Continuity of Care and Looping at Agelink
August 04, 2011 at 4:49 PM
The educational concepts of continuity of care and looping; while not new to the profession, are receiving renewed study in light of current brain research. Following a recent training with early childhood consultant and author Kay Albrecht, Agelink staff reviewed research and held collaborative conversations about possible practical application in our learning environment. Following several conversations and a review of research, Agelink staff elected to support the concepts of continuity of care and looping as often as reasonably possible.
Continuity of care/looping means that children and teacher remain together for more than one year. Keeping children and teachers together for two to three years has several benefits. Close relationships between children and teachers can flourish. Benefits for the child include reduced apprehension and increased curricular continuity. For teachers, the benefits of looping consist of becoming familiar with developmental stages of children and building meaningful relationships with the children and their families. The long-term relationships established through continuity of care/looping have been shown to support student learning.
Teachers who work well together and are familiar with one another are likely to share common, though not identical, philosophy and practices. They probably have similar styles of communication and beliefs about how important it is to be attentive and responsive to children. Strong staff relationships enable teachers to communicate effectively about children and about who will do what, with whom, and when. They can decide quickly who will go outside with which group of children, who will sit with the children who are eating, and who will put the other children to sleep. There is a sense of working together, cooperation and communication, and everyone pitching in. Agelink is very excited to have 50% of our classrooms providing continuity of care/looping for children and their families.
For more information on continuity of care and looping check out the following links and let us know what you think!
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=265
http://dpi.wi.gov/ccic/pdf/weekly_articles/good_bad_and_wonderful.pdf
