Ensure the Top Tips for an inclusive learning environment are in place as part of Ordinarily Available Provision.
Staff awareness of typical developmental patterns for children, to establish realistic expectations, set goals and identify difficulties.
Refer to the 0 - 5 matters framework, Development Matters Framework and ‘What to Expect When’ for support in understanding the different ranges. For children with more complex needs, use alternative assessment methods e.g. Early Support Developmental Journal or Portage Assessment.
Training to develop an understanding of play development and the importance of play for developing cognitive and learning skills.
To help develop an understanding of their environment/the world to provide enabling environments:
- Give babies/small children opportunities to look in mirrors and play with objects that offer different sensory
- Play hide and seek games where children have to find toys.
- People Play’ games.
- Provide different objects and places to explore, in both indoor and outdoor areas (e.g. jumping in puddles; running up and down little hills; playing with pots, pans, spoons, paper etc).
- Use of play scripts to teach new skills.
- Incorporate the child’s interests.
- Open-ended and loose-parts play.
Provide activities to develop early learning and cognitive skills, including verbal and non-verbal reasoning skills and problem solving skills. For ideas visit: Hungry Little Minds
- Labelling (using labelling words and concepts to describe objects e.g. colour; heavy/light; big/small; naming things about an object; pointing to or naming specific items on request).
- Pattern recognition/seriation (recognising and continuing patterns of colours/shapes; lining up sticks in order of height).
- Planning behaviour (developing capacity to plan actions and not act impulsively (e.g. gathering equipment in advance of an activity; planning how all items will fit into a box; testing out ideas; trial and error reasoning).
- Relating past to present experiences (demonstrating that past events have influenced present behaviour g. knowing how previously shown toys work, re-enacting familiar actions or situations in role-play area).
- Role taking (Theory of Mind) taking on another ‘role’ and acting as that person or thing would (g. different roles in role play; moving like a specific animal).
- Self-regulation (physical and behavioural) ability to control impulses (e.g. stopping or starting something when needed; delaying gratification; attending – may be seen through sharing, turn- taking, moving on if something is not available, persevering if something is difficult).
- Sequencing (sequencing letters, number cards, ladybirds with dots on their backs; sequencing routines using picture cards).
- Systematic searching (looking through a set of items to find a specific one or the next one needed.
e.g. stacking cups by size; looking through pictures to find the odd one out; shape sorting).
- Using several sources of information (combine and understand different sources of sensory information, g. “Look at the teddy and point to his hat”).
Staff training and development in assessing children through play (e.g. Play Based Assessment as part of Emotionally Friendly Settings (EFS).