Tag: Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education in United Arab Emirates: Facts in points

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  • United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates with approximately 83600 square kilometres and a population of more than 9.5 million.
  • Ten percent of the population are UAE nationals.
  • It is estimated that 90% of the population live in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
  • In 2014, approximately 20% (2.64 Billion USD) of the annual budget was spent on education.
  • There are more than half a million Emirati and non-Emirati children between 0 and 5 years old.
  • The majority of children under three years old do not attend childcare.
  • Most kindergarten children enrol in private schools where instruction in English is provided for a substantial time.
  • Public schools cater mostly to UAE nationals and most teachers are university graduates.
  • Instruction in the public schools is in Arabic with some instruction in English.
  • Boys as well as girls enrol in kindergartens.
  • There is no uniform national curriculum; however, the country is aiming to be leader in early childhood education through innovative practices.

Reference including in-text citations:
Mehana, M. (2018). Moving forward: Early childhood education in Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates. In J. L. Roopnarine, J. E. Johnson, S. Quinn, & M. Patte (Eds.), Handbook of international perspectives on early childhood education (pp. 85-100). New York, NY: Routledge.

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E-Safety for Young children Using the Internet

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Three to seven year old children vaguely understand the tactics used by search engines to attract followers and to promote products. More importantly, they are not able to capture the risks associated with using the internet or disclosing personal information.
Parents need to establish guidelines for internet use very early in order to counteract the risks. Below are some of the recommendations from https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents :

– Apply strict rules about time allowed on the digital device.

– Educate yourself on the characteristics of developmentally appropriate computer applications.

– Monitor the internet usage for all the family members and let the children know that this is happening.

– Supervise what the child is accessing online.

– Participate in online games with the children. Sharing in the child’s interest will facilitate the establishment of trust between the parent and the child and the discussion on e-safety in the long term.

– Familiarise yourself with the guides to computer applications and disable chat functions and cameras.

– Save the computer applications that are age appropriate and block the ones that are not.

– Make sure the child cannot purchase a product or service online by mistake.

– Discuss acceptable behaviours online as early as possible. Ask the children to discuss what they see online with adults especially if something is annoying, disturbing, or makes them uncomfortable.

– Disconnect devices at meal times so they are not active at the expense of socialising with the family members.

– Make sure that the devices are not used prior to bedtime and are not accessible to the child during the night.

 

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Planning activities for infants and toddlers

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Many infants and toddlers are attending childcare. It is important not to think of them as passive learners that just need to eat and sleep during the day.

The first two years of life provide the foundation for later development. Educators and parents need to make optimal use of this period.

To plan activities, Greenman, Stonehouse, and Schweikert (2008) recommend the following:

– Educators need to take into account theories on children’s development as well as the progress of individual children.
– The children’s families and background cultures need to be accounted for in the planning. Children bring different home experiences to the childcare and those experiences need to be used as starting points for planning.
– The plan should help children transition from the earlier activity, include a clear indication on how the children will start engaging with the activity, state the needed material, indicate the expectations upon engagement, and finally specify the transition to the next activity.
– Documentation of children’s learning should start prior to the plan, during the implementation, and after the completion of the activity.

By following clear guidelines, we can ensure that learning is taking place in a positive environment.

To read more, refer to:
Greenman, J., Stonehouse, A., & Schweikert, G. (2008). Prime times: A handbook for excellence in infant and toddler programs (2nd ed.). St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

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Is it too early to talk “success” with children?

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Every time,
We listen to a child,
We encourage a child to carry out an activity,
We comfort a crying child,
We let a child make a choice and carry out that responsibility,
We watch a child experiment with materials,
We respect a child’s failure,
We help a child apologise for mistakes,
We discuss different points of view with a child,
We set agreed upon rules,
We accept a child’s fears and need for time to calm down,
We show pride in what a child offers to self and others,
We share fun as well as sad stories,
We show our love,

Guess what, every time,
We are talking “success” with the child.

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Helping children with money literacy so they grow up financially secure

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With the economic fluctuations, teaching children about financial literacy has never been more important.

Developing number sense is essential to learning about money. To do so, children need to learn about fractions, multiplication, addition, …

More important, children need to learn the value of money. One example is engaging the children in a school project where they have to plan material and budget, prepare, and implement the selling scheme. Buyers would have the option to buy using money or services. They could volunteer or bring items from home in return. So, setting the price is going to engage children in discussions on pricing, labour, and the value of money.

There are also actions that parents can do with the kids at the market. They can point out different prices for the same item. Other ideas involve asking the child to save towards a purchase, engaging the child in some home help in exchange for money, and involving children in discussions about gifts.

More information is available at https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/

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Are we holding gifted and talented children back?

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We want children to be gifted and talented and yet parents and teachers find themselves not knowing what to do or what to say to those children.
Sometimes it looks as if the learning method of the gifted and talented children is not conforming to the teachers’ expectations. They might not enjoy groups and prefer to work alone. As a consequence, the behaviour could be seen as uncooperative.
It is important for parents and teachers to assess the child to check her/his capabilities. Children could also engage in self-assessment as they might know their strengths and needs better than other people around them. As a result, the curriculum needs to be differentiated to extend their learning.
It is important to note that gifted and talented children could at the same time have strengths in on area and needs in another. So, a child could be a fast learner and hyperactive at the same time. Any action plan needs to account for both characteristics.
The parents and school need to partner together to support the child.
Gifted children are at a risk of dropping out of school given the inability of schools to nurture them. Teachers need to be able to provide an inclusive curriculum that scaffolds children to the maximum level that they could reach.
An example of a very successful program in reaching to all children is the Renzulli Learning System. More information is available at https://gifted.uconn.edu/# . The “Schoolwide Enrichment Model” provides opportunities to engage all students including the talented and the gifted by enriching the program. Social and emotional challenges are also addressed.

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Engaging children in artful writing for a healthy academic growth

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Children use their body to communicate actions from Day One. A precursor to writing is how children use their hands.

When given a large paper and a large crayon, toddlers scribble with the action coming from the shoulder. The end result will be wide circles and lines spread over the whole paper. The fine muscles of the fingers are not strong enough to help children control the crayon. Soon later, children hold the crayon in their fist and the writing is coming from the wrist. With maturity and practice, children hold the crayon with their fingers bringing the position of the crayon similar to the adult grip.

To help children with the writing process, parents and teachers can:

Provide papers and non-toxic large crayons for children to practise as they might bite into them. Do not shame children when they attempt writing on the wall or books. Instead, provide materials and let children know that there is material and space for them to experiment.

Show interest in what the child is doing and provide short and positive feedback. Do not push children to explain themselves if they don’t wish to.

Keep a sample of children’s work with dates in order to track the progress of the child.

Share with children stories with illustrations and give them enough time to explore both letters and illustrations.

Watch for the moment when children start conveying meaning to the drawing. This is the beginning of meaningful writing. For example, although the adult cannot see a rabbit among the lines, accept the child’s interpretation of the drawing as a rabbit running around.

One last benchmark is when the child realises that the letters hold a meaning. It is then when they start paying attention to the letters around them and the journey of alphabet learning begins.

The process of writing development needs to be smooth as children progress at their own pace. Forcing the child to write prematurely or shaming the child will have negative consequences both academically and emotionally. They could hate school before they even start.

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How can parents and teachers facilitate children’s conversations?

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Children learn very early in life that language helps them communicate their needs and interests to other people around them.

How can parents and teachers facilitate conversations?

Firstly, when parents or teachers notice that children are engaged in a deep conversation, they should consider whether it is worth to interrupt the children in order to move to a different activity. It is more respectful to give children notice and time to bring the conversation to a closure.

Secondly, parents and teachers need to provide opportunities for children to engage in different types of groupings.

Children need to learn to share ideas, to listen, and to voice disagreements in different situations. They also need to learn to take turns in one to one conversations as well as in large groups where the waiting time could be longer.

Children could be grouped by same or mixed age, gender, ability, or interest. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type and children could contribute differently to each type.

Parents and teachers need to expose children to situations where different types of groupings are taking place. They need to note of what is working and to draw strategies to strengthen the groupings that are not functioning well. For example, groupings based on gender are also based on interests. Teachers and parents need to plan experiences where girls and boys are engaged in non-stereotypical activities with children of same or mixed gender.

As children grow up in a global world, they will encounter all sorts of groupings and need to engage in the different scenarios successfully. The early years help set the path to success.

For further reading, refer to:

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2015). Programming and planning in early childhood settings (6th ed.). Victoria, Australia: Cengage Learning.

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Smiling in the face of life: How parents and teachers can help children grow up happy

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In a world full of complexities, it is important to teach positive life skills in the early years. One way teachers and parents could enhance positivity in children is to engage them in simple and fun activities.

Teachers and parents could:

  • Help children to verbalise their feelings and to find solutions to daily problems.
  • Give children projects to work out in groups and have them come up with ideas together.
  • Assign individual activities to the children who work better alone.
  • Ask children to share funny events or stories and record the stories for future reading.
  • Acknowledge situations where children might feel helpless and provide preventive actions in advance. For example, transitions from home to child care or from child care to school can be alleviated by having parents discuss what is going to happen, visit the place, and give the child time to ease into the new environment. The same applies to field trips where locations are unknown to children.
  • Initiate the use of short sentences around happiness and smiles where all children can participate and remember the sentences for later use. One such activity is to start by saying:

Take life with a smile.
Take the day with a smile.
Take breakfast with a smile.
Then ask children to continue adding sentences about school or home activities. They could add:
Take food with a smile.
Take play with a smile.
Take puzzles with a smile.
Take story reading with a smile …

and so on until children remember most activities they engage in. Children can be asked to make their own song, story, or drawing around smiling.

  • Write reminders such as: The more we smile … The more life will smile back…

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How can schools stop bullying and what could children do?

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Bullies target a person with the intent of harming physically, emotionally, or socially. Bullying is rarely innocent and happens for a variety of reasons. The presence of the bullied person is not welcome and he/she must pay for being different and is made to feel that he/she will not belong easily if at all.

Bully Stoppers is an online resource that includes learning modules and advice sheets to help students, parents, teachers, and principles address and prevent bullying. The following is drawn from that reference.

Children who are bullied could do any of the following:

  • Tell someone they trust and write down the actions with dates and times.
  • Ask for help: Targeted children need to ask for advice on how to address the issue.
  • Confront the bully(ies) confidently if it is safe to do so alone or ask a friend to accompany them.
  • Think of the people who love and support them and draw strength from this.
  • Accept that we should not please people at the expense of what we like, who we are, or what is better for us.
  • Avoid being intimidated by the bullies by ignoring them.
  • Not internalise the negative outcomes intended by the bullies and understand that it is not their fault that they are targeted.
  • Avoid retaliating from the bully(ies) as this tactic rarely works.
  • Engage in activities in and outside school that help develop fulfilment and positive self-worth.
  • Befriend children who are supportive.

Unfortunately, the topic is rarely resolved on its own. Schools have an important role to play in building healthy social networks on the school grounds so children grow up to become successful members of their societies and the world. Teachers and principals need to be part of the solution by establishing anti-bullying programs in schools. Empowering each child is the first step.

Reference:

State Government of Victoria. Department of Education and Training. (2019). I’m being bullied. Retrieved from  https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/students/health/Pages/studentbullied.aspx

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