Personal Development
As individuals, children need to learn
• how to take care of themselves, their personal
hygiene, and safety
• the skills of dressing and undressing
• independence when eating
• the importance of food and water to their bodies
• how to make healthy food choices
• the importance of exercise.
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This can be achieved through
• individual encouragement and support from an adult
• spontaneous and planned learning opportunities
• mealtimes and snack times
• physical activities indoors and outdoors.
In structured play activities children will
• learn to interact with others who are similar and
different from themselves
• gain awareness that all individuals are of equal value
and learn to respect and value individual and cultural
similarities and differences.
Frequent opportunities to express their views and to listen to
others, for example in circle time, will enable children to
develop
• confidence and assertiveness
• sensitivity and empathy to the needs of others
• the ability to challenge stereotypes related to culture,
gender or disability.
Opportunities to care for pets and plants will help children to
• understand that all living things have similar needs
• show care and respect for living things.
Social Development
• Initially children’s social development and learning occur
within the home as they form relationships with members
of their family group.
• Learning experiences in the home will be extended when
children start to attend settings but they will continue to
spend some of their time in solitary activities, acquiring
new skills and concentrating for increasing lengths of time.
• When engaged in small group activities, children should
have the opportunity to interact with and be supported
by an adult and should be encouraged to seek help if
they need it.
• The transition from home to a setting will be eased by
opportunities for role play in the home corner or other
familiar surroundings, such as a book corner, that is
suitably furnished with adult as well as child-sized furniture.
• Gradually children build up their vocabulary and develop
confidence at talking with other children and adults about
themselves and what they are doing.
• In group settings children may play alone or alongside
others, gradually interacting more with their peer group as
their language and communication skills develop and as
they begin to develop friendships.
• When children play happily together in small groups and
have acquired relevant communication skills, activities
can be planned that require them to solve problems or
play games together.
• The support of an adult will still be required until they
develop skills at taking turns and observing rules of a
game.
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• Adults also need to be sensitive to children’s needs for
support in developing attention skills. Some children will
require a range of stimuli and routines to gain and
maintain their attention, such as gestures, sounds or visual
aids.
• As children progress they will be able to contribute to a
variety of groups for different purposes and will be able to
undertake roles within those groups, for example reenacting
the parts of characters in a story or carrying out
a mathematical investigation.
• Children should have opportunities for undertaking
collaborative work on large-scale projects, that involve
considerable interpersonal skills including co-operative
learning, decision making, and undertaking different roles
and responsibilities.
• Children can provide mutual support for each other. They
learn to establish and maintain friendships and how to
participate in a variety of groups in the wider community.
• Children will benefit from opportunities to develop their
understanding of the roles of different members of the
community by learning about their roles, the different
workplaces in the locality and how they can help to care
for their environment.
Moral and Spiritual Development
• Children discover some of the boundaries for behaviour
(what they are / are not allowed to do) and what is
acceptable by observing positive behaviour and
attitudes of others.
• Sometimes expectations in a setting may not be
consistent with those at home but children need to
learn the reasons for particular conduct.
• Children also need to develop awareness of the
consequences of their actions, for example that it is
wrong to hit others because they will be hurt.
• Opportunities should be made to involve children in
devising a set of simple rules for behaviour in their
group.
• Children also need to develop respect for rules and
property.
• Ultimately, the aim is that children will be able to
discern between what is right and wrong themselves
and exercise self control.
• It is important when praising or reprimanding behaviour
that the approval or disapproval is clearly directed at
the act and not the child.
• Children should be encouraged to consider the needs
of others and participate in caring and sharing
activities.
• Learning to empathise with others firstly necessitates the
ability to recognise their own feelings and reflect on
them.
• The adult provides an important role model for the kind
of behaviour expected in different situations.
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• Spiritual development is less easily defined than moral
development, as the innermost thoughts are involved.
• Children can be provided with opportunities to
experience and respond to quiet and still times. They
should be encouraged to observe and reflect on
natural phenomena (such as autumn colours, or
shadows), close their eyes and listen to sounds around
them (such as birdsong or classical music), or just be
very quiet and think of something they think is beautiful.
All responses should be respected and valued.
• Values can be developed by giving children
opportunities to share their ideas about things that are
important to them or something they are pleased
about in a piece of work they have done.
• Circle Time is an ideal way of enabling children to take
turns at speaking in a group situation and to listen to
each other’s ideas. Collective worship is another
opportunity of sharing beliefs and ideas.
• Special times such as birthdays and religious occasions
can be celebrated by creating a special atmosphere
to make the event memorable, for example by using
candles and music.
Well Being
Self Identity / Self Esteem
• In order to feel happy about who they are and how
they fit into groups, children need to develop selfawareness
as individuals and as part of wider society.
This will include self esteem, self knowledge,
confidence, feeling valued and accepted by others,
an ability to express their views and feelings and make
sense of them, an ability to relate to others and work
with them.
• Children will begin to develop a sense of identity if they
can see themselves in mirrors and photographs in a
variety of activities.
• Children will begin to develop a sense of belonging as
they interact with others in their family, their friends and
members of the local community. This includes
developing awareness of the cultural heritage of Wales
and beginning to speak Welsh.
• If children feel safe and secure, without fear of failure or
criticism, they will be able to benefit from the learning
experiences provided for them by venturing into new
activities, making decisions, taking necessary risks and
developing increasing control over their own lives.
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Physical Well Being
• Children will need to learn how to keep themselves
physically safe and healthy. Their learning programme
should include information about:
what to do or to whom they should go if they feel
unsafe
the importance of healthy eating and exercise
and the foods that should feature in a balanced
diet
road safety, water safety and hazards in the home
the different parts of the male and female body
and distinguishing between appropriate and
inappropriate touching
the dangers of medicines, drugs, smoking,
alcohol, and other dangerous substances.
Learning to learn / Dispositions to learning
• Children are naturally motivated to learn by curiosity and
a desire to explore and discover more about their
environment, initially in a physical way and, as their
language develops, through asking questions and talking
about their experiences.
• Children readily acquire skills at using Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) and should be provided
with a programme of taught skills and opportunities to use
ICT independently in their activities.
• The skills of enquiry, questioning and information seeking
should be nurtured and developed as the tools for lifelong
learning.
• If activities are suitably challenging, but not too difficult,
they will engage children’s interest, as will be evident in
their concentration and perseverance to achieve new
skills and explore new opportunities.
• Learning how to learn, adapting learning to, and tackling
new situations and experiences in a non-threatening
environment will establish long - lasting skills that will
enable children to progress and adapt to the continually
changing demands of society as they grow up.
• When activities are suited to their needs and interests
children will be relaxed, enjoy learning, motivated and
involved in what they are doing.
• Positive dispositions to learning, which are influenced by
children’s feelings, rely on children wanting to learn
because they find their learning experiences intrinsically
rewarding. This has implications for the teaching
approaches used and the educator’s sensitivity to
children’s interests, their developing knowledge,
understanding and skills.
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Observation of children’s well being and their involvement in
the process of learning will indicate how well learning
activities are matched to children’s developmental level.
• Professor Laevers of the Leuven Centre for Experiential
learning introduced the term ‘involvement’ to describe
children’s deep level of concentration when learning
activities meet their needs.
Independence
• Independence will be promoted through the provision of
a well organised, stimulating learning environment where
resources are easily accessible to children.
• Children who are involved in choosing resources, being
responsible for looking after them and returning them after
use, will develop initiative and a sense of responsibility.
• As part of a varied and interesting curriculum, allowing
children to initiate some of their own activities, in
negotiation with an adult, helps to promote a high level of
involvement and positive dispositions to learning, both
immediately and in the longer term.
• This enables children to pursue an interest in depth; they
may wish to return to an activity on successive occasions,
and provision should be made for this.
• Encouraging children to be active partners in planning
their learning activities, in their capacity to undertake
responsibilities and develop the skills required for
independent learning shows respect for Children’s Rights,
as identified in the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (1989).
• When children have completed their activities, they
should be encouraged to share their learning with others
and evaluate what they have enjoyed, are pleased with
or what they might improve in the future. This introduces
an element of self-evaluation and personal target setting
from an early age. Children are also encouraged to listen
to others and learn that there are different ways of doing
things.