Early Childhood Studies (Hodder Arnold Publication)

337 Pages·2005·6.81 MB·English

by  Jayne Taylor

EARLY
CHILDHOOD STUDIES
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EARLY
CHILDHOOD STUDIES
AN HOLISTIC INTRODUCTION
SECOND EDITION
Edited by
Jayne Taylor RN, RHV, Dip N (Lond), Cert Ed, RNT,
BSc (Hons), PhD, MBA
Director of Quality and Learning at Hertsmere PCT and
St Albans and Harpenden PCT, UK
Margaret Woods MA, BA, Dip Ed
Formerly Dean of Quality Enhancement in the Higher
Education sector of Suffolk College, Ipswich, UK
Hodder Arnold
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v
CONTENTS
List of contributors vi
Preface vii
Introduction Introduction to early childhood studies viii
Margaret Woods
Chapter 1 Early childhood studies: first principles 1
Margaret Woods
Chapter 2 New beginnings: factors affecting health and well-being in the infant 23
Catherine Forsdike
Chapter 3 Physical growth and development 37
Val Thurtle
Chapter 4 Personal, social and emotional development 57
Anne Greig
Chapter 5 Children’s relationships 78
David Rutherford
Chapter 6 Play, language and learning 99
Anne Greig
Chapter 7 Early childhood education and care 117
Margaret Woods
Chapter 8 The early school pathway 141
Beverley Nightingale and Sally Payne
Chapter 9 The child in society 163
Val Thurtle
Chapter 10 Social policy: the state, the family and young children 185
Erica Joslyn, Christine Such and Emma Bond
Chapter 11 Child protection, welfare and the law 203
Kevin Pettican
Chapter 12 Young children with disabilities 226
Sue Hollinrake
Chapter 13 Child health 244
Jayne Taylor and Val Thurtle
Chapter 14 The ill child 257
Val Thurtle and Jayne Taylor
Chapter 15 Children of the world 268
Jayne Taylor
Chapter 16 Perspectives on early childhood research 284
Jayne Taylor
Chapter 17 Working with young children and their families 297
Jayne Taylor
Index 305
vi
LIST OF contributors
Emma Bond BA (Hons), PGCE, ILTM
School of Education, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Catherine Forsdike RN, SCM, ADM, PGCEA, BA, MSc
Dean of Quality (FE), Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Anne Greig Dip Ed, MA (Hons), PhD, MSc (Educational Psychology), Dip CBT
Argyll and Bute Psychological Service, Colgrain, Community Education Wing,
Helensburgh, Scotland, UK
Susan Hollinrake BA (Hons), MSc, CQSW
Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Erica Joslyn BA (Hons), MSc, PhD
Associate Dean of Education, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Beverley Nightingale MA, PGCE, BA (Hons)
Senior Lecturer, School of Education, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Sally Payne BSc (Hons), MSc, PGCE
Lecturer, School of Education, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Kevin Pettican MA, BA, CQSW
Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
David Rutherford BA, MSc
Department of Education, Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK
Christine Such BSc, MA, PGCE
Faculty of Education, APU, Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Jayne Taylor RN, RHV, Dip N (Lond), Cert Ed, RNT, BSc (Hons), PhD, MBA
Director of Quality and Learning at Hertsmere PCT, and St Albans and Harpenden
PCT, UK
Val Thurtle MA, BSc (Hons), RGN, RHV, Cert Ed
Senior Lecturer, London South Bank University, London, UK
Margaret Woods MA, BA, Dip Ed
Recently retired Dean of Quality Enhancement in the Higher Education Sector of
Suffolk College, Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. Led development of the BA (Hons) Early
Childhood Studies, MA Early Childhood Studies, and MA Special Needs in Early
Childhood at Suffolk College, Ipswich, UK
vii
PREFACE
The BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies course was set up at Suffolk College,
Ipswich in 1992. At that time it was one of only three such undergraduate degrees in
the UK. Since then the programme has gone from strength to strength and, in 2005,
it is now one of many early childhood/early years degree-level courses offered at uni-
versities and colleges throughout the country. Early Childhood Studies has become a
respected and popular academic subject – a subject with a strong vocational orienta-
tion providing graduates who are in very great demand.
Members of the initial Early Childhood Studies team at Suffolk College were
strongly committed to an holistic view of the young child and therefore to an interdis-
ciplinary approach to early years work. They were consequently enthusiastic about
developing a degree programme where the holistic philosophy underpinned the study
of early childhood. To create this new discipline of Early Childhood Studies, the team
brought together aspects of their traditional academic disciplines, professional expert-
ise and research interests of relevance to the early years – for example, from education,
health, psychology, sociology, social policy, child development, linguistics, social work,
special needs, law, anthropology, management and research. After the Suffolk College
Degree in Early Childhood Studies was established, the first edition of this textbook
was written by the team primarily to introduce undergraduates and early years profes-
sionals to this holism as it relates to children’s early lives.
This second edition, with some of the original and also some new authors (includ-
ing two programme graduates), retains this principal goal; consequently it has pre-
served the elements that readers had told us were most useful. Naturally the second
edition has had an overall update, recognizing significant new policies, legislation,
research and terminology. There have also been changes that acknowledge the greater
public and political recognition of the importance of the early years within children’s
lives and reflect the stronger emphasis on the holistic philosophy and interdiscipli-
nary working among early years professionals as well as the ensuing and quite dra-
matic development of children’s services.
As with the first edition, we hope readers will find it useful to delve into single
chapters. The prime intention of the authors, however, is that readers will consider
the text as a whole in order to develop or enhance their knowledge and understand-
ing of the holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the paramount task of working
with young children and their families.
Jayne Taylor
Margaret Woods
viii
Introduction to early
childhood studies
Margaret Woods
Welcome to the academic study of early childhood.
If you have taken the trouble to delve into this book, you are undoubtedly one of
the many enthusiasts who enjoy the company of children and have a keen intention
to increase your knowledge and understanding of childhood. Whatever your particu-
lar involvement in the early years might be – as a professional from the health,
education or social services, a day-care practitioner, a member of a voluntary organ-
ization, an undergraduate student on an Honours or Foundation Degree in Early
Childhood Studies, a children’s nurse, health visitor, or teacher training student –
our holistic introduction to early childhood may well be of interest to you and, hope-
fully, of use to at least some aspects of your studies or practice.
For many centuries there has been considerable academic and altruistic interest in
the early childhood life-stage. As long ago as the fourth century BC, Plato (427–347 BC)
claimed that children were a form of ‘riches’, and advocated that they be valued and
nurtured because they would become the future leaders and guardians of their society.
InThe Republic (a treatise on education), Plato succinctly encapsulated his belief in
the importance of the early years of childhood and the significance of children’s edu-
cation and environment with the statement ‘…the beginning is the important part of any
work, especially in the case of a young and tender thing’(Jowett (translation), 1875, p. 376).
Nearly 350 years ago, Joan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a Czech bishop and
educationist, similarly emphasized the importance for their future citizenship within
society of the right start in life for children. He envisaged this as being provided within
a compulsory education system which would enable individuals to develop their
natural abilities, and in which teaching would be appropriate to children’s or young
people’s age and abilities. Comenius consequently proposed a universal education
structure which should include a nursery school for children up to the age of 6 years.
In this nursery, play was recommended as one of the most significant means of learning.
Another of the early years pioneers was Robert Owen (1771–1858), who was
manager of his father-in-law’s cotton mill in New Lanark in Scotland, as well as
being a social philosopher and reformer of some repute. He limited the employment
hours of young children in his mill, but is better known for opening what is regarded
as the first British infant school in New Lanark in 1816 for the millworkers’ children.
While this reform could be open to imputations of improving his own profits, Owen
does appear to have strongly believed that children’s experiences in their early years
are extremely influential in their later development and well-being. Much in accord
with the views of Plato and Comenius, infant education was for Owen a certain way
to ensure good citizens in the future.
Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852), one of the most famous and influential early years
educational philosophers, also regarded early childhood as an extremely important
life-stage. Froebel contributed greatly to our thinking about how children learn. He
claimed that children’s intellectual development begins as soon as they are born, and ix
advocated play as an excellent medium for learning. The term ‘kindergarten’, which
implies the ‘fostering of a child’s nature…drawing on it, guarding it, tending and
cultivating it like a good gardener tending a young plant’ (Liebschner, 1992, p. 25) In
was of course one of his most illustrative and enduring concepts. tr
o
The philosophy underpinning much modern nursery-school practice has its origins d
u
in the open-air nursery of Margaret and Rachel McMillan, which was started in c
t
io
Deptford in London in 1911. The McMillan sisters were particularly concerned to pro- n
videa rich nurturing childhood experience which would counteract the disadvantage to
stemming from the impoverished and unhealthy home environments that charac- e
a
r
terized the daily existence of many children and which, if left unchecked, would ly
undoubtedly impair their adult lives. This emphasis on promoting good health (with c
h
the setting up of clinics, open-air camps and nursery school) emanated from the ild
h
McMillans’ firm belief that children’s learning and all-round development were o
o
unlikely to be maximized and their self-esteem and self-confidence adequate if the child- d
s
renremained sickly and frail. Their nursery education was planned to promote all t
u
aspects of children’s development along with their good health, happiness and respect d
ie
and thought for others. Such characteristics were deemed necessary by the McMillans s
to ensure children’s well-being in adulthood and to produce a just and caring society.
More recently, the United Nations (UN) in its Convention on the Rights of the
Child (UNICEF, 2003) has ‘…proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care
and assistance’. Recognizing the difficult conditions in which many children lived
and the importance of international cooperation, the Articles were agreed in 1989 and,
by 2004, had been ratified by 192 countries (see Chapters 1, 10 and 15 for more
information on the Rights of the Child). At the UN Special Session on Children on
10 May 2002, the original commitments were upheld and 10 principles and objec-
tives agreed as the basis for a plan of action to make the world fit for children, ensur-
ing they have the ‘…best possible start in life’ (UNICEF, 2003, p. 19). Eliminating
discrimination and tackling poverty sadly had to remain within that revised vision.
Certainly in the early twenty-first century, much public attention is given to early
childhood. Newspapers, professional journals, popular magazines and television pro-
grammes regularly include commentaries or debates on early years issues. A significant
amount of this publicity, substantiated by the strengthening base of early childhood
research and also by the increasingly numerous early years publications, reflects the
growing recognition of the value of promoting children’s development and well-being
through high-quality early childhood services. Gratfiyingly, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation has reported that research has illus-
trated that investment in the early years far outperforms other public policy in terms of
cost effectiveness, for example by saving on remedial actions (UNESCO, 2004). For
example, we saw above that the UN fully acknowledge the pre-eminence of the early
years in preventing or reducing disadvantage, realizing that: ‘…early childhood is the
most opportune moment for preventing or breaking the poverty cycle’, and ‘…invest-
ment in children is a key determinant of the success of anti-poverty programmes’
(UNICEF, 2000, p. 39). The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD, 2002) has also recognized early childhood as an advantageous
time for countering discrimination. Additionally, OECD has, as one of its priorities,
improving the quality of, and access to, early childhood education and care (see the
OECD website).
Consequently, many governments and organizations worldwide have invested in
childhood (OECD, 2002). The United Kingdom is a good example – Haddad (2002,