Tag: parenting

Labelling Body and Facial Expressions

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

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 to help a child sleep better?

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

People go through 4 to 5 cycles of sleep per night with each cycle extending from 75 to 90 minutes. The cycle includes two main states, the Non Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) state and the REM sleep. The REM sleep is the last stage in the cycle and it is the stage where we dream.

It is important to go through REM and NREM to get the full benefits of sleep. Those include better memory, increased creative thinking abilities, and enhanced pathways between the left and right sides of the brain.

When we sleep, the body evaluates the information acquired during the day and decides what to keep for later use and what to discard. Storing the information in long term memory allows us to build on this experience to better sort out related issues. The process itself strengthens the neural connections in the brain.

What goes on before sleep plays a role in sorting out problems as well. One study found that thinking about a question before going to be induced dreams regarding the issue for half the participants and solutions for a quarter of them.

Sleepiness builds up during the day and is released when we sleep. If we don’t get enough sleep, we feel unable to make decisions that require a lot of focus. We are also prone to making mistakes in judgment due to a lack of full attention.

It is important to maintain consistent sleep routines, avoid using the computer the last hour before sleep, have the last heavy meal for the day at least 3 hours before sleep, and sleep in a dark and cool room.

Some children have issues going to bed and keep waking up through the night. The attached video covers states of sleep and factors related to sleep problems including if the child is a morning or an evening person. The video also includes ideas on what parents and educators could do to help the child sleep better.

For additional information, refer to:

Karman, M. (2023, July 15). How sleep improves and impairs creative thinking. Eachnight. https://eachnight.com/sleep/sleep-improves-impairs-creative-thinking/ .

Rethinking the NO in Guiding Children’s Behaviour

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

Have you ever asked yourself as a parent or as an educator why do you say NO when a child asks for something?

Rethinking the NO brings us to a journey inside ourselves where we need to be clear about our beliefs, values, and daily responses.

Firstly, with regards to beliefs, we need to consider the following: If we believe that children need guidance all the way through and that they are not able to take good decisions, this will make us react differently to children’s requests than if we believe that children want guidance to make the right decision themselves.

Giving guidance highlights that children have needs that they like to see fulfilled and are happy to learn from the people around them so there is a win win situation between the adult and the child.

A belief that children learn when adults enforce strong rules early on in life triggers a strict and firm response from the adult with little room for flexibility. The emphasis is on exerting an effort to prevent the child being spoiled.

What are your beliefs as a parent or as an educator?

Secondly, what are our values?

If we value respect from the child to the parent by all means, we don’t mind if the child fears us. We should be controlling and demand respect from the child regardless even if the respect is not in the child’s best interest.

On the other hand, if we value the rights of children to meet their needs, we respect this right and guide them towards fulfilling their needs in socially acceptable manner even if that means that the child could grow up different than us, the parent or the educator, and could be interested in different activities.

We have to be careful when we ask children to comply with our demands without any consideration for their opinion. This teaches them that the strong person should be followed and they could later follow an abuser out of fear and of a need to belong.

We want to gradually give the children control over their decisions and to release our power. More importantly, we want to be compassionate towards children. They make mistakes but that does not mean that they have evil intentions.

The ideal practice is to acknowledge the behaviour or misbehaviour that children engage in without defining the personality of the child based on that behaviour. We need to accept that children need to learn how to present their beliefs, values, and practices, and that there will be many attempts along the way prior to working out what conveys the need and the message and what doesn’t.

We want children to have a bank of constructive activities and behaviours instead of constantly reminding them of what is not working.

That is how we can help children grow into successful global citizens ready to explore and contribute to the future of humanity.

For further reading, refer to:

Porter, L. (2016). Guiding children’s behaviours. In M. Ebbeck, & M. Maniganayake (Eds.), Play in early childhood education: Learning in diverse contexts (2nd ed., pp. 161-182). Oxford University Press.

How do infants and toddlers socialize?

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

The infant learns what it means to socialize by interacting with family members and by engaging in activities with them.

Early on, the infant reacts to the adult’s smile and gestures by smiling back, by moving, or by vocalizing sounds. With time, the child not only reacts but also initiates social encounters even when the basic needs are taken care of.

For the socialization process to be successful, the infant needs to feel that the context is secure and safe to explore, to express own emotions, and to expect a positive response. The mother or caregiver provides the child with the emotional and physical supports to explore the surroundings thus facilitating the baby’s feeling that the world is safe to explore. Babies understand that they could refer back to the adult, if needed.

Babies experiment with their responses. By the second year, the gestures become more accurate. For example, toddlers would wave Goodbye to a person leaving. They also start to use different intonations of language for different social purposes. They learn to say “no” to assert their choices and to test how far they can get away not doing as told.

By the third year, toddlers get a refined sense of the adults’ thoughts and feelings. This skill strengthens their ability to know when it is better to respond to the adults’ requests and what could be negotiated. Toddlers are seeking to develop autonomy and independence as they go about exploring the world.

Infants and toddlers learn valuable social skills when they have siblings. As children can have different set of skills, they engage and negotiate with varying strengths. So, the rules of social play get constantly redefined. This is quite different than the interaction with the adult who models interactions with the infant in a more predictable manner.

Children who attend day care at an early age will have different levels of acceptance to the setting. This is dependent on their temperament, home interactions, and the characteristics of the caring environment. High quality service delivery ensures that the child is receiving adequate attention from a caregiver.

Peers provide social support for the toddler when there is consistency in the implementation of the rules. Parallel play is often the form where a child first engages in social interactions with another child. It starts with the children playing in close proximity to each other. This is followed by each child keeping an eye on what the other child is doing without necessarily engaging in play or initiating a verbal communication.

Children observe other peers and could imitate them. Role play is a powerful medium for children to practice the skills that they observed. This capacity will become more enhanced by 3 years of age.

As children grow older, they will engage in group play and will apply rules of successful interactions. From there begins a lifelong process of socializing that will take them to different people, places, and cultures. They will engage in a global world and develop the tools to successfully do so.

Reference:

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

 

BACK TO Global Education Posts

 

BACK TO Early Childhood Development Posts

 

HOME

Pregnancy and negative environmental factors

~ futureglobalchild ~ 1 Comment

The baby in the prenatal period is called Zygote in the first 2 weeks, embryo between weeks 3 and 8, and fetus, from the 3rd month onwards, between weeks 9 and 38. The age of the baby’s viability, where the baby would survive, starts between 22 and 26 weeks.

Berk (2013) discussed many elements or factors that could negatively impact the baby prior to birth. Hereditary factors might be hard to avoid but harmful environmental factors, or teratogens, need to be taken seriously.

The negative effect of the teratogen will be more significant if the organ, structure, or body part is going through a sensitive period of development.

As the effect can be damaging very early in the pregnancy, it becomes vital to avoid teratogens. The embryonic period, between 3 and 8 weeks, seems to be the period where teratogens can have the most impact.  As early as week 3, teratogens can have a major impact on the central nervous system, heart, upper and lower limbs, ears, and eyes. The sensitive period for ears, eyes, and the central nervous system continues. Damage could occur in other times but might be less harmful.

Pregnant mothers need to be very careful with prescribed, non-prescribed, and illegal drugs. The danger on the baby is paramount as drugs enter the placental barrier to the baby’s bloodstream.

The use of Aspirin has been debated with some studies relating its regular use by pregnant mothers to low birth weight. The use of illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin puts the baby at risk for addiction, prematurity, or even death around birth.

Alcohol consumption has been related to facial abnormalities and a slow physical growth.

Smoking has been related to low birth weight, miscarriage, prematurity, and heart malfunctioning. Low birth weight and prematurity were also related to the excessive consumption of cola, tea, coffee, and cocoa.

The dosage, timing, and length of consumption/exposure of the above teratogens lead to varied effects.

Other teratogens include prenatal malnutrition, radiation, mercury, lead, viruses such as rubella (German measles), toxoplasma parasite, and AIDS.

On the other hand, a balanced nutrition and a healthy physical activity were related to increased birth weight. The Apgar Scale is used to assess the newborn’s appearance, pulse, grimace, activity, and respiration.

Caring for children before birth gives them a strong start in life. In a complex world, the best thing we could offer a child is the road to success. Prenatal care sets the way.

Reference:
Berk, L. E. (2013). Child development (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

 

BACK TO Global Education Posts

 

BACK TO Early Childhood Development Posts

 

HOME

How can educators support children’s resilience?

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

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.

BACK TO Global Education Posts

 

BACK TO Early Childhood Development Posts

 

HOME

E-Safety for Young children Using the Internet

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

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.

 

HOME

What is the minimum of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep expected for children under 5?

~ futureglobalchild ~ Leave a comment

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2019) issued guidelines for physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep for children under five years old. A summary of the information in a 24-hour day follows.

Activity Infants less than 1 year old Children/toddlers 1 to 2 years of age Children 3 to 4 years of age
Physical activity – At least 30 minutes on tummy with unrestricted movement

– Interactive floor based play

 – At least 180 minutes throughout the day including moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity – At least 180 minutes throughout the day.

– At least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity.
Restrained movement: Unable to move freely Not more than one hour at a time – Not more than one hour at a time.

– No sitting for extended periods of time.

 – Not more than one hour at a time.

– No sitting for more than one hour at a time.
Screen time: Passively watching screen-based entertainment Not recommended – 1 to 2 years: Not recommended

– 2 to 3 years: No more than one hour

 No more than one hour
Good quality sleep

(both night and daytime naps)

 – 0 to 3 months: 14-17 hours

– 4 to 11 months: 12-16 hours

 11-14 hours 10-13 hours

Reference:
World Health Organization. (2019). WHO guidelines on physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep for children under 5 years of age. Geneva: Author. Retrieved from https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/311664/9789241550536-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

HOME