Explain the benefits for children when their individual needs are met…

A child develops very quickly in their early years, they continue to acquire new skills and gain knowledge all the time. Child development covers growth, development and learning from the very moment they are born to 60 months old (August after a child’s 5^th birthday). These three areas in bold text are connected and are vastly influenced via a child’s experiences, environment and genetic inheritance.

Early Years practitioners should work extremely hard to help bring along and guide a healthy, well-rounded, ‘unique child’ by focusing on a child’s individual needs, characteristics and own interests these benefit each individual child because no two children are exactly the same! They all learn, absorb information and acquire new skills at different stages within their own development.

UNICEF (World Wide Children’s Society) Believe that… “Every child is special and all human beings have a right to basic standards, and all races and religions are to be treated equally and with respect”.

UN (United Nations) Believe… “All children have a right to have their own views and opinions listened to and have their best interests at heart”.

So therefore if these guidelines and beliefs above are followed by all Early Years providers every child will benefit as a good practitioner will help to develop, nurture, support and promote their own key children’s personalities, talents and abilities regardless of ethnicity, culture or religion.

Each child will benefit because they will…

• Feel supported and protected with the care they are given
• Feel valued because their individual needs are understood and met
• Learn more successfully because they are in a safe and happy environment
• Be a more confident child with the variety of experiences they are exposed to

In the Early Years – Development Matters booklet it talks about… every Early Years practitioner works very closely with each individual key child they should be able to pick up any development issues they find earlier; and by identifying these issues early it will help and support the child’s learning and development without causing too much disruption, which in turn benefits the child even further with the extra support and guidance they receive.

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Every child has different circumstances and abilities, if each individual child is nurtured and their needs are met then they will benefit immensely because they will feel empowered, valued and supported which will therefore extend their own knowledge and promote their own personal learning journey.

Describe how the principles of anti-discriminatory practice can be applied to practice…

Discrimination is when an individual or a typical group of people are excluded and treated unfairly. The ‘Human Rights Act’ and the ‘Equality Act 2010’ promotes ‘anti-discriminatory practice’. Typical discriminative behaviour is negativity regarding… gender, disability, social class, physical appearance, race and culture, family background and traditions.

There are several different ways of promoting anti-discriminatory behaviour within an Early Years setting…

• Promoting a positive environment where everyone is welcome and greeted with a friendly attitude verbally as well as visually (i.e. Place welcome signs in different languages on the entrance walls of the nursery setting)
• Providing and promoting equality of opportunity and values for all children, building on an understanding, commitment and attitudes about themselves and others who are from different cultures
• Building strong positive relationships with both child and their families – even if they have another first language (learning some common words of their own mother’s tongue would help build a stronger relationship)
• Celebrating multicultural festivals and events throughout the whole year – which allows all the children to participate and gain knowledge
• Promoting non-stereotypical behaviour during play times allowing all children to choose their own preferred toys and not having typical gender type resources available (i.e. Prams/Dolls for girls and Train sets/Cars for boys)
• Ensure equal selection of toys, resources and activities which reflect different cultures and religions, and allow them to be an accurate representation and used in the correct way (i.e. Role play, books, crafts etc..)
• Use parental expertise and advice where needed to ensure there isn’t any element of ignorance within the environment when different types of activities are planned and set out. (Invite parents in to the setting to give a small talk about their own festivals or by sharing their own knowledge and skills with all the children from every background, this is involving the parents and helps them to feel valued within the nursery environment too!)

If all Early Years providers and practitioners behave in a non-prejudice way and abide to the above rules any unnecessary conflict within a nursery setting could be avoided and everyone who visits the setting will feel valued, welcome, supported and a positive outcome will prevail, therefore everyone will gain positive emotional well-being.