Module 8 Discussion
To understand what active supervision might look like in your program, consider the following example:
Maria and Yasmin have taken their three-year-old classroom out to the playground for outdoor playtime. The 15-foot square playground has a plastic climber, a water/sand table and a swing set. Maria and Yasmin stand at opposite corners of the playground to be able to move quickly to a child who might need assistance. The children scatter through the playground to various areas. Some prefer the climber, while others like the swings. Many of the children play with the sand table because it is new. Maria and Yasmin have agreed on a supervision plan for which children they will observe and are always counting the children in the areas closest to them, occasionally raising their fingers to show each other how many children are close to them. This helps them keep track of where the children are, and to make sure no one is missing. If one child moves to a different area of the playground, they signal each other so that they are both aware of the childs change in location.
Maria has noticed that Felicity loves to play in the sand table. She hears children scolding each other and notices that Felicity throws the toys without looking. As Maria sees Felicity and Ahmed playing at the sand table, Maria stands behind Felicity and suggests she put the toy back in the basket when she is done with it. By remaining close, she is also able to redirect Ahmed who has never seen a sand table before and throws sand at his classmates. Kellan has been experimenting with some of the climbing equipment and is trying to jump off of the third step onto the ground. While he is able to do this, some of the other children whose motor skills are not as advanced also try to do this. To help them build these skills, Yasmin stands close to the steps on the climbing structure. She offers a hand or suggests a lower step to those who are not developmentally ready.
Maria and Yasmin signal to each other five minutes before playtime is over, then tell the children they have 5 minutes left to play. When the children have one minute left, Maria begins to hand out colors that match the colored squares they have painted on the ground. She asks Beto, a child who has trouble coming inside from playtime, to help her. When the children are handed a colored circle, they move to stand on the colored spot on the playground. As the children move to the line, Maria guides them to the right spot. When all children are in line, both Maria and Yasmin count the children again. They scan the playground to make sure everyone is in place, then move the children back into the classroom. They also listen to be sure that they do not hear any of the children still on the playground. Yasmin heads the line and Maria takes the back end, holding Betos hand. When they return to the classroom, there are spots on the floor with the same colors that were on the playground. The children move to stand on their matching color in the classroom. Maria and Yasmin take a final count, then collect the circles and begin the next activity. Both Yasmin and Maria are actively engaged with the children and each other, supporting the childrens learning and growth while ensuring their safety. They use systems and strategies to make sure they know where children are at all times, and that support developmentally appropriate child risk-taking and learning.
1. Go back through the example and find the active supervision strategies that Yasmin and Maria used. What would you have done the same, and what would you have done differently?
2. How do you currently or plan to engage families?
Read this about risky play and childrens safety, and how to balance priorities for optimal child development:
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Injury prevention plays a key role in promoting childrens safety, which is considered to involve keeping children free from the occurrence or risk of injury. However, emerging research suggests that imposing too many restrictions on childrens outdoor risky play may be hampering their development. Like safety, play is deemed so critical to child development and their physical and mental health that it is included in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Thus, limitations on childrens play opportunities may be fundamentally hindering their health and well-being. Eager and Little describe a risk deprived child as more prone to problems such as obesity, mental health concerns, lack of independence, and a decrease in learning, perception and judgment skills, created when risk is removed from play and restrictions are too high. Findings from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, landscape architecture, and leisure studies, challenge the notion that child safety is paramount and that efforts to optimize child safety in all circumstances is the best approach for child development. And families, popular culture, the media, and researchers in other disciplines have expressed views that child safety efforts promote the overprotection of children. These have the potential to trigger a backlash against proven safety promotion strategies, such as child safety seats or necessary supervision, possibly reversing the significant gains that have been made in reducing child injuries. Families, caregivers, and educators can work to create a balance by fostering opportunities to engage in outdoor risky play that align with safety efforts. An approach that focuses on eliminating hazards, that have hidden potential to injure, such as a broken railing, but that does not eliminate all risks, could be used. This allows the child to recognize and evaluate the challenge and decide on a course of action that is not dangerous but may still involve an element of risk. Adults can also provide children with unstructured (open-ended) play materials that can be freely manipulated in conventional playgrounds This approach is a central component of the Adventure Playground movement. Notably, European and Australian organizations and researchers appear to be attempting to put this idea in practice, with North American efforts lagging. For example, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the U.K. released injury prevention guidelines that called for policies that counter excessive risk aversion and promote childrens need to develop skills to assess and manage risks, according to their age and ability. Both injury and play organizations, such as the U.K.s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and Play Safety Forum promote the idea of keeping children as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. International collaboration would benefit from translating this into practice in a manner that is sensitive to concerns for child safety and childrens developmental needs for risky play. |
Then Watch this:it is Youtube and I attached the photo |
3. What do you think about the reading and video above? What
are your thoughts about keeping children as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible? What are appropriate ways for children to learn how to manage risk?
4. What experiences do you have with first aid (giving or receiving)? How might this affect how you respond to a child getting injured? In addition to providing treatment for the injury, what else might an injured child need from a caring adult to feel emotionally safe?
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