By Pam Bertrand
As the director at School For Constructive Play, my 30ish years in early childhood education have produced many parent questions.
Some questions are asked in a panic, “She touched a banana pepper during dinner and must have touched her face because it’s on fire. What do I do?!” The answer to this question is to take a deep breath, get some milk, and put it on her face. The child in this story was 100% OK; her face is as fresh as a daisy, and to repay me for my awesome advice, she eventually came to work for me. She, too, would one day pass that wisdom on to another frantic parent like her mother.
Other questions are asked in less of a panic and more in regard to the philosophy at our little Island preschool. Among the most common question is, “According to your philosophy, what are the benefits of socializing my child early?”
By socializing your child early and implementing a play-based learning strategy, you are helping them to:
- Develop a positive self-image. This enables a child to be successful in a learning environment and provides the building blocks for personal development throughout the child’s life.
- Learn to handle their emotions in an appropriate way. Children have strong feelings. They are often confusing and beyond their control. By socializing your child early, you are helping them learn to understand, label and express their feelings towards themselves and others in appropriate ways.
- Develop a sense of personal responsibility. When children are given opportunities to make choices and solve problems with others, they begin to learn how the world around them operates and how they function in it. In a safe and loving environment, children begin to learn their actions have consequences not just for themselves but for others as well.
- Learn to trust and care about those around them. Through the relationships they make by socializing with their peers and teachers, children begin to develop the ability to give and receive affection and understanding. They start to learn to trust themselves and others around them.
