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Dealing with emotions (pt.1)

Feeling Better

I often wonder why we have emotions. It would be much easier to plan and act without the interference of worry and doubt, or excitement and surprise, or sadness and guilt. Doing what I need to do can sometimes feel like dragging myself through mud, and the idea that I might be able to just do whatever needs doing, without all the accompanying emotional weight, is a very attractive one. Having children who can do this also appeals; getting them through their days without the accompanying emotional barriers would seemingly work so well!  It is very easy to view emotional experiences as barriers to the things we wish to achieve or the people we wish to be.

Being skilled at having emotions, knowing what they are, how they work, and what they do to our bodies and behaviours, are among the important skills we can develop, both for our children and ourselves. Those children who learn to understand and work with their feelings, and who can persevere with the tasks that engage negative emotions in particular, have better outcomes in school performance, social relationships and employment than those who continue to be drawn into the quicksand of their inner discomfort.

The 3 year olds who can resist eating a marshmallow for 5 minutes for the reward of 2 more, are learning not just about goal setting. They’re learning to understand what goes on inside them, in this case about an emotion ‘desire’, that this emotion can be accompanied by uncomfortable physical sensations, and a variety of thoughts about themselves or the situation.  They can also learn that this feeling, although strongly urging them to act in a very specific way, can be resisted, if only for a little while. Knowing what to attempt and practising doing this, is not only quite hard, but turns out to be a very useful life skill.

Learning these skills, like everything we teach our children takes time and a great deal of patience. In fact most of us will struggle as adults to experience our emotions AND do what is in our best interests to do. But that is the object of what psychologists call Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance.

The aim is to be better at having our feelings, rather than to simply feeling better.

What is Emotion Regulation?  

There are 4 skills in Emotion Regulation, which are the abilities to:

Inhibit inappropriate behaviour in response to strong positive or negative emotions;

Organise oneself to meet an external goal in a way that is not mood dependent;

Self-soothe the physical arousal that is triggered by emotion; and

Refocus attention in the presence of strong emotion.

Even babies will begin to regulate their emotions quite early, as for example when they turn away from loud noises or too much stimulation. Little by little, children will learn, for example, to wait their turn, or to give up a toy to another child, or to keep attempting tasks they can’t quite manage and don’t want to do.

What is Distress Tolerance?

Distress Tolerance skills are a whole range of practical strategies for living with inner distress when we can’t change the situations in which we find ourselves. When we experience intense and unpleasant inner emotions, and a lot of negative thoughts, beliefs and expectations about others and ourselves, we also have strong urges to escape these feelings. Not escaping, but allowing ourselves to make room for this inner life, and also for who we are and what the world is, is the work of distress tolerance. This includes finding ways to have painful emotions, cope with crises, self-soothe, distract, redirect our activity, and accept reality when we can’t change it.

What are Emotions?

The nature of what we experience internally is of course a philosophical issue. We can never know what it is truly like to be anyone else, or any other animal. We can only make assumptions based on the behaviours we observe in others, and from what we extrapolate about what we think we know from our own personal inner experiences. And, of course, there are many reasons why we may be wrong. When I see you there looking ‘bored’ and ‘unhappy’ because of what I think I see in your face and posture, you might just be thinking about what to have for dinner, and be feeling quite content.

Psychologists believe that we are born with a limited array of basic emotions, and that these become more complex and varied with the influences of the particular cultures in which we are embedded. Not that we develop more or different emotions, but that as we mature we experience combinations of feelings to which we learn to attach new and more complex names.

Paul Ekman, an American psychologist, studied facial expressions as a way of trying to understand what might be going on inside us. From analysing such non-verbal communication of people in many countries and in a wide variety of differing cultural and ethnic groups, he Identified 6 basic emotions. Basically, these are anger, fear, joy, sadness, disgust and surprise.

Robert Plutchik, another American psychologist, thought there are 8 basic emotions, which he grouped into 4 pairs of polar opposites: joy-sadness, anger-fear, trust-distrust, and surprise-anticipation. These polar opposites act like continuums, along which we can identify the spectrum of subtle differences between the intensities of emotions and their various combinations.

There is general agreement that we are born with a universal and limited ready made set of inner experiences that we label Basic Emotions, that there are about 6 to 8 of these, that we experience them in varying degrees of intensity, and that they are different from physical sensory experiences or the activity involved in thinking.

Emotions and Bodies

Importantly, emotions are intimately connected with the systems in our bodies that activate physical sensations and that produce automatic behaviours that have very high survival value.

In prehistoric times, those animals that were able to experience emotions as a short cut to receiving important information about what was going on around them and could act automatically, without having to think, were the ones most likely to survive and reproduce. If I have to figure out whether that sound in the bushes is a tiger or a bird, and whether I should run or not, I may be seconds too late in finding out. The time to think is when we are no longer in a state of intense emotion, but when our bodies have returned to a more normal state of functioning.

Fear instantly and automatically activates a system that produces abundant energy and a reaction to avoid or freeze or fight to maximise survival. Joy binds us tightly to experiences that bring rewards and that we wish to repeat. Shock stops us and holds us back to reconsider. Disgust enables avoidance of possibly risky situations, like eating poisonous foods. Anger harnesses actions that force the gratification of our needs.

Each basic emotion has this same survival value, and its own distinctive and dedicated physical pathways and connections in our brains and bodies. That is, emotions are ‘hard-wired’ into our bodies.

Emotions and Thinking

Life experiences lead to thoughts and expectations about the situations in which we find ourselves. We develop a complex system of beliefs, based not only on what we perceive and experience personally, but also on what others communicate to us. Unlike other animals, we learn to have beliefs based on the experiences of other human beings, for example, ‘don’t pat the dog, he’ll bite you’.

These thoughts, expectations and beliefs become themselves the triggers to our feelings, physical experiences and actions. We no longer need the events themselves to set off the process.

Thus, not only do we acquire thoughts and beliefs we have never tested for ourselves, but also the mere thought of a thing, takes the place of the real thing.  We believe the dog is dangerous when we haven’t tested this, we become fearful at the mere thought of the dog, and our bodies become tense as it prepares to act. Even more importantly, we learn to make connections between things in such a way that even seemingly quite random events trigger emotions. For example, the smell of oranges might provoke fear in someone frightened by a dog while she/he was eating an orange ice-block. Or our excitement level and heart rate increases at the sound of an email arriving, or we breathe more slowly in anticipation of relaxing by a pool when we read the ‘Get Away’ holiday section of the newspaper.

Emotions and Individuals

The degree to which individuals can regulate their emotions depends on their developmental level, but also on the basic physiological capacities that underlie their personalities. Psychologists believe that we are all born with an array of temperamental traits, and that we vary in the degree to which we exhibit each trait. We vary in the level of:

Stimulation required to get us to respond;

Activity engaged in when awake;

Intensity of emotional expression;

Predictability of bodily functions;

Usual mood;

Reactions to new people, places and change in routine;

Ability to handle obstacles; and

Capacity to concentrate or resist distractions.

These temperamental differences impact on an individual’s capacity to manage their emotions.  It makes sense that a more intense emotion, is harder to cope with than a less intense one. If one’s urge to respond is stronger, it makes sense that it is harder to learn to inhibit it. If the feeling take more time to dissipate, that individual remains vulnerable longer.

Obviously, emotions and the accompanying behaviours we display have an effect on the individuals around us. And reactions from those individuals will then have a further impact on our emotions and behaviours. Temperament traits moderate the ways that carers respond to children, and vice versa. Parents will have a more difficult task managing a more sensitive baby, and more sensitive parents will have a harder task than less sensitive parents.  

Individuals who recognise emotions in others, and can understand that their emotions may be different from others, will have more skill in relating and in solving problems that arise in relationships. Those who come to know that they can feel one way but act differently have a wider range of choice in how they will respond to others. And those who learn to express emotion in safe ways and talk about the impact of these, on themselves and others, will learn to handle stresses more successfully.

Putting it all Together

Given the above, what do we know about emotions?

We all have emotions, although the intensity of these varies from one person to another depending mostly on our genes, and then on how their expression is shaped by our environments;

We can’t prevent the triggering of emotions;

Emotions don’t happen for no reason at all, they are meaningful responses to events;

We can’t force emotions to go away;

Emotions are not right or wrong, good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate;

Emotions are not dangerous or abnormal;

We are not out of control when we have emotions;

We’re not going mad when we have emotions;

It’s not weak or stupid to have emotions;

It’s not immoral to experience emotions;

Emotions are triggered by events and things in the world, but most often by the thoughts and beliefs we have about events, people, things and places;

Emotional experiences lead to further thoughts about the world, the self and others;

Emotional experiences are accompanied by physiological arousal, which varies according to the intensity of the emotion;

Emotional experiences lead to specific urges to action.

Emotions are not trivial irritating side effects of life, but are fundamental to how we function. They give us the capacity to experience the most prized reasons we have for being alive, and the least. Whether we like them or not, we can no more escape them than we can escape our lungs processing oxygen, or our livers sugar, or our retinas the light photons that fall on them.

Resources Used in the Writing of This Article

 www.getselfhelp.co.uk

 www.cci.health.wa.gov.au  Centre for Clinical Interventions

 www.kidsmatter.edu.au

Marsha M. Linehan. Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder. The Guildford Press. 1993

Stephen C. Hayes. Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life. New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 2005

Russ Harris. ACT Made Simple. New Harbinger Publications. 2009

Dr Neel Burton Heaven and Hell. Acheron Press. 2015. Oxford, UK.

About the author: Emotion Regulation and Distress Tolerance.

Jane Handley, a retired Clinical Psychologist, describes the meaning of these terms, and why they matter. The degree to which we can understand, express and work with our emotions impacts on learning and relationships and ultimately, on employment and mental health.

Some ideas for adults and children to understand and handle emotions effectively are described in three separate sections. The first part looks at emotions, what they are and are not. The second part discusses emotion regulation and ways to achieve this. The third part briefly discusses Distress Tolerance, or what to do when we can’t change the situation or ourselves.

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Examining the NQS within Digital Documentation: Relationships with Children and Families (Quality Area 5 and 6)

Families are children’s first and most important teachers. From birth, children are learning from those closest to them. When children enter the care environment, the educators within their early childhood centre will have a significant influence on how those children grow and develop. The relationships that exist within an early childhood centre play a crucial role in the educational outcomes that may be achieved.

Giving children a voice in planning their learning environment helps build mutual respect and strong positive relationships. There are many ways to document the children’s voice and ensure that their ideas are listened to and responded to with the utmost respect. Within Kinderloop there are a number of ways to document children’s voices. Regular posts may be highlighted using supplied images and tags. Children’s voices can now be recorded in a variety of methods including text and video and posted directly onto the centre’s Kinderloop. This allows educators and families to share ideas and allows educators to track children’s input to the educational program.

Within the early childhood education environment, a number of educational outcomes are sought each day. This can be done through centre developed programs or externally sourced programs (for example, Playing and Learning to Socialise: PALS, or Munch and Move). These programs work best when children are able to explore the concepts they are learning at school with their family at home. Paper notes with updates are easily lost, and require educators to distribute to families. Using Kinderloop as a communication tool allows immediate sharing of up-to-date progress on educational programs being conducted, allowing families to follow up with children and provide reinforcement of concepts covered. It is also possible to see how many families have seen posts, making tracking the distributed information easy! Comments and feedback may be given by families in real time, when it is possible to families to take time to engage. 

This kind of engagement helps deepen relationships with children and families and helps to embed programs in everyday practice.

As a parent, I worry about my daughter when she is at school. As an educator I know that she is safe, learning and having a great time with her peers. I don’t always have time to pick up my daughter and check in with her educators. With Kinderloop, I am able to get a snapshot of her day just about every day. I feel closer to her educators and can give them feedback directly on the posts about things that have happened at home, current interests and developmental milestones. I don’t have to worry about missing notes or special event days because they are all there waiting for me when I check in to Kinderloop. I feel as though I am part of my daughter’s time at preschool and have a much stronger relationship with educators than I would otherwise.

Relationships are the medium through which children learn all manner of skills; relating to social, emotional, linguistic and cognitive development. Building bonds across settings takes time and participation from all parties and, above all, communication. Kinderloop provides a two-way communication tool that will help support and strengthen relationships within early childhood care and education settings.

Kinderloop.com

Kate, Early Childhood educator

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Examining the NQS within Digital Documentation: Staffing & Service Leadership (Quality Area 4 and 7)

Staffing arrangements and service leadership mostly cover administration and policy areas of early childhood education and care services. These include important areas like educator-to-child ratios, ethical and respectful practice, continuity of care and striving for continuous improvement.

For educators in an early childhood setting, communication is a vital tool. 

With routines to be communicated and educators rostered over different portions of the day and sometimes in job sharing roles, it can be difficult to ensure that all educators are on the same page in terms of educational program provided to children, routines and family requests, and updates on changes to policies and procedure within the centre. Using Kinderloop, it is possible to create groups and tags that enable educators to quickly stay up-to-date on all changes that may occur on a day-to-day basis. It is also possible to utilise private posts to provide updates on routine changes that occur for individual children – sharing this information between educators that need this vital information.

Ensuring to-do lists are updated and followed up upon is also easy using Kinderloop, as each educator may edit posts. For example, following a team meeting there may be a number of Work Health and Safety issues that need to be addressed. These may be posted privately to educators and tagged with “To Do” and “Work Health and Safety” so all educators are aware of tasks required. That post can then be edited as tasks are achieved and deleted as needed. This is a powerful tool for ensuring that all staff are on the same page.

Sharing interesting readings is an important part of ensuring continuing education of the educators within a centre. With Kinderloop, an educational leader can post articles for educators to read when time allows. Comments may also be added to posts associated with these articles, allowing for staff discussion in a safe forum while time allows. This is also a great way of posting preparation articles and agenda items for upcoming team meetings.

Continuous improvement must now be embedded into everyday practice within early childhood education and care settings. Ensuring that all educators have a voice in the quality improvement plan can be difficult, however, as this document tends to be prepared by the director, educational leader and room leaders. With Kinderloop each educator can make a contribution to ideas for the quality improvement plan by creating private posts and tagging “Quality Improvement Plan”. This way when the director or educational leader is preparing the document, contributions are available from all educators, covering all areas of the centre environment.

As with all regulatory and compliance documents, security is paramount. Kinderloop provides high-level security for all posts. Families elect who may be invited to view their child’s individual Kinderloop. And the centre’s Kinderloop is protected by educators, with content remaining the property of educators. All accounts are password protected and best of all data is continuously backed up archived as needed.

Providing evidence of staffing and service leadership doesn’t need to be daunting, with Kinderloop it is easy to store a variety of vital information in one spot with specific grouping and search capabilities.

Grab your specific images mentioned in this article from here: Kinderloop Images

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Examining the NQS within Digital Documentation: Health, Safety and the Physical Environment (Quality Area 2, 3)

Since its introduction, the National Quality Standards have raised the bar for facilities providing care and education for children. The task of documenting your centre’s progress and engagement with the quality areas can be a daunting task for leaders and educators alike. Recording evidence, milestones, ideas and progress is easy with Kinderloop!

Providing evidence of regular health and safety checks of the learning environment can require a lot of paperwork. Kinderloop can be used to reduce the volume of paper used to document vital safety checks by laminating a master copy of checklists and taking a photo of them at the end of the week to post onto your centre’s private Kinderloop. This reduces the storage required for these records and a quick tag means that they will easily be found for assessment and compliance visits.

Promoting each child’s routine, sleep and eating habits may be easily and quickly shared with families using digital documentation. This fosters and supports strong and meaningful relationships with families and shares each aspect of the child’s day with their families. Information about healthy lifestyles and eating habits may also be shared using Kinderloop and can help to further foster a sense of community. Why not post a healthy recipe that the children have been enjoying at the centre and invite families to share their favourite recipe?

Environmental intelligence starts in the early years of learning. A sustainability plan could be easily shared with families and educators using digital documentation, allowing for real time feedback and is a great step for reducing the environmental impact of sharing information with families. All areas of the educational program that relate to sustainable practice can also be tagged to allow for easy searching and tracking of projects and wish lists.

Giving the children a voice in their learning environment is a key step to empowering children to take a role in their educational journey. Providing children with opportunities to share their ideas and to create meaningful ways of tracking their exploration through project work can deepen the understanding and engagement in such products. Within Kinderloop, this may be achieved by creating groups or tags for specific projects. These can then be searched and viewed as meaningful documentation for the learning journeys children take when following their interests.

Mind maps can be a great tool for documenting the process of exploring children’s ideas and possibilities for future planning (read more here). Apps like “SimpleMind” allow for expanding ideas through various branches and promote child and educator engagement, encouraging children to think outside of the norm. Using these in conjunction with Kinderloop allows for an expanding of possibilities on ways of recording children’s ideas, and opens up possibilities for expressing ideas.

Creating specific groups can also help educators map their ideas for the learning environment and record the observed engagement of children in the areas already available to them in the learning environment. These groups can also be used with the assistance of tags to ensure that interests and areas of focus may be included in future planning for intentional teaching.

Children’s health and safety and the physical environment are two very important quality areas within the National Quality Standards. Using Kinderloop enables educators to quickly and easily record vital information that will help map progress towards goals and record the voice and ideas of children within the learning environment, taking some of the stress out of providing children with high quality care and education.

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Mindfulness in early childhood

‘Mindfulness is a way of paying attention that originated in Eastern meditation practices. It has been described as “bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis” (Marlatt & Kristeller, 1999, p. 68) and as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”’ (Ruth Baer - http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MindfulnessPsyTx.pdf).

Every week there seems to be a new article about mindfulness, for adults and children. These include articles examining the uses of mindfulness in educational settings to help improve educational outcomes for children.

Mindfulness put simply is the process of being present in the moment. It has been touted as a way of reducing life’s stresses, anxieties and overall improving mental health. Whilst mindfulness is often fostered through meditation, it can also be fostered by observing the local area, the sounds of the birds, the colours in the trees and shadows, and the rise and fall of the chest when taking deep breaths.

Why is this an important concept for children?

Research has examined the importance of early learning in long term benefits for the development and well-being of children. So developing the ability to be mindful can help set up great habits for life. Mindfulness can provide children with a toolbox for dealing with challenges and stresses they face as they engage with the world, and grow into the social beings of tomorrow. The ability to regulate your own levels of stress and anxiety can be a valuable tool in building resilience and problem solving abilities.

Research is also showing that mindfulness practices of meditation and relaxation can help improve classroom behaviour and concentration therefore increasing educational outcomes observed. For example, the act of taking time out to focus on deep breathing can calm a class that is otherwise unable to focus on prescribed task. A gratitude circle may help alter the perspective of a group of pre-schoolers who are constantly on the search for new, bigger and better.

Children learn by observing those around them with more experience; their families, friends and educators tend to be the biggest influences on children’s developing skills. Children are able to practice and hone the skills they have witnessed and over time will develop a variety of skills to build their emotional intelligence toolbox.

How can we be more mindful as early childhood educators?

As early childhood educators, our day is full of tasks including cleaning, planning, observing, evaluating and most importantly engaging. All of these tasks can conflict with each other and can lead to stress and anxiety.

Whilst practicing meditation and building our own toolbox for dealing with stressful situations is vital, so is being fully present in the moment and engaging with children. This can be difficult when you are planning your next learning experience, documenting the child’s learning and supervising the learning environment. Examining how we plan and document can streamline the processes. Using Kinderloop can allow more time for meaningful interactions in the present and reduce the overall stress experienced by educators when completing their documentation and planning. By reducing this stress educators are better able to be present in their interactions and sharing their happiness with the children in their care.

Mindfulness is an emerging concept in modern educational settings and research is suggesting can significantly improve outcomes and wellbeing of children and educators as they explore the path to positive emotional intelligence together.

Interesting Articles:

This post has been a very brief look at the world of mindfulness in early childhood education. There are a number of interesting articles in both popular media and scholarly literature.

The Potential Benefits of Mindfulness Training in Early Childhood: A Developmental Social Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective

http://research.familylife.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/the-potential-benefits-of-mindfulness-training-in-early-childhood.pdf

Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and Empirical Review

http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/MindfulnessPsyTx.pdf

Mindful Parenting Can Have Positive Effects For Adults, Children

http://www.doorcountydailynews.com/news/mindful-parenting-can-have-positive-effects-for-adults-children/article_c071529e-1922-11e6-9acc-5b141c858b49.html

Mindfulness made easy

https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/health-and-community/enewsletter/mindfulness-made-easy

8 Ways to Teach Mindfulness to Kid

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sarah-rudell-beach-/8-ways-to-teach-mindfulness-to-kids_b_5611721.html

How two minutes of mindfulness can calm a class and boost attainment

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jun/03/mindfulness-class-students-education?CMP=share_btn_fb

The Whole-Brain Child

by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D. and Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D. (2011)

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Curriculum and educational program: Infinite possibilities!

In every child care educator’s day, there are a significant number of tasks to be completed: engaging in meaningful interactions with the children in our care, completing a myriad of routine tasks, observing the learning of children, and programming the curriculum for the interests and skills observed.

“Curriculum: in the early childhood setting curriculum means ‘all the interactions, experiences, activities, routines and events, planned and unplanned, that occur in an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development’. [adapted from Te Whariki].” Early Years Learning Framework.

In many educational settings, the term curriculum and educational program are used interchangeably. All decisions made in the development and ongoing analysis of the educational program may be influenced by the knowledge that educators gain from observing, analysing and assessing the learning, development and interests of the children in their care.

from “Educators’ Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia” 

How each centre and educator presents their observations, planning cycle and curriculum can vary as much as the children attending our centres and will be influenced by the educators’ philosophies.

How educators have planned for the learning of children has evolved from boxes with learning areas with activities changed daily, to mind maps following interests, to child-focused discussion groups to plan the learning environment and foster engagement.

With the emergence of digital documentation methods, gathering the data required for planning an educational program has never been easier (link to obs post). With your centre’s own private Kinderloop, all observations are available to educators to observe and build into the educational program; encompassing the learning environment, intentional teaching moments and projects planned to extend upon interests and skills observed.

Representing the educational program is easy with Kinderloop. There are an abundance of ways to display the program being provided at your centre. Below are just a few ideas on how to display, document and review your curriculum.

Creating Specific Groups

The wonderful thing about Kinderloop is how easy it is to customise using groups and tags. It is possible to create a group for each room’s curriculum. Here educators can post photos of learning environments and add analysis and assessment either through editing the description on the photo or by adding a comment to the photo. Educators are able to add data to the comments if they see a child engaging with an educational area or add links made to observation posts made to individual children’s Kinderloops.

Creating Mind Maps

Expressing the curriculum as a mind map is another popular option for documenting and assessing the educational program. To keep things simple, there are now apps for your iPad or Tablet which mean that brain storming can be completed on the run on your device!

(Created using SimpleMind)

The mind map can then be saved to your photos and quickly posted to your Kinderloop as either a public or private post. Evaluation can then happen in the comments section. It is also possible to upload documents to your private Kinderloop meaning that supporting documents can be added to your planning documentation.

It is the task of educators to ensure that all children are represented within the curriculum and planning cycle. This is done through observation, analysis and assessment of learning and engagement within the educational environment. How you document your learning program is completely up to you! The tools now available to educators mean that these tasks are getting simpler and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination!

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Programming time: eeeek!!

Ok, so you have your chunk of time off the floor to do your “programming”. What do I do?

For most educators this time is precious and jam-packed with expectations! Depending on the centre, educators may have a focus group of children that is their responsibility to observe and program for, or may make a contribution to each child’s learning profile.

Generally the term “programming” refers to documenting the learning journey of children. This may include completing observations or learning stories and providing some form of analysis on what has occurred within the observation. The educator will then provide an assessment of the learning, deducing a direction for future planning that may be incorporated into the larger educational program. Programming may also involve completing developmental or learning outcome based checklists that ensure educators are observing children with reference to typical developmental milestones.

Each educator will observe children in slightly different ways, using a variety of different observation types: jottings, anecdotal and running records. Formats and presentation methods for observations will vary from centre to centre and evolve overtime.

When I started as an Advanced Child Care Worker after completing my diploma, programming and planning occurred in the form of learning stories prepared for the families to see. Observations were completed in a full page format, with detailed observation, analysis and assessment of learning, with links to the “NSW Curriculum Framework for Children’s Services”, including references to the various developmental domains of the child. Feedback from families was that they loved the pictures of their children but that all the text was too technical and not very interesting.

With the introduction of the Early Years Learning Framework, the focus of documentation and programming moved away from providing a product for families and towards meaningful and purposeful interactions with children. Programming remained a vital component of planning and providing an educational program for children, but the time spent per observation was reduced, allowing for more time spent engaging. There was still a lot of time spent writing out learning outcomes observed and having to cross reference ideas and observations through big piles of paper.

As I completed my Teaching Degree, I saw the introduction of digital documentation making programming simpler still. Observations can be posted to the centre’s private Kinderloop quickly on the floor with children or in down times during the day and added to my programming group (see how here). In my programming time all I have to do is search for observations tagged with my group (generally private posts) and I can analyse and assess the learning of the children observed (either by editing the post or by adding my assessment in the comments section). I don’t have to write out the learning outcomes I have observed any more as it is simple and easy to add a tag to the observation. Developmental areas may also be identified and tagged, making it super fast to complete developmental checklists if required or complete more detailed reports that may be required for external sources (for example for primary schools in the case of those in their last year of preschool).

Linked families have access to all of the observations completed on their child in the form of public (white) posts with a small jotting. I am able to duplicate the posts seen by families and create private (yellow) posts seen only by educators, and add the detail I need to conduct an analysis of learning and development. These private posts can then include the centre based curriculum directions and follow up required under the National Quality Standard and may even include links to the Quality Improvement Plan of the centre, which is often not relevant to families.

Programming is a vital component of the day-to-day running of an early childhood education centre. It can be daunting; with limitless possibilities for representing the learning of children. Kinderloop allows for educators to streamline the programming process, limiting duplicating data and allowing for more time spent implementing the planned program with the children.

Planning

When it comes to planning, reminders are a great way to show links to your thinking in regards to observations set them up on a new online post or in the reminder tab. Another beautifully simple way to achieve this is simply to create a yellow (draft) post with your planning thoughts and tag it with the child’s name and create a new learning tag called ‘Planning’ that way, when you either search for the child’s name or the ‘Planning’ tag you will see your thoughts...

Kate – Early Childhood Teacher

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From paper based to digital documentation

For many the process of moving from a paper based system of observing and recording children’s development is a daunting one. When examining the differences and similarities between paper based and digital documentation systems, the similarities far outweigh the differences and moving over is just a matter of a few simple clicks.

The National Quality Standard regarding observation documentation, programming and planning states that “Each child's learning and development is assessed as part of an ongoing cycle of planning, documenting and evaluation." How this is done is entirely up to the centre and educator. Paper based documentation has many formats (see picture for example) and these are often personalised depending on the organisation and centre requirements.

from “Observations and Reflections in Childhood” by Diane Szarkowicz (2006) Thompson Social Science Press

Within paper based documentation systems there a few boxes that must be ticked:

child’s name

date

observational data (jotting, running record or anecdotal record are generally used most frequently)

educators’ assessment of learning

analysis and future planning.

When making the move over to a digital documentation system, the format may be slightly different but the content remains the same.

Using an app like Kinderloop makes observation recording and analysis simple and quick, with links possible right in the recording stage. It also makes observational records searchable and follow-up possible with the click of a button.

There are two types of posts possible within Kinderloop: public (white shading and viewable by families and educators); and private (yellow shading and is viewable only by educators). Depending on the policies and procedures at your centre you may be able to post your observation and analysis on a public post for parents to see, or you utilise the private posts for recording analysis and assessment of learning.

Recording an observation is simple:

• take a photo (if you desire) of the event being observed, log into Kinderloop and link the photo

• select the type of post you would like to create (send to parents or private),

• select the child you are observing and any relevant groups

• type in your observation, either at the time for a running record or later for a jotting or anecdotal record (sometimes paper notes are still handy to jog your memory),

• assign the appropriate tags for your observation (learning outcomes, developmental areas, child interest, intentional teaching etc)

• record your assessment of the learning (this can be done within the post or within the comments section after the post has been saved)

• record your ideas for follow up and addition to the learning program

• save your observation by selecting Post and your observational record is saved to the centre’s Kinderloop.

The great thing about this observational record is that it can be quickly reviewed by all educators and is fully editable if you forgot something! Developmental records may be recorded and viewed on a device with the Kinderloop app or on a desktop or laptop computer using a web browser. Developmental records are securely stored within each centre’s private Kinderloop and easily archived for storage in line with regulatory requirements.

In the ever-changing world of Early Childhood Education and Care, there are so many things that educators must adapt to on a daily basis. Moving from a paper based system to digital documentation can be an exciting adventure; reducing the time spent programming and planning for children, sharing children’s explorations with families in real time and significantly reducing the environmental impact of documenting children’s learning.

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'Each' child: ensuring equitable curriculum decisions

When the National Quality Standard was released, I read the support guide cover to cover. The term “each child” jumped out at me. I began to ponder how we were ever going to provide evidence to assessment and compliance officers that we appropriately observed and assessed each child’s learning and development as well as providing an educational program that considered “each” child.

Quality Area 1

“An approved learning framework informs the development of a curriculum that enhances each child’s learning and development”

“Educators and co-ordinators are focused, active and reflective in designing and delivering the program for each child”

Ensuring that each child was considered when developing the educational program became a significant challenge and one that appealed to the list maker in me. I love a good checklist, spreadsheet or form that needs to be filled out so I quickly set about developing a range of tools that would ensure that each child was being observed across all developmental domains and that these observations were being used in the development and planning of learning areas and structured times within the learning environment.

With traditional observation and documentation methods, there was constant need for cross-referencing to ensure that all learning areas were observed and reported upon for each child. Analysis of the observations entailed examining data across a folder’s worth of paper and at times seemed never-ending and incredibly complicated. More than once I have found myself confused at my own checklist and spreadsheet and wondering where on earth I had put an observation that has been recorded but is now missing! Documenting learning links in traditional documentation is also complex and requires linking across a variety of document types in various locations.

With Kinderloop, all of these complex links, analysis and consideration in programming and planning became so simple. With all the data in one place and searchable, I found myself no longer missing observations and not even really needing my spreadsheet to ensure equality across the children in my care! Linking observations to the program and learning outcomes became as simple as adding a tag to a post. Developing the educational program with consideration for each child became a matter of simply looking up a specific group and the tags within.

The best part about this new form of documentation is that it is completely customisable, each educator within the learning environment can use it in a way that makes the most sense to them, altering and adding new tags, creating different groups and adjusting analysis and assessment of learning within the comments section.

Then came the ultimate checklist: Kinderloop health! This amazing feature is a statistic loving educator’s dream come true. This feature gives you a run down of how many posts have been made per child, who may need a few more posts, which learning outcomes are the most popular and which need to be examined a bit more. It is possible to see at a glance the number of posts for children within the entire centre and within an individual educator’s observational group - no more spread sheet, no more checklist; everything you need in one place for ease of assessment, analysis and linking!

As everything is located centrally, for assessment and rating or spot check it is easy to share information with assessment and compliance officers. It couldn’t be more simple to ensure that “each” child is being considered in the development of the learning program and that it this achievement is documented for assessment.

Kate – Early Childhood Teacher

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Digital Documentation: Why Kinderloop?

Early childhood education and care is an industry governed by regulation. These regulations are vital to ensure the safety of the children entrusted into our care. With regulations come paperwork and documentation used to evaluate each early childhood setting in line with the National Quality Standards. Along with new quality measures have been emerging digital documentation tools. So why use Kinderloop?

Efficient Recording

Every educator on the floor with the children or in the office finishing admin tasks is time poor. Kinderloop has a simple interface that allows educators to achieve multiple tasks in minutes, for example;

record developmental information about children, including observations and assessment of learning,

share information with parents about the latest centre event then

record the follow-ups required of staff after the recent staff meeting.

All of this vital recording is possible with one app, saving time on each task!

Each centre is different, with diverse needs so it is important to have flexibility within your recording system. The options are limited only by the creativity of the educational team; unique tags can be created to ensure efficient searching, groups can be used to allow educators to track focus groups, and posts may be made accessible to parents or posted privately for educator assessment and analysis. For more customisation features check out the amazing videos by Michelle (http://kinderloop.com/help.html).

When it comes to the assessment and rating visit, just create a special account for the A&C Officer and they can access your Kinderloop and review all of the wonderful evidence you have gathered!

Amazing Family Engagement

Always have trouble catching little Jess’s parents at the end of a busy day? Parents are now able to their children’s daily achievements in real time and comment immediately from their mobile device. Kinderloop gives families a real sense of belonging to their children’s day and enhances the community spirit surrounding the centre.

New features are added regularly that help further support family engagement! Families can now create posts and share events from the child’s time at home with the educators at the centre, completing the sharing loop and further strengthening bonds between educators and family.

Community Support and Feature Requests

Early childhood educators are busy. Kinderloop has created an online community to provide support to these educators across various sites across the world. Within this support community exist some truly amazing ideas! One fantastic examine is: Want a better way to record your daily yard check? Just laminate your daily yard check record, use a whiteboard marker to sign your record then take a picture and post it to your Kinderloop as a private post with a custom tag! No more folder full of paper and easy to check for Assessment and Compliance!

The amazing support team at Kinderloop are always ready to answer questions and respond to feedback and are constantly adding new simple features to the app and website; just check out their Facebook page for upcoming updates!

Privacy

Most important to early childhood educators is protecting the children entrusted into our care. With each private Kinderloop created, the educator owns the content and invites the family to see updates that both relate to the child and the service. This ensures the upmost security and privacy is upheld and means that images cannot be shared anywhere on social media and invitations are managed by the educator, with written consent by the parent.

As an early childhood educator and parent this feature is key as it insures that content is protected by educators, that group photos can be shared with confidence and that assessment and evaluations of development may be stored securely and shared with families as appropriate with the required context.

Kate – Early Childhood Teacher

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“I can’t use a computer” Early Childhood Documentation and Planning for the Digital Immigrant

“A digital immigrant is an individual who was born before the widespread adoption of digital technology. The term digital immigrant may also apply to individuals who were born after the spread of digital technology and who were not exposed to it at an early age. Digital immigrants are the opposite of digital natives, who have been interacting with technology from childhood.” (https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28139/digital-immigrant)

I am a digital native. I have grown up around computers and technology, and have had a passion for them for as long as I can remember. As soon as I entered the world of Early Childhood Education, I wanted to share this passion with the children and colleagues with whom I worked.

I entered the Early Childhood Education sector at a time of great change for the industry: the EYLF was just about to be released, and the NQS was looming on the horizon. Change was coming to all aspects of the industry, and documentation and planning seemed to be lagging behind.

I was soo excited when I learnt of Kinderloop, and couldn’t wait to explore it! A platform that would allow educators to record children’s growth through pictures, movies and observations; evaluate them in the same space; provide quick and easy updates on the educational program; and to share that with families on a secure site, with an app for phone and tablet! Amazing! That first login was magical! The possibilities for engagement were endless! The challenge was to share my passion with fellow educators and nurture their engagement.

At each centre there are a variety of personalities and learning types within the educational team. Within my setting there were a number of educators who were quite excited to be programming and documenting children’s learning journeys on a computer/tablet, and others who wanted to continue the hand-written jottings that had been our planning system. Some educators took it upon themselves to explore the site, have a few test posts and just run with it for the most part. Others enjoyed the videos and guides available online (http://kinderloop.com/help.html), and found it useful to discuss the possibilities as a group before diving in.

Of the learning types, there was a clear divide between the “digital natives” like me and the “digital immigrants” who claimed they had no confidence with a computer and were sure that they were going to break something.

With a lot of hand-holding, wonderful help documents, a user friendly interface, and practice, all of the educators gained confidence in using Kinderloop. The educator that first told me “I’ll never be able to do that; I can’t use computers” became the most prolific poster!

Parent engagement increased dramatically as families were able to see in very near real-time what their children were exploring on any given day, follow long-term projects and contribute their ideas quickly to centre life.

Educators noticed a reduction in the amount of double handling of photos, with a reduction in the number of photos printed. Children’s learning was documented quickly and efficiently, with follow-ups recorded instantly. Over time, the depth of information gathered was able to assist us in keeping up to date with our improvement goals.

With Kinderloop, any educator can become a digital native and share their passion for educating children with colleagues and families!

Kate – Early Childhood Teacher.

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Mobile Device Management in Early Learning

A huge thanks to our friends over at Crunch IT for their inspired insight into this growing topic.

The benefits of tablet adoption in the world of Early Learning are many. Immediate access to all important information, enhanced learning experience, tracking of children's progress and ensuring adhesion to the plethora of government regulations involved.

However as with any solution there are potential drawbacks if not managed or implemented with the appropriate degree of care and understanding.

As the manager of a childcare centre you are not just responsible for the physical safety of children but also the security of private data and associated images relating to those minors.

No doubt for logical reasons of operational efficiency you plan to use your mobility solution to capture, manage and refer to data that relates to the children under care. Using the right tools can create a fantastic collaborative learning and reporting experience between careers and parents.

If you're planning this with a solution such as Kinderloop then this task is made easy. However you still need to ensure the security of this data and any other that might be stored in other applications on the device. This extends to photos that are taken using the device for newsletters and other reporting to parents and the community.

What happens if the iPad is misplaced or inexplicably goes missing? Unless the device and the data thereon is managed using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution such as AirWatch or Casper then you simply can't guarantee that the information that you're responsible for protecting will not be used inappropriately.

Below are my top six considerations to help minimize or eliminate this and other risks and maximize the positive elements of adopting a mobility (often tablet) solution in a childcare or early learning environment.

Why you need an Mobile Service Management Solution

A Mobile Device Management solution enables you to force the use of a passcode (of an appropriate complexity) to unlock a device which cannot be removed

It can enable you to geographically track down a device if it goes missing

You can remotely wipe all data if the device cannot be found

Ease of setup and management is a great feature of a Mobile Device Management solution. Enabling the easy configuration of new devices including deployment of Apps, email, wireless and many other profiles. From an ongoing management point of view Mobile Device Management software enables the easy update of profiles such as wireless security or email username and passwords.

App management can cause a lot of cost and management issues for mobility solutions in many organizations. Mobile Device Management software enables the establishment of private app store to enable staff to download approved apps that have been selected by the business. Equally there is a high degree of flexibility in the setup of Mobile Device Management software to enable staff to purchase apps themselves, or not.

Preventing the viewing of inappropriate content is an important capability. Sometime it’s about protecting people from themselves as much as from others.

Crunch IT are Mobility Solution experts with unique capabilities to assist your centre best manage the risk and realize the potential of your mobility solution. To discuss this further please contact Yolanna on yolanna@crunchit.com.au or call 1300 305 292.

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The importance of simple, effective documentation in a child care setting

The impact that parental involvement has on our children’s learning is well documented by many different studies. It is now clear that children whose family actively support and involve themselves in their children’s education, achieve higher grades and have more positive outcomes, than children whose family do not positively engage with their children’s education.

The outcome of positive parental engagement is not only important to a child’s academic education, but can also be seen in their social and emotional wellbeing and in how well they connect and interact with others.

Positive parental engagement increases student outcomes

In fact, the Harvard Family Research Project in 2005, has shown that the most accurate predictor of a student’s academic achievement is not income or social status, but is the family’s engagement in the child’s education.

This engagement comes in three forms:

• Creating a home environment that encourages learning.

• Expressing a positive and realistic expectation for their children’s academic achievements and future prospects.

• Being positively engaged and supportive of their children’s education, both in the home and within the community.

Research also shows that parental programs that help parents and families enhance their own engagement with their children’s education have a huge impact on their children’s academic outcomes. This type of communication and mutual support between the family and the learning centre or school increases self-efficacy within the family grouping and leads to a heightened sense of empowerment.

Early learning centres and schools are now fully aware that engagement with a child’s family gives children a greater opportunity to achieve higher grades, increases their overall well-being and leads to more long-lasting and productive careers.

It is therefore imperative that connections between families and learning centres are initiated, supported and maintained during a child’s academic career.

How can families engage with their child’s early learning centre?

Engagement is about supporting, interacting and growing connections with your children’s early learning centre. It is for this reason that Kinderloop provides a conduit between families and educators, one which is cost effective and allows families and educators to keep in touch and communicate effectively.

Via Kinderloop you can remain in contact with your children’s day, observe their activities and understand how certain activities help your children learn about their world. One of the features of Kinderloop are the daily posts with tagged images sent to you by your children’s educators, in addition to reports outlining how your child has developed in a particular area over time.

Kinderloop makes positive parental engagement easy for time poor and extended, distant families and with the main form of communication centred on photos and images, Kinderloop easily overcomes any language barriers.

For more information on how you can support your child’s early education, contact us on hello@kinderloop.com or call us on 04 9002 0816.

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NQF & EYLF exceeding assessment feedback )

Another fantastic story from Carabella Early Learning, who, after only using Kinderloop for 2 months have just been assessed as exceeding in all quality areas and every standard!! Well done guys...

We had only been using kinderloop for 2 months and our assessor was very interested in the way it works. She particularly liked the search function, so parent input, parent communication, each area of the EYLF and individual goals and children can be easily accessed. 

Here are the assessors comments about kinderloop: QA1 "The service uses an online program called kinderloop which allows families to have 24 hour access to their child's learning portfolio and opportunities to provide feedback and suggestions for future learning. Families have immediate access to their child's profile on the kinderloop program which provides daily updates on the child, group experiences, individual learning goals, planned experiences and reflections of their child's day. Families regularly contribute to their child's learning progress by placing comments and suggestions on their online portfolio. Comprehensive reflections are available in each child's portfolio which is used by educators to review and revise the objectives and goals developed for each child." 

QA2: "Information about healthy food items is provided to families in the newsletter attached to the kinderloop program."

QA3: "The service uses electronic methods of sharing information with families and educators to avoid over use of paper." 

QA4: "All educators significantly contribute to the review of service process and the development of new and innovative procedures. For example, all educators have contributed to the use of an online programming resource." 

QA6: "Families are contacted on their child's first day of attendance to ensure they feel supported in the process and detailed information is provided on the kinderloop system to allow families to see how their child has settled during the day. The nominated supervisor and educational leader use the kinderloop program to actively seek feedback from families on a daily basis. For example, questions about suggested items for the children's library are posted and answers are collated to include in the program. Kinderloop is used to provide instant updates to the families regarding all aspects of the service. Extended family members are invited to comment on children's learning experiences and provide feedback for future planning. For example, a grandparent in Germany provides regular feedback to educators about the educational program via Kinderloop. Local parenting courses and workshops are advertised on the parent noticeboard and posted on the kinderloop program." 

QA7: The educational leader reviews information recorded on the kinderloop program to identify common areas of concern and adapts procedures to support each educators understanding. The online program has been set to ensure all posts and information about children is reviewed by the educational leader and nominated supervisor to ensure confidentiality at all times. The kinderloop program is used to encourage families to address concerns with relevant educators and support open communication and information provided is used to change or adapt service processes. The educator communication book and staff room are used to notify educators of new policies which are read and acknowledged by each educators. Updates are provided on the kinderloop program."

To start your own private Kinderloop now, click here.

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How to exceed in all 7 quality areas!

Last week was an amazing week for the Kinderloop family; 4 child care centres achieved 'Exceeding' in all 7 quality areas, a huge tick for Kinderloop. Below is a little excerpt from their story...

We are a small service of only 3 educators who have worked collectively in Childcare and Education for 75 years.

We constantly faced challenges; to stay motivated, up to date, and to research quicker ways to record and inform our families about children in our care.

Then along came Kinderloop! This program and technology has changed our working lives.

All educators have embraced this communication tool more that I could ever imagine. We are having professional conversations at a much greater level. One result of this is our individual motivation level has improve to deliver a service which has increased the two way conversations between educators, families and the wider community

The Educators are regularly sharing private Kinderloop posts as a tool to communicate with each other so families do not have to repeat themselves to each educator at a shift change.

Kinderloop has evolved as a tool to basically make our service paper free ( a huge tick for sustainability).

The key to our success is the use of the groups.

Currently we have 22 groups, ranging from each days daily reflection, to sustainability, to children's interest to family interactions, staff meetings and communication , work health and safety and cultural competence and so on. We have recognised the groups are an area that will grow and change as the need arises.

We have just been assessed by DEC for National assessment and rating. (our first time ever)

The use of Kinderloop to show evidence in all 58 elements under the 7 quality areas was overwhelming. We achieved exceeding in all areas.

I sat down with the assessor and spent two hours navigating Kinderloop to show all the required links from children, families and the wider community. Linkages were obvious using the EYLF tags and the Principals and Practices tags.

The beauty of Kinderloop is the multi tagging which show the cross over into many varied groups. Our assessor was suitably impressed hence the comments she made:

"Educators record children's voices via Kinderloop."

"Children's participation in physical activities is highlighted to families through photos and comments on Kinderloop"

"Confidential Kinderloop posts are used by educators to share and record educator communications. Educators who do not work full time check these posts prior to their shift to stay up to date".

Thanks Jenine, Robertson Community Preschool

To start your own private Kinderloop now, click here.

Update 09/03.15 The report has us EXCEEDING in all 85 elements!!

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Is it me or is my internet connection slow?

It happens to most of us at some time or another. We try to logon to the internet or into our Kinderloop and it seems to take forever or we are uploading a file or photo and it simply times out. So why do our internet connections fluctuate so much during the day and across the week?

Causes of slow internet connections

Well to begin with, Australia’s internet speeds are pretty slow - when compared with global speed rankings we come in at #44 at 5.8 megabits per second (Mbps), the #1 slot is taken out by Korea with average speeds of 21.9 Mbps.

So an increasing number of Australians are signing up to plans that theoretically provide maximum speeds of 24 Mbps. Therein lies the problem, because these are theoretical maximums and your actual internet speed can be effected by any number of factors, including:

The type and age of your modem.

The quality of your WIFI connections.

The distance of your modem from the nearest internet exchange.

Whether your service provider uses copper-based ADSL connections or the newer fibre connections.

The plan you signed on for with your provider.

Whether you use ADSL or the newer NBN.

The quality of the connection between your home and the exchange.

Concurrent uploads or downloads.

Traffic at the server.

Available capacity on national and international cables (the latter for O/S websites).

Traffic agreements between service providers.

Time of day (12-2pm, 7pm to 9pm is the most congested).

Even the weather, yes the copper cables are affected by rain!

And the biggest and the least known is that electrical interference from appliances/items can have a huge affect on both your internet and Wifi!!

Basically, the cause of your slow connection is due to extreme internet congestion within Australia or overseas and quite possibly that dodgy electrical item being used by a neighbour, causing slower speeds. This is what happens when lots of people try to access the internet all at the same time.

Let’s hope that the NBN rollout helps the situation, because the existing Australian copper wire connections are unlikely to cope well next year if the streaming video giant, Netflix hits Australia and then local equivalents like STAN also take a piece of the action. 

So if you have the occasional slow connection and can’t logon to your secure Kinderloop server, my advice is to put the kettle on and give it some time. If you have a mortally slow connection all of the time, then its best to contact your provider and find out the best deal for your location and your budget and maybe if its happening at the same time each evening, get yourself an AM radio, tune it to a very low frequency and wander around, you will hear the static of an interfering electrical object and can subsequently deal with it.

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How to Exceed in the NQS using Kinderloop

This wonderful story helps explain how you too can gain exceeding in the NQS assessment using Kinderloop.

My name is Amanda and I am the Director of Bulli Community Preschool. I have been Directing for 2 and a half years. Prior to this I have had 8 years experience as an Early Childhood Teacher and have been in the childcare industry for over 18 years.

My service recently went through NQS utilising Kinderloop to showcase how our centre implemented the NQS and we were able to achieve exceeding in all 7 quality areas.

Through implementing Kinderloop into the service we have discovered a long list of benefits that have allowed us to improve our centres quality, maintain quality practices and clearly demonstrate how this links to the regulations and National Quality Standards.

My team is now much more aware of the Early Year Learning Framework and able to interpret children’s learning using this tool. Educators attach a tag based on an interpretation of which of the Learning outcomes children are meeting along with developmental milestones throughout their posted experience. Instantly you have a post for parents and an observation with interpretations and link to the EYLF.  This means that not only are parents seeing children having fun at the centre they are also much more aware of what children are gaining through the experience and aware of the Early Years Learning Framework.

Kinderloop allowed us to showcase all of the great experiences that we involve children in each day and demonstrate to our assessor that these are a part of our every day. Experiences such as watering our garden, planting new vegetables, using our vegetables in our cooking, learning about our worm farms, recycling, up cycling, conserving water are all apart are tagged under “sustainability”. This way when our assessor visited it was a matter of searching for the tag “sustainability” and all of our related posts appeared. This way our assessor could observe that these were common practice within our centre. 

My team previously struggled with time to get through endless observations. With Kinderloop they are now on track, actually enjoying the programming process and much more efficient resulting in more quality interactions. Kinderloop allows them to instantly upload a post with linked outcomes. The search function allows them to search for their focus child, find out where they may need more observations and allows them to see if they have observed the whole child across all learning outcomes and developmental milestones.

Parent communication is always tricky to chase and document. Our parents are much more engaged now and aware of what is happening within our service. Parents are initiating conversations with children and educators about what is happening in the service and the learning occurring and we are seeing much more continuity between home and preschool. It showed our assessor that we are striving for genuine partnerships with families which is the goal for all high quality services. I was able to show this to our assessors by searching our tagged parent’s communication and also by sharing comments that parents had added in relation to our posts. My team are feeling more valued as early childhood professionals as all their hard work is being acknowledged and appreciated by parents.

We have a QIP tag which demonstrates part of our day that demonstrate we are working toward meeting the improvements within our Quality Improvement Plan. As we continue to strive towards improving our service Kinderloop allows us to document the strategies we use and the strengths we have developed which we can then transfer to our QIP.

Lengthy Newsletters full of information that overload parents and take ages to prepare are no longer needed. Kinderloop allows us to upload information as it is important in small informative posts which are much more effective. We’ve also reduced the amount of paper used to notify parents of special days that would of previously been wasted on those lengthy newsletters. Another plus for sustainability!

Our links with the community are clearly demonstrated through a simple tag ‘community involvements’ and once again the touch of a button and the search function.

Our Kinderloop acts as a day book and daily evaluation and clearly highlights all learning, individual, group, planned and spontaneous throughout the centre each day. Parents can view Kinderloop on their own personal device or a full news feed in our foyer on drop off and pick up via our centre laptop. It is also a great way to highlight our centres strengths as new enrolments or visitors walk in the door.

During our NQS visit I was able to simply search a tag relating to what part of our program or practise they wanted to see. I didn’t need to search through lengthy portfolios, day books or evaluations. It was all there, at the tip of my fingers to clearly and confidently demonstrate. Our assessor was given access to our Kinderloop during our assessment process which allowed her to search through our posts to find additional evidence which is of great benefit.  

Overall Kinderloop has been invaluable in demonstrating how our centre provides a quality service relating to NQS. Our knowledge of the EYLF, planning for children, sustainability, children’s health and hygiene, the regulations, parent and community relationships, our quality improvement process, sharing of knowledge are all clearly demonstrated throughout our posts and can be identified through a simple touch of a button. No more tedious writing, storage of bulky day books, cutting, pasting or gluing of pictures for day books! My Team are all on board and much more motivated, our families are all on board and raving about how much more included they are within the entire program. We won’t look back after being able to use this fantastic app to our full advantage and with exceeding results.