The Neuroscience of the Developing Child: Self-Regulation for Wellbeing and a Sustainable Future by Mine Conkbayir
The author begins by telling the reader that this is a book ‘to dip into’. I totally agree that for a parent, worker or staff team, there is plenty of content to stimulate thinking and practice. There are a number of features to encourage learning: for example, learning intentions; reflective questions; top tips for practice; concluding thoughts; further reading; and a number of ‘case studies’ from practice. I particularly appreciated case studies from parents. I also appreciated knowing that the author herself has ADHD and, therefore, a deeper understanding from personal experience, of what this might mean to children at home and in settings.
I very quickly found myself identifying with many of Mine's values: for example, a dislike of any deficit talk about children and a definite disapproval of the use of extrinsic rewards and punishments to control children's behaviour.
Mine, very ably, draws on the brain research and gave me a greater understanding of why a child may ‘flip their lid’ when faced with a small change or the requirement to conform. The research from neuroscience, without being ‘watered down’ or simplified, is explained in terms I, as a lay person, can understand.
The theme of ‘self-regulation’ and what it means threads through the whole text and is the main topic in Chapter One. Self-regulation does not mean ‘compliance’ as one might deduce from the Early Learning Goals. Mine spends time explaining with sound examples how ‘co-regulation’ helps to build ‘self-regulation’.
She devotes Chapter Two to describing ‘co-regulation’, drawing extensively on the literature, and including ideas for the indoor and outdoor environments in settings.
Chapter Three is devoted to giving the reader a ‘whistle-stop tour of the brain’. I learned a great deal from this chapter, particularly in relation to teaching children about their brains and how they function.
Chapter Four's focus is ‘Sensory Integration’, and in this chapter I learned about the senses and sensory overload as well as ‘neurobiological understandings of autism’ and of ADHD. Chapter Five traces ‘behaviour management’ as it has developed in our schools and homes and offers a more child-friendly and sensitive ‘trauma informed’ relational approach to responding to children experiencing ‘fight or flight’ or ‘freezing’ responses.
The gold nugget for me is the ‘special gifts possessed by children with ADHD or on the Autistic Spectrum’, of which I was aware but will now promote much more often.
Putting the EYFS Curriculum into Practice by Julian Grenier and Caroline Vollans
This book would be very useful for anyone entering our profession; for keeping staff up to date on recent changes in the early years curriculum; and for staff groups reflecting on their approaches to the curriculum. A great deal of expertise has gone into this book.
The overarching message is that early years is not laissez-faire but that practitioners need to be highly skilled professionals in order to build on children's interests with knowledge of the curriculum.
I learned quite a bit from Chapter 5 by Lala Manners on ‘Physical Development’. I also appreciated the contributions of Liz Pemberton and Aaron Bradbury in Chapter 8 on ‘Understanding the World’. Chapter 5 was the only one where I saw a challenge to the EYFS document in terms of the ‘goals being too narrow and not very ambitious’ for physical development, which was refreshing because although we have a statutory framework, we all have specialisms and can ‘push the boundaries’ of knowledge and pedagogy.
For me, the ‘voices of children’ were not prominent enough. Although some chapters contained several case studies, there were no images, even on the cover. Some authors mentioned the role of parents, but in a rather minor way. I would have thought that involving parents is a critical aspect of early years pedagogy. However, the section on SEND very much draws on the expertise of parents.
I was surprised that ‘schemas’ were not referred to, even in the chapter on ‘Mathematics’ where the links were so obvious. Nor was Professor Ferre Laevers’ research on ‘emotional well-being and involvement’ mentioned. Both would have added depth.
Personally, I try not to use the term ‘modelling’ as I think teaching and learning is so much more complex than this would suggest, but this term was used by several of the authors. ‘Scaffolding up’ was a concept I had not come across. As someone who would probably have been labelled as ‘disadvantaged’, I felt that, across the book, this term was overused. In Alison Peacock's ‘Afterword’, she states we ‘must avoid a deficit model of education at all costs’, and ‘disadvantage’ frequently referred to could be a deficit label.
However, I loved the ‘Reflective Questions’ and all of the figures and tables.
The Neuroscience of the Developing Child: Self-Regulation for Wellbeing and a Sustainable Futureis published by Routledge, https://bit.ly/3S3CaD6
Putting the EYFS Curriculum into Practice is published by Sage, https://bit.ly/3mJ98gm
