Who introduced the key person approach?
Elinor Goldschmied
More recently, Elinor Goldschmied and others have pioneered the Key Person Approach, which advocates the forming of special relationships between adults and children in the nursery setting.
What is the key person approach?
The key person approach is a way of working in childcare settings in which the whole focus and organisation is aimed at enabling close attachments between individual children and individual nursery staff. All children need to form an attachment to one skilled adult who regards them as special.
What is the role of the key person in relation to attachment?
The key person helps the child to feel known, understood, cared about, and safe. The key person role involves a triangle of trust with the child and family. Babies and children become attached to significant adults within reliable, respectful, warm and loving relationships which are essential in order to thrive.
What approach did Bowlby use?
Bowlby viewed attachment as a product of evolutionary processes. 3 While the behavioral theories of attachment suggested that attachment was a learned process, Bowlby and others proposed that children are born with an innate drive to form attachments with caregivers.
Where did the key person approach come from?
‘Key person’ was the term used by Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson (People Under Three – Young children in daycare, 1994) to describe pioneering work in nurseries that attempted to provide children with ‘a person to whom they can relate in a special way’ (p37).
What is the key person role?
The key person is an important role model for the child who they can relate to and rely on. The key person observes your child to identify how they learn through their play, their next aspect of development, what their interests are and whether there is any cause for concern or need for extra support.
What does the EYFS say about the key person?
The EYFS statutory framework states: The key person must help ensure that every child’s learning and care is tailored to meet their individual needs. The key person must seek to engage and support parents and carers in guiding their child’s development at home.
Why is the key person approach important?