The free to access support has been published under the Education Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) Early Years Evidence Store, an online library of evidence-informed guidance to support practitioners.
The Store was developed as part of the EEF’s work supporting the Department for Education’s Stronger Practice Hubs.
The guidance on supporting young children’s executive function and self-regulation highlights five approaches that practitioner can include within their practice, they are:
- Creating and navigating challenge.
- Teaching self-monitoring and self-awareness.
- Creating a community of collaborative learners.
- Promoting physical activity.
- Promoting talk about learning (coming soon).
It explains specific strategies and within each approach, such as explicitly summarising how children are progressing towards a common goal during group play to support their collaboration skills, or encouraging children to create hypothetical ‘Imagine if….’ Scenarios to extend and challenge them.
Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), said, ‘We want early years professionals to feel empowered to use education evidence to their advantage, so that they can make informed choices about the strategies they adopt in their practice.
‘This resource is designed to demystify what the evidence suggests could be effective in accelerating young children’s early development. We hope it helps early years educators to reflect on their practice and make meaningful changes with confidence.’
