Week 6: Health and physical development

Introduction

To begin this week, watch Video 1 in which you meet Jackie Musgrave, the author of this week’s content. Jackie is in conversation with Josie Wilkinson, who is an early years practitioner, currently working as a teaching assistant. Josie is also a mother of two children who have health conditions, namely asthma. She describes the importance of parents having confidence in the practitioners who care for children with health conditions.

Jackie also introduces Karen Nash and Nicola Farmer, practitioners who later in this week will be discussing how they support physical activity and development for young children and how they work with parents.

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Transcript: Video 1

JACKIE MUSGRAVE:

Hello. I'm Jackie Musgrave, and I'm the author of this week's content. And I'm drawing on my experience as a children's nurse to highlight some of the considerations that practitioners need to take into account when they're working with children who've got health conditions or other needs. And there's a need to promote physical activity.

And I'm joined by Josie who's going to tell me some of the considerations from her perspective. So, Josie, you've been a practitioner in early years for absolutely ages, years. And as a parent of two children who've had asthma, how important was it for you to feel confident in the practitioners as you handed your children over?

JOSIE WILKINSON:

It was very important to feel for myself trusting of the practitioners, but also to ensure my children were in safe secure hands because they are the parent during your absence. As a parent, I had that good relationship with the setting. And we discussed my children's individual needs and helped to develop a care plan to ensure they were fully included in all of the activities.

JACKIE MUSGRAVE:

So working in partnership as a parent with the practitioners is really so important, isn't it? And from your professional experience, it's not just asthma, but also children with complex medical needs need to have support and encouragement. And alternative ways of joining in with physical activity.

JOSIE WILKINSON:

Correct. For example, when my son would go out particularly during the winter, it's important for children with asthma to keep warm, but more importantly to wear a scarf. So when they're breathing, they're inhaling the warm air to keep their chest warm.

JACKIE MUSGRAVE:

Lovely. Thank you. So this week, we're going to be hearing from Karen and Nicola who are going to talk in a lot more detail about how they work with parents and how they support children with health conditions to take part in physical activity.

At the end of the week, you're going to be seeing an audit tool which you can use to have a look at your practice and the environment that you're working in to see how helpful it is to encourage children with health conditions and those without health conditions to take part in physical activity as fully as they possibly can.

Thank you for watching the film and hope you enjoy the final week.

End transcript: Video 1

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Video 1

In this final week of the course, you will look at approaches to working with parents in sensitive ways to encourage them to promote physical development and activity.

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• describe why it is important to work with parents to promote children’s physical activity and development
• explain the ways that physical activity can be promoted in children who have health conditions
• identify ways of working with parents to promote children’s physical activity and development
• present an audit of how your setting promotes physical activity and supports physical development.