IN SAFE HANDS.
(training pack plus video).
By Tina Hyder and Jill Rudder.
(Save the Children in association with the Refugee Council; from Plymbridge Distributors, 20 plus 2.50 p&p, tel:01752 202301) Reviewed by Alice Sharp, Scottish Independent Nurseries Association early years executive
This is an excellent resource and training pack to support work with young refugee children. Each section offers extensive background information, reflective accounts and discussion points, as well as references and further reading suggestions.
Part one describes how early years settings and schools can offer appropriate positive and valuable support to refugee children and their families. Superb video footage supports this through examples of good practice. Through personal reflective statements we are shown a little of the horrors of the past for the children. However, rightly, the main emphasis is on the future and the safety, empathy and trust needed to enable these children and their families to have hope of a positive future. It stresses the need to support family and community in order to allow the children to flourish.
Part two looks at practical issues. It considers ways to welcome new arrivals and the need to offer easy access to a range of essential services. The importance is highlighted of maintaining refugee children's language and self-identity through promoting a national literacy strategy, play experiences and art therapy. The video reflects how this has enabled children to come to terms with the past by acknowledging their feelings and experiences. The two main projects it highlights are inspirational.
The pack also offers guidance on anti-racist practice as a way to raise self-esteem.
An extensive set of training exercises is included, making this an excellent resource.
TWO-WAY STREET(handbook and video).
By Ruth Marchant and Ro Gordon.
(Produced by Triangle and the NSPCC supported by Joseph Rowntree.
Foundation, 55, tel: 0116 234 7223)
Reviewed by Collette Drifte, special needs consultant
Everybody who works with children with communication difficulties will find this handbook and video set useful.
The handbook is short, easy to read and well presented. It is packed with clear illustrations and photographs along with sound, practical suggestions.
The 25-minute-long video features real children and professionals. The early years practitioner viewing it for the first time may question its relevance, since most children in the film are older, but the philosophy behind the making of the video and the advice it offers are just as relevant to very young children and their educators.
Practitioners working for the first time with special needs children will find this package a useful way to begin their reading and preparation.
ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD SETTINGS: LEARNING STORIES.
By Margaret Carr.
(Paul Chapman Publishing, 16.99, tel:020 7330 1234).
Reviewed by Marian Whitehead, language and early years consultant
This is an inspiring book from bi-lingual, bi-cultural New Zealand about revolutionising the assessment of young children's learning and progress. It is a challenging read but worth the effort. The research is illustrated with stories of children, families and practitioners.
At the heart of this fascinating account is the idea that appropriate assessment in the early years is a matter of recording, telling and developing children's individual 'learning stories'.
The author describes the crucial shift required of practitioners from traditional ways of assessing children's learning (checking their knowledge against pre-determined lists of skills) to an alternative model focused on learners and their learning dispositions.
There are chapters on the five domains of learning dispositions studied by the New Zealand practitioners and researchers, which are:
* taking an interest;
* being involved;
* persisting with difficulty or uncertainty;
* communicating with others;
* taking responsibility.
This approach has evolved an assessment framework called 'learning stories' and the main procedures, 'describing', 'discussing', 'documenting' and 'deciding', are explained by the children, practitioners and families in five early childhood settings in New Zealand. I hope this book inspires UK practitioners to set out on learning story journeys.
LISTENING TO YOUNG CHILDREN: The Mosaic Approach.
By Alison Clark and Peter Moss.
(National Children's Bureau, 11.95 non-members; 8.95 NCB members, tel:020 7843 6028/29).
Reviewed by Jenefer Joseph, consultant in early childhood education Many adults, during day-to-day conversations, are not good at listening to each other. Reflecting on the approaches in this book, it occurred to me that this may start from poor listening approaches in childhood.
A quote from Janusz Korczak at the start sums up much of what lies behind the 'mosaic' approach to truly listening to children, 'If we are constantly astonished at the child's perceptiveness, it means that we do not take them seriously.'
The mosaic approach recognises that young children, whose verbal facility is not yet well developed, have many other ways to make themselves heard, and it is up to us to offer them the opportunities to exploit these. A multi-method approach includes opportunities for children to use cameras, draw and paint, map and model, indulge in music, drama and puppetry, and so on. As a result, we can come closer to understanding 'lives lived', rather than merely focusing on knowledge gained.
The framework for listening which the authors devised also involved being reflexive - meaning that listening is an active process, 'involving not just hearing, but interpreting, constructing meaning and responding'.
Despite the challenges and time commitment involved, the mosaic approach is worth taking on board. With luck, the children will become the next generation of adults who do, finally, listen to each other.
