Behaviour

When identifying a child's needs, use your knowledge of child development, particularly in the areas of social and emotional development, to help you. Then you can help the children meet their own needs.

Responding to children's skills

Children's developmental skills and abilities vary, depending on brain development, age, skills, interests and previous experience of equipment or materials.

We need to offer challenges, but a challenge that relies on skills a child has not yet developed or mastered creates frustration and feelings of failure. Children need success.

Look at the information below, to discover how a child may become frustrated with a task that requires a skill that is not yet developed.

A toddler may be able draw using a pen, but a more appropriate drawing material would be a thick black crayon, as the child would need to use the adult hand-grasp to hold the pen appropriately. Developmentally, the toddler can grasp the crayon with a palmar grasp and make large circular movements on a large sheet of white paper.

A puzzle with lots of small pieces and a complicated pattern to work out may challenge the child. Completing it may also be very frustrating if the child has not developed the cognitive skills to problem-solve, or the fine motor skills and eye/hand coordination to place the parts where they belong.

a sandpit with cars, wooden blocks and a watering can sitting neatly on the sand.

You may consider offering children the materials and equipment on consecutive days so they have the opportunity to master them. You may modify or slightly change the experience by adding or taking away some of the equipment or materials, or rearranging the experience to extend the children's development or skills, based upon the children's interests.

For example, on the first day you might set up trucks and cars in a sand tray. The next day, based on the children's interests, you might add some rocks and small pieces of flat wood. On the third day, you might add water and small branches from a tree, etc.

Experiences children are offered should be:

based upon interests
responsive to needs
capable of extending development.

Good program planning involves observing children's:

strengths, interests, needs and developmental skills
thinking about extending development
providing opportunities to practise skills with the play equipment and materials we offer.

To see if a child has a particular skill, I would:

Ask them to do a task for me and see if they have the skill I'm looking for.

Ask them if they have the skill.

Set up an experience in which they would naturally use the skill in their play.

Although you could ask the child to do a particular task for you, children should not be made to participate in activities just so you can see if they have certain skills or can do set tasks.

If the children were older it may be ok to ask them if they have the skill. Older children have the verbal skills to tell you what they can and can’t do, but it’s not a very accurate method to use for younger children.

You should set up an experience in which they would naturally use the skill in their play. Creating an environment that is inclusive and supports their development lets you observe them undertaking different skills in their natural play, allowing you to find out their strengths and needs.