Memorandum from YoungMinds (EY 60)
YoungMinds, the national children's mental health
charity, represents 22 professional organisations working in the
field of children's mental health. Amongst our members there is
widespread recognition that the experience of children in their
earliest years will not only affect their capacity to cope with
the developmental phases of childhood but will significantly determine
their mental health as an adult. We are therefore very concerned
about the nature of early years education.
We welcome the current focus on early years
education incorporated in the DfEE document on Early Learning
Goals. We hope our comments will be helpful to the Inquiry.
1. While broadly agreeing with the QCA early
learning goals and the need for well structured settings, we have
reservations about some aspects of the numeracy and literacy goals
and the impact that achieving them may have on the overall early
years educational environment.
2. We have concerns that the goals do not
include the issue of personal safety.
3. Early years settings must be closely
in tune with the developmental needs of young children.
4. The attitude of adults is the key to
successful early years education.
5. Early years provision must be resourced
to respond to the considerable emotional and developmental needs
of some young children.
6. Primary school reception classes are
not always an appropriate substitute for nursery schools.
7. Staff need training in child development,
children's mental health, and a personality sympathetic and responsive
to the needs of young children.
8. Staff need to be able to create an emotionally
healthy environment where positive relationships are modelled
between staff themselves, staff and children, and between parents
9. Assessment of early years settings should
focus on the quality of social interactions and learning processes
and not purely on the measurement of goals.
10. Consideration should be given to raising
the starting age of formal schooling on the basis of international
evidence which demonstrates its educational and social advantages.
1. The appropriate content of early years
1.1 As a children's mental health organisation
our main concern is that the content of early years education
is developmentally appropriate to the individual child and is
delivered in an appropriate style. The importance of play and
physical activity cannot be over estimated. Many young children
are over-stimulated by television, have too little physical exercisewhich
is important for mental as well as physical development, and have
insufficient direct adult attention.
1.2 We welcome the concept of "well-planned
play" if this means providing opportunities which maximise
creativity and allow play to progress with open-ended outcomes
which are determined by children themselves. We would have concerns
if it refers to a set of predestined learning experiences with
1.3 There are considerable risks attached
to requiring children to cope with the complex physical and mental
tasks of reading and writing before they are ready to do so.1
Experiences of failure can lead to a range of behavioural problems
as well as inhibiting later learning. This may be a contributory
factor in the gender differences which are apparent in learning
achievements where boys do not do as well as girls. Boys far out-number
girls in schools for those with behavioural difficulties2 Many
children, even those who are quite bright, are not reading confidently
until they are seven. While being entirely in favour of providing
stimulating, constructive environments for young children we must
guard against the strong possibility that the pressure on staff
to achieve the goals will be passed onto both children and parents
and skew the "curriculum".
The following are examples of early learning
goals which are likely to cause difficulties to a significant
proportion of children:
read a range of familiar and common
words and simple sentences independently;
write their own names and other things
such as labels and captions and begin to form simple sentences,
sometimes using punctuation. (Early Learning Goals, QCA)
1.4 Priority needs to be given to all aspects
of play, language and social development through a mainly oral
and aural approach which takes account of developmental needs.
The focus of teaching should be on pre-literacy and pre-numeracy
skills in order to provide a basis for formal education.3
1.5 Early years education should address
the issue of personal safetyon the roads, in the home,
in school and in dealing with unfamiliar adults.
1.6 Base-line assessments should help reception
teachers to set targets appropriate to the developmental stage
of individual children. They should help teachers to identify
gaps in pre-literacy and numeracy skills which may inhibit subsequent
learning. An overemphasis on numeracy and literacy may not be
2. The way in which early years education
2.1 Between the ages of three and five children
are involved in negotiating key developmental tasks. They need
to be able to separate confidently from their parents or carer
and to play both alone and with others in a way which increases
self-confidence. They need help to develop rather than being over
2.2 Children's ability to cope with early
years education will be a combination of their physical and emotional
readiness which will be heavily influenced by their home backgrounds.
For many, the early years setting will need to provide the kind
of caring, as well as stimulating, environment which they do not
receive at home. It is important to recognise the role of these
early educational experiences in providing a positive attitude
and a sense of self-confidence in learning. We recognise that
many children in the education system suffer from low expectations
by the adults around them and poor quality provision. However,
the pressures on staff which might be generated by the early learning
goals should not reduce the capacity of high calibre staff to
allow children to achieve a sense of self-development.
2.3 The attitude of staff is fundamental
to the quality of experience that a child will receive. Children
should not experience a sense of failure which can be instilled
all too easily. There is a danger that children can feel a sense
of humiliation at this age if they fail to manage particular tasks
or are unable to conform with their peers which can cause lasting
2.4 Supporting children in developing positive
relationships with those around them is key at this stage. Staff
need to be aware of the effect on children who are fearful of
their contemporaries, and also to consider why a child might be
behaving in a bullying or aggressive manner.
2.5 While the QCA document recognises that
children will be at different developmental stages it is not explicit
about the extent to which the home experiences of some will conflict
with the ethos of an early years setting. The quality of a child's
relationship with their parents or carer, ie their attachment,
is likely to affect their ability to cope with a new setting.
It may also complicate their relationships with their teachers
and peers. Some children will require far more support than others
and it is important that the educational system has both the capacity
and the skills to understand and respond to individual need. It
is easy for children to be labelled difficult or naughty if staff
do not recognise the nature of a child's difficulties. This is
particularly important for those with special needs. Many children
and their parents have to cope with problems in later years which
could have benefited from being identified at this stage.4
2.6 Parents should feel that they are working
co-operatively with early years staff and that their views and
opinions are respected. This is not always the case, particularly
in the independent sector where children are being admitted at
increasingly younger ages. The groundwork needed for this kind
of relationship can begin at a pre-admission meeting which can
establish the needs of the child in the context of its family.
2.7 For staff to be able to provide this
level of support requires skills, resources and links with wider
professional networks such as children's mental health services.
2.8 There are often considerable differences
between a nursery setting and a reception class in a primary school
both in terms of ethos and staff ratios. Which of these settings
a child attends is currently too often an issue of pragmatism
rather than parental choice. The greater formality of a reception
class can pose difficulties for some children. This applies in
particular to those who are starting at four years old and are
required to adjust very quickly to all day attendance, and to
those with special needs. A significant proportion of children
given the label special needs have learning difficulties.
2.9 Staff should work in an environment
where there are regular opportunities to discuss children about
whom they have particular concerns.
3. The qualifications required by staff
3.1 We take the view that the education
system as a whole does not adequately recognise the emotional
dimensions of the learning experience. A child who does not feel
emotionally secure is not in a state of emotional readiness to
learn. We are concerned that the training of staff generally does
not equip them to understand child development and to recognise
the extent to which the personal style of an individual teacher
has the capacity to influence whether a child has a positive or
negative educational experience. Teachers in turn benefit from
working in an environment where they feel supported and valued.
3.2 A fundamental requirement for staff
in early years education is that their personality should be suited
to working with this age group. They need to have a genuine interest
in children, be sympathetic and understanding and be able to achieve
a rapport with them.
3.3 It is essential that early years staff
are suitably trained in terms of their understanding of child
development, how children learn and their ability to identify
and respond appropriately to "distress". Distress may
be a symptom of a wide range of problems from mild transitory
issues associated with the new setting, difficulties at home through
to serious diagnosable disorders.
3.4 Staff need the aptitude and the knowledge
to create an emotionally healthy environment. By this we mean
that the setting is one in which the relationships between staff
themselves, children and staff, and staff and parents are felt
by everyone to be good. Such relationships are formed on the basis
of respect and training. To achieve this is a considerable challenge.
Many parents do not have a positive attitude to education which
affects how both they themselves and their children might respond
to staff. Establishing partnerships with parents often requires
both knowledge and skill to work with their personal perspectives.
3.5 Relationships between the statutory
agencieshealth, education and social servicesare
often not as good as they could be. Training for early years staff
should include an understanding of other support services available
and how to achieve effective working relationships.
4. The way quality of teaching and learning
in the early years is assessed
4.1 We do not claim particular expertise
in this type of assessment. We do feel strongly, however, that
assessment in the early years setting must pay close attention
to the quality of social interactions and the processes of learning.
4.2 These issues have been addressed in
the work of the Effective Early Learning Project in their professional
development programme: "Evaluating and Developing Quality
in Early Childhood Settings".5
The programme incorporates the use of "The
Child Development Scalean observation instrument which
is child focused and attempts to measure the process of learning
rather than concentrating on outcomes; and "The Adult Engagement
Scale". The latter is based on the view that the style of
interaction between the educator and the child is a critical factor
in the effectiveness of the learning experience. By using observational
techniques it measures three aspects of adult behaviour: sensitivity,
stimulation and autonomy.
5. The age at which formal schooling should
5.1 There is considerable evidence to suggest
that the age at which children in the UK start formal schooling
is not in the interests of either their emotional or their educational
development. A range of international studies demonstrates that
children who start school at age six to seven and whose pre-school
education concentrates on pretend play, stories, rhymes, songs,
informal conversation and problem solving do better educationally
and socially than those in more formal settings.6
5.2 The International Educational Achievement
Study studied reading literacy and instruction in 32 countries.
Of the 32 studied, three began formal schooling at five years,
one began at five and a half years, eight began at seven years
and 20 began at six years. Those who started at seven years were
often the best at age nine years and across all countries six
years was the best of all.7
5.3 A recent study at the Institute for
Neuro-Physiological Psychology has demonstrated the links between
later physical development and educational problems and suggests
that it is important to consider reading readiness before requiring
children to acquire this skill. Sitting still, paying attention,
manipulating a pencil and controlling eye movements are all necessary
for reading. Children who have not acquired these skills are at
a disadvantage when they enter school in terms of their physical
and neurological development. They do not necessarily lack intelligence
but require extra time for this phase of their development.8
5.4 It is important to consider whether
there should be a more flexible age of entry to formal schooling
which could reflect the different rates at which children develop
and reach a stage of educational readiness for formal learning.
1 Bishop, DVM, Adams, C (1990) A Prospective
Study of the Relationship between Specific Language Impairment,
Phonological Disorders and Reading Retardation, Journal of Psychology,
Vol 31 No 7 pp 1027-1050.
2 Barber, M (1995) Interim Report. Young
people and their attitude to school. Keele University. Department
3 Silva, PA, Williams, SM, McGee, R (1987)
A longitudinal study of children with developmental language
delay at age three: later intelligence, reading and behaviour
problems. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 29,630-640.
4 North, C, Parker, M (1994) Teaching
Phonological Awareness. Child Language Teaching and Therapy.
Vol. 10, No 3, 1994.
5 Pascal, C, Bertram, T (1997) Evaluating
and Developing Quality in Early Childhood Settings: A Professional
Development Programme. Centre for Research in Early Childhood.
University College Worcester.
6 Sylva, K (1995) Comparisons between
Early Childhood Environment Rating Scales Ratings of Individual
Pre-School Centres and the Results of Target Child Observations:
Do They Match or Do They Differ? Paper presented at the European
Conference on the Quality of Early Childhood Education, Paris,
7 Wolff, S (1999) Starting School: do
our children start too young? YoungMinds Magazine issue 42.
8 Goddard Blythe, S First Steps to the
Most Important ABC. TES 7.1.2000.