Making Caring Men's Work

On the 26^th of October, the Men in Childcare (MiC) Network organized the hugely successful second annual conference “Gender and Caring, Men in Childcare” in Dublin.

The conference put the focus on issues of the gender imbalance within the Early Years sector and highlighted the importance of bringing more men into the lives of young children. 

Keeping Rountine Activities Fresh

One of our greatest challenges as childcare providers is keeping children interested and engaged in activity.  In order to keep children interested in everyday activities it is important to make an effort to add a new dimension.  One simple example of this is adding visual stimulation to nursery rhyme / song time

Insensitivity To Physical, Racial Or Ethnic Differences

With the changing face of Irish society and the ever increasing range of nationalities and cultures of children in our classrooms, childcare providers are facing new behavioural challenges with the children in their care.

Children With Special Needs

Successful Inclusion of Children with Special Needs in Mainstream Education requires Trained Special Needs Classroom Assistants.

Biting

What should I do if a child bites another child?

Verbal Abuse

You've no doubt heard the adage, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Well, it's not true. Name-calling hurts - especially when the person doing it is a parent, a childcare provider, a teacher, or a coach.

Teasing

How can I stop my child from teasing?

Teaching Manners

Are children between the ages of 1 and 3 capable of learning manners?

Feeling Good For Christmas

The expectation is that we will be able to join in with the children’s magic at Christmas and enjoy ourselves with our friends and family, but how do we do this without becoming completely exhausted?

Coping With Challenging Behaviour

Young children go through many stages of development. With these stages comes a desire for more independence and a testing of boundaries.

Biting

Anyone who has worked in a creche or pre-school will identify with the following scenario; the toddler who walks into the classroom with a scowl. The hair is disheveled, the little face is contorted and the eyes still have the telltale signs of sleep in them.  This child looks tired and it is time to feel afraid.  We all recognise the look; it is the look of a toddler who would bite.

Behaviour Strategies

Behaviour is the interaction of the child with his or her environment. Behaviour is requesting a drink of milk, picking your nose, running across the street without looking, or throwing furniture.

Autism

Autism is a pervasive development disorder which affects the person’s ability to communicate well with people or to make sense of the world.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

What to Do if you Suspect a Child has ADD/ADHD

Oral Motor

All childcare providers know the importance of early motor development. Outside activities such as ball games are provided for gross motor development and the fine motor control needed for gripping a pencil or cutting with scissors is largely developed during the pre-school years. However, have you ever considered the development of muscles of the mouth area?

Whose Responsibility

 There are lots of causes of challenging behaviour such as emotional distress, loss or change and developmental delay, but the most common thread running through the lives of children I meet through work is a lack of meaningful participation in normal everyday life. It is not always easy to see which comes first, the challenging behaviour or the lack of participation, but it is a very destructive combination.

Foster Care

Foster care offers alternative family care to children whose parents cannot provide this for them in their own families for a variety of reasons. Foster care gives children a second chance to experience family living, while helping them to come to terms with what led to them coming into care, and facilitating them, in most instances, to keep in touch with their birth families.

Speech Therapy

The second year of the child’s life is so much fun -  his or her personality starts to really show and there is rapid language development.  Have no doubt that your interaction with your child can positively influence language development.

Signing Babies

How often as parents have we ourselves felt helpless by our babies’ cries, be it in the middle of the night or during the day. It is not always easy, as working parents, to come home to those small moments which can turn into large ones.

Scribble For Children

Random scribbling is the first stage of this developmental process. It begins at approximately one and a half year of age and ends when a child is between two and two and a half years of age.