Information: Childcare Areas

In each Area of development the development matters statements describe the processes that the children will move through till they should achieve the early learning goals by the time they finish Reception.

We use these development matters statements to track where the children are up to developmentally and this enables them us to plan individually for the children and move them forward to their next stage of their learning journey.

Personal, Social and Emotional Development

These areas of children's development covers:

1. Having a positive approach to learning and finding out about the world around them;
2. Having confidence in themselves and the ability to do things and valuing their own achievements;
3. Being able to form friendships with other people, both children and adults;
4. Becoming aware of – and being able to keep to – the rules which we all need to help us to look after ourselves, other people and our environment;
5. Being able to dress and undress independently. And look after their personal hygiene needs; and
6. Being able to show respect for other cultures and to have their own cultures and beliefs respected.

Communication, language and literacy Development

This area of children's development covers;

1. Being able to use conversation with other children/ adults, in small groups and in large groups to talk with and listen to others;
2. Adding to their vocabulary by learning the meaning of – and being able to use –new words.
3. Being able to use words to describe their experiences;
4. Getting to know the sounds and letters which make up the words we use;
5. Listening to- and talking about – stories;
6. Knowing how to handle books and that they can be a source of stories and information;
7. Knowing the purposes for which we use writing; and
8. Making their own attempts at writing.

Problem Solving, Reasoning and numeracy

This area of children's development covers;

1. Building up ideas about how many, how much, how far and how big etc;
2. Building up ideas about patterns, the shape of objects and parts of objects, and the amount of space taken up by objects;
3. Starting to understand that numbers help us to answer questions about how many, how much, how far and how big;
4. Building up ideas about how to use counting to find out how many, sorting, matching, grouping and sequencing;
   Being introduced to finding the result of adding more or taking away from the amount we already have.

Knowledge and understanding of the world

This area of children's development:

1. Finding out about the world and how it works;
2. Learning how to choose – and use – the right tool for a task;
3. Learning about electronic toys and computers, how to use them and what they can help us to do;
4. Starting to put together ideas about past and present and the links between them;
5. Beginning to learn about their locality and its special features; and
6. Learning about their own and other cultures.

Physical development

This area of children's development covers:

1. Gaining control over the large movements which we can make with our arms, legs and bodies, so that they can run, jump, hop, skip, roll, climb, balance and lift;
2. Gaining control over the small movements we make with our arms, wrists and hands so that they can pick up and use objects, tools and materials; and
3. Learning about the importance of – and how to look after – their bodies.

Creative development

This area of children's development covers:

1. Using paint, materials, music, dance , words, stories and role play to express their ideas and feelings; and
2. Becoming interested in the way that paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role play can be used to express ideas and feelings.

Play helps young children to learn and develop through doing and talking, which research has shown to be the means by which young children think Heaton Preschool uses the EYFS and the Development matters statements to plan and provide a range of experiences which will support the children to make progress in each of the six areas of learning and development. Some of the activities the children will decide how they will carry it out and in others the adult will take the lead in helping the child take part in the activity.