early education and care assment 1

[ollijames2014]

hi looking for some help or advice to ensure im on the right track and to help identify the strategies for the below questions

this is the case study i am reading
Amanda has just enrolled her baby, Katherine (10 months), in care at Forrest Early Learning Centre. Joel (4years), Katherine’s brother, has been enrolled at the service for six months and has settled in well. Amanda has been offered part time work at a local solicitor’s office on a Tuesday and Thursday. However, she is still breastfeeding Katherine and she is concerned about how Katherine will settle into care, how the educators will know how to read her cues and respond to what she needs - if the staff will know when she is tired or hungry or just in need of a cuddle, what will happen if she is upset or hurt, how do the staff make sure the centre is safe for such young babies and will the staff have time to attend to Katherine as an individual when there are nine other children in the room.
Katherine is generally an easy baby to care for and has slept through the night from 8 weeks of age and goes down without too much fuss. She is usually very happy and content throughout the day and enjoys playing with her mother.
The only occasion when Amanda has left Katherine with another person was when a neighbour offered to babysit. Katherine screamed for 30minutes but settled eventually when given her dummy and a cuddle.
The infant (0-2year old) room has three educators and eleven enrolments, including Katherine, and operates with three primary care groups that have a primary educator assigned to each. Typically if any of these staff are away, the centre prioritises the use of the same familiar casual staff where possible.
Joel is in the preschool room (20 children with two educators) he attends on Tuesdays and Thursdays each week. Joel has made friends with Michael and looks forward to seeing him each day. He enjoys playing with the train track and the construction equipment.
Joel was diagnosed with a glue ear earlier this year and is due to go into hospital for an operation to remove his tonsils and insert grommets in three weeks time. Amanda has talked to Joel about the operation but she is concerned how he will cope with this stressful event. Amanda will stay with Joel in the hospital overnight and her mother is coming to stay for the week to look after Katherine.
Since starting at the centre, Amanda has packed a lunch box for Joel as he is a fussy eater. Now that Katherine is enrolled Amanda would like Joel to have the cooked lunches and snacks prepared by the centre cook. Joel tends to prefer to eat sweet and salty snacks and plain rice for lunch. Amanda would like to encourage him to eat a more varied diet.
Joel brings chocolate milk in his drink bottle every day. Amanda believes it is good for Joel to drink plenty of milk and he will not drink milk without the chocolate.
Information from Katherine’s enrolment form
Name: Katherine Age: 10mths
Family Information:
Father: Ben works in mining industry, Amanda and Ben separated shortly after Katherine was born; he moved from Sydney to Western Australia and rarely sees the children
Mother: Amanda is starting work as a part time secretary
Extended family Ben’s parents live in France, Amanda’s mother lives in South Australia
Sibling(s): Joel 4years
Cultural background: Amanda Australian, Ben - French
Cultural practices: Family celebrates Easter, Birthdays, and Christmas.
Language background: English
Required hours of care Katherine and Joel will attend care Tuesday and Thursday 8:30 – 4:00 pm. The children will be dropped off and collected by Amanda
Food preferences: The family are lacto-vegetarians.
Particulars of persons, other than parents, authorised to collect your child:
Name: Pam Jones
Address: 11 City Road, Adelaide, SA
Phone: 08 567 894
Relationship: Grandmother (Amanda’s mother)
Comforters: dummy and physical contact.
Sleep routine: Katherine is breastfed just before sleep time. Katherine usually sleeps in the morning at around 9.15 am for 30 minutes and in the afternoon at around 1pm for 60 to 90 minutes. When tired Katherine becomes a little whiny, has difficulty coordinating movements and will rub her eyes. Her sleep ritual involves being told “Very tired, time for bed” being placed in her baby sleeping bag whilst being sung a lullaby ‘ten teddy bears sitting on the wall’ and then gently rocked for a minute or two. Katherine is then placed in her cot “Very tired, time for bed” and the adult then leaves the bedroom. Katherine responds to these words, the song, the ritual of being put into her sleeping bag and gentle rocking as significant bedtime cues that assist her in settling to sleep quickly. Her sleeping environment is usually kept quiet and the any curtains or blinds are closed slightly to darken the room a little.
Meals: Katherine is beginning to self-feed using her hands and bite sized pieces of soft-cooked food although she is used to having an adult available to support her. She likes to have an extra spoon at meal times and will attempt to use it. Favourite foods seem to be banana, zucchini, yoghurt and cooked pasta. Katherine is beginning to drink boiled water from a lidded, two-handled cup. Expressed breast milk will be provided in two (2) bottles that will need to be given to Katherine before each sleep time
Toys and games enjoyed: Katherine enjoys playing with objects that can be put inside each other, e.g. stacking cups, posting boxes, pots and pans. She also enjoys books and stories and has a collection of cardboard books that she likes to chew and manipulate. Another favourite game is Round and Round the Garden and other tickle rhymes


this is my ansers to the first 2 questions but im stuck i just dont know if im riting the right strategies down and how to identify 5 different types also im just not sure if its too much any help would be great

1. Settling Katherine into care
Read through the information on Katherine’s enrolment form and then answer the questions below.
a. What advice would you give Amanda to address her concerns about separation and increase her confidence in the service? How will you support Amanda to continue breastfeeding? You should identify at least two strategies?

I would first talk with Amanda identify her concerns and talk about the centre its environment and how we can assist to her needs, I would show her our Tuesday and Thursdays set day plans and how we review this at the end of each day to ensure each child’s needs are met.
How we have an open door policy and are more than happy for her to pop in throughout the day or phone.
I would show her how the centre is a safe and interesting place to babies and I would encourage expressing Katherine’s interest and explain how the centre can create safe settling environment by encouraging Katherine’s likes and dislikes.
I would also talk with Amanda about designing a routine action we could do in the mornings e.g. reading a book together to help settle this into Katherine’s routine for an easy adjustment.

I would support Amanda’s breastfeeding by talking with her about her concerns, suggesting that we could implement this into Katherine day plan, suggesting before feeding her the pumped breast milk I place her on my lap we read a story and I feed her the breast milk then sing her “ten teddy bears” and giving her the dummy for nap time.

By talking about Katherine (likes and dislikes) I have shown Amanda that i have taken an interest in her daughter and noted what helps Katherine settle, I have shown her that the centre looks after each individual child’s needs. I have supported Amanda breastfeeding by encouraging her to incorporate this as part of our settling technique for Katherine by encouraging Katherine to use her comforters.

a. What strategies would you implement to assist Katherine and her family to settle into care? Include any actions you would carry out prior to Katherine starting as well as actions you may complete on her first day? How do your responses comply with the quality standards from the National Quality Framework? You should identify at least five strategies.

Strategies I would implement would be first identifying the concerns of the mother and put those at ease by taking her through the centre, children can sense their parent’s emotions. A stressed mother would mean a stressed child the next strategy would be to identify Katherine’s likes and dislikes, I would suggest to the mother sparing a day prior to Katherine’s first day to come into the centre to show them both around , do a couple of Katherine’s day to day activities eg reading a book, stacking cups together feeding her an expressed bottle while the mother is there and singing her to sleep to make Katherine feel comfortable in the environment and allow me to gain the trust of Katherine. Also allowing Katherine and Amanda to meet the other children/teachers she will be sharing a room with. That way it would also give Amanda and me a chance to discuss Katherine’s day to day planning and activities and also allowing myself to get to know Katherine cue’s (e.g. tried, hungry, cranky, and sad or requiring a nappy change.)

The first thing I would do on Katherine’s first day is ensure we implement her routine action, reading a book together as her mother leaves I would then heat her expressed breast milk up, in either a bottle warmer if one is provided by the mother if not a pot of boiling water, check that the bottle Is at perfect room temperature then feed Katherine her bottle when finished I would say to Katherine “very tired time for bed” I would give her dummy, put her in her sleeping bag and proceed to sing her ten teddy bears whilst gentle rocking to and fro. I would then leave the room. When Katherine awoke from her nap I would give her a cuddle take her to change her nappy then once finished would play “round and round the garden” to ensure she is comfortable. When it came to morning tea I would go to the kitchen and get out Katherine’s banana and yoghurt. I would give her the banana first and place that and two spoons on her high chair I would then place Katherine in high chair and give her one of the spoons, leaving the other spoon for myself to feed Katherine if she required so, if Katherine is still hungry I would give her the yoghurt again leaving her to self-feed but still watching closely to help if required. After she has finished her morning tea I would give her the boiled water in the cup with the handles, ensuring yet again that it is at room temperature before handing this to her. Once done I would allow Katherine to play with the other babies by taking her to the play area, to play stacking cups allow another child to play the game as well, I would keep an eye out for Katherine’s cues to ensure she was kept happy…

[Lorina]

Thanks for adding you response! It is very well thought out and I can understand how you would support a parent and child starting into care. All the procedures you have mentioned are good and you will provide care and support for both the parent and child. Just in regards to Q2 I've added some more information which you can also add onto yours:

What strategies would you implement to assist Katherine and her family to settle into care? Include any actions you would carry out prior to Katherine starting as well as actions you may complete on her first day? How do your responses comply with the quality standards from the National Quality Framework? You should identify at least five strategies

.

I would suggest that Amanda bring Katherine on the days she will be attending Tues and Thurs for 2-3 weeks prior to her commencing. This will start the orientation process. During the orientation days Amanda will stay with Katherine for a couple of hours each time. This gives an opportunity for Katherine to bond to the primary carer and ease Amanda's concerns that she has as she watches the staff interact and run their daily routine. On the days that Katherine attends orientation it's a good idea if Amanda brings her at different times throughout the day as they can familiarise themselves with the room routine and what happens at different times throughout the day. Katherine can also be encouraged to play with others in the room.

During Katherine's play I would also encourage her brother to come and play with her for a few moments throughout the day as Katherine would understand she has her brother as well. Katherine can also go on visits whenever possible to see her brother.

On Katherine's first day I would encourage Amanda to do a quick drop off with Katherine as lingering around could be worse for both Amanda and Katherine (which I would explain during orientation). As the primary carer for Katherine I would ask Amanda to give Katherine to me to say goodbye. As Amanda leaves move Katherine to book area to read a book etc. If Katherine becomes upset throughout the day I would ask her brother to come and help her settle throughout the day and provide Katherine with experiences based on her interests that Amanda has mentioned. During Katherine's sleep I would give Amanda a call to let her know how Katherine is going. I would also take plenty of pictures of Katherine throughout the day to share with Amanda when she picks her up…

Regarding the NQS it supports:

5. Relationships with children
6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities

Hope this helps,

,
L.A

[ollijames2014]

thankyou soooo much