Staff Development for Early Childhood Education The human beings have different multiple intelligences and they act according to their interest & capacity. If these intelligences are provided a chance to grow up, then it enables people to enhance their skills accordingly. It helps people to grasp quickly. Otherwise, it becomes difficult or time taking to develop an understating. People from the developing countries are generally in a transitional period. They have left their old practices and moving towards new practices. The process sometimes confuses as they fall into their old practices because they have not grasped the new practices for various reasons. Therefore, its essential to facilitate the staff according to their level of understanding and engage them in intellectual discourse as well as practical demonstrations. Here are few tips for staff development; • Ask open ended questions about their perceptions and interests in the field of Early Childhood Development. • Understand their background relevant experiences (if they have) • Develop an understanding about their general and specific professional needs • Engage them in the joint planning sessions so they feel empowerment • Create practical demonstrations and observation so they could examine the impact of the demonstration in a positive or negative way • Be part of the whole process as a critical friend, and a pedagogical leader to enhance their confidence and creativity • Facilitate and guide them according to their needs so they could feel good about it • Arrange reflective sessions for staff to think critically about their roles and responsibilities. The challenges they face and alternatives they find to overcome the challenges. • Give them options if they are stuck. Or perform role plays to give them confidence in moving ahead in their profession.

Socializing Children

Children love playing and working together with other children. At times, they are weird but the next moment, they are friends again as nothing had happened among them. It’s all natural and time for adjustment among them. However, the role of parents, care givers and siblings are to continue working together and allowing children to play, talk, listen and enjoy small events together. Parents must make a conscious effort to collaborate with their children and let them to socialize with other children and people around them because the process bonds them emotionality together. This kind of socialization from the beginning enables children to compromise, discuss issues, solve problems and make decisions. It helps them to enhance their confidence, demonstrate a peaceful, flexible and analytical attitude. Moreover, it also develops their interpersonal skills, which is a significant characteristic of a leadership. I believe every parent dreams for a better future of their children. So let us try to socialize our children and develop their leadership skills.

Teaching Active Listening to Children

Listening is defined as a way of communication that involves hearing, interpreting, and constructing a meaning as a learner. ‘Listening’ to something and ‘hearing’ something is two different concepts. For instance, we hear so many things around us such as birds chirping, refrigerator humming, baby crying, cars honking etc but these sounds does not mean that we recorded in our brains. Thus, it sounds pivotal that we teach our children listening skills by reading to them everyday, and training them in the art of active listening. The studies on listening skills have identified five stages for active listening e. g. receiving, understanding, evaluating, remembering, and responding. So keeping the importance of active listening in mind, we need to be good listeners as parents. If we model active listening skills, children will always follow that pathway. So let us demonstrate active listening skills and be a role model for our children.