Kazim

During enrolment at Little.ly Early Learning Centre, Talia (Kazim's mother) told Yindi (the Educator) that she was nervous about leaving Kazim (22 months) in long daycare.

Yindi told Kazim's Mum that it might be helpful if she stayed with Kazim for a couple of days in the beginning. To help Kazim become familiar with the educators, Service's routine and environment.

Together Yindi and Talia worked out a way to ease Kazim into long daycare. They used the following strategies.

Gradually leaving Kazim after the initial 'orientation' period for short periods until eventually, he was there for the full day.

Talia filled out the 'about my child' section of the enrolment form carefully describing Kazim's sleeping habits, comforters (teddy and pacifier), fears/phobias, likes, cultural connections, family traditions, interests, temperament, personality, stages of development and significant people in his life.

Emailing a photo book to Talia that showed the room and activities that Kazim would spend his time doing so that Talia could explain to him in the language spoken at home what he would be doing while she was at work.

Eventually, Talia returned to full-time work, and Kazim was in long-day care Monday to Friday.

Talia told Yindi that she was finding it very hard to leave Kazim because he was clingy and cried after she left. Yindi asked Talia what Kazim was interested in. Yindi said that since they had visited the zoo, he loved to talk about the wild animals.

They agreed that when Talia arrived at the Service, Yindi, together with Talia, would sit down and read the book about zoo animals to distract him from Talia leaving. After Talia left, Yindi continued to encourage Kazim to play with rubber zoo animals and has given him five finger puppets of zoo animals which he can wear during playtime with the other children at the Service. Yindi agreed to email photos of Kazim playing happily to Talia throughout the day and encouraged her to ring the Service to see how Kazim had settled in as many times as she needed to.

Although these things seemed to work, Talia told Yindi that Kazim had become very clingy at night and was still worried about him.

Talia thought it was a good idea to tell Kazim when she would be back and leave him a small item from home (tiny donkey that Kazim's grandmother had knitted) to look after: 'Bye Yindi, I will be back after afternoon tea, please look after Jadda's donkey until I get back.' They also decided to include photos of Kazim's family life on the family board in Kazim's room.

These strategies seemed to help Kazim feel connected to his Mum when she was gone, and he was able to say goodbye happily.

Task 1.1 Respectful Behaviours

Identify at least three (3) respectful behaviours the Educator Yindi did to show Talia and Kazim that she was genuinely interested in them and in understanding their needs