Doctor Suzanne Zeedyk and John Carnochan both discussed how important the first three years of a child’s life are. Prior to our health and well-being input and watching both of the assigned videos I was not aware of how much a child’s environment at this age can influence how their brain develops. It was made clear by both speakers the importance of the early years stages of learning. We heard them speak about various examples of how the environments we present to children influence the way that there brain works and therefore the way that children act or behave. One example which was touched on by both individuals was that if a child is being brought up in a stressful environment; one where there is maybe a great deal of conflict, their brain then adapts to help them cope with that particular environment. Doctor Zeedyk makes the interesting connection that if the child is having to worry about the stress of a threatening environment; they are not worrying and exploring the wider environment as they are too busy monitoring threat. John Carnochan expands on this by saying that if children are used to coping in threatening situations they may struggle to assess risk. This may affect them when they go into the school environment as they may close off and view various different aspects of the school a threat whether that is peers, teachers or anyone else. Young people who are experiencing a threatening environment;  may see conflict as a way to approach situations as that is what they have had to cope with. This matters a great deal to myself as a future teacher as each day children may come into school having dealt with a variety of different things on that day as well as what they have experienced from their early years. As a teacher you have to take into consideration that what your class have experienced and the way they think and view things may vary greatly across the entire class. This will affect the way I manage and organise my classroom as well as the way I teach lessons depending on which children I am teaching. This is why it is important for me to get to know the children in my class so that a relationship can be developed where the young person trusts me.

Through all of this, the videos are trying to communicate the importance of relationships. John Carnochan makes the statement that we are all human and therefore have the ability to establish and maintain relationships. This shows the importance of human interaction and relationships as children grow up. Young people may be quiet and try isolate themselves; maybe due to a threatening environment or maybe because they just have a shy personality. Other children may be extremely keen to talk to other children and make friends. It is important that as they go through the early years stages that they learn negotiation; this will be done through learning to share toys. It is important children learn to communicate with one another and with other adults. These are essential at this young age to progress through their education as well as into adult life as we all have such a variety of relationships as we progress through life. As a practitioner; it is important to encourage children to talk and discuss tasks therefore throughout my lessons I will incorporate time for discussion. This will not only encourage communication but also help in their ability to problem solve as often talking to others allows solutions to be found.

In our health and well-being input something stood out to me as being important to be aware of. This was that children will make friendships in different ways throughout their primary school journey. Children in the early stages of school will make friends based on what they like and what they want to play with. It was then discussed that as children reach the age of seven they are usually established into same sex friendship groups. Lastly, as children start to go through the transition from P7 to high school they may then find different friendships groups as they meet new people. As a teacher it is important to be aware that as young people change and develop so will their relationships. The example used from the input was that when children reach the age of 6 or 7 friendship starts to mean something and they will have a loyalty to the people they have built up relationships with.