What Does it Mean to be Two?: A practical guide to child development in the Early Years Foundation Stage

By Jennie Lindon

What Does It Mean To Be Two, from child psychologist Jennie Lindon, will give you the tools you need to ensure that your work with children, whether in a school, nursery or home setting, is relevant to their individual stages of development.
This books looks at the six areas of learning in the EYFS and focusses on what each area means for two-year olds. Each area of development is backed up with examples of how real children learn, what good practice looks like and working in partnership with parents. A must-have for anyone working with two-year olds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Allen Group
• Release date: Jun 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781907241789

Book preview

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Focus on two-year-olds

What Does it Mean to be Two? explores the developmental needs and likely skills of two-year-olds. However, it makes sense to show how twos develop within their own personal timeline. So you will also find some examples that include slightly younger children and the content links closely with the other three titles in this series, especially with What Does it Mean to be Three? The approach and ideas of this book are relevant to any practitioner, working with twos anywhere in the UK. The structure of the book, however, follows the framework for England of the Early Years Foundation Stage: guidance covering from birth to five years of age that will be statutory for early years provision from September 2008.

Children’s learning can only be effectively and appropriately supported when adults - practitioners and parents alike - are guided by sound knowledge of child development. The layout of each of the four books in this linked series includes:

Descriptive developmental information within the main text, organised within the six areas of learning used by the Early Years Foundation Stage.

‘For example’ sections giving instances of real children and real places and sometimes references to useful sources of further examples.

‘Being a helpful adult’ boxes which focus on adult behaviour that is an effective support for children’s learning, as well as approaches that could undermine young children.

‘Food for thought’ headings which highlight points of good practice in ways that can encourage reflection and discussion among practitioners, as well as sharing in partnership with parents.

Where are the twos ‘officially’?

Two-year-olds are competent and, for their age, often articulate learners, so – as their older selves might announce – it is ‘really unfair!’ that this age group has sometimes been seen as a bit of an oddity from the perspective of early years provision. Young children can end up as two-year-old square pegs jammed into three- or four-year-old round holes. Potential problems arise from the historical split between care and education, which has long troubled good quality experiences for children in early years services across the UK. The problem arises because:

Nursery schools and classes, playgroups and pre-schools developed to cater for three- to five-year-olds and came to be labelled as early education.

Daycare settings and childminders accepted children as young as babies and were largely seen as carers.

The care-education division is total nonsense from the children’s perspective. Care – or nurture - and learning are inseparable and good early years practice in any kind of provision is always organised around that central understanding.

Unfortunately, official statements and the structure of much inspection have persisted in presenting the two as separate. This approach would matter less if it were separate yet equal, but care and caring are so often treated as the poor relation. If adults undervalue care, that attitude has a negative effect on the quality of provision for three- to five-year-olds. However, a disrespectful ‘only care’ outlook has even more serious consequences for two-year-olds, because they need demonstrably more caring support.

Up to 2002 any national guidance across the UK was focussed on the over threes. England, Scotland and Wales each had their own early years curriculum document to guide practitioners working with three- to five-year-olds. The framework for Northern Ireland covers three- and four-year-olds, since young children start primary school in the September of the school year after their fourth birthday. Any guidance about good practice with the under threes was developed within a local area by early years teams who were concerned about guiding or enhancing the quality of provision. Then in 2002 the Birth to Three Matters framework was introduced in England and in 2005 Scotland launched their Birth to Three: Supporting our Youngest Children. The most recent changes 2007-8 are that:

In England from September 2008 the English Birth to Three, and the three to five Foundation Stage, will both be replaced by the birth to five years framework of the Early Years Foundation Stage.

In Scotland, the current developments for change revolve around a Curriculum for Excellence to cover from three to eighteen years of age. In the earlier years, the main focus for development is for a continuity of more active learning and play from the early education of three to five years olds into the first years of primary school. The Scottish birth to three guidance remains unchanged.

In Wales, the main focus of development is on the Foundation Phase for young children from three to seven years, bridging the early years curriculum into the first years of primary school. There is no national under threes guidance in Wales.

In Northern Ireland the early years curriculum applies to three- and four-year-olds, often mainly threes. There is no national under threes guidance and the main focus for current development is the Foundation Stage that applies to the first two years of primary school, with children aged four or five years of age.

The English and Scottish under threes materials had a different appearance and overall structure, but otherwise they had a great deal in common, because the teams drew on the same source materials, including research about very early development.

Both frameworks place a strong emphasis on the importance of attachment and of close, affectionate relationships for young children. They clearly state that good quality in group care is not possible without

a proper key person system.

Each framework promotes the importance of a home-like atmosphere and emphasises that good practice with under threes is influenced by what usually works well for the children in family life. The consistent message is that under-threes are young children; they are not little pupils. Their environment needs to be a home-like nursery or the actual home of a childminder - not an environment that looks anything like a school classroom. Nurseries are not family homes, but the best group settings have a relaxed, home-like atmosphere - for all the children and not only the youngest.

Childminders have a head start when it comes to opportunities for a family atmosphere and personal relationships developing within an actual home. The birth to three frameworks, and any local under-threes guidance, all make it clear that childminders should be encouraged to operate in this way. There must be no sense that a drive for quality requires them to turn their homes into mini-nurseries.

Development matters in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

From September 2008 in England twos are ‘officially’ within a framework that spans the full range of early childhood. All early years practitioners in England need to become familiar with the details of the EYFS but the good practice described is not new. Part of your task, in finding your way around the EYFS materials, is to recognise just how much is familiar when your early years provision already has good practice. (See page 58 for information on how to access materials about the EYFS.) There is undoubtedly an adjustment from the structure of the Birth to Three framework, since the EYFS follows the developmental areas pattern, similar to that established from 2000 in the Foundation Stage for over threes.

There are six areas of learning within the EYFS.

Personal, Social and Emotional development

Communication, Language and Literacy

Problem Solving, Reasoning and Numeracy

Knowledge and Understanding of the World

Physical Development

Creative Development

This framework is one way of considering the breadth of children’s learning. But of course children do not learn in separate compartments; the whole point is that children’s learning crosses all the boundaries. The aim of identifying areas of learning is to help adults to create a balance, to address all the different, equally important areas of what children gain across the years of early childhood.

When the EYFS is in place, all these records have to connect with the six areas of learning. A rich resource of developmental information and practice advice is provided in the Practice Guidance booklet of the EYFS, in Appendix 2 that runs from pages 22-114. None of this material should be used as a checklist, or have-to-do grids. It is crucial that early years practitioners and teams hold tight to this key point. In each of these very full pages, the same pattern applies.

The developmental information in the first column, ‘Development matters’, is a reminder of the kinds of changes likely to happen – not an exhaustive list of what happens, and in this exact way. The examples work like the Development Matters box on each of the Birth to Three cards or the Stepping Stones in the Foundation Stage.

The broad and overlapping age spans are deliberate: birth to 11 months, 8-20 months, 16-26 months, 22-36 months, 30-50 months and 40-60+ months. The aim is to refresh about development, supporting practitioners to take time over all the ‘steps’. There should be no headlong rush to the ‘older’ age spans, let alone the final early learning goals (ELGs). None of the descriptions, apart from the ELGs, are required targets or outcomes.

So, the only part of all this information that is statutory is the description of the early learning goals. They only become relevant for observation within the last year of the EYFS (just like with the Foundation Stage), which is the reception class located in primary schools.

Practitioners working with younger twos should look at the 16-26 months and the 22-36 months spans. If you work with children whose development has been significantly slowed by disability or very limited early experience, then of course look at the younger band. If you spend your days with older twos, then move your eyes into the 30-50 months age band. But make sure that nobody, including parents, believes that hurrying children into this band is preferable.

The ELGs, placed at the end of every 40-60+ age band cannot be used to shape the experiences of twos in any meaningful way. They would not be realistic expectations for such young children, nor are they intended ever to be applied to twos.

Child-focussed observation and planning

It will be necessary for practitioners (in England) to adjust their flexible forward planning and child-focussed documentation to reflect these six areas and, from September 2008, to leave behind the aspects and components structure of Birth to Three Matters. However, the six areas should not be too daunting, since early years practitioners should have a sound basis of child development knowledge. If any practitioners feel unsure of realistic expectations, then the Development matters column should be used as a detailed source of information to build that knowledge.