Women Education for Child Development

 Educating a woman is educating a family (Anonymous). This belief leads life in a practical way in human society but when it comes to early years of children’s development, this belief gets stronger. For instance, it’s recognized by the educational and psychological researchers that brain development of children begins from prenatal stage. If this is the case, then the relationship of mother and child development is much stronger emotionally, physically, socially, morally and cognitively in a natural way. On the other hand, the meaningful nurturing process of the child enables a mature personality development, which gradually, helps the child to be remain peaceful and sustain peace in the society. Therefore, women and families might need to consider the following;

·         Be happy and healthy during and after the pregnancy

·         Engage in reading and listening to music to create a positive energy

·         Talk to her child after 4 months of pregnancy because the child starts hearing already

·         Stay emotionally balanced

·         Be loving and love others around her

·       Be friendly, respectful, caring and tolerant towards other human beings because the child learns from the environment.

·   Get education and educate others around her including her own children because education and awareness is the only key to a peaceful society. 

Keeping these in mind, its important to understand that nature and nurture plays their significant roles.  Children learn good or bad, effective or ineffective behavior from their adults. In order, to create a peaceful environment and peaceful society, children from their early ages, which is called sensitive and critical age, needs to be nurtured in a conducive learning environment. Therefore, its necessary for women to play their roles in nurturing their children to strengthen the natural relationships and positive outcomes between them and society.  

Culture, Power and Impact on Child Development

Children from dominant cultural practices are influenced by the beliefs and practices of grandparents. Child development depends on how they treat the children at home? What they belief about the child? How educators can minimize the gaps of child development in a positive and constructive way in that culture.

Some of the culture gives more importance to adults as a mean of respect. They believe children are empty vessels and they will learn gradually when they go to school. Therefore, the more emphasis remains on the physical development of the children so they can grow up faster, go to school and learn new things. These beliefs and respect in these kinds of cultures make the adults, particularly, grandparents powerful. Therefore, changing their beliefs becomes a big challenge for interventionists. However, one strategy from one of the interventions worked very conveniently for us. For instance, when the field staff visited homes and demonstrated teaching young children (birth to three years), it became an interesting experience. Grandparents learned those vocabularies from English language and reinforced them later with those children (grandchildren) at home. Most of the grandparents were able to recognize the illustrations and match their names such as name of surroundings, animals, vegetables, fruits etc.

It taught us if we involve grandparents in the learning process of children, we need to understand the cultural beliefs, norms and work with the influential factors such as grandparents so they can use their authority in a positive and productive manner to develop their grandchildren in a meaningful and constructive way. 

Sharing is Caring

When you are a caring person, you should share your skills, positive attitudes, emotions, and physical resources with each other.  Its one of the major human characteristics, that when we want to care about someone, we share our learning and resources.  

In a similar ways, the early age of children’s life is critical in teaching children to develop their caring and sharing attitudes. Therefore, the following small tips need to be considered by parents and caregivers;

·        Avoid controlling behavior so children can explore their surroundings, e.g. touch, feel, think, observe, and practice to differentiate between good and bad themselves   

·        Allow children to have access to their requirements so they know what they have and what need. What to share with friends, siblings and family members and also what and how to borrow from them in a graceful manner

·         Let children play with siblings and friends to develop friendships  so they can enhance their sharing and caring skills  

Sharing own belongings demonstrates the positive attitudes of children towards others, whom they care.  It’s a two way process. So parents and caregivers need to encourage their children to share their belongings with others and borrow from them in a nice way. It will enable children to learn social skills and social skills come with good nurturing in a sharing and caring environment. 

Cultural Integration in ECD

Tradition and cultural valuaes are heavily embeded in developing countries because they have praticed those traditional norms, values and cultural believes for centuries. Therefore, they feel ownered if any insitution or National/ International Non Proffit Organizations (N/INGOs) tries to incorporate those norms into thier programs.

In order, to be a successful Early Chilhood Development (ECD) inatiators, one might need to follow the following simple but important guidelines;

 

1- Carryout a needs assement task to understand the contexual needs and trational or cultural practice before iniating the program

 

2- Reflect on those needs and try to link those cultural valuaes and practices with the ECD plans to make the content more contextual pratice based

 

3- Demosntrate creativity in incorpurating the cultural practices in the new generation to win the local hearts

 

4- Always refelct back on its constructive and areas for improvement to have an action research cyclical approach

 

5- Document and keep records in wrriting, phtographs and videos

 

6- Publish simple success stories and make fliers to share with visitors, parents and local communities

 

 

7- Particiapte in national and international conferences to share information with bigger audience for a professional eye view to refine the program

 

When this happens, the ECD program would be more specific, focused, relevant according to the contextual needs and cultural values. it will enable the local communties to particpate in the program. Moreover, it will create an acceptance within the local communities. Ultimately, it will make the foundation of ECD stronger and powerful for the change process in the next generation.

Parents’ Dream for Kids

“We must teach our children to dream with their eyes open.” 
( Harry Edwards).

Parents, whether they are educated or least educated, they dream something positive about their children’s future. So keeping that ambitious motivation, National and International Organizations (I/NGOs) needs to work closely with parents according to their situation, language and culture. They need to come down to the earth to support the parents.    

The rural women who cannot communicate the language or express their feelings, they can be facilitated in the following way;

<         ·  Meet the parents with a smiling face

<         ·  Talk about informal things e.g. weather, environment, vegetables etc to develop their confidence

<         ·    When you ask question or give any instruction to do something, give them any relevant example because that will allow them to reflect on their experiences

<         ·   Ask open ended questions so they can share their ideas or perspectives

<         ·    Give them wait time to respond

<         ·    If they find any difficulty in understanding the idea or the concept, sit with them and explain in a simple language

<         ·  Be a critical friend, rather than a boss

When parents realize something is helpful for their kids, they work and assist their kids to think and act to fulfill their dreams. Therefore, the approach should be leading and facilitating parents effectively so they can facilitate and teach their kids to dream with open eyes for their future.   

ECD & family Connectivity

When we think of children, their good qualities always come to our mind. For instance, they are incredible, delightful, intellectual, assertive, fair, deserving, supportive, competitive, bold, energetic, loved, humorous and persistent etc.   Their qualities become a gravitational force to connect to the family emotionally, socially, morally, and intellectually as a family.

However, the Early childhood Development (ECD) program becomes more determined in strengthening the emotional connectivity as a family. For example, playing with toys and reading books together in their broken language and sharing new vocabularies in a different language (Urdu, English or any other national language) creates a new journey to their learning.  This new experience plays a huge role to bond, get an attachment and connect to each other as a family. Therefore, its important for caregivers and parents to engage the whole family in the learning process with their children because it will connect them more that will enable children to gain confidence, trust their families, share and care for each other. 

Curious Children “Children are curious and are risk takers.  (John Bradshaw) Curiosity is a strong desire to know or learn something. Children are curious because they are in the fast learning process in their childhood . Their brains are active so they observe, imitate, practice and enjoy the new ideas. This process opens up new possibilities and opportunities for further learning. It makes children to find out meaning for themselves. They think, reflect, ask questions and develop their understanding. Therefore, parents and care givers need to keep the following rules in their mind, while nurturing  their children; Allow children to be independent learners Asst and facilitate them to play so they can use their motor skills to get stronger, use their brains to think and solve problems  Encourage them to ask questions    Respond to their questions because their mind is like a sponge that absorbs information and produce according to their needs These small and simple steps can enable children to be more curious to learn fast and effectively.       .