The Early Years Foundation Stage: Setting the Standards for Learning, Development and Care for children from birth to five

• Respond to children's vocalisations or behaviours if they're trying to attract your attention. If you're busy out of sight, say "I can hear you, I'm coming".
• Talk about what a child is doing, what they have been doing and will do.
• Talk about what other people are doing and later about what people who are not there are doing, for example, "Pippa's at school".
• Join in games that children initiate.
• Clap, praise and show your pleasure when children do something pleasing.
• Enjoy everyday activities together and chat about what you are doing.
• Make sure children have opportunities to see other people communicating and having fun together.
• If a child shows anxiety when left alone in a room, tell them you can hear them, what you're doing and that you'll be coming back soon. Use your voice to reassure them until you return.
• If children hit or push other children or adults, say firmly, "No, that hurts them" and move them on to another activity. Don't make too much of it or they may start doing it to get your attention.
• Introduce simple words for feelings and mental states into conversation like 'happy', 'sad', cross', 'hurt' and 'scared'. This helps children start to learn about words that express feelings and about what they are feeling themselves. You might say, for example, "You like playing in the sandpit, don't you? It makes you happy".
• If another child in the setting is hurt or upset, talk about how that child is feeling. Help other children to console them by stroking their arm or cuddling them.

Dressing:

• Encourage active involvement by expecting children to push their arm down a sleeve or take a leg out of trousers when asked. Give lots of encouragement and time to react. Keep trying each time you change their clothes or help them to undress.
• Talk about what you're going to do, demonstrate, and then ask children to do it for themselves.
• Dressing up in larger clothes can be fun and easier for children learning the movements needed. Old adult shirts can be particularly helpful as there is more room for manoeuvring.
• Hats are often the first item of clothing children can put on unaided.
• Move on to removing trousers – use loose, elasticated waists and start off by leaving only one leg on around the ankle, encouraging children to pull it off. Show them how to pull it off while sitting on the floor and later make it more difficult, leaving two legs of the trousers around two ankles.
• Show children how to open fasteners, Velcro and large buttons. Lots of toys incorporate fasteners of different kinds that provide opportunities to practise. Show children how to practise pulling up and closing zips on adult clothes used for dressing up (the zips are longer) and on toys.
• Practise taking off coats. As toilet training moves forward, encourage children to pull their trousers and pants up and down. Use elasticated waists or unfasten them first. Use simple verbal descriptions and instructions as well as demonstrating what needs to be done.

• Watch and respond to children's attempts to communicate with you, using voice, facial expressions and gestures.
• Talk about what children are doing, have done and will do.
• Respond to children's gestures as well as to their vocal communication.
• Share photograph albums and remind children about the people and events in them.
• Talk about what other people are doing and about people who are not there, for example, "Raj is at school".
• Put into words what you think children are trying to tell you.
• Repeat children's words and attempts at sentences, adding new information so that they have a chance to see how a longer sentence can be made. For example "Baba upstairs" could become "Yes, Barbara's gone upstairs to get some cream for your sore knee".
• Recast (repeat) children's words within longer phrases, adding new information.
• Join in games that a child initiates.
• Spend time together talking about books and reading short stories, using pictures to help understanding. Ask the children to point to parts of pictures or to tell you what's happening.

• Draw attention to the noises that toys and animals make. Add sounds when playing, sharing a book or to everyday routines. Make animal sounds and other sounds for cars, aeroplanes and trains, and say "Splash!" when you fill a sink.
• Draw the children's attention to what is making a particular noise.
• Put on tapes of singing, rhymes and favourite stories. Sing along with them. Show children how much you love to hear music and sounds and how much they interest you.

• Make sure books relate to everyday experiences with pictures that contain a lot of detail. The best stories are those that incorporate short sequences of familiar events, like going to the shops or going out for a walk.
• Children will love books that build up anticipation and that have flaps to lift or familiar words that they can join in with. Encourage children to take the lead, for example by turning pages or lifting flaps.
• Make and share scrapbooks together and encourage children to show them to people who come into the setting. These books could include your own drawings, pictures from magazines of familiar places or toys, photographs of family members and family holidays or special occasions. Include anything that is personal to particular children and therefore meaningful and interesting to them.
• Play games that encourage and maintain joint attention. Try taking turns at imitating one another, copying facial expressions. Try copying actions with a teddy bear or hiding things, finding them and saying "There it is!".
• Play throwing games with a ball to involve several people in turn-taking.
• Play 'hide and find' games: "Where's my… ?".
• Pretend to get things wrong: children will love it!
• Encourage children to become more equal partners in play and exploration. Let them take the lead or swap roles with them in a familiar routine.
• Encourage pretend play and play alongside children as they begin to develop 'pretend' ideas. Offer suggestions for new things to do and 'dialogue' for those taking part, such as the child's teddy bear or a toy cat.
• Change and personalise rhymes and songs. Change wording and routines to suit the children's interests and personalise material by adding in the child's name.
• Encourage children to join in when other children are playing close by.

• Hold children upright with a little weight on their legs and gently bounce them on your knee. You'll know when they're ready for this when they start to push down on your legs.
• Continue to give children the experience of standing, while you support them. Gradually allow them to take more weight on to their legs. At this stage children often enjoy bouncing while you hold them by the hands.
• When children are sitting on the floor, encourage them to lean round or lean over to reach a toy to increase trunk control and balance.
• Give experience of playing with toys on a low table to develop leg muscles for standing or scatter toys along a sofa so that children have to reach out to get them once they're standing.
• Encourage cruising (side-steps) around furniture by offering a favourite toy from a step or two away. Get other adults to call the child and encourage them to cruise along the sofa and reach them for a cuddle or song.
• Encourage walking forward with support by facing a child, holding both their hands (holding their arms straight in front at their shoulder level) and gently pulling them forward with gentle pressure on one side at a time, alternating from side to side. Call the child to you as you do this and reward them when they reach you.
• Use a sturdy and safe push-along toy as an alternative form of support.
• As balance improves, support children holding just one hand and as confidence grows, gradually release your grip a step or two away from some form of support to encourage the first independent steps.
• Encourage children to follow simple one-step directions to move their body by playing games and singing songs such as 'If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands'.
• Help children to begin to explore steps and stairs - safety gates discourage unsupervised exploration but it's important to show children how this can be done safely as soon as a child is able to move independently.

Feeding:

• Encourage children to participate in eating routines in your setting by sitting them at a small table at snack time or telling them it's tea time and moving them towards a high chair.
• When children begin to use a spoon to scoop food, choose a bowl with a deep vertical side to give an edge to push food against. In the early stages it can be helpful to sit behind a child and guide their hand to scoop food. Do the first few scoops yourself if a child is very hungry to avoid frustration, then encourage them to use the spoon while they're still quite hungry. A favourite food will encourage children to use a spoon.
• This is a messy time and it's important that children are not discouraged from trying by anxiety over mess. A plastic mat on the floor is a good idea!
• Introduce a spouted cup with one handle.
• Give some finger foods in open-topped packets for children to pick out for themselves.
• Introduce open-topped cups and allow children time to play with them empty at mealtimes for some days before you use them. Start by using very small quantities of a drink children like. Sit them on your knee at the start of a meal when they're hungry and thirsty. Show children how to tip the cup to deliver liquid.
• Demonstrate how chunks of food can be speared with a fork and encourage children to try this for themselves.
• Put some favourite food inside a small carton or tub with a lid and show how to get at it.
• Ask children what they are going to eat and see if they can identify any food being prepared by smell or taste.
• Always tell children the name of the things they're eating.
• Help children tip a jug to pour out liquid. Practise this during play, pouring out sand or dry rice before moving on to water. Ladle spoonfuls of material into a container and then tip it out again.

Washing:

• Encourage children to wash their hands before and after meals and after messy play, using a hand basin.
• Show children how to rub hands with soap to get them clean and then how to rinse and dry them afterwards. It will be some time before they master this skill.
• Demonstrate how to brush hair and encourage children to brush yours as well.
• Encourage children to use the cold tap when using a hand basin. Talk about 'hot' and 'cold' and place the children's hands under the warm and cold taps while the water is running, to show the difference.
• Allow children to explore the plughole so that they understand that water flows out of the basin down the hole.

Toileting:

• Tell children what they've done when changing nappies to get them used to the language, using consistent words that you are comfortable with.
• Encourage children to hold and play with clean wipes while you're cleaning them and explain what they're for.
• Take your child with you to the door of the bathroom and tell them what you're doing so they realise everyone does this.
• Encourage children to explore a potty that you keep in the setting and talk to them about what it's for.
• In preparation for toilet training, get into the habit of taking children to the bathroom to change their nappy to give the message that this is the appropriate place for such activities.
• Ask children if they need changing (even when it's clear that they do) to encourage them to communicate their toileting needs.
• Encourage children to get involved in the disposing of nappies, by asking them to put them in the bin.
• Introduce the idea of good hygiene by explaining that you always wash hands after changing nappies or using the toilet.
• Use storybooks and toys to prepare children for toilet training. All their teddies and dollies need to go to the toilet too!