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Autumn 2001 Newsletter
www.oneworldforchildren.com.au
Technology is fast becoming the way of the world, so much so that we find that our once "technology free" child care centre and training company is relying more and more on computers, the internet and the like, to carry out business on a daily basis.
And it seems we're not the only ones. According to a recent AECA survey, 76% of people working in the children's services industry have access to the internet. This suggests that there are a great number of our clients who stand to benefit from our increased use of technology.
In
our last newsletter, we announced that we would be re-developing the One
World website to include online training and support to our participants.
At One World we believe that together we form a diverse community of learners.
There is much to be gained in maximising opportunities to interact more
frequently with each other, and in ensuring that you have ready access
to the resources you need to maximise your learning throughout your training.
The re-development of our website, in particular, the interactive pages, has the potential to improve communications between you and your trainers, as well as enable interactions between you and your peers. It will also provide support to you as a learner, and easy access to learning materials, resources and relevant information to assist you in your training, and your work with young children.
Three months after first announcing that we would be re-developing our website, our training site is really taking shape. The initial groundwork is now complete and the framework is in place. We are now working on the content of the online training community, which will continue to be an ongoing focus. Once content-rich, we are confident that you will find it interesting and informative, and an enhancement to the training and service we currently provide to you.
We look forward to your feedback and comments about our website development over the coming weeks.
Enrolment fees
A big Thank-you to all those participants who promptly paid their fees over the Christmas period to enable Snez to update our system.
A reminder though to participants who are yet to pay their fees. It is a condition of your enrolment that you do pay your fees annually.
The fees are:
Traineeship $290.00 per year of study
Youth Training $137.50
Concessions are available for the above training programs on issue of a current Health Care Card, at $40.00 (this applies at the time of enrolment).
New training phone number
At One World we now have a new phone number for training enquiries.
You can now reach us on (03) 5272 2714.
This telephone number will ring directly to our training office. Individual mobile numbers will be given out if particular training staff are not in the office.
It's a Boy!
Congratulations
to Michelle, Shane and little brother Brodie on the birth of Tyler on
Thursday 22 March, 2001.
We are still marveling at the seeming ease with which Michelle carried herself throughout her pregnancy, and her no-fuss approach to the whole `baby' thing.
We know you will all be happy to know that Michelle, true to form, gave birth to Tyler on Thursday night, and was back at work on the Monday! (for a visit).
We wish Michelle and her family many memorable moments with their new addition.
Michelle is now back on deck on a part time basis. Any messages for Michelle may be left at our office, where all messages will be passed on to her.
Assessments
As
you are all aware some of the competency packages have written assessments
which are required to be handed in. It is important to note that if the
assessment is merely answering a question then you are not required to
focus on presentation. Trainers assess on the content of your answer.
If an assessment requires you to do a display, poster or specifies exactly what is expected of you than you are to do as is asked.
Any type of display, handbook, policy etc is to be presented in a professional manner ensuring that spelling and grammar is correct. There may also be times where you are expected to do an assessment in relation to your workplace e.g excursion form _ if this is the case this would be a formal letter going out to parents which would in turn be word processed on letterhead. If ever in doubt about the presentation expected of any assessments ask the trainer who assesses it!
Introducing Liz
We welcome Liz Powell, with her enthusiasm and expertise to One World.
Liz has an extensive history in the Children's Services field. For five years, Liz was the Director of a Community Based Child Care Centre in Geelong, before moving to the Gordon Institute of Tafe where she was able to contribute to the valuable learning process of many students.
Liz's experience knowledge and professionalism has made a positive impact on training in Geelong amongst many students.
Liz is eager to get to know all of the One World employers and participants. Some of you may have already met Liz, as she begins her visits amongst the child care centres.
Feel free to introduce yourself to Liz and feel confident in asking Liz for any feed back in relation to your on and off the job competencies.
Join Us for a Coffee and a Chat
We are planning to have our first scheduled chat in the Coffee Shop on Tuesday 8st May at 8:30pm, and thought for the very first scheduled chat we would keep it rather general. A focal point for the chat will be your personal experiences in working with children. (Some of the everyday fun or not so fun occurrences.)
Keep this date and time in mind, and join us with your experiences. It will also be a great opportunity to hear from others.
If you do not have access to the internet at home, you've got a little bit of time to research who has in your neighbourhood, and to book their computer for the chat time. Hope to chat to as many of you as possible!
Caring for the Little Ones
Friendships in the Baby Room
All good infant or toddler programs put relationships at the centre of their focus. Mostly, people have worked on the important relationships of adults and children _ the issues of primary care giving and continuity of care to develop that all-important bond between the child and the caregiver. Much attention is also given to adult-to-adult relationships _ staff-parent communication and mutual respect, and good staff-to-staff relationships. There remains one other kind of relationship that deserves our attention _ the child-to-child friendships that form. What do these early friendships look like, how can we support them, and how do they impact the child's development?
If we believe that it is important for children to learn to relate comfortably to others and not be loners in our society, we should think about pre-friendship skills in the same way that we think about pre-reading or pre-math skills. Infants and toddlers are already capable of demonstrating friendly behaviours. Some of the behaviours are there by instinct. Others are learned through sensitive coaching from the important adults in children's lives.
Infant Friendships
Infants start with a basic instinct of being extremely interested in faces, and they are particularly attracted to the faces of other children. Very young children who are not yet mobile will look with interest at the actions of other babies. Infants lying next to each other on the floor may reach out to investigate each other. They will occasionally hold hands or coo at each other with great delight.
What
supports this is giving children lots of floor time lying side by side,
and arm's distance apart with an observant caregiver nearby. You can help
them touch each other gently and comment about who they are seeing. When
you see their eyes light up at the sight of another child, you can say,
"There is your friend, Susie." Some infants seem genuinely attracted
to each other and light up when they see each other. They often feed off
of each other. If one begins to talk or scream, the other one does, too.
Once children become mobile, when they see a friend with whom they are familiar, infants initiate smiles; and you can see them start to move toward each other. They often come and play together with the same toy. Some of the children will kiss each other and play with toys that are close to their friends.
For example:
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An 11-month-old child was crawling and looked at a 9-month-old. When they each had eye contact, they smiled at each other and laughed. His smile and eye contact seemed to say: "Come and play in the tunnel with me." He began to crawl towards the slide/tunnel and so did the 9-month-old.
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Two 11-month-old boys were playing on the mattress and were crawling on top of each other and laughing. They would crawl off and onto the mat and over the pillows.
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An 11-month-old boy, while sitting next to a 7-month-old girl, put his arm around the girl and kissed her on the head and smiled. He looked at me and did it again.
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Such interactions require that the children have access to each other and are not confined in restrictive devices such as swings, infant seats, bounce seats, sitting rings, and the like. Rather than keeping babies from each other using these devices, interactions require an adult close at hand, allowing children to see and touch each other. The adult needs to teach a gentle touch from a very young age and help children to investigate other infants in a friendly way.
Toddler Friendships
How do toddlers and twos demonstrate friendship? We associate toddlers with noise. And strife. And fighting over objects. "Mine!" Probably because those are the situations that call for our attention and intervention at times. But we also see lots of joy and empathy and hugging. They dance together. You see children develop definite preferences for other children. They seek each other out, wait for the other to arrive in the morning, are upset when a friend doesn't show up. Their friendship may start with eye contact and smiles. Toddlers often seek to sit next to a favourite friend at the lunch table or at story time. They may greet each other with hugs and jump up and down.
A typical social beginning for a toddler is to hand something to another child.
It is a gesture that says I want to interact with you. Sometimes we see the opposite _ a child grabs something away from another child to play with him. Not all attempts are successful in gaining friends. The adult needs to coach and help the two toddlers figure out how to play together.
Something we see even more often is toddlers imitating each other. One child starts doing something silly, laughs loudly, and makes eye contact with another child. The second child imitates the action, also laughing. They may be joined by other children. Three children and a teacher are sitting on a log in the yard. One boy laughs and falls backwards, feet in the air. The other children, and the teacher, join in.
Most early social interactions are non-verbal: eye contact, smiles,
handing something, imitating each other, making funny noises. But gradually language creeps in and allows an even wider range of interaction.
Twos
Twos, with their more advanced verbal skills, draw one another in with language, and dramatic play starts to become more important. With occasional adult support so children know how to do socio-dramatic play, they gain skill at creating their own scenarios and taking on roles. Most twos will parallel play dramatic play, all taking on the same role and doing the same thing. They get ideas from each other and elaborate their actions, but they generally do not interact from within their roles. I have watched 2-year-olds set up dramatic play where they were all doctors and they all examined a patient or a baby and discussed what to do, thus differentiating roles and interacting within their roles.
Empathy
Part of friendship is empathy.
Infants seem to have this by instinct. We are meant to be social beings and therefore respond to the mood of the group.
Any infant teacher will tell you that one vigorously crying baby will lead to a whole room of crying infants.
Later we see comforting behaviours. An 18-month-old will give a crying 10-month-old his pacifier or favourite toy. We adults do things for our friends because it makes both of us feel good. The 10-month-old stops crying and the 18-month-old is probably praised by the caregiver for being such a good helper and such a nice friend.
The interesting thing is that children learn empathy from how they themselves were treated. A child who was never comforted or treated with kindness in not likely to comfort other children in distress, even though she may feel that reflected distress herself. The feelings of empathy are there by instinct, but children learn what to do about it from the caring adults around them.
The other side of this is how children take on other moods of the group, such as aggression, or fear, or joy. We are, as humans, tuned in to the moods of those around us. Especially fun to watch is the phenomenon of group glee when a whole group of children breaks into spontaneous laughter, without really knowing the cause.
Adult Role Models
It's impossible to overstate the importance of adults modelling friendship behaviours. Toddlers are such imitators of adult behaviour. They learn how to act from us. So teachers and parents should be conscious of the way they interact with other adults _ their friends _ and how they greet people, comfort people, instruct and correct people. Polite, considerate, friendly behaviour, rather than bossy, overbearing, and overpowering behaviour, should also be demonstrated when interacting with children.
Friendship Rituals and Routines
There is much that you can do to teach and encourage friendly interactions between children.
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Talk about "our friends." Use the word friends when talking with the children. "Would you like to play with your friends?"
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Use names a lot. Say their names when you address them and when you talk about the other children.
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Have photographs of children and their families where children can see them and have access to them on a low display board, in a photo album or scrapbook, laminated onto cards children can carry around. It makes them feel like a valued member of the group and helps them learn each other's names.
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You can have several photos of each child, taken at different times so the photos look different, and let children sort pictures of each child into separate piles. "These pictures got mixed up. Let's put all the pictures of Caitlin here, and the ones of Ned over her.
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Create a Who's here today? Ritual. You can back children's photographs with felt or Velcro. Pick up one at a time and ask, "Who's this?" The children will name the child on the photo. That child can then put his or her photo on a board. Be sure to also ask, "Who's not here?" See if 2-year-olds can name children not present without looking at the remaining photos. Then also show them the remaining photos.
Amy's Story
Amy is undertaking a Diploma of Community Services (Children's Services) through a traineeship. We asked her to write something for our newsletter. This is what she wrote about her training experience.
I
started with a bang! I was full of excitement and enthusiasm at the chance
to become trained in the profession I was already working in. I was breezing
through the books and assignments, soaking in all this information and
knowledge. The books provided were clear and informative. I have found
training on the job an easy way to learn.
As I read about different techniques and discover new pieces of information, I put these into practice during my working day. This way I am not feeling overwhelmed when entering a centre.
It wasn't long when I found I had trouble finding the balance between study, work and still managing to have a social life. Time management was the key to me finding a happy and relaxed way in which to get these things done.
I have always felt comfortable in approaching the training staff over the phone when having difficulty. The first visit I had was to gather information and advise about the traineeships, as I wasn't sure if I would be suitable. I was excited to be meeting the trainers. After a few visits I was feeling anxious and a little nervous, I would be meeting a new trainer who would regularly be coming to assess my on the job competency. On meeting the trainer I felt very comfortable. What a relief!
I'm currently working on my diploma studies and hope to push through my theory work at a steady pace. On completion I am hoping to move into a team leader position.
Thanks Amy for your contribution.
Website Competition ~ Visit and Win!
As you know, we are currently developing our website to include online training and support to our participants.
The re-development of our website has focused on creating an online community, with an emphasis on being interactive. The framework is complete, and although still very much under construction in the area of content and online learning, the interactive areas such as the coffee shop is up and running. All it needs is some visitors to see it come to life.
So, to get the turnstile turning, we are having a competition!
All you have to do is visit our training website and answer the online quiz, and you could win yourself a gift pack of early childhood publications worth more than $100.00 to add to your own professional library.
And why not let us know you visited our online community by signing our Guest Book while you're there. You could also win yourself a copy of "Playing for Keeps" worth $30.00.
To be in the running to win either of these prizes you must complete the online quiz and/or sign the guest book over the next few weeks, but before Monday 28 May, 2001. Winners will be announced on Friday 1 June, 2001.
The right book for the right child.
Taken from Now for a Story, Sharing Stories with Young Children by Gordon Winch and Barbara Poston-Anderson
What
is a good book for a _ year old? is a common question asked by parents
in book stores and libraries. The answer is not easy, because of the difference
in children and the difference in books. We can however use some simple
guidelines to help with choice.
First, a child's interest in a book is one of the best ways of making the correct match.
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Secondly, favourites in a particular age group provide us with assistance: if countless five-year-olds enjoy Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar then you can't go wrong if you choose it.
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Thirdly, the physical appearance of a book helps. If it is interesting to look at, to feel and to peep into, it has much going for it.
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Fourthly, a child's special interests are a good guide. If a child delights in animals, or cars or princesses or humour or adventure, then a book about that subject must appeal.
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Fifthly, if the language is well chosen, pitched at the child's level and full of appealing words, children will respond to it.
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Sixthly, if the author has the child reader in mind, the book will ring true to your child.
And most important, if it tells a good story, it has to be on the short list of your choice _ and most importantly, the child's.
Much has been written about the varying stages of growth of children and all of these things are helpful. The most important fact to remember, however, is that if the book is too difficult intellectually, it won't suit; if it is poorly written, it won't suit; if it does not appeal to the child as reader, it won't suit; if it does not tell a good story, it won't suit. Children seem to know a good book. We only help them make a choice.
You can borrow this book from our Resource Library. We have also recently purchased a copy of the video `The Gift of Reading' an exciting new video that helps us to understand and value the importance of books in children's lives, and shows ways that books can be shared in a variety of settings. This is also available for loan from our library.
Complete the Quality Survey to Win a Quality Prize!
Ongoing quality improvement is vital for the success of any organisation. Through continually focusing on the quality of the training and assessing services provided by One World, we will ensure that our organisation will continue to be relevant and responsive to your ongoing needs.
Enclosed in this newsletter, you will find a survey about our organisation. We would greatly appreciate you taking the time to complete and return it to us in the stamped self- addressed envelope provided. Alternatively, you could complete it on our website by visiting the Reception.
As an incentive, and as a thank you, we will select one respondent out of a draw to win a $100.00 gift voucher to spend at Lady Gowrie Child Care Centre. Use it in the Resource Library, or register for a workshop. It is yours to spend on your professional development any way you like.
If you would like to help us in our evaluation process, and have the chance to win the Lady Gowrie gift voucher, forward your completed surveys to One World no later than Friday 20 May, 2001.
Your own Professional Library
Making the decision to undertake training to become a trained or qualified Child Care Worker is an important step towards becoming a professional within the children's services industry.
Being a professional child care worker suggests much more than being trained in your chosen field. Being a professional implies that we take responsibility for our own learning, and that we take our ongoing professional development seriously.
A professional child care worker always has an opened mind, and welcomes opportunities to deepen their knowledge and understanding. They are effective communicators, who enjoy discussion and exchanging of ideas.
A professional child care worker is also an avid reader, with their own professional library. They read to look for answers, as well as the questions!
Reading is a wonderful way to learn. Having your own professional library that you can read and refer to is a great beginning to the path of your own growing professionalism.
Throughout your training with One World, you will receive text books that will form the basis of your own professional library. Build on this, not only during your training, but throughout your professional life.
We are all lifetime learners. Let us contribute to our own learning by being lovers of books and owners of our own professional libraries.
Take advantage and save yourself time…
Do you have access to the internet? Why not send your assessments via email? It will save you time and your assessments will get to us promptly and safely. You can send assessments directly to trainers and they will email you back.
Click Here to contact us.
Our Trainees at Work and Play
Top of page
Childcare Services
One World For Children Pty Ltd
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Finalists for the Australian Training Awards 2009: Australian Small Training Provider of the Year
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Winners of the Victorian Training Awards 2009: Small Training Provider of the Year
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Winners of the 2008 Victorian Community Services Health Industry Training Board's Innovation in Training and Assessment Award: Innovative Service Delivery
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Finalist in the Victorian Training Awards 2006 for Training Initiative of the Year: Online Advanced Diploma of Children's Services
One
World For Children Pty Ltd