THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF QUALITY IN ECEC … · CCCH Professional Development Seminar Why...

Centre for Community Child Health

CCCH Professional Development Seminar

Why quality matters: service delivery and children’s wellbeing

Melbourne Convention Centre, 27th November 2013

THE NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF

QUALITY IN ECEC SERVICES: A Child

Developmental Perspective

Tim Moore


Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne


OUTLINE

• Early childhood development

• Key factors that promote development

• What kind of relationships do children need?

• What kind of experiences do children need?

• The ‘what’ and ‘how’ of working with children

• Individualisation and catering for diversity

• Conclusions and implications for practice


NEW LEARNINGS ABOUT CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND

WELL-BEING

• There has been an explosion of new knowledge regarding the

nature, development and functioning of the brain as the result of the

development of new technologies for studying the brain. This has

led to new insights into the neurobiology of interpersonal

relationships.

• The importance of the early years for neurological development –

developmental vulnerabilities during pregnancy and in early

relationships

• The previously unsuspected extent of neuroplasticity

• The previously unacknowledged role of emotions

• Shift from ‘left brain conscious cognition to right brain unconscious

affect’ - the vindication of Freud’s insights regarding the role of the

unconscious

• The long term effects of early experiences / relationships


HOW CHILDREN DEVELOP

• The basic foundations for future development are laid

down during the prenatal and early childhood years

• Prenatal development plays a critical role in shaping

aspects of development.

• Children learn from birth – wherever they are, there is an

informal ‘curriculum’ operating

• Children’s learning and development are cumulative, with

later development building upon earlier development.

• Discrepancies between children from advantaged and

disadvantaged backgrounds emerge early, and

progressively widen, with advantages and disadvantages

accumulating throughout life


HOW CHILDREN DEVELOP (cont)

• Children's emotional development is built into the

architecture of their brains - emotional development

begins early in life, is a critical aspect of the

development of overall brain architecture, and has

enormous consequences over the course of a lifetime.

• Children learn through ‘massive practice’ of existing

skills, repeating them thousands of times before

transitioning to higher developmental levels

• Children’s development is shaped by the social and

physical environments in which they spend their time


KEY FACTORS THAT PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT

• Relationships are the medium through which young

children learn the skills that enable them to become

fully participating members of society.

• Relationships change brains. Our brains constantly

communicate with each other through unconscious or

subconscious neurobiological pathways of which we are

unaware. We are biologically primed to read others’ minds.

• The environments in which young children spend their

time provide opportunities and experiences that shape

development. In particular, the nature and quality of the

home learning environments are important influences on

children’s learning and development.


KEY FACTORS THAT PROMOTE DEVELOPMENT (cont)

• Children learn from the environments in which they

spend their time – wherever they go, a curriculum

operates, whether it is overt (EYLF/VEYLDF) or covert

• The quality of the relationships and the range of

experiences provided in each of these settings are what

shape children’s development and determine their well-

being

• The emotional health of young children — or the

absence of it — is closely tied to the social and

emotional characteristics of the environments in which

they live

‘There are many well-trodden pathways to

misery. People may choose to eat too much

or too little, drink too much alcohol, react to

other people without thinking, fail to have

empathy for others, fall ill, make

unreasonable emotional demands, become

depressed, attack others physically, and so

on, largely because their capacity to manage

their own feelings has been impaired by

their poorly developed emotional systems.’

(Gerhardt, 2004)


WHAT KIND OF RELATIONSHIPS DO

CHILDREN NEED?

Lori A. Roggman, Lisa K.

Boyce and Mark S. Innocenti

(2008). Developmental

Parenting: A Guide for

Early Childhood

Practitioners. Baltimore,

Maryland: Paul H. Brookes.

• The key elements of developmental

caregiving involve being warm,

responsive, encouraging, and

conversational

• These developmental caregiving

behaviours promote three important

outcomes in children’s early

development – secure attachment,

confident exploration, and competent

communication

• These three outcomes are the

foundations of subsequent social-

emotional, cognitive and language

development


THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS


NEUROBIOLOGY OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Our feelings and emotions are communicated to others in

conscious and unconscious ways

• Conscious communication of feelings is done by

telling others what we feel

• Our ability to do this effectively depends upon our

‘emotional intelligence’, that is, our ability to register and

articulate our feelings

• Children benefit when we express our feelings directly,

simply, and in non-threatening ways: they want to know

not only what their parents think, but also how they feel

• When we express our emotions, our children learn what

is important to us as well as witnessing a model for the

healthy expression of emotion


NEUROBIOLOGY OF INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS (cont)

● Unconscious communication of feelings is done

nonverbally through facial expressions, eye contact, tone

of voice, gestures, posture, and the timing and intensity of

response

● We are constantly communicating our feelings in these

unconscious ways, and constantly (albeit unconsciously)

registering such expressions in others

● Tuning to each other's internal states links us in a state of

emotional resonance that enables each person to ‘feel felt’

by the other

● Neurological and neurochemical processes make this

possible


CORTICAL AND SUBCORTICAL PATHWAYS:

THE ‘HIGH ROAD’ AND THE ‘LOW ROAD’

We take in information about others via two routes:

• The low road involves subcortical neural circuitry that

operates beneath our awareness, automatically and

effortlessly, with immense speed. Most of what we do

seems to be piloted by massive neural networks operating

via the low road – particularly in our emotional life.

• The high road, in contrast, runs through cortical neural

systems that work more methodically and step by step,

with deliberate effort. We are aware of the high road,

and it gives us at least some control over our inner life,

which the low road denies us.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RELATIONSHIPS

People learn how to be with others by experiencing how

others are with them – this is how one’s views and

feelings (internal models) of relationships are formed and

how they may be modified.

Therefore, how parents are with their babies (warm,

sensitive, responsive, consistent, available) is as

important as what they do (feed, change, soothe, protect,

teach).

Similarly, how professionals are with parents (respectful, attentive, consistent, available) is as important as what they do (inform, support, guide, refer, counsel).’

Gowen and Nebrig (2001)


RESPONSES THAT UNDERMINE THE DEVELOPMENT

OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

There are three types of adult responses that undermine the

development of emotional development:

• Dismissive responses – disregarding, ignoring or

trivialising children’s negative emotions

• Disapproving responses – being critical of children’s

displays of emotion, reprimanding or punishing them

• Laissez-faire responses – accepting children’s emotions

and empathising with them, but failing to offer guidance

or set limits on the children’s behaviour

Gottman (1997)

EFFECTS OF NEGLECT

Extensive biological and developmental research over

the past 30 years has generated substantial evidence

that young children who experience severe deprivation

or significant neglect — defined broadly as the ongoing

disruption or significant absence of caregiver

responsiveness — bear the burdens of a range of

adverse consequences.

Indeed, deprivation or neglect can cause more harm to

a young child’s development than overt physical abuse,

including subsequent cognitive delays, impairments in

executive functioning, and disruptions of the body’s

stress response.

National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (2012)


WHAT KIND OF EXPERIENCES DO

CHILDREN NEED


EXPERIENCES CHILDREN NEED

• Ensuring safety - protection from harm, both physical and

relational

• Providing clear boundaries – metaphor of the child as

‘water in a container’ - clear boundaries benignly enforced

have the paradoxical effect of freeing the child to explore

• Opportunities to play, experiment and explore – providing

they are safe and contained, play is children’s default

mode

• Opportunities to practice and consolidate skills – children

learn through ‘massive practice’, having multiple

opportunities to practice functional skills in everyday

environments (Mahoney, 2013)


EXPERIENCES CHILDREN NEED (cont)

• Opportunities to participate in everyday activities and

environments – participation enables children to

understand societal expectations and gain the physical

and social competencies needed to function and flourish

in their homes and communities

Meaningful participation is the engine of development

and the key to attaining a true sense of belonging and a

satisfactory quality of life

• Scaffolded support in developing new skills

• Learning to lead and learning to follow - intentional

teaching (Epstein, 2007)

Ann S. Epstein (2007). The

Intentional Teacher: Choosing

the Best Strategies for Young

Children's Learning.

Washington, DC: National

Association for the Education of

Young Children.

Epstein advocates an approach in which that

combines child-guided and adult-guided

learning experiences:

• Child-guided refers to experience that

proceeds primarily along the lines of

children's interests and actions, although

teachers often provide the materials and other

support

• Adult-guided refers to experience that

proceeds primarily along the lines of the

teachers goals, although that experience may

also be shaped by children's active

engagement.

Intentional teaching involves acting with specific

outcomes or goals in mind for children's

development and learning, and using child- or

adult-guided teaching to accommodate the

different ways that individual children learn and

the specific content they are learning.


THE ‘WHAT’ AND ‘HOW’ OF WORKING

WITH CHILDREN

• How one relates to children is as important as what

opportunities and experiences you provide is them

• The processes of responsive caregiving and benign

boundary setting provide the medium through which

intentional teaching is delivered


INDIVIDUALISATION AND CATERING

FOR DIVERSITY

Council of Australian Governments (2009).

Belonging, Being and Becoming — The

Early Years Learning Framework for

Australia. Canberra, ACT: Australian

Government Department of Education,

Employment and Workplace Relations.

Australian Children’s Education and Care

Quality Authority (2011). Guide to the

National Quality Standard. Sydney, NSW:

ACECQA.

Council of Australian Governments (2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming —

The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Canberra, ACT: Australian

Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

The Framework is based on a view

of children’s lives as characterised

by belonging, being and becoming:

• Belonging acknowledges

children’s interdependence with

others and the crucial role of

relationships

• Being emphasises the

significance of the here and now

in children’s lives

• Becoming emphasises learning

to participate fully and actively in

society

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (2011). Guide to

the National Quality Standard. Sydney, NSW: ACECQA.

The guiding principles of the National

Quality Framework are:

• The rights and best interests of the

child are paramount.

• Children are successful, competent

and capable learners.

• Equity, inclusion and diversity

underpin the framework.

• Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander cultures are valued.

• The role of parents and families is

respected and supported

• Best practice is expected in the

provision of education and care

services.


INDIVIDUALISATION AND CATERING FOR DIVERSITY

Two ways of viewing diversity:

• neurodiversity

• differential susceptibility

Thomas Armstrong (2010).

Neurodiversity:

Discovering the

Extraordinary Gifts of

Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia,

and Other Brain

Differences. New York: Da

Capo / Perseus Books.

• Human beings and human brains exist

along continuums of competence.

People with disabilities do not exist as

‘islands of incompetence’ totally

separated from ‘normal’ human

beings. Rather they exist along

continuums of competence, with

‘normal’ behavior simply a stop along

the way.

• Human competence is defined by the

values of the culture to which you

belong - whether you are regarded as

disabled or gifted depends largely

upon when and where you live


WAYS OF VIEWING DIVERSITY

The differential susceptibility hypothesis – dandelion and

orchid children

• Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as

dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere.

• A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and

fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given

greenhouse care.

• With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid

children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—

but with the right environment and good parenting, they

can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and

happy people.


INDIVIDUALISATION AND CATERING FOR DIVERSITY (cont)

Implications

• One size does not fit all, and individual differences

must be catered for

• Inclusion of children with developmental disabilities

How do we do this?

• Responsive caregiving

• Universal design for learning

• Tiered systems of response

• Embedded instruction

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING

THE PYRAMID MODEL

Fox, Carta, Strain, Dunlap & Hemmeter (2009)

RECOGNITION AND RESPONSE

Coleman, Buysse & Neitzel (2006)


CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS


CONCLUSIONS

From a developmental perspective, quality in ECEC

settings involves the following key elements:

• Responsive caregiving

• Ensuring safety and providing clear boundaries

• Providing opportunities to play, experiment and

explore, and to practice and consolidate skills

• Providing opportunities to participate meaningfully in

everyday ECEC activities and environments

• Using a combination of child-guided and adult-guided

learning approaches

• Providing scaffolded support in developing new skills

• Catering for the full range of individuality and diversity

WORKING WITH FAMILIES

Margy Whalley (2007).

Involving Parents in Their

Children’s Learning (2nd Ed.).

London, UK: Paul Chapman

Publishing.

Centre for Community Child

Health (2013). The Tasmanian

Child and Family Centre

Action Research Project:

Phase Two Report. Parkville,

Victoria: CCCH, MCRI, RCH.


IMPLICATIONS

• Building secure relationships through responsive caregiving is a

central task of ECEC providers

• This has implications for rostering – ensuring that children have

consistent caregivers is important for building attachment

security

• Such caregiving has to be ‘good enough’ rather than perfect –

‘repairing’ temporary breakdowns is an important learning

experience

• To support them in their responsive caregiving role, caregivers

need to be supported responsively by colleagues and managers

• Efforts to develop ways of providing truly individualised and

inclusive models of practice need to be supported through

professional development and additional resourcing


FINAL REFLECTION

• Providing quality environments for children is a

highly important and skilled job

• It helps lay the foundations for children’s

subsequent development and wellbeing, with

potentially lifelong consequences

• In so doing it helps shape the future wellbeing of

our society as a whole

• The people who do such important work should be

among the most highly valued, highly paid and well

supported people in the community

• As things stand, they are none of these things –

clearly we need to work to rectify this situation


Dr. Tim Moore

Senior Research Fellow

Centre for Community Child Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children’s Hospital, 50 Flemington Road, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3052 Phone: +61·3·9345 5040 Fax: +61·3·9345 5900 Email: [email protected]

Website: www.rch.org.au/ccch

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