Development matters-final-print-amended

Children develop quickly in the early years, and
early years practitioners aim to do all they can to
help children have the best possible start in life.
Children have a right, spelled out in the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,
to provision which enables them to develop their
personalities, talents and abilities irrespective of
ethnicity, culture or religion, home language, family
background, learning difficulties, disabilities or
gender. This guidance helps adults to understand
and support each individual child’s development
pathway. Other guidance is provided at
www.foundationyears.org.uk. The EYFS statutory
framework is available on the Foundation Years
website as well as the Department for Education
website: www.education.gov.uk/publications
Development Matters in the
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
This non-statutory guidance material supports practitioners
in implementing the statutory requirements of the EYFS.

2
A Unique
Child
Positive
Relationships
Enabling
Environments
Learning and
Development
Children learn to be strong
and independent through
positive relationships.
Positive relationships are
• warm and loving, and
foster a sense of belonging
• sensitive and responsive to
the child’s needs, feelings
and interests
• supportive of the
child’s own efforts and
independence
• consistent in setting clear
boundaries
• stimulating
• built on key person
relationships in early years
settings
Children learn and develop well
in enabling environments, in
which their experiences respond
to their individual needs and
there is a strong partnership
between practitioners and
parents and carers.
Enabling Environments
• value all people
• value learning
They offer
• stimulating resources,
relevant to all the children’s
cultures and communities
• rich learning opportunities
through play and playful
teaching
• support for children to take
risks and explore
Children develop and learn in
different ways. The framework
covers the education and care
of all children in early years
provision, including children
with special educational needs
and disabilities.
Practitioners teach children by
ensuring challenging, playful
opportunities across the prime
and specific areas of learning
and development.
They foster the
characteristics of effective
early learning
• Playing and exploring
• Active learning
• Creating and thinking critically
Themes
Principles
Practice
Every child is a unique child
who is constantly learning
and can be resilient, capable,
confident and self-assured.
Practitioners
• understand and observe
each child’s development
and learning, assess
progress, plan for next steps
• support babies and children
to develop a positive sense
of their own identity and
culture
• identify any need for
additional support
• keep children safe
• value and respect all children
and families equally
+ + =
Children are born ready, able and eager to learn. They actively reach out to interact with other people, and in the world around them.
Development is not an automatic process, however. It depends on each unique child having opportunities to interact in positive relationships
and enabling environments.
The four themes of the EYFS underpin all the guidance. This document - Development Matters - shows how these themes, and the principles
that inform them, work together for children in the EYFS.

3
On-going formative assessment is at
the heart of effective early years practice.
Practitioners can:
• Observe children as they act and interact in
their play, everyday activities and planned
activities, and learn from parents about what
the child does at home (observation).
• Consider the examples of development
in the columns headed ‘Unique Child:
observing what children can do’ to help
identify where the child may be in their own
developmental pathway (assessment).
• Consider ways to support the child to
strengthen and deepen their current
learning and development, reflecting on
guidance in columns headed ‘Positive
Relationships’ and ‘Enabling Environments’
(planning). These columns contain some
examples of what practitioners might do to
support learning. Practitioners will develop
many other approaches in response to the
children with whom they work.
• Where appropriate, use the development
statements to identify possible areas
in which to challenge and extend the
child’s current learning and development
(planning).
This way of teaching is particularly
appropriate to support learning in early years
settings.
Summative assessment
The EYFS requires early years practitioners to review
children’s progress and share a summary with
parents at two points:
• in the prime areas between the ages of 24
and 36 months
• and at the end of the EYFS in the EYFS Profile.
Development Matters might be used by early years
settings throughout the EYFS as a guide to making
best-fit judgements about whether a child is showing
typical development for their age, may be at risk of
delay or is ahead for their age. Summative assessment
supports information sharing with parents, colleagues
and other settings.
The Child
Planning
What next?
Experiences and
opportunities, learning
environment, resources,
routines, practitioners’ role.
Assessment
Analysing observations
and deciding what they
tell us about children.
Start here
Observation
Look, listen and note.
Describing
Using this guidance to support each child’s learning and development
Development matters can help practitioners to support children’s learning and development, by closely matching what they provide to a child’s current needs.

4
The Characteristics of Effective Learning and the prime and specific
Areas of Learning and Development are all interconnected.
The Unique Child reaches out to
relate to people and things through
the Characteristics of Effective
Learning, which move through all
areas of learning.
• playing and exploring
• active learning
• creating and thinking critically
Specific areas include essential
skills and knowledge for children to
participate successfully in society.
• Literacy
• Mathematics
• Understanding the World
• Expressive Arts and Design
Prime areas are fundamental,
work together, and move through
to support development in all other
areas.
• Personal, Social and Emotional
Development
• Communication and Language
• Physical Development
• The ways in which the child engages with
other people and their environment – playing
and exploring, active learning, and creating
and thinking critically – underpin learning and
development across all areas and support the child
to remain an effective and motivated learner.
• The prime areas begin to develop quickly in
response to relationships and experiences, and
run through and support learning in all other areas.
The prime areas continue to be fundamental
throughout the EYFS.
• The specific areas include essential skills and
knowledge. They grow out of the prime areas,
and provide important contexts for learning.
Children develop in the
context of relationships
and the environment
around them.
This is unique to each
family, and reflects
individual communities
and cultures.
playing
and
exploring active learning
creating&thinkingcritically
Unique
Child

5
Characteristics of Effective Learning
Playing and exploring – engagement
Finding out and exploring
Playing with what they know
Being willing to ‘have a go’
Active learning – motivation
Being involved and concentrating
Keeping trying
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
Creating and thinking critically – thinking
Having their own ideas
Making links
Choosing ways to do things
Area of Learning and
Development
Aspect
Prime Areas
Personal, Social and
Emotional Development
Making relationships
Self-confidence and self-awareness
Managing feelings and behaviour
Physical Development Moving and handling
Health and self-care
Communication and Language Listening and attention
Understanding
Speaking
Specific areas
Literacy Reading
Writing
Mathematics Numbers
Shape, space and measure
Understanding the World People and communities
The world
Technology
Expressive Arts and Design Exploring and using media and materials
Being imaginative

Children develop at their own rates, and in their own ways. The development statements and their order should not be taken as necessary steps for individual children.
They should not be used as checklists. The age/stage bands overlap because these are not fixed age boundaries but suggest a typical range of development.
Playing and Exploring, Active Learning, and Creating and Thinking Critically support children’s learning across all areas
6
CharacteristicsofEffectiveLearning
A Unique Child:
observing how a child is learning
Positive Relationships:
what adults could do
Enabling Environments:
what adults could provide
Playing
and
Exploring
engagement
Finding out and exploring
• Showing curiosity about objects, events and people
• Using senses to explore the world around them
• Engaging in open-ended activity
• Showing particular interests
• Play with children. Encourage them to explore, and show
your own interest in discovering new things.
• Help children as needed to do what they are trying to do,
without taking over or directing.
• Join in play sensitively, fitting in with children’s ideas.
• Model pretending an object is something else, and help
develop roles and stories.
• Encourage children to try new activities and to judge risks
for themselves. Be sure to support children’s confidence
with words and body language.
• Pay attention to how children engage in activities --
the challenges faced, the effort, thought, learning and
enjoyment. Talk more about the process than products.
• Talk about how you and the children get better at things
through effort and practice, and what we all can learn when
things go wrong.
• Provide stimulating resources which are
accessible and open-ended so they can be
used, moved and combined in a variety of ways.
• Make sure resources are relevant to children’s
interests.
• Arrange flexible indoor and outdoor space and
resources where children can explore, build,
move and role play.
• Help children concentrate by limiting noise, and
making spaces visually calm and orderly.
• Plan first-hand experiences and challenges
appropriate to the development of the children.
• Ensure children have uninterrupted time to play
and explore.
Playing with what they know
• Pretending objects are things from their experience
• Representing their experiences in play
• Taking on a role in their play
• Acting out experiences with other people
Being willing to ‘have a go’
• Initiating activities
• Seeking challenge
• Showing a ‘can do’ attitude
• Taking a risk, engaging in new experiences, and learning by
trial and error
A Unique Child:
Active
Learning
motivation
Being involved and concentrating
• Maintaining focus on their activity for a period of time
• Showing high levels of energy, fascination
• Not easily distracted
• Paying attention to details
• Support children to choose their activities – what they want
to do and how they will do it.
• Stimulate children’s interest through shared attention, and
calm over-stimulated children.
• Help children to become aware of their own goals, make
plans, and to review their own progress and successes.
Describe what you see them trying to do, and encourage
children to talk about their own processes and successes.
• Be specific when you praise, especially noting effort such
as how the child concentrates, tries different approaches,
persists, solves problems, and has new ideas.
• Encourage children to learn together and from each other.
• Children develop their own motivations when you give
reasons and talk about learning, rather than just directing.
• Children will become more deeply involved when
you provide something that is new and unusual
for them to explore, especially when it is linked to
their interests.
• Notice what arouses children’s curiosity, looking
for signs of deep involvement to identify learning
that is intrinsically motivated.
• Ensure children have time and freedom to
become deeply involved in activities.
• Children can maintain focus on things that
interest them over a period of time. Help them to
keep ideas in mind by talking over photographs
of their previous activities.
• Keep significant activities out instead of routinely
tidying them away.
• Make space and time for all children to
contribute.
Keeping on trying
• Persisting with activity when challenges occur
• Showing a belief that more effort or a different approach will
pay off
• Bouncing back after difficulties
Enjoying achieving what they set out to do
• Showing satisfaction in meeting their own goals
• Being proud of how they accomplished something – not just
the end result
• Enjoying meeting challenges for their own sake rather than
external rewards or praise

7
CharacteristicsofEffectiveLearning
A Unique Child:
Creating
and
Thinking
Critically
thinking
Having their own ideas
• Thinking of ideas
• Finding ways to solve problems
• Finding new ways to do things
• Use the language of thinking and learning: think, know,
remember, forget, idea, makes sense, plan, learn, find out,
confused, figure out, trying to do.
• Model being a thinker, showing that you don’t always know,
are curious and sometimes puzzled, and can think and
find out.
• Encourage open-ended thinking by not settling on the first
ideas: What else is possible?
• Always respect children’s efforts and ideas, so they feel safe
to take a risk with a new idea.
• Talking aloud helps children to think and control what they
do. Model self-talk, describing your actions in play.
• Give children time to talk and think.
• Value questions, talk, and many possible responses, without
rushing toward answers too quickly.
• Support children’s interests over time, reminding them
of previous approaches and encouraging them to make
connections between their experiences.
• Model the creative process, showing your thinking about
some of the many possible ways forward.
• Sustained shared thinking helps children to explore ideas
and make links. Follow children’s lead in conversation, and
think about things together.
• Encourage children to describe problems they encounter,
and to suggest ways to solve the problem.
• Show and talk about strategies – how to do things –
including problem-solving, thinking and learning.
• Give feedback and help children to review their own
progress and learning. Talk with children about what they
are doing, how they plan to do it, what worked well and
what they would change next time.
• Model the plan-do-review process yourself.
• In planning activities, ask yourself: Is this an
opportunity for children to find their own ways to
represent and develop their own ideas? Avoid
children just reproducing someone else’s ideas.
• Build in opportunities for children to play with
materials before using them in planned tasks.
• Play is a key opportunity for children to think
creatively and flexibly, solve problems and link
ideas. Establish the enabling conditions for rich
play: space, time, flexible resources, choice,
control, warm and supportive relationships.
• Recognisable and predictable routines help
children to predict and make connections in their
experiences.
• Routines can be flexible, while still basically
orderly.
• Plan linked experiences that follow the ideas
children are really thinking about.
• Use mind-maps to represent thinking together.
• Develop a learning community which focuses on
how and not just what we are learning.
Making links
• Making links and noticing patterns in their experience
• Making predictions
• Testing their ideas
• Developing ideas of grouping, sequences, cause and effect
Choosing ways to do things
• Planning, making decisions about how to approach a task,
solve a problem and reach a goal
• Checking how well their activities are going
• Changing strategy as needed
• Reviewing how well the approach worked

8
PSED:Makingrelationships
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Making relationships
A Unique Child:
observing what a child is learning
• Enjoys the company of others and seeks contact with others
from birth.
• Gazes at faces and copies facial movements. e.g. sticking out
tongue, opening mouth and widening eyes.
• Responds when talked to, for example, moves arms and legs,
changes facial expression, moves body and makes mouth
movements.
• Recognises and is most responsive to main carer’s voice: face
brightens, activity increases when familiar carer appears.
• Responds to what carer is paying attention to, e.g. following
their gaze.
• Likes cuddles and being held: calms, snuggles in, smiles,
gazes at carer’s face or strokes carer’s skin.
• Make sure babies have their own special person in the
setting, who knows them really well and understands their
wants and needs.
• Tune in sensitively to babies, and provide warm, loving,
consistent care, responding quickly to babies’ needs.
• Hold and handle babies, since sensitive touch helps to
build security and attachment.
• Ensure that the key person or buddy is available to greet
a young baby at the beginning of the session, and to
hand them over to parents at the end of a session, so the
young baby is supported and communication with parents
is maintained.
• Engage in playful interactions that encourage young
babies to respond to, or mimic, adults.
• Follow the baby’s lead by repeating vocalisations,
mirroring movements and showing the baby that you are
‘listening’ fully.
• Notice when babies turn away, signalling their need for
less stimulation.
• Discover from parents the copying games that their
babies enjoy, and use these as the basis for your play.
• Talk with babies about special people, such as their family
members, e.g. grandparents.
• Ensure staff are aware of the importance of attachment
in relationships.
• Ensure the key person is paired with a ‘buddy’ who
knows the baby and family as well, and can step in
when necessary.
• At times of transition (such as shift changes) make sure
staff greet and say goodbye to babies and their carers.
This helps to develop secure and trusting three-way
relationships.
• Plan to have one-to-one time to interact with young
babies when they are in an alert and responsive state
and willing to engage.
• Display photos of family and other special people.
• Share knowledge about languages with staff and
parents and make a poster or book of greetings in all
languages used within the setting and the community.
• Repeat greetings at the start and end of each session,
so that young babies recognise and become familiar
with these daily rituals.
• Seeks to gain attention in a variety of ways, drawing others
into social interaction.
• Builds relationships with special people.
• Is wary of unfamiliar people.
• Interacts with others and explores new situations when
supported by familiar person.
• Shows interest in the activities of others and responds
differently to children and adults, e.g. may be more interested
in watching children than adults or may pay more attention
when children talk to them.
• Plays alongside others.
• Uses a familiar adult as a secure base from which to explore
independently in new environments, e.g. ventures away to
play and interact with others, but returns for a cuddle or
reassurance if becomes anxious.
• Plays cooperatively with a familiar adult, e.g. rolling a ball back
and forth.
• Involve all children in welcoming and caring for one
another.
• Give your full attention when young children look to you
for a response.
• Enable children to explore by providing a secure base for
them.
• Help young children to understand the feelings of others
by labelling emotions such as sadness or happiness.
• Play name games to welcome children to the setting
and help them get to know each other and the staff.
• Regularly evaluate the way you respond to different
children.
• Ensure there are opportunities for the child to play
alongside others and play cooperative games with a
familiar adult.
• Provide matching items to encourage adult and child
to mimic each other in a cooperative game. e.g. two
identical musical instruments.

9
PSED:Makingrelationships
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Making relationships
A Unique Child:
• Interested in others’ play and starting to join in.
• Seeks out others to share experiences.
• Shows affection and concern for people who are special to
them.
• May form a special friendship with another child.
• Ensure that children have opportunities to join in.
• Help them to recognise and understand the rules for
being together with others, such as waiting for a turn.
• Continue to talk about feelings such as sadness,
happiness, or feeling cross.
• Model ways of noticing how others are feeling and
comforting/helping them.
• Make time for children to be with their key person,
individually and in their key group.
• Create areas in which children can sit and chat with
friends, such as a snug den and cosy spaces.
• Provide resources that promote cooperation between
two children such as a big ball to roll or throw to each
other.
• Can play in a group, extending and elaborating play ideas,
e.g. building up a role-play activity with other children.
• Initiates play, offering cues to peers to join them.
• Keeps play going by responding to what others are saying or
doing.
• Demonstrates friendly behaviour, initiating conversations and
forming good relationships with peers and familiar adults.
• Support children in developing positive relationships by
challenging negative comments and actions towards
either peers or adults.
• Encourage children to choose to play with a variety of
friends from all backgrounds, so that everybody in the
group experiences being included.
• Help children understand the feelings of others by labelling
emotions such as sadness, happiness, feeling cross,
lonely, scared or worried.
• Plan support for children who have not yet made friends.
• Plan activities that require collaboration, such as
parachute activities and ring games.
• Provide stability in staffing, key person relationships and
in grouping of the children.
• Provide time, space and materials for children to
collaborate with one another in different ways, for
example, building constructions.
• Provide a role-play area resourced with materials
reflecting children’s family lives and communities.
Consider including resources reflecting lives that are
unfamiliar, to broaden children’s knowledge and reflect
an inclusive ethos.
• Choose books, puppets and dolls that help children
explore their ideas about friends and friendship and
to talk about feelings, e.g. someone saying ‘You can’t
play’.
• Initiates conversations, attends to and takes account of what
others say.
• Explains own knowledge and understanding, and asks
appropriate questions of others.
• Takes steps to resolve conflicts with other children, e.g.
finding a compromise.
Early Learning Goal
Children play co-operatively, taking turns with others. They
take account of one another’s ideas about how to organise
their activity. They show sensitivity to others’ needs and
feelings, and form positive relationships with adults and
other children.
• Support children in linking openly and confidently with
others, e.g. to seek help or check information.
• Model being a considerate and responsive partner in
interactions.
• Ensure that children and adults make opportunities to
listen to each other and explain their actions.
• Be aware of and respond to particular needs of children
who are learning English as an additional language.
• Ensure that children have opportunities over time to get
to know everyone in the group, not just their special
friends.
• Ensure children have opportunities to relate to their key
person, individually and in small groups.
• Provide activities that involve turn-taking and sharing in
small groups.
22-36 months

10
PSED:Self-confidenceandself-awareness
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Self-confidence and self-awareness
A Unique Child:
• Laughs and gurgles, e.g. shows pleasure at being tickled and
other physical interactions.
• Uses voice, gesture, eye contact and facial expression to
make contact with people and keep their attention.
• Show your pleasure in being with the baby.
• Be close by and available, to ensure that babies feel safe
and loved even when they are not the centre of adult
attention.
• Say or sing made-up rhymes or songs while stroking or
pointing to the babies’ hands, feet or cheeks.
• Respond to and build on babies’ expressions, actions,
and gestures. Babies will repeat actions that get a
positive response from you.
• Find out what babies like and dislike through talking to
their parents.
• Provide a sofa or comfy chair so that parents,
practitioners and young babies can sit together.
• Give babies toys to hold while you are preparing their
food, or gathering materials for a nappy change.
• Plan to have times when babies and older siblings or
friends can be together.
• Devote uninterrupted time to babies when you can play
with them when they are ready to engage. Be attentive
and fully focused.
• Plan time to share and reflect with parents on babies’
progress and development, ensuring appropriate
support is available where parents do not speak or
understand English.
• Enjoys finding own nose, eyes or tummy as part of naming
games.
• Learns that own voice and actions have effects on others.
• Uses pointing with eye gaze to make requests, and to share
an interest.
• Engages other person to help achieve a goal, e.g. to get an
object out of reach.
• Playfully help babies to recognise that they are separate
and different from others, e.g. pointing to own and baby’s
nose, eyes, fingers.
• Give opportunities for babies to have choice, where
possible.
• Follow young babies’ lead as they explore their
surroundings, people and resources.
• Talk to babies about puzzles they encounter such as how
to get their sock back from where it has fallen, asking
whether they can do it or if they might need help.
• Place mirrors where babies can see their own reflection.
Talk with them about what they see.
• Offer choices, e.g. different vegetables and fruit at
snack time or different toys.
• Allow enough space for babies to move, roll, stretch
and explore.
• Respond to what babies show you they are interested
in and want to do, by providing a variety of activities,
stories and games.
• Explores new toys and environments, but ‘checks in’ regularly
with familiar adult as and when needed.
• Gradually able to engage in pretend play with toys (supports
child to understand their own thinking may be different from
others).
• Demonstrates sense of self as an individual, e.g. wants to do
things independently, says “No” to adult.
• Make sure the child can explore from the secure, close-by
presence of their key person.
• Model pretend play.
• Share children’s pleasure when they do something for
themselves.
• Making choices is important for all children. Consider
ways in which you provide for children with disabilities
to make choices, and express preferences about their
carers and activities.
• Display photographs of carers, so that when young
children arrive, their parents can show them who will be
there to take care of them.
• Share with children photographs of their activities,
talking with them about what they did and how they felt.

11
PSED:Self-confidenceandself-awareness
40-60+
months
30-50 months
22-36 months
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Self-confidence and self-awareness
A Unique Child:
• Separates from main carer with support and encouragement
from a familiar adult.
• Expresses own preferences and interests.
• Recognise that children’s interest may last for short or
long periods, and that their interest and preferences vary.
• Value and support the decisions that children make
• Talk to children about choices they have made, and help
them understand that this may mean that they cannot do
something else.
• Be aware of cultural differences in attitudes and
expectations. Continue to share and explain practice
with parents, ensuring a two-way communication using
interpreter support where necessary.
• Encourage children to see adults as a resource and as
partners in their learning.
• Teach children to use and care for materials, and then
trust them to do so independently.
• Ensure that key practioners offer extra support to children
in new situations.
• Discuss with staff and parents how each child responds
to activities, adults and their peers.
• Build on this to plan future activities and experiences for
each child.
• As children differ in their degree of self-assurance, plan
to convey to each child that you appreciate them and
their efforts.
• Consult with parents about children’s varying levels of
confidence in different situations.
• Record individual achievements which reflect significant
progress for every child.
• Seek and exchange information with parents about
young children’s concerns, so that they can be
reassured if they feel uncertain.
• Vary activities so that children are introduced to different
materials.
• Make materials easily accessible at child height, to
ensure everybody can make choices.
• Can select and use activities and resources with help.
• Welcomes and values praise for what they have done.
• Enjoys responsibility of carrying out small tasks.
• Is more outgoing towards unfamiliar people and more
confident in new social situations.
• Confident to talk to other children when playing, and will
communicate freely about own home and community.
• Shows confidence in asking adults for help.
• Confident to speak to others about own needs, wants,
interests and opinions.
• Can describe self in positive terms and talk about abilities.
Early Learning Goal
Children are confident to try new activities, and say why
they like some activities more than others. They are
confident to speak in a familiar group, will talk about
their ideas, and will choose the resources they need for
their chosen activities. They say when they do or don’t
need help.
• Encourage children to explore and talk about what they
are learning, valuing their ideas and ways of doing things.
• Offer help with activities when asked but not before.
• Intervene when children need help with difficult situations,
e.g. is experiencing prejudice or unkindness.
• Recognising and enjoying children’s success with them
helps them to feel confident.
• Support children to feel good about their own success,
rather than relying on a judgement from you such as
wanting a sticker.
• Give time for children to pursue their learning without
interruption, to complete activities to their satisfaction,
and to return to activities.
• Provide experiences and activities that are challenging
but achievable.
• Provide opportunities for children to reflect on
successes, achievements and their own gifts and
talents.
• Provide regular opportunities for children to talk to their
small group about something they are interested in or
have done.
• Involve children in drawing or taking photographs of
favourite activities or places, to help them describe their
individual preferences and opinions.

12
PSED:Managingfeelingsandbehaviour
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Personal, Social and Emotional Development: Managing feelings and behaviour
A Unique Child:
• Is comforted by touch and people’s faces and voices.
• Seeks physical and emotional comfort by snuggling in to
trusted adults.
• Calms from being upset when held, rocked, spoken or sung
to with soothing voice.
• Shows a range of emotions such as pleasure, fear and
excitement.
• Reacts emotionally to other people’s emotions, e.g. smiles
when smiled at and becomes distressed if hears another child
crying.
• Find out as much as you can from parents about young
babies before they join the setting, so that the routines
you follow are familiar and comforting.
• Use calming processes such as rocking or hugging.
• Learn lullabies that children know from home and share
them with others in the setting.
• Have a cosy, quiet place for babies to be calm.
• Provide comfortable seating such as a sofa or cushions
for baby and key person to be together.
• Suggest to parents bringing something from home as a
transitional (comfort) object.
• Uses familiar adult to share feelings such as excitement or
pleasure, and for ‘emotional refuelling’ when feeling tired,
stressed or frustrated.
• Growing ability to soothe themselves, and may like to use a
comfort object.
• Cooperates with caregiving experiences, e.g. dressing.
• Beginning to understand ‘yes’, ‘no’ and some boundaries.
• Establish shared understandings between home and
setting about ways of responding to babies’ emotions.
• Make sure the key person stays close by and provides
a secure presence and a refuge at times a child may be
feeling anxious.
• Support children who are anxious on separating from their
parents by acknowledging their feelings and reassuring
them.
• Demonstrate clear and consistent boundaries and
reasonable yet challenging expectations.
• Have resources including picture books and stories that
focus on a range of emotions, such as ‘I am happy’.
• Keep toys and comforters in areas that are easy for
babies to locate.
• Ensure that children can use their comfort objects from
home when in the setting.
• Share information with parents to create consistency
between home and setting so that babies learn about
boundaries.
• Is aware of others’ feelings, for example, looks concerned if
hears crying or looks excited if hears a familiar happy voice.
• Growing sense of will and determination may result in feelings
of anger and frustration which are difficult to handle, e.g. may
have tantrums.
• Responds to a few appropriate boundaries, with
encouragement and support.
• Begins to learn that some things are theirs, some things are
shared, and some things belong to other people.
• Help young children to label emotions such as sadness
or happiness, by talking to them about their own feelings
and those of others.
• Be aware of and alert to possible dangers, while
recognising the importance of encouraging young
children’s sense of exploration and risk-taking.
• Reduce incidents of frustration and conflict by keeping
routines flexible so that young children can pursue their
interests.
• Choose books and stories in which characters help and
support each other.
• Duplicate some materials and resources to reduce
conflict, e.g. two tricycles or two copies of the same
book.

They should not be used as checklists. The age/stage bands overlap because these are not fixed age boundaries but suggest a typical range of development. 13
22-36 months
30-50 months
A Unique Child:
• Seeks comfort from familiar adults when needed.
• Can express their own feelings such as sad, happy, cross,
scared, worried.
• Responds to the feelings and wishes of others.
• Aware that some actions can hurt or harm others.
• Tries to help or give comfort when others are distressed.
• Shows understanding and cooperates with some boundaries
and routines.
• Can inhibit own actions/behaviours, e.g. stop themselves
from doing something they shouldn’t do.
• Growing ability to distract self when upset, e.g. by engaging in
a new play activity.
• Support children’s symbolic play, recognising that
pretending to do something can help a child to express
their feelings.
• Help children to understand their rights to be kept safe by
others, and encourage them to talk about ways to avoid
harming or hurting others.
• Help children to recognise when their actions hurt others.
Be wary of expecting children to say ‘sorry’ before they
have a real understanding of what this means.
• Have agreed procedures outlining how to respond to
changes in children’s behaviour.
• Share policies and practice with parents, ensuring an
accurate two-way exchange of information through
an interpreter or through translated materials, where
necessary.
• Provide areas to mirror different moods and
feelings- quiet restful areas as well as areas for active
exploration.
• Provide books, stories, puppets that can be used to
model responding to others’ feelings and being helpful
and supportive to them.
• Aware of own feelings, and knows that some actions and
words can hurt others’ feelings.
• Begins to accept the needs of others and can take turns and
share resources, sometimes with support from others.
• Can usually tolerate delay when needs are not immediately
met, and understands wishes may not always be met.
• Can usually adapt behaviour to different events, social
situations and changes in routine.
• Name and talk about a wide range of feelings and make it
clear that all feelings are understandable and acceptable,
including feeling angry, but that not all behaviours are.
• Model how you label and manage your own feelings, e.g.
‘I’m feeling a bit angry and I need to calm down, so I’m
going to…’
• Ask children for their ideas on what might make people
feel better when they are sad or cross.
• Show your own concern and respect for others, living
things and the environment.
• Establish routines with predictable sequences and events.
• Prepare children for changes that may occur in the
routine.
• Share with parents the rationale of boundaries and
expectations to maintain a joint approach.
• Model and involve children in finding solutions to problems
and conflicts.
• Collaborate with children in creating explicit rules for the
care of the environment.
• Provide photographs and pictures of emotions for
children to look at and talk about.
• Use Persona Dolls to help children consider feelings,
ways to help others feel better about themselves, and
dealing with conflicting opinions.
• Make available a range of music that captures different
moods.
• Put in place ways in which children can let others know
how they are feeling, such as pegging their own photo
onto a feelings tree or feelings faces washing line.
• Provide familiar, predictable routines, including
opportunities to help in appropriate tasks, e.g. dusting,
setting table or putting away toys.
• To support children with SEN, use a sequence of
photographs to show the routines in the setting.
• Set, explain and maintain clear, reasonable and
consistent limits so that children can feel safe and
secure in their play and other activities.
• Use pictures or consistent gestures to show children
with SEN the expected behaviours.
• Provide materials for a variety of role play themes.
• Provide a safe space for children to calm down or when
they need to be quiet.
• Provide activities that help children to develop safe
ways of dealing with anger and other strong feelings.

14
40-60+
months
A Unique Child:
• Understands that own actions affect other people, for
example, becomes upset or tries to comfort another child
when they realise they have upset them.
• Aware of the boundaries set, and of behavioural expectations
in the setting.
• Beginning to be able to negotiate and solve problems without
aggression, e.g. when someone has taken their toy.
Early Learning Goal
Children talk about how they and others show feelings,
talk about their own and others’ behaviour, and its
consequences, and know that some behaviour is
unacceptable. They work as part of a group or class,
and understand and follow the rules. They adjust their
behaviour to different situations, and take changes of
routine in their stride.
• Talk about fair and unfair situations, children’s feelings
about fairness, and how we can make things fair.
• Model being fair, e.g. when choosing children for special
jobs.
• Be alert to injustices and let children see that they are
addressed and resolved.
• Affirm and praise positive behaviour, explaining that it
makes children and adults feel happier.
• Encourage children to think about issues from the
viewpoint of others.
• Ensure that children have opportunities to identify and
discuss boundaries, so that they understand why they are
there and what they are intended to achieve.
• Make time to listen to children respectfully and kindly, and
explain to all the children why this is important. Children
will then know that they will be listened to when they raise
injustices.
• Plan small group circle times when children can explore
feelings, e.g. help children to recall when they were
happy, when they were excited, or when they felt lonely.
• Provide activities that require give and take or sharing
for things to be fair.
• Use Persona Dolls to support children in considering
fair ways to share and get on with each other.
• Involve children in agreeing codes of behaviour and
taking responsibility for implementing them.
• Provide books with stories about characters that follow
or break rules, and the effects of their behaviour on
others.
• Carefully prepare children with SEN, such as those with
autistic spectrum disorder, for any changes to their
routine.

CommunicationandLanguage:Listeningandattention
22-36 months
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Communication and Language: Listening and attention
A Unique Child:
• Turns toward a familiar sound then locates range of sounds
with accuracy.
• Listens to, distinguishes and responds to intonations and
sounds of voices.
• Reacts in interaction with others by smiling, looking and
moving.
• Quietens or alerts to the sound of speech.
• Looks intently at a person talking, but stops responding if
speaker turns away.
• Listens to familiar sounds, words, or finger plays.
• Fleeting Attention – not under child’s control, new stimuli takes
whole attention.
• Being physically close, making eye contact, using
touch or voice all provide ideal opportunities for
early conversations between adults and babies,
and between one baby and another.
• Encourage playfulness, turn-taking and responses,
including peek-a-boo and rhymes.
• Use a lively voice, with ups and downs to help
babies tune in.
• Sing songs and rhymes during everyday routines.
• Use repeated sounds, and words and phrases so
babies can begin to recognise particular sounds.
• Share stories, songs and rhymes from all cultures and in
babies’ home languages.
• Display photographs showing how young babies
communicate.
• Share favourite stories as babies are settling to sleep, or at
other quiet times.
• Plan times when you can sing with young babies, encouraging
them to join in.
• Create an environment which invites responses from babies
and adults, for example, touching, smiling, smelling, feeling,
listening, exploring, describing and sharing.
• Moves whole bodies to sounds they enjoy, such as music or a
regular beat.
• Has a strong exploratory impulse.
• Concentrates intently on an object or activity of own choosing
for short periods.
• Pays attention to dominant stimulus – easily distracted by
noises or other people talking.
• Listens to and enjoys rhythmic patterns in rhymes and stories.
• Enjoys rhymes and demonstrates listening by trying to join in
with actions or vocalisations.
• Rigid attention – may appear not to hear.
• Encourage young children to explore and imitate
sound.
• Talk about the different sounds they hear, such as a
tractor’s “chug chug” while sharing a book.
• Collect resources that children can listen to and learn to
distinguish between. These may include noises in the street,
and games that involve guessing which object makes a
particular sound
• Listens with interest to the noises adults make when they
read stories.
• Recognises and responds to many familiar sounds, e.g.
turning to a knock on the door, looking at or going to the door.
• Shows interest in play with sounds, songs and rhymes.
• Single channelled attention. Can shift to a different task if
attention fully obtained – using child’s name helps focus.
• Encourage repetition, rhythm and rhyme by using
tone and intonation as you tell, recite or sing
stories, poems and rhymes from books.
• Be aware of the needs of children learning English
as an additional language from a variety of cultures
and ask parents to share their favourites from their
home languages.
• Keep background noise to a minimum, e.g. use music or radio
briefly only for particular purposes.
• Use puppets and other props to encourage listening and
responding when singing a familiar song or reading from a
story book.
• Encourage children to learn one another’s names and to
pronounce them correctly.
• Ensure all staff can pronounce the names of children, parents
and other staff members. Make sure that shortened names
and nicknames are not substituted instead.

16
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Communication and Language: Listening and attention
A Unique Child:
• Listens to others one to one or in small groups, when
conversation interests them.
• Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.
• Joins in with repeated refrains and anticipates key events and
phrases in rhymes and stories.
• Focusing attention – still listen or do, but can shift own
attention.
• Is able to follow directions (if not intently focused on own
choice of activity).
• Model being a listener by listening to children and taking
account of what they say in your responses to them.
• Cue children, particularly those with communication
difficulties, into a change of conversation, e.g. ‘Now we
are going to talk about…’
• For those children who find it difficult to ‘listen and do’,
say their name before giving an instruction or asking a
question.
• Share rhymes, books and stories from many cultures,
sometimes using languages other than English,
particularly where children are learning English as an
additional language. Children then all hear a range of
languages and recognise the skill needed to speak more
than one.
• Introduce ‘rhyme time’ bags containing books to take
home and involve parents in rhymes and singing games.
• Ask parents to record regional variations of songs and
rhymes.
• Play games which involve listening for a signal, such as
‘Simon Says’, and use ‘ready, steady…go!’
• Use opportunities to stop and listen carefully for
environmental sounds, and talk about sounds you can
hear such as long, short, high, low.
• Explain why it is important to pay attention when others
are speaking.
• Give children opportunities both to speak and to listen,
ensuring that the needs of children learning English as
an additional language are met, so that they can
participate fully.
• When making up alliterative jingles, draw attention to
the similarities in sounds at the beginning of words
and emphasise the initial sound, e.g. “mmmmummy”,
“shshshshadow”, “K-K-K-KKaty”.
• Plan activities listening carefully to different speech
sounds, e.g. a sound chain copying the voice sound
around the circle, or identifying other children’s voices
on tape.
• Help children be aware of different voice sounds by
using a mirror to see what their mouth and tongue do
as they make different sounds.
• When singing or saying rhymes, talk about the
similarities in the rhyming words. Make up alternative
endings and encourage children to supply the last word
of the second line, e.g. ‘Hickory Dickory boot, The
mouse ran down the...
• Set up a listening area where children can enjoy rhymes
and stories.
• Choose stories with repeated refrains, dances and
action songs involving looking and pointing, and songs
that require replies and turn-taking such as ‘Tommy
Thumb’.
• Plan regular short periods when individuals listen
to others, such as singing a short song, sharing an
experience or describing something they have seen
or done.
• Use sand timers to help extend concentration for
children who find it difficult to focus their attention on
a task.
• Maintains attention, concentrates and sits quietly during
appropriate activity.
• Two-channelled attention – can listen and do for short span.
Early Learning Goal
Children listen attentively in a range of situations. They
listen to stories, accurately anticipating key events and
respond to what they hear with relevant comments,
questions or actions. They give their attention to what
others say and respond appropriately, while engaged in
another activity.
CommunicationandLanguage:Listeningandattention

17
CommunicationandLanguage:Understanding
22-36 months
Birth - 11
months
16-26 months
8-20 months
Communication and Language: Understanding
A Unique Child:
• Stops and looks when hears own name.
• Starts to understand contextual clues, e.g. familiar gestures,
words and sounds.
• Look at the baby and say their name. Make eye contact
and wait for them to react.
• Interpret and give meaning to the things young babies
show interest in, e.g. when babies point to an object tell
them what it is.
• Talk to babies about what you are doing and what is
happening, so they will link words with actions, e.g.
preparing lunch.
• Use actions to support your words, e.g. waving when you
say ‘bye bye’.
• Speak clearly. Babies respond well to a higher pitched,
sing-song voice.
• Use and repeat single words, so the baby can gradually
link the word to its meaning.
• Let babies see and hear the sequence of actions you
go through as you carry out familiar routines.
• Provide resources that stimulate babies’ interests such
as a shiny bell, a book or a mirror.
• Display lists of words from different home languages,
and invite parents and other adults to contribute.
Include languages such as Romany and Creole, since
seeing their languages reflected in the setting will
encourage all parents to feel involved and valued.
• When you use nursery rhymes, help children
understand the words by using actions as well.
• Developing the ability to follow others’ body language,
including pointing and gesture.
• Responds to the different things said when in a familiar
context with a special person (e.g. ‘Where’s Mummy?’,
‘Where’s your nose?’).
• Understanding of single words in context is developing, e.g.
‘cup’, ‘milk’, ‘daddy’.
• Selects familiar objects by name and will go and find objects
when asked, or identify objects from a group.
• Understands simple sentences (e.g. ‘Throw the ball.’)
• Be aware that young children’s understanding is much
greater than their ability to express their thoughts and
ideas.
• Recognise young children’s competence and appreciate
their efforts when they show their understanding of new
words and phrases.
• Plan play activities and provide resources which
encourage young children to engage in symbolic
play, e.g. putting a ‘baby’ to bed and talking to it
appropriately.
• Use pictures, books, real objects, and signs alongside
your words.
• Identifies action words by pointing to the right picture,
e.g., “Who’s jumping?”
• Understands more complex sentences, e.g. ‘Put your toys
away and then we’ll read a book.’
• Understands ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’ in simple questions
(e.g. Who’s that/can? What’s that? Where is.?).
• Developing understanding of simple concepts (e.g. big/little).
• Use talk to describe what children are doing by providing
a running commentary, e.g. ‘Oh, I can see what you are
doing. You have to put the milk in the cup first.’
• Provide opportunities for children to talk with other
children and adults about what they see, hear, think and
feel.
• Include things which excite young children’s curiosity,
such as hats, bubbles, shells, story books, seeds and
snails.
• Provide activities, such as cooking, where talk is used
to anticipate or initiate what children will be doing,
e.g. “We need some eggs. Let’s see if we can find
some in here.”

18
CommunicationandLanguage:Understanding
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Communication and Language: Understanding
A Unique Child:
• Understands use of objects (e.g. “What do we use to cut
things?’)
• Shows understanding of prepositions such as ‘under’, ‘on
top’, ‘behind’ by carrying out an action or selecting correct
picture.
• Responds to simple instructions, e.g. to get or put away an
object.
• Beginning to understand ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions.
• Prompt children’s thinking and discussion through
involvement in their play.
• Talk to children about what they have been doing and
help them to reflect upon and explain events, e.g. “You
told me this model was going to be a tractor. What’s this
lever for?”
• Give children clear directions and help them to deal with
those involving more than one action, e.g. “Put the cars
away, please, then come and wash your hands and get
ready for lunch”.
• When introducing a new activity, use mime and gesture to
support language development.
• Showing children a photograph of an activity such as
hand washing helps to reinforce understanding.
• Be aware that some children may watch another child in
order to know what to do, rather than understanding it
themselves.
• Set up shared experiences that children can reflect
upon, e.g. visits, cooking, or stories that can be re-
enacted.
• Help children to predict and order events coherently, by
providing props and materials that encourage children
to re-enact, using talk and action.
• Find out from parents how children make themselves
understood at home; confirm which their preferred
language is.
• Provide practical experiences that encourage children
to ask and respond to questions, e.g. explaining pulleys
or wet and dry sand.
• Introduce, alongside books, story props, such as
pictures, puppets and objects, to encourage children to
retell stories and to think about how the characters feel.
• Responds to instructions involving a two-part sequence.
Understands humour, e.g. nonsense rhymes, jokes.
• Able to follow a story without pictures or props.
• Listens and responds to ideas expressed by others in
conversation or discussion.
Early Learning Goal
Children follow instructions involving several ideas or
actions. They answer ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions about
their experiences and in response to stories or events.
• Ask children to think in advance about how they will
accomplish a task. Talk through and sequence the stages
together.
• Use stories from books to focus children’s attention on
predictions and explanations, e.g. “Why did the boat tip
over?”
• Help children to
◆ identify patterns, e.g. what generally happens to ‘good’
and ‘wicked’ characters at the end of stories
◆ draw conclusions: ‘The sky has gone dark. It must be
going to rain’
◆ explain effect: ‘It sank because it was too heavy’
◆ predict: ‘It might not grow in there if it is too dark’
◆ speculate: ‘What if the bridge falls down?’
• Set up displays that remind children of what they have
experienced, using objects, artefacts, photographs and
books.
• Provide for, initiate and join in imaginative play and
role-play, encouraging children to talk about what is
happening and to act out the scenarios in character.

19
CommunicationandLanguage:Speaking
Birth - 11
months
16-26 months
8-20 months
Communication and Language: Speaking
A Unique Child:
• Communicates needs and feelings in a variety of ways
including crying, gurgling, babbling and squealing.
• Makes own sounds in response when talked to by familiar
adults.
• Lifts arms in anticipation of being picked up.
• Practises and gradually develops speech sounds (babbling)
to communicate with adults; says sounds like ‘baba, nono,
gogo’.
• Find out from parents how they like to communicate with
their baby, noting especially the chosen language.
• Ensure parents understand the importance of talking with
babies in their home language.
• Encourage babies’ sounds and babbling by copying their
sounds in a turn-taking ‘conversation’.
• Communicate with parents to exchange and update
information about babies’ personal words.
• Learn and use key words in the home languages of
babies in the setting.
• Provide tapes and tape recorders so that parents can
record familiar, comforting sounds, such as lullabies in
home languages. Use these to help babies settle if they
are tired or distressed.
• Uses sounds in play, e.g. ‘brrrm’ for toy car.
• Uses single words.
• Frequently imitates words and sounds.
• Enjoys babbling and increasingly experiments with using
sounds and words to communicate for a range of purposes
(e.g. teddy, more, no, bye-bye.)
• Uses pointing with eye gaze to make requests, and to share
an interest.
• Creates personal words as they begin to develop language.
• Try to ‘tune in’ to the different messages young babies are
attempting to convey.
• Share the fun of discovery and value babies’ attempts at
words, e.g., by picking up a doll in response to “baba”.
• When babies try to say a word, repeat it back so they can
hear the name of the object clearly.
• Find out from parents greetings used in English and in
languages other than English, and use them in the setting.
• Recognise and equally value all languages spoken and
written by parents, staff and children.
• Find out from parents the words that children use for
things which are important to them, such as ‘bankie’
for their comfort blanket, remembering to extend this
question to home languages.
• Explain that strong foundations in a home language
support the development of English.
• Copies familiar expressions, e.g. ‘Oh dear’, ‘All gone’.
• Beginning to put two words together (e.g. ‘want ball’,
‘more juice’).
• Uses different types of everyday words (nouns, verbs and
adjectives, e.g. banana, go, sleep, hot).
• Beginning to ask simple questions.
• Beginning to talk about people and things that are not
present.
• Build vocabulary by giving choices, e.g. ‘apple or
satsuma?’
• Model building sentences by repeating what the child
says and adding another word, e.g. child says ‘car’, say
‘mummy’s car’ or ‘blue car’.
• Show children how to pronounce or use words by
responding and repeating what they say in the correct
way, rather than saying they are wrong.
• Accept and praise words and phrases in home languages,
saying English alternatives and encouraging their use.
• Encourage parents whose children are learning English as
an additional language to continue to encourage use of
the first language at home.
• Support children in using a variety of communication
strategies, including signing, where appropriate.
• Allow time to follow young children’s lead and have
fun together while developing vocabulary, e.g. saying
‘We’re jumping up’, ‘going down’.
• Plan to talk through and comment on some activities
to highlight specific vocabulary or language structures,
e.g. “You’ve caught the ball. I’ve caught the ball.
Nasima’s caught the ball”.
• Provide stories with repetitive phrases and structures to
read aloud to children to support specific vocabulary or
language structures.

20
30-50 months
22-36 months
A Unique Child:
• Uses language as a powerful means of widening contacts,
sharing feelings, experiences and thoughts.
• Holds a conversation, jumping from topic to topic.
• Learns new words very rapidly and is able to use them in
communicating.
• Uses gestures, sometimes with limited talk, e.g. reaches
toward toy, saying ‘I have it’.
• Uses a variety of questions (e.g. what, where, who).
• Uses simple sentences (e.g.’ Mummy gonna work.’)
• Beginning to use word endings (e.g. going, cats).
• Wait and allow the child time to start the conversation.
• Follow the child’s lead to talk about what they are
interested in.
• Give children ‘thinking time’. Wait for them to think about
what they want to say and put their thoughts into words,
without jumping in too soon to say something yourself.
• For children learning English as an additional language,
value non-verbal communications and those offered in
home languages.
• Add words to what children say, e.g. child says ‘Brush
dolly hair’, you say ‘Yes, Lucy is brushing dolly’s hair.’
• Talk with children to make links between their body
language and words, e.g. “Your face does look cross. Has
something upset you?”
• Introduce new words in the context of play and activities.
• Use a lot of statements and fewer questions. When
you do ask a question, use an open question with many
possible answers.
• Show interest in the words children use to communicate
and describe their experiences.
• Help children expand on what they say, introducing and
reinforcing the use of more complex sentences.
• Display pictures and photographs showing familiar
events, objects and activities and talk about them with
the children.
• Provide activities which help children to learn to
distinguish differences in sounds, word patterns and
rhythms.
• Plan to encourage correct use of language by telling
repetitive stories, and playing games which involve
repetition of words or phrases.
• Provide opportunities for children whose home
language is other than English, to use that language.
• Help children to build their vocabulary by extending the
range of their experiences.
• Ensure that all practitioners use correct grammar.
• Foster children’s enjoyment of spoken and written
language by providing interesting and stimulating play
opportunities.
• Beginning to use more complex sentences to link thoughts
(e.g. using and, because).
• Can retell a simple past event in correct order (e.g. went down
slide, hurt finger).
• Uses talk to connect ideas, explain what is happening and
anticipate what might happen next, recall and relive past
experiences.
• Questions why things happen and gives explanations. Asks
e.g. who, what, when, how.
• Uses a range of tenses (e.g. play, playing, will play, played).
• Uses intonation, rhythm and phrasing to make the meaning
clear to others.
• Uses vocabulary focused on objects and people that are of
particular importance to them.
• Builds up vocabulary that reflects the breadth of their
experiences.
• Uses talk in pretending that objects stand for something else
in play, e,g, ‘This box is my castle.’

21
40-60+
months
A Unique Child:
• Extends vocabulary, especially by grouping and naming,
exploring the meaning and sounds of new words.
• Uses language to imagine and recreate roles and experiences
in play situations.
• Links statements and sticks to a main theme or intention.
• Uses talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas,
feelings and events.
• Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play.
Early Learning Goal
Children express themselves effectively, showing
awareness of listeners’ needs. They use past, present
and future forms accurately when talking about events
that have happened or are to happen in the future.
They develop their own narratives and explanations by
connecting ideas or events.
• Support children’s growing ability to express a wide range
of feelings orally, and talk about their own experiences.
• Encourage conversation with others and demonstrate
appropriate conventions: turn-taking, waiting until
someone else has finished, listening to others and using
expressions such as “please”, “thank you” and “can
I…?”. At the same time, respond sensitively to social
conventions used at home.
• Show children how to use language for negotiating, by
saying “May I…?”, “Would it be all right…?”, “I think
that…” and “Will you…?” in your interactions with them.
• Model language appropriates for different audiences, for
example, a visitor.
• Encourage children to predict possible endings to stories
and events.
• Encourage children to experiment with words and sounds,
e.g. in nonsense rhymes.
• Encourage children to develop narratives in their play,
using words such as: first, last, next, before, after, all,
most, some, each, every.
• Encourage language play, e.g. through stories such as
‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and action songs that
require intonation.
• Value children’s contributions and use them to inform and
shape the direction of discussions.
• Give time for children to initiate discussions from shared
experiences and have conversations with each other.
• Give thinking time for children to decide what they want
to say and how they will say it.
• Set up collaborative tasks, for example, construction,
food activities or story-making through role-play.
• Help children to talk about and plan how they will
begin, what parts each will play and what materials they
will need.
• Decide on the key vocabulary linked to activities, and
ensure that all staff regularly model its use in a range of
contexts.
• Provide opportunities for talking for a wide range
of purposes, e.g. to present ideas to others as
descriptions, explanations, instructions or justifications,
and to discuss and plan individual or shared activities.
• Provide opportunities for children to participate in
meaningful speaking and listening activities. For
example, children can take models that they have
made to show children in another group or class and
explain how they were made.

22
PhysicalDevelopment:MovingandHandling
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Physical Development: Moving and Handling
A Unique Child:
• Turns head in response to sounds and sights.
• Gradually develops ability to hold up own head.
• Makes movements with arms and legs which gradually
become more controlled.
• Rolls over from front to back, from back to front.
• When lying on tummy becomes able to lift first head and then
chest, supporting self with forearms and then straight arms.
• Watches and explores hands and feet, e.g. when lying on
back lifts legs into vertical position and grasps feet.
• Reaches out for, touches and begins to hold objects.
• Explores objects with mouth, often picking up an object and
holding it to the mouth.
• Help babies to become aware of their own bodies through
touch and movement, e.g. clapping the baby’s hands
together, gently shaking baby’s foot.
• Play games, such as offering a small toy and taking it
again to rattle, or sail through the air.
• Encourage young babies in their efforts to gradually share
control of the bottle with you.
• Encourage babies to explore the space near them by
putting interesting things beside them, such as crinkly
paper, or light, soft material.
• Let babies kick and stretch freely on their tummies and
backs.
• Have well-planned areas that allow babies maximum
space to move, roll, stretch and explore in safety
indoors and outdoors.
• Provide resources that move or make a noise when
touched to stimulate babies to reach out with their
arms and legs.
• Provide objects to be sucked, pulled, squeezed and
held, to encourage the development of fine motor skills.
• Sits unsupported on the floor.
• When sitting, can lean forward to pick up small toys.
• Pulls to standing, holding on to furniture or person for
support.
• Crawls, bottom shuffles or rolls continuously to move around.
• Walks around furniture lifting one foot and stepping sideways
(cruising), and walks with one or both hands held by adult.
• Takes first few steps independently.
• Passes toys from one hand to the other.
• Holds an object in each hand and brings them together in the
middle, e.g. holds two blocks and bangs them together.
• Picks up small objects between thumb and fingers.
• Enjoys the sensory experience of making marks in damp
sand, paste or paint.
• Holds pen or crayon using a whole hand (palmar) grasp and
makes random marks with different strokes.
• Engage babies in varied physical experiences, such as
bouncing, rolling, rocking and splashing, both indoors and
outdoors.
• Encourage babies to use resources they can grasp,
squeeze and throw.
• Encourage babies to notice other babies and children
coming and going near to them.
• Support and encourage babies’ drive to stand and walk.
• Be aware that babies have little sense of danger when
their interests are focused on getting something they
want.
• Use feeding, changing and bathing times to share finger
plays, such as ‘Round and Round the Garden’.
• Show babies different ways to make marks in dough or
paint by swirling, poking or patting it.
• Provide novelty in the environment that encourages
babies to use all of their senses and move indoors and
outdoors.
• Offer low-level equipment so that babies can pull up
to a standing position, shuffle or walk, ensuring that
they are safe at all times, while not restricting their
explorations.
• Provide tunnels, slopes and low-level steps to stimulate
and challenge toddlers.
• Provide push-along toys and trundle trikes indoors and
out.
• Make toys easily accessible for children to reach and
fetch.
• Plan space to encourage free movement.
• Provide resources that stimulate babies to handle and
manipulate things, e.g. toys with buttons to press or
books with flaps to open.
• Use gloop (cornflour and water) in small trays so that
babies can enjoy putting fingers into it and lifting them
out.

16-26 months
22-36 months
A Unique Child:
• Walks upstairs holding hand of adult.
• Comes downstairs backwards on knees (crawling).
• Beginning to balance blocks to build a small tower.
• Makes connections between their movement and the marks
they make.
• Encourage independence as young children explore
particular patterns of movement, sometimes referred to as
schemas.
• Tell stories that encourage children to think about the way
they move.
• Treat mealtimes as an opportunity to help children to use
fingers, spoon and cup to feed themselves.
• Help young children to find comfortable ways of grasping,
holding and using things they wish to use, such as a
hammer, a paintbrush or a teapot in the home corner.
• Anticipate young children’s exuberance and ensure
the space is clear and suitable for their rapid and
sometimes unpredictable movements.
• Use music to stimulate exploration with rhythmic
movements.
• Provide different arrangements of toys and soft play
materials to encourage crawling, tumbling, rolling and
climbing.
• Provide a range of wheeled toys indoors and outdoors,
such as trundle trikes, buggies for dolls, push carts.
• Provide items for filling, emptying and carrying, such as
small paper carrier bags, baskets and buckets.
• Provide materials that enable children to help with
chores such as sweeping, pouring, digging or feeding
pets.
• Provide sticks, rollers and moulds for young children to
use in dough, clay or sand.
• Runs safely on whole foot.
• Squats with steadiness to rest or play with object on the
ground, and rises to feet without using hands.
• Climbs confidently and is beginning to pull themselves up on
nursery play climbing equipment.
• Can kick a large ball.
• Turns pages in a book, sometimes several at once.
• Shows control in holding and using jugs to pour, hammers,
books and mark-making tools.
• Beginning to use three fingers (tripod grip) to hold writing tools
• Imitates drawing simple shapes such as circles and lines.
• Walks upstairs or downstairs holding onto a rail two feet to a
step.
• May be beginning to show preference for dominant hand.
• Be aware that children can be very energetic for short
bursts and need periods of rest and relaxation.
• Value the ways children choose to move.
• Give as much opportunity as possible for children to move
freely between indoors and outdoors.
• Talk to children about their movements and help them to
explore new ways of moving, such as squirming, slithering
and twisting along the ground like a snake, and moving
quickly, slowly or on tiptoe.
• Encourage body tension activities such as stretching,
reaching, curling, twisting and turning.
• Be alert to the safety of children, particularly those who
might overstretch themselves.
• Encourage children in their efforts to do up buttons, pour
a drink, and manipulate objects in their play, e.g. ‘Can you
put the dolly’s arm in the coat?’
• Plan opportunities for children to tackle a range of
levels and surfaces including flat and hilly ground,
grass, pebbles, asphalt, smooth floors and carpets.
• Provide a range of large play equipment that can
be used in different ways, such as boxes, ladders,
A-frames and barrels.
• Plan time for children to experiment with equipment
and to practise movements they choose.
• Provide safe spaces and explain safety to children and
parents.
• Provide real and role-play opportunities for children
to create pathways, e.g. road layouts, or going on a
picnic.
• Provide CD and tape players, scarves, streamers and
musical instruments so that children can respond
spontaneously to music.
• Plan activities that involve moving and stopping, such
as musical bumps.
• Provide ‘tool boxes’ containing things that make marks,
so that children can explore their use both indoors and
outdoors.

24
40-60+
months
30-50 months
A Unique Child:
• Moves freely and with pleasure and confidence in a range of ways, such as
slithering, shuffling, rolling, crawling, walking, running, jumping, skipping, sliding
and hopping.
• Mounts stairs, steps or climbing equipment using alternate feet.
• Walks downstairs, two feet to each step while carrying a small object.
• Runs skilfully and negotiates space successfully, adjusting speed or direction to
avoid obstacles.
• Can stand momentarily on one foot when shown.
• Can catch a large ball.
• Draws lines and circles using gross motor movements.
• Uses one-handed tools and equipment, e.g. makes snips in paper with child
scissors.
• Holds pencil between thumb and two fingers, no longer using whole-hand grasp.
• Holds pencil near point between first two fingers and thumb and uses it with good
control.
• Can copy some letters, e.g. letters from their name.
• Encourage children to move with controlled
effort, and use associated vocabulary such
as ‘strong’, ‘firm’, ‘gentle’, ‘heavy’, ‘stretch’,
‘reach’, ‘tense’ and ‘floppy’.
• Use music of different styles and cultures to
create moods and talk about how people move
when they are sad, happy or cross.
• Motivate children to be active through games
such as follow the leader.
• Talk about why children should take care when
moving freely.
• Teach children the skills they need to use
equipment safely, e.g. cutting with scissors or
using tools.
• Encourage children to use the vocabulary of
movement, e.g. ‘gallop’, ‘slither’; of instruction
e.g. ‘follow’, ‘lead’ and ‘copy’. w
• Pose challenging questions such as ‘Can you
get all the way round the climbing frame without
your knees touching it?’
• Talk with children about the need to match their
actions to the space they are in.
• Show children how to collaborate in throwing,
rolling, fetching and receiving games,
encouraging children to play with one another
once their skills are sufficient.
• Introduce and encourage children to use the
vocabulary of manipulation, e.g. ‘squeeze’ and
‘prod.’
• Explain why safety is an important factor in
handling tools, equipment and materials, and
have sensible rules for everybody to follow.
• Provide time and space to enjoy energetic
play daily.
• Provide large portable equipment that
children can move about safely and
cooperatively to create their own structures,
such as milk crates, tyres, large cardboard
tubes.
• Practise movement skills through games with
beanbags, cones, balls and hoops.
• Plan activities where children can practise
moving in different ways and at different
speeds, balancing, target throwing, rolling,
kicking and catching
• Provide sufficient equipment for children to
share, so that waiting to take turns does not
spoil enjoyment.
• Mark out boundaries for some activities, such
as games involving wheeled toys or balls, so
that children can more easily regulate their
own activities.
• Provide activities that give children the
opportunity and motivation to practise
manipulative skills, e.g. cooking, painting,
clay and playing instruments.
• Provide play resources including small-
world toys, construction sets, threading and
posting toys, dolls’ clothes and material for
collage.
• Teach children skills of how to use tools and
materials effectively and safely and give them
opportunities to practise them.
• Provide a range of left-handed tools,
especially left-handed scissors, as needed.
• Support children with physical difficulties with
nonslip mats, small trays for equipment, and
triangular or thicker writing tools.
• Provide a range of construction toys of
different sizes, made of wood, rubber
or plastic, that fix together in a variety of
ways, e.g. by twisting, pushing, slotting or
magnetism.
• Experiments with different ways of moving.
• Jumps off an object and lands appropriately.
• Negotiates space successfully when playing racing and chasing games with other
children, adjusting speed or changing direction to avoid obstacles.
• Travels with confidence and skill around, under, over and through balancing and
climbing equipment.
• Shows increasing control over an object in pushing, patting, throwing, catching or
kicking it.
• Uses simple tools to effect changes to materials.
• Handles tools, objects, construction and malleable materials safely and with
increasing control.
• Shows a preference for a dominant hand.
• Begins to use anticlockwise movement and retrace vertical lines.
• Begins to form recognisable letters.
• Uses a pencil and holds it effectively to form recognisable letters, most of which
are correctly formed.
Early Learning Goal
Children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements.
They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They
handle equipment and tools effectively, including pencils for writing.

25
PhysicalDevelopment:Healthandself-care
16-26 months
Birth - 11
months
8-20 months
Physical Development: Health and self-care
A Unique Child:
• Responds to and thrives on warm, sensitive physical contact
and care.
• Expresses discomfort, hunger or thirst.
• Anticipates food routines with interest.
• Encourage babies gradually to share control of food and
drink.
• Talk to parents about the feeding patterns of young
babies.
• Talk to young babies as you stroke their cheeks, or pat
their backs, reminding them that you are there and they
are safe.
• Notice individual baby cues when spending special one-
to-one time with them to ensure they are ready to engage.
• Discuss the cultural needs and expectations for
skin and hair care with parents prior to entry to the
setting, ensuring that the needs of all children are met
appropriately and that parents’ wishes are respected.
• Be aware of specific health difficulties among the babies in
the group.
• Plan to take account of the individual cultural and
feeding needs of young babies in your group.
• There may be considerable variation in the way parents
feed their children at home. Remember that some
parents may need interpreter support.
• Trained staff can introduce baby massage sessions that
make young babies feel nurtured and promote a sense
of well-being. Involving parents helps them to use this
approach at home.
• Opens mouth for spoon.
• Holds own bottle or cup.
• Grasps finger foods and brings them to mouth.
• Attempts to use spoon: can guide towards mouth but food
often falls off.
• Can actively cooperate with nappy changing (lies still, helps
hold legs up).
• Starts to communicate urination, bowel movement.
• Talk to parents about how their baby communicates
needs. Ensure that parents and carers who speak
languages other than English are able to share their views.
• Help children to enjoy their food and appreciate healthier
choices by combining favourites with new tastes and
textures..
• Be aware that babies have little sense of danger when
their interests are focused on getting something they
want.
• Provide a comfortable, accessible place where babies
can rest or sleep when they want to.
• Plan alternative activities for babies who do not need
sleep at the same time as others do.
• Ensure mealtime seating allows young children to have
feet firmly on the floor or foot rest. This aids stability
and upper trunk control supporting hand-to-mouth co-
ordination.
• Provide safe surroundings in which young children have
freedom to move as they want, while being kept safe
by watchful adults.
• Develops own likes and dislikes in food and drink.
• Willing to try new food textures and tastes.
• Holds cup with both hands and drinks without much spilling.
• Clearly communicates wet or soiled nappy or pants.
• Shows some awareness of bladder and bowel urges.
• Shows awareness of what a potty or toilet is used for.
• Shows a desire to help with dressing/undressing and hygiene
routines.
• Encourage efforts such as when a young child offers their
arm to put in a coat sleeve.
• Be aware of and learn about differences in cultural
attitudes to children’s developing independence.
• Discuss cultural expectations for toileting, since in some
cultures young boys may be used to sitting rather than
standing at the toilet.
• Value children’s choices and encourage them to try
something new and healthy.
• Ensure that there is time for young children to complete
a self-chosen task, such as trying to put on their own
shoes.
• Establish routines that enable children to look after
themselves, e.g. putting their
clothes and aprons on hooks or washing themselves.
• Create time to discuss options so that young children
have choices between healthy options, such as
whether they will drink water or milk.
• Place water containers where children can find them
easily and get a drink when they need one.

26
30-50 months
22-36 months
A Unique Child:
• Feeds self competently with spoon.
• Drinks well without spilling.
• Clearly communicates their need for potty or toilet.
• Beginning to recognise danger and seeks support of
significant adults for help.
• Helps with clothing, e.g. puts on hat, unzips zipper on jacket,
takes off unbuttoned shirt.
• Beginning to be independent in self-care, but still often needs
adult support.
• Respond to how child communicates need for food,
drinks, toileting and when uncomfortable.
• Support parents’ routines with young children’s toileting
by having flexible routines and by encouraging children’s
efforts at independence.
• Support children’s growing independence as they do
things for themselves, such as pulling up their pants after
toileting, recognising differing parental expectations.
• Involve young children in preparing food.
• Give children the chance to talk about what they like to
eat, while reinforcing messages about healthier choices.
• Remember that children who have limited opportunity to
play outdoors may lack a sense of danger.
• Allow children to pour their own drinks, serve their own
food, choose a story, hold a puppet or water a plant.
• Offer choices for children in terms of potties, trainer
seats or steps.
• Create opportunities for moving towards independence,
e.g. have hand-washing facilities safely within reach.
• Provide pictures or objects representing options to
support children in making and expressing choices.
• Choose some stories that highlight the consequences
of choices.
• Ensure children’s safety, while not unduly inhibiting their
risk-taking.
• Display a colourful daily menu showing healthy meals
and snacks and discuss choices with the children,
reminding them, e.g. that they tried something
previously and might like to try it again or encouraging
them to try something new.
• Be aware of eating habits at home and of the different
ways people eat their food, e.g. that eating with clean
fingers is as skilled and equally valued as using cutlery.
• Can tell adults when hungry or tired or when they want to rest
or play.
• Observes the effects of activity on their bodies.
• Understands that equipment and tools have to be used safely.
• Gains more bowel and bladder control and can attend to
toileting needs most of the time themselves.
• Can usually manage washing and drying hands.
• Dresses with help, e.g. puts arms into open-fronted coat or
shirt when held up, pulls up own trousers, and pulls up zipper
once it is fastened at the bottom.
• Talk with children about why you encourage them to rest
when they are tired or why they need to wear wellingtons
when it is muddy outdoors.
• Encourage children to notice the changes in their bodies
after exercise, such as their heart beating faster.
• Talk with children about the importance of hand-washing.
• Help children who are struggling with self-care by leaving
a last small step for them to complete, e.g. pulling up their
trousers from just below the waist.
• Provide a cosy place with a cushion and a soft light
where a child can rest quietly if they need to.
• Plan so that children can be active in a range of ways,
including while using a wheelchair.
• Encourage children to be active and energetic by
organising lively games, since physical activity is
important in maintaining good health and in guarding
against children becoming overweight or obese in
later life.

27
40-60+
months
A Unique Child:
• Eats a healthy range of foodstuffs and understands need for
variety in food.
• Usually dry and clean during the day.
• Shows some understanding that good practices with regard
to exercise, eating, sleeping and hygiene can contribute to
good health.
• Shows understanding of the need for safety when tackling
new challenges, and considers and manages some risks.
• Shows understanding of how to transport and store
equipment safely.
• Practices some appropriate safety measures without direct
supervision.
Early Learning Goal
Children know the importance for good health of physical
exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep
healthy and safe. They manage their own basic hygiene
and personal needs successfully, including dressing and
going to the toilet independently.
• Acknowledge and encourage children’s efforts to manage
their personal needs, and to use and return resources
appropriately.
• Promote health awareness by talking with children
about exercise, its effect on their bodies and the positive
contribution it can make to their health.
• Be sensitive to varying family expectations and life
patterns when encouraging thinking about health.
• Discuss with children why they get hot and encourage
them to think about the effects of the environment, such
as whether opening a window helps everybody to be
cooler.
• Plan opportunities, particularly after exercise, for
children to talk about how their bodies feel.
• Find ways to involve children so that they are all able
to be active in ways that interest them and match their
health and ability.

28
Literacy:Reading
22-36 months
8-20 months
16-26 months
Birth - 11
months
Literacy: Reading
A Unique Child:
• Enjoys looking at books and other printed material with
familiar people.
• Use finger play, rhymes and familiar songs from home to
support young babies’ enjoyment.
• Collect a range of board books, cloth books and stories
to share with young babies.
• Handles books and printed material with interest. • Notice and support babies’ developing responses as they
learn to anticipate and join in with finger and word play.
• Let children handle books and draw their attention to
pictures.
• Tell, as well as read, stories, looking at and interacting
with young babies.
• Make family books using small photo albums with
photos of family members, significant people in the
child’s life, familiar everyday objects.
• Interested in books and rhymes and may have favourites. • Encourage and support children’s responses to picture
books and stories you read with them.
• Use different voices to tell stories and encourage young
children to join in wherever possible.
• Provide CDs of rhymes, stories, sounds and spoken
words.
• Provide picture books, books with flaps or hidden
words, books with accompanying CDs and story
sacks.
• Provide story sacks for parents to take them home to
encourage use of books and talk about stories.
• Has some favourite stories, rhymes, songs, poems or jingles.
• Repeats words or phrases from familiar stories.
• Fills in the missing word or phrase in a known rhyme, story or
game, e.g. ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on a …’.
• Encourage children to use the stories they hear in their
play.
• Read stories that children already know, pausing at
intervals to encourage them to ‘read’ the next word.
• Create an attractive book area where children and
adults can enjoy books together.
• Find opportunities to tell and read stories to children,
using puppets, soft toys, or real objects as props.
• Provide stories, pictures and puppets which allow
children to experience and talk about how characters
feel.

29
Literacy:Reading
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Literacy: Reading
A Unique Child:
• Enjoys rhyming and rhythmic activities.
• Shows awareness of rhyme and alliteration.
• Recognises rhythm in spoken words.
• Listens to and joins in with stories and poems, one-to-one
and also in small groups.
• Joins in with repeated refrains and anticipates key events and
phrases in rhymes and stories.
• Beginning to be aware of the way stories are structured.
• Suggests how the story might end.
• Listens to stories with increasing attention and recall.
• Describes main story settings, events and principal characters.
• Shows interest in illustrations and print in books and print in
the environment.
• Recognises familiar words and signs such as own name and
advertising logos.
• Looks at books independently.
• Handles books carefully.
• Knows information can be relayed in the form of print.
• Holds books the correct way up and turns pages.
• Knows that print carries meaning and, in English, is read from
left to right and top to bottom.
• Focus on meaningful print such as a child’s name,
words on a cereal packet or a book title, in order to
discuss similarities and differences between symbols.
• Help children to understand what a word is by using
names and labels and by pointing out words in the
environment and in books.
• Provide dual language books and read them with all
children, to raise awareness of different scripts. Try to
match dual language books to languages spoken by
families in the setting.
• Remember not all languages have written forms and
not all families are literate either in English, or in a
different home language.
• Discuss with children the characters in books being
read.
• Encourage them to predict outcomes, to think of
alternative endings and to compare plots and the
feelings of characters with their own experiences.
• Plan to include home language and bilingual story
sessions by involving qualified bilingual adults, as well
as enlisting the help of parents.
• Provide some simple poetry, song, fiction and non-fiction
books.
• Provide fact and fiction books in all areas, e.g.
construction area as well as the book area.
• Provide books containing photographs of the children
that can be read by adults and that children can begin to
‘read’ by themselves.
• Add child-made books and adult-scribed stories to the
book area and use these for sharing stories with others.
• Create an environment rich in print where children can
learn about words, e.g. using names, signs, posters.
• When children can see the text, e.g. using big books.
model the language of print, such as letter, word, page,
beginning, end, first, last, middle.
• Introduce children to books and other materials that
provide information or instructions. Carry out activities
using instructions, such as reading a recipe to make a
cake.
• Ensure access to stories for all children by using a range
of visual cues and story props.
• Continues a rhyming string.
• Hears and says the initial sound in words.
• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them
together and knows which letters represent some of them.
• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of
the alphabet.
• Begins to read words and simple sentences.
• Uses vocabulary and forms of speech that are increasingly
influenced by their experiences of books.
• Enjoys an increasing range of books.
• Knows that information can be retrieved from books and
computers.
Early Learning Goal
Children read and understand simple sentences. They
use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read
them aloud accurately. They also read some common
irregular words. They demonstrate understanding when
talking with others about what they have read.
• Discuss and model ways of finding out information
from non-fiction texts.
• Provide story sacks and boxes and make them with
the children for use in the setting and at home.
• Encourage children to recall words they see frequently,
such as their own and friends’ names.
• Model oral blending of sounds to make words in
everyday contexts, e.g. ‘Can you get your h-a-t hat?’
• Play games like word letter bingo to develop children’s
phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
• Model to children how simple words can be
segmented into sounds and blended together to make
words.
• Support and scaffold individual children’s reading as
opportunities arise.
• Encourage children to add to their first-hand experience
of the world through the use of books, other texts
and information, and information and communication
technology (ICT).
• Help children to identify the main events in a story and to
enact stories, as the basis for further imaginative play.
• Provide story boards and props which support children to
talk about a story’s characters and sequence of events.
• When children are ready (usually, but not always, by the
age of five) provide regular systematic synthetic phonics
sessions. These should be multisensory in order to
capture their interests, sustain motivation and reinforce
learning.
• Demonstrate using phonics as the prime approach to
decode words while children can see the text, e.g. using
big books.
• Provide varied texts and encourage children to use all their
skills including their phonic knowledge to decode words.
• Provide some simple texts which children can decode to
give them confidence and to practise their developing skills.

30
Literacy:Writing
16-26 months
22-36 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Literacy: Writing
A Unique Child:
Children’s later writing is based on skills and understandings
which they develop as babies and toddlers. Before they
can write, they need to learn to use spoken language to
communicate. Later they learn to write down the words they
can say. (See the roots of Writing in Communication and
language).
Early mark-making is not the same as writing.It is a sensory
and physical experience for babies and toddlers, which they do
not yet connect to forming symbols which can communicate
meaning.(See roots of mark-making and handwriting in Playing
and exploring and Physical Development).
See Communication and Language See Communication and Language
• Distinguishes between the different marks they make. • Listen and support what children tell you about the marks
they make.
• Draw attention to marks, signs and symbols in the
environment and talk about what they represent.
Ensure this involves recognition of English and other
relevant scripts.
• Provide materials which reflect a cultural spread, so that
children see symbols and marks with which they are
familiar, e.g. Chinese script on a shopping bag.

31
Literacy:Writing
30-50 months
40-60+
months
Literacy: Writing
A Unique Child:
• Sometimes gives meaning to marks as they draw and paint.
• Ascribes meanings to marks that they see in different places.
• Notice and encourage the marks children make and the
meanings that they give to them, such as when a child
covers a whole piece of paper and says, “I’m writing”.
• Support children in recognising and writing their own
names.
• Make books with children of activities they have been
doing, using photographs of them as illustrations.
• Write down things children say to support their
developing understanding that what they say can
be written down and then read and understood by
someone else. Encourage parents to do this as well.
• Model writing for a purpose, e.g. a shopping list,
message for parents, or reminder for ourselves.
• Model writing poems and short stories, writing down
ideas suggested by the children.
• Provide activities during which children will experiment
with writing, for example, leaving a message.
• Include opportunities for writing during role-play and
other activities.
• Encourage the children to use their phonic knowledge
when writing.
• Gives meaning to marks they make as they draw, write and
paint.
• Begins to break the flow of speech into words.
• Continues a rhyming string.
• Hears and says the initial sound in words.
• Can segment the sounds in simple words and blend them
together.
• Links sounds to letters, naming and sounding the letters of
the alphabet.
• Uses some clearly identifiable letters to communicate
meaning, representing some sounds correctly and in
sequence.
• Writes own name and other things such as labels,captions.
• Attempts to write short sentences in meaningful contexts.
Early Learning Goal
Children use their phonic knowledge to write words
in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also
write some irregular common words. They write simple
sentences which can be read by themselves and
others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are
phonetically plausible.
• Talk to children about the letters that represent the sounds
they hear at the beginning of their own names and other
familiar words.
• Demonstrate writing so that children can see spelling in
action.
• Demonstrate how to segment the sounds(phonemes) in
simple words and how the sounds are represented by
letters (graphemes).
• Expect them to apply their own grapheme/phoneme
knowledge to what they write in meaningful contexts.
• Support and scaffold individual children’s writing as
opportunities arise.
• Provide word banks and writing resources for both
indoor and outdoor play.
• Provide a range of opportunities to write for different
purposes about things that interest children.
• Resource role-play areas with listening and writing
equipment Ensure that role-play areas encourage
writing of signs with a real purpose, e.g. a pet shop.
• Plan fun activities and games that help children
create rhyming strings of real and imaginary words,
e.g. Maddie, daddy, baddie, laddie.
• When children are ready (usually, but not always, by the
age of five) provide regular systematic synthetic phonics
sessions. These should be multisensory in order to
capture their interests, sustain motivation and reinforce
learning.

32
Mathematics:Numbers
22-36 months
Birth - 11
months
8-20 months
16-26 months
Mathematics: Numbers
A Unique Child:
• Notices changes in number of objects/images or sounds in
group of up to 3.
• Sing number rhymes as you dress or change babies, e.g.
‘One, Two, Buckle My Shoe’.
• Move with babies to the rhythm patterns in familiar songs
and rhymes.
• Encourage babies to join in tapping and clapping along to
simple rhythms.
• Display favourite things so that a young baby can see
them.
• Provide a small group of the same objects in treasure
baskets, as well as single items, e.g. two fir cones or
three shells.
• Create a mobile, occasionally changing the number of
items you hang on it.
• Collect number rhymes which are repetitive and are
related to children’s actions and experiences, for
example, ‘Peter Hammers with One Hammer’.
• Use song and rhymes during personal routines, e.g.
‘Two Little Eyes to Look Around’, pointing to their eyes,
one by one.
• Collect number and counting rhymes from a range of
cultures and in other languages. This will benefit all
children and will give additional support for children
learning English as an additional language.
• Develops an awareness of number names through their
enjoyment of action rhymes and songs that relate to their
experience of numbers.
• Has some understanding that things exist, even when out of
sight.
• Knows that things exist, even when out of sight.
• Beginning to organise and categorise objects, e.g. putting all
the teddy bears together or teddies and cars in separate piles.
• Says some counting words randomly.
• Use number words in meaningful contexts, e.g. ‘Here is
your other mitten. Now we have two’.
• Talk to young children about ‘lots’ and ‘few’ as they play.
• Talk about young children’s choices and, where
appropriate, demonstrate how counting helps us to find
out how many.
• Talk about the maths in everyday situations, e.g. doing up
a coat, one hole for each button.
• Tell parents about all the ways children learn about
numbers in your setting. Have interpreter support or
translated materials to support children and families
learning English as an additional language
• Provide varied opportunities to explore ‘lots’ and ‘few’
in play.
• Equip the role-play area with things that can be sorted
in different ways.
• Provide collections of objects that can be sorted and
matched in various ways.
• Provide resources that support children in making one-
to-one correspondences, e.g. giving each dolly a cup.
• Selects a small number of objects from a group when asked,
for example, ‘please give me one’, ‘please give me two’.
• Recites some number names in sequence.
• Creates and experiments with symbols and marks
representing ideas of number.
• Begins to make comparisons between quantities.
• Uses some language of quantities, such as ‘more’ and ‘a lot’.
• Knows that a group of things changes in quantity when
something is added or taken away.
• Encourage parents of children learning English as an
additional language to talk in their home language about
quantities and numbers.
• Sing counting songs and rhymes which help to develop
children’s understanding of number, such as ‘Two Little
Dickie Birds’.
• Play games which relate to number order, addition and
subtraction, such as hopscotch and skittles and target
games.
• Make a display with the children about their favourite
things. Talk about how many like apples, or which of
them watches a particular TV programme at home.
• Provide props for children to act out counting songs
and rhymes.
• Provide games and equipment that offer opportunities
for counting, such as skittles.
• Plan to incorporate a mathematical component in areas
such as the sand, water or other play areas.

33
Mathematics:Numbers
40-60+
months
30-50 months
A Unique Child:
• Uses some number names and number language
spontaneously.
• Uses some number names accurately in play.
• Recites numbers in order to 10.
• Knows that numbers identify how many objects are in a set.
• Beginning to represent numbers using fingers, marks on paper
or pictures.
• Sometimes matches numeral and quantity correctly.
• Shows curiosity about numbers by offering comments or
asking questions.
• Compares two groups of objects, saying when they have the
same number.
• Shows an interest in number problems.
• Separates a group of three or four objects in different ways,
beginning to recognise that the total is still the same.
• Shows an interest in numerals in the environment.
• Shows an interest in representing numbers.
• Realises not only objects, but anything can be counted,
including steps, claps or jumps.
• Use number language, e.g. ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’, ‘lots’,
‘fewer’, ‘hundreds’, ‘how many?’ and ‘count’ in a variety
of situations.
• Support children’s developing understanding of
abstraction by counting things that are not objects, such
as hops, jumps, clicks or claps.
• Model counting of objects in a random layout, showing
the result is always the same as long as each object is
only counted once.
• Model and encourage use of mathematical language e.g.
asking questions such as ‘How many saucepans will fit on
the shelf?’
• Help children to understand that one thing can be shared
by number of pieces, e.g. a pizza.
• As you read number stories or rhymes, ask e.g. ‘When
one more frog jumps in, how many will there be in the
pool altogether?’
• Use pictures and objects to illustrate counting songs,
rhymes and number stories.
• Encourage children to use mark-making to support their
thinking about numbers and simple problems.
• Talk with children about the strategies they are using,
e.g. to work out a solution to a simple problem by using
fingers or counting aloud.
• Give children a reason to count, e.g. by asking them to
select enough wrist bands for three friends to play with
the puppets.
• Enable children to note the ‘missing set’, e.g. ‘There
are none left’ when sharing things out.
• Provide number labels for children to use, e.g.
by putting a number label on each bike and a
corresponding number on each parking space.
• Include counting money and change in role-play
games.
• Create opportunities for children to separate objects
into unequal groups as well as equal groups.
• Provide story props that children can use in their play,
e.g. varieties of fruit and several baskets like Handa’s in
the story Handa’s Surprise by Eileen Browne.
• Recognise some numerals of personal significance.
• Recognises numerals 1 to 5.
• Counts up to three or four objects by saying one number
name for each item.
• Counts actions or objects which cannot be moved.
• Counts objects to 10, and beginning to count beyond 10.
• Counts out up to six objects from a larger group.
• Encourage estimation, e.g. estimate how many
sandwiches to make for the picnic.
• Encourage use of mathematical language, e.g. number
names to ten: ‘Have you got enough to give me three?’
• Ensure that children are involved in making displays, e.g.
making their own pictograms of lunch choices. Develop
this as a 3D representation using bricks and discuss the
most popular choices.
• Add numerals to all areas of learning and development,
e.g. to a display of a favourite story, such as ‘The Three
Billy Goats Gruff’.
• Provide collections of interesting things for children to
sort, order, count and label in their play.
• Display numerals in purposeful contexts, e.g. a sign
showing how many children can play on a number
track.
• Use tactile numeral cards made from sandpaper, velvet
or string.
• Create opportunities for children to experiment with a
number of objects, the written numeral and the written
number word. Develop this through matching activities
with a range of numbers, numerals and a selection of
objects.

34
Mathematics:Numbers
A Unique Child:
• Selects the correct numeral to represent 1 to 5, then 1 to 10
objects.
• Counts an irregular arrangement of up to ten objects.
• Estimates how many objects they can see and checks by
counting them.
• Uses the language of ‘more’ and ‘fewer’ to compare two sets
of objects.
• Finds the total number of items in two groups by counting all
of them.
• Says the number that is one more than a given number.
• Finds one more or one less from a group of up to five objects,
then ten objects.
• In practical activities and discussion, beginning to use the
vocabulary involved in adding and subtracting.
• Records, using marks that they can interpret and explain.
• Begins to identify own mathematical problems based on own
interests and fascinations.
Early Learning Goal
Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20,
place them in order and say which number is one more
or one less than a given number. Using quantities and
objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers
and count on or back to find the answer. They solve
problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
• Make books about numbers that have meaning for the
child such as favourite numbers, birth dates or telephone
numbers.
• Use rhymes, songs and stories involving counting on and
counting back in ones, twos, fives and tens.
• Emphasise the empty set and introduce the concept of
nothing or zero.
• Show interest in how children solve problems and value
their different solutions.
• Make sure children are secure about the order of numbers
before asking what comes after or before each number.
• Discuss with children how problems relate to others they
have met, and their different solutions.
• Talk about the methods children use to answer a problem
they have posed, e.g. ‘Get one more, and then we will
both have two.’
• Encourage children to make up their own story problems
for other children to solve.
• Encourage children to extend problems, e.g. “Suppose
there were three people to share the bricks between
instead of two”.
• Use mathematical vocabulary and demonstrate methods
of recording, using standard notation where appropriate.
• Give children learning English as additional language
opportunities to work in their home language to ensure
accurate understanding of concepts.
• Use a 100 square to show number patterns.
• Encourage children to count the things they see and
talk about and use numbers beyond ten
• Make number games readily available and teach
children how to use them.
• Display interesting books about number.
• Play games such as hide and seek that involve
counting.
• Encourage children to record what they have done, e.g.
by drawing or tallying.
• Use number staircases to show a starting point and
how you arrive at another point when something is
added or taken away.
• Provide a wide range of number resources and
encourage children to be creative in identifying and
devising problems and solutions in all areas of learning.
• Make number lines available for reference and
encourage children to use them in their own play.
• Big number lines may be more appropriate than
counters for children with physical impairments.
• Help children to understand that five fingers on each
hand make a total of ten fingers altogether, or that two
rows of three eggs in the box make six eggs altogether.

35
Mathematics:Shape,spaceandmeasure
22-36 months
16-26 months
Birth - 11
months
8-20 months
Mathematics: Shape, space and measure
A Unique Child:
Babies’ early awareness of shape, space and measure grows
from their sensory awareness and opportunities to observe
objects and their movements, and to play and explore.
See Characteristics of Effective Learning - Playing and
Exploring, and Physical Development.
• Recognises big things and small things in meaningful contexts.
• Gets to know and enjoy daily routines, such as getting-up
time, mealtimes, nappy time, and bedtime.
• Play games that involve curling and stretching, popping
up and bobbing down.
• Encourage babies’ explorations of the characteristics of
objects, e.g. by rolling a ball to them.
• Talk about what objects are like and how objects, such as
a sponge, can change their shape by being squeezed or
stretched.
• Provide a range of objects of various textures and
weights in treasure baskets to excite and encourage
babies’ interests.
• Look at books showing objects such as a big truck and
a little truck; or a big cat and a small kitten.
• Use story props to support all children and particularly
those learning English as an additional language.
• Attempts, sometimes successfully, to fit shapes into spaces on
inset boards or jigsaw puzzles.
• Uses blocks to create their own simple structures and
arrangements.
• Enjoys filling and emptying containers.
• Associates a sequence of actions with daily routines.
• Beginning to understand that things might happen ‘now’.
• Use ‘tidy up time’ to promote logic and reasoning about
where things fit in or are kept.
• Talk to children, as they play with water or sand, to
encourage them to think about when something is full,
empty or holds more.
• Help young children to create different arrangements in
the layout of road and rail tracks.
• Highlight patterns in daily activities and routines.
• Help children use their bodies to explore shape, through
touching, seeing and feeling shape in art, music and
dance.
• Encourage children, when helping with domestic tasks,
to put all the pieces of apple on one dish and all the
pieces of celery on another for snacks.
• Use pictures or shapes of objects to indicate where
things are kept and encourage children to work out
where things belong.
• Provide different sizes and shapes of containers
in water play, so that children can experiment with
quantities and measures.
• Offer a range of puzzles with large pieces and knobs
or handles to support success in fitting shapes into
spaces.
• Notices simple shapes and patterns in pictures.
• Beginning to categorise objects according to properties such
as shape or size.
• Begins to use the language of size.
• Understands some talk about immediate past and future, e.g.
‘before’, ‘later’ or ‘soon’.
• Anticipates specific time-based events such as mealtimes or
home time.
• Talk about and help children to recognise patterns.
• Draw children’s attention to the patterns e.g. square/
oblong/square which emerges as you fold or unfold a
tablecloth or napkin.
• Use descriptive words like ‘big’ and ‘little’ in everyday play
situations and through books and stories.
• Be consistent in your use of vocabulary for weight and
mass.
• Collect pictures that illustrate the use of shapes and
patterns from a variety of cultures, e.g. Arabic designs.
• Provide opportunities for children to measure time
(sand timer), weight (balances) and length (standard
and non-standard units).
• Vary the volume and capacity equipment in the sand,
water and other play areas to maintain interest.
• Use coins for sorting on play trays and into bags,
purses and containers.

36
Mathematics:Shape,spaceandmeasure
30-50 months
40-60+
months
Mathematics: Shape, space and measure
A Unique Child:
• Measure for a purpose, such as finding out whether a
teddy will fit in a bed.
• Shows an interest in shape and space by playing with shapes
or making arrangements with objects.
• Shows awareness of similarities of shapes in the environment.
• Uses positional language.
• Shows interest in shape by sustained construction activity or
by talking about shapes or arrangements.
• Shows interest in shapes in the environment.
• Uses shapes appropriately for tasks.
• Beginning to talk about the shapes of everyday objects,
e.g. ‘round’ and ‘tall’.
• Demonstrate the language for shape, position and
measures in discussions, e.g. ‘sphere’, ‘shape’, ‘box’,
‘in’, ‘on’, ‘inside’, ‘under’, long, longer’, ‘longest’, ‘short’,
shorter’, ’shortest’, ‘heavy’, ‘light’, ‘full’ and ‘empty’.
• Find out and use equivalent terms for these in home
languages.
• Encourage children to talk about the shapes they see and
use and how they are arranged and used in constructions.
• Value children’s constructions, e.g. helping to display
them or taking photographs of them.
• Organise the environment to foster shape matching,
e.g. pictures of different bricks on containers to show
where they are kept.
• Have large and small blocks and boxes available for
construction both indoors and outdoors.
• Play games involving children positioning themselves
inside, behind, on top and so on.
• Provide rich and varied opportunities for comparing
length, weight, capacity and time.
• Use stories such as Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins to
talk about distance and stimulate discussion about
non-standard units and the need for standard units.
• Show pictures that have symmetry or pattern and talk
to children about them.
• Beginning to use mathematical names for ‘solid’ 3D shapes
and ‘flat’ 2D shapes, and mathematical terms to describe
shapes.
• Selects a particular named shape.
• Can describe their relative position such as ‘behind’ or
‘next to’.
• Orders two or three items by length or height.
• Orders two items by weight or capacity.
• Uses familiar objects and common shapes to create and
recreate patterns and build models.
• Uses everyday language related to time.
• Beginning to use everyday language related to money.
• Orders and sequences familiar events.
• Measures short periods of time in simple ways.
Early Learning Goal
Children use everyday language to talk about size,
weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to
compare quantities and objects and to solve problems.
They recognise, create and describe patterns. They
explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes
and use mathematical language to describe them.
• Ask ‘silly’ questions, e.g. show a tiny box and ask if there
is a bicycle in it.
• Play peek-a-boo, revealing shapes a little at a time and at
different angles, asking children to say what they think the
shape is, what else it could be or what it could not be.
• Be a robot and ask children to give you instructions to get
to somewhere. Let them have a turn at being the robot for
you to instruct.
• Introduce children to the use of mathematical names
for ‘solid’ 3D shapes and ‘flat’ 2D shapes, and the
mathematical terms to describe shapes.
• Encourage children to use everyday words to describe
position, e.g. when following pathways or playing with
outdoor apparatus.
• Make books about shape, time and measure: shapes
found in the environment; long and short things; things
of a specific length; and ones about patterns, or
comparing things that are heavier or lighter.
• Have areas where children can explore the properties of
objects and where they can weigh and measure, such
as a cookery station or a building area.
• Plan opportunities for children to describe and compare
shapes, measures and distance.
• Provide materials and resources for children to observe
and describe patterns in the indoor and outdoor
environment and in daily routines.
• Provide a range of natural materials for children to
arrange, compare and order.

37
Understandingtheworld:Peopleandcommunities
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
22-36 months
Understanding the world: People and communities
A Unique Child:
The beginnings of understanding of People and communities
lie in early attachment and other relationships. See Personal,
Social and Emotional Development and Communication and
Language.
See Personal, Social and Emotional Development and
Communication and Language.
See Personal, Social and Emotional Development and
Communication and Language.
• Is curious about people and shows interest in stories about
themselves and their family.
• Enjoys pictures and stories about themselves, their families
and other people.
• Help children to learn each other’s names, e.g. through
songs and rhymes.
• Be positive about differences between people and
support children’s acceptance of difference. Be aware
that negative attitudes towards difference are learned from
examples the children witness.
• Ensure that each child is recognised as a valuable
contributor to the group.
• Celebrate and value cultural, religious and community
events and experiences
• Provide opportunities for babies to see people and
things beyond the baby room, including the activities of
older children.
• Collect stories for, and make books about, children in
the group, showing things they like to do.
• Provide books and resources which represent children’s
diverse backgrounds and which avoid negative
stereotypes.
• Make photographic books about the children in the
setting and encourage parents to contribute to these.
• Provide positive images of all children including
those with diverse physical characteristics, including
disabilities.
• Has a sense of own immediate family and relations.
• In pretend play, imitates everyday actions and events from
own family and cultural background, e.g. making and drinking
tea.
• Beginning to have their own friends.
• Learns that they have similarities and differences that connect
them to, and distinguish them from, others.
• Talk to children about their friends, their families, and why
they are important.
• Share photographs of children’s families, friends, pets
or favourite people.
• Support children’s understanding of difference and of
empathy by using props such as puppets and dolls
to tell stories about diverse experiences, ensuring that
negative stereotyping is avoided.

38
Understandingtheworld:Peopleandcommunities
30-50 months
40-60+
months
Understanding the world: People and communities
A Unique Child:
• Shows interest in the lives of people who are familiar to them.
• Remembers and talks about significant events in their own
experience.
• Recognises and describes special times or events for family or
friends.
• Shows interest in different occupations and ways of life.
• Knows some of the things that make them unique, and can
talk about some of the similarities and differences in relation to
friends or family.
• Encourage children to talk about their own home and
community life, and to find out about other children’s
experiences.
• Ensure that children learning English as an additional
language have opportunities to express themselves in
their home language some of the time.
• Encourage children to develop positive relationships with
community members, such as fire fighters who visit the
setting
• Plan extra time for helping children in transition, such
as when they move from one setting to another or
between different groups in the same setting.
• Provide activities and opportunities for children to share
experiences and knowledge from different parts of their
lives with each other.
• Provide ways of preserving memories of special events,
e.g. making a book, collecting photographs, tape
recording, drawing and writing.
• Invite children and families with experiences of living
in other countries to bring in photographs and objects
from their home cultures including those from family
members living in different areas of the UK and abroad.
• Ensure the use of modern photographs of parts
of the world that are commonly stereotyped and
misrepresented,
• Help children to learn positive attitudes and challenge
negative attitudes and stereotypes, e.g. using puppets,
Persona Dolls, stories and books showing black heroes
or disabled kings or queens or families with same sex
parents, having a visit from a male midwife or female
fire fighter.
• Visit different parts of the local community,
including areas where some children may be very
knowledgeable, e.g. Chinese supermarket, local
church, elders lunch club, Greek café.
• Provide role-play areas with a variety of resources
reflecting diversity.
• Make a display with the children, showing all the people
who make up the community of the setting.
• Share stories that reflect the diversity of children’s
experiences.
• Invite people from a range of cultural backgrounds to
talk about aspects of their lives or the things they do
in their work, such as a volunteer who helps people
become familiar with the local area.
• Enjoys joining in with family customs and routines.
Early Learning Goal
Children talk about past and present events in their own
lives and in the lives of family members. They know that
other children don’t always enjoy the same things, and
are sensitive to this. They know about similarities and
differences between themselves and others, and among
families, communities and traditions.
• Encourage children to share their feelings and talk about
why they respond to experiences in particular ways.
• Explain carefully why some children may need extra help
or support for some things, or why some children feel
upset by a particular thing.
• Help children and parents to see the ways in which their
cultures and beliefs are similar, sharing and discussing
practices, resources, celebrations and experiences.
• Strengthen the positive impressions children have of
their own cultures and faiths, and those of others in
their community, by sharing and celebrating a range of
practices and special events.

39
Understandingtheworld:Theworld
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
22-36 months
Understanding the world: The world
A Unique Child:
• Moves eyes, then head, to follow moving objects.
• Reacts with abrupt change when a face or object suddenly
disappears from view.
• Looks around a room with interest; visually scans environment
for novel, interesting objects and events.
• Smiles with pleasure at recognisable playthings.
• Repeats actions that have an effect, e.g. kicking or hitting a
mobile or shaking a rattle.
See also Characteristics of Effective Learning – Playing and
Exploring, and Physical Development
• Encourage young babies’ movements through your
interactions, e.g. touching their fingers and toes and
showing delight at their kicking and waving.
• Provide a range of everyday objects for babies to
explore and investigate such as treasure baskets.
• Provide novelty – make small changes in the
predictable environment.
• Provide spaces that give young babies different views
of their surroundings, such as a soft play area, with
different levels to explore.
• Closely observes what animals, people and vehicles do.
• Watches toy being hidden and tries to find it.
• Looks for dropped objects.
• Becomes absorbed in combining objects, e.g. banging two
objects or placing objects into containers.
• Knows things are used in different ways, e.g. a ball for rolling
or throwing, a toy car for pushing.
• Play hiding and finding games inside and outdoors.
• Plan varied arrangements of equipment and materials that
can be used with babies in a variety of ways to maintain
interest and provide challenges.
• Draw attention to things in different areas that stimulate
interest, such as a patterned surface.
• Provide lift-the-flap books to show something hidden
from view.
• Provide a variety of interesting things for babies to see
when they are looking around them, looking up at the
ceiling or peering into a corner.
• Display and talk about photographs of babies’ favourite
places.
• Explores objects by linking together different approaches:
shaking, hitting, looking, feeling, tasting, mouthing, pulling,
turning and poking.
• Remembers where objects belong.
• Matches parts of objects that fit together, e.g. puts lid on
teapot.
• Talk with children about their responses to sights, sounds
and smells in the environment and what they like about
playing outdoors.
• Encourage young children to explore puddles, trees and
surfaces such as grass, concrete or pebbles.
• Develop the use of the outdoors so that young children
can investigate features, e.g. a mound, a path or a wall.
• Provide a collection of sets of items for children to
explore how objects can be combined together in
heuristic play sessions.
• Enjoys playing with small-world models such as a farm, a
garage, or a train track.
• Notices detailed features of objects in their environment.
• Tell stories about places and journeys. • Make use of outdoor areas to give opportunities for
investigations of the natural world, for example, provide
chimes, streamers, windmills and bubbles to investigate
the effects of wind.
• Provide story and information books about places,
such as a zoo or the beach, to remind children of visits
to real places.

40
Understandingtheworld:Theworld
30-50 months
40-60+
months
Understanding the world: The world
A Unique Child:
• Comments and asks questions about aspects of their familiar
world such as the place where they live or the natural world.
• Can talk about some of the things they have observed such as
plants, animals, natural and found objects.
• Talks about why things happen and how things work.
• Developing an understanding of growth, decay and changes
over time.
• Shows care and concern for living things and the environment.
• Use parents’ knowledge to extend children’s experiences
of the world.
• Support children with sensory impairment by providing
supplementary experience and information to enhance
their learning about the world around them.
• Arouse awareness of features of the environment in the
setting and immediate local area, e.g. make visits to
shops or a park.
• Introduce vocabulary to enable children to talk about their
observations and to ask questions.
• Use the local area for exploring both the built and the
natural environment.
• Provide opportunities to observe things closely
through a variety of means, including magnifiers and
photographs.
• Provide play maps and small world equipment for
children to create their own environments.
• Teach skills and knowledge in the context of practical
activities, e.g. learning about the characteristics of
liquids and solids by involving children in melting
chocolate or cooking eggs.
• Looks closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.
Early Learning Goal
Children know about similarities and differences in
relation to places, objects, materials and living things.
They talk about the features of their own immediate
environment and how environments might vary from
one another. They make observations of animals and
plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about
changes.
• Help children to notice and discuss patterns around them,
e.g. rubbings from grates, covers, or bricks.
• Examine change over time, for example, growing plants,
and change that may be reversed, e.g. melting ice.
• Use appropriate words, e.g. ‘town’, ‘village’, ‘road’,
‘path’, ‘house’, ‘flat’, ’temple’ and ‘synagogue’, to help
children make distinctions in their observations.
• Help children to find out about the environment by talking
to people, examining photographs and simple maps and
visiting local places.
• Encourage children to express opinions on natural and
built environments and give opportunities for them to hear
different points of view on the quality of the environment.
• Encourage the use of words that help children to express
opinions, e.g. ‘busy’, ‘quiet’ and ‘pollution’.
• Use correct terms so that, e.g. children will enjoy naming
a chrysalis if the practitioner uses its correct name.
• Pose carefully framed open-ended questions, such as
“How can we…?” or “What would happen if…?”.
• Give opportunities to record findings by, e.g. drawing,
writing, making a model or photographing.
• Provide stories that help children to make sense of
different environments.
• Provide stimuli and resources for children to create
simple maps and plans, paintings, drawings and
models of observations of known and imaginary
landscapes.
• Give opportunities to design practical, attractive
environments, for example, taking care of the
flowerbeds or organising equipment outdoors.

41
Understandingtheworld:Technology
16-26 months
Birth - 11
months
22-36 months
8-20 months
Understanding the world: Technology
A Unique Child:
The beginnings of understanding technology lie in babies
exploring and making sense of objects and how they behave.
See Characteristics of Effective Learning - Playing and Exploring
and Creating and Thinking Critically
Exploring and Creating and Thinking Critically
Exploring and Creating and Thinking Critically
• Anticipates repeated sounds, sights and actions, e.g. when an
adult demonstrates an action toy several times.
• Shows interest in toys with buttons, flaps and simple
mechanisms and beginning to learn to operate them.
• Comment on the ways in which young children investigate
how to push, pull, lift or press parts of toys and domestic
equipment.
• Talk about the effect of children’s actions, as they
investigate what things can do.
• Have available robust resources with knobs, flaps, keys
or shutters.
• Incorporate technology resources that children
recognise into their play, such as a camera.
• Seeks to acquire basic skills in turning on and operating some
ICT equipment.
• Operates mechanical toys, e.g. turns the knob on a wind-up
toy or pulls back on a friction car.
• Support children in exploring the control technology of
toys, e.g. toy electronic keyboard.
• Talk about ICT apparatus, what it does, what they can do
with it and how to use it safely.
• Provide safe equipment to play with, such as torches,
transistor radios or karaoke machines.
• Let children use machines like the photocopier to copy
their own pictures.

42
Understandingtheworld:Technology
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Understanding the world: Technology
A Unique Child:
• Knows how to operate simple equipment, e.g. turns on CD
player and uses remote control.
• Shows an interest in technological toys with knobs or pulleys,
or real objects such as cameras or mobile phones.
• Shows skill in making toys work by pressing parts or lifting
flaps to achieve effects such as sound, movements or new
images.
• Knows that information can be retrieved from computers
• Support and extend the skills children develop as they
become familiar with simple equipment, such as twisting
or turning a knob.
• Draw young children’s attention to pieces of ICT
apparatus they see or that they use with adult supervision.
• When out in the locality, ask children to help to press
the button at the pelican crossing, or speak into an
intercom to tell somebody you have come back.
• Completes a simple program on a computer.
• Uses ICT hardware to interact with age-appropriate computer
software.
Early Learning Goal
Children recognise that a range of technology is used in
places such as homes and schools. They select and use
technology for particular purposes.
• Encourage children to speculate on the reasons why
things happen or how things work.
• Support children to coordinate actions to use technology,
for example, call a telephone number.
• Teach and encourage children to click on different icons to
cause things to happen in a computer program.
• Provide a range of materials and objects to play with
that work in different ways for different purposes,
for example, egg whisk, torch, other household
implements, pulleys, construction kits and tape
recorder.
• Provide a range of programmable toys, as well as
equipment involving ICT, such as computers.

43
Expressiveartsanddesign:mediaandmaterials
22-36 months
16-26 months
8-20 months
Birth - 11
months
Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials
A Unique Child:
Babies explore media and materials as part of their exploration
of the world around them. See Characteristics of Effective
Learning – Playing and Exploring, Physical Development,
Understanding the World – The World
See Characteristics of Effective Learning – Playing and
Exploring, Physical Development, Understanding the World
– The World
See Characteristics of Effective Learning – Playing and
Exploring, Physical Development, Understanding the
World – The World
• Explores and experiments with a range of media through
sensory exploration, and using whole body.
• Move their whole bodies to sounds they enjoy, such as music
or a regular beat.
• Imitates and improvises actions they have observed, e.g.
clapping or waving.
• Begins to move to music, listen to or join in rhymes or songs.
• Notices and is interested in the effects of making movements
which leave marks.
• Encourage babies to join in tapping and clapping along to
simple rhythms.
• Notice the different ways babies move in response to
sounds, e.g. patting the floor when on their tummy, flexing
and relaxing their legs, or opening and closing their palms.
• Encourage babies to make marks and to squeeze and
feel media such as paint, gloop (cornflour and water),
dough and bubbles.
• Have a range of puppets that can glide along the table,
or dance around on the end of a fist in time to some
lively music.
• Place big sheets of plastic or paper on the floor so that
babies can be near or crawl on to it to make marks.
• Provide materials to encourage large motor
movements, e.g. sprinkling, throwing or spreading
paint, glue, torn paper or other materials.
• Listen with children to a variety of sounds, talking about
favourite sounds, songs and music.
• Introduce children to language to describe sounds and
rhythm, e.g., loud and soft, fast and slow.
• Accept wholeheartedly young children’s creations and
help them to see them as something unique and valuable
• Make notes detailing the processes involved in a child’s
creations, to share with parents.
• Make a sound line using a variety of objects strung
safely, that will make different sounds, such as wood,
pans and plastic bottles filled with different things.
• Provide a wide range of materials, resources and
sensory experiences to enable children to explore
colour, texture and space.
• Provide space and time for movement and dance both
indoors and outdoors.
• Joins in singing favourite songs.
• Creates sounds by banging, shaking, tapping or blowing.
• Shows an interest in the way musical instruments sound.
• Experiments with blocks, colours and marks.
• Help children to listen to music and watch dance when
opportunities arise, encouraging them to focus on how
sound and movement develop from feelings and ideas.
• Encourage and support the inventive ways in which
children add, or mix media, or wallow in a particular
experience.
• Invite dancers and musicians from theatre groups, the
locality or a nearby school so that children begin to
experience live performances.
• Draw on a wide range of musicians and story-tellers
from a variety of cultural backgrounds to extend
children’s experiences and to reflect their cultural
heritages.
• Choose unusual or interesting materials and resources
that inspire exploration such as textured wall coverings,
raffia, string, translucent paper or water-based glues
with colour added.

44
Expressiveartsanddesign:mediaandmaterials
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Expressive arts and design: Exploring and using media and materials
A Unique Child:
• Enjoys joining in with dancing and ring games.
• Sings a few familiar songs.
• Beginning to move rhythmically.
• Imitates movement in response to music.
• Taps out simple repeated rhythms.
• Explores and learns how sounds can be changed.
• Explores colour and how colours can be changed.
• Understands that they can use lines to enclose a space, and
then begin to use these shapes to represent objects.
• Beginning to be interested in and describe the texture of
things.
• Uses various construction materials.
• Beginning to construct, stacking blocks vertically and
horizontally, making enclosures and creating spaces.
• Joins construction pieces together to build and balance.
• Realises tools can be used for a purpose.
• Support children’s responses to different textures, e.g.
touching sections of a texture display with their fingers,
or feeling it with their cheeks to get a sense of different
properties.
• Introduce vocabulary to enable children to talk about
their observations and experiences, e.g. ’smooth’ ‘shiny’
‘rough’ ‘prickly’ ‘flat’ ‘patterned’ ‘jagged’, ‘bumpy’ ‘soft’
and ‘hard’.
• Talk about children’s growing interest in and use of colour
as they begin to find differences between colours.
• Make suggestions and ask questions to extend children’s
ideas of what is possible, for example, “I wonder what
would happen if…”.
• Support children in thinking about what they want to make,
the processes that may be involved and the materials
and resources they might need, such as a photograph to
remind them what the climbing frame is like.
• Lead imaginative movement sessions based on
children’s current interests such as space travel, zoo
animals or shadows.
• Provide a place where work in progress can be kept
safely.
• Talk with children about where they can see models
and plans in the environment, such as at the local
planning office, in the town square, or at the new
apartments down the road.
• Demonstrate and teach skills and techniques associated
with the things children are doing, for example, show
them how to stop the paint from dripping or how to
balance bricks so that they will not fall down.
• Introduce children to a wide range of music, painting
and sculpture.
• Encourage children to take time to think about painting
or sculpture that is unfamiliar to them before they talk
about it or express an opinion.
• Begins to build a repertoire of songs and dances.
• Explores the different sounds of instruments.
• Explores what happens when they mix colours.
• Experiments to create different textures.
• Understands that different media can be combined to create
new effects.
• Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect.
• Constructs with a purpose in mind, using a variety of
resources.
• Uses simple tools and techniques competently and
appropriately.
• Selects appropriate resources and adapts work where
necessary.
• Selects tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and
join materials they are using.
Early Learning Goal
Children sing songs, make music and dance, and
experiment with ways of changing them. They safely use
and explore a variety of materials, tools and techniques,
experimenting with colour, design, texture, form and
function.
• Talk to children about ways of finding out what they can
do with different media and what happens when they put
different things together such as sand, paint and sawdust.
• Encourage children to notice changes in properties of
media as they are transformed through becoming wet,
dry, flaky or fixed. Talk about what is happening, helping
them to think about cause and effect.
• Provide resources for mixing colours, joining things
together and combining materials, demonstrating
where appropriate.
• Provide children with opportunities to use their
skills and explore concepts and ideas through their
representations.
• Have a ‘holding bay’ where models and works can be
retained for a period for children to enjoy, develop, or
refer to.
• Plan imaginative, active experiences, such as ‘Going on
a bear hunt’. Help them remember the actions of the
story (We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
and Helen Oxenbury) and think about the different ways
of moving.

45
Expressiveartsanddesign:Beingimaginative
16-26 months
Birth - 11
months
22-36 months
8-20 months
Expressive Arts and Design: Being imaginative
A Unique Child:
Babies and toddlers need to explore the world and develop a
range of ways to communicate before they can express their
own ideas through arts and design. See Characteristics of
Effective Learning; Communication and Language; Physical
Development; Personal, Social and Emotional Development
See Characteristics of Effective Learning; Communication
and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social and
Emotional Development
See Characteristics of Effective Learning; Communication
and Language; Physical Development; Personal, Social
and Emotional Development
• Expresses self through physical action and sound.
• Pretends that one object represents another, especially when
objects have characteristics in common.
• Show genuine interest and be willing to play along with a
young child who is beginning to pretend.
• Provide a variety of familiar resources reflecting
everyday life, such as magazines, real kitchen items,
telephones or washing materials.
• Beginning to use representation to communicate, e.g. drawing
a line and saying ‘That’s me.’
• Beginning to make-believe by pretending.
• Observe and encourage children’s make-believe play in
order to gain an understanding of their interests.
• Sometimes speak quietly, slowly or gruffly for fun in
pretend scenarios with children.
• Be interested in the children’s creative processes and talk
to them about what they mean to them.
• Provide story boxes filled with interesting items to spark
children’s storytelling ideas.
• Offer additional resources reflecting interests such as
tunics, cloaks and bags.

46
Expressiveartsanddesign:Beingimaginative
40-60+
months
30-50 months
Expressive arts and design: Being imaginative
A Unique Child:
• Developing preferences for forms of expression.
• Uses movement to express feelings.
• Creates movement in response to music.
• Sings to self and makes up simple songs.
• Makes up rhythms.
• Notices what adults do, imitating what is observed and then
doing it spontaneously when the adult is not there.
• Engages in imaginative role-play based on own first-hand
experiences.
• Builds stories around toys, e.g. farm animals needing rescue
from an armchair ‘cliff’.
• Uses available resources to create props to support role-play.
• Captures experiences and responses with a range of media,
such as music, dance and paint and other materials or words.
• Support children’s excursions into imaginary worlds by
encouraging inventiveness, offering support and advice on
occasions and ensuring that they have experiences that
stimulate their interest.
• Tell stories based on children’s experiences and the
people and places they know well.
• Offer a story stimulus by suggesting an imaginary event
or set of circumstances, e.g., “This bear has arrived in
the post. He has a letter pinned to his jacket. It says
‘Please look after this bear.’ We should look after him in
our room. How can we do that?.”
• Create simple representations of events, people and objects.
• Initiates new combinations of movement and gesture in order
to express and respond to feelings, ideas and experiences.
• Chooses particular colours to use for a purpose.
• Introduces a storyline or narrative into their play.
• Plays alongside other children who are engaged in the same
theme.
• Plays cooperatively as part of a group to develop and act out
a narrative.
Early Learning Goal
Children use what they have learnt about media and
materials in original ways, thinking about uses and
purposes. They represent their own ideas, thoughts
and feelings through design and technology, art, music,
dance, role play and stories.
• Help children to gain confidence in their own way of
representing ideas.
• Be aware of the link between imaginative play and
children’s ability to handle narrative.
• Create imaginary words to describe, for example,
monsters or other strong characters in stories and poems.
• Carefully support children who are less confident.
• Help children communicate through their bodies by
encouraging expressive movement linked to their
imaginative ideas.
• Introduce descriptive language to support children, for
example, ‘rustle’ and ‘shuffle’.
• Extend children’s experience and expand their
imagination through the provision of pictures, paintings,
poems, music, dance and story.
• Provide a stimulus for imagination by introducing
atmospheric features in the role play area, such as the
sounds of rain beating on a roof, or placing a spotlight
to suggest a stage set. Provide curtains and place
dressing-up materials and instruments close by.
• Make materials accessible so that children are able to
imagine and develop their projects and ideas while they
are still fresh in their minds and important to them.
• Provide children with opportunities to use their
skills and explore concepts and ideas through their
representations.
• Provide opportunities indoors and outdoors and
support the different interests of children, e.g.in role-
play of a builder’s yard, encourage narratives to do with
building and mending.

Early Education
136 Cavell Street
London
E1 2JA
www.early-education.org.uk
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7539 5400
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7539 5409
Supported by
Early Education is a registered charity in England and
Wales (no. 313082) and in Scotland (no. SC039472) and
a company limited by guarantee.
Early Education would like to acknowledge Helen
Moylett and Nancy Stewart, Associates of Early
Education for their work in producing this document
and is grateful to all the early years practitioners,
academics and organisations who generously gave
them such helpful support, challenge, advice and
feedback during the process.
© Crown copyright 2012
You may re-use this information (excluding logos
and photographs) free of charge in any format or
medium, under the terms of the Open Government
Licence. To view this licence, visit
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-
government-licence
or e-mail: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright
information you will need to obtain permission from
the copyright holders concerned.
Any enquiries regarding this publication should be
sent to us at Early Education, 136 Cavell Street,
London, E1 2JA or office@early-education.org.uk
This document is also available from our website at
www.early-education.org.uk
ISBN 978-0-904-187-57-1
EAN 9780904187571

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