Silkysteps early years forum - planning ideas for play - Analyse reasons for valuing individuals interests when supporting children's emergent mathematical development?

Hi, pages 245 and 246 of this level 3 Early Years Educator course book will help you look at this criteria. It shows that by analysing the reasons we come to understand how valuable and important someone's interests are to practitioners who are expected to plan activities for children and offer support to children as they explore, communicate with others and learn.

From page 246:

Valuing individual interests when supporting children's mathematial development

Children will come to the setting with their own individual interests and ideas, some of which will be related to maths. This starting point is a very powerful one for providing opportunities for mathematical activities. You should always value what children have to say, whatever their interests, and encourage them through talking or allowing them to talk to their peers about them, for the following reasons:

To retain their enthusiasm - children who have a particular interest in maths will usually be enthusiastic and want to talk about it. You should always listen to and support their enthusiasm so that is does not become lost.
To develop their curiosity - adults can questionchildren about their interests and encourage them to be more curious about aspects of their learning
To increase their confidence - whatever children practise, they will become good at it. It is very important that we support the development of children's confidence as it can diminish if adults do not respond appropriately.
To give them opportunitites to extend their learning - we can help children to extend their learning be encouraging them to think about what might happen next or to find patterns in what they are learning.

Hope this helps xx

https://www.silkysteps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21789