Transitions

Transition is the change a child encounters moving from one place to another or room to room. As the child develops they experience transition from one learning environment or setting to a new one. By the time a child reaches school age they may have experienced several transitions which will have helped them to adapt their thoughts, feelings and behaviour to meet new expectations.
These transitions may have included:
• Transition between rooms.
• Transition from one provider to another during the week.
• Transition from a childcare provider to a school.
Transitions need continuity to provide the child with confidence, thereby feeling secure and making the process exciting.

Transitions include not just movements between one setting and another in a linear way, but movements “horizontally” from one room to another within the same setting, moving to a more structured part of the day such as lunchtime, or moving from home to childminder, to nursery and back again all in the course of the same day.

When transitions in the early years are managed sensitively it lays the foundations for positive feelings towards the many other transitions children will face through life.

Transitions include not just movements between one setting and another in a linear way, but movements “horizontally” from one room to another within the same setting, moving to a more structured part of the day such as lunchtime, or moving from home to childminder, to nursery and back again all in the course of the same day.

Click here to read about Transitions from the Birth to 5 Matters.