Development For A Mother And Baby

This assignment is going to provide an accurate explanation of the health and development checks for a mother and baby from conception until the baby is one year old. The first check is a pregnancy test. There are two different types of pregnancy test, a urine test and a blood test. A urine test can be bought from most shops and can be done at home. There are two types of pregnancy test, digital pregnancy tests which will either say pregnant or not pregnant and non-digital pregnancy tests which use lines.

These types of test are done by urinating onto the stick and waiting for the result to appear. The time it takes for the results to appear will depend on the brand of test. A blood test can only be done by a doctor or another medical professional.

Once pregnancy has been confirmed an appointment is made for the first routine check. This check will be done between eight and twelve weeks and lots of checks are done for instance the Midwife will do a medical history which includes diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, a family history which includes inherited disorders, history of multiple births and any serious illnesses that may run in the family and social history which includes the quality of the housing and if there is any support needed at home.

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The obstetrician will do medical check such as looking for varicose veins in the legs, looking for any swelling of finger and the legs, checking lungs and heart, checking breasts for inverted nipples or any lumps as well as clinical tests such as blood tests, weight, height and urine tests.

Over the course of her pregnancy a woman will have two scans one at ten to thirteen weeks which is called a dating scan during which the woman will receive a more accurate due date depending on the size of the baby and a scan at eighteen to twenty two weeks which looks at the baby's physical development. If the mother is having a high risk pregnancy for example because she is a younger mother, an older mother or has a medical condition then she will have a scan at eight weeks. During the second trimester the mother will have monthly antenatal appointments during which tests will be done such as fundal height, foetal heart rate, weight, urine test and blood pressure. The same checks that were done in the second trimester are now done during the third trimester but are done fortnightly instead of monthly.

After the baby is born there is a need for prenatal care which carries on throughout the first year of life. Within six weeks of the baby being born the birth must be registered. After the first ten days there will be a routine check done by the Midwife, which will be done at the hospital or at home depending on the birth, and between ten days and six weeks visits will be done by the Health visitor at home. If there were complications during the birth then the mother will be visited for the first ten or twenty eight days following the birth. Between six weeks and eight weeks the baby is checked to ensure that it is growing well and is healthy. At nine months to one year old the baby is reviewed checking for things like diet, language, safety, learning and behaviour and this is usually by a health visitor. To all routine check ups the mother must bring the child's personal health care record book.

The early years practitioner has a large role to play in promoting the development of the children in their care. This includes ensuring that while planning activities all seven areas of development are met and that the goals for the age range of their children are being reached. The practitioner needs to plan more activities based on the areas of development that the children are struggling with to help ensure that the development goals of the children are met. This can be done in many which I will now discuss.

One role of the early years practitioner in promoting children's development is providing the children with resources that develop all of the areas of development. Another role is to teach the children how to use the resources that are provided because if the children are not taught how to use them then they will not know how to get the benefit out of them and they will not develop the different areas as effectively as they would if the children were taught. This involves planning appropriate activities. A third role in promoting development is to ensure that all of the children have the opportunities to develop no matter what the circumstances of the child are. This may involve altering the layout of a room to make it easier for a child with a disability to get around and adding ramps for wheelchairs. It may also involve changing how an activity will be carried out, for example if doing a drawing activity on a big piece of paper placing the paper on a table instead of on the floor so that a child in a wheelchair could be pushed under the table and would still be able to participate.

A fourth role of the practitioner in promoting children's development is providing opportunities for the children to work and play together in order for the children to be able to develop socially. Another role that ties in with this is that the practitioner should encourage a child that is hesitant to join in to do so, so that they are not left behind by the other, more confident children. Practitioners have a role to play in the hygiene needs of the children. One way in which the practitioner does this is by making the children wash their hands before eating and checking that the children have washed their hands after they have used the toilet. This is important as it helps to stop the spread of germs and helps prevent the children becoming ill.

It also helps to build good hygiene habits in the children because if they are taught to wash their hands then they are more likely to carry on with good practice when they are older. The practitioner can also help by being a good role model by washing their hands regularly so that the children are more likely to wash their hands. The practitioner could also read the children stories about hand washing and the importance of doing so because if the children are educated in a fun way then they will be more likely to put into practice what they have been taught. Another way is by promoting teeth brushing This can be done by providing toothbrushes and the time for the children to brush their teeth. This will help to build good habits for the future as the children will be used to brushing their teeth so will be more likely to carry on doing so in the future.

The practitioner could also read the children stories about teeth brushing and the importance of doing so because if the children are educated in a fun way then they will be more likely to put into practice what they have been taught. Another role of the practitioner in children's development is that the practitioner must teach the children how to manage their feelings. This can be done by reading the children stories about emotions and by playing games about different emotions.

Another way is by asking the children how they are feeling and talking to the children about their emotions. If one of the children was to hurt somebody in the room then the practitioner can sit down with that child and ask them why they hurt the other person and tell the child what they could have done instead and that way the children will learn to better understand and deal with their emotions. A practitioner has a role in making sure that the children in their care form attachments whether that be by making friends with the other children in the group or building a trusting relationship with the adults in the room. This can be done by having the children assigned to one person who is key worker. The child's key worker would be the one who would do the child's home visit and that way the child would start to build a relationship with that person before they had even started at the setting.

One way that the practitioner could encourage the children to build relationships with the other children is by planning activities that require the children to work together in a group. Another way is by steering a child who is alone towards an activity that other children are playing with and then encouraging the other children to let the child who was alone join in. The practitioner has to promote active learning within a setting. One way in which they can do this is by doing activities that involve the children instead of just standing at the front of the classroom and talking at the children. This is important because it has been proven that people learn best when they are physically doing something instead of just being told how to do it and they are more likely to remember it because they were interested and engaged in the subject.

Active teaching makes a subject more interesting to learn. The views of the children should be taken into consideration by the practitioner. This can be done by thinking about the interests of the children and planning activities based on those for example if the children enjoy playing with dinosaurs then setting up a dinosaur enclosures for the children to have the dinosaurs play in or if the children were pretending to fix cars, setting up a mock garage. The practitioner could also ask older children what activities they would like to do and plan activities based on the feedback they receive. This is important because taking into consideration the views of the children helps the children to feel valued because they know that somebody believes their opinions are important. This could also improve their self-confidence because if the ideas that they put forwards are used then they will know that they can produce good ideas and may be more likely to contribute next time. The practitioner has a role when it comes to promoting physical development. This can be done by planning activities that get the children moving for example hopscotch.

It can also be done by teaching the children about the benefits of things like exercise and being outside because if they understand how it benefits them and that it is important then they will be more likely to do what they are being taught. The children can be taught these things by means of books and activities that show them how enjoyable these things can be. It is important that physical development is promoted it would have a negative impact on the children if it was not as some childrens only opportunities to develop physically is whilst they are in setting so if it was not promoted in setting the children would fail to reach their physical developmental goals. Promoting physical development may also show the children and their parents what sports for example they are good at and they may begin to do those activities outside of setting because they are good at these. A final role of the practitioner is supporting the speech, language and communication development of the child. This can be done by planning activities that

One of the factors that could influence a child's development is the place that they live. This is because if they live in a disadvantaged area then they may not have access to as much as a child who lives in a more advantaged area would. Another factor that could influence a child development is if they have a disability, whether that be a physical disability or a learning disability, as they may not be able to do the same activities or may not be able to learn at the same pace as a child how does not have a disability. A third factor could be having a large number of children in a family. This is because if there are a lot of children in a family who all require attention then each child will be getting less attention than they would be if they had less siblings and this could influence their development for example how they develop emotionally. A fourth factor that could influence a child's development is if they have experienced abuse. This could influence their emotional development as it could cause them to struggle to trust people, which in turn would affect their social development. Their physical development could also be affected from any injuries that they sustained if the abuse they suffered included physical abuse. A fifth factor that could influence a child's development is if they have English as an additional language. This is because if they struggle to understand the language then they will struggle to do their work in class and this would in turn affect their development.