EXPERTS

Antonella was 2 years old when entered the nursery school. In the preparatory interview, her mother, recently divorced, told to the teachers about some difficulties she was having at mealtimes, because Antonella was obstinately refusing food. She hoped the school could help them. The insertion of Antonella in the school went well, she was interested in the activities and available to learn and to relate with classmates and adults. At lunch time, nevertheless, she kept refusing food. Antonella was sitting sedately, waiting for her turn. When the food arrived she simply moved the dish away in the middle of the table. She was simply waiting the end of the lunch. I suggested to the educator to start asking her – everyday – why she doesn’t eat, even if of course she could never reply. One day, annoyed, Antonella replied: “I don’t eat because mum doesn’t want”. During the periodical staff meeting, I suggested to the teachers to meet the mother: we agreed on a list of questions and decided to keep a friendly tone of conversation, trying to be encouraging and communicative and not judging. Questions should focus on the description of the lunch and dinner at home, the preparation, the persons involved, the mood, the words used, etc. The questions had a strong effect on the mother: in fact while answering and telling to the teachers, she became aware of the mistakes made... Antonella’s mother described the situation with tears in her eyes: they were not used to eat together, because she was too busy to convince Antonella to eat… the child run away and the mother got anxious and angry and started saying things like: “it’s useless to lay the table, because you don’t eat…instead of preparing for you I would run away, I’m angry…”. Anger, frustration, disappointment: these feelings were accompanying their unfinished meals. By describing the situation, the mother was becoming aware of the mistakes made. Teachers explained that probably Antonella had formed a negative idea of the meal, due to the tensions and pain caused to the mother – and being a child unable to understand the complex situation- she was convinced that the mum didn’t want she eats. This was a simplified explanation, of course, but it could be accepted by the mother. In the next days the mother followed teachers suggestions and the situation rapidly changed at school and at home. Antonella started eating. She also started playing with food in the kitchen corner of the class: preparing and cooking food for the dolls. When playing with dolls – to convince her to eat – she said them they were “good” when they eat, similarly to what the teachers and the mother said to her. At the end of the school year the mother thanked a lot the teachers who supported her in a difficult moment of life and helped Antonella and her to experience the joy to eat together.

In my working life as responsible of the pedagogical service, I’ve conducted many meetings. I remember one meeting aimed at reconciling two teachers who clashed with each other causing problems and tensions in the classroom and embarrassing colleagues and parents. Grazia was more experienced than Elena. The reason of the conflict was in the different attitudes towards parents: Grazia, thanks to her experience and competence, had good professional relationship with parents based on respect, empathy, availability, and used a clear, coherent and simply language with them. Elena was insecure, frail, isolated in the school and was incline to have personal rather than professional relationship with parents, treating them with indulgence, e.g. when they arrived late at school, or didn’t respect the rules. The two teachers had a quarrel about that and – since they were not able to understand each other – they found themselves in a situation with no escape. Because I couldn’t assign them to different classes, I decided to help them, by organising a series of meetings. I opened the first meeting with an introductory speech on the objectives of the meeting and on the role of the nursery school teacher, especially with regards to the relationship with parents. I underlined that each teacher has his/her own personality but should refer to a set of common principles, based on coherence, pertinence and correctness. I asked to each teacher and educator of the school to express his / her point of view and to suggest a way to solve the situation. There was a long and close debate that took three meetings. During these meetings I paid particular attention to the group dynamics, listening things said and unsaid, observing behaviours, absences and ill-concealed embarrassments. Elena and Grazia had really different outlooks of life, but after 3 meetings we found a common definition of how teachers should relate with parents, we even made some little jokes – in between a quarrel and another. I asked Grazia to look at Elena with new eyes, and to recognize her qualities. I encouraged Elena to ask help and accept the support from Grazia, as she was reliable and experienced – at least till the end of the school year…I don’t know exactly what happened, but they decided to organize 2 events with parents on pedagogical and education issues. By this way the focus was shifted from the relationship with parents to the contents to be discussed with them. Grazia spoke at the first event, while Elena was taking notes and vice-versa: Elena spoke at the second event, while Grazia was taking notes. Each of them has his own space and could feel to be protagonist of the event. This had positive effects and the teachers burden themselves again. At the end of the school year, they wanted to keep working together, because they were learning how to complement each others, looking at their work from a new point of view. They were just asking an hand to professionally grow. .. and this was my job. (Luciana Torricelli).

This project has been carried out in a nursery school with the aim of stimulating children’s emotional and rational development. The dog, carefully chosen and trained, was brought to the school once at week for a while by its owner. When the dog arrived, children - really excited from the day before - were waiting on doorstep for it. The dog toddled in the big room, f1ollowed and imitated by the older children, while the younger preferred to enter the classroom; some of them dared to move near to the dog, but suddenly took refuge behind the educator when the dog reacted dearly. Among the considerations done by the school staff on this experience, the most interesting one is about the imitation of the dog by the children: children automatically imitated the dog: its way to move, to run, to sniff, to eat and drink. The dog became the “leader” of the game and the children started to move on all fours, to sniff, to lie down, to roll, etc. So far, the experience showed that 2 years old children like imitating and playing whatever they see, and especially things that strike them. Problems arose at lunch time: the dog ate in a dish on the floor, in the middle of the dining hall. The plan was to eat all together, with the dog eating in a dish on the floor of the dining hall. But suddenly children- imitating the dog – wanted to put their dishes on the floor too…The dog was causing a sort of „regression“ ? What should the educators do? What might the parents think about this experience? An educator find the right words. She told to children that were eating on the floor: „ Stop to play the dog, now we play the children!“. This was a revealing sentence: children were entered into a symbolic play, but they were also able to stop as they want. It was not a sort of regression, it was an „ill-timed imitation game“. Task of the educators was to bring children back into the real situation: dogs eat on the floor, children on the table. Children stay sit down while eating, use forks ….dogs not. Children recognised the difference between dogs and children. A possible development of this experience could have been to propose children a new game in the kitchen corner of the classroom: children prepare the dog food, they prepare the dish and invite the dog to eat. In such a moment they could even imitate the dog. Play is free: it should not have rules and binds, play is amusement and pleasure.

Barbara was 3 years old when she arrived in the nursery school. After 2 months the teacher called me – as responsible of the pedagogical service – to carry out an observation. In fact the teacher had noticed that Barbara didn’t relate to persons but only to objects. She was a beautiful child, taller than her classmates. During the preparatory interview with parents, Barbara was described as an obstinate child who never listens and looks you in the face. When I entered the class, all children came around me and asked who I am, except Barbara. When I asked their names – only Barbara didn’t look at me and didn’t answer to my question. She stayed alone, looking at an object she held in her hands. Some children told me her name, as they are used to speak on her behalf. After a while I asked Barbara If I could lace up her shoes, but she neither answered nor looked at me, so I started talking with some other children in the classroom, without losing sight of her. Then she came close to me, and without looking at me or speaking, she put her foot with the untied shoe in front of me, to be laced up. I would have given her a big hug, but I was afraid to break the spell and to invade her space. I kept observing Barbara at distance for the whole morning. What I saw confirmed the impression of the teacher. In the afternoon I convened all the nursery teachers and educators in order to prepare a meeting, a few days later, with Barbara parents and invite them to get into contact with a psychologist linked to the health public service. It grieved parents to hear our words, they felt confused but demonstrated to be available to follow the path we showed them and accepted the support of our team. In the meantime I invited a psychologist to observe Barbara: and the diagnosis he made confirmed that Barbara was autistic. One week later Barbara and her parents started a common pathway, with the support of the nursery team. 7 months later Barbara entered the pre-primary school. In the last meeting her parents thanked the nursery teacher who noticed the problem in time and supported them in facing obstacles. 20 years have passed: I still remember Barbara and her “away glance”, I remember her foot with the untied shoe in front of me. I hope that Barbara, now young woman, is able to open her world to all persons who love and value her.

M. is 4 years old. He’s a child confined in his own world, very different from the world outside. This is something difficult to be told to his young parents, who every morning place M. in our care. They prefer to think that’s everything is OK and to not see. “ …Yes, but…other children too do the same” they say talking about their nephews, cousins and other M.’s little friends. But they know that it’s not true, that there is something “strange”, and their child is “not like the others”. M. doesn’t feel things as we do, he lives in a different world. A world made of light and shadows we can’t see. A world of soft and strong sounds we can’t perceive. Light, floating, soft, strong …sensations we can’t catch, sometime so intense that he can’t even bear the smell, the sight, the weight… But if you are able to understand his world, M. receives you, follows you and gives you his hand, because the world outside is too difficult for him. What’s my role? How can I take his hands and bring him with me, and tell him that world outside is better that his own. But is it true?

I usually enjoy working in nursery schools: children are curious, funny and interesting. Once, during a meeting with the staff of a nursery school, we were discussing about hygienic procedures, and in particular about the role these procedures play in the acquisition of autonomy by children, as well as in the language, body and gender-difference knowledge development. We were discussing about the way children interpreter episodes that happens at home, how they tell that episodes at school…One of the member of the team told us– embarrassed and amused at once- the following episode. A 2 years old child just had a little surgery to its penis, that caused him pain for a little while. Now everything was ok – but for a little irritation to be treated with a specific pomade. The child was lying down on the changing table waiting she dried off his genitals after washing... To make shorter the wait, she was saying with a soft voice: “ you went red – now I dry you well and rub the pomade …”. He raised his head to see his penis and asked really worried: “ but…but.. is it still there?”. “Yes -she answered- it’s there, it’s there don’t worry, it is still there”

In the day nursery group where I was on placement this year, I carried out a project as part of my course work, on the topic of “grasping water with all senses”, with four children aged two.
My goal was to get the children to deal more intensively with the element of water. It was important to me that the children's actions would take centre stage. They were to be able to act independently and experience this way that one's own actions produce an effect.
First the children had the opportunity to occupy themselves with water without any time pressure (sink and tap). Then I prepared a large tub with different materials for the next units (for example sponges, materials to pour into and out of etc.)
In good weather the units took place in the garden.
I could notice how appealing and exciting the element of water was to the children. It was difficult to conclude the project, as ever new opportunities to play presented themselves.
I also realised how important it is not to give any concrete instructions and to be available instead as a companion and a source of inspiration.

One morning Leon came to kindergarten really distraught. Usually he had a little stuffed dog with him that he called Wuffel, but on that day he started to cry immediately when I asked him where he'd left him. “I lost him yesterday at the playground. My mum and I went looking for him, but he was just gone”.
Kathrin, my colleague, tried to comfort him and handed him a teddy bear, but Leon threw him on the floor and went on sulking. Then she started with “maybe Wuffel's gone on a trip?” Leon looked at her in disbelief. - “Yes, I think that he felt like seeing something else for a while and so he went on a trip to Italy!” And she began to tell him about everything that Wuffel was going to see and experience there. Leon listened to her attentively.
In the following days, I watched again and again how Leon and Kathrin were talking about Wuffel. In these conversations, Wuffel went through exciting adventures in Italy and Spain, he was doing well, and Leon couldn't get enough of the stories. One morning Kathrin brought out a postcard that had a picture of southern Spain on the front. Leon read out the scrawly written text: “dear Leon, I am travelling and have seen and experienced a lot of things. I'm doing very well, but I have to think of you lot and I miss you. Kindest regards, your Wuffel.” Leon beamed.
Marianne, nursery nurse

Hello you all,
I want to go abroad to an English-speaking country in the not too far future in order to live there for a while, just to get to know another culture. If it's possible, I'd like to practice my profession there (nursery nurse). Has anyone had any experience with this? I'd be particularly interested in England or the USA (although I know that my chances are rather weak there...) Are there maybe some organisations that can support you with that sort of project?
I'd be very thankful if anyone could help me further and/or tell me about their own experiences.
Thanks in advance already, Tinchen

A few weeks ago our group welcomed a new addition. A four year-old girl joined us. She was brought by an elegantly dressed lady who told us that the girl, Alice, had come from southern Italy, that she'd lost both her parents and come to Germany via a help organisation for orphans.
Alice sat down quietly in a corner, did not look around and remained unresponsive for the rest of the day. I tried to communicate with her with the help of my rudimentary Italian. She looked at me with her large black eyes, but showed no reaction. She didn't play with the other children either. Only sometimes, when the children were painting, she diffidently took a black pencil and drew something that looked like black clouds of smoke.
It went on like this for a while and my colleagues and I deliberated on how we could help Alice. I also spoke to the lady who brought her and picked her up at our kindergarten, but she thought that we'd simply have to give her time to adjust.
At one point we went on an excursion to a pond with the children, and in the afternoon we lit a camp fire and grilled sausages. All the children had a lot of fun. I only noticed after a while that Alice had disappeared. I went looking for her in the adjoining wood and found her there, too. She was lying on the ground, head pressed to the surface, totally quiet. She wasn't crying.
I learned later that Alice's parents and also her little brother had perished in a fire in the village where the family had been living.
Marianne, nursery nurse

A friend of mine told me of this project about stories from childhood. Now that I've read a couple of the stories I've come to think about my own childhood. My grandmother lived in our house – we had a big house in the countryside – and after my grandfather had died, she moved into a room on the first floor. There she often sat in the evening, listening to the radio, knitting or reading. I often went to see her after dinner because I enjoyed being in her room. Mostly she'd start telling me about her life, and she'd had a long life, with much to tell. She had lived through two world wars, flight and expulsion, and two of her children had died really young. But still my grandmother didn't seem embittered. Instead she seemed kind, and she often smiled to herself when brushing up one of her memories. This is how I learned a lot about earlier times and these stories made a tremendous impression on me as a child.
Now I've been a nursery nurse at a large kindergarten for a few years and I've suggested having a story telling hour once a week, when we nurses and the children sit together, and whoever wants to can tell a story about something that has happened to them. The children, even the lively ones, are really quiet during these hours and listen attentively – and I always have to think of my grandmother, of how we used to sit together in her room in the evenings.
Marianne, 48, nursery nurse