Understanding wording of Development Matters

[hectors house]

Is it just me or does anyone else have trouble with interpreting the wording the Development Matters - how can I link an observation to a sentence if I haven't got a clue what I am looking for? Pre Sept 2012 in the original DM it gave an example of what to look out for, but now it just has the sentence "observing what a child is learning", then "what adults could do and provide".

eg: Speaking 40-60 month "I extend my vocabulary, especially by grouping & naming, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words" - What do they mean by grouping and naming?

Numbers 22-36 month "I create and experiment with symbols and marks representing ideas of number" - I understand what this one means but have never seen any of the children doing it even the 4 year old - how can I encourage this, we recently did a tally chart showing colours of cars and made a pictogram but that was an adult led activity based on childs interest. Should I ask them to sort something else and record their findings somehow?

What other statements do other people have problems interpreting?

[sarah707]

First of all - we are not totally responsible for noting everything a child is doing or saying as they progress towards the Early Learning Goals - they are learning in other places as well as with us. They might do a tally chart with you, copy numbers from a number line with nursery and write dots to represent numbers on stones at home. All those observations and experiences will support their learning about numbers - but we cannot possibly be expected to write them all down.

Second, Development Matters is not a tick list - we are watching and listening and supporting and providing experiences that are age and stage appropriate through play - not working towards pre-defined goals in a regimented way. We shouldn't feel the need to set up or watch for activities linked to each of the DM statements - that's not what it is about.

Third, if you don't get any of the statements - ask and I'm sure between us we can all try and shed some light on them eg.

'I extend my vocabulary, especially by grouping & naming, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words' = I am learning lots of new words to describe things; I am playing with words; I am finding out words to describe groups of things etc.

The wording of DM is a little odd in places but if you think of it as guidance then you can ignore the bits that don't make sense

[hectors house]

First of all - we are not totally responsible for noting everything a child is doing or saying as they progress towards the Early Learning Goals - they are learning in other places as well as with us. They might do a tally chart with you, copy numbers from a number line with nursery and write dots to represent numbers on stones at home. All those observations and experiences will support their learning about numbers - but we cannot possibly be expected to write them all down.

Second, Development Matters is not a tick list - we are watching and listening and supporting and providing experiences that are age and stage appropriate through play - not working towards pre-defined goals in a regimented way. We shouldn't feel the need to set up or watch for activities linked to each of the DM statements - that's not what it is about.

Third, if you don't get any of the statements - ask and I'm sure between us we can all try and shed some light on them eg.

'I extend my vocabulary, especially by grouping & naming, exploring the meaning and sounds of new words' = I am learning lots of new words to describe things; I am playing with words; I am finding out words to describe groups of things etc.

The wording of DM is a little odd in places but if you think of it as guidance then you can ignore the bits that don't make sense

Thank you for reminding me that I am not totally responsible for my mindees learning especially as none of them come for more than 3 days a week - parents and nursery also need to share the responsibility and co-operate with info sharing. I thought the new EYFS was supposed to be written in plain English but some things are "double dutch" to me! I don't know what they mean by groups of things - do they mean flock of sheep, herd of cows etc?

[sing-low]

I don't know what they mean by groups of things - do they mean flock of sheep, herd of cows etc?

Presumably also how words become plural in different ways eg. fish - fish, deer - deer, cow - cows, duck - ducks?

[Optimalstar]

Group and naming.

From what i recall from teaching, collective nouns aren't taught/learnt until keystage 2 so children aren't expected to know what collective groups of animals are called within the foundation stage. Well not beyond the basic 'farm' 'dinosaurs' 'fish' 'mini beasts'.

I understand 'grouping and naming' to be as simple as knowing 'shapes' are collectively that but also triangles, circles, squares etc. my son loves Thomas the tank and knows they're grouped together as 'trains' but individually 'Thomas, Percy, Rusty, etc.' likewise 'fruit' = apples, bananas, oranges and so on. The every day stuff.

[Optimalstar]

Numbers for 22-36 months.... Yes you can have the brightest child who may have dots etc. to represent a given number but my 31 month old will just scribble/ mark make and tell me it's 1,3,4 ( his way of saying numbers).