Section 4

• Think about the benefits you gain through being physically active and perfecting physical skills.
• Do you find you can think more clearly or feel more confident?
• Any other benefits?

If you engage in a lot of specific physical activity such as dance, yoga or sport, you probably already have a lot of awareness of your body. Also, if you have a particular health or physical impairment, you may constantly be aware of your physical states. But for others, you probably don’t often think about how your body is until it doesn’t work as well as it might. So, here you can spend some time reflecting on your own physical self-awareness in order to get in touch with children’s experience.

How in touch are you with your body right now? Are you aware of it at all, or are you all in your mind?

Read through the questions below, then close your eyes and picture each part of your body in turn and answer them in your mind. Then make some notes afterwards.

• Notice how you are holding your body, the position you are in, what feels comfortable / uncomfortable, where is there tension?
• Become of aware of your body position, are you sitting, lying down, lounging?
• Take your attention to your feet, your calves, knees, thighs, buttocks, hips, back, belly, chest, shoulders, neck and head, are they comfortable?
• What are you touching, what is touching you? The texture of your clothes, the softness or hardness of cushions or desk top
• Feel the chair or whatever you are on, supporting you.
• How is your face? Is your jaw tense or relaxed, your eyes strained or soft, your forehead smooth or wrinkled?
• What does this say about how you are feeling?

Open your eyes and note down how you feel, physically and emotionally.

Is there anything you have learnt about your body / yourself?

How are your thoughts, feelings and body sensations connected?

How much do you think about your body as separate to ‘you’? Notice the difference between the question ‘How in touch are you with your body?’ and ‘How in touch are you with yourself?’

For babies and young children, this separation of the self or the mind and the body hasn’t yet taken hold; their bodies are themselves. Physical sensation and thinking and feeling are completely intertwined. Any activity, whether it is lifting an arm, or walking, talking, going to sleep, learning something, or thinking out a problem involves an interrelationship between “mental” and “physical” processes: The distinction between “mental” and “physical” is a social construction.

Disease and cause	Incubation/Exclusion period	Signs and symptoms	Treatment
Common cold Virus	1–3 days	Sneezing, sore throat, running nose, headache, slight fever, irritable, partial deafness	Treat symptoms. Apply a barrier cream to nostrils
Chickenpox Virus	10–14 days to develop. Exclude for 5 days from the onset of the rash.	Slight fever, itchy rash, often with severe headache Red spots with white centre on trunk and limbs at first; blisters and pustules	Rest, fluids, cooling cram on rash, cut child’s nails to prevent secondary infection
Food poisoning Bacteria or virus	1½ to 36 hours	Vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain	Fluids only for 24 hours; medical aid if no better
Gastro-enteritis Bacteria or virus	Bacterial: 7–14 days Viral: 1½ to 36 hours Exclusion: 48 hours after the last episode of diarrhoea or vomiting.	Vomiting, diarrhoea, signs of dehydration	Replace fluids; medical aid urgently in the case of dehydration
Measles Virus	7–15 days Exclusion: 4 days from the onset of the rash.	High fever, fretful, heavy cold; later cough, spots inside mouth. Day 4: blotchy rash starts on face and spreads down to body	Rest, fluids, tepid sponging. Shade room if dislikes bright light
Meningitis Bacteria or virus	Variable Usually 2–10 days Exclusion: Until fully recovered.	Fever, headache, drowsiness, confusion, dislike of bright light, arching of neck. Can have small red spots or bruises	Take to hospital, antibiotics and observation
Mumps Virus	14–21days. Exclusion period: 5 days after the onset of swollen glands.	Pain, swelling of jaw in front of ears, fever, pain when eating and drinking,	Fluids: give via straw
Pertussis (whooping cough) Bacteria	7–21 days Exclusion: 5 days from start of antibiotic treatment.	Starts with a cold, slight cough, mild fever Spasmodic cough with whoop sound, vomiting	Rest and reassurance; feed after coughing attack; support during attack
Rubella (German measles) Virus	14–21 days Exclusion: 4 days from the onset of the rash	Slight cold, sore throat, mild fever, swollen glands behind ears, pain in small joints. Slight pink rash starts behind ears and on forehead. Not itchy	Rest if necessary. Treat symptoms
Scarlet fever (or scarlatina) Bacteria	2–4 days Exclusion: 5 days after the start of antibiotics	Sudden fever, loss of appetite, sore throat, pallor around mouth. Bright red pinpoint rash over face and	Rest, fluids, observe for complications antibiotics,
Tonsillitis Bacteria or virus	2–4 days Exclusion: until recovered	Very sore throat, fever, headache, pain on swallowing, aches and pains in back and limbs Throat reddened, tonsils swollen and may be coated or have white spots on them	Rest, fluids, medical aid antibiotics, iced drinks to relieve pain

In many early years settings, children might have access to outside but not necessarily to a green space: The outdoor space may be small, built with concrete paving and afford little that is natural or wild. If a setting is also far from a park or wild open space, the opportunities for children to be in nature are limited. Even in these spaces though, there are aspects of nature that can be enjoyed such as puddles or a trail of ants and they are still open to the elements (weather conditions, fresh air, water). After that, it is up to leaders of settings and their teams to enhance their outdoor space and introduce as much of the natural environment as possible.

Ideas for facilitating children’s engagement with nature:

• Containers for growing vegetables, flowers or wild grasses
• Minibeasts or small animals (a wormery, rabbits, chickens etc.)
• Areas for digging and exploring sand/water/mud,
• Providing wet and cold weather clothing
• Natural area with trees and shrubs or in containers

In addition, to enable babies to enjoy being outside you could:

• Set up a blanket for young babies to lay on and look up at the sky. 
• Give them opportunities to move over soft grass, feel soft flower petals, smell lavender or hear the sound of Autumn leaves or trickling water.
• Attach mirrors to the garden fence at baby and toddler height so they can look at themselves.
• Set up an obstacle course with balance beams to move along, hoops to jump into, tunnels to crawl through and something to climb over.
• Have balls of different sizes.
• Have a collection of ride-on toys and trolleys to practice pushing, pulling and filling up.
• Bring the musical instruments outside for singing and dancing
• Provide a sheltered area for water and sand play that babies can sit in, including a cover for the sand pit and a range of tools and equipment.

Think about the kinds of resources and areas you have in your outdoor area

• What are the things you could have both in and outdoors? How could these be used differently outdoors?
• What experiences and resources are particular to outdoors?

• Dry substances and materials: Rice, lentils, oats, dough, (unless the setting ethos does not use food for play) pieces of shiny, dull, textured and smooth fabric and paper.
• Wet substances and materials: Plain water, ice cubes, coloured water, clay, mud, paste, soap suds
• Both wet & dry: Sand, paint, flour, cornflour, jelly and other foods (if acceptable)
• Loose parts: conkers, cotton reels, corks, cogs and rods
• Tools: Domestic as well as nursery paint brushes and rollers of different sizes, nail and scrubbing brushes, shaving brushes, sticks, feathers, straws, spreaders, various spoons, string, rope, ribbons, chain lengths, chubby wax crayons, chubby chalks, thick felt tips, thick pencils, charcoal
• Containers: wide bottomed buckets and containers – both domestic and sand pit type, film canister cases with lids, squeezy bottles, hose pipes, watering cans
• Items that leave a pattern/shape such as wellington boots, balls, wheeled toys, corks and cotton reels, 
• Surfaces: Outdoor walls, paving stones, fences, trees, clear surfaces, baby height paper covered screens, wallpaper, bubble wrap, fabric, netting, corrugated cardboard, plastic contact roll fastened sticky side out taped to the floor or wall, large cardboard boxes.

All substances and materials should be checked for allergies, safety and for the acceptability of using food items in play.