Hi
i had a different question that may give you ideas on this.
This was the question:
2.5. Encourage children or young people to actively participate in decisions affecting their lives and the services they receive according to their age and abilities.
this is how i answered it:
Every child has the right under
The United Nations Convention on the Rights Of the child to be involved in decisions that may affect them. If a child makes their
own choices it is a proven fact that they will learn, enjoy and achieve more, this is why as practitioners we plan around the child’s interest.
If a child makes choices they learn that when giving choices that they can only chose one of the choices, this is a learning curb for a child. This is why we support children to make choices, this can mean that sometimes children will have to wait for certain choices e.g. if a child is on a bike and the child wishes to have a turn then they have to wait until the sand timer has finished for their turn, it doesn’t mean that they are allowed their choices immediately. Most children make choices everyday without realising that they are choosing such as what pair of socks that they will wear, this gives them a sense of control over their day.
Choices can also be made on not to take part in an activity such as a music to movement, so give them a choice of two activities such as music to movement or a story, the child will feel valued that they have a choice and chose the one that they would like to participate in more.
For younger children it is important for them to have limited choices as too much choice can confuse them, an older child can visualise and decide which choice they would like to make e.g. the choice between cheerio’s, sugar puffs, rice krispies or cornflakes, they would understand which choice would suit them better.
With older children when you talk to them you are giving them a voice, they listen, choose and make their own decisions, whatever you are talking about. If you ask an older child what game would you like to play with, they will go off and fetch you the game that they would like to play. With younger children they may need a little guidance by taking them to where the games are but they can still choose and might not play the game the way it is meant to be played but as professionals we understand this process but we value their opinions and we encourage them to think for themselves rather than us say we are going to do this and this is the way we are going to play with it. This enables the child to explore and at the same time give them confidence and build their self-esteem. Always give the child enough thinking time to say what they want or to express their feelings or interests rather than telling them or making the decisions for them.
Here are a few examples of age/stage appropriate choice making activities:
2-3 years of age.
All children of different ages/stages will chose what they would like to play with, without help from adults. Children will chose different activities to play with, you might find one child will play with cars and transport vehicles as another child might like the sensory equipment such as paint or sand so as adults we will provide a wide variety of resources for the child to make their own choices, this will encourage the child to explore the environment and play with the activities that he/she likes.
At snacktime some settings have rolling snack which enables the child to chose when they would like snack it is up to us as practitioners to make sure that it is nicely presented so that it will invite children to try the snack e.g. cucumber and tomatoes sliced gives the snack some bright colours maybe placed with a breadstick or cubes of cheese so that they may try a bit of cucumber with a cube of cheese, this will then be up to the individual choice of the child to decide what he/she would like to eat for snack.
Ages 3-6 years.
In some settings they have an album with toys in and if you feel that the child isn’t joining in then they could chose from the album what they would like to play with. Within most settings now it is found that you put less of an activity out so that you can incorporate a lot more activities so that the child has more choices. At our construction area we have a solid unit on wheels that has approx 15 storage boxes situated inside, they are filled with different construction sets such as duplo bricks, small wooden bricks, stickle bricks, zoo animals and dolls house furniture/dolls. This enables the child to access the storage or storage boxes that they chose to use and play with them, if a child needs extra resources or if more children join in, then in the cupboard we have a big box that we could provide for the child/children to play with.
At this age they will usually ask if there is nothing out that they would like to play with e.g. if there were no cars out, the child might say “I would really like to play with the cars” they would then wait for your reaction and if there was enough room for the cars to be brought out to be played with, it is important for us to keep the child’s interests, if there isn’t enough room perhaps you could compromise and get a few cars out for the child to play with. If there is no way that you can put the cars out explain o the child that unfortunately there isn’t enough room but you will make sure that there is room for cars the next day that they attend the setting.
Older children 7-19 years.
Older children will understand more about life choices and can be given different options, this will allow them to take control of what happens in their life.
7- 9 years- at this age they like to choose what kind of after school activities they would like to participate, this will be incorporated with their likes and dislikes.
13 year olds- this is the time where they take more interest in their optional units at school, this again can be a battle that takes part with parents because the young adult may want to take options that the parents disagree with, however i feel that with both of my children i did let them choose their own optional units and they both did very well, i feel this was because they were interested in what they chose to do. They don’t have an option on certain subjects so it is important for them to help chose the ones that they can.
Teenagers-19 years. They will choose what work experience they do, this will enable then to try a certain type of work before they go to college or university to gain more knowledge through courses. They also begin to have a sense of style by choosing and buying their own clothes, money being obtained by undertaking paper rounds or Saturday jobs. Sometimes they will have dramatic choices in life to make, however they can sometimes make the wrong choices, this can include underage drinking, drugs, smoking, ***, gangs, crime and we can only be there to advise and help support the teenager we can reinforce what they are doing to themselves and others and offer support and guidance. They have to make certain life changing choices such as relationship, employment, which university or college these will be important changes that only they can make.
Hope it helps you
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Level 3 handbooks on amazon.co.uk
Lynne