Essay Sample on Childcare and Education Training

Introduction

Childcare training is a common and rewarding career that helps professionals to help children in teaching and discovering talents in children in their early years. The pre-school years are critical to children because they involve the modelling stage when children show their abilities and present their best of skills. The trainers and guardians use this period to determine the special needs of their children and to determine the possible ways that the children get assisted. It concentrates on child development, play and learning, providing children with safe environments for playing, child health, understanding any additional needs in the children, assessing and planning for the children needs. Childcare and education training involves making observations to assist in understanding the transition, need for early intervention, suitability of the environment and it helps in creating successful partnerships to ensure children grow as expected. Childcare training is an essential part of a child's development and it helps to reveal the major concerns and observations in the early years.

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Use of Observations to Identify Individual Children's Needs

Observations are one of the best ways to understand the needs of children. Observation is used as an integral part of the planning and assessment of children to determine if they have special needs that need attention. The use of observation helps in determining the learning process of the child, their special needs and how the learning process can be improved. In the early years in childcare, the main aim is not teaching but it is rather to learn about the child and how they can be taught to do different things. In the observation process, well-detailed documentation is used to keep track of the development process of the child. The data collected during the observation is used to make adjustments in the care environment to improve the development process. Observations helps in identifying a possible career for the child.

The observation can be done in several areas: cognitive, social, emotional, physical, and language developments. For example, cognitive development in children aged 2-3 years is a critical part of the childcare that enables the caretakers to determine if a child has a normal development. It can be done by giving them objects to arrange in colours, test if they can enjoy songs and stories and the way they play with toys. Language delays are one of the most common challenges that can be detected in the observation process (Henry, Farmer, Manwaring, Swineford, & Thurm, 2018). The physical development can be observed from the rate at which the child gains weight and height as well as the way they use their limbs. Social development is also observable from the way the child associates with their peers. Once the observation is complete, the needs of the child can be identified and the caregivers can plan on how to meet the requirements.

Use of Observations in Early Intervention

The early childhood intervention (ECI) is a support system used to detect and help children who are at high risk of abuse and those who have development challenges like delays in language and physical development (Sukkar, Dunst & Kirkby, 2016. According to Dunst and Espe-Sherwindt (2016), the intervention done in the early childhood is the most crucial one because this is the time when a child makes the most important development steps in life. The family is a major player in the development process of a child and they can help in choosing the best intervention to use to achieve the goals of the child (Dunst & Espe-Sherwindt, 2016). The use of observation in the early intervention process involves keeping an eye on the way a child performs and identifying any needs that they may have. The observation process should include the four areas of social, physical, emotional and cognitive developments. A clear record of the observation made is kept for use by the experts in determining the needs of the children.

The observation process should be done early and often. The day and the curriculum should be set in a way that it creates room for observation. One way in which observation can be used to perfect the early intervention process is through formative assessment. It involves observing children as they play and participate in other social activities and identifying their abilities, skills, interests, and deficiencies. The importance of this exercise is that the right experience is provided for them to grow their interest and skills. The other one is through progress check done at the age of two to three years. The purpose of this observation is to ensure that children grow as expected and develop the right capabilities like language. Delays noted during the observation process helps to plan the right early intervention process to use. The observation process

Use of Observations to Review the Environment

The environment in which a child is brought up has a major impact on the way they develop. Observation can be used to make suggestions to the changes that ought to be implemented in the environment to achieve the intended development in the child. The child's behaviour is highly affected by the type of environment in which they live. One of the observations is the way children play; if boys seem to play more than girls, then the environment should be made friendlier to the girls. The other observation is the concentration area of the children. For example, if children spend more time on the available learning materials, changes should be made on the display of the books to encourage them to participate in other areas like sports. The observation, in this case, involves analysis of the factors that could be behind the biased concentration in one area.

The other review of the environment is on how it affects the progress of the child. According to research done by Orth (2017), there is a close relationship between the environments in which a child is brought up and the self-esteem of the child. The experts can observe and determine the possible factors that can affect the self-esteem of children from birth. The other review is on the security of the children. For a child to have a normal and good development process, they need to feel secure. The early years are critical in the formation of the esteem and beliefs in the child, and any feeling of insecurity can affect their development. The other use is whereby the progress of the child is determined through observation of their abilities. For instance, if a child shows better or worse development than the peers in the same environment, a review can be done to identify if that environment could be unsuitable for them.

Use of Observations During Transition

The transition process in early childhood care is a critical part of the development of the child and it involves the changes that determine the way the child grows after that. Observation is used to determine the different needs that the child may have at this time and it helps to set the right conditions for the right development. Some of the activities during the transition may take a few days while others can take up months. The impacts of the transition process are also different and children can react differently to the changes that occur in their lives during this period. The first experience of transition occurs when the child starts school or childcare programs. At this time, the child is away from home and they are exposed to a completely new environment. The observation done during time can help to determine the best ways to engage the child. For example, if the youngster has a challenge adjusting to the new environment, parents can get alternative ways to ensure the child fits in the new environment.

The transition process can get affected by the environmental process. According to Cunningham (2016), the environment in which the transition takes place affects the final outcomes and can have positive or negative impacts. The observations made help to determine if the environment has positive or negative impacts on the child. As the child moves from childcare to kindergarten and to primary education, observation is used to determine if the kid has a normal development rate or if the kid has delays. The development of the language and performance in education can be used as the metrics for measuring the rate at which the child develops. The other observation would be to determine if the changes happen constantly. Normally, the change process should have constant progress and the child should change gradually. Caregivers make the observations to determine the worries that parents have and the behaviour of the children at home. The last use is that observation helps to determine the talents of the children. The natural talents of the children can be identified during the transition process.

Use of Observations in Building Partnerships

The early childhood process could be affected by several unusual issues that may require intervention of experts. The partnership between the caregivers and the experts helps in solving the challenges that could cause delays in development, health challenges and behavioural challenges among others (Wechsler, Melnick, Maier, & Bishop, 2016). Observation can be used to determine the factors that need partnerships. For example, if the observation identifies a child with language delays, caregivers or teachers can suggest the intervention of a professional doctor who can help. Observation can also be used to monitor the progress of the programs used to handle children in the early years. The parties in partnership can also use observation to analyse the challenges that could be caused by the environment where the transition takes place. For example, they can observe the effects of the materials used in the classes and how children respond to a change in their environment.

For the children with behavioural challenges, observation can be used to determine the best partnership between the caregivers and the families to help the child in changing the behavioural shortcomings. Observation can also identify cases of low self-esteem in children and propose ways to promote it. For example, a child who exhibits fear and withdrawal disorders may require support to ensure they acquire confidence. The partnership can allocate such children new responsibilities and appreciate them whenever they do something positive to ensure they gain higher self-esteem. The other use of observation is to identify the diversity of the families and the dynamics that can affect the partnership between the parents and the teachers. An analysis of the differences between families and the training of the teachers and caregivers can help in creating a more effective partnership that does not affect the partners in negative ways. The level of influence and the roles of the parties to the partnership can also be observed to determine the success or failure of the parties. The progress of the partnership can also be observed to determine if there are changes required to achieve the goals of that partnership. The guidance of the experts on the needs of the children can only be successful if the partnerships cooperate.

Use of Observation Methods in Relation to Current Frameworks

The current childcare training frameworks suggest that children should be observed in a familiar environment where they can relate the things that happen around them with their homes, and that making observations in an environment that is completely new to the child may not be effective. The development progress is observed and updated with the most recent frameworks. There are many observation methods that are related to the current frameworks used in early child development; the first and the most common one is narrative or w...