BTEC H/S Care Unit 18: Assessing Children’s Development Support Needs Explained

For Unit 18 you need this book called "BTEC National Health and Social Care Student Book 2: For the 2016 specifications (BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care 2016)" and starts from page 411

A. P1 Explain patterns of growth and development of selected children of different ages
Provide a definition of growth and a definition of development also talk about milestones, reflexes that newborns are born with, what are the different stages of growth and development i.e. infancy, early childhood etc. Page 414 to 424 for guidance

A.M1 Analyse stages of growth and development across different areas for selected children of different ages
Expand upon P1 by, explaining what milestones children are expected to reach at a certain age, talk about social development, emotional development, physical development and intellectual development how does it change from infancy to early childhood or adolescence remember to talk about patterns of normal development as all children grow at different rates. Also talk about delayed development and how it can affect them their physical, social, emotional and intellectual development Page 425 to 427 for guidance





A.P2 Explain principles and theories that contribute to an understanding of the children’s growth and development

Talk about different child development theories and explain what the argued about, theories include:

• Noam Chomsky – Language Acquisition Device
• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development
• Bandura social learning theory
• Skinner learning theory
• Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Theory
• Bowlby Attachment theory
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs

More in page 428 to 436
A.M2 Assess how theories can be used to identify the children’s stages of growth and development

For this expand upon P2 and research or explain how theories such as Chomsky, Skinner can help us to understand child development and growth, for example, Noam Chomsky theory helps us to understand how children acquire language and put things in place to support children with language acquisition or Piaget helps use to understand what children understand at certain ages etc.

A.D1 Evaluate the extent to which theories of growth and development can be used to support the selected children’s growth and development.

Discuss what theories (in your opinion) are most helpful/useful in understanding child development and growth by explaining the pros and cons of each theories and any evidences that support their theories, then concluding by talking about what theory/theories can be used to understand child development.




B.P3 Discuss the influence of factors on children’s growth and development

Discuss about what factors affect child’s growth and development for example, health factors, genetics, parental factors, social economic factors, environmental factors, emotional factors i.e. domestic abuse. Then talk about the short term and long term effects for each of them

Page 437 to 445

B.M3 Assess how one area of development affected by factors may impact on other areas of development

Talk about how delay in cognitive, social, emotional, physical development can affect other areas of development for example, delays in cognitive development in language can hinder their social development as they would have difficulties communicating with others. Also talk about how cognitive, social, emotional, physical development can have a positive impact on other areas of development

Go to page 446 to 448 for more guidance.





C.P4 Explain methods used for the assessment of children’s growth and development from birth to eight years

Explain what methods they used to assess children’s growth and development from birth to eight, for example, developmental screening programmes

Go to page 449 to 453 for suggestions

C.M4 Effectively plan and implement appropriate methods of assessment to identify the children’s stages of development

For this, make a plan on identifying children’s (that you have chosen or made) stages of development, explain what methods of assessment you’re planning on using and why, for example, I’m planning to use a centile chart as the child I am observing is 2 months old and it is important that the child has the expected weight, height and length for their age and milestone, furthermore….

BC.D2 Justify approaches to assessment used for the early recognition and support for children with differing needs.

Justify why it is important to use those assessments that you’re planning on using to support children with different needs and to spot early signs, what happens if you leave it too late? Use page 458 to 459 for guidance





C.P5 Plan for and observe children to identify their stages of development

For this, talk about which part of child development are you going to focus on? Will it be social, emotional, physical or cognitive development or all of them? And talk about why observations are important.

C.M5 Assess the methods of observation selected for the assessment of each child’s growth and development.

Talk about how you’re going to record those observations i.e. participate observation, use page 454 to help you and then talk about the pros and cons of each observation method. Consider the timing and the environment of the observation and ethical issues, talk about involving parents in the assessment, talk about why it is important to compare the children’s (you are observing) development to an atypical development. Also, Talk about confidentiality






BC.D3 Evaluate the extent to which professionals help children to meet their developmental milestones through the application of the theories of growth and development and use of assessment methods.

After the observation, talk about what professional do you think your children (that you have chosen/made) need to meet their developmental milestones, i.e. speech and language therapist, GP, nutritionist.

Then talk about how these theories such as Vygotsky can be applied into practice for example, Vygotsky’s theory can be applied to someone with reading difficulty by the speech and language therapist reading a book with them and when they are struggling with a word to intervene and help them.

After talk about how professionals can apply assessment methods (that you’ve talked about in P4 and M4) into practice, for example, professional would do a formative assessment and a summative assessment in centile chart and explain how this would help the children reach their milestones

Hope this helps

Unit 4: Enquiries into Current Research in Health and Social Care
Unit 5: Meeting Individual Care and Support Needs
Unit 7: Principles of Safe Practice in Health and Social
Unit 8: Promoting Public Health
Unit 11: Psychological Perspectives
Unit 12: Supporting Individuals with Additional Needs
Unit 14: Physiological Disorders and Their Care