PSED in the Early Years Rebecca Bartram Aims

PSED in the Early Years Rebecca Bartram

Aims - Understand what this looks like in the early years. - What can affect Personal, Social and Emotional development (PSED)and the impact this can have on learning. - How we can assess (PSED) - Develop an understanding of the key features of effective adult – child interactions. - Have an awareness of sustained shared thinking. - Reflect on how to improve the quality of adultchild interactions.

Research • Teachers’ perceptions of disruptive behaviour in schools: a psychological perspective. Nash, P. Schlosser, A. Scarr, T. Emotional and Behavioural difficulties, 16 June 2015, Routledge. • Working with schools in identifying and overcoming emotional barriers to learning. Nash, P. Schlosser, A, Educational studies, 9 Sept 2014, Routledge. • Building secure attachments for primary school children: a mixed methods study. Ubha, N Cahill, S. Educational Psychology in practice 2014, Vol 30, No 3, 272 -292. • Parental Experiences of the “time together” home visiting intervention: an Attachment theory perspective. Butcher, R. Gersch, I. Educational Psychology in Practice 2014, Vol 30, No 1, 1 -18.

Further Research and reading Boyd, P. Learning conversations: teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings. International Journal of Early Years Education, 2014, Vol 22 No 4, 441 -456 Purdon, A. Sustained shared thinking in an early childhood setting: an exploration of practitioners’ perspectives. Education 3 -13, International journal of primary, elementary and early years education. Routledge 16 Apr 2014 Salmon, A. Learning by thinking during play: The power of reflection to aid performance. Early Child Development and Care, 13 May 2015 Routledge Sylva, K et al. The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) March 2003 The Institute of Education

What do we understand PSED to be?

What could affect a child's PSED?

For us to be able to support and enable the children we work with to make the best possible progress we need to understand – Attachment theory. Have an understanding and relationship with the child’s family or carers.

Attachment theory John Bowlby (1969) – identified 4 phases of attachment development from birth to aged 3. His work has been built on and developed and attachment theory is becoming more significant as an area with regards to well being and emotional and behaviour development.

Different types of attachment Ainsworth (1973) – is another significant name in attachment theory identifying how the quality of the attachment between the child and the care giver can vary from child to child and how this is affected by the parenting recieved. The work of Ainsworth el at. (1978) highlighted the significance of this.

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Types of attachment Secure attachment – caregiver is sensitive and responsive to the child's needs and provides the child with a sense of security and confidence. If a child experiences insensitive, inconsistent or neglectful parenting this can lead to insecure attachment which will fail to provide a sense of security and confidence.

Insecure attachments are classified as Insecure-avoidant attachment – unresponsive to parent, no overt signs of distress when parent departs, fails to respond to parent on reunion or actively avoids them. Insecure-resistant – before separation the child will not explore the room and is distressed when parent leaves. During reunion child shows ambivalent attitude to parent, seeking contact while also struggling when picked up, difficult to soothe. Insecure-disorganised – considered the most insecure attachment is a combination of the above. The child is confused about whether to avoid or approach, during reunion the child might freeze, or approach only to move away as the caregiver draws near.

Why does this matter to us? How might a child’s attachment affect their experience in school? How can we support children?

How are the characteristics of effective learning connected to PSED?

Let have a look at PSED Personal Social and Emotional Development. This area of learning is critical to all learning and arguably the most important area. It must be evident in everything we do as Early Years Teachers. PSED is divided into - Making relationships - Self-confidence and self awareness - Managing feelings and behaviour

Making Relationships When ever a child starts in a setting, whether it is nursery, reception, preschool or a child minder's. The settling process is very important. All settings will do this differently and what is right for one child will not be right for all so we need to flexible as teachers and work from the child. You will need to consider when you enter a new setting, either on a placement or for observation. In your group find out if anyone has had children that they have settled into a setting or if you have worked in a school and been involved in settling children share your experiences as parents and practitioners. What are the differences and similarities? What has worked well and what do you think could be done better?

Self confidence and Self awareness Some children will not need a huge amount of support with this area and it might develop quite naturally, some children however might not and will need more support. As with all children’s learning and development working with and involving parents is central, in some cases a child’s home situation will impact on the child. For some children school might be their first experience of being allowed to be independent and trusted. Children need to be given some freedom to explore this and learn how it works with our support when needed.

Managing feelings and behaviour We all begin by being egocentric. A baby is only concerned about its self, I’m hungry, feed me. I’m wet, change me. This is something that we grow out of (although you might be able to think of some people who have not…. . ) You may have experienced or be familiar with children’s tantrums. These are episodes where a child’s feeling are to strong for them to manage and often the upset becomes not about what it started over but about the child’s inability to control the feelings and calm down.

Leuven The trialling of the reception baseline (15/16) there as been a raised interest in the work of Ferre Laevers and the use of the Leuven scale. Of the three approved schemes Early Excellence proved the most popular with Early Years settings, it is the only scheme that used uses observation, information from parents, identifies if a child has a disability or SEND and incorporates the characterises of effective learning. The timing of the assessment was guided by the use of Leuven scales to assess children wellbeing/involvement.

THE PROCESS WITHIN THE CHILD Here, you focus on how the children experience their stay in the setting. You try to find out ‘how the children are doing’, asking yourself: How well the children are feeling (their wellbeing) How engaged they are in their activities (involvement)

Will the children reach the desired outcomes? We have educational goals – and plan programmes of activity/ work and (in early years classrooms, an environment in which we hope children will learn) The outcomes may be skills and attitudes or curriculum content But whether they actually learn or not – this is the process bit (depends on children’s wellbeing and involvement)

What is involvement? When children are. . . concentrated and focussed interested, motivated, fascinated mentally active fully experiencing sensations and meanings enjoying the satisfaction of the exploratory drive operating at the very limits of their capabilities . . . we know that deep level learning is taking place

How can we tell that children are deeply involved?

The signals for young children: Concentration – look at eyes Energy – physical energy and sometimes shouting Complexity and creativity – adding a personal element to the activity Facial expression and posture – e. g. face when listening to a story Persistence Precision. N. b. when listening, this would mean not a single sound missed even when speaker has a low voice Reaction time Verbal utterances – e. g. enthusiastic descriptions of what they have been doing Satisfaction – look for signs of fascination

Deep in Thought

The work of Donaldson (1978) Tizard and Hughes (2002) suggest that differences between children’s and adults’ thinking are more attributable to lack of knowledge and experience. In situations where children have relevant knowledge or experience they display more mature thinking than many adults. Think of an example

Why do we communicate? Think of telephone conversations you have had in the last few days. Identify the reasons for your conversations.

Piaget said the child is a ‘lone scientist’ what did he mean? Vygotsky said children learn as they engage with others. . Both of these ideas are hugely influential, and both true, which are you?

What is SST? ‘any episode in which 2 or more individuals work together in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate activities, extend a narrative etc’

Sustained shared thinking involves: The adult being aware of the child’s interests and understanding The adult and the child together developing an idea or a skill Interacting with children in skilled and supportive ways

The evidence from EPPE (2003) research is clear that high quality adultchild interactions (involving 'sustained shared thinking' and pertinent openended questioning to extend children's thinking) have a profound impact on children’s capacity to learn. It is common-sense that we need to maximise the opportunities for such interactions and that unreasonable amounts of time spent recording observations are counterproductive. The message is clear – put away your clipboards and get involved. You will be planning for others as well as yourself. Use the language of sustained shared thinking to guide the adult in the activity, especially when there is no obvious end product.

SSTEW Scales Sustained Shared Thinking (SST) and Emotional Wellbeing (EW). These scales where devised to assess setting with regards to how staff supported children's wellbeing and sustained shared thinking. They are being used as an assessment tool in setting to to inform the SEED research currently being undertaken. This research follows the some of the findings from EPPE, which identified that children in preschool settings where SST was evident, there was a positive measurable impact on children, their progress and outcomes.

Children ask their own questions, talk about their thoughts and how they want to tackle a problem. Adults ask probing, yet open- ended questions that encourage children to consider quality and processes of work and what to do next.

Questioning Thinking about being curious and open ended questioning. 50 Years of research has shown that teacher talk dominates classrooms and that there is a lack of open ended questioning. Teacher talk rarely challenges children’s thinking. P 4 C (philosophy for children) Open ended question like those use by Socrates have many potential benefits

? Closed Questions and Open- Ended Questions. Closed questions – – test the recall of particular words or knowledge often require brief (one word) answers suggest a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer can be threatening and inhibit response Open- ended / higher order questions – often elicit a range of responses • sometimes unexpected or surprising • speculative and discursive – require a fuller response – challenge thinking and reasoning – promote thought and discussion – encourage children to give their own views and ideas, – Are often less threatening and less likely to be avoided 39

Watch the video clip cooking Discuss Now watch architect stopping at points think about what open ended questions you might ask if you were involved with this child and his play.

Possible benefits Encourage more flexible thinking; Allow depth of discussion; Test the limits of knowledge rather than one item of knowledge; Encourage better assessment of children’s beliefs; Offer the possibility to clear up misunderstandings; Result in unanticipated and unexpected answers, new hypotheses and connections to previous knowledge.

Thinking about telling the truth 1. 2. 3. Key Question: What is truth? Do you think this is a true story? What do we mean when we say something is true? What do we call something that is not true? What does ‘false’ mean? 4. What is a lie? 5. What do we call a story which is not true? What is fiction/a fable/a fairy tale? 6. Which character in the story was honest? What does honest mean? 7. Which character in the story was a liar? What does ‘liar’ mean? 8. Is it better to tell the truth or lies? Why? 9. Have you ever told a lie? Can you say when or why? 10. Is it ever right to tell a lie? Is it ever wrong to tell the truth?

Children without well-established foundations in oral language and communication are likely to demonstrate poor educational achievement and behavioural disorders and are at risk in terms of later educational , social and emotional development (Bashir and Scavuzzo 1992: Ward 1999: Snowling et al 2001)

Finally This has been a whistle stop tour of PSED Take time to read through this section of Development Matters and get really familiar with it. When you go into your first placement many children will be settling and the more thought and understanding you give to that situation the more you will be able to get from encounters.

Please read: http: //www. sandbank. walsall. sch. uk/corevalues/sustained-shared-thinking Please google Sustained Shared thinking at Sandbank Nursery School.

References Child Development. Crowley, K. 2014, Sage Well-being in the Early Years. Bligh, C et al. 2013, Critical Publishing. Young children’s Personal, Social and Emotional Development, 4 th Ed. Dowling, M. 2014, Sage. Health and Well-being in Early Childhood. Rose, J. Gilbert, L. Richards, V. Sage 2016 Young Children’s Thinking. Dowling, M. Sage 2013