There are five areas of development that children undergo as they grow to be young adults. These steps appear in a rather predictable sequence, one after the other. They are not like steps of a ladder leading to higher and higher levels. Rather, they are like a spiral of stages through which a child cycles endlessly as they grow and mature. At some point the highest level of attainment may not be reached in a given area but that does not mean the child cannot progress to other areas of the spiral.

1. Early Childhood Education
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Biography of David J. Carey:
David was employed for many years as the Coordinator of Special Education and
Programme Development at the Froebel College of Education, one of Ireland’s five
primary teacher-training colleges. He has recently decided to pursue his primary
interests, the private practice of psychology and writing books. He is a psychologist
with 25 years experience in both clinical and educational settings. He has worked
with children, adolescents and adults having a variety of emotional and behavioural
difficulties including Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, Conduct Disorder as well
as serious mental health problems such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. At
Froebel he has lectured in special education and coordinated several post-graduate
programmes including a Master’s degree in special education. He is a part-time
lecturer on the Master’s in educational psychology and special education at University
College Dublin, an occasional lecturer at Roehampton University, London and at
Trinity College Dublin.
David is the author of The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland
and is on the editorial board of REACH, the journal of the Irish Association of Special
Education Teachers. He is currently completing a guide to the education of children
with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools. He has published extensively
in Ireland and in the US on various mental health topics and special education issues.
He has lectured internationally and currently is the director of an educational
development programme in Nairobi Kenya, working with Kindergarten teachers and
providing volunteer teachers in the slum schools of Kabira, Africa’s largest slum.
Private Practice:
David includes the following specialities in his private practice:
1.) Hypnosis for self-esteem, self-confidence and habit control
2.) Individual therapy of adolescents and adults
3.) Assessment of children, adolescents and adults
4.) Assessment of child-custody issues
5.) Assessment of ADHD in children, adolescents and adults
6.) Individual cognitive-behaviour therapy for ADHD in adolescents and adults
7.) Group therapy for adults
For an appointment or additional information please call: +353 (0)86 8115764
Email Me: info@davidjcarey.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com

2. Early Childhood Education
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EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
The best predictor of a good ending is a good beginning.
The old adage is a true today as when it was first uttered so long ago that no one can
clearly say who first spoke those words. When it comes to the education of young children
this proverb has such tremendous relevance that it is hard to overstate its importance. All
learning and life experience is moulded by what happens to the child in the early years of
his or her life. The influence of the family is of major importance but the influence of the
educational opportunities offered to young children is just as powerful and, in some ways,
more powerful. For it is the impact of early childhood education that determines the attitude
a child will take to formal schooling at primary or secondary level.
The world today is a troubled place. We seem to be getting better at hating one another.
We seem less and less able to accept people who are different from us. In a world riddled
with violence, crime, bullying, chaos and unpredictability we have to ask some important
questions. Why is it that some children
Do not become violent?
Do not become bullies?
Do not become depressed?
Do not loath themselves and others?
Do not despair and give up on life?
These may not be the most profound questions being posed in today’s world but they are
among the most important. Where can we turn to discern the answers to these questions?
What do we know that can help us unpack the issues embedded in them and come to a
vision of how to raise and educate young children?
The answers to these and other questions about children are emerging from new research
about how the human brain grows and develops. Although we are a long way off knowing
exactly who we can prevent violence and depression we have learned a good deal about
how to foster the brain’s potential as an organ to help children grow to become contributing
and productive members of society. Before we explore some of the implications from this
research we need to briefly review the five areas of development that all children pass
through during childhood.
Understanding Child Development
There are five areas of development that children undergo as they grow to be young adults.
These steps appear in a rather predictable sequence, one after the other. They are not like
steps of a ladder leading to higher and higher levels. Rather, they are like a spiral of stages
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3. Early Childhood Education
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through which a child cycles endlessly as they grow and mature. At some point the highest
level of attainment may not be reached in a given area but that does not mean the child
cannot progress to other areas of the spiral.
The five areas of child development are:
Physical
Intellectual
Linguistic
Emotional
Social
They can be easily remembered by the use of the rather unfortunate acronym “PILES”.
Physical Development
This area of child development is no doubt the easiest to understand and observe. Physical
development includes: gross motor skills, fine motor skills, motor control, motor coordination
and kinaesthetic feedback. Let’s explain each of these briefly.
Gross motor skills are those movements of the large muscles of the legs, trunk and
arms.
Fine motor skills are the movements of the small muscles of the fingers and hands.
Motor control is the ability to move these large and small muscles.
Motor coordination is the ability to move these muscles in a smooth and fluid pattern of
motion.
Kinaesthetic feedback is the body’s ability to receive input to the muscles from the
external environment so the person knows where his body is positioned in space.
Intellectual Development
This area relates to the level of intelligence of a child in general and to the various aspects
of intelligence that influence overall level of general ability. Among these many aspects are:
Verbal skills - our ability to communicate with words our ideas, attitudes, beliefs,
thoughts and emotions.
Non-verbal skills - our ability to use visual and spatial-perceptual skills to interpret the
world around us.
Attention span - the ability to sustain a focus on a stimulus for a sufficient period of time
to interpret it and understand it.
Concentration - our ability to utilise attention to juggle stimuli into various permutations
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4. Early Childhood Education
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as necessary to analyse it accurately.
Visual-motor skills - the ability to coordinate the movements of the eyes and hands to
manipulate objects effectively.
Visual-perceptual skills - the ability to analyse stimuli visually without necessarily
manipulating them manually.
Memory - can be auditory or visual (or even kinaesthetic as in the case of remember
dance steps) and can be divided into some important sub-types:
Immediate recall - ability to hold input long enough to recall it straight away if
required to do so
Short-term memory - ability to hold input over a longer period of time, perhaps
minutes or hours
Long-term memory - ability to store input and recall is well after it has been
perceived, perhaps days or months, even years later
Linguistic Development
Linguistic development refers to language usage. Like other areas of child development it
can be divided into sub-types.
Receptive language - our ability to understand spoken language when we hear it
Expressive language - our ability to use spoken language to communicate to others
Pragmatic language - the ability to understand humour, irony, sarcasm and know how to
respond appropriate to what another has said or asked as well as know when to wait
and listen
Self-talk - the ability to use internal, silent language to think through problems, cope with
difficulties and postpone impulses
Reasoning - the ability to think through problems, usually with self-talk but at other times
aloud, create plans of action using words
Creative thinking - although not strictly a linguistic function I include it here because
many people use language creatively, in new and inventive ways (e.g. Joyce, Beckett)
Emotional Development
This aspect of development, along with social development, is probably one of the most
underrated but yet most important aspects of learning how to live in the world. No matter
how excellent intellectual, physical and linguistic development may be we are doomed to
live lives of frustration and difficult if we have not gained satisfactory emotional
development. It includes:
Frustration tolerance - the ability to cope effectively when things do not go the way we
want or expect
Impulse control - ability to think before acting and not do all that comes into our head
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5. Early Childhood Education
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Anger management - ability to resolve conflict without recourse to verbal or physical
violence
Inter-personal intelligence - understanding the attitudes, beliefs and motivations of
others
Intra-personal intelligence - understand our own attitudes, beliefs and motivations
Social Development
Sharing - knowing how to ask to use the materials that belong to another
Turn-taking - knowing when it is your turn to do something and when to ask if you can do
it
Cooperation - the skills of working with others towards a group goal of task
Collaboration - the ability to communication your input in a meaningful way when working
with others.
Again it is necessary to repeat that emotional and social development play a hugely
important role in our ability to live lives of dignity and respect. They also largely determine
how well we will get along with workmates, bosses and loved ones including life-partners.
When we recognise that all children pass through each area of development we design
educational programme for them that are developmentally appropriate. Most pre-schools
have done just that. Unfortunately many early years settings succumb to pressure and push
children towards academic goals and objectives, sometimes almost obsessively. Indeed,
the curriculum in our junior and senior infant classes is largely developmentally
inappropriate. It is far too teacher and parent-centred and far too little child-centred.
Regardless, appropriate or inappropriate, it is not enough to focus on child development
alone in our work with young children. We must begin to recognise the inborn potential
locked within the child’s brain.
The Human Brain
Locked inside the brain are the potentialities that make us human. We are born with the
potential for:
Love Hate
Patience Mistrust
Tenderness Violence
Hope Despair
Trust Suspicion
Dignity Corruption
Respect Revenge
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6. Early Childhood Education
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It is the responsibilities of adults to unlock the positive potentialities of the brain and prevent
the negative from appearing.
All educational experiences of children in the early years, indeed all educational
experiences of children across the entire school years, must place an emphasis on
releasing the positive potential that lies within the brain. Recent brain research, much of it
conducted by Dr. Bruce Perry in Texas, has illuminated six core strengths, each of them
related to brain growth and development that must be a focus in development appropriate
educational programmes for young children.
The Six Core Strengths
Perry and his colleagues have identified six strengths that are related to the predictable
sequence of brain growth and development. These six strengths, if nurtured and fostered
appropriately, will help a child grow to become a productive member of society. They are:
Attachment
Self-regulation
Affiliation
Attunement
Tolerance
Respect
1. Attachment
The first of the six core strengths occurs in infancy. It is the loving bond between the
infant and the primary caregiver. Early attachment theorists’ conceiver of the primary
caregiver as the mother but it is now recognised that it could as well be the father,
grandparent or any loving person. The primary giver, when providing consistent and
predictable nurturing to the infant creates what is known as a “secure” attachment. This is
accomplished in that rhythmic dance between infant and caregiver; the loving cuddles,
hugs, smiles and noises that pass between caregiver and infant. Should this dance be out
of step, unpredictable, highly inconsistent or chaotic an “insecure” attachment is formed.
When attachments are secure the infant learns that it is lovable and loved, that adults will
provide nurture and care and that the world is a safe place. When attachment is insecure
the infant learns the opposite.
As the child grows from a base of secure attachment he or she becomes ready to love and
be a friend. A secure attachment creates the capacity to form and maintain healthy
emotional bonds with another. Attachment is the template through which we view the world
and people in it.
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7. Early Childhood Education
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2. Self-Regulation
Self-regulation is the capacity to think before you act. Little children are not good at this,
they learn this skill as they grow if they are guided by caring adults who show them how to
stop and think. Self-regulation is the ability to take note of our primary urges such as
hunger, elimination, comfort and control them. In other words, it is the ability to postpone
gratification and wait for it to arrive. Good self-regulation prevents anger outbursts and
temper tantrums and helps us cope with frustration and tolerate stress. It is a life skill that
must be learned and, like all the core strengths, its roots are in the neuronal connections
deep inside the brain.
3. Affiliation
Affiliation is the glue of healthy human relationships. When children are educated in an
environment and facilitates positive peer interactions through play and creative group
learning projects they develop the strength of affiliation. It is the ability to “join in” and work
with others to create something stronger and more lasting than is usually created by one
person alone. Affiliation makes it possible to produce something stronger and more creative
than is accomplished by one alone. Affiliation brings into the child’s awareness that he or
she is not an “I” alone but a “We” together.
4. Attunement
Attunement is the strength of seeing beyond ourselves. It is the ability to recognise the
strengths, needs, values and interests of others. Attunement begins rather simply in
childhood. A child first recognises that I am a girl, he is a boy. Through the early years of
education it becomes more nuanced: he is from India and likes different food than I, she is
from Kenya and speak with a different accent than I. Attunement helps children see
similiarities rather than differences because as the child progresses from seeing different
colour skin and different ways of speaking he or she begins to recognise that people are
more similar than different. That brings us to the next core strength.
5. Tolerance
When the child develops the core strength of attunement it learns that difference isn’t
really all that important. The child learns that difference is easily tolerated. Through this
learning the child develops the awareness that is difference that unites all human beings.
Tolerance depends on attunement and requires patience and an opportunity to live and
learn with people who at first glance seem “different”. We must overcome the fear of
difference to become tolerant.
6. Respect
The last core strength is respect. Respect is a life-long developmental process. Respect
extends from respect of self to respect of others. It is the last core strength to develop,
requires a proper environment and an opportunity to meet a variety of people. Genuine
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8. Early Childhood Education
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respect celebrates diversity and seeks it out. Children who respect other children, who have
developed this core strength, do not shy away from people who seem different. An
environment in which many children are grouped together to learn, explore and play will
foster the core strength of respect.
How the Brain Grows
The brain grows from the bottom to the top. Each of the core strengths is related to a
stage and site of brain growth. In infancy attachment bonds are acquired and lay down
emotional signals deep within the brain. At the same time the brain stem is seeing to it that
bodily functions can be self-regulated. Later on in childhood the emotional centres of the
brain come under increasing control so temper tantrums disappear and the child controls
their emotional life. In mid-childhood the child’s brain begins to develop the capacity to think
and reflect on the external environment. It is at this stage when the frontal areas of the brain
begin to mature and it is at this stage in brain growth when the core strengths of affiliation,
attunement, tolerance and respect can mature as well.
The Classroom and the Brain’s Core Strengths
The education of young children must be undertaken with the core strengths in mind.
Classrooms where there is peace and harmony among a wide variety of children will create
opportunities for affiliation, tolerance and respect to develop. These classroom must be
characterised by play, creative exploration of objects, lessons which are activity-based not
teacher-lectured. There must be challenge to the brain in the form of innovative lessons and
teaching methodologies. Cooperative learning activities must be part of the school day. The
classroom should occasionally consist of an opportunity to engage in cooperative,
mixed-ability groupwork. There must be an opportunity for long-term, thematic projects to be
explored. The teacher should be a guide, always teaching with the core strengths in mind,
always observing children and noticing which of them need more structure and guidance as
they grow through the core strengths. The teacher must also be a person the children
perceive as predictable and caring, patient and kind; a person who will not obsessively
focus on mistakes.
Whose Responsibility is It?
We have learned that the child’s brain grows in a predictable sequence and associated with
this growth are six core strengths for healthy living in the world. Every child is born with a
brain possessing the potential to full develop these core strengths. However every brain
must have an opportunity to interact with a classroom and home environment that facilitates
the development of these strengths. It is the responsibility of adults, particularly parents and
teachers to get it right.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com

9. Early Childhood Education
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Biography of David J. Carey:
David was employed for many years as the Coordinator of Special Education and
Programme Development at the Froebel College of Education, one of Ireland’s five
primary teacher-training colleges. He has recently decided to pursue his primary
interests, the private practice of psychology and writing books. He is a psychologist
with 25 years experience in both clinical and educational settings. He has worked
with children, adolescents and adults having a variety of emotional and behavioural
difficulties including Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, Conduct Disorder as well
as serious mental health problems such as bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia. At
Froebel he has lectured in special education and coordinated several post-graduate
programmes including a Master’s degree in special education. He is a part-time
lecturer on the Master’s in educational psychology and special education at University
College Dublin, an occasional lecturer at Roehampton University, London and at
Trinity College Dublin.
David is the author of The Essential Guide to Special Education in Ireland
and is on the editorial board of REACH, the journal of the Irish Association of Special
Education Teachers. He is currently completing a guide to the education of children
with autistic spectrum disorders in mainstream schools. He has published extensively
in Ireland and in the US on various mental health topics and special education issues.
He has lectured internationally and currently is the director of an educational
development programme in Nairobi Kenya, working with Kindergarten teachers and
providing volunteer teachers in the slum schools of Kabira, Africa’s largest slum.
Private Practice:
David includes the following specialities in his private practice:
1.) Hypnosis for self-esteem, self-confidence and habit control
2.) Individual therapy of adolescents and adults
3.) Assessment of children, adolescents and adults
4.) Assessment of child-custody issues
5.) Assessment of ADHD in children, adolescents and adults
6.) Individual cognitive-behaviour therapy for ADHD in adolescents and adults
7.) Group therapy for adults
For an appointment or additional information please call: +353 (0)86 8115764
Email Me: info@davidjcarey.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________
www.davidjcarey.com