Starting from the Child: Teaching and Learning from 4 - 8, 4 edition

Starting from the Child supports early years practitioners to be advocates for young children and their learning needs. In the fourth edition of this highly influential and inspirational book, Julie Fisher outlines the important theories and research which should underpin best early years practice. She takes a robust and principled stand against downward pressure to formalise young children’s learning too soon, and offers practical and meaningful ways to develop high quality learning and teaching in the early years.

Starting from the Child challenges all early years practitioners to consider:

How to build on children’s innate desire to learn and their competence and autonomy as effective early learners
How to plan environments indoors and out that make learning irresistible
How to plan for high quality child-initiated learning to take place seamlessly alongside learning that is adult-initiated
The role of the adult in supporting and extending young children’s learning
How daily observation of children informs and underpins planning for their individual and unique learning needs

Revised and updated throughout, this fourth edition includes the latest research on early brain development and reference to recent government initiatives including the revised Early Years Foundation Stage.

Starting from the Child is essential reading, not only for early years practitioners, but for all those who manage and make decisions about early learning.

“In the fourth edition of this book, Julie Fisher once again demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the history of early childhood education, and the enduring principles that continue to underpin practice. She has skilfully blended these principles with contemporary research and theory in order to provide readers with deep understanding of young children as capable, competent and eager learners. Julie draws on her extensive work with practitioners to present the everyday realities and complexities of their practice, and to sound welcome notes of caution about the ways in which policy frameworks are used. She offers vignettes to illustrate key issues, provocations and challenges to stimulate thinking, and questions to engage readers with contemporary issues and dilemmas. The book also reflects deeply held convictions about the moral and ethical responsibilities we have to teach young children in ways that respect their extraordinary enthusiasm for learning.

This book will be invaluable for students of early childhood education, especially those on professional development programmes such as Early Childhood Studies, Early Years Professional Status, and Post Graduate Certificate of Education.”
Professor Elizabeth Wood, University of Sheffield, UK

“The fourth edition of this classic text has been updated with recent research. This is very helpful in supporting readers but it’s the underpinning philosophy that makes this a continuing classic. The title says it all. Julie takes the reader by the hand and says ‘Look and listen, give these children your full and respectful attention and they will teach you how to be with them.’ All the practical ideas in the book support practitioners in using their skills and knowledge to recognise early childhood as valuable in its own right - to be relished and enjoyed, not to be rushed through or seen merely as preparation for the next stage. We owe it to our children to take heed.”
Helen Moylett, Early Years Consultant and writer

“Julie Fisher’s work has been a staple of Early Childhood Education since the first edition of Starting from the Child in 1996. Her fourth edition does not disappoint, and is a welcome development of her thinking. She delves in more detail, for example, into brain development, and leads her readers further into the latest scientific thinking on how children learn. She is, as ever, insightful about how adults work with children, with helpful advice about how to observe (and record) children’s learning, and how to plan effectively.

Her inclusion of her own latest field work ensures that Julie’s advice on early years practice remains rooted in the everyday, while making accessible a range of theoretical and scientific perspectives. This is a book for students, teachers and other early years workers seeking to find their way through the conflicting needs of a rapidly changing area of work.”
Nick Swarbrick, Programme Lead for the Undergraduate Modular Programme in the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, UK