Development Matters and observations.

[EmmaReed84]

I have downloaded a copy of the word version of the ares of development, ages and stages. I have numberd the areas 1-17 numbered the ages 1-6 for the areas and numbered each stage as well...

I am sort of thinking that when I do an observation of a child I can read through it and cross reference it to the development matters... so for example

child x who is 23 months is building with mega blocks, she is using numbers to count in a random order. She says "I build a tower". I ask X what the colours are and she can identify 3 colours correctly, confidently and consistently.

At the bottom I would then have 6.4.6 which would be Speaking, 22-36 months bullet point 6 Uses simple sentences

Obviously there would be more but just as an example... Would this work? Or am I making more work for myself?

I was then thinking of highlighting the stages that have been achieved, thus leaving blanks so I can see the ares I can work on for next steps...

[Cammie Doodle]

Hi Emma , where did you download it from? I would like to look at it before I reply to see if I have understood it right
June

[EmmaReed84]

I can't remember where I got the original word doc from, but the numbers in blue and the first page are what I did... (ignore the 24th in DOB... Forgot to delete that lol)

[Ballette]

I can't remember where I got the original word doc from, but the numbers in blue and the first page are what I did... (ignore the 24th in DOB... Forgot to delete that lol)

Sounds like a simple way to reference Obs Emma.......I was watching this thread hoping you'd get more of a response :rolleyes:

[sarah707]

Remember that the Development Matters statements are a GUIDE to child development only.

They cannot tell you everything a child says or does and they are not meant to be ticked off.

You can date them when you have observed a child doing or saying something and you can refer to them in your observations but you are going to give yourself a lot of work if you are trying to reference each one.

Try instead to see them as an overview of what might be happening and prompts to help you and guide you as you observe, assess and plan.

Hth :D

[Cammie Doodle]

Hi Emma, sorry for delay, been working on getting some profiles up to date :rolleyes: We are away at the weekend so thought I would do a little each night, so come Sept I will ready to change over to Revised EYFS . Like the look of these downloaded sheets, think they are good guidelines, but not sure they would work on their own iykwim ?

[bunyip]

The official line is: "not to be used as a tick list."

Perhaps the practical approach is "not merely to be used as a tick list" ???

Thanks for posting the document - looks like a good tool for cross-referencing development with observations, and for parental reviews. :)

[EmmaReed84]

I have kind of doing it a bit, practice to see if it will work or not... Not really intending to use it as a tick list IYSWIM. It is so hard to explain in writing.

But basically say for instance I have done an ob, I can see certain things a child IS doing, I can cross reference it and say if I have several obs which have the same cross reference on it, it would be safe to say the child has met that development so to speak so I can then highlight it....

With a view to have most things on there highlighted, leaving blanks areas I can work on... So again I have kind of been practicing. And going over some points I can see that I can work on PD with her...

Not sure if I am making sense without actually physically showing someone what I mean lol....

I would obviously not use it and say "L should be doing X, Y or Z by now, more helping me to help her.

[bunyip]

Yup, that makes sense and tallies closely with what I'm doing

:idea: Thinks - maybe I should stop ticking and start highlighting? :idea:

[EmmaReed84]

Yup, that makes sense and tallies closely with what I'm doing

:idea: Thinks - maybe I should stop ticking and start highlighting? :idea:

Then no can say you are using it as a "tick list" you can say it "highlights areas achieved thus showing areas needing improvement" :laughing:

[jumpinjen]

Emma, I use the phrasing in my observations, so for example, as part of an observation, I saw my baby mindee persistently trying to look into abox that I had put the lid on or put away and trying to pull the lid off, I could say something like "this shows that x has a strong exploratory impulse (C&L)" I have then linked my observation to the dev matters without it being time consuming, and when I review every three months where they are at and highlight the things that I think they have achieved, it is really easy to do because I've got the statement already in my obs. I think it helps parents to see where it links in to, if they want to, and shows that you are evaluating. It helps you get to know the statements really well as well and I found with the last lot of dev matters that I was well-versed in them pretty quickly doing it this way! I copied and pasted all the statements into a table on one page for each 'age band' and have them stuck into my LJ's so really easy to flick back to to look at the statements and show progression - I use a different colour highlighter every three months, July's was green, October's will be blue, so easy for Oftsed to see LO making progress too - have I explained that OK?

Jen x

[mum24]

There are some really good ideas on this thread to help get organised for September. I am hoping though that after all the hard work in the EYFS, we don't really have to change too much. I was only just getting comfortable with the way I was doing things....:rolleyes:

[Helcatt]

Sounds similar to the way I do things, I highlight areas that they are achieving and then it makes it easy to see areas that they are not, or maybe I ahve just not observed, therefore, I can easily see which areas I should aim to cover in my next week/month/term of planning

HX