No job is more important than working with children in the early years.
Development Matters has been written for all early years practitioners, for childminders
and staff in nurseries, nursery schools, and nursery and reception classes in school. It
offers a top-level view of how children develop and learn. It guides, but does not replace,
professional judgement.
• communication and language
• physical development
• personal, social and emotional development The four specific areas
help children to strengthen and apply the prime areas:
• literacy
• mathematics
• understanding the world
• expressive arts
and design
All of those areas of learning are connected together. The characteristics of effective teaching and learning
weave through them all. That’s because children in the early years are becoming more powerful learners and thinkers. These
characteristics develop as they learn to do new things, acquire new skills, develop socially and emotionally, and become
better communicators. Development Matters sets out the pathways of children’s development in broad ages and stages. However,
the actual learning of young children is not so neat and orderly. The main purpose of these pathways is therefore to help
you assess each child’s level of development. Accurate assessment helps practitioners to make informed decisions about what
a child needs to learn and be able to do next. The document is not a tick list for generating lots of data. You can use your
professional knowledge to help children make progress without needing to record lots of next steps. Settings can help children
to make progress without generating unnecessary paperwork.