J Laishley | PubMed Health

PubMedDate not supplied

Expanding the scope of educational psychology.

This paper describes the way in which a psychologist has workded in day nurseries in an Inner London Borough. The work has involved the development of an assessment form to be used with the children, and the planning of support groups for the day nursery staff. A brief outline is given of the research design necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention. It is to be hoped that the study indicates one way in which educational psychologists may extend their range of activities into the preschool area, and maximize the use of their skills in the field of childhood disadvantage.

Child Behavior Disorders↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Action research in day nurseries: evaluating programmes through staff perceptions and attitudes.

Day nurseries in deprived inner-city areas have to cope with a wide range of problems which are presented by the young children and their families. Many of the children can be delayed in some area of their development or have emotional problems which require sensitive handling. These challenges are in addition to the expected difficulties of helping young children to adjust to a new situation and the presence of unfamiliar adults and children. The staff of day nurseries tend to be young and the 2-year training has a great deal to cover on normal development. The consequence is that staff in their late teens and early twenties have to face the demands of children whose development is often far from 'normal' in terms of the average range. It was a concern about this situation in a very disadvantaged area of London and the fact that nurseries have traditionally been fairly isolated institutions that led to the planning of a 2-year exploratory project with the objective of introducing new ideas and approaches to nursery staff which would help them provide a better quality of care to socially disadvantaged under-5s.

Attitude↗