STAGE NOT AGE
By Alice Thornton, Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
How important is it to know a young child’s levels of development?
“It’s a bit like….learning to play tennis!”
How many of us in early years settings have children who don’t seem to be able to cope with the routines and activities and group times we have in place?
There are so many children who we are worried about. Those who can’t settle to anything, those who can’t join in with group time, or sit still for long, those who don’t play with other children, those who push or bite others, those who are silent and withdrawn, those who play the same game over and over, those who spend all their time playing with water, often in the wash basins!
So here is a thought to consider:
For each child, they need us to support them at the stage they are at, not what most children are expected to do at that age.
“It’s a bit like…. when I play tennis”. I am only at the stage of bouncing the ball and hitting it over the net, and I don’t always manage that. If I join a class that is teaching people to do backhand and very complex serves, I will really struggle. They are expecting me to be able to do many skills already. This will make me lose confidence, be reluctant to join in, and probably mess about at the back! And I will be holding back those who are good at tennis and need to be able to practise at a different level. Even though I am an adult, I need to be in a group where everyone is at the same stage as me, so I can use the skills I do have (I can hold a racket and bounce a ball) and learn to do the next step in the process. I also need to be in a small enough group so I can be noticed, encouraged and helped.
I need to work at the STAGE I am at, NOT MY AGE.
In the top group of tennis, there may a couple of very young children who are brilliant at tennis and need to be with the adults, again, working at their stage, being ahead, rather than limited by their age.
I need staff who can notice what stage I am at, celebrate this, and support me to enjoy what I am doing, and to know what the next step is, not rushing me onwards too fast.
So, my question to us all is….. do we know what the individual stages are in the different areas of development? Can we notice the clues that tell us? Do we know what the next step will be, sometimes a really small step? And most of all, are we able to adapt what we do to enable these children to function well, succeed and progress?
The areas of development that I am interested in, as an SLT, are:
- Attention and Listening,
- Pretend Play,
- Understanding of language,
- Expressive language - learning vocabulary, putting sentences together with grammar,
- Speech sounds and
- Using language in social ways.
The stage a child is at in each of these different areas will hugely affect what they can manage, how long they can sit, what they can take on board, how they can play, how they cope with transitions and how they interact. It affects every aspect of their behaviour.
It also affects what we should expect of them, IN THE SETTING AND AT HOME. How can they be expected to sit and listen to a long story if they are only understanding two-word phrases? How can they be expected to do what they are asked if they don’t understand the instruction?
For example, they are likely to struggle to be in a group with children who can understand plot and “what will happen if” discussions. Those children with more language may also be held back if the story is adapted to be simple. Just like me in my tennis lessons, I need to be in a group where I am practising at my stage, regardless of my age.
Oh my, I can hear some people say, how will parents react when their 4-year-old is listening to stories in a group with 2 ½ year olds? Well, their child will be so much happier, engaged and learning, if it is the right stage for them. We can be brave and explain our rationale, backed up by knowing the stages of development. The staff will enjoy telling the story more as well, as each child will be more engaged.
There are many resources which can help us to know the different stages in each area and with the EYSWSPH one of our main roles is to deliver training on these aspects so do contact us. There are so many checklists around and we don’t want too many, but this is about really knowing what each stage is and being able to spot it.
It is not our fault if the children coming to us are at a delayed level of development in some or all areas. There are some children with specific difficulties, but so many settings are also reporting a lower level in so many children. In one setting last week, we realised that if 14 children were delayed that was 52% of the cohort, i.e. over half their current intake. So, this is not just a few children, who need something extra, or to be taken out to do individual sessions. There are too many of them, and it needs to be embedded in their everyday life.
So, it will help the children, and ourselves if we adapt our expectations and our activities to be right for the STAGE of the children we have in our room.
Let’s get used to really watching a child, knowing what we see, what stage that is.
Let’s make sure we know what each stage is.
Let’s celebrate that a child has reached the next little step, in the setting and with parents.
Let’s know when a child is ahead, or behind, and by how much. This will help us feel more confident about when to refer and why. We will have evidence e.g. “look, this child is at Cause and Effect stage of pretend play development, the level of a 1 year old but they are 4 years old”.
Let’s feel confident to talk in our team and adapt what we expect and what we do to match and support the levels of the children we have in front of us.
Look out for future Blogs on:
“School, coming ready or not”, “Is it just Covid, that has caused so much delay in speech and language?” and “Taking a child out of the room to do special activities, does it help, even if we could manage it?”