Imagine you were doing your job and someone came around with a clipboard and pen and watched you very closely as you worked to see whether you could do it or not. How would you feel? Would you work to the best of your ability? Would you feel anxious or stressed?
What about if there were parts of your job you never actually had to implement, or have only done once or twice, and the someone came to assess you, how would you go? Would you feel confident? Would you feed pressured?
How about if you knew you could do your job really well in the day to day routine, however when moved to a different context that is foreign and new you struggle to transfer your skills. Would you like someone to judge you based on what you do out of context? Would you feel that was fair?
We all know that children have developmental milestones that they reach as they become older and more capable. It is a good idea to keep an eye on children and check that they are reaching their milestones so we can provide additional support if required, and even refer on if necessary.
The key to knowing whether a child has met their milestones should not lie in a clipboard, a checklist, and a hovering educator asking you to do things out of context. The key to knowing whether a child has met their milestones relies on a rich program, an engaging learning environment and positive relationships between children and educators. If you have a close relationship with the children in your care, and are playing alongside them you will no doubt, as a team, see the child reach all of their milestones over the duration of the year. You will also be able to identify any concerns and through your close relationship with the family be able to discuss these.
The issue with this approach is knowing what to do in the program and how to engage with children to support children to reach their milestones. Especially for new educators, or for Educational Leaders to communicate with their team. That is why I have developed a new type of developmental checklist. A programming developmental checklist.
This printable document provides suggestions, within each of the 5 learning outcomes, to incorporate into your program across the different ages to help children reach their milestones. The document even provides suggestions of the types of songs that help children meet the milestones across the different age ranges. The checklist not only refers to the learning outcomes, but it also explains how it links to 12 of the NQS standards. The document is broken up into 0-4 months, 4-8 motnhs, 8-12 months, 1-2 years, 2-3 years and 3-5 years. Here is an example of the 4-8 months page.
If you would like a copy for your service you can purchase from the online store at www.rare.support
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