Early Childhood Care Assignment: Development and Privacy Issues

This assignment addresses key aspects of early childhood care, focusing on child development, safety, and privacy. It explores the importance of outdoor play and the potential dilemmas parents and childcare providers face regarding messy activities. The solution outlines strategies for communicating with parents, adhering to ethical codes (ECA Code of Ethics), and implementing workplace policies that prioritize child safety. The assignment also examines relevant regulations, such as the National Quality Standard and the Privacy Act, providing guidance on handling parental concerns and maintaining confidentiality. The student provides detailed responses to questions regarding scenarios involving child interactions and privacy, demonstrating an understanding of best practices in early childhood education.

Running Head: EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Question 1:
Answer to question (a)
The childcare dilemma in this case is related to the natural growth of the child. If the
child is not allowed to be engaged in messy play activities like outdoor play, playing in the
ground in the fear of mud stains or other type of dirt on clothes; the natural process of social,
psychological as well as physical development of the child will be hindered (cabonne.nsw.gov.au
2019). Such as, the child will not be able to explore the environment other than the environment
of its home, it will not be able to learn social skills, knowledge of cooperation with the friends he
or she has made. Moreover, muscle strengths, immunity system of the child will not grow, if the
child is not allowed to be engaged in outdoor play or not exposed to mud, dirt and germs during
outdoor play.
Answer to question (b)
I will conduct a meeting with the parents of the child and make them understand the
importance of outdoor play, in the social, physical as well as psychological growth of a their
child. Further, I will assure about safety of the child from dirt and germs at the time of outdoor
play. I will also ensure them that the amount of dirt on the clothes will be minimal as the time
slot for outdoor play will be minimized. Along with this, I will advise them to make their child
wear clothes made of stain-resistant fabric.
Answer to question (c)

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The first principle from ECA Code of Ethics is the principle of honouring the right of a
child to be engaged in any kind of indoor as well as outdoor games as a process as well as
context of learning and development (Ecaconference.com.au 2019). The reason behind selecting
this principle is, this principle establishes the fact that, outdoor play is crucial for a child’s
learning of social skills as well as the its physical and psychological development. Another
principle adopted from the ECA the Code of Ethics’ ‘in relation to children’ section, is the
maintenance of a safe as well as healthy environment fostering the learning and development of
children which will also induce the concepts of self-worth, dignity, self-identity autonomy in
children (Ecaconference.com.au 2019). This principle supports the urgency of providing children
a safe outdoor play so that protection against germs and dirt can be ensured. Further, the
principle emphasizing on the partnerships between the childcare workers as and families of the
children and exchange of opinions between parents and childcare workers to facilitate joint
decision making; can be considered as one of the significant principles of ECA the Code of
Ethics’. This is because; this principle supports the commencement of a meeting between parents
and childcare workers for the purpose of educating parents about the importance of messy
outdoor play in the growth of a child.
Answer to question (d)
One of the parent complaint policies which is considered to be useful to deal with the
complaints of parents is the policy of addressing the complaints on time, without any kind of
partiality or discrimination and maintaining the confidentiality of the complaint launched by
parents. This policy will help a childcare centre to evaluate the complaint with an unbiased
attitude (Ccc.sa.edu.au 2019). Adoption of this policy will assure the parents who have launched
the complaint, that their problems will be addressed with sincerity and agility.

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Question 2:
Answer to question (a)
I will conduct a meeting with the parents who are eager to share their thoughts and
opinions with me at the same time, I will instruct the co-workers of the healthcare centre to look
after the children while they are engaged in outdoor play; so that the children could be saved
from injuries caused while playing in the ground with peers. Again, there will be co-workers
engaged in observing whether the time slot for an outdoor play is maintained and whether
children are kept away from dirt and germs at the time of outdoor play.
Answer to question (b)
The standard 2.2 of the Quality Area 2, in the National Quality Standard, guides the
response mentioned above. This is because; this standard is concerned about the protection of a
child from any kind of harm and hazard through a minute supervision as well as the adoption of
precautions (Acecqa.gov.au 2019). Further this standard also emphasizes on the management of
the educators as well as staffs and making them aware of their responsibilities regarding the
identification as well as protection of the children during accidents, injuries as well as medical
emergencies and discuss the initiatives of the healthcare centre with the parents of the children
and improve the child protection system according to the suggestions of the parents.
Answer to question (c)
The workplace policies which will guide the responses regarding child safety, are defined
under ECA Code of Ethics as well as in Regulation 168(2)(a). Under the regulation 168(2)(a),
the National Quality Standard 2.2 , 2.3, 2.1 focus on the protecting the children from any kind of
injuries during outdoor play, providing first aid services to injured children, keeping them safe

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from sun as well as water at the time of outdoor play, making provision for nutritious food,
adequate rest for children (Education.vic.gov.au 2019).
Answer to question (d)
In ECA Code of Ethics the principles VI and VII can be considered as the evidences that
support the response regarding the instruction to the co-workers at childcare centers to make
provision for the safety measures of the children (Ecaconference.com.au 2016). Both of the
policies emphasizes on fostering professional development as well as non-discriminatory attitude
of the co-workers to improve the child protection system. Further both the policies emphasizes
on the training as well as development of the workers at the childcare centers so that the interest
of the children as well as their parents can be served in a better way. In this context both the
policies have suggested formation of collaborative professional relationship with the families of
the children to facilitate joint decision making regarding the growth and development of
individual children.
Answer to question 3:
As per the Privacy Act and parental consent 2019, I will involve parents in the discussion
regarding child development and safety in case all the scenarios. In case of the first scenario, I
will arrange meeting for the parents of both the children who intend to contact each other so that
their children can become friends and play together. I will assure them that this is a good step for
the overall development of their children and keeping other details confidential I will provide
them opportunity to keep in touch with each other. This will reflect the application of safe and
smart conversation without compromising on the part of the privacy. In case of the second
scenario, I will keep the details of the children preparing for school private following the Privacy

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Act and parental Consent, as revealing the children who will be repeating instead of getting
admitted in school will be the violation of privacy law (Owfc.com.au 2019). In case of the third
scenario, I need to inform the staffs as well as the parents of other children for the purpose of the
safety of other children in the centre (OAIC 2019).

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References
Acecqa.gov.au (2019). Quality Area 2 – Children's health and safety. [online] Acecqa.gov.au.
Available at: https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-quality-standard/quality-area-2-childrens-
health-and-safety [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].
Cabonne.nsw.gov.au (2019). [online] cabonne.nsw.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.cabonne.nsw.gov.au › public › forms › cu15-eca-code-of-ethics [Accessed 23 Sep.
2019].
Ccc.sa.edu.au (2019). [online] Ccc.sa.edu.au. Available at:
http://www.ccc.sa.edu.au/uploads/7/4/5/0/74507007/parentcomplaintspolicy.pdf [Accessed 23
Sep. 2019].
Ecaconference.com.au (2016). [online] Ecaconference.com.au. Available at:
https://www.ecaconference.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Hydon_COE.pdf [Accessed 23
Sep. 2019].
Education.vic.gov.au (2019). Policies and procedures. [online] Education.vic.gov.au. Available
at: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/childhood/providers/regulation/Pages/
policiesprocedures.aspx [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].
OAIC (2019). Privacy tips for parents and carers. [online] OAIC. Available at:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/your-privacy-rights/children-and-young-people/privacy-tips-
for-parents-and-carers/ [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].
Owfc.com.au (2019). Privacy and Confidentiality | One World for Children. [online]
Owfc.com.au. Available at: https://www.owfc.com.au/Childcare.asp?
_=Privacy+and+Confidentiality [Accessed 23 Sep. 2019].