This document discusses the importance of sensitive care in child care settings. Sensitive care involves promptly and appropriately responding to a child's needs, having positive interactions, and providing a secure base for exploration. It is important because caregivers replace primary caregivers and are responsible for children's development. Sensitive care helps children feel secure and able to communicate. The document provides examples of sensitive care for different age groups and encourages creating a learning environment within children's zones of proximal development through play and commitment to meeting children's physical and emotional needs.

1. Providing Sensitive Care
Stephanie Smith

2. What is Sensitive Care?
• Sensitive Care can be defined as the extent to which a parent or caregiver responds to a
child's signals appropriately and promptly, is positively involved during interactions with
the child, and provides a secure base for the child's exploration of the environment.
• There is much research available that links the provision of sensitive caring by parents and
other caregivers and the development of appropriate emotional, physical, educational and
social skills of children.

3. Why is Sensitive Care Important in the Child
Care Setting?
• As educators and child care providers, you are replacing a primary caregiver
in their role in caring and educating for a child.
• You become responsible for supporting a child to meet their
developmental, educational, social, emotional and physical milestones.
• But how do we know what Sensitive Care looks like?
• How do we make sure we are looking through the eyes of the child?

4. Why is Sensitive Care Important in the Child
Care Setting?
• Children that are “secure” are able to respond to their caregiver’s cues, and can
communicate their distress, whilst also being able to gain comfort when it is
available.The three factors we are looking for when a sensitive care
environment is present are:
1. A caregivers ability to respond to a child’s signals promptly and
appropriately;
2.A caregiver offering positive interactions; and
3. A caregiver providing a secure base for exploration and learnings.
Lets look at some videos!

8. Activity 1:
Based on the videos you saw, what does “Providing Sensitive Care”
look like for you?
Consider:
What made me smile?
What made me feels uncomfortable? – e.g. I wouldn’t like to see
that again

9. Lets reflect upon…..
• How did I as a child feel
loved and cared about by
my parents, teachers and
friends?
• What things do I carry
through from my childhood
that I think is important in
caring for young people?

10. Learning Framework and Sensitive Care
Zones of Proximal Development
• This theory explores the important concept that relates to the difference
between what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from
a skilled partner.
• Vygotsky sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where the
most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given – allowing the child
to develop skills they will use on their own – developing higher mental
functions.

11. Zones of Proximal Development- what does
this look like?

12. How do we create a learning environment to
include the Zones of Proximal Development and
Sensitive Care?
• Vygotosky views a child’s interaction with peers as an effective way of
developing skills and strategies.
• Cooperative learning exercises where less competent children develop with
help from more skilful peers – within the zone of proximal development.

13. By Using Play!
• When it comes to providing sensitive care and educational opportunities for
little people, play is the primary tool we should be using as caregivers.

14. Activity 3:
Looking at Age Appropriate Activities

15. Sensitive Caregiving by Age Range:
Age Range Looking for:
0-12 Months - Physical touch and affection
- Responding to crying
-Talking/acknowledging to help settle
- Positive encouragement to meet goals outside of ability
12-24 Months - Parallel play
- Side by side play
- Hand over hand play
- Associating words with objects
2-3Years - Interactive play
- Learning sharing with play
- Offering encouragement to try new tasks
- Developing independence
3Years + - Speech development
- Guidance around emotional regulation
- Fine and Gross Motor Play

16. What are some Age-Appropriate Play
Activities we can implement?

17. Commitment
• So much of our caring focuses on physical care. At the end of the day, we
fundamentally need to keep children safe and largely this seems like it is
the end of our role. But, we know from child development that caring is so
much more than this.
• What is being asked of you is to make a commitment! A commitment to
learning and developing yourself and to offering a care environment to
children that meets so much more than their physical care needs.

18. MY COMMITMENT:
Commitment
to Myself
Commitment to
Children
Commitment to My
Room Partners
Commitment
to My Team
Commitment to My
Workplace

19. Role within the Centre
• Every person in the centre, regardless of their role, is responsible for
providing sensitive care to children. This means that when you are present
a child expects to be treated like a valuable participant and person in the
environment. That means that you are a participant in providing sensitive
care and you need to consider this to be one of the most important things
you can offer.

20. Looking through the Eyes of the Child
• 1.What is the most important thing to have in my classroom?
• 2. What do I want my teachers to do?
• 3. How do I know my teacher wants to be here with me?
• 4. How do I know my teachers will help me?
• 5.What makes my heart feel full when my Mum/Dad is not here?

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@ShilusGroup