Tag: Early Childhood

Labelling Body and Facial Expressions

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Labelling Emotions

Children use body and facial expressions to reflect their emotions. By the same token, children need to interpret body and facial expressions as part of their emotional development.

Children who cannot express their needs could get frustrated or miss out on engaging in activities with other children. One example is a child who is too shy to ask peers to play with them. Another example is a child who is trying to get a toy or a game from someone else. In both examples, children need to be able to express what they want and understand the feedback of other children whether verbal or non-verbal.

Role of educators:

How can educators help children enrich their emotional vocabulary and enhance their communication skills in order to successfully negotiate what they want?

Educators need to provide activities that help children recognise emotions such as anger, sadness, surprise, happiness, and frustration in themselves and other children. A child who can recognise the intentions of other children by correctly reading their emotional expressions will have a better chance of being included in any setting.

Expressing and interpreting emotions are pathways to emotional regulation and successful socialisation.

Building a vocabulary of emotions from simple to complex ones is part of children’s socio-emotional development. According to Plutchik’s wheel of emotions (Six Seconds, n.d.), the basic emotions are joy, disgust, anger, and anticipation, and their opposites are sadness, trust, fear, and surprise respectively. The combination of two basic emotions brings up a new emotion.

Children need concrete activities to interpret and label emotions. Educators could teach children how to recognise the affective states of other children by looking for their body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.

A simple activity of having a face with a printed emotional label could be a starting point.

Reading children’s books to children can contribute to their understanding of affective states. Often, in children’s books, the plot revolves around an issue that triggers an affective state and how to resolve the issue.

Games could be used as well. One example is asking children to play musical chairs. On each chair, there is a card of a facial expression flipped face down. When the music stops and the children sit down, they are asked to turn the card over and explain what emotion the face is expressing. They are also asked to make the same face. The children are then asked to go for a second round and repeat the process and so on. This allows the children to experiment with facial expressions in a non-threatening environment. More complex emotions could be introduced as children learn the basic ones.

The Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development (n.d.) proposed other ideas. The educator could:

  • Provide activities that help children label their emotions. For example, they could look at the mirror and make faces and then try to label the emotion.
  • Read a book to the children and ask them to guess how the child is feeling based on the text or based on the illustrations.
  • Ask children during “show and tell” to make a facial or a body expression about how the activity they are sharing made them feel.
  • Assist children in making up a song about activities or actions that make them feel happy, sad, angry, surprised, and so on. The words of a familiar song could be adapted.
  • Provide props for children to role-play different experiences in the dramatic area. An example is going to see the doctor and trying to act the experience out.
  • Prepare cards of activities and facial expressions and ask children to pair the activity with the facial emotion it brings in them.
  • Play a game with children where one child chooses a card that has an expressed facial emotion and imitates that emotion. The other children must guess the emotion.
  • Prompt children to come up with a solution for a child who is sad, angry, or unhappy about an event through problem-solving.

Why are interpreting and labelling emotions useful?

Joseph and Strain (2003) elaborated on the process. When children recognise and label their feelings, they develop emotional regulation and when they recognise and label other people’s emotions, they strengthen their problem-solving skills. The process then assists the children to come up with solutions acceptable to themselves and other parties thus generating a win-win outcome.

The educators could easily share the information with parents. Both parents and educators could scaffold children as they navigate the emotional realm around them. A synchronized process would support children as they grow up in a global world.

References:

Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. (n.d.). Ideas for teaching about emotions. https://www.ecmhc.org/ideas/emotions.html  

Six Seconds. (n.d.). Plutchik’s wheel of emotions: Exploring the emotion wheel. https://www.6seconds.org/2022/03/13/plutchik-wheel-emotions/

Joseph, G. E., & Strain, P. S. (2003). Enhancing emotional vocabulary in young children. Young Exceptional Children, 6(4), 18-26.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/109625060300600403

Development
Future Global Children

How can educators support children’s resilience?

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When children overcome difficulties, they grow up successful and resilient in the face of obstacles. The ability to be resilient involves drawing on multiple resources such as genetic makeup, temperament type, and the social supports in the environment.

Nolan et al. (2014) examined the impact of the environment and the relationships in the early childhood settings on children’s resilience. They recommended practices in the setup and the nature of relationships as follows:

Environment: The child who contributes positively to the environment needs to be acknowledged.

Educators can help children feel accepted regardless of how their feelings fluctuate in different spaces. Children explore their environment in order to check what works for them and what does not. Some children are more sociable than others. Some operate better in small groups than in large groups.

Educators can set the space, daily schedule, and activities so that children rotate among quiet and noisy spaces, small and large groups, and indoors and outdoors. Often a private space where children can rest quietly helps them develop a sense of perspective about the events surrounding them. The movement in different environments also helps children know themselves and their preferences.

As children grow up, they will navigate in different spaces. The rotations in the early childhood setting enhances children’s abilities to be resilient in diverse circumstances.

Relationships: Educators can support the children’s resilience by establishing systematic and respectful relationships with the children’s parents and by communicating the effective practices around wellbeing, emotional regulation, and modelling that have been applied in the early childhood setting.

The children need to feel that their feelings are acknowledged by parents and educators. It is the responsibility of the educator to establish a strong connection with parents so they both support children’s resilience. Children need to feel that they are not left alone in the world to fend for themselves and that there is a safe place that they can go to. They should also be encouraged to seek support when they want it and be given time to regulate their own feelings.

Depending on what children need to share about their strengths and needs, the educator can engage in a one to one conversation with them or invite them to share their story/feelings in groups of different sizes. Effective listening is the basis for a successful engagement whether in a dyadic or a group interaction.

The educator needs to observe children and document information about their personalities. Based on the documentation, the educator supports children in order to boost their confidence and social-emotional wellbeing. As children get experience in different types of relationships (dyadic/group), they develop awareness of the dynamics of each setting and apply behaviors that would help them communicate their feelings and solve their problems.

Resilience helps a person grow mentally and physically healthy. The skills, attitudes, and daily practices of resilience will ensure success in a global world.

Reference:

Nolan, A., Stagnitti, K., Taket, A., & Casey, S. (2014). Supporting resilience. In S. Garvis & D. Pendergast (Eds.), Health and wellbeing in childhood (pp. 240-252). Cambridge University Press.

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Language and Memory

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Children increasingly make sense of what they hear by strengthening their auditory perception. Auditory perception skills include the ability to memorize information and the ability to reproduce and act on what was memorized.

Children’s short- and long-term memories develop as they grow up. A preschooler can repeat two to three pieces of information with the number growing up to five pieces by age 7 (Kearns, 2017). Adults have the capacity to retain 7 +/- 2 pieces of information in their short-term memory.

To move the information into long-term memory, children need to develop recall strategies. Many nursery rhymes and children’s songs include steps, lists, and ordered numbers that help children recall accurate information and that allow them to carry out actions.

To develop a repertoire of words and detailed actions, children need to have been exposed to them early in their lives. We can help children develop a repertoire of words by engaging in conversations with and around them when they are alert. By doing so, we help children combine the words, actions, and context into a meaningful outcome.

As parents and educators, should we talk out loud whenever possible throughout the day around our young children? If the self-talk covers different topics and introduces the child to hundreds of words, then the answer is YES.

Around the world, parents communicate with children in different ways. The number of adults taking care of the child varies and could include one or more primary caregiver. In some cultures, older siblings participate in caring for the child as well. As a result, the language input is diverse and it is not surprising that the children grow up displaying different linguistic communication patterns depending on whom they are addressing than children with fewer verbal interactions.

More research is needed to understand how the relationship between memory and language development unfolds in different contexts. We constantly witness children defying the current memory capacity when applied to language development. How far can the “piece of information” captured by children’s short- and long-term memories be stretched? Is “the piece of information” one letter, one chunk, one poem, or one storybook?  It depends on how educators and parents complement the child’s genetic dispositions.

Educators and parents have a responsibility to help children succeed in a global world. Surrounding children with a rich language input is one main success strategy.

Reference:

Kearns, K. (2017). Birth to big school (4th ed.). Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning.

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How can we help the child’s brain?

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The growth of the human brain is at its highest in the first five years of age. At birth, the brain is about 25% of the size of adult brain and, by 4 years old, it reaches 90% of the adult brain. This fact alone makes the first five years of age very important in a person’s lifespan.

Information is transmitted to the nervous system and to the rest of the body through grey nerve cells called neurons. We are born with 100 to 200 billion neurons with each neuron comprising of approximately 30,000 cells (Johnson, 2003, as cited in Garvis et al., 2019).

Neurons transmit and receive information through their endings called synapses. We are born with 2500 synapses per neuron. However, this number increases to 15000 per neuron by age 3. As we grow up, the brain eliminates the neurons and the synapses that are not used.

The elimination is a natural part of development as long as it is not due to an imbalance in stimulation. Connections thrive through rich visual, auditory, or emotional stimuli. According to Graham (2001, 2011), the process unfolds as follows:

Visual stimulation: Vision can be stimulated by exposing the child to different colors, contrasts, and levels of brightness. Problems in vision that are left unattended might cause the eye to lose its connection to the brain.

Emotional stimulation: Children develop feelings of calm, relaxation, tension, and distress early in their lives. The brain wave patterns function better when positive emotions are triggered. Unresponsive relationships with the child can negatively impact the brain’s development.

Language simulation: Infants are programmed to focus on sounds and especially the human voice. Engaging with the child verbally using different tones and maintaining eye contact helps the child register the words and the context in which they are used.

Movement stimulation: Children need to be given opportunities to develop their large as well as their fine motor skills and their eye hand coordination. Experimentation with movement registers in the brain and movements get more refined as the child grows up.

Restraining children hurts their development and makes it harder for them to grow abilities in all areas of development as their peers. On the other hand, a positive environment supports children’s brain development and widen their opportunities to succeed to in a global world.

References:

Garvis, S., Phillipson, S., Clarke, S., Harrison, L., McCormack, J., & Pendergast, D. (2019). Child development and learning. Victoria, Australia: Oxford University Press.

Graham, J. (2001, 2011). Bulletin #4356, Children and brain development: What we know about how children learn. Retrieved from The University of Maine Cooperative Extension Website: https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/4356e/

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Hand Washing for Children and Adults: When and How

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Hand washing is important for preventing communicable and infectious diseases. Parents, educators, and children should regularly wash their hands.

In a childcare, educators (most situations apply to parents as well) and children should wash their hands as follows:

  • Upon arrival to the childcare and before leaving,
  • Before and after handling food,
  • After blowing own nose or wiping a child’s nose,
  • After using the restroom,
  • After changing nappies,
  • After cleaning up, handling art materials, or collecting garbage,
  • After playing outdoors with sand or touching animals, and
  • Before and after administering medications.

(Marotz, 2015; National Health and Medical Research Council, 2013)

In addition, Marotz (2015) indicates that when handling food, hands should be washed as follows:

  • Before touching food,
  • Before wearing and after disposing of gloves,
  • After handling raw meat, poultry, seafood, or eggs,
  • After touching dirty dishes or garbage,
  • After coughing, sneezing, or blowing own nose,
  • After using tobacco, eating, or drinking,
  • After touching hair or skin such as ears, nose, or arms.

Washing procedure:

Washing thoroughly with soap and water remains the recommended method. Although alcohol-based gels are increasingly gaining popularity, they should not substitute hand washing. Alcohol-based gels could be applied when hands are not very dirty and the rubbing of the hands should continue until the hands are dry.

When rubbing hands and wrist with water and soap, the friction breaks down the germs. The rubbing should continue for 15 to 20 seconds. It is better to wet hands before applying soap, so the hands don’t get dry by repeated washing.

In the case of infants and toddlers, it is important to disinfect the floor and play areas until they develop an understanding of diseases and illnesses. The baby’s hands should be washed after crawling on the floor and before eating or sucking fingers.

How can we help children remember to wash their hands?

  • Educators and parents could post the steps in the bathroom in pictures.
  • Children could be taught a song that gets attached to hand washing.
  • Parents and educators should model washing hands and verbalize what they are doing.
  • Educators could include activities where children role play the correct procedure for hand washing.
  • Educators should communicate the importance of hand washing to parents so children listen to the same message at home and in the childcare.
  • Washing hands should be a fixed daily routine; otherwise, it is going to be difficult to implement consistently.

To build the concept of hygienic procedures for children, parents and educators could start by alerting children to wash hands before eating and to not touch eyes, ears, nose, or mouth while playing as those areas are the most common means for the spread of communicable and infectious diseases.

Hand washing should be part of an overall wellness program that highlights health promotion as a priority for children and adults. In a globally connected world, it becomes important to practise hand hygiene along with other preventive health measures.

References:

Marotz, L. R. (2015). Health, safety, and nutrition for the young child (9th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.

National Health and Medical Research Council. (2013). Staying healthy: Preventing infectious diseases in early childhood education and care services (9th ed.). Retrieved from https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/staying-healthy-preventing-infectious-diseases-early-childhood-education-and-care-services

 

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