How do you best find out about a young child’s development? You go and play with them!

Parents and keyworkers often have questions about how to tell when they are concerned for a child; how can they be sure if this is a typical stage of development or if there is a need there that could be supported?

This course looks at fun practical games and play situations that practitioners can create with their children to observe and understand in more depth where their developmental stages might be in:

–      underlying play skills

–      speech and language skills

–      sensory and motor skills

–      social and emotional skills

and through play and observation be able to identify next steps to give the right support.

By the end of this course you should be able to:

• Know which of the four stages of early play development your child uses most in their independent play and know how to help their play skills move on to the next stage
• Be able to recognise your child’s current level of involvement in their play, understand why ‘flitting’ is important to spot and what this may tell you about your child’s underlying needs, and know some practical strategies to help
• Know how to quickly and easily observe through play where your child’s current key word understanding is, match this to developmental stages and know how to support your child’s next steps
• Know what oral motor skills are, why they matter in speech and language development, know how to observe signs of need and which children may be more vulnerable to challenges with these, and how to play to support them
• Know how to observe some key social communication skills through play and some key things to observe and consider when observing your child’s physical and emotional regulation in your environment.
• Recognise sensory seeking and sensory avoiding play, what this may tell you about your child’s experience of sensory processing and how to help
• How to gather your observations together for strong action plans that really support the high quality access and early years experience we want for every child.