Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

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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
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AcknowledgementsThe authors and pub
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Relationships with other people (bo
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policies for families. So this lite
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etween three and nine years old whi
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0 - 8 months: Heads Up, Lookers and
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e a rliest ye a r s’ 1 , is the c
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distinguish between things, and tha
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Chapter 2Influential research and t
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THE ISSUE OF THEORIES AS CULTURALCO
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p a rt i c u l a rly in re l ation
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developed by Bereiter and Engelmann
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familiar settings. By about one yea
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child as learning and developing in
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Page 38 and 39: Chapter 3A Strong ChildIn the Frame
Page 40 and 41: A GROWING AWARENESS OF SELF AND THE
Page 42 and 43: ( a d a p ted from Davies 1999 : 12
Page 44 and 45: them with an inadequate modelof rew
Page 46 and 47: However, even sensitive parents and
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Page 62 and 63: Attending to external demands (such
Page 64 and 65: Chapter 4A Skilful CommunicatorThis
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Page 70 and 71: interactions and interchanges depen
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Page 74 and 75: Karmiloff-Smith 2001: 183). Further
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Page 78 and 79: ‘language’. However, there is m
Page 80 and 81: of his granddaughter Alice’s very
Page 82 and 83: For example, Eliot (just two years
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Page 88 and 89: still gave them biscuits, because t
Page 90 and 91: The importance of social interactio
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Page 100 and 101: Being CreativeYoung babies explore
Page 102 and 103: Chapter 6A Healthy ChildA Healthy C
Page 104 and 105: FIGURE 1:SIX ASPECTS OF HEALTH (MEG
Page 106 and 107: It is only by being given oppo rtun
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Page 112 and 113: It has also provided useful insight
Page 114 and 115: FIGURE 2:SHORE’S (1997:18) CHART
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Page 118 and 119: memory; synapses associated withexp
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Page 126 and 127: greater risk) and girls halved betw
Page 128 and 129: et al 2000). Further, lone mothers,
Page 130 and 131: ecoming securely attached (Seifer a
Page 132 and 133: (Whipple 1999);training projects fo
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As we have found over and over agai
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disseminate effective practicerespe
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Chapter 7Conclusions and implicatio
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1996; Pugh et al 1994; Smith and Pu
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Finally, in this review of the rese
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meaning making. Paper presented at
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Pre-school Program on Youths throug
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Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecolo
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for intervention. In B.B. Lahey and
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children. In J. Bruner and H. Haste
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Fawcett, A. (2001) Special Educatio
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Grainger, T. and Goouch,K. (1999) Y
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Howes, C. (1987) Peer interaction o
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months Journal of Reproductive and
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Mandler, J. (1999) Preverbal repres
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Mo r s s, J . ( 1990) The Bi o l og
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Patel, P., Mendall, M.A., Khulusi,
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Roberts, H. (2001a) Fit or fat? Coo
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Singer, E. (1992) Child Care and th
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Teti, D.M.and Gelfand, D.M. (1991)B
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Issues in the Early Years London:Pa
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National Association for SpecialEdu
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PEOPLE FOCUSED continued/setting fo
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BIRTH TO THREE MATTERSPro Forma for
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184 EDUCATIONAND SKILLS B I RT H T
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