Children’s Holistic Development from Birth to Nineteen Years

✅ Paper Type: Free Essay	✅ Subject: Childcare
✅ Wordcount: 8762 words	✅ Published: 10th Aug 2021

Reference this

Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit LinkedIn WhatsApp

1.1 Describe milestones in children’s holistic development from birth to nineteen years.

Birth to one year:

Babies will start to become aware of what is happening around them. They will be aware of sensations such as hunger and will start to recognise their carers and will respond to physical stimuli such as smiles. they will also start to make simple associations such as recognising the soothing voice of a parent or their feeding and sleeping routines. Babies will start to understand the tone of voice and a few key words such as mama and dada. They will start interacting with adults by looking and listening, and by vocalising through gurgling or cooing at people they recognise. They will understand simple language and recognise their own name.

One to 3 years:

Babies can move around by crawling or shuffling when they are between the ages of one and two. Some may be able to stand with support whereas a few may be able to go even further and walk alone. They will be able to sit without any help and feed themselves with their fingers. They can use their hands skilfully to move and arrange objects and they will also drop things on the floor to look and see where it is. They will communicate by babbling and say two syllable words like mama. Babies will know who their main carers are and cry if they are left with someone they are not familiar with.

3 to 4 years

by their third birthday children can start doing more. They will be able to run, climb and pedal a bike. They will be able to walk upstairs on alternate feet and tiptoe. This is the age where they will begin to speak clearly so that anyone can understand them. They will be able to use the toilet by themselves, tell the difference between boys and girls and sometimes play co-operatively with other children. children will also be able to build towers and bridges with bricks, undo buttons and thread beads and, enjoy playing role play and dressing up. They will enjoy books, painting and copying and helping adults. Children will also have fewer temper tantrums. They will also be able to understand the difference of past and present and complete simple puzzles. They can recognise and name primary colours, understand what is meant by more and can tell whether an object is light or heavy.

4 to 5 years:

Children will be able to run and avoid obstacles, skip with a rope, throw a large ball to a partner and catch it. They will have good balance and coordination which will lead them to going up and down a stairs one foot at a time. Children will also be able to form letters, write the own name, colour in pictures and thread small beads. They will be able to count accurately up to 10 and able to add two sets of objects together. Can understand the need for rules, name the time of day associated with activities and give reasons to solve problems. They will be able to count accurately up to 10, uses complex sentences with words such as ‘because’, talk about what has happened and what might happen, and use language to argue and answer back. They will be able to tell stories and enjoy jokes.

Seven to 12 years:

By the time they are seven, children will be able to throw, kick and control a ball, hope and ride a bike. They will be able to use their hands to thread, use scissors well, build models, write clearly and draw with meaning and detail. They take turns and play co-operatively with friends, tell jokes and enjoy conversations. Children will be able to understand rules, read and enjoy books, dress themselves and have best friends. They will start to show preference for certain activities and will start developing personal hobbies and interests. Early puberty occurs towards the later stage of these years for girls whereas boys are more likely to start during the next stage.

12 to 16 years:

Both girls and boys will be developing, maturing and growing stronger. Boys will have started going through puberty and most girls will have completed puberty and have started their periods. Variations of size, height, strength and overall appearance in young people will differ drastically during this age. Self-esteem will be fragile and young people may be vulnerable. Their emotions will be all over the place, so support is needed from adults.

16 to 19 years:

Young people will be classed as adults and girls will have reached their physical maturity whereas boys will continue to grow until they reach their mid-20s. guidance and support will still be needed during this stage.

(Ref: “Understanding children’s development”, 2019; “Child development from…”, 2019; Online Learning College, 2019).

2.1 Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of biological factors.

Biological factors include genetic influences, brain chemistry, hormone levels, nutrition and gender (Haddad, 2019). These can all influence the development of children and young people.

There are many hormones the influence the way that children develop. For example, the pituitary gland hormone is necessary for growth in children. without the hormone, dwarfism will be the result. The thyroid gland is located in the neck and is needed for normal growth. Without it, cells do not develop and function properly which is a dangerous for the brain. Babies that lack the hormone at birth are small and have inadequately developed brains. If the condition is dealt with as soon as possible then they can make a speedy recovery but if not, brain damage will be permanent. Lack of thyroid develop in later childhood which causes growth rate to be slow and treatment here should also be given as soon as possible. Testosterone is another hormone which is important during puberty but also before as well. The secretion of the foetal testis is responsible for the development of certain aspects of the male genitals. A high amount of testosterone is secreted in large amounts which causes the changes males experience during puberty. Oestrogen, the female sex hormones, are secreted firstly in large amounts at puberty by cells in the ovary. These hormones cause growth of the uterus, vagina, breast and cause the bones in the hips to widen. Some children develop all changes of puberty at an early age because of either a result of a brain lesion or an isolated developmental genetic defect (“Hormones and growth”, 2019).

Get Help With Your Essay

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!
Find out more about our Essay Writing Service

Differences between boys and girls can be seen in their development. In terms of sensory and cognitive development, girls are more advanced than boys. Their vision, hearing, smell, memory and touch are more intense in baby girls than they are in baby boys. Furthermore, they also tend to be more responsive to human voices or faces and will cry in response to another baby crying. Girls also are more likely to have the emergence of fine motor and language skills before boys. However, this is not to say that boys do not catch up because they eventually do. By the age of three, boys outperform girls in the cognitive area of visual-spatial integration which involves, navigation, assembling jigsaw puzzles and hand-eye coordination. Boys also tend to perform better than girls on tasks like mental rotation compared with girls who perform better than boys at verbal tasks and at identifying emotional expression in another person’s face. Therefore, it is important to balance by working with the child to help the areas they are more likely to lack in. For example, boys are more likely to have delays in their language because they do not converse with boys the same as they do with boys so engaging boys in more conversation and word play can help develop their language skills. With girls, they should be encouraged with activities that stimulates the visual spatial integration such as doing jigsaw puzzles or playing with building blocks (“Are there any…”, 2019).

Another factor is nutrition. Nutrition is said to be the greatest influence on babies in the womb and during their infancy. In order to have a normal rain development, a balance of nutrients is extremely important during these periods. If the baby is not receiving nutrients such as iron and iodine, then in can impair the cognitive and motor development which effects are irreversible in most cases (“Nutrition and early…”, 2011). This means that babies will not be able to use their muscles properly to be able to do things like walk, crawl, run, balance themselves etc (Caton, 2015). this, along with the lack of cognitive develop which impacts the way they think, explore and figure things out, puts them at an extreme disadvantage because they will not be able to learn and develop the way that other babies/children are (“What is cognitive development”, 2019). It is important to note that the effects of nutrient shortages depend on the extent and how long the baby/child is not receiving them. This is because the brain’s need for a specific nutrient change throughout its development. For instance, during the beginning stage of life, shortages in specific nutrients can mean a reduction in cell production whereas shortages later impact cell size and complexity (“Nutrition and early…”, 2011).

2.2 Explain how children and young people’s development is influenced by a range of external factors.

The development of children can impact in many ways which can start when they are children or older. It is worth noting that a range of external factors can influence their development such as poverty, family life, learning difficulties, diet, culture and many more factors.

The development of a child can be influenced by poverty. By experiencing poverty, this may impact all areas of development. Even if it does not impact all areas, it will still have a negative effect on their development. For example, their social development may be impacted because of lack of funds. If the parents of the child do not have much money to let their child attend early years setting, then they will miss out on learning new things and socialising with other children. furthermore, it is likely that the level of education of the parents may be low or if the parents are working all the time, then the child might not be getting the social interaction they need from them. Another area of development that may be affected is their language. Their language development may take longer to develop because they do not have the resources to help develop these such as books or going out on activities (“Child Development…”, 2019). Poverty can also have an impact on their mental health. Those living in poverty are at a higher risk of developing mental health problems. This is because children may feel like they are failures in comparison to their peers who may be going on trips and are able to get resources from their parents. The result of this could lead to bullying which can have a detrimental impact on their social and emotional development (“What are the effects…”, 2019).

Sensory impairment impacts a child’s development as those who have MSI suffer from vision and hearing loss. This can either be present at the time of both or happen later in life. This impacts development in various ways. Firstly, having impaired vision means that children with MSI have a disadvantage when it comes to interpersonal skills. Non-verbal communication makes up 80% of communication so not being able to see facial expressions puts them at a disadvantage. The lack of vision also puts them at a disadvantage because it leads to restricted mobility. Children who are following through the typical development of a child use vision as a motivator for crawling and getting things they want (Dunlop, 2019).

The child’s diet also has an impact on their development. Under-nutrition and over-nutrition both have consequences and are both deficiency diseases cause by inadequate nutrition. By the child experiencing under-nutrition leads to less energy which in turn means less interest in learning because they are not getting the nutrients their bodies need. This negatively influences cognitive development and academic performance. As well as an impact of cognitive development, under-nutrition also has an impact on their physical development and maturation. This leads to affecting their growth rate, body weight and height. Obesity impacts child development which can impact them later on in life also. A child suffering from obesity can impact their confidence and competence during physical activity which hinders their growth and development (“Nutrition and health...” 2016).

Learning difficulties are another factor that impacts development. Having a learning disability impacts the way a child or young person learns new things through the way they understand information and how they communicate (“Learning disabilities”, 2019). These difficulties can either be verbal such as difficulty with spoken and written words or non-verbal which is difficulty with the act of writing as the brain is struggling to coordinate the tasks that are happening simultaneously. They also have difficulty processing what they see and in understanding abstract concepts (“Learning difficulties”, 2017). This can also be influenced by their family life. Sometimes parents do not have time to spend with their children or do not stimulate them they way they are supposed to so children may be behind in their language development.

Another external factor is maternal depression which can impact a child’s development. Symptoms of this are sleep disturbances, feeling guilty ands loss of interest in daily activities. Depressed mothers are more likely to spend less time touching and talking to their babies, and the interactions they share with their babies tend to be more negative. This can impact development during all stages of life (“A child’s early home..”, 2013). For instance, during infancy mothers who are withdrawn do not interact with their child, unresponsive and do little to support their infant’s activity may cause infants to develop passivity, withdrawal and self-regulatory behaviours such as looking away from the mother or sucking their thumb. Through the lack of interaction between the mother and the infant, it causes the infant’s negative affect to interfere with their learning and the way they process information. School aged children who have mothers with depression are more at higher risk of psychopathology which impacts their development. Furthermore, academically, a child’s or young person’s development is also impacted by those whose mothers were depressed after three months of giving birth. For example, those who with special education needs were more likely to come from a mother who suffers/suffered with depression. Due to their attentional problems and difficulties in mathematical reasoning, their level of IQ was lower than those whose mothers did not have depression (“Maternal depression…”, 2004).

Health problems of the child or young person is another factor that will influence their development. Health related issues can include cystic fibrosis, diabetes, arthritis, eczema and asthma. There has been a link between a child’s health and attendance and also their academic achievement (“How health affects…”, 2004). They are at risk of missing schools because of their condition or because of the progression of the illness (“School attendance, chronic…” 2016). Those who miss school because of their chronic illness are more likely to be bullied, have learning support in school and have a psychiatric disorder. This means that areas of their development such as social, emotional, and cognitive development are all impacted due to their health problems (Eves, 2019). A child may be bullied because of their illness which can have a detrimental effect on their mental wellbeing. children or young person could have a sense of worthlessness which can make them miss even more school because they may start missing school to no longer deal with the bullying. Children and young people may also suffer from poor academic results which would be due to the lack education they are receiving because of missing school to attend their appointments.

2.3 Explain how theories of development and educational frameworks influence current practice.

There are many psychological theories that explain the development of how children change and grow. These theories focus on aspects such as social, emotional and cognitive growth (“Child development theories…”, 2019).

The behaviourist approach sees human behaviour as the result of environmental influences. These theorists hold the view that learning occurs through processes of association and reinforcement (“Child development theories…”, 2019). This means that development is a reaction to rewards, punishments, stimuli and reinforcement. The reward and punishments are what are used so that a behaviour is either reinforced positively or negatively.
The behaviourist approach influences work in schools through the key principles of reward and punishment. The teacher should clearly identify a target action or performance that the class is to learn and break down the task into simple achievable steps where each step increases in complexity. As the children perform each step, they should be praised so that there is reinforcement for the correct actions. Each step should be adjusted so that the child is consistently successful until the final goal is achieved and this is where the switch to occasional reinforcement should happen so that their performance is still maintained (“Child development theories”, 2019). The rewards can be seen in primary schools with reward charts such as getting a sticker which reinforces the act of good behaviour for the child. teachers should also reinforce a behaviour immediate after is occurs because the association between a behaviour and the reward is at its strongest at this point. For example, if a child helps another student with a task then the teacher could say something along the lines of “well done! That is very nice of you to help him/her.” It is also beneficial to reward each step of a behaviour before the child or young person gets to the complete behaviour. For instance, when solving a maths problem with the class, instead of waiting to praise them when they have the final answer, they should be praised for each step they do correctly to get to the answer. This, however, should then decrease after a while. It will get to the point where students cannot be praised for every little thing they do so teachers should shift to partial reinforcement. (“Operant conditioning…”, 2019).

Piaget offers a theory based on the development of a person’s thought processes. He noted how these thought processes influence how we understand and interact with the world whilst also stating the fact that children think differently than adults do. His theory is purely about the cognitive development which states the steps and sequences that children take in their intellectual development. There are four stages which are (Cherry, 2019):

- The sensorimotor stage: the time between birth and age two where an infant’s knowledge of the world is limited to their sensory motor activities. Behaviours are limited to simple motor responses caused by sensory stimuli.

- The preoperational stage: the time between ages 2 and 6 where a child learns to use language. However, they do not understand concrete logic yet, they cannot mentally manipulate information and are also unable to understand the viewpoint of others.

- The concrete operational stage: the time between ages 7 and 11 where children fain a better understanding of mental operation. They begin thinking more logically about concrete events, but they do, however, have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.

- The formal operation stage: the time between age 12 unto adulthood where people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts. Skills such as logical thought, deductive reasoning, and systematic planning are developed during this stage.

This theory had a huge impact on education. Education is based on the view that children should be taught at the level for which they are developmentally prepared for. So, for example, a child in year 2 would not be doing the same level of work as someone in year 6 because their level of understanding is completely different. There have also been various strategies that been derived from Piaget’s work. These strategies include providing a supportive environment, utilising social interactions and peer teaching, and helping children see mistakes and inconsistencies in their thinking (Cherry, 2019). He was also influential in the change of educational policy for primary school aged children. Thus, there was a shift from talking at children about subjects to a shift of allowing them to be more actively involved and learning by doing and exploring. Children should be provided with opportunities to discuss and debate with each other, so they do not just accept things for the way they are. Therefore, children should be allowed to make mistakes so that they can learn from them. When children are learning, in order to check their level of understanding, Piaget stated that their progress should be measured against their previous level of development. So, for example, instead of holding children against the national standard, or comparing them to their peers, they should be looking at their own personal development. If a child previously did not know the 4,5 and 6 times tables and learnt it or moved up a reading stage then this is how their level of development should be measured. They should not be compared to the rate of development of other children because children and young people learn things at different rates ((Piaget’s influence on…” 2016).

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory that believes children learn actively and through hands on experiences. He states that parents, caregivers, peers and culture are responsible for developing their higher order functions. Thus, learning is social process. By interacting with others, learning becomes integrated into an individual’s understanding of the world. Vygotsky proposed the concept of the zone of proximal development. This concept refers to the distance between what an individual can do with help and what they can do on their own. It therefore includes all of the knowledge and skills that a person will not be able to understand or perform on their own but is capable of learning with help. Children are learning everyday so by having their skills and knowledge developed through observing someone more advanced than they are, this will enable their zone of proximal development to extend.
In the educational setting, his theory has proved helpful because of his idea on the zone of proximal development. Teachers can assess students first and foremost to see their current level of skill. Then they can offer instruction that stretches the limits of each child and young person. Of course, the student may need assistance if they are doing something for the first time through the help of an adult or a peer, but their zone of proximal development will expand. Teachers might organise their class into groups where less skilled children are paired with students who have a higher skill level so that the less skilled children are learning from a peer who may help them understand better. If a child or young person does not understand something, then prompts such as hints and direct instruction can be used to help improve their level of ability.
As well as using the theory in the classroom, it is also important part of play in learning. Vygotsky emphasised the importance of play in learning because he believed that children have great imagination when it comes to play so by doing this, they would be able to stretch their conceptual abilities and knowledge of the world. Therefore, teachers and parents should provide many opportunities for children to play through imaginary play, role-playing, games etc. These will help to develop their ability of abstract thought (Cherry, 2019).

Bruner followed on from Vygotsky’s notion of zone of proximal development and developed his own theory of scaffolding. He believed that when children are learning new concepts, they need help from those more knowledgeable than them such as their teachers and other adults in the form of active support. Children are dependent on support from adults when they are learning things for the first time, but they then start to become more independent in their thinking and acquire new skills and knowledge thus the support can slowly go away.
This theory has influenced the way in which teachers approach their students. For example, it is important for teachers to give many chances for children to always new learn things. Some of the opportunities may be difficult and will require more tailored made support for each student. It is therefore important for teachers to take into account the level of development of each child and provide scaffolding that is appropriate for them. Of course, teachers do have many children under there care so scaffolding through other support is vital. This can be through the use of teaching assistants as they can help a child to reach their full potential with their one-to-one or small group support. When children start to become more confident in their own ability and start understanding situations by themselves, teachers can place them in groups which can extend their learning even further. Teachers should also be able to recognise when a child has reached the point where they can learn independently because this will mean they can be released from the scaffolding (“Learning theories…”, 2017).

Bandura’s social learning theory proposed that behaviours can be learned through observation and modelling. Observing actions from people like parents and peers, the child will develop new skills and acquire new information. The child or young person will only model behaviour under specific circumstances. One circumstance is that they will imitate behaviour from those who they deem similar to themselves. For example, gender and age can influence this. A young girl may model behaviour similar from other girls/women. The response from the people around the child will then elicit a response that will either reinforce or punish this behaviour. if the consequence is a positive one then then child is more likely to repeat this behaviour. for example, if a student is praised for comforting another student and the teacher sees this, then they will repeat this again because the reward was being praised. When it comes to imitating others, the child will have to see what the consequences are for the person they are observing before they decide to imitate it or not and this is how learning happens (McLeod, 2016).

The importance of this in the learning environment is that children and young people need positive models for children and young people to learn from. As learning is done through modelling, this will be how children learn how to talk and behave. In order how to learn how to communicate, babies will model what their parents or other family member. When babies start to babble and say “mama” or “dada” they will receive instant praise like clapping or affection which will make them more likely to repeat this behaviour. In schools this can be seen through the curriculum as teachers are the models that the children will copy to learn new concepts and ideas (Observational learning, 2011). For example, in maths, the teacher will demonstrate how to solve an equation. They may then do it as a whole class so the teacher can see if they understood what needed to be done and then they will do it by themselves in their books. However, these goals should be realistic. Children and young people may not get something straight away so to expect this from them would knock their confidence. Instead, by setting realistic goals by allowing them to master the basics first and foremost, they will be able to master more complex skills. Therefore, it is important to motivate students through rewards. By positively reinforcing them for displaying the correct behaviour they will be more likely to repeat those behaviours again. Thus, this will lead to children and young people repeating those behaviours again on their own without any promoting. Allowing students to reach realistic goals and giving them genuine praises, this will enhance their self-efficacy. Children and young people will view themselves as more competent which will increase their confidence and allow them to be more successful in their behaviour in the future. This will result in students being able to self-regulate their own behaviour because they will know what is right and wrong, what they should or not do and what is expected of them (Jens, 2019).

3.1 Explain how to monitor children and young people’s development using different methods.

Children’s and young people’s development can be recorded using either informal or formal methods. A formal observation is one that has been planned out for a specific reason whereas an informal one is opportunistic.

One method can be through checklists. This is where the observer focuses on one aspect of development. Such a method is beneficial because the observer can do this with multiple children at a given time and it can be repeated. For example, the checklist could include developments such as “can say dada or mama”, “can wave bye”, “can pick objects up” etc. However, there are disadvantages to this method are that if another person were to do the same observation, they may get different results which means it may lack validity. Also, by focusing on skills the child is showing, it may miss out on other factors as they are not looking for anything else apart from what is on the checklist. Furthermore, if a child does not succeed in a task or ticking off an aspect of their development then they may feel like they have failed which will knock their confidence.

Another method is written records/snapshot observations. These provide a brief description of what a child is doing during a particular time span. For example, if a member of staff was observing a child then they would note it down like this “Claire is colouring with Lily. Claire asks Lily if she can use the green crayon and Lily replies with a yes. Both Claire and Lily are discussing what they are drawing, and Lily says to Claire ‘your picture is pretty.” This shows how multiple children can be observed at once. By using this method, it allows the observer to record multiple aspects of the child’s development, but this would mean the observer would have to be able to write quickly in order to take note of all the observations seen which means some information could be missed.

Time samples is another method that can be used and is a form of observation that takes place at different times during the day over a period of time. This is to give an overall picture of what the child is doing and how they are developing which can happen during the morning or the afternoon. This will state the time, the activity, who the child is socialising with and any comments. For example:

- Time: 12:15

- Activity: Dinner time

- Social group: George, Harry, Sarah and Amy

- Comments: George is eating his crisps after he asked the teacher to help him open the packet for him. He is talking to Harry, Sarah and Amy about a TV programme that was on TV last night and they are all laughing about it. Harry asks George if he can open his snack for him, but George asks the teacher for Harry instead.

- Time: 13:00

- Activity: Outdoor play

- Social group: George and Harry

- Comments: George and Harry are playing by the sandpit. Harry wants the bucket but George does not give it to him. Harry starts crying and George gives it to him. Harry says thank you to George and they carry on playing with the sand and making George asks Harry if he likes his sandcastle. Harry replies with ‘yes’.

This gives an idea of how the children socialises, who they socialise with and if they find it difficult or not. It also gives an idea of how they communicate and how well they communicate are examples of what can be observed. However, time sampling is, as the name states, time specific. Thus, whatever happens outside the time slots will not be recorded which means some areas of development may not be included because they do not fit into the time slots.

Event sampling is another method which is used to look at how often and in what circumstances the student displays a particular behaviour. When the student shows the behaviour, this will be filled out and described on the sheet by the observer. The advantages of this method is that it can be used by more than one observer. This method can also be used to look at unwanted behaviour such as a child being aggressive. If a member of staff is looking for any unwanted behaviour then this is an important method of observation because it will detail the time, what was observed and any additional comments. Staff can then understand what triggers a child or young person and how to avoid these in the future using this method.

These methods of observations can be done through different types of observation. These types of observations include naturalistic, structured, longitudinal and snapshot. Naturalistic observations happen when they child or young person is in their usual surrounding so the member of staff can get the most realistic observations from them so they can view their development. If a child was taken elsewhere then this may hinder the observations because they will not act like they usually do. By doing it in their normal environment it will allow the staff member to view a more realistic angle of their development without the observer altering their behaviour in any way. For example, if you wanted to see how a child is with socialising with their peers, then instead of setting up an activity for that, you can observe them in the classroom or during playtime because this is the most realistic type of data you could get on their development.

Structured observation is when the observer is full control of the set up which is the opposite of naturalistic observation. This method allows the observer to observe the specific development area that they want to view. For example, if the observer check student’s cognitive development then they can set up a task the specifically deals with that and observe them to see how they are doing in this developmental area.

Longitudinal observation takes place over a long period time which can be used to see their progress over the years and how they are developing. This is essentially done in all schools because all students are given reports every year and parents can see how their child is developing, how good they are doing in each subject and how they are behaving. Longitudinal observations will allow all adults in their lives to see the important milestones and achievements in their lives that the child or young person reaches.

Snapshot observations refer to observing student’s during a time frame. For example, this can be used when children are told to get into pairs. If a child has difficulty picking someone to pair up with then teachers can make the decision of whether to pick for the students instead so no one feels left out and to help children socialise more with those outside their friendship groups.

It should also be noted that all observations have a information that is essential to be included on the forms. this information should be the child’s name and age, the date and time the observation was carried out., the activity the child was involved in, the number, ages and gender of the other children if they were involved and the name of the person carrying out the observation.

(Ref: “Understanding children’s development, 2019; Online Learning College, 2019).

3.2 Identify how other professionals and different types of interventions can promote positive outcomes for children and young people where development is not following the expected pattern.

Speech and language therapist:

These professionals provide treatments that can be life-changing for the recipient. They will help children and young people with learning difficulties to communicate with others as well as helping children with physical disabilities, language delays, hearing impairment, dyslexia, stammering amongst other developmental issues (Speech and language therapist, 2019). Speech therapists can use interventions such as language intervention activities, articulation therapy or oral-motor/feeding and swallowing therapy. These will help the child overcome any difficulties with issues they have. For example, using language intervention activities is done through playing and talking, using pictures, books, objects, or ongoing events that should help to stimulate language development. They may also model the correct vocabulary and grammar by using repetition exercises to build language skills (Speech-language therapy, 2015).

Social worker:

Social workers intervene in many ways to help children and young people. As well as helping children, they also help their families as well. If a child or young person is in a family where there is abuse or serious mental or physical illness, they will help parents find a means to help their issues so that their child can return home or stay home. However, if this is not appropriate to do so then they will help children or young people find another place to stay. If there has been abuse, then they will help to provide support and therapy to the child or young person so that they learn how to process their trauma. As well as helping in environments, they also help in schools as well. Social workers will assess and advise children and young people who are experiencing stress, acting out, being bullied and may conduct groups that work towards prevention (Child, family and…” 2019).

Psychologist:

If a child is born with a condition, then it may mean they have learning difficulties, or it could be evident from an early age that the child/young person needs extra help to learn or develop. Psychologists will work in partnership with families and other professionals to help the child or young person achieve their full potential. They will state if there are any teaching approaches that should be used for the child or young person, improvements to the learning environment, advice on the curriculum materials and behaviour support (“What’s their role…” 2017).

Psychiatrist:

These professionals will do intervention with children and young people through cognitive behaviour therapy as it allows the child/young person to look at how they think and feel about particular situations in order to see how it might influence their behaviour. They treat a range of mental health issues and conditions and using CBT can help to change unhelpful thinking patterns and behaviours (Child and adolescent psychiatry, 2019).

Physiotherapist:

They will provide physiotherapy that is aimed at helping children to develop and maintain their mobility skills, joint range of movement, muscle, and motor skills. Physiotherapists will give advice to schools and teachers on what activities to do with students to help improve their access to the curriculum. They will also do training alongside teaching assistants to carry out the physiotherapy programme and they will provide equipment that allows the child/young person to be mobile (“Children’s physiotherapy…”, 2018).

Additional learning support:

This is given to those who need more or different to support than what is normally provided to those of the same age. In order to provide to the child with the right intervention then the needs of the child or young person need to be identified first and foremost. The extra support received will then take place in the form of short bursts of intensive work whether it be 1 to 1 or in a group, extra time to complete work, using special equipment and working with a child on a learning programme amongst other strategies (“What is additional support…”, 2019).

Health visitor:

These professionals are vital in ensuring that children have the best start in life. This is done through providing ante-natal and post-natal support, supporting parents bring up their young children, providing advice on feeding babies and children, assessing growth and development needs of young children, supporting children with special needs, advising on behavioural management techniques, advising how to reduce risks and prevent accidents/reduce injuries (Health Visitor, 2019).

All the professionals are important in helping children and young people develop as best as they can in the circumstances, they are in. not everyone follow the “normal” way of developing but this does not mean they cannot be helped. These professionals are important in showing children and young people that they can still do what others are able to do given the right guidance and support.

References