Group Time

Children in their early ages prefer to get individual attention, task and rewards but an effective teacher always minimizes that behavior through strategic teaching. For example stories and group discussion time are the best approach to teach good moral values to children.   Engaging children in stories helps them to enhance their imaginative stills that lead them to differentiate between the good and bad characteristics and they want to apply in their real lives.

Therefore, every teacher and caregiver must try to do the following;

• Always have a space and time for group time to keep children in circle and tell them stories
• Generate discussions on what, why and how so children could complete the sequence of the story together that will enhance a positive competition  
• Make the discussion interactive through open ended questions so children can use their ideas, thoughts and understanding
• Listen to the children carefully and raise questions and probe accordingly so the flow of their expression to raise their confidence and trust in their abilities

If this happens, it will help children to share and learn from each other. It will also help them to socialize and modify their behavior from self centeredness of people center, which would be a great asset for their personal and social growth. Therefore, every teacher must try group time as a routine for their classroom practice. 

  Tea & ECD

A cup of tea is a form of respect, entertainment, sharing of joy, gossips and social courtesy in many cultures.   It generates an environment where people can talk, share experiences, enjoy and learn from each other.  In an Early Childhood Educational setting when mothers sphere sometimes to walk to a center with their children for a workshop or seminar, tea becomes a source of motivation and expectation.   Therefore, it is essential for the organizer to do the following;

·      Organize meaningful activities for children so they can play together and mothers can assist their children

·     Allow discussions and rationalize the activities so mothers can enhance their conceptual understanding or develop awareness  
·         Facilitate discussions so mothers can share their experiences from home
·      Link the discussions with the theories of child development so their experiences and ideas can make a good sense for them
·         Offer a cup of tea for parents at the end of the session so they could feel entertained and express their perception about the activities  

A cup of tea is not a source of entertainment for mother but it also has  a deep meaning. For instance, it relaxes the mothers mentally. Moreover, it allows children to play and have fun while their moms are engaged in taking tea and sharing their ideas. It also helps mothers to feel home that enhances confidence to share their learning and master knew knowledge. 

Keeping in view the above mentioned importance, it seems noteworthy to integrate cultural norms (a cup of tea) with the social context of ECD to make the program more effective.

  

Equal Attention

We all believe that children have equal rights, responsibilities, status and opportunities but to understand the symbolic expression of the fact that two quantities are equal. We need to relate this expression with children at school. For example, early childhood education requires attention to maintain the expression in giving an equal opportunity to girls and boys from their critical ages and stages. In order to do that, schools need to keep in mind the following procedures;

·         Plan to give equal attention to boys and girls in the classrooms

·         Distribute and assign tasks equally for group and pair work

·         Ask questions to boys and girls equally

·         Form groups according to gender equality

·         Engage boys and girls for stage performances  

·         Educate parents to give equal attention to their daughters and sons at home

·         Encourage and highlight the importance of equal attention and its long term positive impact on the specific and general society.

So this approach to early childhood education can create equality among children and will increase their self esteem and confidence. It can also create a greater attachment to the teachers and the schools because the equal attention could reflect care, respect, love, attention and justice. If this happens, leading to a peaceful society wouldn’t be a dream for children from their early ages.

Importance of Special Education

Special education is the practice of educating students with special needs in a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. When children inter into a school, a day care center or a children’s resource center, it’s important for the teachers or educators to understand each child’s individual differences and needs.  Special education is viewed only as an education to the severe needs of special children but we need to understand that all the children are special in many ways. Some have minor specialty called developmental delays and few have severe kind of specialty. In order to understand children’s special needs, the school, individuals and institutions need to have the following approach;

·         Develop human capacity of educators, teachers and field support motivators so they can accommodate and support these children

·         The educators, teachers and field support motivators should have a close coordination with parents and communities to enhance awareness of special education

·         Policy makers and institutional leaders must develop a monitoring, support research mechanism for further learning and development

Keeping in view the importance of special education it seems significant to understand special needs of children but for that one needs to increase his/her knowledge, develop skills and moral attitude to educate the special children. When that happens, children’s developmental delays and other special needs can be improved.

Social skills

A social skill is the ability to communicate, persuade, and interact with other members of the society, without creating a conflict and disharmony. Children from their early ages need to learn how to communicate effectively with others that could enable them to solve problem and make decisions. Parents, caregivers and teachers need to keep in view the following;

·        Talk to children respectfully so it can enable them to enhance confidence in talking to others

·        Set social rules (take turn, show respect, and talk in a positive tune etc) for home and school to follow but must avoid compromising the rules

·        Allow children to use social skills in making friendships and working together

·        Engage them in interaction so they can express their ideas, perceptions and opinions, that will allow them to express their views in a constructive way

·        Avoid in engaging in their conflicts. Encourage them to communicate, persuade and motivate to resolve conflicts. This will help them to be more independent in differentiating between what to do and what not.

So this reflects that early childhood education is very critical in developing a better social skill among children to generate harmony and tolerated society.

Early Literacy Development

Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they can actually read or write. Children’s early literacy behaviors occur as they engage in reading and writing related tasks at home, in the community, and at school. Developing knowledge of literacy involves learning how to think about language and how it’s used. Deficiency in knowledge not only leads to difficulty in learning to read but also difficulties in acquiring new knowledge. Higher vocabulary development and listening comprehension has been associated with the greater exposure to story book sharing experiences.

In order to help children parents and care givers might need to do the following;

·         Show illustrations of animals, shapes, people, places and things. Read the names with soft and clear pronunciation. Keep repeating and reinforcing those names in everyday life according to the ages and stages of children

·         Sing nursery rhymes with actions. Allow them to see these rhymes with illustrations on TV or Ipad etc.

·         Show real animals, things and places. Allow children to touch and feel so they can use their own senses. Also allow children to talk to people to help them to develop their social skills

·         Read simple stories or tell stories in simple language so it could help children to enhance their imaginative skills

·         Allow them to grip the pencils, draw illustrations and color that will lead them to early writings

·         Understand, encourage and reinforce their signs of their language literacy so it can sustain their motivation and develop their confidence

Children have a great potential and as parents and care givers, we need to understand or learn about children’s millstones, assist and facilitate according to their early literacy needs.  

  Volunteerism for ECD

Engaging young minds and dedicated volunteers in an Early Childhood setting is very beneficial because it helps young girls and boys to make important networking contacts. They learn to develop professional understanding, share their learned knowledge, and expertise. It can enrich their resume. They can gain new ideas, make connection and relationships with parents and communities.

As a result, it enhances youth’s self esteem, confidence and more importantly, they learn to be knowledgeable, skillful, productive and positive parents. It further develops their communication and social skills as well as makes them more ambitious, enthusiastic, more caring and loving people in the society.

These are the important characteristics that children at their early ages of life need. Therefore, its noteworthy for our youth (young boys and girls) to volunteer for Early Childhood classes to develop their professional abilities and become skillful teachers and parents to nurture their students and children.