Unit 3: Promoting Children’s development Longitudinal Child Study- Distinction- D1 Observations are very important to undertake on babies and young children as they promote several aspects of the child’s development such as their five areas of development (PILES), their patterns of behaviour etc. Moreover, there are many aspects of observations that you have to be aware of before carrying out observations on children and you therefore have to use these aspects when undertaking observations on children. The first aspect of observations you must be familiar with is objectivity this is when you record what actually happens during an observation rather than recording what you presume or want to happen during an observation. Therefore, objective observations simply state the facts.It is essential that you make use of objectivity when observing children because you will gain reliable results and from these results you can compare any other results from other observations that you or others have carried out on the same child/children to see if those children have made any changes in their development. When you make use of objectivity you find that your observations are truthful as you gain facts about the child’s development and these facts may be uninteresting, too long, too short etc but this must not put you off being objective whilst observing as children develop at different paces and so it doesn’t matter if there is not much content in the observation etc as you can help the child to build on this by getting them to extra activities which will essentially promote their development further. According to Sandy Green (2002) maintaining objectivity will ensure that your research will not always be what you expect, and it is important that you accept the outcomes of research. Therefore, you may witness a child having difÏculty doing something, e.g. drawing a lines and dots yet you must not state the opposite and say that the child could draw and lines and dots when they couldn’t. This will not benefit the child for observation as they will fall further behind in their development as you have dismissed their areas that need additional work on. Whereas if you are objective during the observations then you can identify the areas which need to be improved and therefore you can help the child to improve these areas by devising activities for them to undertake to further them in this area of their development. It’s also highly important to use objectivity when observing children it will help you to identify problems that the child may have such as health problems, e.g. speech problems, behavioural problems etc. You can detect these problems if you are objective as you can see if the child is struggling in their development, if they are distressed in any way etc and you can then deal with these problems quickly and effectively to prevent the child from going through more stress and worry about these problems. It is not easy to be objective as you can easily slip into stating your own personal opinion about the child. There is no point in you undertaking observations if you are not objective as you are not achieving anything from it as you only writing down something that is untrue and invalid. If you are objective in the observations then you are going to be able to make a valid conclusion, interpret what you have seen and recommend further activities for the child to further their development. Likewise, it is paramount that you are aware that subjectivity is used in your conclusion of the observation rather than the observation itself. Subjectivity is when you state your opinion about the child you are observing. Subjectivity needs to be avoided when you are undertaking the observation because if you use subjectivity when you are observing the child then you are writing down information which is false and therefore it is not worthwhile doing the observation on the child. Therefore, the observations will be no use to you if you are subjective as you can’t see where the child is progressing or under progressing and it is not any use to the child for observation as they may carry on struggling in their development if their weaknesses within their development have become unnoticed. This means that there is a point to the observations as you can’t carry out a valid conclusion, interpretation and recommendation of the child as you would be writing information which contradicted what actually happened in the observation and it’s a waste of time carrying out the observation. It is essential that you are subjective when you come to evaluate the observation of the child as again there wouldn’t be as much point of doing the observation as you need to state which areas of development the child is progressing at and which areas the child is perhaps falling behind in. This then enables you to make recommendations for the child which can essentially help to further their development. Furthermore, you have to realise that perceptions should not be undertaken during an observation, having perceptions is when you attain awareness or understanding of your sensory information. Therefore, perceptions are ultimately when you think about something or the impression you get from something. It is unfair to perceive the child when you observe them as it shouldn’t be about what you think about their clothes that their wearing or they way they wear their hair it should just be where you focus solely on what the child is doing during the observation and after that you should be stating their achievements or underachievement’s in the evaluation. If you perceive the child then you are likely to make them feel awkward and uncomfortable as they are going to get the impression that you are thinking about their individuality and so they may not perform the observation to the best standard that they could and so already the child is going to underachieve in some aspects when really they are probably capable of achieving a lot more. If you perceive the child then this is going to affect the observation as a whole as you can’t find out what stage the child is at in their development, you can’t see what state of health there in, you can’t detect if they have any problems etc as you are too busy figuring out what you think of them. Therefore, perceiving is immoral as you are being unfair to the child as they feel awkward and you are not promoting their development further and so in effect to perceive during an observation is unprofessional as an early years practitioner. In addition, it is in your best interests not to be biased during an observation, biased is when you take sides and you only take into account one side of the observation and as far as your concerned that side is right. It is extremely important that you make certain that you are not biased during an observation as biases may be subtle and you may not be recognize that you as the observer is being biased. It is also paramount that you are not biased during an observation as biases can affect what you pay attention to during an observation and it may also influence the judgements that you make about the child. Therefore, you can only make observations effective and worthwhile if you let go of being biased and making assumptions. According to westone (2010) sometimes it is difÏcult to recognize our own biases, but it is crucial to become aware of them and try to make sure we use language and attitudes that are not affected by them. To add to this, as an early years practitioner you must try to understand and appreciate that all children and their families have their own culture, values, preferences, and learning styles. This understanding is the foundation of strong relationships and is also the key to unbiased observations that you carry out on the children. When your biased you are sometimes adding negativity about the child’s development during the observation this could then result in the child’s parents being offended or they may think that their child is underachieving in their overall development. Moreover, you must have a good ethical practice when you are observing, according to Irene law (2008) you must ensure families are comfortable with the observation and allow access to information if they request for it. This would be good ethical practice as you are acting the child’s best interests by doing this and you are also being respectful towards the child’s parents as you are responding to their parental rights. You must also offer an explanation to both the child and their parents/guardians of what is intended to be observed as this as this will make them aware of what is actually going to take place and it will make them to feel more comfortable knowing what is going on if their happy with it. To carry out acceptable ethical protocols you should also offer the child rights to refuse to do the observation at anytime as this makes the child feel less pressurized to do the observation and it also gives them freedom of choice. According to Sandy Green (2007) you need to take into account getting all necessary permissions. Therefore, all practitioners must get a permission slip signed by the child’s parents to ensure that they agree to you undertaking the observation this good ethical practice as you are giving the parents their parental rights to their child. It is also ethical that you undertake the observation in a naturalistic and open environment so that the child feels safe and comfortable about being in a relaxed and simple environment which they are used to. An important ethical protocol is to be confidential at all times when observing the child, you can do this by locking all of the observations away in a cupboard so that they are out of reach of others. Confidentiality is important as you are protecting the child by being confidential. To extend this, confidentiality (when observing) is when you keep all the information you have gained from the observation private from everybody besides the child’s parents and your placement supervisor. All early years practitioners must make clear use of confidentiality as it is greatly important when you observe children as it protects the child your observing and their families, it protects staff and it maintains a sense of trust between practitioners and parents. Confidentiality protects the child you’re observing and their families because if information about the child, e.g. full name, address, telephone is kept private then it prevents people from the outside world from coming into contact with the child and their family and possibly endangering the child and/or their family. It is also law to follow confidentiality in a childcare setting and so you must follow this law to protect children and their families, staff and yourself. Therefore, early years practitioners must not name the child their observing or the setting they are being observed in. Finally, all early years’ practitioners must demonstrate a good attitude when observing as firstly it is highly unprofessional to do so and also the child you are observing will pick up that you have a poor and negative attitude and this will make them feel intimidated and so they may not perform well in the observation. They may even start to imitate the bad attitude that you are displaying which isn’t at all healthy for a youngster to do. When you have a negative attitude it can end up meaning that you are subjective during the observation as you’re viewing everything in a negative way and so therefore there is no point for the child or yourself doing the observation. It can affect your recording of the observation as you may miss out on parts of the observation and therefore things may go unnoticed or things may even be written untrue and this can ultimately effect the child’s development in a huge way as they are not going to progress further in their development if their strengths and weaknesses in their development have not yet been discovered. Your attitude can also affect the planning process as you may have planned to carry out the observation through using different observational techniques, e.g. time sample etc yet you may not use these methods you may just write the observation out simply and this can mean that you don’t write about different areas of the child’s development. Therefore, you will not be able to write about whether or not the child has reached their developmental milestones as you have not written about them.