language. For example using a different level of language for 5 year olds and another for 14 year olds. You can put CCTV (Closed Circuit TeleVision) around the centre but making sure it isn’t in the toilets as it is inappropriate. This will help control the level of security and help the staff to keep an eye on what people are doing. You will need parental consent to take photos of the child to put in the brochure and for no other use. It is ideal to have a mixed gender of staff for boys and girls, as a girl might feel more confident if she is talking to a female instructor. You must keep to the ratio to avoid danger, for example for little children it is 3 children to 1 adult maximum. Lastly you must make sure all your staff is properly trained are know what they are doing.
Types of child abuse: There are four main types of child abuse, which are neglect, physical, sexual and emotional. Neglect is when one fails to meet a child’s basic physical or psychological need, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. It may involve a parent/carer failing to provide adequate food, shelter or clothing, failing to protect from physical danger, or failure to ensure adequate medical treatment. It may also include neglect, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs. Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent/carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes ill health to a child. Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts. Sexual abuse also includes non-contact activities, such as involving the child/young person in looking at or the production of pornographic material or watching sexual activities, or encouraging them to behave in sexually inappropriate ways. Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill treatment such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to a child they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. They may be made to feel frequently frightened or in danger. This includes the exploitation or corruption of children.
Agencies involved with child protection: There are many agencies all over the world that help to protect children. For example the NSPCC (National Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children), which was founded in 1884. There is also Child Line, which is the free helpline for children and young people in the UK. It began in 1986. There is also ACPC (Area Child Protection Committee), which helps children. The Social Services can get involved and maybe the Police.
Code of Conduct for staff:
- Do not touch any child
- Do not take them off on your own (toilets)
- Show appropriate behaviour at all times
- Do not favour a child more than the others
- Do not swear
Task 2:
For this task I will be identifying the characteristics of three age groups (Pre – School, 5 – 11 year olds and adolescents) including the physical, mental and behavioural characteristics as well as group dynamics and ability.
I have chosen three different outdoor sporting activities and will show how they can be adapted to meet the needs of theses different age groups. The three activities are sailing, rock climbing and skiing.
First of all I am going to look at the characteristics of the age groups:
These are just the main characteristics that I have chosen.
I am now going to write about three different outdoor activities and show how you can adapt them for these different age groups.
Sailing:
Rock climbing:
Sking:
As you can see I have adapted the activity depending on their age. When they are smaller if you try and give them too much to do, they will not understand get confused, could possibly do the wrong thing and put themselves in danger. As they get older you must still be careful but they will understand more. Adolescents are more independent and understand a lot more and will not panic as much so you can go a bit further with them.
If a child doesn’t understand they must not be afraid to ask questions, as this will put them in danger if they do not know what they are doing. The littles ones look up to you as role models whereas the older ones look for guidance. You must keep everyone entertained so they don’t get bored and go off somewhere.
It depends on the sport, but for the little ones you must set up all equipment, as they get older you can allow them to set it up by helping them and explaining why you do it this way and talk to them about the safety checks. This will keep them entertained and they will gain knowledge.
By taking into account the different physical and mental changes of a child you can help provide support at every stage of development. You must also understand different areas of child development because by adapting rules and equipment to suit them you can create more realistic goals for them.
To know how different children can play sport is very important; you must be able to keep a sport interesting and hard enough to aid a progression in skill. But make the sport to hard or too easy for children and they will loose interest in the sport.
Different age groups need different needs. So you need to adapt your activity, and this will be easier if you get to know your group before they come on the activity. To do this you can use questionnaires that they can fill out. You need to keep it quite simple though. Some children might be more energetic than others so you need to have activities that will suit both types of children. This is so the less energetic ones don’t feel left out and they can show what they are capable of. This will also allow them to enjoy the activity more. The three different age groups will also have different abilities, you will need to assess the situation before and perhaps adapt your activities so everyone can participate. Also you will need to change the complexity of the games as smaller children might not be able to do what adolescents can. When you give a briefing you need to keep it quite short as small children have a short attention spam whilst older children might think they already know what to do so they won’t listen. You need to make sure everyone knows what to do as this will help prevent accidents.
Hopefully haven take all this into consideration you will be able to run a successful and enjoyable for children of all ages.
