Nursery World - Inside story

Showing pre-school children what is inside the body helps them to make connections about how it works, says Alison Tonkin The part of a child's body that is visible provides valuable learning opportunities when it comes to helping children look after themselves.

The part of a child's body that is visible provides valuable learning opportunities when it comes to helping children look after themselves.

However, with today's focus on child health, it is interesting that what lies inside the body is rarely covered.

Offering pre-school children an opportunity to see what lies inside the body can help them make connections between healthy activities and the effect these have on their bodies.

Some people have reservations about introducing pre-school children to the names and positions of the internal organs. The insides of an object that cannot be seen are often considered abstract concepts, beyond the understanding of young children. Piaget suggested children have a limited ability to reason about unobservable features or things they cannot see (Howe, 1996) and this contributes to the impression that children under the age of seven years are not capable of engaging with such information (Health Education Authority, 1990).

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