make contact, let peopleknow what they need and how they feel.They are also starting to learn about‘conversation’. This requires the abilityto listen and respond appropriately,understanding the importance of payingattention to sounds and language,interpreting non-verbal signals, imitating,repeating and mirroring others. Babiesand young children also learn the ‘rules’of communication through makingmeaning with their key person and withother supportive adults and older childrenin relationships in which their earlyattempts to converse are interpreted,responded to and valued.In the chapter A Competent Learner,making connections (for example, throughthe senses) and developing the abilityto compare, categorise and classify; beingimaginative and creative; and being ableto use symbols to represent thoughts andlanguage are the foci. Babies only a fewhours old gaze at patterns which resemblethe human face in preference to randompatterns.This shows that they are able to20 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

distinguish between things, and that theylike some things better than others. In thisway young children learn to discriminateand make connections between differentobjects and experiences. As connectionsare made, the child makes increasing senseof the world. As babies explore the worldthrough touch,sight, sound, taste, smelland movement, their sensory and physicalexplorations affect the patterns that arelaid down in the brain.Through repeatedexperience of people, objects andmaterials, young children begin to formmental images which lead them to imitate,explore and re-enact as they becomeimaginative and creative. Creativity,imagination and representation throughmark making allow children to share theirthoughts, feelings, understandings andidentities with others, using drawings,words, movement, music, dance andimaginative play.Chapter six, A Healthy Child, bringstogether evidence about young children’smental and physical well-being, togetherwith children’s own growing knowledgeabout their own and others’ bodies andminds. Being healthy means much morethan having nutritious food and being freefrom illness. For babies and young childrenbeing special to someone and cared for isimportant for their physical,social andemotional health and well-being. Healthand social well-being underpin anddetermine children's responses to theirenvironment, to people and to newexperiences. Emotional well-beingincludes re l at i o n s h i p s, which are close,wa rm and suppo rt i ve ; being able toex p ress feelings such as joy, g ri e f,f ru s t ration and fear leading to thedevelopment of coping strategies whenfaced with new, challenging or stressfuls i t u at i o n s.This chapter is there fo re closelylinked to chapter 3,since, as we shall see,emotional strength and self-esteem arei m po rt a nt ant i d o tes to some fo rms ofm e ntal illness and re l ationship pro b l e m s.Further, this is the chapter where readerswill find a précis of the current state ofinformation on early brain development,although once again the research linkswith and informs all the areas ofdevelopment and therefore all theAspects of the Framework.Meeting children’s physical needs isfundamental to their well-being. As s/heis growing and developing a child whois hungry, tired or uncomfortable willnot enjoy the company of adults andother children.A child who is physicallywell will have the energy and enthusiasmto benefit from the range of activities onoffer to her, equally she will get bored ifchoice is limited or provision inappropriateto her needs. Knowing when to ask forhelp, being protected and keeping safewith adult support, ensures that babiesand young children quickly become skilfulin a range of movements involving bothlarge and fine motor control. In time, theymake healthy choices as they learn abouttheir bodies and what they can do.21

The final chapter brings the review to aconclusion and draws out some implicat i o n sfor practitioners and policy makers.SUMMARY OF KEY ‘MESSAGES’In this first chapter the contents of thewhole text have been introduced andissues related to the study of youngchildren’s development and learningoutlined. In particular the chapterhas presented:-links with the Framework ‘Birth to ThreeMatters’ and the importance of theexperiences and achievementsof people under threeinfancy as an extremely importantperiod of life but not determinativethe rationale for the Framework andthe importance of providing optimalexperiences, especially sensitive,positive relationships with a smallnumber of familiar people, for childrenfrom birth to three, in order to promotedevelopment, learning and resiliencethe active, holistic nature of earlylearning and development and thenotion that environment and geneticsinteract to produce developmentkey information about thedevelopment of resilience, in particular,the crucial role played by a personor persons to whom a child ‘matters’the need for practitioners and policymakers to be informed about relevantresearch and to recognise that whileresearch and theory can provide trendsand ideas, there will be variations inearly learning and development – eachof the children they know is uniquethe need for awareness of differencesconcerning early learning anddevelopment across time and space –the impact of cultural assumptions andhow this plurality can affect not onlythe ways in which children are treatedbut also the assumptions underlyingthe research and theories emanatingfrom different places at different timesthe impo rt a n ce of re cognising the ce nt ra lrole of pare nt s, the pri m a ry edu-ca re r s.22 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 2Influential research and theories concerned with early childhoodHOW THEORIES OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT CAN HELP USClearly there are problems connected with applying ‘grand’ theories to all situations fora number of reasons. Some theories can be seen to be specific to particular societies andto over generalise could be dangerous.For example, the famous Swiss researcherJean Piaget set out a theory of stagesrelated to the development of children’sthinking. One experiment demonstratedhis theory as applied to the understandingof conservation of volume (water usuallybeing used to fill the ‘volume’). By thishe meant that when young children arepresented with a full,tall narrow glassof water and see all the water poured intoa short wide glass, they will still argue thatthe tall narrow glass holds more water.Piaget claimed that a child needed to havereached between seven and 11 years ofage before they recognise this thinking asincorrect.This example helps practitionersthink about not only children’s thinkingand how deceptive appearances of certainphenomena and events can be to youngchildren, it also makes us reflect on thekinds of questions we ask them,whetherthey are confused by the terminology –and also perhaps, whether children oftentell powerful adults what they think thoseadults want to hear! It should also make usreflect on the appropriateness of what weare demanding of young children, whetherthey have had enough real life experiencesand hands-on activity to be able to dealmeaningfully with the questions.Corinne Hutt, who was herself Sri Lankan,carried out a replication of Piaget’sconservation of volume experiment usingwater with children in both England andSri Lanka and found that the Sri Lankanchildren who fetched water regularly fortheir families (and so ‘experienced’ wateron a more frequent basis) could conservewater earlier than the English children,23

thus showing that the theory was ‘contextdependent’ (Hutt 1979).In other words,familiarity with particular activities andexperiences, usually those that areembedded in the everyday life of the child,lead to developments in the abilitiesinvolved, as Margaret Donaldson (1978)pointed out. The task for early childhoodpractitioners is to make activitiesmeaningful to young children and so leadthem from those that make sense withina particular context to those which areless context-dependent (for examplebecoming able to count a small numberof objects anywhere when you are aboutfour years old, because you have hadexperiences of counting drinks or seatsneeded for a little group, or other objects,in the familiar world of your home,childminder’s or nursery).Some researchers (see for exampleDahlberg et al 1999; Singer 1992) arguethat one cannot generalise aboutchildren’s learning and development,that it is dangerous to impose ideas fromone culture onto others, because it isimportant to take account of the contextdependentnature of children’sunderstandings. After all,it is importantto note, as we argued in chapter 1,thattheories, as well as research,happen inparticular places at particular times andboth are therefore subject to culturalassumptions and values. However, theimpact of postmodern 1 ideas cansometimes mean that, unintentionally,a flight from theorising follows – ‘throwingthe baby out with the bathwater’ – whichcan also be dangerous, because when weexplore the reasons underpinning practiceor policy we become aware of our ownassumptions, ideas or theories, and we canenhance them by debating the ‘grandtheories’. By reflecting on ‘grand theories’in the light of our own practicalexperience, we can decide how applicableeach of them is to the children we workwith and in our own work contexts. Butwe also need to see the extent to whichtheories are supported by researchevidence, at least where they can beresearched empirically. We can thenaccept, adapt or reject the ‘grand theory’in question and be more aware of our owntheories – how we ‘make sense’ of children– and how our theories affect our work.So some researchers (for example, Rabanet al 2002) propose that we should usea range of theories, while recognising theirlimitations, so that we can move the fieldof Early Childhood Education and Care(ECEC) forward, and include ideas andresearch findings from other relevantfields.This chapter outlines the majorMinority World child developmenttheories, which have influenced the fieldof ECEC and readers are urged to use thereferences to pursue further debate.1Philip Gammage (1999:163) argues that the ‘core of postmodernism is essentially this:a time when rules, customs, beliefs, values andideas are subjected to reanalysis, when a greater awareness of their context-dependent, subjective nature is revealed’.24 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

THE ISSUE OF THEORIES AS CULTURALCONSTRUCTIONSAs a result of recognition that the childdevelopment theories espoused in theMinority World may be affected by thecontext in which they were developed –because the children and the researcherswere influenced by the assumptions,values, expectations and practices ofa particular time and place, theories arenow seen as ‘cultural constructions’.Nevertheless, as Bruce maintains,‘Theories help us to predict and toanticipate how children might behave andreact. They help us structure what weobserve.Theories help us to make senseof what we see…When we analyse play,we find ourselves linking what we havefound with what other people (theorists)have found. We may find our observationsfit with theories. We may find that theydo not. This will help us think deeply…’(Bruce 2001: 19).This chapter merely introduces someof the key ‘grand’ theories and theresearchers who have proposed them.It is not possible to provide a long critiqueof each theory, simply to point up wherefurther information can be found forreaders who feel tantalised by thesedeliberately brief overviews. The theoriesincluded are:- psychoanalytic; learning;cognitive developmental; ecologicalsystems; information processing; andlanguage development theory.BIOLOGY AND MATURATIONBiological theories of human developmentusually suggest that there is a setsequence or pattern of change throughmaturation which is geneticallyprogrammed. The main pioneer theorist ofthis view was Gesell (Gesell and Armatruda1947). According to this type of theory, anindividual’s temperament would also beinherited and persist throughout their life.In the 19 70 s, Hi n d e’s Bi o l og i cal Bases ofHuman Deve l o p m e n t a rgued that in ord e rto understand human deve l o p m e nt weshould use the same approaches as thoseused to study animals – so what is kn ow nas human ethology was bo rn . St u d i e sco n d u cted in the 1970 s, such as Huttet al (1989) Pl ay, Le a rning and Ex p l o ra t i o n,a d o p ted the approach of non-part i c i p a nto b s e rvation in at tempts to understand thep rocesses affe cting young childre n’s live sand learn i n g.The idea of the impo rt a n ceof bonding for a new bo rn baby, or animal,and at t a c h m e nt to a particular nurt u ri n gf i g u re (usually the baby’s mother) linkse t h o l ogy with Bow l by’s lite rat u re onat t a c h m e nt (see late r ). Other aspe cts ofe t h o l og i cal theory include pro po s i t i o n sa bout sensitive (or, m o re ri g i d ly, c ri t i ca lpe ri od s ); a l t ruism – helping others forno appare nt gain to oneself, e s pe c i a l lyin re l ation to surv i val and well being (fo rex a m p l e, is a human more like ly to helpa person who shares their genetic make - u pthan one who does not?); d o m i n a n ce ands u b m i s s i o n .The lat ter aspe cts link25

e t h o l og i cal theory with soc i o - b i o l ogy (seefor ex a m p l e, Daw kins 1976 ).Murray Thomas (1996) proposes abio-electrical ‘model’ of child developmentwhich,he claims, explains children’sphysical development well,in terms of thebody’s physical structure but thisapproach fails to cover children’s emotionsand thoughts in any satisfactory way.The experience of young children bornwith immense physical problems, suchas cerebral palsy or Down’s syndrome,who have overcome many of theirapparent difficulties to go on to leadrich and exciting lives also refutes thisargument (see for example Grandin 1996).To some extent, recent gene and brainresearch, together with some thinkingfrom neuroscience may be revivingbiological theories but critics are awarethat there may be dangers in believinghuman development and learning to befixed, limited or immutable.Biological explanations of childhoodIn exploring the evolution of childhood,Bogin (1998) argues that there are soundevolutionary reasons for prolongedimmaturity, which include:- feeding(a child can be fed by any other memberof the group once weaned); the relativelylow cost of feeding a child compared witha fully grown adult; the fact that nurturingcan be done by other members of thespecies, so freeing the mother – childrenretain an infantile appearance, sostimulating nurturing responses;developmental ‘plasticity’ is possible –they can adapt to different or changingenvironments more readily. Bogin claimsthat these factors contribute to thesuperior survival rate of human offspringcompared with other animals.FREUD AND THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TRADITIONFre u d’s psyc h o a n a lytic theory is impo rt a ntto the field of early childhood be cause hewas one of the first to draw at te ntionto the ways in which babies’ and yo u n gc h i l d re n’s ‘inner live s’ and ex pe ri e n ce scould be shaping their deve l o p m e nt andl e a rn i n g. He pro posed diffe re nt levelsof consciousness in the mind, with theu n co n s c i o u s being a re ceptacle to whichhumans ‘s e n d’ kn owledge about aspe ctsof their lives of which they either do notneed or wa nt to remain co n s c i o u s. He alsos u g g e s ted that there are pre d e te rm i n e dstages in human ‘p s yc h o s ex u a ld eve l o p m e nt’ and that the mouth, a n u sand genitals are sensitive parts of the body– e rogenous zo n e s – which are succe s s i ve lyi nvo lve d. Freud argued that childre n’sc h i l d h ood and adult re l ationships witho t h e r s, and feelings about themselve sd e pend upon their ex pe ri e n ces duri n geach of these psyc h o s exual stages. Fre u d’s‘m od e l’ of child deve l o p m e nt was deri ve dm o re from his re f l e ctions on his adultp at i e nt s’ re co l l e ctions of childhoodex pe ri e n ces and was not based upo no b s e rvations of childre n . His daughte r,Anna Fre u d, took his wo rk on in this are a ,26 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

p a rt i c u l a rly in re l ation to psyc h o a n a ly t i ct re at m e nt for children with emotionalp ro b l e m s. She adapted the ideas ofp s yc h o a n a lysis to provide understandingsa bout all childre n . Although psyc h o a n a lys i shas never appe a red to have gre at lyi n f l u e n ced Ea rly Ch i l d h ood Ed u cation andCa re (ECEC) in Bri t a i n , Freud and hiscolleagues must be ackn owledged fo rd rawing at te ntion to the impo rt a n ce ofthis phase in life and to the fact that babiesdo have an ‘inner life’ which shapes theirl ater inte ra ctions and we l l - be i n g.Erikson (1963; 1968) built upon Freud’stheory to propose theoretical perspectiveson healthy personalities and how theydevelop. He argued that growing up isa process of achieving a unified self thatremains the same over time and that oneaccepts.This self should ‘fit’ with theexpectations of one’s society and cultureand share some characteristics with othersin that group.This was called having anego identity. People who have attained anego identity ‘know who they are’ and arecomfortable within the group culture theyshare.The effects of disability on theformation of a strong ego identity needto be taken into account. Positive thinkingon the part of those who care for, andwork with, very young children as theydevelop a sense of self are crucial.‘Recognising disability as a positiveidentity is not easy in our society. As theygrow up, disabled children will receivenegative messages about being disabledand need a positive internal model ofdisabled identity to counteract negativestereotypes.’ (Marchant 2001: 221).Erikson accepted Freud’s stages and againbuilt on these, suggesting the process ofphysical and psychological developmentbegins in the womb and follows inner lawsof development, so Erikson ‘encapsulatedthe biological thinking and theprescriptiveness behind these stagetheories’ (Greene 1999:252). However,he also re cognised that Fre u d’s theory didnot take account of the variations in thepatterning of behaviour attributable todifferent cultures and he proposed thata number of psychosocial crises beseteach individual in adjusting to a part i c u l a rsocial environment. In the earliest yearsof life these include struggles between:trust v. mistrust; and autonomy v. shameand doubt. Eri k s o n’s theory has part i c u l a rlyi n f l u e n ced thinking about the deve l o p m e ntof self-esteem and the self-concept, whichwe explore further in chapter 3.Following in this tradition, Winnicott (1964;1971) and Bowlby (1951; 1953; 1969; 1973;1980) were central figures in the Britishpsychoanalytic movement. In particular,Bowlby’s attachment theory wasinterpreted as indicating negative effectswould result for babies whose motherswent out to work,and since it becameknown shortly after the Second World War,when women were being encouraged toreturn to being home-makers instead ofworkers, it was regarded as being used27

politically. Bowlby had concluded fromseeing the grief and despair of youngchildren separated for long periods of timefrom the adult/s to whom they hadbecome attached (usually their mothers),that attachment is vitally necessary to thedeveloping infant and that maternaldeprivation would have damaging longterm consequences. (See chapter 3 formore about research on attachment).Later, in 1972, Rutter’s reassessment of thebasis for maternal deprivation theorywas welcomed. Rutter pointed out howthe ideas had been taken to extremesand his work through the last 30 yearshas continued to draw attention to theneed to treat young children sensitivelyand for re s e a rch to be used appro p ri ate ly(see further references to Rutter inchapters 1 and 3).What Rutter stressed in particular aboutBowlby’s work,however, was that he hadbeen right to draw attention to the poorquality of much substitute care at the timeof his report to the World HealthOrganisation in 1951 and it is a messagewe should dwell on as we increaseprovision for babies and young children.In the same way that Bettelheim (1987)wrote about ‘good enough parenting’those in the field of ECEC need to debate‘good enough edu-caring’. One of the aimsof this literature review is to help informthat very issue and encourage the debate.LEARNING THEORIESConditioning and Behaviourist theoryWhile the theories pre s e nted so far havebegun from the notion that ‘n a t u re’ ( w h ata child is bo rn with) fo rms the basis fo rl ater deve l o p m e nt, Le a rning Th e o ries arebased on the idea that it is ‘n u rt u re’, o rex pe ri e n ce, t h at is the most influentialin its impact on human deve l o p m e nt. Ea rlyre s e a rch ca rried out in Russia by Pav l ov,whose dogs salivated at the sound of a be l la fter a few ex po s u res to the bell ringing asfood was pre s e nte d, began a theore t i ca lpe r s pe ct i ve kn own as co n d i t i o n i n g.In the West, the most famous theorist inthe Behaviourist tradition is Skinner (1972),who built on the early ideas of Watson inthe USA, to formulate the theory ofoperant conditioning.This theory proposesthat there are two types of reinforcement.The first is called positive reinforcement,and this means a reward is given fordesired behaviour, while the second,negative reinforcement, means eithersomething is stopped or somethingunpleasant, or punishment, happens whenthe desired behaviour is not shown. So forexample, when an individual child allowsanother child to take and play with atreasured toy, s/he would be rewardedin some way (eg. praise, reassurance, beingpassed a different toy). This theory hasunderpinned many of the interventionprogrammes devised for children withspecial needs, for example, those28 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

developed by Bereiter and Engelmannin the 1960s, which still have echoes today.As a result of such approaches takinga largely transmission model of learning(ie. the adults know something theydecide they will teach to the children andimpose upon them),they do not take intoaccount the rich,natural experiencesavailable, such as those that arise duringplay alongside children,and using thechildren’s interests to help them learn(Marchant 2001; Wall forthcoming).Social learning theoryAl be rt Ba n d u ra (1973; 1982 ; 1992) is thekey pro po n e nt of this theore t i ca lpe r s pe ct i ve. This theory argues that muche a rly learning comes from the childa ct i ve ly i m i t a t i n g or observing m od e l l i n gby others in the family or gro u p. Soc i a ll e a rning theorists would argue with theBe h av i o u ri s t s, by saying that childre nl e a rn when they do not get a dire ctrewa rd, for ex a m p l e, s ay i n g ‘thank yo u’be cause this has been modelled by keypeople in their live s. One of the essent i a lmessages to come out of this theory fo rthe early years is that Ba n d u ra suggestsbabies and young children can learn fro mus as m od e l s of actions but also oft h i n king – if we talk out loud as we ares o lving a pro b l e m , we are modelling ourt h i n ki n g. Si n ce being able to pay closeat te ntion to the mod e l’s be h aviour and/orlanguage is impo rt a nt for this theory toa p p ly, Ba n d u ra (1992: 19) says :-Adults alter the behaviour they model tocompensate for the attentional limitationsof children…parents gain their attentionand give salience to the behaviour theywant to encourage by selectively imitatingthem. Parents tend to perform thereciprocated imitations in an exaggeratedanimated fashion that is well designed tosustain the child’s attentiveness at a highlevel during the mutual modellingsequences…’Further aspects of this theory that areimportant are concerned with:- children’smemory skills, the ability to convertconceptions into appropriate actions(these are thought of as transformationalskills);and motivation – having incentivesfor wanting to imitate modelled behaviour.Ba n d u ra co m m e nts part i c u l a rly on genderroledeve l o p m e nt and his theory can beseen to be re l eva nt to the ways in whichve ry young children notice verbal labe l l i n g,the cate g o ri s ation of males and females inthe wo rld around them, and the mod e l l i n gof gendered ro l e s.Th u s, a c co rding to thist h e o ry, adults will influence childre n’so u t l ook and be h aviour through their ow nm od e l l i n g. Engaging in po s i t i ve,‘out loud’t h i n king and problem solv i n g, t h ey ca nhelp children develop these be h av i o u r sand attitudes too, as Sa l ly Lu be c k’s (19 86 )re s e a rch demonstrated in two diffe re ntn u r s e ry settings, w h e re the children we rere s pe ct i ve ly indepe n d e nt and co m pe t i t i veor inte rd e pe n d e nt and coo pe rat i ve, inline with the values embedded in eachs e t t i n g’s pra ct i ce s.29

COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIESJean Piaget’s CognitiveDevelopment TheoryPiaget thought of knowledge not as abody of facts stored in the human mindbut as a process and he argued that theolder a child becomes the more s/he isable to produce mental images, thinkingabout things through interiorised action.So for Piaget, a child’s development wascharacterised by a constant effort to refineand expand a ‘repertoire of mental actions’(Murray Thomas 1996: 234).As organisms, humans were thoughtby Piaget to be also constantly adaptingto their environments and he called theprocesses by which humans do thisschemas (or schemata). Athey (1990) whohas carried out much research on this areadefines a schema as: ‘a pattern ofrepeatable behaviour into whichexperiences are assimilated and that aregradually coordinated’ (Athey 1990: 37).She has identified and named a numberof these patterns of behaviour. For a baby,grasping a toy, or a feeding bottle, can bea schema, because in babies schemas arelimited since a newborn baby will onlyhave reflexes such as sucking, crying, butthe number of schemas, particularlyintellectual schemas, will increase rapidlyduring the first year. At the same timethe schemas are becoming interlinkedin a very complex way. Piaget called theprocesses by which schemas evolveassimilation and accommodation.According to this theory, assimilation is theprocess of absorbing new knowledge andfitting it into what one already knows.Accommodation happens when what oneknows is not easy to match to some newknowledge, so the ‘old’ knowledge ischanged in some way, so that new andold fit together and make sense.Piaget’s theory has been influential in thefield of ECEC and he was in constantcontact with the English nursery pioneerSusan Isaacs, who debated his theorieswith him on the basis of her observationsof young children. His work was ofteninterpreted as meaning that childrenshould be provided with an environmentrich in possible experiences, but one inwhich the adults did not join in thechildren’s play bouts. (See also chapter 5).Piaget is also well known for havingp ro posed a series of bro a d ly age-banded,but universal stages in children’sdevelopment.The two stages mostrelevant to this review are that frombirth to around two years of age – thes e n s o ri m o to rpe ri od ; and that from ro u g h lytwo to seven years – the preoperationalthought stage.The sensori m o tor stage, Piaget furt h e rs u bdivided into two main sub-pe ri ods withsix sub-stages, the first being one lastinga bout four mont h s, in which babies aresaid to co n ce nt rate on their own bod i e s,re pe ating actions over and ove r, then in thes e cond sub-stage still re pe ating act i o n seven when they are in diffe re nt or less30 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

familiar settings. By about one year old,a c co rding to this theory, an infant isex pe ri m e nt i n g, t rying to discover in whatways an object or eve nt is nove l .The ve ryyoung child is thought to be gra d u a l lycoming to kn ow about pe rm a n e n ce anda bout cause and effe ct. By eighte e nm o nths to two ye a r s, an infant is saidto no longer need actual objects to solvep ro b l e m s, be cause s/he can hold a ment a lre p re s e nt ation of them in her/his mind.Piaget stressed the impo rt a n ce oflanguage during the pre o pe rational pe ri od,be cause being able to use languageenables a child to co m m u n i cate moree f fe ct i ve ly with other pe o p l e, to inte rn a l i s ewo rds as thought s, and to inte rn a l i s ea ct i o n . Ch i l d ren at this stage ca ni n c re a s i n g ly imagine things they ca n n o tsee or eve nts that happened in the past.So Piaget’s theorising has been importantin the understanding of ‘objectpermanence’ – meaning that in the earlyphase of life a baby does not know thatobjects – or indeed people – still existwhen they cannot be seen.This is oneof the explanations for the fact that whenonly a few months old, babies do not seemdistressed when their familiar carers orparents leave but later – by around sixto eight months, they do becomedistressed. Piaget also thought that veryyoung children are unable to distinguishthemselves from the environment – soit is by sensing the difference betweenputting one’s toe or a toy in one’s mouththat a baby begins to know theboundaries of the self.Members of the group known as thePost-Piagetians have recognised the waysin which criticisms of his theories neededto be addressed, for example by exploringthe extent to which a child’s thinking isdependent on context (see for exampleDonaldson 1978).Another psyc h o l ogist who adopted Pi a g e t’sf ra m ewo rk , Ko h l be rg (1984),p ro po s e dstages in the deve l o p m e nt of childre n’sm o ral deve l o p m e nt. While much of his wo rkis co n ce rned with older childre n , his ideasa bout the ways in which children inte rn a l i s em o ral standards can info rm early ye a r sp ra ct i ce. He suggests that children fro mfamilies which discuss moral issues, ex p l a i nm o ral judgement s, and model be h av i o u rbased on a moral code have a firmer gra s pof moral issues. Ko h l be rg called the earl i e s tstage in his theory the p re m o ra l l eve l .Ac co rding to Ko h l be rg, in this phase a childwill accept an adult’s ve rd i ct on whethersomething is ri g ht or wro n g. Gra d u a l ly,a child learns to act in ways which willgain approva l , so their moral judgementis depe n d e nt on the judgements of theadults around them. Later in life a childwill inte rnalise official ru l e s, pe rhaps alsoreaching a po i nt in deve l o p m e nt whens/he makes moral judgements based onu n i versal ethical pri n c i p l e s.Ca rol Gilligan (1982) provides a challengeto Ko h l be rg’s theory be cause she arg u e s31

t h at there will be diffe re n ces in mora ld e c i s i o n s, d e pending upon whether ape r s o n’s moral stance is based on abstra ctp rinciples or upon at te ntion to the effe ct son pe o p l e. Gilligan argues that women andmen take these diffe re nt pri n c i p l e ds t a n d po i nts to underpin their mora ld e c i s i o n s, with men using genera l ,a b s t ra ctp rinciples or ru l e s, and women tendingto ca re more about the effe cts part i c u l a rdecisions or actions would have on pe o p l e.Piaget’s ideas and research have beenimportant to not only those known as thePost-Piagetians – like Donaldson, Hughes,Grieve and others – but also to morerecent work by researchers such asKarmiloff-Smith (1992) and Gopnik et al(1999),who indicate his enduringinfluence. In fact the latter group maintainthe spirit of Piaget but give a current twistto his work by demonstrating that babies‘arrive’ knowing a lot, use this to learnmore, and need other people interactingwith them to help with that learning:-‘We can see how our knowledge emergesfrom the ideas we start out with,ourability to learn,and our interactions withother people.’ (Gopnik et al 1999: 106)These contemporary researchers, whilefollowing in Piaget’s tradition ofrecognising the ways in which childrenactively construct knowledge, haveovercome the emphasis on the worldof objects by suggesting that babies focusfirst and foremost on people, and thenon the objects and materials around them(Gopnik et al 1999; Goswami 1998; Mandler1996; Murray and Andrews 2000).It is these ‘messages’ that we can taketo help us understand early developmentand learning – that right from birth, youngchildren are active learners, deeplyinterested in people, who are trying to‘make sense’ of the world around them.Vygotsky’s theory of child developmentAlthough the Russian psyc h o l ogist LevVyg o t s ky died in the 1930 s, his ideas didnot reach the West until about 30 ye a r sl ate r. His theory is based on the fo l l ow i n gideas:- that act i v i ty generates thought ;t h at language and thinking deve l o ps e p a rate ly but re l ate to each other ina ve ry co m p l ex way; t h at children passt h rough the same sequences in stagesof deve l o p m e nt but that ‘Hi g h e rp s yc h o l og i cal functions are not simplys u pe ri m posed as a second sto ry over thee l e m e nt a ry proce s s e s ; t h ey re p re s e nt newp s yc h o l og i cal sys te m s.’ (Vyg o t s ky 1978 :124 ). For those in the field of ECEC,Vyg o t s ky is impo rt a nt be cause his wo rkre cognises the key role played by adultsand other children who kn ow more thanthe baby or young child and who suppo rtthe baby in learn i n g. In other wo rds hist h e o ry re cognised that learning is a soc i a la ct i v i ty that happens in cultura l ly re l eva ntco ntext s. Wh e re Piaget was depicted asseeing the child as a ‘lone scient i s t’ d u ri n gp l ay, Vyg o t s ky’s theory has be e nc h a ra cte rised as po rt raying the yo u n g32 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

child as learning and developing in play f u li nte ra ction with others.Building on Vygotsky’s ideas, Bruner(1984;1990) and Nelson (1986) haveprovided much valuable theorisingconcerned with human developmentand learning, in particular popularisingthe notion of scaffolding – the behaviourand language adults and ‘significantothers’ provide for young children to helpthem achieve something in which theyare interested.Vygotsky and Piaget were in broadagreement that children are activelearners and that knowledge is notacquired by a process of accretion, ratherthe child ‘constructs’ knowledge,transforming both the new knowledgeand existing knowledge to ‘make sense’.While Vygotsky emphasised the social andcultural aspects and the biological aspectof learning is implicit, Piaget put moreemphasis on the biological, with the socialaspect being implicit and the culturalabsent – hence the work to redress thisby the post-Piagetians (see above).ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS THEORYBy 1979 Bronfenbrenner had recognisedthat the contexts of children’s livesimpacted upon their development andlearning and that they in turn impactedon one another. He was critical of theorieswhich did not take into account the ‘timeand place’ elements which mean thatchildren experience different childhoodsin different communities and in differenthistorical eras.While he insisted thatyoung children are actively involved intheir own development and learning, histheory pointed up the ways in which whathappens to children and the kinds ofsocieties in which they are brought upimpacts on that development andlearning. For example, a child’s home andfamily would be affected by interactionswith a childcare setting, a religiouscommunity, the local authority or healthservice provision,and overall by the kindof society in which the child lived. In turn,that society or nation would be influencedby world events and thinking – a goodexample of world level influence might bethe UN Convention on the Rights of theChild (UN 1989),which has influencedpolicy in many countries and its effectshave filtered through to other levels insociety. What complicates this theory formany people is the fact that each of thelevels of his theoretical model would bedynamic and changing. It was not untilalmost twenty years after his initialpublication about the theory thatBronfenbrenner (Bronfenbrenner andMorris 1998) admitted that he also neededto take account of ‘within child’ differenceswhich, in their turn, would also influencethe child’s life course. In acknowledgingthat children actively influence their owndevelopment and learning,Bronfenbrenner focuses on the ways inwhich children interpret the contexts of33

their upbringing, rather than on objectivemeasures of those environments. It is,on Bronfenbrenner’s own admission, adifficult theory to corroborate by research,because of its complexity.The theory does,however, ‘make sense’ because it attemptsto take account of all the aspects ofhuman life and interaction which impacton children’s development.INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORIESA number of theorists have tried to equatehuman learning with the functioning ofa computer. Researchers in the field of AI(artificial intelligence) make comparisonsbetween human thinking and computerswhen attempting to produce computersimulations. Perhaps the main points inthis theory that might help us include:-children become capable of makingautomatic responses rather than consciousones after gaining experience (say, inwalking, once they no longer need toconcentrate on managing their balance);they become more and more capable ofdoing more than one thing at once as theyget older; the amount children knowimplicitly, or ‘intuitively’ (tacit knowledge)increases with age, so they can draw onthis tacit knowledge to assist them insolving problems; the knowledge storedin the long term memory is more complexand refined and children gain greatercontrol over their own ability toconcentrate on something as they getolder. Naturally, it is important to take intoaccount that information processingtheories focus on thinking and ignore theinterplay of cognitive with physical,socialand emotional development (see MurrayThomas 1996).PERCEPTION AND UNDERSTANDING – THE ROLEOF THE SENSESHumans, like other animals, perceivethrough their senses. We assume babiesand young children can do this – but whatdo we know about children’s seeing,hearing, touching, smelling and tasting?What are newborns able to see, hear, smell,taste and feel? Gibson, one of the maintheorists in the area of perceptionsuggests that perceptual developmentdoes not seem to occur in stages butchange in perceptual ability occurs ondifferent dimensions (Gibson 1969;and seeBremner 1998). Firstly, we now know thateven very young babies are purposeful intheir perceptual activity – they seem touse some inbuilt strategies, such as theability to perceive objective propertiesof space and objects; and that by threemonths of age they are quite aware of thephysical properties of the world aroundthem. Secondly, babies are very good atbecoming aware of what the appearanceof objects tells them the objects can do orcan be used for; babies gradually becomeable to focus on detail and to make finerdiscriminations; and finally, young childrenbecome more able to concentrate onthose aspects of an event or situation that34 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

are important to them,blanking out anyperipheral noises, etc. The reason whypsychologists are especially interestedin early perception is that changes areso rapid at this age. In the subsequentchapters of this review research evidenceabout these abilities is highlighted.THEORIES ABOUT LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTThe earliest theory about languagedevelopment assumed that childrenacquire language through imitation. Whileresearch has shown that children whoimitate the actions of those around themduring their first year of life are generallythose who also learn to talk more quickly,there is also evidence that imitation alonecannot explain how children becometalkers. For example, in the Englishl a n g u a g e, young children will say ‘Wegoed to the shops’ – they are very cleverlyinventing the past tense of ‘go’ based onthe rules they have absorbed.Skinner, the Behaviourist theorist (seeabove),suggested that children learnlanguage through reinforcement. In otherwords, when a parent or carer showsenthusiasm for something a child triesto say, this should encourage the childto repeat the utterance. But again, eventhough reinforcement may help, thistheory cannot account for children’sinventions of language.Some argue that it is not just hearinglanguage around them that is important,it is the kind of language – whether it isused responsively (for example, followinga baby’s input, such as the baby makinga noise or doing something). It is also clearthat babies need to hear language todevelop this themselves. This point is ofgreat importance in relation to youngchildren with impoverished languageexperience (see for example Ward 2000).The idea of motherese (Snow and Ferguson1977; Trevarthen 1995) – accentuated,tuneful, speech to babies and repeatingtheir own language (often extended) backto young children – was posited as a basichuman requirement. However, otherresearch (see Bee 1989) indicates thatwhile motherese can be used to explainhow aspects of individual children’senvironments help or hinder them fromtalking, it does not explain the underlyingcauses of language acquisition. We can atleast suggest that talking in mothereseattracts and holds babies’ attention andthat it allows the infants themselves totake part in enjoyable turn takingexchanges, the beginnings ofconversations (see also chapter 5).Chomsky (1965; 1975) proposed thatbabies are born with an inbuilt LanguageAcquisition Device (LAD). He suggested thatlanguage then simply emerges as the childmatures. Slobin (1973;1985) continuedthis line of thought, proposing that justas newborns come into the world‘programmed’ to look at interesting,35

especially moving, objects, so babiesare pre-programmed to pay attentionto language. One problem with thistheory is that children seem to havegreat proficiency in acquiring whateverlanguage/s they hear around them andduring their first year of life they willgradually discard from their reper toireof voca l i s ations sounds which they do nothear in the speech of those with whomthey spend their lives – but of course thepre-programming does not need to bethought of as tied to a specific language.Like Trevarthen and others, Chomskyindicates the centrality of interactionswith familiar adults and older childrenfrom the earliest days of life. Parentsand practitioners need time to enjoy‘proto-conversations’ and as we will seelater, research has shown,treating babiesas if they understand talk and involvingthem in conversational exchangesare experiences on which later abilitiesare founded.Piaget argued that language is an exampleof symbolic behaviour, and no differentfrom other learning. One of his colleagues,Hermine Sinclair (1971),proposed that achild’s ability to nest a set of Russian dollsuses the same cognitive process as a childneeds for understanding how sentencesare embedded in one another. Nelson(1985) and others, using this cognitiveprocessing explanation,think languageis an extension of the child’s existingmeaning-making capacity. This seemsto fit with the fact that children willgenerally begin to engage in pretend playat about the same time as their first wordsare expressed, indicating that they areusing symbols in the form of words andalso symbolic pretend objects (forexample using a block as a pretend cake).Following on from Vygotsky’s sociallearning tradition, Bruner (1983) stressedthe importance of opportunities for babiesand children to interact with and observeinteractions between others. As weexplained above, this idea is supportedby research showing that mothers whobehave as if their babies and youngchildren understand language right fromthe start, make eye contact with themand engage in dialogue, responding totheir babies’ reactions (kicking, wavingarms, smiling, etc) are laying thefoundations of conversation.Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith (2001)argue that none of these theories aboutlanguage is, on its own,adequate inexplaining language development andlearning in the first three years of life,and that we need to take account of eachof them for their ability to explain partof the story.36 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

THEORIES ABOUT EARLY CHILDHOODEDUCATION AND CAREWhile our aim in this chapter has been topresent outlines of the main influentialresearch and theories about children’sdevelopment which have been adoptedby those working in the field of ECECin Britain,practitioners might also like torefer to the theories and philosophies ofthe great pioneers of the ECEC movementin this country. These include RobertOwen, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi,Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, RudolfSteiner, Margaret McMillan and SusanIsaacs (see for example: Bruce 1987; Curtis1998; David 1990; Isaacs 1930, 1933). Morerecently, ideas from the famous nurseriesof Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy havebecome widely circulated in this country.Their philosophy is based on the notionof educating young children to beindependent thinkers who use ‘thehundred languages of children’, expressingconcepts and emotions especially throughthe arts with the support of each otherand sensitive adults. The nurseries ofReggio were founded as an antidote toFascism and abuse of power. (For moreinformation see Abbott and Nutbrown2001; Edwards et al 1998).RECOGNISING AND REFLECTING ON OUROWN THEORIESEach of us holds theories about earlyc h i l d h ood. Our theories have been builtup through our own ex pe ri e n ces asc h i l d re n , our ex pe ri e n ces with childre n ,the theories of those with whom we havehad co nt a ct, and the theories we haveread about in boo k s. The pra ctitionersin Reggio Emilia discuss their wo rk andideas and read widely, s u p po rted bype d a g og i s t a s ( i n s e rv i ce tra i n e r s ). Th eyclaim that the theories they wo rk with aretheir ow n , s h a ped by the co n s t a ntchallenges of ex pe ri e n ce and re f l e ct i o n .SUMMARY OF KEY ‘MESSAGES’This chapter has presented informationabout:-some of the theories which have beenadopted in the field of ECEC in the UKand how they can help us reflect on ourown theories and upon observations ofchildren with whom we live and workhow cultural contexts influenceresearch and theorisingthe holistic nature of early learning anddevelopmentthe impressive meaning-makingcapabilities of babies and youngchildrenthe active nature of their developmentand learning37

the importance of positive interactionswith adults (and older children)the role of modelling positive attitudesand behaviourthe importance of feedback andreinforcemente a rly childhood as an impo rt a nt phaseon which later emotional deve l o p m e nt,re l ationships and self-co n cepts are built.38 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 3A Strong ChildIn the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’, the section entitled ‘A Strong Child’ is concernedwith the ways in which children’s growing awareness of ‘self’ can be fostered in the yearsbetween birth and three, how they begin to show personal characteristics, preferences,capabilities and self-confidence, how they contribute to attachments and exploreemotional boundaries, and have a sense of belonging. In this chapter, relevant researchfindings are provided, and their implications for practice are pointed up. Links with theFramework are made through the inclusion of the ‘Development Matters’ statements fromthe cards of the pack in short summary sections within the chapter.Earlier in this review, in chapter 1, evidenceabout resilience and the ability to copewith challenging life situations wasintroduced. In this chapter we provide areview of the literature about babies andyoung children being and becomingcompetent and emotionally strong andhow the adults and other children aroundthem contribute to this developmentand learning.It is important to note the longstandingcontribution to this area of knowledge byAnn and Alan Clarke (1976; 2000). In theirrecent publication (Clarke and Clarke2000) they review hundreds of studiessupporting their view that we need to bewary of attributing a simplistic causalimportance to early experience and laterlife achievements.They conclude:-1. theories ascribing overwhelming,disproportionate and predeterministicimportances to the early years areclearly erroneous;2. the widespread belief in thedisproportionate effects of earlyexperiences is likely to lead tounderestimation of what can be donefor deprived children,hence, on the onehand, less than adequate interventions,or, on the others total inaction;3. there is no suggestion that whathappens in the early years isunimportant. For most children,however, the effects of such39

experiences represent no more thana first step in an ongoing life pathwhich may be straight or winding,incremental or decremental, dependingon the two-way relationship betweenindividuals and their contexts. Thereis little indication that any one pointof development is more critical thananother; all are important. And in theongoing or reshaping of the person’slife path,it is to continuing influencesthat significance must be ascribed.(Clarke and Clarke 2000: 105).In other words, the Clarkes are arguingthat early life experience is important,but we should not assume that supportand intervention in the earliest yearsguarantees later success, nor that earlydisadvantage cannot be overcome.Two other key figures who have devotedyears to research on early childhoodmaintain that the number of factorsinvolved make this a highly complexresearch area.Schaffer (1998) concludesthat subsequent influences can impactto reverse the ill-effects of poorexperiences in early childhood and Rutter(1999) that the effects of numerous,apparently linked, negative experiencesare usually indirect rather than directlylinked to babyhood and early childhood.He states ‘Life transitions have to beconsidered both as end products of pastprocesses and as instigators of future ones’(Rutter 1989: 46). More recent work byKagan (1998) also argues that predictingthe life path is an uncertain business.However, Konner (1991), arguing thatit is not stress that kills us but adaptationto stress that permits us to live, becauselife is uncertain,states:-our responsibility to babies and childrenis clear: it is not to eliminate stress fromchildren’s lives completely, since that isbeyond our capacity; rather, it is to helpshape responses to stress that willsomehow permit them to live. (Konner1991: 225, our italics)More than this, however, we presumablywant our children to live happy andfulfilled lives, to meet challenges with zestand enthusiasm. Paradoxically, of thechildren tracked into adulthood by Werner(1996),almost half the resilient ‘at risk’group declared themselves happy withtheir adult lives, compared with only tenper cent of the low risk comparison group.Konner goes on to discuss societies wherechildren have grown up through timesof enormous stress, yet have made happyand successful lives for themselves. So howdoes this strength and ability to face lifewith joy come about? The common strandfound by the researchers seems to pointto the need for each child to have, fromearly in their lives, at least one person withwhom they have a strong and meaningfulattachment relationship, that they ‘matter’and that what they do ‘matters’ tosomeone. A further important ingredientmay be having a strong sense of self, a selfwho achieves goals and of whom one canbe proud.40 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

A GROWING AWARENESS OF SELF AND THE ROLEOF ATTACHMENT‘The concepts “sense of self ” and“development of self” are abstractions.Whereas language or motor developmentcan be tracked definitively, the evolutionof the self is not so easily quantifiable.’(Davies 1999:197)Although researchers a quarter ofa century ago argued that children donot develop a sense of self (ie. recognisethemselves as separate people with anindividual identity) until their second yearof life, more recent research (Brethertonet al 1981; Odofsky 1987) is clear that thisamazing feat begins soon after birth. It isin the everyday interactions of being caredfor that babies begin to become aware ofthemselves. As the Framework ‘Birth toThree Matters’ points out in theComponent Me, Myself and I, babies arebeing made aware of the human worldoutside themselves and, importantly,aware that they themselves exist, as aresult of being touched, talked to andgazed at (Alvarez 1992).Even in the first month of life, babies aremaking distinctions between people,objects, self and other (Stern 1985; Rosser1994). For example, the parent or carer will,at the start, be the one mainly responsiblefor the way in which feeding proceeds.As the baby becomes more able toparticipate and take control to someextent, the way in which a sensitive adultallows for this will influence the baby’sfeelings of efficacy.We say the adult isbehaving contingently, being responsiveto the baby’s signals and so, while themain focus may be the feeding, babiestreated in this way are learning that theycan influence their own lives.A number of studies have linked thequality of a child’s sense of self to thequality of attachments. It would beimpossible for a child to develop a senseof self without feedback and recognitionfrom those with whom they spend theirlives, so they are dependent on thosepeople for a positive view of themselves.‘While infants and toddlers are powerfullyself-motivated to learn with their wholebody and all their senses and tocommunicate what they know, theydepend on the affirmation and warmth oftrusting relationships to be able to do so.’(Post and Hohmann 2000:31).Attachment theory was formulated byBowlby (1951; 1953; 1969; 1973; 1980) andsupported through later development byhis colleagues (see for example Robertsonand Robertson 1989). Although the waysin which attachment behaviour isexpressed is different in different cultures,it is thought by some researchers to beuniversal (LeVine and Miller 1990). Bow l byt h o u g ht of at t a c h m e nt as a dev i ce which isi ntended to pro te ct the immat u re offs p ri n gof a species to at t ra ct adults who wille n s u re their surv i va l .He theorised that earlyat t a c h m e nt be h aviours are innate and thatwhile a new bo rn can be co m fo rted bya nyo n e, babies ve ry soon diffe re nt i atebe tween their pri m a ry at t a c h m e nt figureand other pe o p l e. At t a c h m e nt is seen asa dev i ce which provides the baby with41

a sense of securi ty and pro m o te sco m m u n i cation and the ex p ression offe e l i n g s. The at t a c h m e nt re l ationship alsoa cts as a secure base for ‘ex p l o ring thewo rl d’ and the pri m a ry re l ationship/sa secure base for learning self re g u l at i o n ,or self co nt rol (at this stage, the sensitivere g u l ation of arousal and distre s s.)Mary Ainsworth (1967), used Bowlby’sattachment theory to study babies inAfrica and the USA. She found that in bothcultures children showed attachmentpatterns but that there were somedifferences. She devised an experimentknown as the ‘Strange Situation’, where astranger to the child would enter the roomsometimes when mother and baby weretogether, at other times when the motherhad briefly left the room. Ainsworthargued that the baby’s response on themother’s return was a measure of thequality of their attachment. The qualityof this first attachment was said to setthe scene for all later relationships by‘modelling’ for the baby what allrelationships will be like. Ainsworth’sStrange Situation research has beencriticised, (see for example Clarke andClarke 2000; Kagan 1998; Harris 1989;Singer 1993), because children in differentcountries, cultures and subcultures displaydifferent approaches to attachment,different rates of ‘ambivalent attachment ‘(apparent rejection of the mother,resistance to her attempts to pick themup following the strange situation) andbecause the research approach itselfis thought unnatural and therefore proneto ‘error ‘. For example, apparent rejectingbehaviour at around a year of age maybe quite common in some communitiesand need not on its own indicatepoor attachment.While some recent research continuesto focus on mother-infant attachment,disruptions to this process and toemotional development linked toproblems such as postnatal depression(Cooper and Murray 1998; Murray andCooper 1997; Kumar 1997; Teti and Gelfand1991),other recent research suggests that‘the family’ – all the familiar relationshipsa baby has – provides the network for theirattachment relationships (Forrest 1997).This research indicates that betweenabout three and six months of age, babieswill show signs that they are makingpreferential attachments to those whoare their primary carers. Parents andexperienced practitioners note that thisbehaviour is often directed at olderchildren,who seem to fascinate babies,and not simply at adults. They will:-increase social smilingshow a strong interest in face-to-faceand eye contactincrease their attempts to attract theattention of these primary carers bys m i l i n g, coo i n g, b a b b l i n g, and move m e ntbe pacified by a carer’s voice,presentation of a toy, or a lookrespond differently to different carersshow they have different expectationsof different people42 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

( a d a p ted from Davies 1999 : 129 ).Th ey mayalso show a more dra m atic re a ct i o n ,suchas passionate cry i n g, when their pre fe rre dp ri m a ry ca rer picks them up (Bra ze l to n1992 ).This can be quite disco n ce rting ton ew pare nt s, s ay, co l l e cting their childre nf rom childminders or nurseri e s, s i n ce pare nt sm ay inte rp ret the crying as meaning quitethe oppo s i te – that their babies are re j e ct i n gt h e m .In fact Wat s o n’s (1994) re s e a rc hs h owed that toddlers made more emotionald i s p l ays (cry i n g, e tc) when co l l e cted by theirmothers from a dayca re setting than whenbeing dro p ped off or at other tra n s i t i o n a lm o m e nts in their day. Watson argues thatthis finding is linked to the strength of them o t h e r- i n f a nt at t a c h m e nt and that there s e a rch also suggests that neither divo rcenor non-mate rnal dayca re need impactn e g at i ve ly on the mother-child at t a c h m e nt.Pra ctitioners need to re a s s u re pare nts thatthese displays, while initially upsetting, ca nbe the way in which babies tell their pri m a ryat t a c h m e nt figure s, the most passionate lyl oved significa nt people in their live s, t h att h ey are pleased to be with them.A number of re s e a rch studies haveex p l o red issues re l ated to the age at whichbabies and children begin at tendinga childminder’s or a group setting. In theU S A , Howes (1991) studied 96 children(of whom 47 we re girl s ), to ex p l o re thepossible influences of the age at whichthe children began at a day ca re setting,together with strength of mate rn a lat t a c h m e nt and their inte ra ctions withpe e r s. She found that early childca ree n ro l m e nt (as babies/be fo re three ye a r s ),when accompanied by secure at t a c h m e ntto the early years pra ctitioner re s u l tedin the children being more soc i a l lyco m pe te nt at age four ye a r s. Other re s e a rc hin Swe d e n , Fra n ce and the UK (Me l h u i s hand Moss 1991 ; Ja rousse et al 1991 )s u p po rts this finding of early ECECex pe ri e n ce and later social co m pe te n ce.Ag a i n ,be cause leaving babies and yo u n gc h i l d ren still induces feelings of guilt, yo u n gp a re nts pro b a b ly need re a s s u ra n ce byp ra ctitioners that they may be adva nt a g i n gtheir children by enrolling them in ECEC,rather than the reve r s e, a lways with thep roviso that at te ntion is paid to thed eve l o p m e nt of wa rm at t a c h m e nts withi n d i v i d u a l ,d e s i g n ated key personnel (El fe ret al 2002). Hennessy and Mehuish (1991)co n d u cted a meta-analysis of findings fro m12 longitudinal studies of early day ca reat te n d a n ce and their effe cts on the childre nat school age. While they found a numbe rof problems with co m p a ring the re s e a rc hand at times with the fact that po te nt i a l lyuseful re s e a rch data had not be e ng at h e re d, t h ey argue that where the dayca re meets the needs of the child be t te rthan they could be met at home, t h ec h i l d ren be n e f i t. Fu rt h e r, t h ey argue thatall children can benefit from ECEC prov i d e dit meets cri te ria co n ce rned with fo s te ri n goptimal social and cog n i t i ve deve l o p m e ntin childre n .In chapter 2,and later in this text, we showbabies are intensely interested in otherpeople from the moment of birth and, inthe first few months of life, they are notonly trying to form the close relationships43

on which they will found theirunderstandings of human interactions,they are also beginning to develop anindividual sense of self and coming toknow if that individual ‘self’ has anyagency, or power, over her/his own life.Braungart-Rieker et al (2001) suggest thatbabies’ attachments at age four monthsare good predictors of their affectregulation and attachments at a year old.This view is further emphasised by Davies(1999: 147) who concludes:-‘In social interactions, the infant whosebehaviour succeeds in eliciting a positiveand sensitive response from the parentfeels encouraged to continue the behavior.During the first year, interaction patterns,coping experiences, and resulting viewsof self are the building blocks of the child’sworking models of self and relationships.’The message for the ECEC field seems tobe that babies need to form attachmentsto significant people, usually a parent orother relative in the first instance, and thatthese attachments provide them with a‘model’ of attachment so they go on torelate positively to other people, such asECEC practitioners. Further, children whohave had early positive experiences ofECEC benefit from their interactions withkey adults and with other children –enrolment in ECEC can be valuable.SPECIAL CHILDREN AND ATTACHMENTSParents who are informed (often, researchhas shown,insensitively) that their babyhas been born with identifiable specialneeds are often left to deal with powerfulemotions which may colour theattachment process and impact negativelyon the family (Herbert 1994; Herbert andCarpenter 1994). According to Doyle(1999),the UK still lags behind othercountries in its ability to ensure that allthe professionals involved work togethereffectively. She argues that while therhetoric is present in UK legislation,research,training and resourceimplications have been neglected.As we have already indicated in thisreview, positive thinking on the partof those who care for, and work with, veryyoung children as they develop a senseof self is crucial,especially when a childhas been recognised early as havinga disability. As Marchant (2001) stresses,such children and their families are livingin a society which assumes a very negativestance towards disability. Wilson’s (1998)work highlights the importance ofrecognising the disruptions to theattachment process which can ensuewhen a baby is born prematurely, illor with a disability. She states that ifattachment to one or two key peoplein the earliest weeks of life is crucial, thenthe situation is potentially calamitous,because of rejection,anxiety or an inabilityto handle a fragile baby physically.Menzies Lyth (1995) discusses the waysin which staff in institutions (such asnurseries, children’s homes, hospitals),need to be aware that the possible lackof continuity in relationships with thenumerous professionals involved canimpact on children’s attachments, leaving44 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

them with an inadequate modelof rewarding emotional and socialrelationships, or self assurance.Difficulties in forming attachments can beparticularly crucial for very young childrenwith special emotional and social needs,when they attend a number of differentsettings in a week,designed ‘to meet theirneeds’ but each with different personnel,routines and regulations. This is notacceptable for children without difficultiesbut is common practice nationally forthose who are the most vulnerable.Continuity of care, and support to parents,is fragmented through this process.Although Bowlby’s early pronouncementshave been revisited and mellowed,attention to the processes of attachmentand acceptance for children with specialneeds remains crucial. In addition to this,children with autism do not naturally seekattention and attachments, but appearaloof and indifferent. They do not appearto wish for meaningful interactions withadults or other children,as they do notperceive their world in the same way asthose other children and adults do(Trevarthen et al 1998).There are also significant differencesbetween maternal and paternalattachments relating to children withspecial needs (Carpenter 1997).Carpenter(1997:27) identified the marginalisationof fathers when ‘all help was focused onthe mother and baby’. Clearly this hasimplications for mothers, fathers andthe children.In addition to recognising the needs ofbabies and parents who require particularsupport because their children have beenborn with a recognised disability, otherspecial support can be needed when thecontext indicates potential disadvantage.Studying teenage mothers and theirnurturance of their babies, Oyserman et al(1994) found that grandparents’ supportand in particular the grandfather’snurturance towards the baby, was linkedto increased baby nurturance by theyoung mother. Other recent researchstudies on attachment (Fonagy et al 1991;Fonagy et al 1994; Steele et al 1995) whichseem linked to this issue have shown thereare strong correlations between parents’perceptions of their own earlyattachments and those with their babies,and Plomin and Bergeman (1991) haveproposed that warmth and supportivenessin parents are related to genetic factors.However, Siegel (1999) claims that parents’narratives of their own attachments totheir parents are the best indicators of thelikely warmth and responsiveness of theirown attachments to newborns. He arguesthat this should be explored duringpregnancy and that those whosenarratives indicate difficult earlyattachments could be helped to overcomethese problems in order to ensure positiveattachments for their babies.Earlier researchers (Grossman et al 1980)had found that high levels of stress inpregnant mothers is linked to high levelsof foetal activity and to higher levels ofirritability in babies after birth. Although45

having a difficult temperament inbabyhood, which might also be involved,has not been found to persist through theyears of childhood, it can persist if parentsand carers respond aggressively orinsensitively or are unable to induce calm.This then indicates that unless themother’s anxiety can be reduced, it is likelyirritable or difficult babies will experiencecontinuity of negative experiences whichcould reduce their chances of becomingresilient. Similarly, Hagekull et al (1993)tracked 110 ten month old infants andtheir mothers by videoing them in auniversity laboratory as part of a largerlongitudinal project. Two observations ofa ‘strange situation’ were filmed, one withmothers present, one with them absent.Both the mothers and babies had heartratemonitors attached. Data on maternalsensitivity at four months had beencollected by observation prior to thisexperiment. It was found that infants whodid not reference their mothers in the‘strange situation’ had experienced lesssensitivity (eg physical contact,intrusiveness, response to distress,effective comforting) and had been moreirritable at four months. Social referencingis seen as either a way to communicateemotion, or as a mechanism of socialinfluence about how to act. Where nomaternal guidance was given, infantstended to be less positive towards the‘stranger’. Thus they speculate thatmaternal sensitivity may depend onirritability of child and that lack ofmaternal sensitivity would in turn lead tolack of infant social referencing. Moseset al (2001) also studied social referencingin 12 and 18 month old infants. Theydiscovered that such young children relyon the responses of their familiar adults todetermine whether an emotional responseshould be linked to what they see.Roberts (2002) reminds us that a baby’sfirst language is body language, usingwhat they see, feel, taste and smell asmessages to them about themselves andtheir world. Similarly Mollie Davies (2002in press) explains the way in whichmovement and dance contribute to a veryyoung child’s self esteem. It is importantfor spoken language and body languageto match for babies and young childrento feel truly accepted and through thisto gradually accept themselves, to learnto be the sort of people their mothersrecognise. As we point out in chapter 6,children who have experienced abuse orneglect during babyhood try to avoidfurther pain by shutting down theiremotions and this can have a negativeeffect on their physical growth as well ason their emotional health. It also meansthey try to make themselves acceptableby negating feelings of pain,anger andfear. Being accepted, even when one isangry or distressed,‘is important for all babies and youngchildren and the bedrock of confidencethat can develop as a result is crucial forthose children who have a growingawareness that they are different fromothers. This may be because of animpairment, or because they happen to bein a minori ty in some way.’ ( Ro be rts 2002: 6 ).46 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

However, even sensitive parents and carerscannot be responsive to every cue fromtheir babies but those who experiencesuccess when they try to re-establishcontact with a preoccupied key adult aresaid to gain a stronger sense ofself-efficacy and as a result feel more andmore successful. Failure to support ababy’s efforts to interact or to succeedin explorations may result in thedevelopment of ‘learned helplessness’(Aber and Allen 1987),whereas parentsand carers who are emotionally sensitiveand who encourage‘exploratory behaviours have infants whodemonstrate greater task persistence,greater pleasure in goal-directedbehaviour, and greater subsequent socialand cognitive competence’ (Lyons-Ruthand Zeanah 1993: 27).attached to different emotions and refinedthrough dominant social constructions.By the time they are about two years old,children are learning the ‘scripts’ that helpthem to ex pe ri e n ce emotion appro p ri ate ly.Davies (1999) suggests that havingexperienced sensitive and supportiveacceptance, they also become able to copewith short periods of discomfort by using‘transitional objects’ (in Western culturesthese would be objects such as dummies,fabric comforters, a favourite soft toy)to regulate their own levels of distress.Practitioners need therefore to haveparents relate to them well and to helpthem understand their child’s and theirfamily’s particular patterns of behaviourand customs, which belong to the family’sindividual or community culture.WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ATTACHMENTTHE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILIARITY ANDKNOWLEDGE OF CULTURAL PRACTICESKamel and Dockrell (2000) found thatmothers’ interpretation of their babies’facial expressions as indicative of differentemotional states varied according to thesituational context, whereas those ofobservers who were not familiar with thebabies did not, indicating how intimacypromotes shared understandings. Harris(1989) claims that babies are born with thecapacity to experience the basic emotionsof sadness, anger and joy and that theygradually learn that other people alsoexperience these emotions. Throughgrowing up in a particular culture, childrenacquire the social practices that have beenRESEARCH?In research involving slightly olderchildren, Calkins et al (1998) found thattwo year olds were highly influenced bytheir mothers’ strategies for behaviourmanagement in the areas of emotions,behaviour, and physiological regulation.This research team suggests that it isimportant to identify the origins ofparticular maternal strategies. Further,since a quarter of the participants in thestudies by the Fonagy and Steele teams(see earlier section on special children andattachments) did not follow the suggestedintergenerational pattern,it is importantto recognise that while intergenerationalattachment problems may have been in47

the majority among their participants,other variables must have intervenedfor 25 per cent of those involved whoovercame this problem. Even Bowlby(1988) himself agreed that attachmentresearch had shown up flaws in histheory. He suggested that a ‘theory ofdevelopmental pathways should replacetheories that involve specific phases ofdevelopment’ Bowlby (1988: 2). Further,Belsky et al (1996) argue that data fromdifferent attachment studies show thatthe ratings of attachment are not stable,they change over time and are contextdependent, and that the small samplesizes used in some of the attachmentresearch studies are cause for caution.Attachments may also be influenced bya family’s situation at a particular time.Dunn (1993) would say we should notbe surprised by this, she noted that in herresearch even mothers changed towardstheir children at different ages,‘Some mothers seemed to be part i c u l a rly“t u rned on” by their children as one-ye a r-olds and less affe ct i o n ate, re l at i ve to otherm o t h e r s, when they be ca m ea rg u m e nt at i ve two- or thre e - ye a r- o l d s,while other mothers delighted espe c i a l ly intheir children as they be came talkat i ve andengaging two ye a r- o l d s.’ ( Dunn 19 93 : 28 ).Howeve r, d e s p i te the ex i s te n ce of cri t i ca lchallenges to some of the at t a c h m e ntre s e a rc h , the main messages we cant a ke from this wo rk are summed upin the deve l o p m e ntal guidelines prov i d e din the Fra m ewo rk ‘Bi rth to Th ree Ma t te r s’,which state:-Young babies become aware ofthemselves as separate from others,learning also that they have influenceupon and are influenced by others.Babies develop an understanding andawareness of themselves, which isinfluenced by their family, other peopleand the environment.Young children learn they havesimilarities and differences that connectthem to – but distinguish them from –others.Children show their particularcharacteristics, preferences andinterests and demonstrate these in allthey do.Young babies seek to be looked at,approved of and find comfort in thehuman face.Babies gain attention: positively ornegatively.Young children strive for responsesfrom others, which confirm, contributeto, or challenge their understandingof themselves.Children need to feel others are positivetowards them, and to experiencerealistic expectations in order tobecome competent, assertive andself-assured.(Birth to Three Matters – DevelopmentMatters: Me Myself & I and BeingAcknowledged & Affirmed)Further messages from the researchinclude the following:-48 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

It is preferable to have stabilityin relationships with childrenand practitioners.A key worker system,with a smallnumber of individually designatedpractitioners relating to particularchildren,as advised by Elfer et al (2002)is important.As Selleck and Griffin (1996:156) point outon the basis of reviewing children’supbringing in other cultures,‘In Italy, key relationships with a significantadult are not seen as necessary tochildren’s successful development ingroup day care. Group settings may beseen as attempts to counterbalance theclinging, suffocating closeness of motherand child. … Children are encouraged torespond to the environment and to smallgroups of adults and children rather thana key adult.‘So although the above description of theItalian model appears to imply the lack ofa key worker system,it still reinforces theidea of a small,significant number of bothadults and children being together so thatmeaningful relationships can be formed.What is warned against is the overlynarrow and limiting relationship that canoccur if a child is not given opportunitiesto be with more than one person, whetherthat is a parent or a practitioner. Selleckand Griffin (1996:156) add that‘a day educator must also develop a strongand complementary attachment to theinfants and toddlers in her care. She willnot be a substitute for mothers or fathersor grannies, but she must be able to forma special relationship which can nourishand protect, and is available on a regularand predictable basis during the day.’So, in addition to advocatingcomplementary attachments withpractitioners, which ensure responsiveand loving attention (Goldschmeid andJackson 1994), Selleck and Griffin (1996)agree with Roberts (2002) that effectivepractice between birth and three willprovide individual children withopportunities to develop a positiveself-concept, interdependent relationshipsand a personal identity. In order to do thisit is suggested that:-‘the sort of acceptance that babies andyoung children need from parents andother important people is not acceptancethat is dependent on their behaviour; it isacceptance without reservations andwithout judgements. It can be describedas ‘unconditional positive regard’…Babieslearn that they are acceptable byexperiencing, day by day, the results ofthat acceptance…when an ‘importantperson’ smiles at the baby, and when thatperson comes at the baby’s call, the sensethat he or she is acceptable is confirmed.This is not simply a passive process; all thetime the baby is learning by experiencehow to win the smiles, how to bring theperson. Every experience is a learningexperience.’ (Roberts 2002:5-6).DEVELOPING A SENSE OF SELFEarly in the second year when toddlershide, they will often leave themselvesvisible to their adult ‘seekers’, thinking that49

ecause they cannot see the adult, theadult cannot see them. While they willrevel in the joyfulness of the adult’s‘seeking’, which is the kind of activitywhich promotes a sense of a self whois wanted and loved, they are not yet ableto recognise the other’s viewpoint or theway parts of them remain unhidden. Buthuge changes are afoot, building on theexperiences of that first year, as theyprogress into new phases in theirdevelopment – to become standers andexplorers; movers, shakers and players;walkers, talkers and pretenders (see theFramework and chapter 1 of this text) –stimulated and rewarded by their owngrowing abilities.Ju dy Dunn (1993) po i nts out how one of themost stri king changes during the tra n s i t i o nf rom baby h ood to early childhood is ac h i l d’s growing sense of self. In d i v i d u a lc h i l d ren are be coming awa re of how othersv i ew them and Dunn (19 93 :30) suggests‘The deve l o p m e nt of this self-co n s c i o u s n e s sa l l ows new po s s i b i l i t i e s ;for ex a m p l e, t h ep a re nt-child re l ationship can be a re s o u rcefor fo s te ring a sense of self-co m pe te n ce ands e l f - wo rth – or its oppo s i te.’At the same time this growing sense of selfis fostering a sense of independence(Karmiloff-Smith 1994) and being seen asa capable person by others (being ‘told’ inwords and actions that one is a ‘capableself’ when attempting to be independent)promotes self-esteem. Roberts (2002)provides many pointers to raisingchildren’s self-esteem,especially insituations where they are often frustratedat being unable to achieve tasks they setthemselves. These mainly involve thechild’s familiar adults in being able to‘decentre’ (take the child’s point of view)and create a climate in which they cansucceed or at least express theirfrustrations and be understood. Childrenwith warm, affectionate relationships withtheir parents are more likely to have highself-esteem,according to Mortimer (2001),who adds that they are also more likelyto be positive about others, to be bettersocially adjusted and to achieveacademically. Clearly such findings haveimplications for children with emotional,social and behavioural difficulties, whowill often demonstrate low self-esteem(Wall forthcoming).At around 18 to 24 months of age, youngchildren begin to be able to recognisethemselves in mirrors and it is also aroundthis time that they begin to assert theirown wishes (see also chapter 5). Prior tothis, at about 12 months of age, they willalso have begun to point to things andto be able to follow someone else’s gazewhen they are pointing. This pointingactivity also involves referencing bylooking back at the person’s face to checkif they are looking at the same object andthis tells us that the young child has someunderstanding about other people’sviewpoints (Gopnik et al 1999). Even veryyoung babies (less than six months old)have been recorded using socialreferencing strategies, searching theirparents’ faces for reassurance when50 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

something surprising and strangehappens (Channel 4 Childhood 1992 –Konner 1991;see also Brewer 2001).However, as Gopnik et al (1999) point out,one of the main tasks of very earlychildhood lies in understanding thedifference between their own minds andthose of others and because parents andcarers will often try to minimise thisdifference, ‘scaffolding’ children’s earlylearning and looking for commonality,it is in interactions with other children,often older siblings (brothers and sisters),that such understandings about self andothers develop. In fact, Selwyn (2000)points out that families where the arrivalof a new baby (or babies) goes mostsmoothly, appear to be those in whichan older sibling, still aged under three,is included when the needs of the babyare discussed, and when the parents helptheir older children understand feelingsand needs of others by explaining the newbaby’s needs. Once children talk they alsoshow their understanding of other minds(Dunn 1999). For example, children underthree have been observed using speechin quite different ways when speaking toyounger children or babies, and to adults(Karmiloff-Smith 1994). But it seems thatit is in the earlier years that thefoundations of empathy and mindreadingare laid, as Selwyn indicates, ‘childrenunder two seem to be especially sensitiveto how people are talking, and familieswhere feelings and needs are recognisedare more likely to promote pro-socialbehaviour’ (Selwyn 2000:38).Later interactions between siblings arealso important. Siblings may behavedifferently to one another in families andsocieties with different cultural traditionsand the challenge may happen in differentways, but many parents and practitionerswill have witnessed a four-year-olds’superior and withering demonstrationsof know-how to an ‘ignorant’ two-year-old.However, such encounters can actuallyhelp the two-year-old recognise that otherminds are different from their own.Interestingly this finding does not accordwith Vygotskian theory of scaffolding,since the older child is not makingallowances and providing support for theyounger child’s learning, however, it doesaccord with Bronfenbrenner’s view thateach child needs ‘a zany uncle’ (a personwho behaves in unexpected and thereforehumorous ways, thus challengingthinking). This realisation of ‘other minds’ –called ‘mindreading’ by Judy Dunn (1999)is part of the growing understanding ofbeing an individual. Using others’ facialexpressions as indicators of what is goingon in their minds is part of this key taskof mindreading. But recognition of otherminds is extremely difficult for childrenwith autism,and children with languagecomprehension difficulties will struggle tointerpret literal meanings, let alone extenddevelopment to consider another’s pointof view. Pollack et al (2000) found thatrecognition of emotion in faces variedamong children who had been abused,with neglected children finding particulardifficulty in differentiating between facial51

expressions of emotion. So children’sinterpretations of emotional states andwhat is in the minds of others can beimpaired for a number of reasons.A further expression of this new-foundidentity around this time is the abilityto use one’s own name. Additionally mostchildren will begin to use ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’during their second year. Between two andthree years of age they will also begin todevelop a gender identity and to showawareness of any effects of racism in theirsociety. Siraj-Blatchford (2001) points outthat there is only an emerging literatureon racial identity, culture and agency andeven that relates mainly to older childrenthan we are considering here. This analysisis suppo rted by Goin (1998).Si ra j - Bl atc h fo rdargues that the best approach for ECECstaff is to work with all children makingthem aware they all have an ethnic/racial,gendered, cultural,diverse and linguistici d e nt i ty, be cause they would then be be t te requipped to accept that others are thesame, working in a way which is intendedto break down stereotypes. Siraj-Blatchfordgoes on to discuss strategies for dealingwith racism or sexism and she states:-‘A positive self-concept is necessary forhealthy development and learning andincludes feelings about gender, race,ability, culture and language. Positiveself-esteem depends on whether childrenfeel others accept them and see them ascompetent and worthwhile.’Siraj-Blatchford (2001: 104).Some early research suggested that thefact that young black children choosewhite dolls indicates low self-esteeminduced by racism,however, there is nowdisagreement in the USA as to whetherexperiments in which African-Americanpre-school children chose white dollsrather than black when given the choicewere indicating negative self-images (Katz1996) or simply reflecting their recognitionfor the more valued stimuli and not lowerlevels of self-esteem than whites (Powell1985; Spencer 1985).Again, it is around the time babies becomemore mobile, being able to stand andwalk,that they start to socialise more withother people, making rudimentary foraysinto interactions with their peers. In a veryrecent study, Belsky et al (2001) measuredattentional persistence and negativeemotionality when children were 15months old and then when the childrenwere three.The researchers measuredproblem behaviour, social competenceand ‘school (ie nursery group) readiness’.They found that children whoseattentional persistence was low, (theywere not able to concentrate forreasonable periods of time for the agegroup),and who showed high levels ofnegative emotions when younger, also hadlow levels of social competence. However,having reasonable levels of concentrationmediated the effects of negativeemotionality and such children werebetter able to integrate with their peers.It is generally during the second year thatyoung children begin feigning crying(showing they are aware of its effect),are more likely to make caring gestures52 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

when someone else is upset or hurt, andare beginning to take part in pretend playwith other children or adults. Being ableto agree on what is happening in fantasyplay, even for a short bout, shows theability to ‘account for their partner’sthoughts; in turn,it is plausible that theexperience of collaborating on developinga pretend narrative will foster the growthof such abilities’ (Dunn 1999: 60).Subsequently, between two and threeyears old, children will often use the words‘pretend’, ‘want’ and ‘feel’ according toBartsch and Wellman (1995). But bothKarmiloff-Smith (1994) and Perner (1999)suggest it is rare for them to use the word‘think’ before they are three.Such an observation may indicate to usthe power of a child’s emotional life at thisstage and it is interesting that studies ofchildren’s narratives (Bruner 1990; Feldman1992),said to begin to proliferate betweenthe ages of two and three, are at theirmost sophisticated when concerned withemotional events, especially when theexperiences involved negativeoccurrences. In these cases their storieswere sequentially and causally accurateand usually told of fear, distress and anger(Brown 1995 cited in Dunn 1999). BothBruner and Feldman have argued thatwe use narratives to explain the actionsof others and ourselves, and that, withinany given culture, narratives are used togenerate a person’s sense of self. Theimportance of narratives, the way each ofus makes sense of our lives, is also stressedby Siegel (1999). Even at this young agechildren love listening to narratives aboutthemselves as babies and from these theybegin to construct their own lifenarratives. So telling children stories aboutevents and achievements in their ownearlier lives contributes to their sense ofself and sense of efficacy.Chen and McCollum (2000) explored theperceptions of 13 Taiwanese mothers of12 month old children on the benefits ofparent-infant interaction in relation to thedevelopment of social competence andfound that these were congruent with thetraditional cultural ideas aboutinterdependence. Tronick et al’s (1992)research demonstrated that infants andtoddlers adopt the patterns of the culturesin which they are brought up and that forsome this means that the sense of self isderived from multiple relationships. Harris(1989) explains how different culturesbuild on what may be, usually, a universal,innate ability to recognise negative andpositive emotional states, but this can beimpaired for different reasons. As statedabove, the ability to ‘mindread’, forexample, does not extend to autisticchildren and their difficulties in formingrelationships and restricted imaginativeplay may relate to this inability (Harris1989; Hobson 1993;Trevarthen et al 1998).Hobson stresses the way in which beingable to engage in symbolic play meansbeing able to appreciate how to conveyattitudes, thoughts and knowingly confernovel (imagined) identities onto familiarobjects. Thus the sense of self as agentof interactions and ideas is strengthened,but when these abilities are impaired,the sense of self too may be affected.53

What must also be acknowledged is thatunderstanding about self and others isdependent upon social and emotionalinteractions in which cognitive processescome into play. It is this interweaving of allaspects of development and learning, itsholistic nature, which is now recognised.As Dunn states,‘Until quite recently, cognitive andsocio-emotional developments werestudied as separate domains. The mappingof children’s discovery of the mind, whichhas proved so exciting, did not includea focus on the role of social experiencein influencing the development ofunderstanding, and little attention wasdevoted to individual differences inmindreading and their possible linkswith social relations.’ (Dunn 1999:56).In fact, it has been shown (Pa rkes et al 1996 )that there are links between emotionaldevelopment and cognition indicating thatsecurely attached children show greaterability in metacognition (the ability toreflect on and piece together ideas aboutone’s own learning). Researchers arguethat mothers of children who have beensecurely attached in their infancy weremore likely to have treated their babies asindividuals with minds and that as a result,by the age of four or five years old thesechildren are better at ‘mindreading’.However, Dunn’s earlier work (Dunn1987),showed that mothers of 18 month old girlsare more likely than mothers of boys thesame age to discuss other people’s feelingswith them, so there may be a genderdifference in mindreading too.DEVELOPING SELF ASSURANCEMurray and Andrews (2000: 167)suggest that‘the child who has benefited from securityin her relationships is likely to developa sense of self confidence and assurance,so that she will have better resources tocope with difficulties.’Summing up the key points relating tochildren’s development of self-assurance,confidence and independence,the Framework pack concludes:-Young babies enjoy the company ofothers, but also need to feel safe andloved when they are not the centre ofadult attention.To develop independence babies needto feel safe and secure within healthyrelationships with key people.Young children need suppo rt in order toex p l o re what they can do on their ow n .To appreciate what they can doindependently, children needsupportive relationships, through whichthey develop self-confidence, a belief inthemselves and healthy self-esteem.(Birth to Three Matters: Development Matters– Developing Self-Assurance)Babies who will be come self-assure dc h i l d ren and adults tend also to be co m ere s i l i e nt (see chapter 1). Th ey will be thec h i l d ren and adults who have factors intheir lives enabling them to co pe with anya dverse circ u m s t a n ces which may be s e tt h e m .The re s e a rch re po rted in the sect i o non re s i l i e n ce in chapter 1 indicates that the54 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

main factors enabling such self-assura n ceto develop re l ate to being valued by andh aving secure at t a c h m e nts to at least ones i g n i f i ca nt pe r s o n . Both pare nts andp ra ctitioners can co nt ri b u te to deve l o p i n ga child’s self-assura n ce. As At h ey (1990: 207 )s u g g e s t s, ‘The time is ri g ht for pare nt s,g ra n d p a re nts and pro fessionals to wo rktogether in order to increase the qualityof mind in young childre n .’We should be concerned that somechildren do not become self-assured,nor acquire social confidence andcompetence. Later in life it tends to bethese children who are rated by theirteachers and by their peers astroublesome and disruptive. They seekattention and emotional support insocially unacceptable ways and are unableto settle down calmly to learning inschool. Their teenage and early adult livesare said to be punctuated by problemssuch as drug and alcohol abuse, accidents,violence, adolescent pregnancy, psychiatricdisorders, family disruption andenvironmental risks.By reviewing a number of studies, Clarkeand Clarke (2000) claim that the basis oftheir difficulties often lies in theirirritability (which the Clarkes link totemperament and their often chaotic livesat home), poor cognitive skills, and in theirlack of emotional security or strongaffectional ties to anyone. The High/Scopeearly childhood education programmeclaims to prevent numerous anti-socialbehaviours in later life (Berrueta-Clementet al 1984). Two of the key aspects of theHigh/Scope programme are the fact thatparents are involved as well as thepre-schoolers themselves, and that theprogramme aims to promote the children’s(and the parents’) sense of agency. Oneaspect of a sense of agency is the abilityto regulate oneself – managing one’semotions (this does not mean repressingthem – see Goleman 1996), gaining controlof one’s actions and having strategies forcoping with heightened arousal.Self regulation was the main focus ofa study by Kochanska et al (2001). Theyassessed 108 children at 14,22, 33 and45 months of age in ‘do’ (keep doing aboring/ unpleasant task) and ‘don’t’ (don’tdo something enjoyable) tasks to find outhow compliant the children were. Theyfound that girls were generally morecompliant than boys and when childrenshowed eagerness to comply with theirmothers’ requests (committed compliance)this was found to relate to theirinternalisation of maternal rules.Akande’s research (1992) provides ideasfor helping parents to promote children’sviews of themselves as valuable,responsible and capable of learning andin research on mothers’ approaches tocontrolling young children’s socialinteraction and expressions of autonomy,Donovan et al (2000) found that motherswho adopted either high power-assertionstrategies, using negative control,and those who had earlier demonstratedlow rates of intervention in children’scrying, had young children whosebehaviour would be more likely to escalate55

into defiance than those who adoptedmore moderate approaches to both infantcrying and toddler compliance. Boukydisand Lester (1998) also explored parentalresponses to their babies’ crying when40 weeks old (both full- and pre-termbabies were included). They found thatp ra ctitioners need to kn ow how to inte rp re tdifferent risk status in certain babies andh ow to help families re s pond appro p ri ate ly.As Hutchins and Sims (1999) point out,children develop self awareness andsocial awareness in conjunction with asense of their own agency. When theyhave parents and practitioners who allowthem to assert some power and controlover their own lives they learn to beself-regulating and autonomous.HAVING A SENSE OF BELONGINGThe Fra m ewo rk ‘Bi rth to Th ree Ma t te r s :A Sense of Be l o n g i n g’ c i tes the New Ze a l a n dMi n i s t ry of Ed u cation (1996:54), whoa rgue that‘The feeling of belonging…contributesto inner well-being, security and identity.Children need to know that they areaccepted for who they are. They shouldknow that what they do can make adifference and that they can explore andtry out new activities.’Here the literature review examines someof the research on very young children’srelationships in their families and in ECECsettings, in order to attempt to tease outthe key ingredients which assist thedevelopment of a sense of belonging.Belonging in one’s familyClearly families at the start of the newmillennium are very different from thefamilies of 20 to 30 years ago, but asJagger and Wright (1999:3) point out,‘thefamily is neither a pan-human universalnor a stable or essential entity… Familiesand family relations are, like the term itself,flexible, fluid and contingent.’Throughoutthis review one of the main messages fromthe research appears to be that babies andvery young children have a fundamentalneed to be with familiar, loving adults andolder children. Therefore, at a time whenfamilies are fragmented and isolated formany different reasons, we need toexplore ways of ensuring that all babiesand young children feel part of a family,however that is constituted.Some research on young children focuseson particular types of families and may,in so doing, limit its relevance. However,findings may still ‘make sense’ if parentsand practitioners find they can identifywith what appear to be authentic anduseful contributions to knowledge.For example, Boyd Webb’s (1984) researchstudied 24 children aged under four, eachof whom whom lived with their motherand father. These children had experiencedmultiple carer relationships and BoydWebb wanted to tease out what aspectsof the relationships helped the childrento be socially competent, confident andself-assured.Three common strands in thechildren’s home experiences stood out.They were the parents’ use of ‘bugging andnudging’ (for example, asking a child to56 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

demonstrate achievements – ‘Go on,showGrandad how you dance to Bob theBuilder’s music’); the use of pet names –perhaps these are an indicator of‘snuggling in’ and of intimacy; and thirdly,respect for rituals devised by the child (forexample, s/he always likes Big Ted/an oldsock,etc in bed; we always look out of thewindow at the sky and sing a special songbefore s/he goes to bed).So although,like Boyd Webb’s research,many projects may have been carried outin families with two heterosexual parents,it is still possible in some cases to reflecton the findings by viewing the findingsabout the adult roles as indicative of‘mothering/fathering/parenting’ rather thanas specific. It is still important however,to recognise that mothers and fathersmay behave differently because they livein a gendered society.Children’s relationships with their fatherswere the focus of a number of studies.Examining the factors that influence thefather-baby relationship during the firsttwo months of life, Anderson (1996)discovered the powerful role of the baby’smother in either including or excludingthe father’s involvement in infant care.Fathers’ attitudes and the amount of timethey are actually able to spend with theirbabies are also key ingredients in theextent to which they are able to formattachments (Cox and Margand 1992).In another study by Belsky (1996), he setup a Strange Situation with father and sonparticipants. He found that the fathers ofinfants who were securely attached tothem had particular characteristics incommon. According to Belsky they tendedto be more extrovert, agreeable, havehappier marriages and more positiveemotional work-home contexts thanfathers of insecurely attached babies.A meta-analysis of available studies byFox et al (1991) indicates that attachmentto one parent is indicative of attachmentto the other in two parent families.Na ka m u ra et al (2000) found that fathersin their study sco red lower than motherson a scale concerned with fosteringchildren’s cognitive development.Grych and Cl a rk (1999) found that fat h e r s’interactions with their babies differedd e pending on whether or not the motherswo rked full time. Fathers whose part n e r sworked part-time or who were notemployed outside the home were foundto be more sensitive and to show morepositive behaviours towards the infants.Babies from 77 families were observed atfo u r, 12 and 13 months old by Bra u n g a rt etal’s (1999) team in order to assess motherandfather-infant attachment. They foundthat boys from dual-earner families werelikely to be strongly attached to theirmothers but not to their fathers at fourmonths, compared with babies from otherfamily types, but these fathers were alsolikely to be less sensitive and to report lessmarital affection at this time.In an intervention study, Cullen et al(2000) found that encouraging fathersto massage their babies for 15 minutesbefore bedtime for one month enhancedtheir relationships to the extent that the57

infants displayed more warmth andenjoyment during floor play interactionsby the end of the study period.Children’s attachments to their mothersand to their fathers were explored toexpose the key features of youngchildren’s development from a dyad(paired) to an individual organisation ofself. Suess et al (1992) found that girls’competence in specific areas, behaviourproblems, and ability to resolve conflictwere related to their attachment to theirmothers, but this was not found to be thecase for boys, although overallcompetence was linked to attachment tomothers for all the children. When showncartoons and asked about the intentionsof the characters, children with insecureattachment histories were more likely toattribute negative intentions than positive.Further research (Kornharber and Marcos2000) indicates that from as young as twoyears of age children are able to adjust theways in which they communicate withmothers and fathers. Fathers wereobserved to produce more messagesrelated to telling children what to do andtask performance than did mothers.Teenage fathers we re found to be ofte nconfused about childca re and theirp roblems we re ex a ce r b ated by financialwo rri e s, even where they showed stro n gi nte rest and invo lve m e nt in their babies( Rhein et al 1997 ). In these conditions thef athers we re like ly to be come disinte re s te dand subsequent ly disengaged. Yet inanother study (Cu t rona et al 1998 )longitudinal data we re co l l e cted abo u ta d o l e s ce nt pare nt h ood and where bo t hp a rtners we re in an affe ct i o n ate, i nt i m ateand suppo rt i ve re l ationship six weeks afte rd e l i ve ry, the fathers of their babies we rem o re like ly to remain invo lve d. Fu rt h e r, w h e nthe re l ationship remained stable during theb a by’s first and second ye a r s, the infant s’d octors we re less like ly to re po rt injuri e s,or inve s t i g ations of abuse and neglect.Howeve r, the team found that fathers we rem o re like ly to stay invo lved when them o t h e r s’ l i ves we re free of stressful eve nt s,i n d i cating a delicate web of inte rl i n ke dsensitivities and po te ntial stre s s e s.Home observations by Volling and Be l s ky( 1992) have demonstrated how them o t h e r- f i r s t bo rn and fat h e r- f i r s t bo rnat t a c h m e nts can have an enduring effe cton the quality of (subsequent) siblingre l at i o n s h i p s. Within the family, c h i l d re nover two years of age are more like lyto show dra m atic decreases in theirat t a c h m e nt securi ty on the birth ofa brother or siste r, co m p a red with yo u n g e rf i r s t bo rns (Teti et al 1996 ). This re s e a rc hteam also found that the levels of stre s sdue to other facto r s, such as mari t a ld i s h a rm o ny or mate rnal psyc h i at rici l l n e s s, we re also implicated in thec h i l d re n’s re a ct i o n s.We indicated earlier that Herbert andCarpenter (Herbert 1994; Herbert andCarpenter 1994; Carpenter 1997) havealerted the field to the ways in whichfathers of children born with identifiablespecial needs are often excluded fromthe circle of concern. There are also58 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

implications for siblings, which aresummarised in Carpenter (1997). Like thechildren described earlier whose familiesinvolved them in discussions about a newbaby, the brothers and sisters of babieswith special needs benefit from suchinvolvement. They may feel isolated, guiltyor resentful,despite the existence ofpositive benefits attached to the birth ofthe new baby. Other implications for thesesiblings include possible changes ofcaregivers, because parents may needextra time with the new baby, or to attendhospital appointments, for example.Dunn’s early research (1984) on siblingspoints to other studies where initialambivalence towards a new baby brotheror sister is common. Dunn goes on toprovide evidence for the mix of positiveand negative encounters siblingsexperience with each other during theseearly years – quarrelling and fighting,l ov i n g, ca ring for and co m fo rt i n g. We kn owf rom other co nte m po ra ry cultures where itis still common practice for children asyoung as three to be placed in the chargeof a younger baby, that these children,together with children we kn ow and Du n n’sresearch participants, that even in theirthird year they are already able to adaptthe way they behave and talk, for example,using terms of endearment towards thebaby that parents, grandparents and othersignificant adults have modelled.Dunn’s research also cites examples ofthe ‘babies’ teasing or comforting theolder child, evidence of their ability toempathise, ‘What is particularly notableis that some of the secondborn children,as young as 14, 15 or 16 months, attemptedto comfort their older siblings.’ (Dunn1984:23). Dunn reports that sisters andbrothers fight with each other much morefrequently than with other childrenoutside the home – the incidence for boysbeing roughly equal to that with peers butfor girls far higher with brothers andsisters. According to Dunn,one should bewary of assuming too much about rivalryand jealousy from such conflicts, andparents need not blame themselves.She states, ‘Siblings don’t choose to spendtheir early lives together – they are forcedto live together. We shouldn’t be surprisedif in some cases they find it very difficultto get along…’(Dunn 1984: 106). Later sheargues,‘It is because they understand theirsiblings so well and because they feel sos t ro n g ly about them, t h at their re l at i o n s h i pis so significant and so revealing.’(Dunn 1984: 144).Belonging in an Early ChildhoodEducation and Care settingBelonging may be defined differentlyin different cultures and communities.There may be traditions which have beendeveloped over time to bind communitiestogether and they may mean thatindividuals are not as important as thewhole collective. Rosenthal (2000)suggests parents and practitioners inindividualistic societies will have differentexpectations from those in collectivisticsocieties and that the dominant culturalconstructions of early childhood impact59

on the practices used to socialise babiesand young children. While exploringapproaches to early literacy in a crossculturalstudy, David et al (2000) foundthat in France babies are regarded ascitizens from birth,they ‘belong’ to acommunity and that parental and societalexpectations – of both children and of thestate – are reflected in ECEC provision andpractices. Similarly, Moss (1990) reviewingpolicy in Sweden, found that children areregarded as the responsibility of the wholesociety, not the private or soleresponsibility of their parents. However,Gautier (1996), reviewing family policy,argued that the UK and USA havetraditionally had laissez faire policieswhich have endorsed the idea that unlessparents are defined as inadequate in someway, the state does not intervene in howthey treat their children,but nor doesit provide much support. RecentlyGovernment policies are promoting thedevelopment of ECEC services, includingprovision for children from birth to threeyears and clearly it is important thatchildren’s well being is at the heart ofthese developments.Elfer et al (2002) discuss the difficultiesstaff in group settings face when theyattempt to achieve close relationships withbabies and young children. There areissues relating to shifts, holidays, childrenin different age bands being afforded newand different experiences, not to mentionstaff changes due to promotion or familycircumstances, for example. WhileDahlberg et al (1999) argue that oneshould not create ‘false closeness’, they alsoadd there should be a concept of intensityof relationships, meaning a complexnetwork connecting not only people –the adults and other children in the setting– but also the environment itself and theshared activities. Perhaps what needs tobe avoided is possessiveness rather thanintimate, loving relationships which aremutually enjoyable for the adults andchildren involved, because babies andyoung children seem to thrive in ECECsettings where they experience suchrelationships and where there is continuityof care giving (Rutter 1995).Attendance at an ECEC setting also affordsbabies and young children opportunitiesto be with other young children and tomake friends. Young children’s friendshipsmay be subject to family mobility butwhere family location is stable, childrenhave friendships for much longer thanused to be thought possible. Dunn (1993)cites a number of studies including herown which indicate that children agedonly four had friendships as long standingas two years, so these friendships hadbegun when the children were about twoyears old. Further, according to Dunn,young children spend more time talkingwith,arguing (and making up) with theirfriends than they do with children who arenot their friends, but they are unableto articulate what is special about theirrelationship. Th ey will usually just say thatt h ey play tog e t h e r. Friends are clearly ve ryi m po rt a nt, for as Howes (1987) showe d,c h i l d ren who made transitions in dayca re60 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

with friends fared be t ter than those wholost their friends at that time. Dunn (1993)found that children whose friends changedd ayca re settings with them re m e m be re dt h at it was the pre s e n ce of those fri e n d st h at made them feel happy there.In addition, Dunn looked at the possiblelinks between children’s attachments withfamily members – principally theirmothers – and those with their friends.She found, surprisingly, that there was noevidence of an association betweenchildren’s expressions of emotion withtheir mothers (either positive or negative)and their interactions with their friends.However, she also found that children fromfamilies where there were frequent familyarguments and outbursts of anger wereunable to reason with their friends whendisputes arose. Most importantly, childrenwho enjoyed high levels of involvementwith their mothers were more likely tocompromise and be conciliatory withfriends, to enter elaborate shared fantasyplay bouts and conversations.One could surmise that the early closerelationships and the mothers’ modellinghelped these children learn how to get onwith other children, to solve disputeswithout being unreasonable, and thatsimilar interactions with and modelling bya practitioner can have the same effect.In fact, although her detailed qualitativeresearch was with children in two preschoolgroups, Sally Lubeck (1986) foundthat children in a setting where the threemembers of a staff team modelledpositive, supportive, cooperative behaviourwith each other the children showed moreof these behaviours than in a settingwhere staff did not behave in this way.The findings from re s e a rch ex a m i n i n gc h i l d re n’s adjustment to ECEC settings aremixed. Deater-Deckard et al (1996) claimthat children’s behavioural adjustment ism o re closely linked to home env i ro n m e ntfactors than the quality rating awardedtheir day care setting. However, whenHowes et al (1994) explored the waysin which a child’s re l ationship witha pra ctitioner affe cted their re l at i o n s h i pwith their pe e r s, t h ey found that yo u n gchildren who felt secure with theireducarer displayed complex play withpeers and were gregarious. Those whowere dependent on the adult were,however, withdrawn from their peersand hostile and aggressive towardsthem. Where practitioners encouragedand modelled soc i a l i s at i o n ,the childre nseemed to demonstrate greateracceptance of each other. The sameresearch team (Howes et al 1994a)had also found that children’s socialcompetence with peers and theirrelationship with their educator at fouryears of age, were both related to theirrelationship with their first educarer.In Sweden Broberg et al (1997) found thatthe children’s cognitive abilities at ageeight could have been predicted from thequality of the out-of-home care (in centresor with childminders) they attended.Theirresearch involved 87 children agedbetween 16 and 19 months at the start ofthe project, whom they tracked through at61

least 36 months of attendance at a daycaresetting and on into primary school.‘Quality’ is a value-laden concept whichmakes comparisons, particularly thoseacross national or cultural boundaries,difficult to interpret. It is possible that thedifferences in these findings may reflectthe contexts in which the studies werecarried out, but they may also indicate thatsome children need extra support frompractitioners in becoming a member ofthe setting’s community – in ‘belonging ‘there and perhaps some individualpractitioners and some national systemstake greater pains to ensure inclusion.Sadly, McGuire (1991) found that nurserystaff often failed to give the additionalattention a withdrawn child needed tohelp them become a member of thegroup, or to be engaged in play activities –since during her observations thesechildren were found to spend more timethan others apparently unoccupied.Further research which can providepointers to children’s sense of belongingin an ECEC setting are those concernedwith young children’s conflicts. Thefindings from these obser vational studiessuggest that such episodes help youngchildren to learn the cognitive skill of‘standing in someone else’s shoes’, to thinkin terms of multiple attributes and torecognise the consequences of theiractions (Sims et al 1997; Singer 2001).The ways in which adults manage suchepisodes can help children developeffective conflict resolution strategies.Sometimes, allowing children space andtime, in a supportive and safe atmosphere,means they resolve their own conflictswithout adult interference (Singer 2001).Children who learn to resolve conflictssuccessfully develop interpersonal skills,becoming more popular and interactingwith their peers more effectively.Further messages for practitioners canbe found in the detailed qualitativeresearch by Anning (1999).This researchfocused on parents’ and educators’interpretations of children’s meaningmaking in a group setting. While thechildren in her study were already threeyears old, Anning argues that they couldbe seen to be developing a sense of selfas members of a home community andof a pre-school community.‘What was impressive was the range andfluidity of the meaning making systemsthey were using. It was also quite clearthat their particular passions andpreoccupations shaped theirrepresentations and communications athome. In the nursery the adults weredriven by a national climate of pre-schoolsettings having to provide a ’foundationfor schooling’…imagine how childrenstruggle to make sense of the continuitiesand discontinuities between jointinvolvement episodes at home and in preschoolsettings, we can speculate that forsome children there may be someoverlap…But for many, the discontinuitiesmust be daunting.’ (Anning 1999:16-17)62 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Attending to external demands (such asStandards and Inspections) can bedaunting for practitioners so they needreassurance that the children in their careand their families are their first priorities.The key ‘Development Matters’ points fromthe Framework for the development of asense of belonging are as follows:-‘Snuggling in’ gives young babiesphysical, psychological and emotionalcomfort.To sustain healthy emotionalattachments, babies need familiar,trusting, safe and secure relationships.Young children's developing attitudesand beliefs are shaped by the valueplaced on individual differences andsimilarities.The development of a strong sense ofidentity both individually and withina group helps children feel they belong.Finally, as Dunn concludes,‘relationships change in nature as childrengrow up. New dimensions of intimacy, selfdisclosure,and shared intimacy becomeapparent over the early years, reflectingchildren’s growing social understanding.These developments bring new sourcesand new patterns of individual differencesin close relationships as children develop.’(Dunn 1993:114).Initially those close relationships will bewith parents and siblings, but practitionersand other children attending an ECECsetting will be drawn into the child’sgrowing circle of significant relationshipsand it is through the interactions involvedthat a young child begins to know whothey are and what they can achieve.SUMMARY OF KEY MESSAGESResearch concerned with babies’ andyoung children’s sense of self, selfassurance,and sense of belongingsuggests that:-babies seem to come into the wo rl dp rimed for at t a c h m e nt to wa rm ,f a m i l i a rca re r s, who will usually be mothers,f at h e r s, g ra n d p a re nt s, older brothers ands i s ters and key adults in ECEC settingsthese attachments form the basis forsubsequent relationships, and for senseof self/self-assurance – and thosechildren who have had experience ofwarm attachments and positiveresponses become socially adept,self assured, independent and interdependent,higher achievers in theirlater ECEC and school settings63

all areas of learning and developmentare intricately intertwined, youngchildren develop and learn holisticallyand their emotional and socialdevelopment seems to form thebedrock of other areaschildren’s competence and abilityto resolve conflict in ECEC settingsseems to be related to their primaryattachments, especially theirattachments to their mothersparents who express negativenarratives concerning their own earlyrelationships with their parents needsupport to overcome perpetuating suchpatterns and to form joyful,mutuallyloving relationships with their babiesand small children.64 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 4A Skilful CommunicatorThis chapter provides research information and ideas about the baby and child as A SkilfulCommunicator, the focus of the second Aspect of the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’.This aspect includes:- being a sociable and effective communicator; listening andresponding appropriately to the language of others;and making meaning. To becomeskilful communicators babies and children need to be together with the people who areimportant to them,with whom they have warm and loving relationship. Being togetherleads to the wider development of social relations so that children become adept atforming friendships, being able to empathise, share emotions and experiences. It isthrough these interactions and upon these foundations that they become competentlanguage users. When early attempts at finding a voice are rewarded in a variety of waysbabies become more confident to extend their range of vocalisations and increase theirlanguage skills. Babies use their voices to make contact, let people know what they needand how they feel. They are also starting to learn about ‘conversation’, which requires theability to listen and respond appropriately, and to learn the ‘rules’ of communicationthrough making meaning with the familiar people in their lives. One of the main‘messages’ of this aspect of the Framework is that, above all,those around them need tovalue, interpret and respond to babies’ and young children’s early attempts to converse.BEING TOGETHERThis section of the literature review isdevoted to some of the research availableabout babies and their ability tocommunicate with the significant peoplein their lives. As Jerome Bruner points out:‘Infants are, in a word, tuned to enter theworld of human action…It is obvious thatan enormous amount of the activityof the child during the first year anda half of life is extraordinarily social andcommunicative…Even in the openingweeks of life the infant has the capacityto imitate facial and manual gestures;theyrespond with distress if their mothers aremasked during feeding; and, they show65

a sensitivity to expression in the motherby turn taking in vocalisation when theirlevel of arousal is moderate and bysimultaneous expression when it is high.’(Bruner 1983:27).Indeed, Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smithclaim,in their exciting and informative texton early language development, thatduring its last months in the uterus thefoetus develops a growing sensitivity tothe unique qualities of its mother’s voiceand rhythms of its native language(Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith 2001).For ex a m p l e, re s e a rchers have establishedt h at babies as young as four days and eve ne a rlier can distinguish the languages po ken by their mother and family fro manother language, although they do notd i s c ri m i n ate be tween unkn own languages.For ex a m p l e, French re s e a rchers (seeKa rmiloff and Ka rm i l o f f - Smith 2001 : 17 )used a sucking technique to ex p l o re t h i s.Th ey found that babies suck harder whenh e a ring French than when hearing Ru s s i a nbut their rate of sucking showed nod i f fe re n ce be tween Russian and En g l i s h .Goldschmeid and Selleck (1996: 11) arg u et h at ‘co n s t a n cy in re l ationships with“m o t h e r s” is nece s s a ry for babies to learnto co m m u n i cate’. By mothers they mean‘a person who takes on re s po n s i b i l i ty fo rc h i l d re n’s lives and for whom providing childca re is a significa nt part of her or his wo rki n gl i fe’ ( Goldschmeid and Selleck 19 96 :6).Above all,babies appear to comeinto the world with a drive to be nearfamiliar people:-‘Even at a few weeks old the infant’s loveaffair with people is shown by differentreactions to persons, as opposed tointeresting objects. Moving objects maybe watched and reached for, but people,especially a carer, are responded to withsmiles, lip movements and arm waving…Getting into relationships with peopleprobably begins in the earliest hours oflife:many newborns will imitate adult faceand hand move m e nt s’. (Wh i tehead 1996 :4).Murray and Trevarthen (1985) showedthat from two months of age, around thetime they also engage in social smiling,infants are sensitive to ‘social contingency’(the mother’s responsiveness to theinfant’s signals), especially to the timingof their mothers’ emotional attunementin their two-way exchanges. These attunedexchanges indicate the developmentof primary intersubjectivity – the rudimentsof turn taking, sensitive timing andresponsiveness to the other’s behaviour,especially facial expressions.Intersubjectivity is thought to be thefoundation of early social interaction.Such early, playful interactions are called‘protoconversations’ and they graduallyoffer the young child opportunities foranticipating and predicting and they formthe basis for social and cognitive advancesthat occur during the first year (Trevarthenand Aitken 2001).However, as Goldschmeid and Selleck(1996:11) stress:-‘Young babies are only sociable, loving andcurious about each other if they havealready developed trusting, secure66 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

elationships with close and protectiveadults. Babies who do not haveopportunities to touch,gaze, coo andbabble with responsive adults give upon conversation-like exchanges. Thereis evidence of this from the work ofGoldschmeid in state institutions forgroups of abandoned children in Trieste,Italy in 1954. These children had excellentphysical care but no personal care. Thebabies who persistently failed to getattention from an adult becamewithdrawn, passive and despairing. Theystopped looking for friendship in adultsor with other children…Sometimes thisis not recognised for what it is, but ismistaken for contentment.‘As long ago as the 1970s, research bySnow (1977), Snow and Ferguson (1977),and others, was demonstrating thatalthough babies who are three months olddo not contribute much to a conversationthrough vocalising, they already havegeneral ‘rules’ about communicating.For example, they will gaze at the familiaradult and sustain an interaction in apattern which matches exactly that oftwo adults in conversation.In their boo k , The Social Ba by, Mu rrayand An d rews (2000), not only prov i d es u perb photog raphic ev i d e n ce ofbabies co m m u n i cating from birt h ,t h ey state,‘Babies are attracted to other people frombirth and they quickly prefer the peoplewho have become familiar. But the babyd oe s n’t simply wa nt to be near her familyand their friends – she wa nts to share herex pe ri e n ce with other people and inte ra ctwith them!’ ( Mu rray and An d rews 2000: 47 ).Further, babies become quiet whentheir mother or other familiar personapproaches, apparently primed forinteraction. By the age of three months,a baby who has begun vocalising andwho gets a response (being talked to andother types of positive attention) willincrease the amount of vocalisation. Snowalso points out that mothers will usuallysimplify their speech, restricting thecontent, using repetition,simplifyinggrammar and emphasising intonation.Babies and children are able to givefeedback clues which tell the adultsaround them when the simplified speechcan be modified a little to become morelike the type we would use to anexperienced language user.Bruner (1983) cites the work of Piagetin remarking that babies may spend theirtime doing only a small range of activities(such as banging, reaching, looking) butthey are systematic in their repetitionsof these activities. He adds that we shouldnot be surprised therefore, that they arealso systematic when it comes tolanguage, as the work of Weir (1962)(on spontaneous speech in the cot)and Bowerman’s (1978) on children’sspontaneous errors, show.When babies and children interact witheach other, they have a different ‘voice’67

according to Goldschmeid and Selleck(1996:17). ‘Their conversations flow to andfro through complex and personal activity.Children communicate firstly throughintense gazing, vigorous sucking andexploratory touching and vocalisations.’They cite the research observations ofWhaley and Rubenstein (1994),who notedthat toddlers will develop rituals, usingobjects as props, developing intimacy andcommunicating non-verbally. In onerelationship two children would use theirfeeding bottles in a ritual that involvedthem in alternately drinking and thenplacing the bottles on their feet. This ritualof imitating with similar objects not onlypromoted their friendship, it was a way ofexcluding other toddlers. As Rouse Selleck(1995:cited in the Framework ‘Birth toThree Matters – Finding a Voice’) asserts:‘Although most infants do not learn to talkuntil their second year, their voices arethere for us to hear from birth.’The first three years co nt ri b u te substant i a l lyto children being highly pro f i c i e nt inlanguage by the time they are six. Al t h o u g hlanguage is learnt on seve ral diffe re nt leve l sat the same time (Ka rmiloff and Ka rm i l o f f -Smith 2001) – they do not simply learnvoca b u l a ry then move on to gra m m a r, e tc –t h ey must get to grips with the sounds oflanguage (phonology); wo rds (voca b u l a ry );the way wo rds are ord e red (gra m m a r );the way sente n ces are put together tomean something (disco u r s e ); as wellas h ow to use language (Ta bors 1997 ).As Wh i tehead (2002) stre s s e s, a child’s firstwo rd is based on ex pe ri e n ce of liste n i n g,o b s e rving and ex pe ri m e nting with soundsand making highly select i ve imitiations offamiliar pe o p l e.Treva rthen (2000) analysed the musica l i tyof rhyming games and he found that theyfo l l ow the same pat te rn s, length ofu t te ra n ces by the adult be fo re the infantm a kes a co nt ri b u t i o n ,as in re l a xe d,m u t u a l ly enjoyable baby-adult inte ra ct i o n s.It seems that no other animals engage ingames such as pe e ka boo, Ride a coc k -h o r s e, and other inte ra ctions that depe n don rhyming and/or re petition in the sameway (Bruner 1983 ),be cause all depend onthe use and exchange of language orlanguage as an ‘a nt i c i p ato ry dev i ce’( e g. Round and round the gard e n ).It is interesting that ways of talking tobabies is not a taught skill but is aculturally learned behaviour and one that,even in this technological society,continues to dominate early interactions(Brice Heath 1983;Schieffelin and Ochs1986). The most self conscious parent isdriven by the very appearance and natureof babies to converse and communicatein ways that have been used in families forgenerations (Gopnik et al 1999). Bruner’ssuggestion,that mothers and carers ‘createframeworks of interaction in jointlyconstructed little worlds’ (Bruner 1987: 114)is a reminder that even the way we think(cognition) is ‘encultured’ (Hilton 1996) andthat babies learn how to behave in aparticular social setting in collusion with68 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

adults and siblings around them. Theworld of the family is the first culturalcontact a baby encounters and the familymembers and carers who surround herhelp her to understand and develop therole she needs to play to become part ofthe drama of family life (Bruner 1983;1987;Dunn 1988;Gopnik et al 2001).The Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’sums up the key development points forthe component Being Together as follows:-Young babies are sociable from birth,using a variety of ways to gainattention.Babies make social contact accordingto their physical possibilities.Young children form friendships andcan be caring towards each other.Children learn social skills and enjoybeing and talking with adults andother children.The implications of the re s e a rch findingswhich lead to the above state m e nts abo u tbabies and young children as ski l f u lco m m u n i cators and the impo rt a n ce ofbeing together are pri m a ri ly that they needre l a xe d, p l ayful and loving co nve r s at i o n sri g ht from birt h . Ad d i t i o n a l ly, p a re nts needre a s s u ra n ce that talking with their babieswill fo s ter their language deve l o p m e nt sot h at by the time they are in their third ye a rt h ey will be ex pe rt at taking turns ands ocial inte ra ctions which include talk. Fro mas early as po s s i b l e, it is impo rt a nt too b s e rve, n o te and discuss with pare nts anya p p a re nt co n s t ra i nts on a child’s ability tod evelop speech due to impairm e nts in thep hys i cal or nervous sys te m ,so that helpcan be sought.Some of the other key messages forpractice are that babies need and/or seemto enjoy:-responsive and encouraginginteractionsturn-taking patterns of interactionmotherese, rhyming games, singing andword playnot too much background noise (eg.from television).FINDING A VOICEThe early sounds that babies make areoften thought to be merely a mimic of theconstantly repeated sounds that adultsmake to them. Imitation, though,is ahighly sophisticated skill and certainlyVygotsky maintained that it is more thana simple mechanical activity, as we pointedout in chapter 2. He argued that ‘toimitate, it is necessary to possess themeans of stepping from something oneknows to something new’ (Vygotsky 1986:187). But as Meltzoff (1988) claims that thisability to imitate, demonstrated in hisprotruding tongue experiments withbabies who respond similarly, can evenbe seen in newborns, we can assume thatimitation forms one aspect of languageacquisition. It is not, however, the wholestory, because babies and young childrendo not simply mimic what they hear. Theyactually create language, and practitioners69

and parents will be familiar with veryclever instances such as the rule-boundaddition of ‘-ed’ to form a past participle,instead of the form for an irregular verb –for example, ‘I goed’ instead of ‘I went’.Chomsky’s (1964) contribution to thisdebate, with the idea that infants are born‘prewired’ for language was essential (seechapter 2). But Bruner and otherresearchers have argued that languageis embedded in the social and emotionalinteractions of babies’ lives and that thelaws governing their acquistion oflanguage are the same as those governingother aspects of learning.So babies are born into families,communities and cultures as attentive,curious learners and their brains arealready fine tuned to attend to soundsaround them and process them as partof their developing understanding of theworlds in which they find themselves.And, because traditionally most carersof young babies have been mothers,the nature of the cooing and babbling thatgoes on between adult and child has beencalled ‘motherese’. Cooing usually starts ataround the three month stage (Karmiloff-Smith 1994) and the adult’s (usually it isthe mother) response can act as a ‘reward’encouraging these early attempts atsound making and interaction. Babbling,repeating the same sound over and overas practice, begins to proliferate in babies’behaviour, often when they are alone, onlya few months later. All babies babble, eventhose with severe hearing losses, and evenwhen they are getting no reinforcementother than the sound of their own efforts.In an early study by the Newsons ofchildren and toys, mothers were describedas babies’ first toy, their first plaything asmothers interact with their children inplayful spoken and physical ways (Newsonand Newson 1979). When both playingand offering spoken interchanges duringdaily routines, nappy changes, washing,etc, Stern says that mothers intuitivelytreat their babies ‘as the people they areabout to become by working in their zoneof proximal development’ (Stern 1985: 43)and the study by Gordon Wells in Bristoldescribed the language between childrenand their mothers in home contexts asbeing crucial to the child’s constructionof their ’internal model of the world’(Wells 1987:35). He claims that babieshave an ’inherent sociability’ that isessential for language development;thatis they show an interest in faces andhuman sounds from the outset andmothers, or regular care givers, are ableto tune into this interest and join withbabies in what seems to be ’conversation’.Gopnik and her colleagues describe thesewordless conversations involving cooingand ’motherese’ type talk as responses tothe baby ’flirting’, almost as if the adultand child are engaged in an ’intricatedance’ (Gopnik et al 1999:30). Indeed, theintimacy of these ’conversations’ is almostirresistible to most adults who invariablywarm to babies’ responses to theirattentions. The success of such70 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

interactions and interchanges dependson the sensitivity of the adult to the tunesand rhythms of the baby as they begin tolaugh and ‘talk’ in turn.Kuhl et al (1992) tell us that‘At the beginning of life, human infantsexhibit a similar pattern of phoneticperception regardless of the languageenvironment in which they are born. Theydiscern differences between the phoneticunits of many different languages,including languages they have neverheard, indicating that the perception ofhuman speech is strongly influenced byinnate factors.’ (Kuhl et al 1992:606)These researchers go on to discuss the factthat adults are limited in the sounds theyare able to perceive, whereas babies areopen and show a perception to speechsounds that is universal. Kuhl et al’s (1992)research indicated that by six months ofage, well before they acquire languageand can understand word meanings,babies’ perception of the sounds usedin the languages they hear around themhave influenced what they are sensitiveto/perceive. They tested 32 American and32 Swedish babies and found a ’magneteffect’ to home language. The researchersinterpret this as meaning that the speechbabies hear in their first six months formsa basis for learning language, words andtheir meanings and that the ability toperceive (as important) and to mimicsounds in babble, closes down toe n compass only familiar speech pat te rn sand sounds. It is also the case that by12 months old, babies babble only in thelanguage sounds they have been hearingaround them. Kuhl et al (1992) point outthat this evidence also means that thereseem to be phonetic prototypes (modelsof language and how it sounds, evenbefore language is understood or spoken)that are ‘fundamental perceptual-cognitivebuilding blocks rather than by-products oflanguage acquisition’ (Kuhl et al 1992: 608).This highlights the links between languageexperience and cognitive development.It also alerts us to the fact that beingspoken to, sung to and hearing languagepatterns clearly, without backgroundinterference such as television to interferewith hearing the sounds, right from birthis very important.In a study researching the effects ofovercrowded homes, Evans et al (1999)found parents living in such conditions areless responsive than those not living incrowded conditions but having the samesocio-economic status. In crowded homesparents would use less complex languageto their children. The researchers suggestthis finding may provide some explanationfor the delays in cognition found amongchildren from overcrowded homes.Markus et al (2000) carried out alongitudinal study of 21 babies and theirparents. They found that language at18 months was related to differences inearlier infant-caregiver joint attentionepisodes – the frequency, quality,71

esponsiveness and duration of suchepisodes. They also report a link betweenthis finding at 18 months and thechildren’s scores on both the MacArthurCommunicative Development Inventoriesand Bayley Scales of Infant Developmentat 21 and 24 months of age. In otherwords, the more babies experience sharedtalk and activity, the more articulate theyare as young talkers.In another project with babies agedbetween two and six months, Kokkinakiand Kugiumutzakis (2000) explored theinteractions of 15 babies in Crete with theirmothers and with their fathers. They foundno differences in the infants’s vocalimitations of either parent in terms offrequency, pauses, total duration of theinteractions, but there were differences inthe nature of some of the sounds imitated.In interactions with their fathers, both girlsand boys of around two years old tend touse more directives, whereas with theirmothers they use more expressions abouttheir reactions to objects and events(Marcos 1995),indicating the ways inwhich, by the age of two, children will uselanguage differently with different peopleand to achieve various effects.Marian Whitehead (1996) explains howfirst words are often only meaningful tothose familiar with the particular child’slife and likes or dislikes, and within thecontexts in which they are used. Alonein the car with Coralie, then 12 months,her grandmother could not understandher repeated utterances of ‘Medic, medic’until Coralie pointed to the car’s cassetteplayer and, with much joint laughter,‘SillyNana’ turned on appropriate music.Whitehead’s (1996: 12) explanationscontinue with a helpful outline of the‘golden age of grammar’ and how childrenbetween two and four years will ‘attemptto tidy up irregular plurals’, regulariseirregular past tenses, and create newwords. Further, she points out that‘By the age of four the phys i cal mat u ri ty ofthe nervous sys tem and the finer muscleco nt rol over the mouth, t h ro at and to n g u e,and even the pre s e n ce of te e t h ,m a ke theyoung child’s pro n u n c i ation of languagesve ry much closer to the adult fo rms andeasier to understand.’ Wh i tehead (1996: 13 ).Further research which once again drawsattention to the holistic and interwovennature of early development and learning,by Hirose and Barnard (1997),providesevidence of a link between baby boys’cognitive development (measured on theBayley MDI scale) and the amount of jointverbal interactions they experienced withtheir mothers. This finding was part of astudy examining the potential differencesbetween depressed and non-depressedmothers and their babies. The group ofdepressed mothers talked more with girlthan with boy babies, whereas in thecontrol group there were no suchdifferences. Murray et al (1993) also foundrelationships between the quality ofmaternal communication with their babies72 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

in the first 18 months. Depressed motherswere less focused on their babies’experience and less likely to encourageor even acknowledge the child’s agency(growing personhood and attempts to beindependent, develop a self-concept – seechapters 3 and 6) than non-depressedmothers. Again,the quality of the mother’sinteractions was found to impact oncognitive development. Work by Molfeseet al (1996) found associations betweenperinatal risk (see chapter 6 section onpoverty) and language development,which have implications for the use ofmaterials for testing very young children’sprogress. They argue that professionalsshould check scores on a variety ofindividual sections of assessment scalesrather than the final summed predictorsonly. What is particularly important aboutthis issue is the fact that in general, boys’language development is slower than thatof girls (Hutt 1972). This is said to relate tothe relative immaturity of the male centralnervous system at birth and it hasconsequences for both girls and boys.Firstly, boys may be assessed as beingless able, when in fact they may beconcentrating on other modes ofexploration and discovery; it may alsomean that adults provide girls withexplanations for events and phenomena,instead of encouraging them to explorefirst hand through play.The component of the Framework headedFinding a Voice provides the following keydevelopmental guidelines:-Young babies communicate in a varietyof ways including crying, gurgling,babbling and squealing.Babies enjoy experimenting, exploringand using sounds and words torepresent objects around them.Young children use single word andtwo word utterances to convey simpleand more complex messages.Children use language as a powerfulmeans of widening contacts, sharingfeelings, experiences and thoughts.BILINGUALISMAccording to Siraj-Blatchford and Clarke’s(2000:30) review of research onbilingualism, there are many advantagesto being exposed to more than onelanguage from birth. These include:-‘self-esteem, positive identity and attitudestowards language learning, cognitiveflexibility, increased problem-solvingand a greater metalinguistic awareness.’Further, these researchers tell us thatwhere children are ‘sequentially’ bilingual(learn their second language later, sayat a nursery) it is important they haveopportunities to carry on developing theirhome language because it is the strengthof this that provides the basis for theadditional language.In her highly informative chapter on‘Young bilinguals’ Whitehead (1996)synthesises research findings withprofessional and personal experience toprovide information about bilingualism73

with pointers for practice. She states thatlanguage mixing in the early years is notan indicator of ‘muddle and inadequacy’but of children making choices about howto express themselves most fluently. Shecontinues: ‘It is absolutely essential thatearly years carers and educators respectthe languages of the young children forwhom they are responsible. This must godeeper than vague goodwill or tolerance.’(Whitehead 1996:21)It is also important for babies and childrento feel their home languages are valuedand reflected in their ECEC settings, andthat their ties with family members arepromoted. Linda Thompson (1999) foundthat none of the bilingual childreninvolved in her study in the North East ofEngland, were using Mirpuri-Panjabi,theirfirst language, at nursery by the time theyhad completed their first term. This is apity because we know that young children(and many adults) think in their firstlanguage and they need to use this in theearly years as they explore and learn aboutthe people and world around them mosteffectively. Clarke (1999) and Parke andDrury (2001) emphasise the need fornurseries to provide some languageteaching (that is, to plan some interactionswith young bilingual children andintervene in play to effect these) ratherthan simply relying on the ad hocinteractions the children may have in theadditional language.SIGNING AS FIRST LANGUAGEBabies born with a severe hearing loss willuse the part of their brain used forlanguage in hearing babies and adults toextend the part generally used for vision(Karmiloff-Smith 1994). Similarly,a congenitally blind baby will devote agreater part of the brain to touch, the partfor sight being reduced. In this way eachof them develops a more sophisticatedability in the senses which are strong.Karmiloff-Smith (1994:50) adds‘In both cases…it is language thatis being processed. That is the commondenominator. The fact that in onecase sensory input from the ears isprocessed and in the other sensoryinput from the eyes attests to the brain’sextraordinary plasticity.’At around 12 months, when hearingbabies’ babble begins to sound likesentences, deaf babies will stop babbling.In homes where parents and carers sign,they do so in a signing type of ‘motherese’,making more exaggerated actions for thebaby to decifer and learn. Deaf childrenwhose parents use signing as their firstlanguage at home, go through all thesame stages as hearing children usingspoken language. In this way ‘deaf childrenacquire their native language as naturallyas any hearing child learns to speak.Likewise, hearing children of one deafparent and one hearing parent grow upbilingual,in much the same way and withthe same ease as children learning twonative spoken languages’ (Karmiloff and74 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Karmiloff-Smith 2001: 183). Further,research has shown how a child learningsign language begins to move from singlesigns to combinations at about the sametime hearing children begin to usecombinations of words (Barrett 1999).Although a co nt roversial view, Ho rn by et al( 1997) argue that subsequent deve l o p m e ntshould include ex po s u re to sign language.The impo rt a n ce of this to developing thel a n g u a g e, rather than spe e c h ,of a seve re ly orp ro fo u n d ly deaf child has been establishedin the last three deca d e s.These re s e a rc h e r ssuggest that failure to int rod u ce sign aspart of a total communication approachcan co m p romise the future ability of a childwith a hearing impairm e nt to understandthe deeper meaning of language, to re a dand to wri te co m pe te nt ly.Coupe and Goldbart (1988) and Karmiloffand Karmiloff-Smith (2001) provide usefulaccounts of other types of youngchildren’s language delays, which familiesmay encounter.What we must recognise is the amazingpotential of young children to overcomesensory impairments and, withappropriate scaffolding by parents,grandparents and practitioners, to makesense of their worlds.Sean was still only two when he recountedto his grandfather that he had been makingcakes with his grandmother. The detail of hisaccount indicated not only his ability toremember the sequence and process of thebaking, but to enjoy a joke by signing thatthey had used flour not flower.LISTENING AND RESPONDINGIf, as Britton (1970) claimed, languagelearning begins with listening, thenchildren who are surrounded by talk andengaged in talk interchanges are in anideal position to develop as languageusers. The utterances they make, however,may not necessarily be matched in timeand context to what has been heard.Indeed, as children develop and overhearlanguage used in different contexts theyare storing words to fit with experiencesand to use in their own time. Children aremost likely to learn words when ‘they arenot pressed, or otherwise expected toreply, as in a conversation’ (Bloom et al1996:3171). Difficulties arise when childrenare directed to answer questions orrespond at a particular time when oftenthe making and shaping of a responsethen restricts the language used. Vygotskyclaims that development and instructionhave different ‘rhythms’ although they maybe closely connected (Vygotsky 1978) andfrom their research Bloom and colleaguesdiscovered that the ‘language a childbrings to a conversation is languagealready learned from what has been heardand overheard in a multitude of actionsand interactions that have come before’(Bloom et al 1996: 3171).The implicationof these findings for adults is that theyneed to be good listeners too –75

‘Whether it involves children, babies oradults, interpersonal communication is atwo way process…Listening to childrenshows our respect for them and buildstheir self esteem.’ Petrie (1997:25).In Ruth Weir’s seminal study of ‘crib talk’she gathered evidence of sound play inchildren’s pre-sleep monologues ( Weir1962) and in Meek’s work replicating thiswith her students she discovered that veryyoung children were experimenting withintonation in such pre-sleep talk,when‘variations of tone, pitch and stress weregreatly exaggerated as they practised andrepeated segments of language…pushingthe tonal range ever farther as they did so’(Meek 1985: 45). Of course suchmonologues can only occur if language isfirst modelled and heard, and thengathered and stored, to be played withand rehearsed in safe spaces. Fenton andMartello’s close examination of bath timetalk offers similar exploratoryopportunities when,as well as functionalbath time business, talk occurs, so too doesplay, playful interachange, teasing andjoking between siblings and/or adults(Fenton and Martello 1996).Ste rn maintained that by the time thatc h i l d ren reach the age of about ninem o nths the beginning of jokes and te a s i n goccur and from 15 months onwa rds playand language be come possible (Ste rn1985 ; see also Dunn 1988 ).Ch i l d ren havebegun by this age to understand some ofthe social inte ra ctions that are oc c u rri n ga round them and, as they be co m e‘wo rd s m i t h s’ ( Meek 1985) so then do theybegin also to take pleasure in nonsense,using and subve rting sounds to make fun,u pend co nve ntion and provide humour fo rt h e m s e lves and willing adult audience sand part i c i p ators (Grainger and Goo u c h19 99 ). In discussion of Michael Ro s e n’swo rk with children and poe t ry, Meek vo i ce sRo s e n’s claim that ‘c h i l d re n ,d i s cove ri n glanguage and playing with it, meet itsp hys i cal nat u re be fo re its sense’ ( Me e k2000 :203). Ce rt a i n ly the rhythm and rhy m et h at ve ry young children delight in wo u l dbe te s t i m o ny to this, and nursery rhy m e s,s kipping rhymes and playg round songsand games are still ve ry much in ev i d e n ce,and often co n s i s te nt in co nte nt ove rg e n e rat i o n s. ( Opies 1959 ; Grugeon 2001 ).When cousins Richard (4) and Ceris (5) wereurged by their beloved grandmother to puton some ‘woollies’ against the cold, theirdelight in this newfound and enjoyablesounding word (their parents called themsweaters and cardigans) was displayed in ajoint romp with much laughter and fallingabout, accompanied by repetitions of‘Woolly, woolly, woolly’. Davies (2002) writesof similar examples of toddlers using dancelikemovements accompanying the relishingand rhythms of newfound words.The rich range of sounds, l a n g u a g ep at te rn s, d ramas and tunes of family lifefo rm the fodder on which the curiositiesof babies and young children feed as theybegin their language journ eys. An d,if vision develops in a changing wo rldof colours and text u res (Greenfield 2000),76 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

then language grows in a safe and familiars p a ce of wo rd s, co nve r s at i o n s, rhymesand songs.The key developmental notes includedin the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’for Listening & Responding are:-Long before young babies cancommunicate verbally, they listen to,distinguish and respond to intonationsin adults’ voices.In a familiar context, with a key person,babies can understand and respondto the different things said to them.Young children are able to respondto simple requests and grasp meaningfrom context.Children learn new words very rapidlyand are able to use them in talkingabout matters which interest them.So parents and practitioners need timeto listen to and enjoy the sounds andlanguage of babies and toddlers whenthey are secure and comfortable, perhapsin their cots/beds, or playing in a familiarsetting. Throughout these early years,adults need to engage in rhythmic songs,dances and finger plays, share picturebooks, especially those with repetitive,lyrical words. They also need to show theytoo relish particular words and phrases,sometimes using hand and armmovements, as well as facial expressionsand expressive intonation, to help childrenunderstand meanings.‘Children are enthusiastic to struggle tomake meaning of adults’ communicationsand they need to encounter adults whoare equally enthusiastic to make meaningof their communication.’ Elfer et al (2002draft version: 15).MAKING MEANING‘Social realities are not bricks that we tripover or bruise ourselves on when we kickat them,but the meanings that we achieveby the sharing of human cognitions.’(Bruner 1986:122)The close physical and emotional bondthat exists between mother and child inthe earliest days of a baby’s life enable heroften to interpret the nature of the baby’scry, its purpose and need (see chapter 3).As the relationship develops and feedingand sleeping routines are negotiated andpatterned, each learns something aboutthe roles and rituals involved in family lifeand the baby is initiated into family culture(Bruner 1986). Indeed, from birth, Sterntells us that babies often occupy a statecalled ‘alert inactivity’ when they are quietbut taking in events around them (Stern1985:39). The first recorded smile of a babyis always an event of celebration and joyand although it is claimed that the firstsocial smiling emerges by two monthsof age (Rochat et al 1999) smiles andopen-mouthed responses have beenanecdotally recorded before that age.However, the smile is a signpost,at whatever age, that the baby is now able77

to engage in a new way as ‘when infantsstart to smile in response to socialstimulation, there is an apparent changein the way they relate to the world’ andthe nature of the adult response becomessensitive to the appearance of smilesas ‘on the basis of the expression ofreciprocal pleasure, interactions are finetuned’(Rochat et al 1999: 950).Thus,smiling seems to signal the beginningof identifiable and intentional meaningmaking. The second physical developmentthat appears to change the position of thebaby from being a recipient or secondpartner in meaning making into an activeconstructor and communicator ofmeaning is gesture. Reaching towardsfaces or moving objects occurs in the earlymonths before a baby can position itselfby ‘crawling or cruising’ in order to exploreor capture objects or people or discoveralternative perspectives (Stern 1985).In fact it is possible to claim from the workof Stern and others that pointing mayoriginate from reaching and so acommunicative gesture is created.The development of language, a symbolicmethod of referring and the way in whichwe are distinct from other animals, is amilestone in life as ‘the child learns howto mean’ within the family context (Bruner1986: 113) and the process of‘enculturation’ really begins. Given theopportunities, children under three willalso use other ways of expressingthemselves through movement anddance, singing and other expressive arts(Davies 2002; Duffy 1998; Edwards et al1998;and see chapter 5). But it is mainlythrough language that a young child isenabled to begin to construct the story,or narrative, of her/his own life (Stern 1985)and such narratives, constructions andreconstructions help children to developtheir sense of self, their sense of the socialworlds around them and their place withinthese worlds (Bruner 1986). As well as this,we learn how to ‘behave linguistically’(Halliday 1978) from the auditoryprocessing that occurs before birth andcontinues through life.Thus, learning how to mean and to makemeaning draws on this specialisedknowledge, developed in the womb andprogressing as the child ‘processes thesounds, rhythms and basic building blocksof the words and grammar of his mothertongue’ (Karmiloff & Karmiloff-Smith 2001:vii). In this respect Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith stress the difference betweenspeech and language. Babies are activelyprocessing sounds they hear a long timebefore they understand words orgrammar. They are becoming sensitive tokey aspects of the language/s they heararound them. As Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith (2001) explain, research has shownthat the capacity for speech perception ofa foetus, newborn, or very young infant isimpressive. But we should not confusespeech perception with language.Sometimes speech discriminationcapacities in babies have led theoriststo conclude that humans are born with78 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

‘language’. However, there is much moreto language learning than the ability toappropriately segment a stream of speech.Traditionally, from the work of Bruner(1986) and Wells (1986) and others,we have come to see parents, carersor adults as leaders and scaffolders oflanguage use and conversation. However,the research of Bloom and colleagues,when observing and recording childrenfrom nine months onwards, indicates thatchildren are often the initiators, leadersand directors of talk events andconversations, determining and shapingthe content, length and nature of the talk.They say that ‘both child and mothercontributed to the architecture of the earlyconversations between them, but in factit was the children who were “in charge”’.(Bloom et al 1996: 3171; our italics). Thoseof us who have either lived or worked withbabies and young children would supportthis view from experience of often beingled into conversations, or indeed corners,by young developing conversationalists,often in public spaces! And asopportunities for satisfying curiosity arise,the questions of young children,as developing philosophers, are oftenunanswerable, for example ‘Where wereyou when the sun was built?’ (Coles 1996).The child as ‘director’ of play orconversation is only possible if a sensitiverelationship is evident between the childand adult. Singer claims that the childlearns to ‘read’ her/his mother’s face andthat equally ‘the mother, as the moreexperienced other, attributes certainmeanings to the infant’s diffusemovements. She mirrors and imitates herchild. She interprets her child’s movementsas communication cues that suggest somejoint course of action’ (Singer 2001:2). Thisreciprocity, or mirrored language, actions,gestures or expressions, develops ably intoshared understandings as games, play,teasing and word play become part ofdaily interaction.Play of course soon becomes thecontextual space where meaning is madeand negotiated as children develop waysof interacting with toys, space and ‘others’to construct and reconstruct worlds.As children attempt to make sense of theirlives through play, stories are told,narratives are constructed (see chapter 3).Rosen claims that ‘we can locate narrativein human actions and the events whichsurround them and in our capacity toperceive the world as consisting of actionsand events sequentially ordered (Rosen1988: 13) and as children recreate the rolesof those around them such narratives areconstructed in often the simplest forms,using basic resources and barely indicativelanguage and gesture. Meek offers theview that ‘in their own versions of storieschildren explore intellectually the natureof their own situation – childhood…andas they learn to become both the tellerand the told, they are also learning todialogue with their futures’ (Meek 1998:118). These lessons are best learned fromthe stories heard, shared, discussed andloved in the company of parents, adultsand others who are prepared to suspend79

eality and join with children in riskyjourneys of the imagination, to land alwayssafely, like Max in Sendak‘s classic tale,Where the Wild Things Are, back home,where his supper is waiting and still hot!It is also important to be aware that ‘inplay (children) can say all they know in anyway they like’ (Meek 1985:49) and oftenthis means that the boundaries ofconvention and appropriateness are oftenchallenged and extended, in terms of bothlanguage and physical behaviour. Theboundaries in play contexts are, by thevery nature of play, broad and fluid,although rules may exist, linguistic orphysical, and are defined and negotiatedby the players, and often renegotiatedduring the drama of play. The very earlycommunications between adults andbabies that often include turn taking andthe beginnings of conversation may beimportant in defining appropriatenessand, later, the development of ‘earlymorality’ as very often ‘as a result of faceto-faceturn-taking behaviour with caregivers, infants learn rules for reciprocity,for give and take, together with the strongmotive for using these rules: “together”is so pleasurable’ (Singer 2001: 4). Singermaintains that such behaviour is ‘basedon a strong motivation to share and toconnect, and to construct shared rules’(Singer 2001: 4).It is important to remember, however,as we discuss in chapter 5, that this kindof involvement in joint play, which requiressharing imagination and communicatingfreely, is extremely limited by the cognitiveprocesses of children with autism (Hobson1993; Trevarthen et al 1998).The role of siblings in supporting babiesand young children in developing andshaping meaning is significant (Dunn1984; 1993). In her research (although witholder children, still important in thiscontext), Gregory describes the potentialfor ‘synergy’ between siblings as they playtogether with younger children imitating,repeating, echoing, listening, challenging,etc; but older children are also learningthrough ‘practising consciously what theyknow and through translating officialmeanings into personal sense and viceversa for the younger child’ (Gregory 2001:313).The relationships here are describedas generally equal and the mutuality of thelearning opportunities is celebrated. This‘personal sense’ develops in families,communities and cultures and it isthrough developing such knowledge andknowledge of language, from ‘exposure tocues and models’ from a range of ‘moreknowledgeable others’ that young childrenlearn how to mean,learn how to makesense of the world (Bruner 1986).MAKING MEANING AND PRINT LITER ACY WITHUNDER THREESDuring the years before they are five or six,children in England are gathering andmaking sense of information about theliteracy-dependent society in which theylive (David et al 2000). Campbell (1999)provides a powerful,in-depth account80 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

of his granddaughter Alice’s very earlyexperiences with print literacy. Alice’smutual enjoyment of books with herparents and grandparents displays auniqueness about the path a child takesto becoming an effective language userand sharer in lite rate aspe cts of eve ryd aylife. During these years, the mostimportant aspects of engaging youngchildren in activities involving literacyneed to be aimed at enabling them toacquire the ‘big picture’, to understandh ow lite ra cy wo rk s, h ow books wo rk ,e tc.and not to put them into meaninglesssituations where they are expected todecode symbols, other than their ownmark-making when they wish to conveymessages (David et al 2000),(see chapter5 ). As Ma c ro ry (2001) arg u e s, p ra ct i t i o n e r sneed to understand about individualvariation in language acquisition and nots i m p ly the genera l i s ations from larg e - s ca l eresearch. By observing young children atplay, practitioners can listen and noteindividual differences. Further, Macroryemphasises that young children need toplay rather than to be made to engage intoo great or too early a focus on formall i te ra cy act i v i ty, adding that fo rmal lite ra cyinstruction may be to the detriment oftheir development of spoken language.Apart from wasting the children’s time ifthey do not understand what is going on,the language adults use to discuss lite ra cyis sometimes beyond the experience ofsuch young children and can simply leavethem feeling inadequate. Adults willfrequently focus on their own questionsand meanings rather than recognising thesense in a child’s response. This sense inresponding is well illustrated by Coralie, agedtwo, looking at a book with her mother. Nearthe picture of an apple a large ‘a’ had beenprinted. She asked about the ‘a’ and so hermother tried to explain. As she ended theexplanation Coralie’s mother asked, ‘So ifapple begins with ‘a’ (sounded),what doesorange begin with?’ To which Coralie replied‘Peeling.’ A brilliant, logical answer to a‘question too far’.Prog rammes devised by re s e a rchers suchas Wade and Moore (1993;1996; 2000)and Hannon et al (1991) focus on theloving, sharing of books as sources ofi n s p i ration and enjoy m e nt from ve ry earlyin life. Their studies have highlighted thecrucial role of the adults – parents andca rers – in developing childre n’s abilitiescoincidentally while enjoying bookstogether. Wade and Moore followedup the participants in their Bookstartprogramme, in which parents weresupplied with and encouraged to enjoybooks with their ve ry young childre n ,t h ey found that the children invo lvedin the pro j e ct had sco res in both Ba s e l i n eAs s e s s m e nts and Key Stage 1 assessment swhich were superior to those of theirmatched controls who had not beenenrolled in the Bookstart scheme. Thec h i l d ren outpe rfo rmed their peers in noto n ly English but also in Mat h e m atics andScience. Wade and Moore suggest thatsharing books at home in the early yearsmay contribute to children’s ability to81

attend and concentrate. The evaluationof the PEEP (Peers Early EducationPartnership) programme, another projectwhich encourages parents to share bookswith their children from a very early age,is already showing differences in thereading abilities of the children at school,following their own and their parents’involvement in the project (Evangelouand Sylva 2002).Nowadays young children ‘make sense’of their print dependent society throughmeaning making involving a range ofmedia (Westbrook 1999). Sam (one ofpremature twin boys aged 15 months) wasenthralled to be dressed in his older brother’s‘hand-me-down’ Postman Pat pyjamasinstead of a baby’s sleep suit. For the nextfew days he re pe a te d ly brought Postman Pa tbooks from among their collection to hismother, to delight in and share the picturesand have her tell the stories (abridgedversions of the text where the print provedtoo long),and he wanted to watch theirPostman Pat video.SUMMARY OF KEY ‘MESSAGES’Human beings communicate in numerousways. Language is said to form only a smallpercentage of interaction. Children arekeen observers of all forms ofcommunication, both in order to makesense of what is going on and to be ableto participate. Practitioners need to reflecton their observations of the children’scommunications and their own ability tomake these possible for all children, andparticularly those who might be silencedbecause they are not being encouraged touse their first language or because theyhave a hearing loss.The Framework Component MakingMeaning provides the following essentialpoints about how babies and childrenstrive to convey and interpret meaningsas skilful communicators.From the very beginning of life, youngbabies convey messages about whatthey want and need, as well as howthey feel.Babies learn that their voice and actionshave effects on others and they strive toshare meanings.Young children use actions and wordsto make and justify choices andinfluence the behaviour and responsesof others.As vocabulary increases, children makesense of the world through bargaining,negotiating, questioning, describingand labelling.Thus it is during these first three years thatyoung children begin to understand thatlanguage is not just about being able touse words but how and when to use them,because they have also come to know a lotabout the culture in which their family lifeis embedded and in which each of themlives. According to Bruner (1983) youngchildren understand culturally appropriaterequests, invitations, and linguistic forms –learning how to get things done and to beaccepted in that particular culture.82 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

For example, Eliot (just two years old) wasable to respond to his grandfather’s directivenot to kill a small spider with ‘I was onlygoing to give it a cuddle’, thus not onlyproviding his grandfather with anacceptable response, but attempting toingratiate himself too.Similarly, at just three, Ché and Cymion,who live in Australia, already understoodhow to reason and negotiate inconversation,they also show, in thissequence, incredible insight andmindreading abilities, because theirmother does not like cats:-Ché: you like cats?Mum: sometimes…Cymion: sometimes you not like cats?Ché: just tie a long rope cat can walklong way.Cymion: close gate… cat cat no go throughgate cat cat safe.Mum: yes, but what about the pool? Whatif it fell in the p ool and can’t swim?Cymion: me jump in, cat go down and downand down water, me get cat, catalright. Daddy get me, me alright.Me go down and down and downme alrightChé: Cymi alright? Daddy get Cymi?Mum: yes, Cymi was fine, he was safe. Butwhat about the cat?Ché: me get arm bands for cat, catarmbands.Mum:well, we couldn’t have a cat hereMum:well yes, but I don’t think cats wearbecause of the road, could we?arm bands…Cymion: cat die, cat get run ove r, cars go ve ryfast…cat…Cats no know, cats, umcars go very, very very fast. Cats dieChé: mummy, mummy get long rope umum tie cat up…Can’t can’t go road.Cymion: dogs can swim?Mum: yes, I think dogs can swim…Ché: you like dogs?Mum:well yes, but cats like to walkaround, it’s not fair to tie him up,is it?83

The part of babies’ brains engaged informing connections in response tosounds (the auditory cortex) is moreactive than it will be at any other timethroughout life (Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith 2001). By the end of that first yearthey are able to make gestures indicatingtheir needs, take turns in conversations,recognise and use the language soundst h ey hear around them and assoc i ate facialexpressions with talk (Makin et al 1995).Dunn (1988) argues that this links withchildren’s grasp, between 12 and 36months, of what is and is not culturallyacceptable behaviour and speech but asthe research reported in this chaptershows, experiences of hearing languageand being involved in interactions as ifone is a person who understands and canrespond during the first year of life is thecrucial foundation of the process.84 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 5A Competent LearnerA Competent Learner, one of the Aspects of the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’ isconcerned with babies’ and young children’s ability to make connections (for example,through the senses) and develop the ability to compare, categorise and classify; to beimaginative and creative;and to be able to use symbols to represent thoughts andlanguage. Babies only a few hours old gaze at patterns which resemble the human facein preference to random patterns. This shows that they are able to distinguish betweenthings, and that they appear to come into the world ‘programmed’ to have preferences forhuman faces and human beings and movements. They search out patterns. In this wayyoung children learn to discriminate and make connections between different objects andexperiences. As connections are made, the child makes increasing sense of the world.As babies explore the world through touch,sight, sound, taste, smell and movement, theirsensory and physical explorations affect the patterns that are laid down in the brain.Through repeated experience of people, objects and materials, young children beginto form mental images which lead them to imitate, explore and re-enact as they becomeimaginative and creative. Creativity, imagination and representation through mark makingallows children to share their thoughts, feelings, understandings and identities with others,using drawings, words, movement, music, dance and imaginative play.MAKING CONNECTIONS‘Over the past 20 years or so a growingbody of data on early perceptualcompetence has forced a change in theprevalent image of the young infant…the image of the competent infant hasemerged, with even newborns creditedwith objective awareness of theirsurroundings.’ (Bremner 1998:239).As we have already stated, when babiesfirst enter the world the things that attractthem most are the human voices, faces –the pattern of two eyes, stripes, edges andmovement. In particular, between the ages85

of three and six months, babies showa growing interest in the world aroundthem as they play and above all they areinterested in other people. Their eyesighthas become more coordinated, so thebaby is able to focus on people andobjects that are nearer or further awaythan the earlier short distance whichoriented them to being in focus whenlooking into the face of an adult carryingthem. Now a baby will be seen to scanthe surroundings and to use fingers andmouth to explore objects. Stern (1974)suggested that at this age babies enjoybeing drawn into play by their familiaradults and that the adults come to knowjust the right level of arousal for the baby –under-stimulation or over-stimulation willboth result in non-involvement orcurtailing of interest by the baby – soadults who are responsive adjust theiractions in response to babies’ cues.Babies’ preferred games at this stage arerepetitious and ritualised, such as ticklinga baby’s chest before putting on a cleannappy, the beginnings of intimate familyor baby-carer rituals. Winnicott (1971)believed that because the adult adjuststhe play according to the baby’s cues,this helps the baby feel to some extentin control of the interaction.As Trevarthen et al (1998: 185) suggest:‘Dyadic, emotional and dynamic patternsof communication are shown by infancyre s e a rch to fo rm the fo u n d ations ofp s yc h o l og i cal and cog n i t i ve deve l o p m e nt,social adaptation and personalityintegration.’They continue by stressing the adverseimpact of a lack of, or disruption to, the‘fundamental vitality’ of thesecommunications, adding that theexpressions and responses of a child withautism are often difficult to ‘read’ becausethey tend to be idiosyncratic orimperceptible. As Kate Wall (forthcoming)maintains, there are also implications forany child who is experiencing difficultiesin communication skills.It is in early enco u nte r s, ex p l o ring thro u g hm ove m e nt and the senses, t h at cog n i t i ved eve l o p m e nt prog re s s e s. In fact Pa po u s e k’sresearch over 30 years ago (reported inPa pousek and Pa pousek 1987) showed thatvery young babies enjoyed learning andco ntinued to engage in ex pe ri m e nts whenthe milk which had been their reward nolonger satisfied them,the activity had itsown intrinsic reward.In chapter 2 the theories of Piaget andVygotsky were outlined very briefly and inparticular the way in which Piaget’s ideashad been interpreted in ECEC practice washighlighted. In the field of ECEC they havehad a major impact and the messagestaken from their theories have largelybeen that the Piagetian model of children’sthinking involved the idea of the ‘child aslone scientist’ and stages in cognitivedevelopment. Margaret Donaldson (1978)and the Post-Piagetians (for example,Hughes, McGarrigle and others)demonstrated how Piaget’s theory hadbeen misunderstood and misapplied, andthat their revisions ensured that thecontext in which children developed their86 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

understandings was crucial. They showedhow young children’s understanding iscontingent – related to what theyexperience and know – and that it is up tothe adults who are educating them to helpthem (usually later in life) understand howto apply those understandings to thinkingabout other unfamiliar contexts. Researchby Tizard and Hughes (1984) and Gelmanand Gallistel (1978) was seminal in drawingattention to the ways in which childrenfound tasks incomprehensible in nurseryand school which they could have solvedin their homes because the tasks wouldhave been meaningful and relevant.Among others, Gopnik et al (1999) havefurther shown that babies and youngchildren arrive in ECEC settings alreadyknowing a great deal and they use thisknowledge to learn more, but they needother people to help them. Parents andpractitioners can provide that help – andsometimes other children do too – inindirect as well as direct ways. Forexample, by hanging a mobile over a cotor giving a baby a rattle which they haveenjoyed together previously, to exploresound, feel and taste, independently.Meanwhile Vygotsky’s theory has beenseen in terms of an emphasis on learningas social,the ‘young child as apprentice’model,and his notion of the ‘zone ofproximal development’ – meaning adultsresponsible for a child’s learning wouldneed to observe and assess both what thechild knows and can do and what thatchild is striving to learn. The adult is thento plan how to help that child engage inappropriate activity which will bothinterest the child and help the childachieve the next step in the process oflearning relevant to the topic in hand.Another important idea which links withVygotsky’s work is that of ‘scaffolding’.Bruner (1977) suggested that when anadult or more knowledgeable other childensures manageable steps, support andencouragement for a child trying to door to learn something new, they arescaffolding the learning.Meadows (1993) provides an overview andcritique of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theoriesand research on children’s thinking inwhich she points out the flaws but alsohighlights the tremendous achievementsof these two researchers. As we pointedout in chapter 1 however, it is importantto remember that both were from‘Northern’/minority countries and eventheorising is subject to culturalassumptions. Perhaps one of the mostimportant ideas that should be taken fromtheir research and theories is the key pointthat babies and young children are activelearners. They are not simply vesselswaiting to be filled up with knowledge.This response to learning has formed thebasis for many of the interventionprogrammes devised for children withspecial needs, particularly in the USA, forexample, the Direct Instructionprogramme developed by Bereiter andEngelmann in the 1960s, which still hasechoes today. Such approaches do not87

take into account the rich,natural,experiences available to children whoare included within a mainstream setting.During these first years they are activelytrying to make sense of the worlds inwhich they find themselves. As Donaldson(1978:111) comments after reviewingearlier research on babies ‘we mayconclude that there exists a fundamentalhuman urge to make sense of the worldand bring it under deliberate control.’Gopnik et al (1999) stress how babies andyoung children approach the world as ifthey are scientists, actively engaged inlooking for patterns in what is going onaround them, testing hypotheses, seekingexplanations and formulating newtheories.They suggest that two year oldsin particular have a drive to find out howpeople and their familiar world ‘work’:-‘as with scientists, finding the truth is morethan a profession – it’s a passion. And, aswith scientists, that passion maysometimes make them sacrifice domestichappiness.’ (Gopnik et al 1999:38).Gopnik and her colleagues go on tosuggest that babies play imitation gamesto try to understand other people, babbleto ‘try on’ language;and play games likepeekaboo and hide and seek to find outabout objects and how people see them.The research reported by specialist ECECresearchers such as Athey (1990), Bruceand Meggitt (2002), Matthews (2002),Davies (2002), Nutbrown (1994), andWhalley et al (2000) has providedpractitioners with powerful informationthey have used to explore young children’sschemas – early patterns of behaviourindicating that a child is working at asystematic investigation (see chapter 2for further information about schemas).As Nutbrown (1994: 11) comments:‘Early patterns of behaviour seen in babiesbecome more complex and morenumerous, eventually becoming groupedtogether so that babies and youngchildren do not perform single isolatedbehaviours but coordinate their actions.Toddlers work hard, collecting a pile ofobjects in the lap of their carer, walking toand fro, bringing one object at a time. Theyare working on a pattern of behaviour thathas a consistent thread running throughit…related to the consistent back-andforthmovement. The early schemas ofbabies form the basis of the patterns ofbehaviour which children show betweenthe ages of two and five years, and thesein turn become established foundationsfor learning.’EgocentricityPiaget (1962) argued that young childrenare egocentric, that they can only see theworld from their own point of view. Theyassume that everyone thinks as they do.Gopnik et al (1999) describe an ingeniousexperiment in which they showed thatc h i l d ren ro u g h ly younger than 18 mont h scould not see another’s viewpoint,by providing bowls of broccoli andbiscuits. When they asked a child under18 months to give them broccoli,sayingt h ey liked it be t ter than biscuits, the infant s88 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

still gave them biscuits, because that iswhat the children themselves preferred.The children older than 18 mont h sh oweve r, g ave them broc coli despite theirown expressed preference for biscuits.Gopnik and her colleagues suggest thatat about this age a child’s brain is actuallyreprogramming itself to recognise thisnew understanding about other minds.So although babies seem to be able toempathise by crying when other babiescry, it may be that they are emotionallytuned in to other people – both adults andchildren – but do not yet understand otherviewpoints. Despite this, Bruner (1983) haspointed out that in observations of twobabies, begun when they were three andfive months old respectively, they beganpointing (see chapter 4) at just over ninemonths and at 13 months, and pointingindicates an understanding of otherminds, and of trying to share what is ‘inone’s own mind’. To Bruner, their behavioureven before they began pointing, signalledthat babies are ‘Naïve Realists’, they believethere is a world of objects and that othersexperience the same world they do.Making connections about the world,about what things are and theirsignificance in one’s culture, is important,but being able to appreciate that others’minds may ‘hold different perceptions andthoughts from one’s own’ is a major step.Memory and cognitive developmentAlthough some recent experiments showthat even young babies can rememberwhat happened in the past and canpredict (see for example Wynn’s 1992experiment on babies counting toy duckswhich ‘disappear’), their memory abilitiesclearly develop rapidly between eightmonths and a year (see also chapter 6).This is displayed by their fear of strangersduring this phase, where earlier theywould have smiled.Memory plays an important role inunderstanding the world and in beingable to think. When a toy is hidden undera cloth a baby under about eight monthswill not search for it. Gopnik et al (1999)argue that babies live in a ‘magic’ worldwhere things can just vanish. Later, thebaby will search for the hidden toy,realising that it still exists somewhere. Thisphenomenon is called object permanence.Similarly, when a baby recognises thatpeople do not simply vanish,this is knownas person permanence. It is thoughttherefore that during the last part of theirfirst year babies are able to internallyrepresent – or think about – people orobjects that are familiar to them. Asmemory develops during the second andthird year of life, children become able toengage in the construction of narrativesabout themselves, their families and thingsthat interest them. These narratives helpthem develop their sense of self and selfregulation(see chapter 3), relate to pastexperiences and project into the future.These activities indicate a child’s level ofthinking as we will see in the next section.89

Language and thoughtVygotsky (1978:24) suggested that ‘themost significant moment in the courseof intellectual development, which givesbirth to the purely human forms ofpractical and abstract intelligence, occurswhen speech and practical activity, twopreviously completely independent linesof development, converge.’ Vygotskybelieved that although language maybegin in social interactions, its use as amethod of reflection means it is a toolof complex thinking. According to Nelson(1999),Bakhtin’s idea of multi-voicednessmay be useful in understanding youngchildren – for multi-voicedness means thata parent’s or carer’s ‘voice’ may ‘infect’ themind, so influencing the child without thisbeing realised. Nelson adds that narrativehas now been recognised as linkinghuman thought and language, and thatwhat dramatists do is to emphasise thepsychological processes involved in theconstruction of a story-line or plot. Eventhree year olds need to be able to weavetheir understanding of action,intentions,motives, emotions, other minds, and so on,in order to engage in ‘storying’ (dramaticplay) (Nelson 1999). (See chapters 2 and 6for the emphasis on narrative by leadfigures such as Bruner, Feldman and Siegelrespectively). The research indicates thatlanguage development facilitatescognitive development, but equally,cognitive development fosters languagedevelopment.Jean Mandler has ex p l o red the fact thatbabies do not wait until the onset oflanguage to start thinki n g. She state s:‘The more I delve into cognition in thefirst year of life the more it be co m e sa p p a re nt that many of the most basicfo u n d ations on which adult co n cepts re s ta re laid down during this pe ri od.’ Ma n d l e r( 1996 : 365 ). Mandler suggests that babiescan fo rm cate g o ri e s, be ca u s e, for ex a m p l e,babies re s pond to dolls in a diffe re nt wayf rom how they re s pond to humans, t h eycan pick up the pro pe rty of motion.Mandler concludes by stating that‘language is mapped onto a meanings ys te m’ ( Mandler 1996 : 380 ). Ac co rdingto Bru ce this means that ‘it is developinga meaning sys tem that will lead a tod d l e ri nto incre a s i n g ly more co m p l ex laye ri n g sin play.’ ( Bru ce 2001 :43).Talk with other familiar people is anessential component of cognitivedevelopment. Researchers of privatespeech tentatively suggest (becausemuch of their research is small scale) thatpretend play with a caring adult duringthe second year of life may form a basis forthe private speech that is used to solveproblems and for self-regulation in youngchildren (Smolucha 1992).Practitioners should be aler ted thereforeto the fact that, as we pointed out inchapter 3,depressed mothers were foundto talk less frequently with their babies ifthey were boys and that this was foundto correlate with the infants’ delayedcognitive development compared withgirls from both groups and boys whosemothers were not depressed (Hirose andBarnard 1997).90 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

The importance of social interactionsand cognitive development formaking connectionsSocial inte ra ctions with their mothersand re l i a n ce on them during emotionalchallenges at six to nine months have be e nl i n ked with cog n i t i ve and language skillsat age two years (Robinson and Aceve d o2001 ).Ch i l d ren who had shown lowre l i a n ce on their mothers when distre s s e dand whose mothers had low psyc h o l og i ca lre s o u rce s, had less well deve l o pe dlanguage and cog n i t i ve skills than thosewhose re s ponses displayed high emotionalre a ct i v i ty and who relied heav i ly on theirmothers for suppo rt and social re fe re n c i n g.Fu rt h e r, Mu rray and Coo per (1997) discussthe growing body of ev i d e n ce indicat i n gt h at po s t n atal depression is implicated ina range of adverse outcomes for babies,e s pe c i a l ly males, i m p a cting on theircog n i t i ve and emotional deve l o p m e nt.Emphasis on the impo rt a n ce of early,s u p po rt i ve inte ra ctions be tween babiesand the adults ‘m o t h e ring ‘ them and thei m p a ct on cog n i t i ve abilities, is also fo u n din Wi j h n ro k s’s (1998) re s e a rc h .Wh e remothers we re able to maintain theat te ntion of their babies in inte ra ct i o n s,whether the babies we re pre - te rm orf u l l - te rm ,the be t ter the outcome for theb a b i e s’ cog n i t i ve deve l o p m e nt (Smithet al 1996 ).Bo rn s tein (1998: 301) re po rted on re s e a rc hco n ce rned with the way ‘Me ntal growth inthe human child consists of the incre a s i n gcoo rd i n ation of mind and re a l i ty.’ To do thishe loo ked at ‘h a b i t u at i o n’ – the way inwhich babies are at first inte re s te d, t h e nbe come bo red with, and lose inte rest in,o b j e cts they are shown seve ral times.An impo rt a nt finding from this re s e a rc hre l ated to babies who had been ex po s e dto cocaine in ute ro. At first it was assumedt h at the problems such children had one nte ring school we re the result of longte rm damage from the dru g s. Howeve r,Bo rn s te i n’s wo rk indicates that, while thec h i l d ren may well be ex pe riencing difficultl i ves through co ntinuing ri s ky be h aviour intheir pare nt s, the dru g - ex posed babieswe re not nece s s a ri ly disadva ntaged in theiri n fo rm ation processing abilities per se, t h eywe re suffe ring from an arousal re g u l at i o np ro b l e m ,o ften crying in re s ponse to nove ls t i m u l ation where the dru g - f ree babieswe re inte re s ted and po s i t i ve.Teasing of toddlers by fathers is moreprevalent than by mothers, accordingto research by Labrell (1994). Suchinteractions introduce novelty andambiguity which challenge and oftendelight young children. However,interactions resulting in arousal meanthat the adults involved need to besensitive to levels with which theirchildren are comfortable.Equally, as children interact more withsiblings and peers, they will be insituations where conflicts may arise.Several researchers (for example Gopniket al 1999; Light 1983) discuss how conflictcan act as a spur to cognitivedevelopment. This idea was also putforward by Piaget (1932),particularly inrelation to moral development.91

In re s e a rch in French day ca re ce nt re s,Sy lvie Rayna (2001) found that ve ry yo u n gc h i l d ren (less than two years old) we red i s p l aying the notion of a ‘co m m u n i ty ofl e a rn e r s’. In one ex a m p l e, a seven mont hold baby had tried to co py the action ofan older child who had inserted a strawi nto a tube. Rayna discusses hero b s e rvations as examples of the cog n i t i vedimension of tog e t h e rn e s s, u s u a l ly note dbe tween mothers and infant s, but in thiscase noted among children themselve s.She links her wo rk to Pi a g e t i a nco n s t ru ct i v i s m (the child as act i veco n s t ru ctor of kn owledge thro u g hex pe ri e n ce and not as an ‘e m p ty ve s s e l’ ).BEING IMAGINATIVEPlay and cognitive developmentIn 1972, Bruner’s article ‘The nature anduses of immaturity’ was published. In thisarticle he argued that the young ofanimals play to learn and that the capacityfor learning is related to the length ofimmaturity. Bruner added that playinvolves flexibility of thought. Corinne Hutt(1966) building on the work of Piagetsuggested that when children explore, it isas if they are asking the question ‘Whatdoes this do?’and when they havediscovered some of the properties ofwhatever they are interested in,they playas if they are asking the question ‘Whatcan I do with this?’ Research with schoolage children (Bruner et al 1976) suggeststhat when they have had opportunities toplay (explore and experiment freely) withmaterials, they are better able to solvetasks using those materials later. Althoughplay with babies may be initiated by afamiliar adult, once they have had someexperience, babies will begin playingspontaneously – this spontaneity is anessential characteristic of play. The otherkey aspect is that it is the baby, or child,who is in control and any adult involvedneeds to follow that lead. Stern’s (1977)research showed that parents who behaveas if their interactions with their babies area ‘dance’ in which the baby takes the leadare those who most effectively foster theirchildren’s development and learning.In the very early years young children areplaying to find out about the materialsand people – the world – they find aroundthem.Young babies will repeat the sameaction – for example, throwing a toy downon the floor when in a high chair, so anadult or another, older child will retrieveit – or enjoying a hiding game when theyare beginning to understand objectpermanence (coming to know that evenwhen out of sight, an object or a personstill exists).Goldschmeid’s (1987) video Infants at Workshowed the play and social interactionsbetween very young babies, as they sharethe contents of a treasure basket, withcaring adults nearby to give reassurance.Bruce (2001:46) stresses that‘Ch i l d ren at play are able to stay flex i b l e,re s pond to eve nts and changing situat i o n s,be sensitive to pe o p l e, to adapt, think ontheir fe e t, and keep alte ring what they do in92 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

a fast-moving sce n e. When the process ofp l ay is ri c h ,it can lead children into cre at i n grich prod u cts in their sto ri e s, p a i nt i n g s,d a n ce s, music maki n g, d raw i n g s, s c u l p t u re sand co n s t ru ct i o n s, or in the solving ofs c i e ntific and mat h e m at i cal pro b l e m s.’Some learning in young children occursthrough imitation.They will try to do whattheir carer does, sometimes after a timelapse, which indicates how memory isassisting that learning, but usually that‘imitation’ is actually a re-construction –the child’s own version of what s/he hasobserved and noted, constructed andtransformed – in just the same way apainter like Picasso would transformexperiences, ideas, feelings andperceptions into a work of art. Bruce (2001)provides a detailed overview of learningthrough play in the years before six,commenting that during the toddler yearschildren begin to rehearse roles, pretendand create play props, as their ability toimagine accelerates rapidly, along withlanguage and play with symbols.Meanings are made, not mere ly dispatc h e dand co n s u m e d, as Meek arg u e s,‘The most strenuous period of imaginativeactivity is that time in childhood when weplay with the boundaries of our view ofthe world:sense and nonsense, the realand the fictive, the actual and the possible,all within the cultural domain we inhabit.’(Meek 1985: 53)Observing children when they play infamiliar surroundings is not onlyenjoyable, it is essential, because it isduring play that children are relaxedenough to ‘perform’ in ways whichdemonstrate the amazing extent of whatthey know and can do (see Lindon 2001).BEING CREATIVERobinson, and others, claim that‘creativity is in crisis’ (Robinson 2001: 195)as instruction and information givingand gathering overwhelm the timeavailable for nurturing and valuingdifferent intelligences and ways of beingand belonging.And yet the curi o s i ty of ve ry yo u n gc h i l d ren and their ability to take risks ind i s cove ry, p rovide a firm basis on whichc re at i v i ty can be deve l o pe d. By about eightm o nths of age, when children can movere a s o n a b ly indepe n d e nt ly, away from thefamiliar landsca pes of the adult faces whoe nte rtain and co m m u n i cate with them,c h i l d ren will range around their homel a n d s ca pe, seek out and ex p l o re object sco n s t a nt ly. Anything reachable can bet u rned into a play t h i n g. Ma ny pare nts arefamiliar with the idea that, in this, t h ec h i l d’s re s e a rc h ,p l a ces such as ki tc h e nc u p bo a rds be come play sites (Pi e rce 2000).Such ex p l o ration satisfies curi o s i ty but it isalso helping the child develop pe rce p t u a land spatial awa re n e s s. Ag a i n ,the re s t ri cte da b i l i ty to move and to ex p l o re of their ow na c co rd, ex pe ri e n ced by children withce re b ral palsy or those not motivated tom ove, l i ke some children with Dow n’ss y n d ro m e, means that these children willnot develop pe rceptual and spat i a lawa reness as effe ct i ve ly as other childre n .93

In Kate Pa h l’s longitudinal re s e a rch study ofyoung boys’ meaning, making activities intheir homes, she found that children oftendrew on the ‘cultural capital’ available tothem at home, including games played,te l evisual text s, Su pe rm a ri o, the home site :spaces and artefacts as well as storiesheard, etc, (Pahl 2001:120) in order toenrich their meaning, constructions andtransformations. Commercially producedtoys are seldom used in isolation forc re at i ve purposes and sometimes their usecan be counter productive, particularly ifdirected by adults. In Pridham, Becker andBrown’s research project, investigating theoptimum conditions for childre n’s foc u s e dexploration of toys, they found that acaregiver’s ‘attention-directing behaviourhad a negative effect on infant explorationof toys. The more a mother directed andconsequently, refocused her infant’sattention, the less focused exploration oftoys the infant did’ (Pridham et al 2000:1445). More often,play, storying andcreative acts appeared to take place inthe co-constructed worlds of adults andchildren and Pierce discovered throughher observations the significance of ‘dyadicinterplay between the occupations of themother and those of the infant andtoddler’. She found too that the mothersin her study ‘supported and shaped infantand toddler play in the home throughtheir management of home space and itsplay objects’ (Pierce 2000:297). It is, asMeek suggests, the affective nature of play,the exploration of alternate worlds, the‘rituals of story play’ that serve as culturalreference points in the development ofwhat children see as real and not real(Meek 1985: 49). (Note again here theinvolvement of shared, co-constructedrituals and narratives, shaped by thechildren with adult support andencouragement, reiterating the ‘messages’in the section on language and thoughtearlier in this chapter.)It is Ma l a g u z z i ,in discussing the philosophyof Reggio Em i l i a , who descri bes the nat u reof children and creativity from his workand observations:‘They have the privilege of not beingexcessively attached to their own ideas,which they construct and reinventcontinuously. They are apt to explore,make discoveries, change their points ofview and fall in love with forms andmeanings that transform themselves.’(Edwards et al 1998:75)Ma l a g u z z i’s belief is that ‘c re at i v i ty re q u i re st h at the s c h ool of kn ow i n gfinds co n n e ct i o n swith the s c h ool of ex p re s s i n g, o pening thed oors to the hundred languages of childre n’( Edwa rds et al 1998 :77).Through the use of language andliterature, and playful encounters withboth,parents and carers are able to showyoung children the nature of what ispossible. Robinson claims that ‘creativity isa process of seeing new possibilities’ andthat ‘intuition and a feel for the materialsand processes involved’ is critical(Robinson 2001: 137). The emphasis in thediscussion of creativity in young children ison process rather than production and the94 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

exploratory and affective nature ofchildren in determining their play spacesand contexts is, by definition,creative. If,as Robinson claims, ‘creative processesare rooted in imaginative thought,in envisaging new possibilities…withoutcomes in the public world’ (Robinson2001: 115) then the child ranging throughkitchen cupboards and using saucepansand kitchen utensils as percussioninstruments is engaging in creative acts.‘Where there are high qualityopportunities for babies and toddlers tocreate and imagine…the key person isattentive to a child’s creative explorations,providing assistance in a way that doesnot disrupt the child’s flow of thinking andthrough their unobtrusive support givesthe child the emotional security toexperiment.’ (Manning-Morton and Thorp2001:section 7: 3).Although,most frequently, creativity isseen in childhood as taking part in acooperative and co-constructed world(Meek 1985, Dyson 2001),the very youngchild can be regarded as being creativewhen engaging in a monologue whilepushing a toy train,or while simplydigging sand. Similarly, Weir’s pre-sleepmonologues, the noise production of asingle child exploring clanking resourcesor a song or rhyme constructed playingwith sounds or words are examples ofchildren’s creativity. Anna Craft maintainsthat ‘creativity is dispositional and not amatter of ability…choosing a creative pathin any given situation is less a matter ofability to do so and more about “mind set”or attitude’ (Craft 2000: 107) and, withoutthe constraints perceived or collected aschildren grow and mingle in criticalgroups, young children in emotionally safecontexts are able to follow an exploratoryand risk taking mind set.Of course, as Chambers reminds us, it is ‘inliterature that we find the best expressionof the human imagination and the mostuseful means by which we come to gripswith ideas about ourselves and what weare’ (Chambers 1993: 16) and childrenneed, not only to construct andreconstruct their lived lives in playfulcontexts, but also to find their livesmirrored or referenced in the textsencountered in their early years, althoughthere are still very few story books whichinclude young children with disabilities ascentral, powerful characters.There has been much celebration ofMaurice Sendak’s (1970) story of Where theWild Things Are (Meek 1998) simply for thisreason;children are able to find their ownrelationships and temperament in Max aswell as their own sense of safety and wellbeing in the delicious closure to the tale,back in his very own room. Such texts arereassuring but also risky and challengingand they dare to play with safe contextsand upend them, exactly as children dothrough play and role play.Robinson believes that ‘the relationshipbetween knowing and feeling is at theheart of the creative process’ (2001:137)which brings together the investigative,information gathering explorations of95

young children and the affective nature ofthe world of babies and young children insafe, shared contexts. What artists do is totake what we know or see, feel or hear, andactively experiment (Gopnik et al 1999),transforming that knowledge throughtheir creations – and babies and childrendo this too. As Bruce (2001:4) suggests:-The imagination makes images in themind. Creativity is the process by whichchildren turn these images into creations.They try out ideas, feelings andrelationships in their role play or pretendplay or find things to be used as playprops…In the context of play, creativityis more of a process than a product.’REPRESENTING THROUGH MARK MAKING‘Children want to write… They mark upwalls, pavements newspapers withcrayons, chalk, pens or pencils…Anythingthat makes a mark. The child’s marks say,“I am”.‘ (Graves 1983:3)Babies’ fingers and hands, as we have seen,are used to feel, to touch, to explore,to point, to reach and then to wave orgesture. In their movements, cruising andexplorations, materials with which to makemarks are often accidentally found, testedand enjoyed. For example, as soon as solidfood and drink is introduced ,babies canbe seen to pour drinks onto surfaces andtrail their fingers through it and dip fingersinto food, not only to use their fingers astools for feeding but also to tracepathways and investigate trails and tracks.Physical traces of babies and youngchildren are often to be found, before theuse of pens, pencils, crayon and paint, onsurfaces, walls and fabrics and before thesymbolic nature of mark making that weknow as literacy is discovered. What ishappening, however, is that very youngchildren soon discover ‘internationality’,that is the desire to make a mark, to‘signify’ and to produce an effect. Thepleasurable effect of such tactile events isalso felt by adults, as they too trail fingersin sand, tracing patterns or shapes orindeed doodle or idle with pens or pencils,letting minds wander and allowing oftennon representational shapes to develop.Making marks, ‘leaving my mark’, has oftenbeen described as a basic human desireand function,leaving signposts orsignifiers of our existence.Parents and carers are often quick to seizeon such marks made by infants andinterpret them as having significancealthough,while such marks are clearlyimportant, imposing representationalsignificance at this stage would beincorrect. However, in western societies,children are growing and learning in printrich and print significant cultures and veryquickly young children becomeencultured into sign making activities.Also, as children begin to develop anability to conceptualise the abstract natureof language, the next stage, Vygotsky’s‘second order symbolism’ (1978) begins totake shape. As Kress explains, ‘alphabeticcultures demand that children change tackfrom their route which relates voice withimage, which is plausible to them, to theroute of the alphabet, which relates sound96 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

with image (the image of a letter) whichis not plausible to them’ (Kress 2000: 69).Indeed, at this stage, during their first yearsof life, young children are busy makingsense of their world, interpreting sounds,language, intonation and voice andestablishing strong bonds andrelationships with family and carers. It is inthis context that the representation of thisworld becomes possible with all thecultural tools available to them (Pahl 1999;Kress 2000). That is, children will happilyrepresent their world with toys, artefactsand available materials, in a multi modalsense as well as with pen and paper, stillthrough play, as they placehold, or fix intime sounds, objects, events or people(Barrs 1988; Pahl 1999). At this stage, Kressargues, ‘drawing the world and writing theworld are much the same thing for a child;both are recordings, transcriptions,translations, ‘spellings’ of aspects of theworld of the child’. (Kress 2000: 69).Beanie (then two) wanted to play at being ina café. Her Mum and Nan were told to becustomers but when Mum was asked whatshe would like by the waitress (Beanie),sheasked for a menu. For a moment Beaniethought, then decided she would go toanother room to fetch a book. Nan gave hera piece of paper folded instead. Without anyprompting, she went to a table where therewere pens and began to mark across thepaper, each line a different set of shapes orloops. She had created a menu whichbecame part of the shared ritual of café playlasting many months and becoming moreelaborate with each enactment.‘Children need to represent theirexperiences, their feelings, and ideas ifthey are to preserve them and share themwith others. When we represent we makean object or symbol stand for somethingelse’ Duffy (1998:9).Be fo re any ev i d e n ce of alphabetic pri nte m e rg e s, c h i l d ren engage in mark maki n gto re p re s e nt immediate oc c u rre n ce s, fo rexample ‘two to three year olds mayre p re s e nt the move m e nts of clouds andwate r; the wind blowing the wa s h i n g ;washing one’s hands; combing one’s hair;bubbles rising to the surf a ce of wate r;dinosaurs bleeding to deat h ; the act i o n sof wa l king along, t ripping over and fallingover into a dustbin; or even simply the actof sitting dow n .’ ( Mat t h ews 1998 : 94 ). Su c h‘a ction re p re s e nt at i o n s ‘, claims Mat t h ews,a re fo rmed from observat i o n s, t h e ni nte rp re ted and re p re s e nte d, o ften inways that appear not to bere p re s e nt ational or meaningful to adults.It is inte resting that when children areengaged in such mark making act i v i t i e s,s peech almost always accompanies thep roce s s, establishing Vyg o t s ky’s notiont h at ‘inner spe e c h’ be comes the dire cto rof language and act i o n ,‘b ri n g i n gawa reness to speech‘ (Vyg o t s ky 1986 :183 ). So, c i rcular marks on the page maybe the wheel ‘going round and ro u n d’ ora firewo rk shape, and such drawing willo ften be accompanied by onomatoe p i cs o u n d s, s h rieks and ex p l o s i o n s.97

Eliot (at two and a half) was at homechalking on a blackboard and narrating atale of a donkey who ran away from ahorrible, cruel person – he traced swirls as hetold of the donkey’s wanderings and finallybrought his drawing to the centre of theboard when the donkey found shelter andhappiness with a little boy and girl. The staffat his nursery, when told of this storyingexplained that they had read a tale to thechildren about a donkey who had a cruelowner and who ran away.As well as signifying objects and eventsthrough making marks to symbolise themand fix them in time and space, childrenare also often encouraged at this stage tobe involved in writing acts in differentgenres that are socially and culturallysignificant, for example signing birthdaycards, mimicking shopping lists andwriting notes. Their name, and the lettersfrom their name, become the focus at thisstage for much of the writing as well as arange of other circular and stroke-likeshapes that young children perceive to bethe nature of adult writing. It is interestingthat very young children have beenobserved to make marks which reflect thewritten language of their culture at thisstage with, for example, children from nonwestern cultures making marks from rightto left, or top to bottom,using dots,pictures and other symbols, some of theirown invention, to represent and makemeaning. They are drawing on all availablecultural capital to create such scripts and’the decisions which children make inreading and writing…are not onlyorganised but are laced with bothpersonal and social organisation. Thisinterplay between personal and socialorganisation in the evolution of literacy isuniversal’ (Harste et al 1984: 107). Thus,individual children can be seen torepresent, in their mark making, whicheversociety, community and culture to whichthey belong.It is important to acknowledge thecrucial part that the context, a writingenvironment which is accepting,emotionally positive and in which thereare appropriate resources, plays inchildren’s developing understandingsof the codes, symbols and signs thatdetermine effective print communication.Such contexts, determined and definedby parents and carers, as well asaccompanying interactions, form the basisof the affective nature of the experience.Because a child must ’disengage himselffrom the sensory aspect of speech andreplace words by images of worlds…which lack the musical, expressive,intonational qualities of oral speech’(Vygotsky 1986: 181) then whether or notthere is any sense of emotionalengagement by and with adults will effectwhether or not children wish to repeat theprocess or event.For many adults and caregivers, suchpleasurable interactions are natural.Indeed, when Campbell recorded a day98 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

in the literacy life of his three year oldgranddaughter, he found that she wasnaturally, intentionally, playfully andcooperatively engaged in oral and writtenliteracy events throughout the day.Further, Alice orchestrated these activitieswith everyday rituals and routines, such asmeal times, and the events were almostexclusively initiated and led by the child(Campbell 1998). However, with parentsand practitioners currently feelingpressurised into engaging young childrenin functional literacy at a very young age,it is important to remember that at thisage children will attend most voraciouslyto what interests them. The experiences,memories and interaction in which youngchildren are engaged are constantly beingrevisited, refined and consolidated withboth concrete and abstract connectionsbeing made between objects, events,people and interactions. It is in thiseveryday, social context in which youngchildren’s development occurs that literacycan also emerge and grow. It is this idea of’literacy and literate outcomes asprocesses to be experienced, to be placedin relation to other literacy events andpractices rather than seen as unchangingobjects of study or unquestioningreverence’ (Bearne 1995: 4). Also, becausethe beliefs that we hold as adults, parentsand carers, affect what child behaviours wevalue and encourage (Harste et al 1984),then it seems important to develop andgive status to opportunities and resourcesin safe and meaningful contexts forchildren to explore, imitate andreconstruct the sign systems which willinfluence and shape their lives, within theirown and others’ cultures. Indeed, asMatthews claims, ‘what we represent, theforms this representation may take, andhow far societies support the growth ofrepresentational and expressive thought,are pedagogical, social and political issues‘(Matthews 1998:105).What children ‘represent’ will beinfluenced by the material nature of theirsurroundings (including the voices andexchanges they witness) and thesignificance given to such materials byfamily and community. Bruner takes theview that ‘human mental activity dependsfor its full expression upon being linkedto a cultural tool kit’ (Bruner 1986:15) andKress reminds us that ‘as children aredrawn into culture,“what is to hand”,becomes more and more that which theculture values and therefore makes readilyavailable’ (Kress 1997: 13). Allowingchildren the freedom to explore, express,denote and communicate through markmaking in a supported environment thatvalues talk and interaction,will ensure thatearly mark making feeds into developingliterate practices (David et al 2000).Developing effective oral and written skillsof communication and engagingaffectively with such practices are bothcrucial to young learners as ‘language hasto interpret the whole of our experience…with the child carving out for himself a99

oute that reflects the particularcircumstances of his own individualhistory and experience’ (Halliday 1978:21).As children ex pe ri m e nt, t a ke risks and makem a rks that ‘stand for things in the wo rl d’( Kress 2000: 6 ), within a lite ra cy ri c he nv i ro n m e nt, including news p a pe r s, ce re a lp a c ke t s, s i g n s, n o t i ce s, a dve rt i s e m e nt s,p ri nted tee shirts as well as screen lite ra cy,with adults who ca re and inte ra ct in as u p po rting and challenging manner, t h e nt h ey will emerge as lite ra cy userst h e m s e lve s. Howeve r, this is not a tidyp rocess – such as underw riting or co py i n gm ay seem to be – and it is nece s s a ry to ‘l i vewith the litter of lite ra cy’ ( Ha r s te et al 1984 :140) as those who have doc u m e nted theirown and other childre n’s lite ra cyd eve l o p m e nt will co n f i rm (eg Bi s s ex 1980 ,Pahl 1999) with signs, n o t i ce s, s c raps ofp a per establishing ident i ty, re l ationships ando f fe ring pe r s u a s i o n ,as well as maps,co n s t ru ctions and arte f a cts appe a ring atw i l l . Howeve r, the lasting effe cts of thiste m po ra ry state are that young childre nd evelop as makers and users of the symbo l i ccode in meaningful ways, l e a rning of thepower and influence that co m m u n i cat i o na cts invo lving writing can wield.LINKS WITH THE FRAMEWORKThe Development Matters points forthis Aspect, A Competent Learner, inthe Framework Birth to Three Matters areas follows:-Making ConnectionsYoung babies use movement andsensory exploration to connect withtheir immediate environment.As they become more mobile, babiesconnect with toys, objects and a widergroup of people.Young children learn through repeatingpatterns of play (sometimes calledSCHEMA).(CD-ROM).Children begin to connect objects andideas: a pair of socks, a big teddy,armbands for swimming.Being ImaginativeYoung babies enjoy and learn byimitating their key person.As they become mobile, babies usetheir whole bodies to recreate anexperience.Young children re-enact familiar sceneswith the help of people, props andresources.Children engage in concentrated playin which they extend their languageand try out ideas, feelings, relationshipsand movements.100 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Being CreativeYoung babies explore their immediateenvironment of people, objects andfeelings through all their senses.Babies quickly make sense of andrespond to what they see, hear, feel,touch and smell.As young children become moremobile, they express themselvesthrough physical action and sound.As children become more skilful inusing language and other forms ofcommunication,dance, music, 2D and3D art, they talk about, and share inother ways, the things they paint, drawand play with.Representing Through Mark MakingYoung babies discover mark makingby chance, noticing for instance thatfingers trailed through spilt juice canextend it or that a hand imprint remainsin wet sand.Babies imitate and improvise actionsthey have observed – a scarf is made tostand for a blanket or a skipping ropehandle for a microphone.As young children explore tools andmaterials they make marks to whichthey give meaning.Children begin to recognise somemarks and realise these meansomething to others.Parents and practitioners can observebabies and young children engaging inthe behaviour outlined in the lists aboveand reflect on the research informationprovided in the different sections of thechapter, which demonstrates the amazingcompetence, scientific exploration and‘sense making’ capacity of these ver yyoung people.SUMMARY OF KEY ‘MESSAGES’This chapter has reviewed research aboutchildren’s incredible competence inlearning – from birth (begun even beforethen,in the womb). The most important‘messages’ from this research are:-Babies seem to be tuned to learn from,with and about, firstly the people andthe cultural environment around them,followed by the material environment –they come into the world primed to becurious, competent learners.Play, in which the baby or child takesthe lead and makes choices, is a processwhich fosters cognitive development.Children ‘make sense’ of and ‘transform’knowledge, experiences and eventsthrough imaginative and creativeactivity.Language and thought aredevelopmentally linked, they eachdepend on and also promote thedevelopment of the other.101

Children’s developing memories anduse of narrative help them make senseof their lives.They want to share and express theirideas playfully through the ‘hundredlanguages of children’ (for example,dancing, singing, talking, ‘storying’,music making, painting, makingpatterns, building, model-making,‘animating’ puppets and other toys,dressing up, gardening, looking afteranimals, drawing, mark making – to listbut a few possibilities).Once again,the research points to thecentrality of positive relationships withparents and other key people in youngchildren’s lives.102 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 6A Healthy ChildA Healthy Child, the focus of the fourth Aspect of the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’,brings together evidence about young children’s mental and physical well-being. As westated in the introductory chapter, being healthy means much more than havingnutritious food and being free from illness. For babies and young children being specialto someone and cared for is important for their physical, social and emotional health andwell-being. Health and social well-being underpin and determine children's responsesto their environment, to people and to new experiences. Emotional well-being includesrelationships, which are close, warm and supportive; being able to express feelings suchas joy, grief, frustration and fear leading to the development of coping strategies whenfaced with new, challenging or stressful situations. As the research in chapter 3 and thatpresented in this chapter shows, early emotional health and freedom from stress bodeswell for both mind and brain.Meeting children’s physical needs isfundamental to their well-being. As theyare growing and developing children whoare hungry, tired, ill or uncomfortable willnot enjoy the company of adults and otherchildren. However, young children willsoon become bored if choice is limited orprovision inappropriate to their needs.Responsible adults need to plan and offercaring support to keep young childrensafe and protected in a variety of ways andgradually they will know when to ask forhelp. It is through their own explorationsand struggles to be physicallyindependent that they quickly becomeskilful in a range of movements involvingboth large and fine motor control. In time,young children learn about their bodiesand what they can do and are able tomake their own healthy choices.Work by researchers over the last twentyfive years has changed much of thethinking about babies and young childrenand their capabilities. Stern (1977) andKagan (1984) showed how newbornbabies already have some abilities, or they103

ecome evident during the first month oflife, and they then build on these. Sight,smell, hearing, touch,the ability to feelpain and to respond to changes in bodyposition are all present when a baby isborn. This means that the human bodyand brain are amazingly primed to ‘takeon’ and try to make sense of the uniqueworld into which each individual comes.This chapter outlines information andissues concerned with healthy bodies,brains and minds, how they grow anddevelop and what they appear to need.In particular, the chapter provides a reviewof what is now known about the brain inthe early years. It also raises some of theissues that relate to health and researchevidence concerning early interventionto ameliorate the effects of disadvantageon health.So while there may be some specialconditions or circumstances to whichattention should be paid, and any relevantreligious rules relating to diet for exampleneed to be acknowledged and followed inECEC settings, practitioners need above allto recognise parents’ and grandparents’fund of knowledge, and to respect this,while ensuring they address all children’shealth and safety needs.Meggitt (2001:1) discusses health inholistic terms, and suggests that beinghealthy constitutes a number of differentphysical,mental and social,emotional,environmental and spiritual states (seediagram below). These are being fit, notbeing ill, being able to adapt, living to anold age, and being happy. Her Six aspectsof health,irrespective of age, are presentedin Figure 1 on the following page.WHAT DOES ‘HEALTHY’ MEAN?Our understanding of the term ‘healthy’is dependent upon particular social andcultural constructions. What constitutesbeing ‘healthy’ in the UK may well differfrom its definitions in other socialcontexts. Within the UK,different ethnicgroups are said to have varied healthneeds. However, Currer’s (1991) researchraised issues about the effects ofinstitutional racism through stereotypingand Black (1989) contributed theunderstanding that the attitudes andexpectations (in relation to health) ofchildren of British minority groups aresimilar to those of their schoolmates.104 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

FIGURE 1:SIX ASPECTS OF HEALTH (MEGGITT 2001:2)Environmental healthEnv i ro n m e ntal healthre fers to the genera lhealth of the soc i e ty inwhich we live. In areas offamine – where the firstp ri o ri ty for health is toobtain enough food –people may be denieda c cess to health. Pove rtyand ove rc rowded livingconditions are alln e g at i ve aspe cts ofe nv i ro n m e ntal health.Physical healthThis is the easiest aspectof health to measure.It involves the physicalfunctioning of the bodyand includes thegrowth and physicaldevelopment of thebaby and child.Mental healthMental health involvesour ability to organiseour thoughts logically,and is closely linkedto emotional andsocial health.The six aspects of healthSocial healthSocial health involvesthe way we relate toother people and formrelationships.Emotional healthEmotional healthinvolves how we expressemotions such as joy,grief, frustration,hurtand fear. This ability toexpress our ownemotions and to react toother people’s emotionsleads on to copingstrategies for anxietyand stress.Spiritual healthSpiritual healthinvolves personal,moral codes ofconduct – as wellas religious beliefsand practices.Figure 1: Reproduced with permission from Meggitt (2001:2)105

Meggitt (2001:4) also recommends thebasic needs of babies and children forachieving and maintaining healthy growthand development as being,‘protectionfrom infection and injury; shelter, warmth,clothing; access to health care;intellectualstimulation; praise and recognition ofachievements; social contacts; security;cleanliness; fresh air and sunlight; loveand consistent and continuous affection;sleep, rest and activity; and food’From her own review of the researchliterature, Meggitt lists the aspects ofchildren’s lives that affect their healthas being‘genetic factors, pre-conceptual factors,antenatal factors, perinatal factors,nutrition,infectious diseases, housing,income, accidents, emotional and socialfactors, lifestyle – social and personalhabits, environmental factors, andgovernment policy’ (Meggitt 2001: 9-10).The articles of the United NationsConvention on the Rights of the Child (UN1989) also stress many health and safetyissues and the view of protection fromharm in the Convention has a widerinterpretation than that referring to childabuse as defined in the UK (Home Office,DoH, DES, Welsh Office 1991). TheConvention,like the Children Act 1989,recognises children’s own views andwishes as important – in other words theirpersonhood is acknowledged..Mayall (1996) re po rts on a study of (5 to 9ye a r-old) childre n’s own management ofo rd i n a ry health mainte n a n ce and note st h at children have tended to be theo b j e cts of health ca re ; their opinions havef re q u e nt ly been ‘d ow n g ra d e d’ by healthp ro fe s s i o n a l s.Yet childre n , she assert s,also ‘a c q u i re health-re l ated kn ow l e d g et h rough info rmal learning at home…t h ey use their kn owledge to pro m o te theirown we l l - be i n g, in the co ntext of and ini nte ra ction with social and phys i ca lfe at u res of their env i ro n m e nt’ ( Mayall 1996 :30 ). Ch i l d ren are act i ve ly part i c i p ating inthe mainte n a n ce of healthy life s tyles (theirown and others). Pri d m o re and Ste p h e n s’(2000) rev i ew of the child-to - c h i l da p p roach to health education (albeit withre fe re n ce to older children) also showsh ow this appro a c h , which is in ope rationin more than eighty co u nt ries wo rl dw i d e,a c kn owledges children as act i vep a rt i c i p a nts in health promotion andm a i nte n a n ce of healthy life s ty l e s.While the children on whom this reviewis focused are younger than those citedabove, Post & Hohmann (2000:203)provide guidelines which are relevantto children aged under three.‘Infants and toddlers in group care haveno choice about being in childcare. Eachpart of the day, however, presentsopportunities for choices and decisionsthey can make…what to hold, look at, orwhether, how and how long to participatein an activity…Making these choices anddecisions on a daily basis and being ableto change their mind from one day to thenext tends to give children a sense ofcontrol over their day.’106 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

It is only by being given oppo rtunities tom a ke choices like those suggested abovet h at children begin to understand theco n s e q u e n ces of their decisions and tobe come co m pe te nt at ste e ring their ow nl i fe co u r s e s. It may be that one of the keyf a ctors leading to the later life succe s s e s(including gre ater freedom from ment a lillness) of the Hi g h / S co pe pre s c h oo lp rog ramme (Schwe i n h a rt et al 1993) is theemphasis on the ‘Pl a n ,d o, rev i ew’ ro u t i n ewhich places the re s po n s i b i l i ty for howt h ey spend their time on the childre n .The ‘Birth to Three Matters’ Frameworkincludes the following developmentalpointers relating to Healthy Choices, forpractitioners:-From birth, young babies showpreferences for people and for whatthey see, hear and taste.Babies discover more about what theylike and dislike.As young children become moremobile and their boundaries widen,they make choices that can involvereal risk.Children become more aware thatchoices have consequences.Cl e a rly, w h e re babies and ve ry yo u n gc h i l d ren are co n ce rned it is pri m a ri ly theirmothers who take re s po n s i b i l i ty fo rp ro te cting and promoting their child’sh e a l t h . A range of factors co nt ri b u te tohealth and we l l - be i n g. For ex a m p l e, s oc i o -e conomic inequalities (which are moref u l ly discussed in the section of this texton pove rty) have been shown to lead tod i f fe re n ces in childre n’s health. Mo re n o( 1993 :23) re po rts that low birt h - we i g ht isalmost always ‘the result of pre n atal soc i o -e co n o m i c, l i fe s tyle or be h av i o u ral facto r son the part of the mother and family’.Bra d s h aw (2001) rev i ewed social andb i o l og i cal factors in the deaths of childre nunder three in England and Wales fro m1981 to 1997 and found thema p p rox i m ate ly halved over this pe ri od.Howeve r, Bra d s h aw’s (2001) textco n ce rning re s e a rch on pove rty andc h i l d h ood re po rts that although deat hrates we re decreasing be tween 1987 and1991 , gender diffe re n ces re m a i ns i g n i f i ca nt, with the death rate for boysaged be tween one and 14 years 30 pe rce nt higher than for girl s.Wachs (2000) rev i ews the ev i d e n ce ofre s e a rch into the links be tween nutri t i o n a ldeficits and be h av i o u ral deve l o p m e nt.He re po rts that seve re po s t n at a lm a l n u t ri t i o n , both mild and seve revitamin and mineral deficiencies, a n dc h ronic under- n u t rition have been show nto lead, for ex a m p l e, to problems such asg e n e ral and specific cog n i t i ve deficits;l ower neonatal re a ct i v i ty; a p at hy,i rri t a b i l i ty, l ower act i v i ty levels and higheri n h i b i t i o n ; and increased risk of poo re rcog n i t i ve and academic pe rfo rm a n cere s pe ct i ve ly. Zeanah (1993: 353) discussesthe inte rp l ay be tween env i ro n m e nt andgenetics in infantile onset obe s i ty andi n fo rms us that ‘e nv i ro n m e ntal risk facto r ssuch as low soc i o - e conomic status arekn own to be strong pre d i ctors ofs u b s e q u e nt obe s i ty’.107

The National Heart Forum (2002: 4)expresses grave concern about ‘currenttrends and inequalities in diet, physicalactivity, obesity and smoking’ which are soserious as to be leading to ‘an epidemic ofcoronary heart disease, as well as stroke,cancer and diabetes in 40-50 years’ time’unless remedial action is taken now. Thismeans educating children to adopt ahealthy lifestyle from a very early age, aswell as taking action at national,local andfamily levels on the recommendations ofthe British Medical Association (BMA 1999)concerned with poverty, diet, exercise,smoking, drugs, and other measuresincluding improved access to ECEC.Protecting young children againstinfectious diseases through immunisationstargets one area that is responsible forinfant and childhood mortality (Kristensenet al 2002). Just under ten years agoinfectious diseases accounted for four percent of postnatal deaths in the UK in 1990,and for seven per cent of deaths ofchildren aged between one and four years.However, controversy about the ‘MMR’(measles, mumps, rubella) triple vaccinehas given rise to concern about childrenwho are not being immunised in 2002.While Christie (2002) claims experts havefound no links between the MMR vaccineand autism,there have been reports in thepopular and scientific press (See TheSunday Times 23 June 2002, and the BMJ,May 2002) that contradict one another onthe subject, and the debate continues.Travis (2002) reports the results of a surveyof 1003 parents in the UK which revealedthat three in every four parents surveyedwanted the government to provide ‘freeseparate measles, mumps and rubellavaccinations for their children amid risingconcerns about the combined MMRinjection’. (Guardian online 2002).(See Barrand Limb, 1997 for a review of medical,scientific and ethical issues relating tothe MMR vaccines).It is not possible to cover all the healthissues concerning young children in thistext and readers are directed to the reviewby the British Medical Association (BMA1999) and their recommendations.However, in this chapter we have tried toprovide an introduction to a number ofkey aspects of health in babies and youngchildren. Firstly, we explore researchevidence on brain development.YOUNG BRAINSIn the last twe nty- f i ve ye a r s, te c h n o l og i ca la dva n ces have enabled scient i f i cre s e a rchers to make new discove ries abo u tthe deve l o p m e nt of the human bra i n : i t sfo rm at i o n ,g rowth and cog n i t i ve act i v i ty,for example (see Nelson and Bl oom 1997 ).Howeve r, a number of re s e a rchers havea rgued that the ev i d e n ce should bere g a rded with some scepticism be ca u s esome of it is old, some from studies ofdiseased brains and some from studiesof rat s, rather than humans (Au b rey 2002;Bl a ke m o re 2002; Bruer 19 99 ).Meanwhile, Catherwood (1999) outlinedthese technological advances in thecontext of their relevance to108 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

developmental psychology and earlyeducation, and concluded that newresearch has begun to indicate thatPiaget’s characterisations of infantdevelopment ‘vastly underestimate infantcognitive development’ (Catherwood1999:28). Mark Johnson (1999), a cognitiveneuroscientist at Birkbeck College inLondon,has claimed it is curious thatPiaget, despite his biological approach tohuman cognitive development and beliefin an activity-dependent nature ofdevelopment, was typical in neglectingbrain functions, perhaps because at thetime of Piaget’s writing there was littleinformation about the brain and certainlynot the imaging and computer equipmentavailable today. In spite of thesophistication of today’s equipment,Greenfield (2002) claims that thenon-invasive techniques are still notrefined enough to examine connectorsin the brain.Meade (2001) reviews the evidenceavailable about brain research in relationto early childhood, and helpfullysummarises the advantages anddisadvantages for researchers andpractitioners of neuro-imagingprocedures. Neuro-imaging technologies,such as PET scans (Positron EmissionTomography) not only have allowedneuroscientists to study brain activity,but have also led to new or revisedperspectives about early childhooddevelopment:It is now known that the nature versusnurture debate is not productive in thequest to better understand the ways inwhich biological (genetic) andenvironmental factors impact uponeach individual child’s development(see Chapter 1). Barnet and Barnet(1998) describe development as‘a lifelong dialogue between inheritedtendencies and our life histor y’ and thisview is central to their discussions ofchildren’s intellectual,moral andemotional development fromneurological and psychologicalperspectives. Shonkoff and Phillips(2000) also concur that neuroscientificevidence has led to a clearerunderstanding of the ways in whichgenetic and environmental influencesoperate dynnamically together over thecourse of development and that theyinfluence each other. Johnson andMareschal (2001) provide evidence fromresearch into infants’ perceptualdevelopment (vision and attention,action and space, social cognition, andspeech perception) which has used,among other technologies, neuroimagingto help reveal the ways inwhich nature and nurture interact.There are conflicting views about theextent to which environmentalinfluences and stimulation shape earlybrain development and subsequentlyimpact upon one’s later physical andemotional well-being. There areopposing views about whether missed(or neglected) opportunities duringearly brain development can beregained later in life. Shore (1997), forexample, drew together insights on109

early development gathered largely from a1996 conference in the USA of leadingbrain scientists and experts in childdevelopment and early education. Theystated that early experiences have adecisive impact upon how the brainis ‘wired’ and that the timing of suchexperiences is crucial. Furthermore,Shore warns that research has indicatedthat the emotional neglect orabandonment of children very earlyin life can often lead to the impairmentof brain-mediated functions such asempathy, attachment, and affectregulation (See Gunnar 1996). Theclaims that the first three years of lifeare critical to brain development lednot only to a proliferation of articlesaimed at parents, carers and educators,but also to a critical response fromBruer (1999). In his review ofneurological and psychologicalevidence, Bruer refuted the view thatwindows of opportunity for braindevelopment close down after the firstthree years of life (with the exceptionof vision). Instead, he argues,neuroscientific findings havesometimes been stretched to formtenuous claims about early braindevelopment to fit the aims of researchor policy. While acknowledging thatthere are critical periods in braindevelopment, he reports that the brain’splasticity allows lifelong learning; forexample, he claims that,‘the limiting factor in vocabularygrowth, and presumably for some ofthe other things Verbal IQ measures,is exposure to new words, facts andexperiences. The brain can benefit fromthis exposure at almost any time – earlychildhood, childhood, adolescence,adulthood and senescence.’(Bruer 1999:177)Further, as stated in chapter 1, Romanianchildren who were adopted after a periodof serious early deprivation made up theirphysical and psychological losses.There are, however, aspects of theevidence on brain development aboutwhich Bruer and Shore agree. Namely, thatit is during the first three years of life thatthe human brain makes trillions of new(synaptic) connections, and thatenvironmental influences are known toimpact upon these connections. Bruer(1999: 264) noted that neuroscience hasled to the discovery that ‘humans andother animals experience a rapid burst inbrain connectivity – an exuberant burst ofsynapse formation – early in development’.Furthermore, environmental influences onthe brain’s early formation and ‘wiring’ canbe both positive and negative and cantake place even before a child is born.Nelson (1999) also argues thatneuroscientific work has shown that neuralplasticity and the subtle ‘dance’ that occursbetween the brain and the environmentmay lead to reconceptualisation of ideasabout intervention, competence andresilience. He stresses that it is importantto dispense with nature versus nurturearguments in f avour of a new approach tou n d e r s t a n d i n gh ow ex pe ri e n ce can mod i f ythe bra i n , and how kn owledge deri ve d110 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

f rom such an approach can be t ter ident i f yi nte rve ntion proce d u re s, for ex a m p l e.Thus the implications for children withspecial needs are that interventionprogrammes should be fine tuned toensure maximum stimulation for thoseaspects, sensory, physical or intellectual,to enable the synapses to form/connect.Babies’ brains develop at an astonishingpace in the early years. Brains aregenetically wired at birth, but the complexcircuitry that permits mature thoughtprocesses to occur only begins to developin early childhood, and connectionscontinue to be made throughout life, andare shaped by experience.The human brain begins its lifelong,developmental journey in the womb; bythe end of the first month the humanfoetus already has a primitive brain which,by nine months’ gestation has formedvirtually all of the neurons that it is everlikely to have (Greenfield 1997).It is now known that a baby’s brain is notfully developed at birth, although it arrivesin the world with most, if not all,of itsneurons in place and with someconnections between them (synapses)that have permitted basic foetalmovement in the womb, and subsequentlyallow vital and reflex functions to occurneonatally. While a newborn,or neonate’s,brain still has a long way to go on itsdevelopmental journey, it is not ‘empty’or inactive. At birth,the process of wiringup synaptic connections (calledsynaptogenesis) continues andaccelerates. Webb et al (2001) reviewin neurological detail the process ofpostnatal neuroanatomical change andits implications for behaviour, and theyemphasise that brain development ischaracterised by two main periods, thefirst beginning at conception, and thesecond during gestation (the lattercontinuing for up to two decades).They observe that many researchers(such as Goldman-Racik 1987; Katz andShatz 1997 cited in Webb et al 2001) haveproposed that early brain developmentinvolves a huge overproduction ofsynaptic connections; some of theseconnections will become redundant andare subsequently ‘pruned’ away.Connections that have been repeatedlyused tend to be retained, those that havenot been used often are shed. Pruning inthe brain,much as in the garden, not onlyeliminates circuits that are surplus torequirements, but also allows theremaining circuits to grow bigger andstronger. The metaphor of plant growthwas used by Diamond and Hopkins (1998)in their synthesis of early brain researchand information on children’s playfulactivity, Magic Trees of the Mind. A detailedexplanation of the processes ofsynaptogenesis, synaptic pruning canbe found in Bruer (1997). He also discussesthe ‘windows of opportunity’ otherwiseknown as ‘critical periods’ in braindevelopment. Greenough, Black andWallace (1987) have described t h e s epe ri od s, s aying that ‘it is as if evo l u t i o nhas resulted in neural systems t h at ex pe ctto find ce rtain kinds of stimuli in the111

environment in order to fine-tune theirperformance (reported in Bruer, 1987:7).The ‘Brainwonders’ website defines criticalperiods as developmental phases that aredependent upon environmental input; itadds that there are differing criticalperiods for ‘the presence of certainnutrients…for certain types of sensorystimuli (such as vision and speech sounds),and for certain emotional and cognitiveexperiences (attachment, languageexposure)’. However, it is also made clearthat ‘there are mental skills, such asreading, vocabulary size, and the abilityto see colour, which do not appear to passthrough tight critical periods in theirdevelopment.’ However, yet again therehave been disagreements about thepossible existence of such periods inhuman development. Blakemore (2002: 28)writes that ‘Most neuroscientists nowbelieve that critical periods are not rigidand inflexible. Rather, most interpret themas ‘sensitive’ periods.’ Those who believedin the existence of critical periods set inmotion ‘a plethora of videos and toysclaiming to ‘boost’ your baby’s brain,andimplying beneficial long term effects…such claims currently have scantneuroscience backing, and should betreated with caution.’ (Johnson 2002:42).But this does not mean we should treatbabies as if they have no brain nor youngchildren as if they cannot benefit fromeducation (in its broadest sense – notformal schooling) until they are admittedto school, as one Times editorial claimednot long ago, suggesting that the purposeof nursery provision is simply to preparechildren,so that ‘the reception class canbegin the proper process of education.’(The Times 1995:17).Importantly, Johnson (2002: 40-41 – ouritalics) draws attention to the fact that‘babies brains have sometimes beenviewed as being passively shaped by theirenvironment…because over the first fewmonths they are unable to walk or evenreach accurately. Appearances can bedeceiving however. We have seen, forinstance, how, from birth, infants arecapable of directing their eyes towardthings that interest them, such as faces.’This comment sums up the traditionalEnglish view reflected in the saying‘children should be seen and not heard’and the fact that adults, including youngparents, in England who have publicconversations with babies are often lookedat askance. Perhaps one outcome of the‘Birth to Three Matters’ project would bethe promotion of joyful, publicconversation between babies and youngchildren and their carers in shops, streets,everywhere, to push home the messagethat children have brains that are trying tomake sense of the world from the momentof birth. It is in sharing these ordinaryencounters that brain development ispromoted as well as other aspects such asemotional attachment and self-esteem,aswe have already discussed.Neuroscience has started to map out theways in which young brains make theconnections that are the key to eachindividual child’s mind.112 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

It has also provided useful insights into theways in which environmental influencescan impact upon the brain. Eliot (1999)describes the medical research intoenvironmental influences on the prenatalbrain. She reports that poor nutrition,substances and chemicals, alcohol,cigarettes, illegal drugs (includingmarijuana) and maternal emotion andstress can all have detrimental influencesupon the developing brain. Caffeine,sweeteners and MSG were also tested butno ill effects were found. Research byDrewett et al (2001) with malnourishedEthiopian children also found that earlymalnutrition does not have a permanentadverse effect on brain development.By contrast, neuroscience does not offerkeys to raising a super-intelligent child;indeed, Bruer (1997) argues thatneuroscience has been incorrectly appliedto devise cognitive developmentprogrammes that claim to boost a youngchild’s intelligence. Discussing criticalperiods in brain development, he statesthat, ‘experience-expectant brain plasticitydoes not depend on specific experiencesin specific environments, and for thisreason,does not provide much guidancein choosing toys, preschools, or earlychild-care policies. The experienceschildren need to develop fundamentalsensory-motor and language skills occur inany normal environment.’ (Bruer 1997:8).What is evident from neuroscience is that‘normal’ brain development in earlychildhood is dependent uponenvironmental input and, for parents andcarers, this means warm and loving,appropriate interaction with children whoare living in a safe context in which theyare nourished and nurtured and allowedopportunities to explore. Gopnik et al(1999) summarise evidence from researchin philosophy, psychology, neuroscience,linguistics and other disciplines to providean account of how babies and youngchildren learn about the world aroundthem,about people and relationships, andabout language, linking their discussion towhat is known about brain development.They assert that, ‘One thing that sciencetells us is that nature has designed us toteach babies, as much as it has designedbabies to learn…The scientific researchsays that we should do just what we dowhen we are with our babies – talk, play,m a ke funny face s, p ay at te nt i o n .We justneed time to do it.’ ( Gopnik et al 1999 : 202 ).So it would appear that babies and youngchildren need to play and interact withtheir parents and other significant peoplein their lives, because it is in theseenjoyable everyday exchanges andconversations that their brains develop –are ‘redesigned’ even – as a result oflearning. However, in a society whereparents (and other family members) mayhave less time to spend in the home, theirchildren could be losing out on the qualitytime that can be spent doing just thosevery simple activities on which their braindevelopment can thrive. Added to this arethe pressures of poverty and socioeconomicdisadvantage, which may giverise to depression in parents. Population113

studies (Richman 1978; Richman et al 1982)found that as many as 20-40% of Britishmothers were suffering from depression(although not all sought medical help),and that depressed emotional statesadversely impact upon parent-childrelationships because mothers are lesslikely to stimulate their babies andchildren.(See Goleman 1996; Kendall2002 for a summary of evidence on theeffects of maternal mental health ondevelopment in the first twelve monthsof life.) The research seems to indicatethat we need to ensure parents havesupport when they need it, that theyhave time to enjoy being with theirchildren, and that they feel assured thatwhen they are at work their babies andchildren are still enjoying interactionswith other key adults and children.Some of the main messages for parents,early years practitioners, policy makersand researchers about the changes inthinking about early brain developmentand function can be found in Shore’ssummary of the differences between ‘oldthinking’ and ‘new thinking’ about thebrain,as shown in Figure 2 on thefollowing page.114 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

FIGURE 2:SHORE’S (1997:18) CHART OF ‘OLD’ AND ‘NEW’THINKING ABOUT THE BRAINOld thinkingHow a brain develops depends onthe genes you are born with.The experiences you have beforethe age of three have a limitedimpact on later development.A secure relationship with a primarycaregiver creates a favourablecontext for early development andlearning.Brain development is linear: thebrain’s capacity to learn and changegrows steadily as an infantprogresses toward adulthood.A toddler’s brain is much less activethan the brain of a college student.New thinkingHow a brain develops hingeson a complex interplay betweenthe genes you’re born with and theexperiences you have.Early experiences have a decisiveimpact on the architecture of thebrain,and on the nature and extentof adult capacities.Early interactions don’t just createa context; they directly affect the waythe brain is ‘wired’.Brain development is non-linear: thereare prime times for acquiring differentkinds of knowledge and skills.By the time children reach the ageof three, their brains are twice asactive as those of adults. Activitylevels drop during adolescence.Fi n a l ly, one area of debate about bra i nd eve l o p m e nt co n ce rns the question ofm a l e / female diffe re n ces and theiri m p l i cat i o n s. As long ago as 1972 Co ri n n eHu t t, in her book Males and Fe m a l e s,discussed the action of adre n a l i n ,w h i c hshe suggested as act i vated by the pre s e n ceof male Y chro m o s o m e s, in the ve ry earlystages of the growth of a foe t u s. Some ofthe main effe cts of this we re thought to be(in general) higher levels of aggression andeasier arousal to aggression and otherri s ky act i v i ty in males co m p a red withfe m a l e s, and more generalised brainsin fe m a l e s, with stronger co n n e ct i o n sbe tween the two hemisphere s. Nat u ra l lythese are issues that need to be addre s s e dand debate d, be cause whether or nota soc i e ty ove rl ays these re po rte dp ro pensities to maximise or minimiset h e m , has implications for the way thes oc i e ty functions and raises its yo u n g.115

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRAINAND MIND?Astington’s (1999) fundamental interest isin the development of a theory of mindand, in explaining the research thatdevelopmental psychologists undertook inthis area in the late 1980s and early 1990s,she begins by considering how the mindcan be explained and defined. Astingtonstates that the answer lies in ‘everyday,commonsense psychology’ or ‘beliefdesirepsychology’ which refers to theways in which a person explains andpredicts another’s actions by thinkingabout his or her ‘beliefs, desires emotionsand intentions’ (Astington 1999:2).Astington adds that thoughts and feelings(or states of mind) originate in the brainbut she differentiates between the two,saying that the mind and the brain are notone and the same. (Astington 1999:3) Shealso discusses philosophical ideas aboutthe mind’s existence, as does Greenfield(1997) who differentiates between mindand brain and reveals that the ‘seeminglyindividual and unchanged mind iscompletely at the mercy of the physicalbrain’ (Greenfield 1997:84). In herconcluding thoughts, she adds that themind may be, ‘the evolving personalaspect of the physical brain’ and‘consciousness brings the mind alive’(Greenfield 1997:149).Gopnik et al (1999: 175) devoteconsiderable attention to the mind/brainsynthesis and state that, ‘studying babies’minds…is studying babies’ brains and is,so far, the most productive method ofstudying their brains’, but they devoteindividual chapters to ‘Children’s Minds’and ‘Children’s Brains’. They also draw ananalogy between the human mind anda computer, and say that little is knownabout how we feel conscious experiences,but it is known that,‘babies begin by translating informationfrom the world into rich, complex, abstract,coherent representations. Thoserepresentations allow babies to interprettheir experience in particular ways and tomake predictions about new events.Babies are born with powerfulprogrammes already booted up andready to run’ (Gopnik et al 1999: 142)Scientists are themselves in differentminds about whether there is a differencebetween brain and mind. Maybe if we usea computer analogy we can, for now, thinkof the brain as the hardware and the mindas the software.THE BRAIN, ATTUNEMENT AND AUTISMAttachments or emotional bonds formedbetween children and other people havebeen shown to be partly ‘environmentexpectant’(genetically programmed) and‘environment-dependent’ (requiringexternal stimuli) (see chapter 3). This does,of course, have implications for a varietyof issues relating to the feeling andexpression of emotions. The part of thebrain responsible for emotional and socialresponses is located in the amygdala,which, if damaged, leads to profoundemotional changes in a person. Eliot (1999:293) reports that ‘amygdala damage or116 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

dysfunction is one of the leadinghypotheses to explain autism’. Trevarthenet al (1998:82) concur. They state:-‘In nearly every case of autism, whenappropriate techniques are available, someabnormality in the brain can be found.’Whereas other children learn to imitatefrom birth onwards, and through thisbegin to develop a sense of empathy,autistic children are far less likely to imitateothers (Eliot 1999).Goleman (1996) reports that Sternbelieved healthy attachments betweeninfants and their mothers were based ona more active contribution to emotionalrelationships than pure imitation,and are‘enviroment-dependent’. He defined thisactive participation in exchanges as‘attunement’ and ‘prolonged absence ofattunement takes a tremendous emotionaltoll on the child’. Children with autism,however, also have a biological deficiencythat makes attunement difficult orimpossible. Baron-Cohen et al (1985)devised a series of tasks to test autisticchildren and found that the children notonly were unable to recognise the mentalstate of surprise in another person, butthey also were unable to attribute a falsebelief to another. The compelling evidencesuggested that the autistic childrenappeared not to develop a theory of mindin the ways non-autistic children do.Astington (1999) explains that,‘Like three-year-olds, autistic children donot attribute false belief to others, cannotdeceive others, do not remember theirown false beliefs, and cannot distinguishbetween appearance and reality. However,they are not like three-year-olds in otherways…Autistic children do not pretend,and they find pretence and imaginationdifficult to understand in experimentaltasks. They do not understand thedistinction between thoughts and things,between real and mental entities’(Astington 1999: 148).B RAIN DEV E LO P M E N T, M E M O RY AND T H EI M P O RTANCE OF NARRATIVES TO MENTAL HEALT HThe dire ctor of the Am e ri can Ce nter fo rHuman Deve l o p m e nt, Daniel Siegel (1999),whose wo rk as a paediat rician andp s yc h i at rist focuses on individual, f a m i lyand co m m u n i ty deve l o p m e nt in the are aof human re l ationships and their linkswith biolog i cal proce s s e s, explains howm e m o ry develops in early life, with firstlythe implicit memory being roo ted inm ove m e nt / be h av i o u r, e m o t i o n s, a n dpe rce p t i o n s. Be tween 12 and 24 monthsof age, the part of the brain – theh i p pocampus – which provides for thesecond form of memory, maturess o m ew h at. Then explicit memory d eve l o p s,enabling re call and a sense of the self thatincludes kn owing about one’s past. Si e g e lclaims that narrat i ve, which he sees asessential to healthy emotionald eve l o p m e nt, d e pends on both ty pes ofm e m o ry. In co n s t ru cting auto b i og ra p h i ca ln a rrat i ves – sto ries about ourselves whichhelp us make sense of our lives – we usea u to n oetic co n s c i o u s n e s s, the ability to ‘t i m et rave l’ in our minds, which Siegel suggestsbe comes available to children in their third117

year of life, when the part of the bra i nkn own as the orbito f ro ntal co rtex be co m e scapable of mediation of this proce s s.Narratives are thought to rely on memorythat is consciously accessible, but they arealso influenced by the memories storedimplicitly. Perhaps one reason why storytelling is so attractive to human beings istheir ability to draw on these implicitmemories which have been hidden fromus and they are often emotionally charged.Narratives can have the effect of helpingorganise the mind, but they can also shapeself-regulation because in developingthem we seek coherence. Narrativesrequire the involvement of both halves ofthe brain,the right – said to deal withimagery and the left with ‘making sense’/logic. So in narratives the left hemisphere,which seeks to make sense of cause andeffect, interprets and shapes the imagesconjured by the right hemisphere.According to Siegel (1999) the righthemisphere grows more rapidly and ismore active than the left in the earliestyears of life. But by age three the twohemispheres have developed sufficientlyto allow the transfer of information acrossthe brain and by age four children are wellable to use words to tell others about theirinner feelings and inclinations. Siegelclaims that narratives are a fundamentalaspect of integration,our ability to create acoherent internal interpersonal, family andcommunity experience. Narratives are alsoimportant because they help us makesense of other minds – after all, that isessentially what narratives/stories areabout. Effective interpersonal relationshipsand secure attachments depend onemotional attunement, sharing in theconstruction of narratives, memory talkand dialogue involving reflection andcollaboration to repair disruptedinteractions. Bilateral integration, theprocess whereby both hemispheresof the brain engage in informationprocessing to ensure adaptive,coordinated functioning, promotescoherent narratives, which,accordingto Siegel are a mark of mental health.SUMMING UP THE IMPLICATIONS OF BRAINRESEARCH FOR ECEC PROFESSIONALSIn summing up her explorations of brainresearch, Meade (2001) pondered on therole of play for brain development. Shesuggests that play is important becauseAll types of development arepractised…it affords appropriateexperience for different regionsof the brain.Play seems to have a relationship withthe blooming of synapses.Play of the kind where children’sinterest and motivation are optimalseems to have a relationship with thesculpting of the brain … these occurwhen children have caregivers who areattuned; activities where the childrendisplay most interest may optimisesynapse stabilisation…because thereis likely to be repetition; selectionprocesses as to play topics…willactivate the prefrontal cortex and limbicsystem and therefore conscious118 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

memory; synapses associated withexperiences not chosen will begin towither away…when play is limited,fewer modalities are active andemotions such as motivation adverselyaffect brain function – so child-centred,play-based programmes are important.Children usually display high levels ofmotivation in play.Play seems to help lay down implicitmemories of skills, dispositions andschemas.Play in a complex environment affordschildren lots of opportunities to satisfynovel preferences. (Adapted fromMeade 2001: 22-24).Additionally, Meade draws attentionto children’s need, among other things,for opportunities which allow them todevelop theories about themselves andother people. She advocates educatorsshould be warm, responsive and capableof fostering young children’s braindevelopment through appropriateplay activities.Further key messages from the researchare that young brains are exceptionally‘plastic’ so they are shaped by experienceand the plasticity allows for catching upif development and learning arehampered in anyway. However, they arealso incredibly active and thirsty forinteractions and activities which will fosterfurther learning and brain development.EMOTIONAL WELL-BEINGBeing special to someoneIn chapters 1 and 3 we outlined re s e a rc hon the importance of ‘being special tosomeone/mattering’. Here we look furtherat these aspects of early development andlearning, through some of the studieswhich inform us about emotionalwell-being.In a rigorous research study in the USA,theNICHD Early Child Care Research Network(1996) observed 576 babies in fivedifferent types of ECEC settings, makingthe first observation when the baby waswithin two weeks of being six months old.The aim of the study was to tease out thecharacteristics of settings contributing to‘positive’ care-giving – defined in terms ofsensitivity, warmth, and being cognitivelystimulating. They identified the structuralaspects of the settings (eg. ratio of adultsto children,safe environment) as well asqualitative characteristics (eg. stimulation,staff attitudes and approaches). The teamfound that the main factors associatedwith positive caregiving were:- low adultchildratios – the closer the ratio is to oneadult per child, the higher the probabilityof the adult being sensitive to individualchildren and thus fostering attachment(this factor is consistent with findingsabout ratios for toddlers by Clarke-Stewartet al 1994); practitioners having nonauthoritarianbeliefs about child-rearing –such workers tended to have a highernumber of positive interactions withchildren; the physical environment being119

clean, safe and uncluttered and havingappropriate materials for play andinteraction for the age-group. What isspecial about this research is its inclusion,for the first time in such a study, ofinformal care by other family members(fathers, grandparents, nannies). Theresearchers state that it was the inclusionof this form of care which increased thelevels of their results related to sensitivityand stimulation.Another American in-depth,observationalstudy (Galinsky et al 1994),which focusedsolely on children in home-based care(with a childminder or member of theirown family), issued a warning that in theUSA, children from low income familieswere more likely to be in care which gavecause for concern. They found that parentschoose providers who are similar tothemselves in income and ethnicity. Theseresearchers reiterated results like those ofthe NICHD study outlined above – thatcarers need to be ‘committed, caring, opento learning, and purposeful about theimportant work of being a family childcare provider.’ (Galinsky et al 1994: 96). Asa result they recommended that publicbodies should not push reluctant workersinto becoming child carers; that thereshould be investments in advocacy andeducation about ECEC; that governmentand businesses should fund child caretraining initiatives and help families payfor childcare; that family child careproviders should be entitled to access toresources enabling them to providestimulating learning experiences; thereshould be associations to offer social andtechnical support to family carers atnational and local levels; that anyregulatory system should be providerfriendlyand inspection visits random androtating. One important finding from thisextensive study was the fact that thechildren’s mothers, when interviewed infocus groups, expressed their mostessential requirements of a practitioner tobe exactly those listed by the NICHD team– warmth, attention to the child,cleanliness and communication (with boththe child and themselves). Sadly, this studyfound only 50 per cent of the children tobe securely attached to their child careproviders but they were no more likely tobe securely attached to a carer who was arelative than a non-relative. This figure of50 per cent tallies with that found byHowes and Hamilton’s (1993) study ofchildren in group settings. Galinsky et al(1994) concluded that the best way ofensuring children become attached totheir carers (seen as an essentialpre-requisite of effective provision; seealso the section on resilience in chapter 1and discussion in chapter 3), is by drawinginto ECEC only those workers who want tolearn more about being a care-giver, areintentional in their approaches and aboveall,are committed.In a longitudinal study of 354 parents andtheir firstborn infants, Laucht et al (1994)examined the relationship betweenchildren’s development and parentalpsychopathology (mental illness). Theycompared the social-emotional and120 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

cognitive development of the children attwo years of age, comparing them with acontrol group, and found that the childrenof the mentally ill parents displayed morebehavioural problems and poorerlanguage development. There weredifferences, however, depending on whichparent was ill. The effect of mothers’mental illness impacted on bothsocio-emotional and cognitivedevelopment, whereas the impact offathers’ mental illness appeared to beconfined to cognitive functioning only.In addition to the physical healthproblems associated with low birth weight(see further discussion later in thischapter), Weiss et al (2001) suggest thatthe tactile experiences of low birthweightbabies, how they are touched andhandled, whether they are being accepted– or not – by their parents, may havelonger term effects on their socialadaptation and may be linked toemotional and behavioural problems attwo years of age.Nancy Boyd Webb (1984) investigatedrelationships of young children who hadexperienced multiple-care in their earliestyears. At the time of her research theywere aged between four and six years, butsome had had more than twenty carers tocover while their parents worked longhours outside home (all the children in herstudy had both parents living at home).Those children who were coping well andthriving were found to have three aspectsof their lives in common. These were:-bugging and nudging – parents’ positive‘nagging’ encouraging them to displaysome special ability – for example ‘Singthat song for Grandma’; pet names, whichseemed to act as a binding function – andof course, use of full names to indicatedisapproval showed parental expectationand ‘investment’; finally, idiosyncraticbehaviour, meaning shared rituals that thechild or family members have evolved,such as the reading of certain favouritestories or food, promote intimacy. Suchbehaviours are kinds of narratives thatfamilies and children co-construct, so onesees echoes of Siegel’s work in the verypractical research applications of BoydWebb’s research.In the Framework ‘Birth to Three Matters’the development points for EmotionalWell-Being are as follows:-Young babies are primed to becomesocial beings. They crave closeattachments with a special personwithin their day care setting.Warm, mutual, affirmative relationshipsgive babies the courage to expresstheir feelings.When young children have a closerelationship with a warm andresponsive adult, they explore froma safe place to which they can return.As children learn to do things forthemselves they gain confidence,knowing that the adult is close by,ready to support and help if needed.However, poverty and other factors whichimpinge on family life, creating stress forparents, can also impact on children.121

The effects of poverty on mental healthLinks with low soc i o - e conomic family stat u sand poor living conditions we re fre q u e nt lyfound among children needing tre at m e ntfor mental health problems (Goodmanand Scott 1997 ). Ch i l d ren with be h av i o u rp roblems have also been found to bem o re like ly to come from disadva nt a g e df a m i l i e s, e s pe c i a l ly those re s i d e nt inn e i g h bo u rh oods where the majori ty offamilies share their low soc i o - e co n o m i cs t atus (Kalff et al 2001 ). A clear diffe re n cein the preva l e n ce of mental disorders inc h i l d ren was found be tween diffe re nts oc i o - e conomic gro u p s. Ch i l d ren in thel owest soc i o - e conomic group we re fivetimes more like ly than others to suffer fro ma co n d u ct disorder (Bra d s h aw 2001 :202).The effects of parental separationand divorceResearch which claims ill-effects ofparental separation and divorce (see forexample, Fürstenberg and Cherlin 1991)is countered by qualitative research fromSweden (Berg 2001) which argues thathow the family handles the split, and howa society perceives family break-up areguiding factors in whether the childrenwill be negatively affected in the longterm. In other words, Berg claims thatchildren can cope well with separation anddivorce if the social context is supportiveand accepting rather than negative andcondemnatory. Clearly there are otherfactors which will influence children’s longterm well-being that are often present indivorce situations, such as the incidence ofpoverty among one-parent families andthe absence of positive male role models.The study by Cochran et al (1990) foundthat where the involvement of otheradult male relatives and friends wasencouraged, children in general,butparticularly boys, showed positive gainsin relation to social and academic abilities.(However, it must be noted that thechildren in this study were mostly overthree years of age.)Emotional abuse and its effectsEmotional abuse, as well as beingrecognised in its own right, is usuallyinvolved when children are subjected toany other form of abuse, be it physicalabuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. Indeed,the scars of emotional abuse will be thosethat often remain after the other abusehas ended. However, an examination ofthe statistics for referral show thatemotional abuse appears less prevalentthan other forms of abuse. This may bebecause it is difficult to pinpoint, althoughin babies failure to thrive may be anindicator in some cases, associated witha lack of sensitivity to a particular baby’sneeds embedded within a range ofcomplex interactions between physicalproblems, family relationships andinappropriate interventions (Underdown2000). However, Herbert (1999: 97-98)stresses that‘it is notoriously difficult (not to saydangerous) to infer causal relationshipsfrom retrospective data…Correlations donot necessarily imply causation…Maternal122 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

ejection – when it is primary – is quitelikely to be expressed in rough,hostilefeeding patterns which lead to phobicavoidance (food aversion) on the part ofthe child.’A baby who is abused may also show signsof ‘hyperalertness, hyperarousal, andnumbing’ according to Davies (1999: 118).As discussed earlier in the section on braindevelopment, the neural pathways whichcontrol these aspects of self-regulation willbe strengthened through high levels ofuse. Further, Perry (1994) suggests that asa result of constantly expecting danger,the constraint and emotional impairmentinvolved will also have a negative effecton a child’s cognitive development.In young children a failure to gain weightcommensurate with height (thus fallinglow on a centile scale) might be a sign ofa child’s distress. As with most of the signsand symptoms of child abuse, carefulinterpretation tempered with experienceis essential (David 1993; 1993a).PHYSICAL WELL-BEINGGrowing bodies:gaining control andacquiring physical skillsBa by It’s Yo u, by Ka rm i l o f f - Smith (1994)is a text and photog raphic acco u nt ofc h i l d re n’s deve l o p m e nt during the firstt h ree years in En g l a n d, p rod u ced toa c co m p a ny a te l evision series of the samen a m e. Th e re is not the space in this rev i ewto cover phys i cal deve l o p m e nt in the samed e t a i l , so as well as dire cting readers tot h at book and others, this chapter signalsup the significa nt po i nts in phys i cal grow t hin these earliest years and indicate sex pe ri e n ces which, a c co rding to re s e a rc h ,seem to enhance or co n s t rain healthybod i ly deve l o p m e nt. In part i c u l a r, t h ea d e p t n e s s, capabilities and dete rm i n at i o na s s oc i ated with babies and young childre nas they seek to satisfy their curi o s i ty andt a ke part in family life, will be stre s s e d.In the first few hours after birt h , a d re n a l i nl evels are higher than those of someones u f fe ring a heart attack – this is a nat u ra l‘s a fe ty measure’ to help the baby co pe withthe trauma of being bo rn and to ensure allthe baby’s bod i ly org a n s, n ow funct i o n i n gi n d e pe n d e nt ly for the first time, do soe f fe ct i ve ly. Fo l l owing this bout of higha ro u s a l , the baby will sleep, and sleepbe comes the main pre oc c u p at i o n ,fo l l owe dby fe e d i n g, for the early weeks of life.Babies are bo rn with re f l exe s, p hys i ca la ctions which occur auto m at i ca l ly, most ofwhich will fo rm the basis for later phys i ca la b i l i t i e s. He a ring is almost as sensitive ast h at of an adult and babies are usuallys oothed by the familiar sounds they heardwhile in the womb (mother’s vo i ce,m o t h e r’s heart be at, familiar music, e tc ).Their vision is less acute howeve r, l i m i te dto about a metre away and with a distanceof 20 to 25 cm their best foc u s. New bo rnbabies are at t ra cted to moving objects andt h ey seem to arri ve with a simple ‘m od e l’of the human face, to which they are alsoat t ra cted (Davies 19 99 ; Ka rm i l o f f - Sm i t h1994 ). Th ey also be come ve ry adept atre cognising facial ex p ressions and tone of123

vo i ce, i n d i cators of emotion, d u ring theirfirst year of life (Nelson 1987 ). Ta s te andsmell do be come more refined but smell isa c u te enough at birth to mean that a babycan identify his mother’s milk when thre ed ays old (Ho f fer 1975) and pare nt s’ n at u ra lodours be come pre fe rred to others. Du ri n gthese earliest weeks babies are inte n s e lyi nte re s ted in what or who is around thembut they cannot re m ove their at te nt i o nwithout the help of an adult – once loc ke do nto a face or an object, t h ey remain fixe du pon that. By three or four months old,h oweve r, t h ey begin to be able to havem o re co nt ro l ,their brains have deve l o pe d,co n n e cted up enough to enable them toc h oose what to look at – or not. This shiftf rom re f l ex - l i ke be h aviour to vo l u nt a rya ctions is linked to the deve l o p m e nt ofthe area of the brain called the ce re b ra lco rtex . Having ex pe ri e n ces is essentialto brain deve l o p m e nt – and bra i nd eve l o p m e nt is essential to taki n ga dva ntage of those ex pe ri e n ce s.‘Between brain and behaviour, the baby isprogressively building up what are called‘mental representations’. This complexprocess gradually turns a brain into anindividual mind.’ (Karmiloff-Smith1994:48).Human babies are helpless for a very longperiod compared with other animals, butit is this that allows for the extensiveplasticity of the brain,equipping them toreorganise, adapt and learn from others.Babies’ arm and leg movements, whenthey are lying on their backs, althoughseemingly random,are a way of practising,strengthening muscles. The first physicalmilestone is probably being able to holdup and move one’s own head. This may befollowed by rolling, sitting alone, crawling,standing, and finally walking, after aperiod of mobility made possible byholding on to people and furniture. Witheach new ability, the baby sees its worldin a new and different way. Again,theseexperiences are important not just forgaining physical control and developingcoordination, they actually affect brain‘wiring’ and this again in turn influenceswhat the baby can do physically. By beingallowed to explore through movement,babies ‘map’ their spatial surroundings,making mental images of a place, feelingsecure when they know the location oftheir parent or familiar carer within that‘map’. So it is important to ensure thatchildren who have movement difficultiesare enabled to explore through whatevermeans are available to them. Further it isimportant to note that infants who havea restricted ability to move independently,either physically due to, for example,cerebral palsy or motivationally throughsomething like Down’s syndrome, maydevelop perceptual difficulties which latereffect educational progress, particularlyin reading or maths ( Wilson 1998). Babiesand young children need to move notonly to gain knowledge about theirenvironment and become oriented, butalso to gain knowledge about theirown abilities and to enjoy the feeling ofindependence. Further, movement itselfhas its own rewards (Davies 2002). Parentsand carers can help children gain a sense124 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

of control through safe explorations, asSelleck and Griffin point out:-‘Physical care and loving attention isrequired in different ways as a toddlerbecomes mobile…exploratory behaviour…takes the child away as she crawls, walksand inspects the world around her. Theeducator is required not only to protectthe child through closeness, but also tolet go to encourage growing autonomy.’Selleck & Griffin (1996:157).Naturally nutrition as well as activity isimportant here because the baby isgrowing bone, muscle and other tissue.However, activity and its relationship towell-being is the focus of work by GoddardBlythe (2001) and Nuttall (1999). WendyNuttall argues from the point of view ofthe Alexander Technique, that placingemphasis on long periods of sittingrelatively still without freedom ofmovement had had a noticeable effecton children’s posture. She adds that the‘slumped and hunched posture’ of thechildren is noticeable and that they ‘comeup’ when engaged and collapse downagain when not engaged or whenchastised. Her observations were mainlywith slightly older children in classroomsbut she found a high level of physicalstress which should alarm early yearspractitioners and which has messagesfor those who work with the childrenin younger age groups.In addition to this, re s e a rchers haveex p l o red whether being mobile influence scog n i t i ve deve l o p m e nt, or understandingof the wo rl d, and it seems that being ableto look at the wo rld from diffe re nt anglesd oes improve other aspe cts ofd eve l o p m e nt (Ka rm i l o f f - Smith 1994 ).Howeve r, re s e a rchers at the Un i ve r s i ty ofDublin (Ga rrett et al 2002) re ce nt ly found ina study of over 170 childre n ,t h at a gro u pwhose pare nts or ca rers placed them inb a by- wa l kers from around six months oldwe re slower to be come indepe n d e nt lymobile than babies who we re not put intowa l kers – they we re also said to have morea c c i d e nt s. While their re s e a rch has be e nchallenged in the same edition of the BMJ,the re s e a rch team members are co nt i n u i n gtheir study to find out if ex pe ri e n ce in awa l ker enhances or detra cts from prog re s sin other areas of deve l o p m e nt and learn i n g.Research has shown, surprisingly, thateven very young babies can translate fromone way of perceiving (say sight and touchor taste) to another. Meltzoff and Borton(1979) gave three week old babiesdifferently shaped dummies and theyfound that after they had sucked on thedummies without being allowed to seethem, the infants spent longer looking atthe type of dummy they had sucked ratherthan the other. So having opportunitiesto explore the world through the differentsenses also seems to be important.Using hands and mouth to explore theworld is also important. Two importantabilities usually become part of a youngchild’s physical repertoire at around 12m o nths old. Being able to bring two object stogether so that they meet one another isthe first – in fact ‘clapping’ is an example125

of this and clapping games and songs mayhelp in its development. Picking things upand handling objects, acquiring the abilityto use the pincer movement which isexclusive to humans (Karmiloff-Smith1994), a baby is practising so that by theage of two years, s/he will be proficient inhand use in whatever ways are expectedin the familiar family or community group,although feeding oneself may take a littlelonger (Karmiloff-Smith 1994). Using ‘tools’,whether that be a chair to stand on to getat a desired object, or brushing one’s hair,very quickly become part of a child’saccomplishments. This shows that thechild is physically able to use the objectsbut also that they are able to memorisewhat they want to do, remain focused,plan how to use the tool and so on,whichmeans that different areas of developmentand learning are being used together.What also helps is the fact that the childno longer has to focus on the physical taskinvolved, for most children this has nowbecome unconscious and other aspects ofinteractions or their environment can beexplored without having to concentrateon posture or balance. So, for practitionersone clear message is:-‘The most important fac tors for healthydevelopment are that you shouldrecognise the skills a child has developedand provide plenty of opportunities topractise them.’Bruce & Meggitt (2002: 139).Issues related to physical developmentBre a s t feeding is cited by Pro fessor He l e nRo be rts (2002; 2001a) as the most effe ct i veway to bo l s ter the health of babies. Bo n at iet al (2000) re po rt on the pro te ct i o na f fo rded by bre a s t feeding but add thatb re a s t feeding is linked to income (see alsoBMA 1999 ). Th ey note the co m p l exities ofpove rty and health, e d u cation and soc i a ls e rv i ce s, claiming that the well being ofpoor mothers and children wo rl dw i d ewould be improved by increases inb re a s t fe e d i n g. A study ca rried out inAu s t ralia by Ro s s i ter (1998) urges cultura ls e n s i t i v i ty, p a rt i c u l a rly with re f u g e ef a m i l i e s, whose traditions on bre a s t fe e d i n gm ay differ from those of the dominantc u l t u re. Black (1989) also re m i n d sp ra ctitioners of the sensitivity needed here,as in some cultures bre a s t feeding is notbegun until the baby is a few days old, s omothers who wish to fo l l ow this tra d i t i o nshould not be assumed to be re j e ct i n gb reast fe e d i n g. Howeve r, Ro be rts (2000a)a rgues that English soc i e ty is still notco n d u c i ve to bre a s t fe e d i n g, citing eve nG Ps’ s u rg e ries as failing to prov i d ea p p ro p ri ate ly for this po s s i b i l i ty. As thisrev i ew indicates in the section on pove rty,mothers from disadva ntaged inco m eg roups are less like ly to bre a s t feed thanthose from more affluent groups in soc i e ty,d e s p i te the claims of medical re s e a rc hi n d i cating adva ntages for their babies.Roberts adds that many measures duringthe last 100 years have improved children’ssurvival rates – for example, immunisation,begun in 1940,has had a dramatic impacton death through infectious diseases; lowbirth weight, associated with many laterproblems, has declined; and deaths in thefirst year of life for both boys (who are at126 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

greater risk) and girls halved between1971 and 1991. But even in relation tothese statistics there are socio-economicclass differences, as we report later.Improvements in medical skills also meanan increase in the survival rates of childrenborn with special needs compared with afew decades ago. While their survival rateshould be met with joy, the extra cost ofsupport and other implications for theirfamilies, siblings, children themselves andtheir communities (both local andnational) must also be acknowledged.As we pointed out in chapter 1,childrenwho inherit medical conditions ordisabilities can demonstrate resilience anddevelop strengths which they use toinform society and support youngerchildren in similar situations (Mason 1992).Yet for some children, a kaleidoscope ofproblems in their families, their homeenvironments and related to their ownbirth weight, appears to link with theirdisplaying developmental delays andbehaviour problems (Feldman et al 2000).In other areas of childre n’s lives dire ct lyre l ated to health, such as nutri t i o n ,Gra h a m’s (1984) re s e a rch showed thatfood is assoc i ated with affe ction and love,and that both children and adults usefood as measures of co m m i t m e nt. If thefoods used to this end are not thosewhich provide the best diet, it can be hardfor those invo lved to change this pat te rnof eat i n g. Neve rt h e l e s s, the Jo s e p hRow nt ree funded study Food Pro j e cts andHow they Wo rk ( Mc Glone et al 1999) hasi n d i cated that access to cheap, n u t ri t i o n a lfood helps towa rds improving purc h a s i n gand eating pat te rn s. The Gove rn m e nt’sp rovision of vouchers should help in thisre s pe ct. This is espe c i a l ly impo rt a ntbe cause re ce nt surveys of the diets ofc h i l d ren aged be tween birth and five haves h own the inadequacy of babies’ a n dyoung childre n’s fruit int a ke, and thatthose in low income groups we re 50 pe rce nt less like ly to eat fruit and ve g e t a b l e sthan those in the higher income gro u p s(BMA 1999 ). Fu rt h e r, vitamin D co nt ri b u te sto building strong teeth and bones andits lack is implicated in ri c ke t s. Howeve r,re s e a rch by Lawson and Thomas (1999)i n d i cates that there are co n ce rns abo u tAsian (Ba n g l a d e s h i , Indian or Pa kistani ino rigin) childre n , in their study two ye a ro l d s, whose levels of vitamin D we rebe l ow the level thought nece s s a ry top reve nt such phys i cal pro b l e m s.The British Medical Association (BMA 1999)report on a 16 year study by the MedicalResearch Council. They state that nutritionhas a proven effect on cognitivedevelopment and that this effect wasparticularly pronounced in boys.In addition they review a meta-analysis ofresearch on the effects of eating breakfaston cognitive functioning, concluding thatthe omission of breakfast seems to alterbrain function.Being born pre-termIn a study of 36 three year old children,of whom 18 had been born pre-term,Walker (1989) found the pre-term grouphad more problems, such as sleep related127

difficulties, temper tantrums and beingoverly dependent. As one might expect,Walker argues that since there was noevidence of neurological delay, thesebehaviours may be the result of parentalmanagement, rather than intra-childproblems. Parents are naturally moreanxious about babies who have been bornpre-term and who may have been kept inhospital during their first weeks of life andthis may result in parents being unable toset appropriate limits on their children’sbehaviour. Similarly, Walker’s finding abouthigher levels of separation anxiety seemlikely to relate to ‘vulnerable childsyndrome’ resulting from a continuation ofparents’ early fears for their child’s life. Butcan this account for Walker’s finding thatchildren from manual socio-economicgroups display significantly morebehaviour problems than those fromnon-manual groups? Walker’s researchalso found that mothers from manualgroups had significantly poorer mentalhealth and this finding ties in with thoseof other earlier studies (eg. Richman 1978;Stevenson 1985) which found strongassociations between disturbance inchildren and mothers’ depression.However, Walker did not find that thosemothers with mental health problemswere the ones who had children withbehaviour problems. In her study themothers’ depression tended to be relatedto a recent event (such as bereavement)and most were not expected to be of longduration. Thus Walker’s study suggests thatparents of pre-term children need adviceand support, for example from HealthVisitors, but that other remedies arenecessary to break the link between lowsocio-economic status and children’sbehaviour problems.Poverty and its effects on bodily healthNumerous ill effects have been reportedas linked to poverty for babies and youngchildren. Firstly, it was recognised yearsago that poverty impacts on the mother’shealth, so children are affected evenbefore birth ( Townsend and Davidson1982). Higher infant mortality rates are alsolinked to socio-economic disadvantage(Spencer 2000) and although infantmortality rates have reduced in the‘developed’/minority world, the higherrates are still found among the lessaffluent (Leon et al 1992; Pearl et al 2001).Smoking, risky levels of consumption ofalcohol and caffeine, and other (socioeconomic)factors are found to be moreprevalent among poorer sections ofsociety and it is among these families thatlow birth-weight (LBW) is found mostfrequently (Spencer et al 1999). In fact,according to Spencer (2000), death amongbabies under one year old is said to be themost sensitive indicator of the health of apopulation. In England and Wales, SuddenInfant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is three timeshigher in the lowest socio-economic groupthan in the highest (Basso et al 1997;Woodroffe et al 1993; Zimmer-Gembeckand Helford 1996). Babies with a birthweight of less than 1.5 Kg have a risk ofdeath that is 200 times higher than thatof those weighing 3 Kg or more (Haddad128 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

et al 2000). Further, lone mothers, amongwhom the incidence of smoking is higherthan for any other group, have double therisk of having a baby with a low birthweight than more affluent mothers (Leonet al 1992) and to experience SIDS (Blairet al 1996; Haglund and Cnattingius 1990).Barry and Kirke’s (1997) research showedt h at mothers who are be t ter educated aremore likely to take folic acid duringpregnancy to help promote healthygrowth in the womb and that higherinfant mortality rate is also linked toinherited and congenital difficulties suchas heart disease. If the baby lives in adisadvantaged neighbourhood, then thiscompounds the other factors (Reading etal 1993; Wasserman et al 1998). Teenagemothers are three times more likely thanolder women to have a premature baby orstillbirth (Smith and Pell 2001). In theNetherlands, the highest infant mortalityrate is found among ethnic minorities(Van Enk et al 1998).Diet is a further factor indicat i n gd i s c repancies be tween more and lessa f f l u e nt families. Fi r s t ly, b re a s t fe e d i n g,which can provide pro te ction as well asa p p ro p ri ate nutrition in the earliest mont h sof life, is less preva l e nt among families ind i s a dva ntaged circ u m s t a n ces (Ma rtin et al1987 ). Foods high in ca l o ries but with littlen u t ritional co nte nt fo rm the diets of morec h i l d ren in lower soc i o - e conomic gro u p sthan those living in families that are be t te roff and these same children are less like lyto have adequate phys i cal act i v i tya c co rding to Ki n ra et al (2000).Howeve r, another study by De Sp i e g e l a e reet al (1998) found no link be tween lowe rs oc i o - e conomic status and children be i n gu n h e a l t h i ly ove rwe i g ht (obe s e ).While it might be thought unlikely thatchildren under three would be out in thestreet alone, their chances of being injuredin a road traffic accident are much higherfor those living in disadvantaged familiesand areas than for the more affluent. Thesame is true for other injuries sustained bychildren (Hasselberg et al 2001; Robertsand Pless 1993; Roberts and Power 1996;Spencer et al 1993; Walsh and Jarvis 1992).Among pre-school children the accidentrate is higher among those from singleparent households, or one where themother is unwell,than for children livingwith two healthy adults (Wadsworth et al1983). Children living in temporaryaccommodation,in refuges for example,have a very high injury rate according toWebb et al (2001).Children’s health is also threatened by theconditions in which disadvantagedfamilies often live. Risk from atmosphericpollution and poor nutrition are associatedwith household disadvantage (Gordon etal 1999; Koopman et al 2001; Martin et al1987). Similarly, inferior housing is linkedto children’s rates of illness (Fall et al 1997;Patel et al 1994; Polnay and Hull 1998;Thompson et al 2001). At the same time,it is reported that the number of visits toGPs’ surgeries may represent only the tipof the iceberg in this respect and are nota good measure of rates of infection andillness (Baker et al 1998). In fact this129

situation appears to show that there hasbeen little change since Sir Douglas Black’sreport (Black 1980),which stated thatfamilies from low socio-economic groupsare less likely to use preventive orscreening services than those in highersocio-economic groups.Lynch (1998),welcoming the recentAcheson Inquiry into Health,sees thereport as an opportunity to influencepolicy to improve the health of the nationthroughout childhood and into adult life.The key points from the Framework ‘Birthto Three Matters’ to be borne in mind hereare that:-Young babies thrive when both theirnutritional and emotional needsare met.For babies and children, rest and sleepare as important as food.Young children have a biological driveto use their bodies and develop theirphysical skills.Children only gradually gain controlof their whole bodies.KEEPING SAFESelf regulation and internalising rulesIn the earliest months of life a baby isbecoming paradoxically, at one and thesame time, more alert and more settled,having bodily rhythms to which a sensitiveadult will respond, creating an effectivecontext for growth,development andlearning (Davies 1999; Emde et al 1976;Stern 1977). According to Davies (1999),during the first three months of life,regulation is about those body rhythmsand about regulation of arousal. Parentsand carers help babies to establishpatterns of sleeping and wakefulness,as the child’s own mechanisms (suchas the circadian rhythm regulatingwakefulness during hours of daylight)begin to take effect. Parents andpractitioners who are responsive andpredictable, foster a baby’s awareness thatcomfort and food can be depended uponwithin a certain time frame, but it is thecarer’s responsibility to lay thegroundwork on which the later abilityto cope will rest. Thumb sucking or usinga dummy independently are earlystrategies to deal with waiting or anxiety,until an adult dependably satisfies theneed causing arousal. Turning away whenaroused to the point of distress is anotherself-regulatory mechanism. Illness or beingpremature can mean that a baby’s centralnervous system,implicated in this abilityto begin to be an active participant in thisself-regulation,may be underdevelopedand self-regulation may take longer insuch cases (Minde 1993).(See chapter3 for further discussion of the importanceof sensitive, affectionate interaction andthe development of attachment linkedto self regulation.)Parents with ‘difficult’ babies oftenrespond to their infant’s irritability innegative ways, rather than adapting to thebaby. These parents then end up in a cycleof negative feedback – to both parent andchild – which interferes with the process of130 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

ecoming securely attached (Seifer andSameroff 1986;and see chapter 3). Adultswho repeatedly respond with empathy,affection and emotional support whenbabies and young children are distressed,help children gain positive views ofthemselves and make them feel valuedby others (Barrett and Campos 1987;Thompson 1991).Adult support during the first three yearshelps children cope with powerful feelingsand fears, and, especially, with frustrationat being unable to complete self-chosentasks. As children become proficient inlanguage they can use this to reduce thestrength of their emotions according toBruner and Lucariello (1989),sincerepresenting the world in thoughts andwords begins to give them the power tothink about consequences of an action,but before the age of three this ability willstill be rudimentary. Young children willalso look at adults to whom they areattached when they know that they areabout to break one of the adult’s rules(Lieberman 1993), because they can nowrecall what the adult approves anddisapproves. This finding ties in with theresearch on brain development whichsuggests that it is not until 18 months ofage that a young child can appreciate thatother people have different ‘minds’ fromtheir own (Gopnik et al 1999).Being safe and protectedFor children under three, it is theresponsibility of the adults around themto ensure they are in safe environments.Lindon (1999) provides a useful review ofsafety issues and discusses the ways inwhich parents and practitioners caninvolve children in awareness about theirown safety and that of younger siblings orfriends. As Lindon says,‘Gi rls and boys need ca re and supe rv i s i o nt h roughout the years of childhood whent h ey have a limited understandingof common risks in their immediateenvironment. There are real dangersto children from household or trafficaccidents and considerable scope forresponsible adults to reduce the levelof preventable injuries and deaths…However,…it is counter-productive tofocus on keeping children away fromevery risk,however slight. We are likelyto create a boring environment for them,without challenge or excitement. We alsoproject an image of ourselves as peoplewho block children’s interests andcuriosity.’ (Lindon 1999:5).A quarter of a century ago Ainsworth et al(1974) concluded that humans, like otherapes, have an inbuilt mechanism forresponding to a parent’s danger cry. Theylinked this response of moving closer,or clinging, to the adult (usually the mother)when she signalled imminent danger.It is not possible to cover further aspectsof safety in this text, although road andother injuries are mentioned later inreviewing research on a number of issues.The numbers of babies and youngchildren in the child abuse statisticsindicates to us the seriousness of this131

issue. In March 1998, 9 per cent of thechildren on the at risk register were agedunder one year old, 30 per cent were agedbetween one and four (BMA 1999).Generally speaking, parents who subjecttheir very young children to abuse oftendeny the child’s needs, have unrealisticexpectations of babies and youngchildren’s abilities, are more punitive andless flexible in their parenting (Casellesand Milner 2000). The majority of abusedchildren fail to develop secureattachments (Alexander 1992; Barnett et al1999; Briere 1992;Ciccetti et al 1988;Crittendon 1992) and neglected childrenhave had little support in developingself-regulation and routines (Egeland et al1983). Babies who have been abused andthus traumatised, do not yet have thecognitive abilities to think about or thelanguage to speak about theirexperiences. Thus it is suggested they willhave developed ways of coping that meanthey become hyper-alert as well as numbto emotional involvement, because theycan no longer trust. When young childrencannot put their feelings into words theywill act out and resort to aggressive andnegative interactions. Maltreated childrenseem to view the world as a dangerousplace where they are unloved, and so theyhave difficulty forming positiverelationships. These findings are supportedby Crittenden (1992) and Zeanah (1993).Morton and Browne (1998) have reviewedthe literature on attachment and childmaltreatment, in relation tointergenerational experience of abusiveparenting. They too support the view thatearly maltreatment impacts on the longterm ability to form relationships. Schoolagechildren who have been abused whenvery young, tend to be more self-centredand generally have a reduced capacity forempathy (Vondra et al 1989; 1990).Abused and maltreated children are at ahigher risk of school failure and droppingout of school later in life. They appear lessmotivated to achieve. However, there aredifferences linked to the outcomes ofdifferent types of abuse, with neglectedchildren,who are often rejected by theirpeers, having the poorest academicachievement, and rarely displaying joy,humour and emotional reactions(Eckenrode et al 1993; Haynes-Seman andBaumgarten 1998;Kurtz et al 1993).‘Listening to young children throughobserving their play and talking abouttheir drawings has a particular significancefor those working with children who havebeen abused, neglected or traumatised…play is a powerful means of developinga relationship with a child and providingopportunities to observe the child'sconcerns and preoccupations.’Pugh & Selleck (1996: 123)Important measures (Lier 1997; Lowenthal1999) to prevent abuse and to promoteresilience in the earliest years include theavailability of alternative caregivers; localsupport networks and informal supportsystems for parents (other familymembers, friends) (Barnett et al 1999;Kotch 1997); formal support systems, suchas home visiting (Barnett et al 1999) andintensive parent education programmes132 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

(Whipple 1999);training projects for earlyyears workers (Culp et al 1991; Daro 1993).The NSPCC’s (2000) recent guide forpractitioners includes data on the natureand prevalence of abuse, family risk factorsand sudden infant death. It providesguidance for parents and professionals.Since a baby in the UK under one year oldis four times more likely to die at the handof another human being (Butler 1996),knowledge about babies and children andthe prevention of abuse is vital for parentsand professionals.In some cases, children displayingdisruptive and apparently hyperactivebehaviour, or extremes of hyperactivityand periods of being very withdrawnin an ECEC setting, may alert staff todomestic violence. The abuse may be‘indirect’ and in families where anotherchild is the focus of that violence, theChildren Act 1989‘s grave concerncategory may be invoked.Current research (Cox forthcoming)indicates that parents of older childrenplace paedophilia as one of their greatestconcerns. Yet West (2000) argues thatsuch anxieties are fuelled by presssensationalism and that the statisticsused are misleading, since criminalstatistics do not confirm an escalation.Re s e a rch on inte ra g e n cy pra ct i ce (Tay l o rand Daniel 1999) in Scotland reveals apossible gap be tween the re s ponses ofhealth and social ca re pro fe s s i o n a l s. Th e s ere s e a rchers state that although there arekn own to be links be tween neglect andemotional abuse and failure to thri ve,some pra ctitioners are not re cog n i s i n gthe po te ntial risks for some of the childre nwho are not thri v i n g. Ti te (1993) fo u n dt h at early years pra ctitioners in Ca n a d awould often fail to call on otherp ro fessionals in abuse cases where theybe l i eved they could suppo rt the pare nt sand help them ove rcome their difficulties.While Walsh (2002) in Au s t ralia has arg u e dt h at early years pra ctitioners are ofte nm a rg i n a l i zed by other pro fe s s i o n a l s.Howeve r, as David (1993a.) has state d,ECEC pra ct i t i o n e r s, g i ven re l eva nti n fo rm at i o n ,t raining and suppo rt are themost info rmed about babies and yo u n gc h i l d ren genera l ly and, a p a rt from thec h i l d re n’s pare nts and family, the mostkn owledgeable about individual childre nwith whom they wo rk . Often staff mayh ave a ‘gut fe e l i n g’ a bout a child be fo ret h ey be come conscious of any signs ors y m p toms that a child is witnessing orbeing subjected to abuse. All ECECp ra ctitioners need designate d,ex pe ri e n ced colleagues with whom theycan discuss their co n ce rns in co n f i d e n ce.This is espe c i a l ly impo rt a nt fo rchildminders who may feel isolated andanxious about the child in question anda bout their re s po n s i b i l i t i e s.The developmental points for Keeping Safe,one of the components of the aspectA Healthy Child, include:-Young babies make strong andpurposeful movements. They tend notto stay in the position in which theywere placed.133

Beginning to walk, climb and run withlittle sense of danger, babies focus onwhat they want.Given opportunities to practise whatthey can do in safe surroundings, youngchildren learn some sense of danger.Children’s need for affection, attentionand being special in some way makesthem particularly vulnerable in relationto keeping safe.Ch i l d ren who have not ex pe ri e n ced wa rm ,l oving re l ationships and who crave affe ct i o nare often those targeted by abusers. As wehave seen in earlier chapters, positiveemotional attachments seem to underlieso many areas of human development.DIFFICULT BEHAVIOUR AND WHAT IT MAY MEANWalker-Hall and Sylva have reviewedwhat works for families of children withbehaviour problems. They argue thatstudies of children and infants withproblematic behaviour generally suggestthese are caused by environmental factors,‘of perhaps which parents are the mostprominent source. Aggressive fathers…,exposure to violence, high rates ofmaternal punishment…,mothers withpsychiatric conditions…and generalmarital discord/stressful homeenvironment…have been associated withconduct problems appearing early in achild’s life…low-quality parenting hasrepeatedly been associated withbehaviour problems…low-qualityparenting is characterised as beinginconsistent, authoritarian, lacking inwarmth, uninvolved, physically punitive,and not providing adequate care.’Walker-Hall and Sylva (2001: 162).It appears that some parents are morenegative in their interactions with theirchildren,or ignore them until thesechildren learn that it is only by whiningthat they gain attention and that althoughthis may eventually lead to beingsmacked, this is preferable to beingignored. The British Medical Association(BMA 1999) state that increasing researchattention is being paid to this subject andevidence is accumulating that smacking isnot an effective child care practice. Theyargue that it can lead to an increase inviolent and aggressive behaviour. The firstmeta-analysis of physical punishment,covering 88 studies, shows consistentlythat while smacking may ‘secure children’simmediate compliance, it also increasesthe likelihood of negative outcomes.’(BMA 1999: 128).Gardner (1994) observed that mothers ofchildren with behaviour problems initiatedactivities less frequently than othermothers and made fewer attempts tomaintain shared activity once begun.These mothers used rigid instructions,or orders, to their children, whereas othermothers used around four times as manyrequests and engaged in more than threetimes as much ‘teaching’ (positive,supportive contingent interactions to helpchildren understand something). Many ofthe difficult behaviours encountered withfive year olds thus appear to have theirroots in the interactions childrenexperienced at one and two years of age.134 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

As we have found over and over againthroughout this review, babies and youngchildren are primed to try to ‘make sense’of the context in which they findthemselves and to be responsive to warm,loving adults with whom they haveformed their primary attachments.Thus this leads us to ask,as Rodd (1996)did – what is ‘normal behaviour’ forchildren aged one and two, since thisseems to trigger parents’ unfortunatereactions. Jill Rodd argues that it isimportant to be informed about children’sdevelopment during this phase, forexample, because‘Sensitive early childhood professionalsunderstand toddlers’ needs for choiceand decision making opportunities. Theyunderstand that a two year old might evensay no when she means yes and aretolerant of toddlers’ changes of mind. Theyprovide opportunities for toddlers tocooperate by not demanding compliancewith a demand but rather by offeringsimple alternatives for how the needs ofthe situation might be met. …If childrendo not feel that they are autonomous andindependent beings, they may displaydevelopmentally immature anddependent behaviours and will find itdifficult to display initiative later’ (Rodd1996:22-23 – our italics).In the light of the research conclusionsoutlined above it is important to note thedebate about ADHD (Attention DeficitHyperactive Disorder) and the use of thedrug Ritalin (usually with school agechildren).(See for example Llana andCrismon 1999; Kong 1995;Kwasman et al1995; Marshall 2000; Tillery et al 2000).It would seem that whatever the cause,problems in the early years of childhoodmay indicate potential for difficulties (suchas antisocial behaviour, or mental illness)later in life, according to the BMA (1999).They add that effective interventions inthe form of non-stigmatising parentingprogrammes in which any parent mayenrol are proving effective. Examples ofvoluntary sector support for parentsinclude:- Homestart; Newpin; Pippin;Positive Parenting; Mellow Parenting.EARLY INTERVENTION STUDIES AIMED ATIMPROVING INFANT HEALTH AND WELL BEINGHow theories have influencedintervention programmesA comprehensive study of earlyintervention programmes, research andtheory in the USA (Meisels and Shonkoff1990), explored different approaches tointervention, and their underpinningrationales. In this collection of papers,Gallagher (1990) explains five differentperspectives, which are based on differentassumptions, and which form the basis fordifferent programmes. Most programmesadopt approaches based on a mix of theseassumptions. The assumptions are:-Changing children will change otherfamily members (children withdevelopmental delay may have anegative impact on the family; a familythat is in trouble will respond better ifthe child’s needs are being met);135

Providing information and teachingparenting skills can change families(parents may have inaccurate orincomplete information, be frustratedat their own inability to enhance theirchild’s behaviour or learning);Personal counselling can changefamilies (people can have negativeperceptions of themselves and theirabilities);Increasing parental empowerment canchange families (better resources,changing a poor environment, reducingstress and sharing responsibility reducethe impact of an unhealthy context).(Adapted from Gallagher 1990:543).In a rev i ew of the re s e a rch ev i d e n ce one a rly inte rve ntions to enhance the ment a lhealth of children and their familiescompiled for the Me ntal He a l t hFo u n d at i o n ,Ba rnes and Fre u d e - La g eva rd i(2002) conclude that prog rammes need tobe po s i t i ve, n o n - d e f i c i t, c u l t u ra l ly sensitive,s ys temic (based on an eco l og i cal mod e l )and so matched to part i c i p a nt s’ n e e d s.Such prog rammes need to be targ e ted onat - risk co m m u n i t i e s, those with high rate sof pove rty, single and adolesce ntp a re nt h ood, and invo lve both children andp a re nt s, without stigmatising individuals.Their rev i ew indicates that bo t hp ro fessionals and para - p ro fe s s i o n a l s,wo rking alongside families, should sharedecision making and that both pre- andpo s t - n atal inte rve ntions which do not tryto ope rate on too many fro nts at the sametime are like ly to prove most effe ct i ve. On eof their most telling state m e nts co n ce rn sthe impo rt a n ce of ‘a reasonable sat i s f y i n gt h e ra peutic re l at i o n s h i p’ ( Ba rnes andFre u d e - La g eva rdi 2002: 46 ), w h i c h , if note s t a b l i s h e d, cannot be co m pe n s ated fo rt h rough lengthy inte rve nt i o n s. In otherwo rd s, ra p po rt be tween wo rkers andfamilies is essential (Se i fer et al 1991 ).Fawcett’s (2001) review of early childhoodinterventions related to special needs forthe DfES concludes, inter alia:-the need to move to a ‘joined up’ modelof deliveryto build on the model of Sure Start inareas of moderate disadvantageto accept that some ‘false positives’ willbe identified, who will later prove theintervention to have been unnecessaryto build the potential of parents andparaprofessionals for effective and costeffectiveidentification and interventionharness the natural involvement ofparents to build parenting skillsprovide for accreditation of priorexperience and learning towardsqualifications for paraprofessionalsprovide training for ECEC personnelwhich bridges the health-educationdivideprovide training through a variety ofmodels, including distance and parttimeresidential coursesimprove interagency communication,understanding and mutual respectring fence funding for identificationand intervention for children from 0-2fund further research136 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

disseminate effective practicerespect children’s and parents’ rights.(Adapted from Fawcett 2001: 11-12).Fawcett adds that many of herre co m m e n d ations are alre a dy in proce s sbe cause of the Gove rn m e nt’s initiat i ve stowa rds early ident i f i cation and inte rve nt i o n .The co m m u n i ty-based schemesa dvocated by Ca roline We b s te r- St rat to n ,which have the po te ntial to re s to re andbenefit disadva ntaged communities bo t hp s yc h o l og i ca l ly and soc i a l ly, w h i l ere cognised as challenging, a re lauded byWa l ke r- Hall and Sy lva (2001). This iss u p po rted by the rev i ew of inte rve nt i o np rog rammes in the USA by Ra m ey andRa m ey (1998). Th ey argue that thei nte rve ntions most like ly to succeed arei nte n s i ve, high quality and eco l og i ca l lype rva s i ve. The Ra m eys offer six pri n c i p l e sa bout effica cy. These are :-d eve l o p m e ntal timing (the youngerthe child is enrolled and the longerthe inte rve nt i o n , the gre ater thebe n e f i t s, although there is no ev i d e n ceof cri t i cal pe ri od s )programme intensity (greater intensity,for example by number of home visitsper week etc, produces greater effects)direct intervention is more successfulthan indirect (intervention professionalsand paraprofessionals need to workwith the children themselves as well aswith parents, although the Rameysstress the importance of celebratingparents’ and other family members’contributions as primary carers)programme breadth and flexibility(comprehensive and multi-routeprogrammes generally have largereffects)individual differences matter (matchingthe intervention to the child’s orfamily’s need)the intervention should be ecologicallypervasive and maintained (early yearsinterventions alone may not beenough, involving whole communities,local schools, for example, tends to bemore effective). (Adapted from Rameyand Ramey 1998: 115-117)Many of the Government’s initiatives,such as Sure Start, the National ParentingInstitute, and the expanded role of healthvisitors are therefore encouragingdevelopments in the spirit of the Ramey’s(1998) conclusions.SUMMARY OF KEY ‘MESSAGES’Practitioners need to be able to:-Understand attachment and theimportance of a child being specialto at least one significant person inorder to promote resilienceUnderstand children’s dietary andphysical needsProvide opportunities to explore andplay in a safe and secure environment;children’s mobility and movement areimportant for their development137

Know about brain development andthe importance of ‘nourishment’(a good diet – in both the form of foodand of physical and psychologicalstimulation)Help parents see that intimatebehaviours such as bugging andnudging, pet names and idiosyncraticbehaviour are important and thatchildren’s development sometimesseems difficult because they are tryingto become independent people witha sense of selfHave reasonable rules which fit withchildren’s rhythms and give a patternto lifeKnow that parents, as well as children,need supportKnow about child abuse and neglectand have other colleagues to consultRecognise the additional requirementsof babies and young children withspecial needs, and plan how to ensurethese children have access, in aphilosophical,as well as practical sense,to similar experiences andopportunities to their peersHelp communities and the publicunderstand the importance of positiveinteractions and experiences in the firstthree years for all areas of development,including brain development, and forenjoyment in the here and now.138 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Chapter 7Conclusions and implicationsThis review of research literature has proved to be an exciting but huge task, because ofthe wide range of topics which could have been included. Clearly there are allied researchareas, such as that on parenting and projects to increase parental empowerment, forexample, which would have been covered had there been time and space. Staff trainingtoo could be helpfully reviewed at another time and the DfES’s current initiativesevaluating new training opportunities for the field are positive developments. Further,although multiprofessional working, like early intervention,is touched upon,it is notpossible for these aspects to be covered comprehensively here. However, readers can turnto other relevant research and reviews by using the reference list provided with this text.What then are the key messages wewould want readers to take from thisreview of the literature concerning babiesand children aged between birth andthree years?One of the messages from any researchreview concerns the ‘gaps’ which havebeen identified. Both this review and thatfor the British Educational ResearchAssociation’s Early Years Special InterestGroup (BERA EYSIG forthcoming), coveringcurriculum, pedagogy and training (largelyfor the 3-6 year old age group butincluding a section on babies and youngchildren) have thrown up the paucity ofresearch on the processes and practices ofECEC for children from birth to three.In particular the field needs informationabout toddlers in educare settings.A second important area needing moreresearch is that exploring the impact ofpractitioner training on children’s andparents’ experiences of ECEC.In the USA, Kagan (1996) has argued thatfocusing on curriculum and pedagogicalissues alone will not be sufficient toaddress developments in early childhoodeducation and care (ECEC). She suggeststhat it is necessary to:-139

a c kn owledge cri t i cal socialt rends affe cting young childrenand their familiesmeet the needs of diverse communitiesfind out what families want and what isalready provided by communitiesestablish priorities in relation to servicesfor children and services for familiesaddress issues of continuity andcoherenceconsider infrastructure as well as actualservice provisiondisseminate information about earlychildhood and ECEC more effectively.These messages could apply equally inEngland, but what other messages arethere from this review of the literature?Since we have drawn out someconclusions and implications in each ofthe preceding chapters, we will limit ourfinal points to three, for or about each ofthe main groups involved – the parents,practitioners, policy makers, trainers,researchers, and, last but certainly notleast, the children. These messages are:-PARENTSFamilies are a context for developmentfor parents too and perhaps all parentsneed support in relating their ownexperiences of being parented to howthey feel about their baby or youngchild. By dealing with any unresolveddissatisfaction with their ownchildhoods through narrative, and bylearning about how children develop,preferably before their first child isborn,they can face the challenging taskahead with the joy that will promotepositive relationships.All parents need respect andrecognition as the primary edu-carersfor their children. Support offeredshould be provided by warm,approachable professionals, whorecognise that they may have differentvalues from those of the parents. Someparents need extra support eitherbecause their circumstances are socioeconomicallydisadvantaged or becausetheir children have special needs. Whenparents and professionals are trulypartners they and their children achievemuch (Whalley et al 2000).Parents need time to be with theirbabies and young children, to helpthem learn and develop, and sufficientfinances to enjoy them. Many who arein paid employment find their liveshighly pressured time-wise and thosewho are not are generally pressured bystress about finances.The issue ofemployer involvement in local EarlyYears Development and ChildcarePartnerships and work to improve thework-life balance needs more publicityand debate, because of its long-termimplications.(These statements are based on theresearch reviewed in this text and on otherwork, for example see Ferri and Smith140 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

1996; Pugh et al 1994; Smith and Pugh1996; Smith 1996;Utting 1995; White andWoollett 1992).PRACTITIONERSMost of all, we conclude thatpractitioners need commitment.In order to be effective in theirrelationships with babies and youngchildren they need to be loving andknowledgeable, and because they workin positions of great responsibility, theyneed to be professional,accountableand trained in ways which keep theminformed about research and able toreflect on that research in the light oftheir own observations of children.As one practitioner in an Americanresearch report said:-‘I was at a party recently, whensomeone asked me what I did.“I’m aninvestor,” I said. People gathered roundme asking about stocks, mutual funds,and so on. I explained that I wasn’tdealing with any of those products.“I’m investing in America’s future, ”I told them – “America’s children andtheir families.” Kay Mayo, Family ChildCare Provider Austin, TX’ Galinsky et al(1994:96).Practitioners require knowledge ofresearch about child developmentin order to be able to articulate whycertain practices are important.In particular they need informationand training about young childrenwith special needs. This means theyneed time for that ongoing training.Support to develop more effectiveinter-agency working in the interestsof young children and their families.(The main factors relating to thiseffectiveness are detailed in Atkinsonet al 2002).POLICY MAKERSEvangelou and Sylva (2002) reported onthe evaluation of the PEEP (Peers EarlyEducation Partnership) based in Oxford.The project, which involves work withadults (parents, carers and pre-schoolstaff) who live and work with some 2,000children from birth to five years in an areaof low socio-economic status, set out toeffect positive change in educationalachievement, especially in literacy. Theresearchers found that the project didindeed have a positive effect on children’sliteracy, numeracy and self-esteem butthat at this time it is impossible to claimthat there will be long term gains.As Brooks-Gunn (2000:12) has argued,‘If policy makers believe that offering earlychildhood intervention for two years oreven three will permanently and totallyreduce SES disparities in children’sachievements, they may be engagingin magical thinking’Thus, with this research in mind, togetherwith that reviewed earlier, we concludethat policy makers’ priorities must be:-141

a commitment to ensure that ECECservices for children 0-3 are firstlyappropriate and to the advantage ofthe children and not simply to enableparents to participate in the workforce.Further, that appropriate support forparents and children is availablethroughout a child’s life, not simplyin the early yearspolicies which enable the recruitmentof only those who will be committedpractitioners, and to enable access totraining, and to conditions of servicewhich will ensure retentionfunding more research,especially thatfocusing on the experiences of youngchildren in ECEC settings and the livesof two year olds.TRAINERSNeed to provide meaningful coursesin child development.They also need to act as conduits forresearch information,ensuring linksbetween practitioners and the researchcommunity,and to foster the development ofpractitioner research networks, topromote discussion and reflection onresearch allied to practitioners’ ownobservations.RESEARCHERSResearchers need to forge links acrossdisciplinary boundaries,and across parent-practitionerresearcherboundaries, so that thosewho are most familiar to babies andchildren,and with whom they willdisplay the highest levels of theirknowledge and achievements, willbe enabled to contribute to researchknowledge.They also need to develop methodsof and approaches to dissemination –some of the new journals, such asInterplay and Early Years Practitioner,and the developments made byexisting professional journals, such asNursery World and Coordinate, are fineexamples of such efforts.CHILDRENAbove all,children need loving,responsive, sensitive key personsaround them, people who recognisetheir fascination with and curiosityabout what is going on around them,their drive to explore and problemsolve through active learning, and whowill provide opportunities to play, makefriends and share experiences, and yetallow time for them to be deeplyfocused alone but near others, as well ase n s u ring all their health needs are met.They need to be respected as people intheir own right, andto live in a society which is informedabout their development and learning,and which is involved and delighted intheir amazing abilities.142 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Finally, in this review of the researchabout children under three and theirdevelopment and learning, the last wordgoes to Gopnik, Meltzoff and Kuhl,whotell us that:-‘One benefit of knowing the science is akind of protective scepticism. It shouldmake us deeply suspicious of anyenterprise that offers a formula for makingbabies smarter or teaching them more,from flash cards to Mozart tapes to BetterBaby Institutes. Everything we know aboutbabies suggests that these artificialinventions are at best useless and at worstdistractions from the normal interactionbetween grown-ups and babies. Babies arealready as smart as they can be, they knowwhat they need to know, and they are veryeffective and selective in getting the kindsof information they need. They aredesigned to learn about the real wo rld thats u rrounds them, and they learn by play i n gwith the things in that wo rl d, most of all byp l aying with the people who love them.’Gopnik et al (1999:201).143

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AppendixMethodology – how the literature review was carried outThe lite rat u re rev i ew was ca rried out by firstly bra i n s to rming a list of key wo rds and phra s e swhich would be used in accessing libra ry data bases. These we re organised as a table:-PEOPLE FOCUSEDInfantBaby/BabiesNeonateToddlerParentMotherFatherSisterBrotherSiblingGrandparentStaffEducator/sCarerMinder/childminder/child-minderNanny/iesAu pairFamily/iesAdultHealth visitorNurseDoctorAGE FOCUSEDUnder oneUnder Two(to searchfor research ontwo-year-olds)ThreeUnder five /sixToddler(obviously a few in the‘people’ column wouldalso do this eg baby,neonate)ISSUE FOCUSEDBrainNeuro-DevelopmentGrowthPerson/alPhysicalEmotion/alSocialCognitive/intellectual/understandLa n g u a g e / l i n g u i s t i c /b i l i n g u a l / m u l t i l i n g u a lTalkPlayLiteracyCommunication etcNegotiation, etcImaginationSelf esteemLearningCurriculumCreative/etcRelations(-ships)Snuggling179

PEOPLE FOCUSED continued/setting focusedDaycare/day carePre-school/ Pre-schoolNurseryLibrary/iesSports (centre)Parent and toddlerAGE FOCUSED continuedISSUE FOCUSED continuedBelongSafe/ protect/abuseEsteemCompetentVoiceIdentitymoralspiritualculturalmaths/mathematics/number etcmusicartscienceworld (K&U of World?)holisticPedagog(y-ista-ue)Resource/sEnvironmentSENDisabilityEthnicRace/racialGenderBoy/girlEqual (opportunity/ies)HealthPovertyPolicyPoliticContinuityInteractionTrainingQualificationsConditions180 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

Other terms – for example ADHD,Ritalin, were later added to this extensivefirst trawl.Members of the team then exploredlibrary data bases. These included:-ASSIA; BIDS; British Humanities Index;Medline;ERIC; PsysINFO; Social ScienceCitation Index; OVID Biomed;BEI; IBSS/BIDS;BHI;Science Citation Index;BookFind-Online; Caredata;BOPCAS; MMU,London IoE, and CCCUC library catalogues;NCB library catalogue; Blackwells,PCP/Sage, and other relevant publishers’on-line catalogues.Colleagues on the teams at the two HEIs(Manchester Metropolitan University andCanterbury Christ Church UniversityCollege);the project Steering and WorkingGroups; and those in the UK and abroad,who might know of key texts, were alsocontacted for suggestions.The results from the data bases were insome cases surprising – for example whena nursing data base appeared to have noreferences to neonates. In other cases theresults were so vast they were impossibleto cover. Others were manageable but stilllarger than we would expect to be dealtwith in one review which includes not justthe topic raising that list but a largenumber of other foci. For example, theterms resilience and risk produced 375references from one data base alone, ofwhich 91 were selected for downloading.Thirty-nine were used subsequently in thisliterature review.The question of whichto de-select was made on the basis ofrelevance and then often it was a matterof using one’s knowledge and experiencein the field to further discriminatebetween those which would be mostuseful and those which were subsidiary.In order to ensure that the team did notduplicate searches, the data bases weredivided up and team members exchangedreferences found relating to areas of thereview which were the responsibility ofanother member of the team. Each teammember took responsibility for the initialdrafting of particular components of theframework ‘Birth to Three Matters’ as dealtwith in the literature review.When a data base had been searchedaccording to a particular term orcombination of terms, the collectionof chosen citations, abstracts and locationsof references were downloaded andsaved to disk. The records could thenbe printed off and used for sorting andfor margin notes.In order to facilitate common approachesto reading selected articles and books, apro forma was devised. (See opposite).181

BIRTH TO THREE MATTERSPro Forma for the Literature ReviewReviewer id + number of review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Data base search/ source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Key search terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Publication infoAuthor/s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Date of publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Book title if a chapter and editors/Journal name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Publisher (book) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Place of publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page numbers (of article or chapter) . . . . . . . . . .ISBN/ISSN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .DetailsDiscipline/ area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Country/ies involved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Type of literature (eg. meta-analysis; ‘issues‘ book; text for practitioners;popular jnl/periodical; acad journal;professional journal; etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Type of research (eg quantitative, qualitative,…paradigm espoused/philos of authors if given or identifiable) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Methods used (methods, sample size, age range, socio-econ info, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Focus of study (eg. emotional development) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Relevant for which Aspect/Component of the pack (eg A1,B3,etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Criteria (tick or make notes)Minimises possible biasHas external validity/authenticityConclusions fit data,sufficient evidenceHas been assessed by others (eg refereed for journal, peer review, in public domain etc)Generalisations have been made only where/when appropriateResumé of relevant findingsUseful quote and page no.A= A Strong Child;B= A Skilful Communicator; C= A Competent Learner; D= A Healthy Child. Thus A1= Me, myself and I,and so on.182 EDUCATION ANDSKILLS B I RT H T O T H R E E M AT T E R S

In many cases what surprised the reviewteam was the overall support whichdifferent pieces of research lent to thegeneral picture which was emerging.Generally, disagreements betweenresearchers seemed to be more concernedwith methodology or research approachesand the validity of previous studies, ratherthan about the main findings concerningchildren’s development and learningin this age group. In the event, becauseof time constraints, the pro forma wasused simply as an aide memoire and noteswe re wri t ten beside the data base pri nto u t s,or attached to hard copies of articles.As each team member gatheredinformation she would add it to a draftsection for which she was responsible,concerned with a particular Componentof the Framework. As a result of the verybroad coverage of the literature review,there were some topics which receivedless attention than others. However, itmust be said that there are, in any case,certain topics which have been neglectedby research. These include, in particular,young children’s spiritual and moraldevelopment, research about ECEC andchildren in this age group, especially thatabout two year olds.the Aspects and Components of theFramework and the chapters and sectionsof the literature review.The first draft of the review was sent outto members of the Steering and WorkingGroups and to the MMU team members.Further, two colleagues at CanterburyChrist Church UC provided a helpfulcommentary on the review, to strengthenits inclusiveness of young children withspecial needs.Since the review is intended for use mainlyby practitioners, it would have been idealhad time allowed for it to be read at thisstage by a sample of practitionercolleagues, so augmenting the practitionerrepresentation on the Working Group whoreceived the draft. However, time was veryshort, and this meant that when all thesuggested amendments had beenreceived, the text was redrafted andreviewed only by DfES colleagues and theproject Director, Professor Lesley Abbott.We would hope that this literature reviewwill complement those referenced in ourtext and the forthcoming reviews by theBERA Early Years Special Interest Groupand the EPPI Early Years Group.Initial drafts of sections of the literaturereview were put together by one memberof the team, who also incorporated therelevant quotations and definitions fromthe Framework itself. These links weremade in order to help readers readilyrecognise the connections between183

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