Every Child Matters - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The “Birth to Three Matters” program has a published “Framework of Effective Practice” which is intended to support, inform, guide, and issue challenges for those who are responsible for the care and education of babies and children from birth to three (Framework for Effective Practice). It is thus essential for this paper to investigate the aims and principles based on which the framework performs its set task. This will enable the childminder practitioner to better understand how he or she can incorporate the program’s essential features on a practical basis in his or her childminding set. The two sections on principles and aims set out by the framework is a preliminary evaluation of the program that is essentially exclusively designed for children of the target age group.

Principles: The set of principles the framework posits for practitioners is derived from similarly-tasked organizations, competent childcare writers, other experts in the field, and other practitioners (Framework of Effective Practice). As such they are deemed sufficient for the paper and few other sources shall be scrutinized though most of them have been further elucidated, wherever thought necessary, by matter derived from reading material noted in the reference and bibliography sections. The principles, adapted from the framework document and elucidated wherever possible, are as follows.

• Parents and families are considered central to the well-being of the child. Correct parental and familial attitudes toward the child’s care and education can further his/her development in the right direction. This is so because babies and children spend most of their time with this group and it is essential that members of this group provide the right environment for the baby’s or child’s proper development at all times he/she is with them and away.
• Relationships with other groups, both adults and children, are also considered of crucial importance to a child of the target age group as interaction with other humans is initiated at this age and should be properly guided and fostered to enable the child to develop and sustain wholesome relationships within society.
• Stable relationship with a key person at home and in the setting is essential to the child’s well-being.
• The principles assume that babies and children are social beings and are competent learners from birth. It shall be found later that babies and children of this age group utilize social interaction, parental inclusive, to learn much of what they subsequently induct and develop.
• As noted in the previous principle, learning is a shared process, and babies and children learn most effectively when they are in presence of a knowledgeable and caring adult or child they trust and are comfortable with. The sharing process can also be effectively fostered in a group activity as long as the individual baby or child is kept involved and interested.
• More emphasis is placed on a properly caring person than on resources and equipment.
• Schedules and routines must be set with an incorporated flexibility that heeds each child’s needs and requirements.
• It is also emphasized that children should be allowed to assume responsibility for their actions and should be allowed the freedom to make errors, decisions, and choices so that they can acquire and experience autonomy and individual competency. This does not pre-empt shared activity where children learn to share resources and experiences with adults and other children within a cooperative environment.
• It is also emphasized that children learn better from practical experiences rather than from mere instruction.
• Children in this age group are vulnerable and they develop independence in the presence of a competent and caring person they can depend upon.

Aims: The aims the framework for the program “Birth to Three Matters” works towards are all derived from the principles it acknowledges are inherent within it about babies and children in this age group. It must be understood that the principles stand for the initiation and smooth progression of development in such babies and children. As such the aims may be construed to be the real achievements the program sets out to realize in each child at the end of this period – the birth to three early years. The aims, adapted from the framework document as the principles and elucidated wherever possible based on literature referred to in the reference and bibliography sections, have separate components that are enlisted with them below.
A Strong Child: A strong child is an essential foundation that must be achieved at the end of this early year setting. The four components that constitute a strong child are as follows. ...Download file to see next pages Read More