“It’s our polite nudge in the ribs to help you and your team stay organised and on task.”
This week’s subject is: Positive educator to child interactions
Element 5.1.1: Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident and included.
How does your Service ensure that all interactions between educators and children are nurturing, respectful, responsive and inclusive, ensuring children feel supported, competent, capable, develop and experience a strong sense of identity, wellbeing and belonging?
Educators who are intentional and responsive to children’s thoughts and feelings play a vital role in fostering their overall wellbeing. By engaging positively, respectfully, and meaningfully, educators help children feel accepted, building trusting relationships that enhance their sense of connection and identity. When children are encouraged to explore their cultural, social, gender, and linguistic identities, they develop a sense of belonging that fosters their self-esteem. This self-esteem is essential for shaping their identity and is crucial for helping children recognise their strengths, capabilities, and interests.
Services should ensure that information about the needs and cultures of individual children and their families is maintained and is current to foster respectful, reciprocal, nurturing, positive relationships and supports children to experience a strong sense of belonging.
Positive educator to child interactions focuses on actions that are visible and observable. Evidence of this should for most part, be evident and observable in your everyday practice and occur naturally and organically. Positive interactions between educators and children involves educators implementing a combination of quality practices including:
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- Using and implementing a variety of tools and techniques to support effective communication with children e.g., sign language, social stories etc.
- Ensuring each child is treated as an individual, acknowledging their specific needs, abilities, strengths and interests
- Educators modelling reasoning, predicting, reflective processes and respectful language
- Educators interacting with and engaging in conversations with children to learn more about them as individuals, including their experiences, interests, needs and strengths, fostering strong reciprocal relationships
- Acknowledging children as capable and competent learners, acknowledging and encouraging their efforts and achievements, supporting them to experience success
- Being responsive to children’s individual needs by comforting them when they are distressed or assisting them when they require support and guidance
- Collecting and maintaining current information about children’s individual needs, strengths and capabilities
- Using their knowledge of individual children to effectively cater to their specific needs
- Adjusting the language used to appropriately and effectively communicate with children of varying ages and stages of verbal and linguistic development
- Facilitating, supporting and participating in children’s play respectfully, without taking over, by responding to children’s cues
- Supporting children to contribute to and make decisions about routines and experiences that impact them
- Providing children with information and discussion about what is happening at different parts of the day
- Planning experiences and creating learning environments that support children to learn and develop independently
- Providing opportunities for children to experience success by supporting their self-help skills and allocating age-appropriate tasks/responsibilities
- Creating a physical and social environment that reflects the backgrounds and cultures of the children in care, fostering a strong sense of belonging.
Resources:
Empathetic Educators and Outside School Hours Care
Identifying and Supporting High Potential and Gifted Children
The Early Education Show- Element 5.1.1: Positive educator to child interactions.
High Expectations for Every Child
Sue Larkey- Using Special Interests to Motivate and Engage Students
Within System7 go to Quality Area 5/ Module 1 to submit self-assessment notes and if required, open a QIP issue if you identify any areas of improvement.
The Childcare Centre Desktop has a range of resources to assist services with positive interactions including: Interactions with Children, Families and Staff Policy, All About Me-Child Introduction Form, Philosophy Development and Review Procedure, Behaviour Guidance forms and much more.
Resources, NQS Element, Regulation and System7 links:
Childcare Centre Desktop – Childcare Centre Desktop
National Quality Standard – QA 5/5.1.1: Positive educator to child interactions
National Regulations – 155, 156 & 168 (2) (j)
System7 Module – QA 5/ Module 1
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