• example of a progress report that would be written in early childhood education and care of the child in this example progressing and meeting the goals
• example of reflection the educators might have about the plan, what is going well, what needs to be adapted in this situation

First observation on the child before goals were implemented

Deacon was in the family grouping room grabbing magnets from a tub and shaking them between their fingers watching them fall to the ground. He continued this repeatedly until stopping and separating all the magnets into different colours. Although they don't talk Deacon began to mumble along with the magnets. I walked over and looked at what he was doing and noticed they were grouping the magnets e.g., one pink magnet, two pink magnets, etc. A child came over to see what they were doing and said how well Deacon was doing, Deacon looked at them and quickly looked back down continuing with the magnets. A baby crawled past Deacon who then quickly precented to shove the baby to the ground, ignoring the babies' cries. An educator moved the baby and told Deacon to say sorry, Deacon ignored the educator until the educator removed the magnets from Deacon's hands. Deacon began to scream and cry pulling away from the educator trying to reach for the magnets. Deacon continued to scream, in turn making the babies in the room scream and cry. Deacon then rocked back and forth in a ball, while the educators removed the babies as they seemed to be setting off Deacon more.

After the babies were removed Deacon stopped rocking and turned to the wall grabbing at the numbers. Deacon grabbed them off the wall and placed them next to the correlating piles of magnets. Deacon than got coloured items that matched the magnets and placed them in the group as well. Deacon than became to rock back and forth while vocalising again.

Goals for Deacon

Short-Term Goals: Improve social communication skills Develop coping mechanisms for sensory sensitivities. Minimize aggressive behaviors towards peers. Long-Term Goals: Increase social engagement and participation. Enhance verbal communication skills. Develop flexibility in routines and transitions.

strategies to achieve goals

I have implemented a few strategies to support the inclusion of Deacon within the service I have started to implement structured social skills experiences, although Deacon doesn't join in on the experiences, I can still see him looking up occasionally as if he was listening to what is being said. I have also started to encourage parallel play with some of the older school aged children as to gradually create peer interactions. I would like to begin setting up the quiet corner for Deacon filled with fidget toys and number games for him to retreat to when over stimulated, this is where I will also have the headphones to have Deacon explore them first before trying them. I would also like to include small trays of Deacon's sensory aversions to slowly introduce them to him as well as let him take his learning in his own hands. Sign language amounst the children within the srrvice is quite high therefore, teaching Deacon a few signs might also benefit not only him but other children in creating bosn within the room and service. I have spoken to the educatrs witin the room and having a visible board on the routine for the day for Deacon to look at this will include, pictures of not only the item but also the clock so Deacon can make a correlation between the two e.g. 10:30 with a photo of nappies and a toilet.

Outcome observations

• We have started slowly introducing Deacon to parallel play ensuring not to constantly do it in order to regress him in his wonderful progress so far. At first he was a little hesitant to participate but once he saw that the other children weren't going to overstimulate him or get in his personal space, Deacon came to play. He was provided with a truck and one of the children said to Deacon 'hey Deacon, would you like the truck', Deacon grabbed the toy and when reminded signed 'thank you' to the child. This made the child very happy and they continued to play not interacting with Deacon but smiling at him when he looked up from his truck. We were impressed with how well Deacon took this parallel play session as the table was quite small and had a few children already on it. Deacon seemed to be watching the children move their truck back and forth causing him to do the same before focusing on shaking the truck, watching as the tyres moved in and out from the bumper. One of the children brought Deacon over some magnets and placed them into his truck, Deacon looked up and started rocking back and forth. He quickly resumed playing, wheeling the truck to the other child before dumping the magnets onto the table and rolling the truck around the table. I reminded the child that Deacon might be a little uncomfortable with so many interactions at once and the child nodded and continued to play. Deacon and the children sat down and played in the same area for 15 minutes, I noticed Deacon would occasionally look up at the children before looking down and continuing what he was doing
• We are constantly slowly introducing sensory play into Deacon's environment to get him used to all different textures, we set up a salt dough making experience. Dur to having so many children at the table we didn't bring deacon over, we also ensured to have the children bring their voices down communicating to the children that although we are excited there are other ways to communicate that then loud voices. Deacon was over in the quiet corner playing with the magnets when he seemed to become interested in what was happening over with the group of children. Deacon came around the side where it had the least amount of children and began to watch intensely at the dough being rolled than cut with the cookie cutters. After most of the children went to a different experience Deacon stayed to explore what was happening at the table. He watched the children roll the dough out and make little gingerbread men before he moved in on the experience. Deacon laid his hand flat out and carefully brushed over the top of the dough, he recoiled a little at first but than seemed to become more fascinated with it. He was stroking the dough over and over again seeming to really enjoy and become engrossed in the feel of the dough, Deacon than moved onto pinching at the dough, smiling and grabbing at the dough. Once Deacon had calmed down one of the children pushed a cookie cutter towards Deacon and proceeded to show him what to do with her own cookie cutter. Deacon copied her action almost instantly and jumped up and down vocalizing when he saw the impression left from the cookie cutter.
• We have noticed a friendship forming between another child and Deacon, Deaon has been showing a great interest in following the child around and engaging in the play the child is doing. We have noticed this from when they were parallel playing with the truck over two weeks ago. It is so great to see how a friendship can blossom with little to no interaction between them, their play can vary from parallel play to building to even having small talks (even if it is just the other child doing all the talking). They are both showing an interest in finding out the inner working mechanics of toys and how they work. Deacon will also hand the child a different toy he found about the room, if possible he will take it apart first for the other child to build up again. The child has even discussed with Deacon during these play times other elements of the day as if they have been life long friends. The two children often separate from others and move to a more quiet area, moving around if there is a sudden build up of other children around. The child has also helping dDeacn overcome his sensory aversions as he is now engaging very slowly in water play, ensuring the other child is always near him. He also signs 'no' to the child when he gets uncomfortable or doesn't want to do something instead of become angry and hurting someone. We have communicated this to Deacon's mum over messages (shown below) which she is over the moon about, it has made all the staff so very happy to see how small changes within the room can create such big impacts.