Each child is unique — we can be guided by an understanding of some general patterns of development from pre-birth into early childhood, but progression is uneven and unfolds differently for each child. The pathways toward maturity should be seen more as dancing around a ballroom than climbing a ladder. Educators have a responsibility to learn about and understand how each child’s experiences, from conception to infancy, early childhood and beyond, shape their brain, body, and development across all areas.
Child development is a complex, ongoing process of brain and body growth. It begins in the womb and is influenced by multiple factors, including genetics, nutrition, and experiences of interactions and the environment. When babies and young children play, explore, interact and observe, they form new neural connections in their brains. These connections lay the foundations for children’s future health, wellbeing and learning, so the quality of early experiences affects their capability for future learning. Educators should take a holistic view of children’s development, as all areas are interlinked and interdependent.
A baby’s brain is not simply a fixed structure which develops in a genetically pre-determined way. It depends on external stimulation from experience to form neurological connections. Babies and children are not passive in the process of their development — they are actively stretching their own capacities in response to all that they observe, their interactions with people and the world around them.
Interactions
Early relationships strongly influence how children develop. Having close, secure attachments to their carers is crucial for children’s healthy development. When adults are attuned to children’s cues, responding sensitively and consistently to meet their needs, children learn that they are safe, cared for and loved. Responsive, stimulating back-and-forth interactions support children’s wellbeing, cognition and language development. The key person plays a vital role by building close and appropriate attachment relationships with babies and children and tuning into children’s individual needs and interests. The key person skilfully uses what they know about their key children to provide a safe and stimulating environment for babies and children to explore and learn, while knowing when to step back and when to offer support.
Emotional health and wellbeing
Professionally loving relationships, regular routines and rhythms in a responsive environment will all help to foster children’s sense of security and self-confidence. Attuned adults can effectively support children through co-regulation, which helps children to develop the skills underpinning self-regulation. It is important for educators to understand children’s early experiences before arriving at their setting. This can help to identify where children might benefit from an approach where adults dedicate extra time and support to building relationships that help children to feel safe and cared for. This could include children who have not experienced warm and responsive relationships with adults, or those who have experienced poverty or traumatic events.
Physical health and wellbeing
Being physically healthy includes having nutritious food, a clean and safe environment, healthcare, mental stimulation, movement, rest and sleep, access to the outdoors and loving relationships. Focus on the health and wellbeing of children should be in the ‘here and now’ and not exclusively on longer-term outcomes. It is important to provide opportunities through indoor and outdoor play for children to develop sensory integration, balance and coordination, gross and fine motor skills. Physical activity for three hours per day is recommended for children between one and five years old. Physical development is closely interconnected with all other areas of development. In particular, elements such as reflexes, motor development milestones and sensory integration play a vital role in babies’ and children’s brain development. Accessibility of all environments for children with complex health conditions or disabilities must be ensured.
Individual pathways
Children develop both in different ways and at different rates, both from child to child and from time to time for any child. Each child’s unique history, including their experiences and opportunities, is important as the starting point for supporting their development and learning. Emphasis must be on enhancing children’s sense of self and on supporting what children can do, rather than focussing on what they cannot yet do. Many factors, such as prematurity, child temperament, a recent move or their family being under stress, can also affect a child’s development. Children who have experienced trauma, disrupted attachment and/or adversity in its many forms may have a different pattern of development than those whose start in life is secure and stress-free. For children who have suffered adverse early experiences, settings can be healing spaces and provide some mitigation for what has gone before when they build secure attachments and offer reliable routines with opportunities for creative, free play.
Child as an active learner
Children are innately driven to become more competent. They find and embrace the next stages in their development and learning, meeting challenges and practising to develop their skills and independence. The emotional and physical environment should support children’s individual depositions of learning as they make decisions, take risks, try things out, build their competence and confidence through repetition and feel satisfaction at their own achievements, as well as accepting what doesn’t work.
Experiences in the world
Babies and children build on their first-hand experiences. The wider and deeper their exposure to, and interactions with, the world, the greater their potential for secure development. Babies and children need opportunities through their play to practise what they know, consolidate their learning, apply it across contexts and acquire new knowledge and skills.
Culture and community
Development and learning are enhanced when there are connections and relationships between early childhood settings, home and other places and spaces in children’s lives. Connections across environments support children to share their interests and ‘funds of knowledge’, which provides an anchor for them and an impetus for learning. Children and families need to feel secure, accepted and that they belong, both within and beyond the early childhood setting. Celebrating and respecting the diversity and uniqueness of every family within the community strengthens each child’s sense of belonging and connection.