Personal Narrative: My Alternative Practice Day At The Messy Play Session

My alternative practice day was at a Sure start centre within the trust, and I attended two different sessions. My aims for attending the messy play session were:

• To gain an understanding of benefits of activities available in the community for toddlers/children and parents.

• To gain understanding of the early support assistant’s role.

• As a student health visitor I aim to be able to sign post clients that will benefit from this service, at the end of this session.

For attending the YAP’s group session (young active parents group), my aims included the following:

• To increase my awareness on the importance of communication for young families.

• To gain an understanding of early support workers role.

• To gain knowledge of how young families are supported by the YAP service, which aids their growth and development as parents.

• To have an understanding of the support mechanism the early years support worker brings.

• To gain an understanding of the difficulties of being a young mum.

The messy play session was not only about the children playing but about the children learning social skills; learning to share various things for example learning to share space, toys, time and learning to take turns. It was about providing an environment where the children can use their imagination; improve and horn in their imaginative skills. This is a very important social skill learnt by the children. (Lillard AS et al (2013). The early years’ assistant set up the place in a way that it would catch the attention of the children as they come into the room, with several stations set up with different games. She ensured each station was set up with varied materials of different textures. This ensured the children had varied number of textures to feel and get used to. (Charlesworth R