FDC United Educators Scheme in Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia | School

FDC United Educators Scheme

Locality: Leichhardt, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 403 933 211

Address: 146 flood street 2040 Leichhardt, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.FDCUnitedEducators.com.au

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21.01.2022 The #physiology of young children’s hands needs to be taken into consideration in educational tasks. It’s not just about preserving #childhood; it’s a necessary... part of becoming a functional and healthy human in an age appropriate way. There are good reasons why children gravitate towards play dough, finger painting, building blocks, threading beads, balancing on logs, and many other play activities before they become interested in #handwriting. Children experience progressive development of their hands and require development of postural control, grasp, fine motor skills, upper and core body strength, proprioceptor control and visual motor integration prior to, and during, the development of #writing skills. And children who experience difficulties with reading can also have difficulties with balance and motor control, so it is vital that teachers understand the impact of physical development on children’s cognitive development. Nobody knows this better than Ruth Swailes, a School Improvement Advisor and Education Consultant who visits between 50-75 schools and settings every year. She has expressed her concern about inappropriate writing exercises for children when they are too young. Swailes writes: I was fortunate to work closely with OTs in my early career. They taught me a lot. Child development should be part of all teacher training [in my opinion], so that everyone understands the fundamental differences between ages and stages. 4 and 5 year olds are not just miniature 9 year olds. An x ray of a developed hand (around the age of 7) compared to an EYFS age child’s hand is pretty informative. Also occupational therapists issue fantastic advice on how to develop handwriting in an age appropriate way matched to children’s physical development. There are physical reasons children go through the phases of palmar supinate, digital pronate, static tripod and eventually to dynamic tripod. Children also have to develop upper and core body strength and proprioceptor control in addition to fine motor control. It’s worth noting that it’s not just the size of the child’s hand which changes. The younger child has cartilage which will eventually become bone through the process of endochondral ossification. This occurs around the ages of 6-8yrs. In Swaile's blog at http://www.assure.education/blog/i-like-to-move-it, she writes about how she has witnessed that when writing is not approached correctly in the first place some habits and mindsets were already established. For example, the child who was forced to learn cursive script whilst still using a palmar grasp didn’t like writing and found it painful and uncomfortable, so developed #distraction techniques and some poor habits and negative behaviours which took a lot of work to unlearn. The child with a late diagnosis of #dyspraxia decided they were stupid and couldn’t write when a greater focus on physical development would more than likely have identified some of the key issues and possibly led to an earlier diagnosis, but would have most certainly improved their postural strength and core stability, giving them greater motor control and a sense that they might actually be able to be a writer." "So, what did I learn from the occupational therapists and from the children and families I worked with over the course of the last 3 decades? I learned that writing is really quite a complex activity and requires a wide range of different skills. Some of them #physical, some of them #cognitive and some of them #emotional. Writing is hard work. There are many things to consider when we write: selecting the right grapheme for the phoneme we require, spelling, composition, grammar, punctuation, content, confidence and of course, physical development. Activities to develop Postural Control: Playing on playground equipment such as swings, climbing frames and merry- go-rounds Construct obstacle courses that require crawling and climbing Play ‘Twister’ or ‘Simon Says’ (using odd body parts such as standing on one leg, or balancing on one foot and one hand) Play with balls or beanbags whilst the child is sitting, kneeling, half-kneeling, squatting and standing Jumping on a trampoline Activities to Develop Grasp and Fine Motor Skills: Building blocks Pegboard activities Lacing or threading activities Using tweezers or tongs to pick up small objects Craft activities, including collages, paper mache, glueing and cutting Activities to Develop a Tripod Grasp: Placing clothes pegs/bulldog clips around the edge of a container Picking up small objects using tongs and then tweezers Threading beads Picking up cards Fill a medicine dropper (or mini turkey baster) with paint and drop onto paper Activities to Develop Visual Motor Integration and Copying of Basic Pre-writing Shapes: Developing Copying Skills Copy patterns using building blocks, matchsticks, coins, buttons, pegboards. Make it harder by taking away the original and asking the child to copy it from memory Copy basic shapes and patterns using playdough, drawing in sand, using pipecleaners Mazes Tracing activities. Developing Copying of Pre-Writing Shapes (using pre-writing shapes for the following activities): Walk along a rope, string, or taped line Follow-the-leader in different shapes Making your own body look like the different shapes Finger painting with shaving cream, paint, cornflour and water Sand drawing with sticks, fingers, rakes, spades or even feet Starting Letters: It is often useful to teach letters in family groups. This helps prevent reversals of letters and allows the child to practice one type of movement for several letters Anti-clockwise letters (a, c, d, e, g, o, q) Clockwise letters (b, h, k, m, n, p, r) Straight letters (i, j, l, t) Under arch letters (u, y) Diagonal letters (v, w, x, z) Curvy letters (f, s). The attached Play Activity Lists are from a resource called ‘Children, Young People and Families Occupational Therapy Team - Handwriting Development’ by South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. It shares lists of play and learning activities that children can enjoy that will help them develop prior to writing. https://www.swft.nhs.uk///2571/handwriting_development.pdf You can find other printable PDFs and similar activities relating to the topic of child hand development in our group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/neurochildvillage. #neurochild #childdevelopment #earlychildhood #letthemplay

20.01.2022 #covid_19 #allinthistogether2020 #andràtuttobene

19.01.2022 To my beautiful JoJo, a huge Happy Birthday to you. Over the last years I have learnt so much from this woman and am so blessed to have her on my team! JoJo is an amazing educator, with such an incredible connection to her local community, I’m so proud to have her in my life not only as a colleague but also a friend #communitylove #fdcommunity #amazingeducators #familydaycarelife

12.01.2022 Can you guess what the educator has used in this threading activity? Something that normally would be overlooked and thrown away are balloon sticks. During this month we are reflecting as a service on creative ways to incorporate sustainability in the individual family day care services. Instead of throwing these sticks out Ritu reflected on how she could use them in the play. This threading activity engaged the children for at least an hour with it opening as well so much la...nguage development opportunities. Giving children opportunities for threading is a great way to help children develop fine motor skills essential for being able to draw, write, do up buttons, tie shoelaces, open lunch boxes and more. Threading also helps to develop eye-hand coordination and concentration skills. #threading #playbasedlearning #playbasedlearningforallabilities #fdcideas #sustainabilityinchildcare #sustainableservices #reggioemiliaapproach #loosepartsplay #loosepartsexplorartion See more

12.01.2022 Happy International Mud Day! My little work colleague loves mud, we can’t keep her out of it. #lovinglife #moodlesrock #moodlelove #earlychildhoodeducation #familydaycareideas #internationalmudday2020 #mudkitchen #familydaycareaustralia #familydaycareproviders

09.01.2022 Because of the experience you are facing right now, you will be stronger. Because of this experience you will be able to handle much more in your life with ease. You will not be so easily frightened. You will appreciate the smallest and the simplest things in life. You will cherish your freedom. You will cherish your friends and family even more. You will appreciate your work, and joking around with your work colleagues. You will find that the things that used to bother you don’t seem to bother you as much anymore. And you will know that you overcame a huge challenge that was thrown at you, and you were triumphant over it. And perhaps you will finally see that you are far greater than you ever knew - Rhonda Byrne, #thesecret #unitedwestand #andràtuttobene #lovewins #allinittogether #spreadlove

09.01.2022 Educators are all ‘Essential Workers’ we have implemented so many strategies in our service to keep our Educators safe during this very vulnerable time. A reminder to everyone that we are all in this together. #fdcrules #lovefdc #allinthistogether #andràtuttobene #insiemesiamopiùforti