EDF 1039

Assignment 1

The Issue of Transition Plans when

Creating Successful Partnerships
and Inclusive Environments: A
Focus on Children Born Preterm.

Asha Lloyd
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ABSTRACT

From the very first days of the childs development his activities acquire a meaning of their
own in a system of social behaviour and, being directed towards a definite purpose, are
refracted through the prism of the childs environment - Vygostky, 1987, pp. 30.
This quote by the famous psychologist Vygotsky, supports the grand idea that childrens
behaviours deflect their environment, thus if their environment is restrictive, children may be
restricted with their learning and development. Vygotsky (1987) also goes on to say The path
from object to child and from child to object passes through another person (pp. 30), which
supports the notion that any person in a childs surrounding environment has the ability to
enhance their development through partnering together and creating an environment in which
the child can excel. A new issue that is being raised in Australian education today is the lack
of inclusion and partnership amongst early childhood services, schools, professionals, and
families (Ashton & James, 2008). The Victorian Governments initiative named Transition: A
Positive Start to School is deemed to be the only bridge way between early childhood
services, schools, professionals, and families, however I have discovered various gaps in this
initiative that could be particularly problematic when regarding the inclusion of children with
special needs into early childhood settings and schools (Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development [DEECD], 2010). To narrow it down, the current transition plans in
place by the Victorian Government are not adequate in addressing the special needs of
children born preterm whom may require their detailing their birth history, early medical
records, early learning and development milestones, and areas of weakness to be included in
transitional documents (DEECD, 2010; Henderson, Beer, Wolke, & Johnson, 2012; Johnson
et al., 2014).

INTRODUCTION
Fifteen million babies are born preterm every year and the rate is rising (March of Dimes,
Partnership Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health [PMNCH], Save the Children, World
Health Organization [WHO], 2012). Thus, it is not an area that should be dismissed or
ignored. A way in which children born preterm can be brought to attention is through
transition documents between parents, early childhood educators, and primary educators. In
this article, I am going to discuss the learning and developmental difficulties that children

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born preterm may endure from birth. I am then going to explore the problems I believe are
evident in the transition initiative put into place by the Victorian Government such as not
including information from the childs whole life, limiting confidentiality between educators,
and the use of paper documents to communicate very important information. Lastly, I am
going to suggest an online integrated system that could be used in place of the current
transition initiative.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Children born preterm may endure learning and development difficulties throughout their
infancy and childhood such as behaviour and attention problems, symptoms of anxiety and
depression, slow responses, poor visuospatial working memory, and poor visual-motor
integrations and coordination (Loe, et al., 2011; De Kieviet, J.F, Van Eldburg, R.M., Lafeber,
H.N., & Oosteraan, J., 2012; Aarnoudse-moens, Oosterlaan, Duivenvoorden, Bernard van
Goudoever, & Weisglas-Kuperus, 2011). Only parents and early childhood services are able
to relay this information to primary school educators in the current transition statements
(please refer to Appendix 1), which have been proved to be not entirely successful (DEECD,
2010).

THE WHOLE PERSPECTIVE

I believe one issue within the transition initiative is that it doesnt include information from
the whole of the childs life. Currently, the transitional documents only include information
from the parents and early childhood educators (DEECD, 2010). Montessori, an educational
philosopher, believed that children experienced a significant amount of development in their
first 3 years of life in which they learn their cultures form of language and conduct their
motor skills with relative control (Follari, 2011). This leads to primary educators not being
informed of a significant period of a childs learning and development that could impact the
teaching environment and strategies required for that child. I conducted a survey in
conjunction with an Australian non-profit organisation who advocates for families who have
experienced preterm birth regarding parents perspectives on educator knowledge and
involvement with children born preterm. The survey of 100 parents found that 78% believed
their childs educator had slight or no understanding of the implications preterm birth can
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have on children and 78% also believed their childs educator expressed minimal or no
interest in their childs special needs. All parents surveyed thought educators would benefit
from the knowledge of their childs birth history (please refer to Appendix 2). Henderson et al.
(2012) and Johnson et al. (2014) support these findings. These findings suggest that the
childrens transition documents did not contain enough vital information regarding their
preterm birth for primary educators to obtain a knowledge base on their condition, thus
werent aware of how to create a least restrictive environment. Therefore, I believe it would
be beneficial to create a transition initiative that incorporates information from the parents,
midwives, maternal child health nurses, professionals such as psychologists and applied
behaviour analysts, and early childhood educators. This will provide information from birth
which will provide primary educators with a whole picture of the child, rather than just
information from their preschool years.

CONFIDENTIALITY
Another issue I believe is evident in the transition initiative is that it doesnt allow for
confidentiality between the information that early childhood educators only want primary
educators to see. Also, I believe it may provide a substitution for face to face communication
between early childhood educators and primary educators and discourages educators to
organise transition meetings with each other. The early childhood educators include all the
information they want to communicate to the primary educators on a document that the
parents also get access to, therefore they may not communicate all professionals opinions and
information if they didnt want the parents to see it. An evaluation of the transition initiative
found that some educators felt the way they communicated issues to parents/guardians
needed to be different from the communication required by prep teachers (DEECD, 2010, pp.
44). Educators also felt that the strength based approach of the transition documents didnt
allow them to communicate all additional needs of the children as they felt everything had to
be positive and couldnt be a reflection of the reality (DEECD, 2010). Although this
information could be communicated verbally through meetings, Schiscka, Rawlinson &
Hamilton (2012) and Ashton, Woodrow, Johnston Wangmann, & Singh (2008) found that
early childhood educators and primary teachers rarely conduct conversations or meetings
together for children with special needs. Ashton et al. (2008) also found that teachers have
limited awareness of early childhood services in their community and their function. Overall,
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primary educators might not receive all the information required for a certain child in order to
ensure an inclusive learning environment for them if they dont have proper communication
with the early childhood educator or if information is restricted. Therefore, I believe the
transition initiative should involve a document that is solely for the communication between
early childhood educators and primary educators.

ONLINE INNOVATION
Lastly, I believe the major issue of the transition initiative is that it is all done on paper which
the parents are required to pass onto primary educators, and not done through online services.
At the moment, parents are required to collect the transition documents from early childhood
educators, put in their information in the required section, and then pass on a paper copy to
the primary teachers (DEECD, 2010). This may result in the documents getting lost, being
made available to the wrong people, and only allows for limited input from the early
childhood educators and parents. An evaluation of the transition initiative found that 36.8% of
prep teachers identified issues with reviewing the transition documents, while 51.7% of
parents who did not complete the transition plan were unaware of the initiative all together
and 34.3% of early childhood educators felt neutral or negative about the initiative (DEECD,
2010). In conjunction, many educators found the process time consuming, a waste of paper,
expensive to run due to paper, ink and printing costs, repetitive, and some educators didnt
have access to the facilities needed to print them (DEECD, 2010). Therefore, the transition
initiative could be improved if it were to be innovated into an online integrated system that
didnt involve printing or the responsibility for parents to pass it on.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

In light of creating a transition initiative that includes the whole perspective of a childs life
and enables educators information to be confidential, I believe an online integrated system
could benefit children born preterm. An online integrated system would create a profile of
each child, detailing their birth history, early medical records, early learning and development
milestones, and areas of weakness. It may involve input from the parents, midwives, maternal
child health nurses, professionals, and early childhood educators involved with the child. Each
person could also have the option to choose whom may have access to the information they
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put into the online integrated system or direct a certain bit of information to an intended
person. By creating an online system, not only are educators allowed access to information
from early on in a childs life that could better inform them of an ideal inclusive environment,
but it could also improve the level of communication between educators and professionals in
order to create successful partnerships.

CONCLUSION
Due to an increasing rate of children being born preterm, educators need to be adequately
informed to be able to provide inclusive environments for them through the provision of
successful partnerships. The current measures in place that are meant to ensure inclusive
environments and partnerships are not adequately meeting the requirements of children born
preterm and the amount of information that needs to be communicated. Therefore, I suggest
an online integrated system for transition documents which will enable partnerships between
parents, midwives, maternal child heath nurses, professionals, early childhood educators, and
primary educators in order to create a least restrictive environment for children born preterm.
In addition, this online integrated system may not only be used for children born preterm, but
for all children with special needs transition from early childhood to school in Victoria.

WORD COUNT: 1,700

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REFERENCES

Aarnoudse-moens, C.S.H., Oosterlaan, J., Duivenvoorden, H.J., Bernard van Goudoever, J., &
Weisglas-Kuperus, N. (2011). Development of preschool and academic skills in children
born very preterm. The Journal of Pediatrics, 158(1), pp. 51-56. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.
2010.06.052.
Ashton, J. & James, T. (2008). Linking early childhood services, families, and schools for optimal
development. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 33(2), pp. 10-16. Retrieved 5th
September, 2014 from http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/
fullText;dn=168527;res=AEIPT.
Ashton, J., Woodrow, C., Johnston, C., Wangmann, J. & Singh, L. (2008). Linking early childhood
services, families, and schools for optimal development. Australian Journal of Early
Childhood, 33(2), pp. 10-16. Retrieved 6th September, 2014 from http://
search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/fullText;dn=168527;res=AEIPTIDSI-16.JPG&docId=GALE
%7CA181673296&callistoContentSet=PER&isAcrobatAvailable=false.
De Kieviet, J.F, Van Eldburg, R.M., Lafeber, H.N., & Oosteraan, J. (2012). Attention problems of
very preterm children compared with age-matched term controls at school-age. The
Journal of Paediatrics, 161(5), pp. 824-829. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds. 2012.05.010.
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development [DEECD] (2010). Final Report:
Evaluation of Transition: A Positive Start to School Initiative. Retrieved 5th September,
2014 from https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/earlychildhood/learning/transfinalreport.pdf.
Follari, L. M. (2011). Foundations and Best Practices in Early Childhood Education: History,
Theories, and Approaches to Learning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Henderson, D., Beer, C., Wolke, D., & Johnson, S. (2012). Supporting the schooling of very
preterm children: education professionals opinions and information needs. Archives of
Disease in Childhood Fetal & Neonatal Edition, 97(Suppl 2), pp. A1-A539. DOI; doi:
10.1136/archdischild-2012-302724.1236.
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Johnson, S., Gallimore, I., Gilmore, C., Jaekel, J., Strauss, V., Wole, D. (2014). Teaching the
teachers: the hidden public health impact of preterm birth. Archives of Disease in
Childhood Fetal & Neonatal Edition, 99(Suppl 1), pp. A1-A180. DOI; 10.1136/
archdischild-2014-306576.195.

Leo, I.M., Lee, E.S., Luna, B., Feldman, H.M. (2011). Behavior problems of 916 year old preterm
children: biological, sociodemographic, and intellectual contributions. Early Human
Development, 87(4), pp. 247-252. DOI: 10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2011.01.023.

March of Dimes, Partnership Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health [PMNCH], Save the Children,
WHO. Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report on Preterm Birth. Geneva: WHO.
Retrieved 3rd September, 2014 from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/
2012/9789241503433_eng.pdf.
Schiscka, J., Rawlinson C. & Hamilton, R. (2012). Factors affecting the transition to school for
young children with disabilities. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(4), pp. 15-22.
Retrieved 6th September, 2014 from http://
search.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/fullText;dn=194947;res=AEIPT.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1987). Mind In Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.
Cumberland, RI: Harvard University Press. Received 5th September, 2014 from http://
site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/lib/monash/docDetail.action?docID=10698709.

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APPENDIX 1

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APPENDIX 2

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