Introduction
Milla is 4.5 years old; she lives in a house with her mum, dad and little sister. The language spoken at home is English. They have a medium sized backyard that incorporates a pool, sea-saw, cubby house, trampoline, bikes and scooters. Milla is a very happy and confident child. She loves to play, with visitors, her little sister and her mum and dad. Although her sister is a year younger than her, they get along well and love to play with each other both using the play equipment and by using imaginative role play. Throughout the research three main theorists came to mind in relation to Milla’s pattern of development and learning as a child. These include: Piaget, Vygotsky and Bronfenbrenner.

Jean Piaget, is known as one of the most influential researchers of cognitive development. It is his stage theory of cognitive development that is recognised universally. Piaget believed that the social environment consisted of relations between individuals. Through observations of Milla we are able to see that the social environment in which she was playing in did in fact consist of relations between individual, in this case herself, her mum, dad and sister. By Milla participating in snakes and ladders with her dad and sister, we are able to witness her sharing and communicating with them allowing her to become aware of her own point of view and rules. As intellectually, she used her past memory and experiences to remember rhymes that in turn helped her to remember the sequence of numbers as she rolled the dice. It was during the preoperational stage, a stage where children tend to focus on one aspect of something at a time, that children develop an understanding that written words can represent many things such as; people, objects, actions or can tell a story. This can be seen when Milla sounds out the word p-e-r-f-o-r-m-e-r emphasising her recognition of written words and what they mean.

Whereas, Vygotsky maintained the significance that adults have in a child’s learning. They can identify the right time to assist in a time of need in order for the child to progress to the next stage of learning. During the observation, at which Milla asked what 'performer' meant, as she went on to sound each individual syllable, her mum helped her through it. As such Milla was then able to understand and comprehend the word completely, extending her learning to the next stage. This is in contrast to Piaget who had believed that you should leave a child to explore and discover things on their own. Part of Vygotsky’s theory was the use of ‘Public speech’, this being something Milla used in order to interact and communicate with her sister and parents, “We’re going to read book bag now cause its past book bag time”.

Bronfenbrenner – expand

Using the Early Years Learning Framework, which illustrate three major learning outcomes essential in a