Unit One
A

When working within an early years setting it is important to ensure that practitioners are proving a child centred approach as the child must always be at the centre of their learning.

Through children being the centre of their learning it will enable professionals to met the child’s individual needs and by doing this the professionals will also be listening to their child and valuing their own views and opinions. An example of this approach in an early years setting would be a practitioner preparing fruit for the children at their break time and when the children come to collect their fruit there is one child which does not like apple, the child informs the practitioner and the practitioner listens to the child concern and gives the child a option of two other fruit and compromises between them, by the practitioner listening to the child it show she respects the child’s views and opinions.

When children are in their early years setting, all practitioners must treat each child individually as some children may learn and develop quicker compared to other children, this may be because the child might have additional learning needs. The practitioner must then give support weather if its one to one or separate group work to make sure the child’s needs are being met. This can be done by the learning activity chosen by the practitioner is adapted towards the child so he/she is getting the best out of their learning experience.

For all early years setting in Wales they all follow the curriculum called The Foundation Phase. This framework is designed for children between the ages of three to seven years old it encourages children to be creative, imaginative and to have fun whilst they are learning.
The foundation Phase works really well in a child centred approach as children can develop their skills through being creative such as a child could use the sand in the sand tray to do their maths work by writing numbers and sums in the sand. This is effective also for the practitioners as it will enhance the way children learn in a way which the child would prefer to learn. This is also showing respect for the child by giving them independence.

To also support the importance of a child centred approach a theorist