Relationships in Early Childhood

Introduction

It is believed that, all aspects of adult human capital – from work force skills to cooperative and lawful behavior, build on capacities that are developed during childhood and begins at birth. Therefore, when the government invests wisely in children and families, the next generation will pay that back through a lifetime productivity and responsible citizenship. This idea is possible if there is a good foundation of education and learning in the early childhood.

Young Children’s Education

Children, as we all know, are yearning to try everything and trying to learn something new from their own experiences. In this attitude, the childcare providers and early educators or teachers are seeking for help in managing the problematic behavior in young children and the serious attention is what the entire teacher should do. The investment in qualified professionals needs to address the different behavioral and mental needs among young children (Shankoff, 2009). The expanded opportunities for professional training, strong approach to work with young children and their parents, and the promotion of consulting relationships between early childhood and the preschool teachers are the ways in accessing the knowledge to the young children (NSCDC, 2007). The early care and education settings are basically part of parenthood but nowadays, both parents seeks an opportunity to provide improvements on their child in asking for the help of the early childhood educators. Educators, on the other hand, are eligible for employment at many levels in the diverse care and education programs for they are matched with the knowledge regarding the child development and best practices.

Teachers on Children’s Early Care and Education

Educators are expected to provide quality service in the care, development, and education of children in early care and education settings. They create appropriate learning environment for young children in early education and assessing the development of children for the purposes of pedagogical planning and implementation. Educators’ best practice was demonstrated in the knowledge and guidance and recognizing the importance of early childhood as a unique time in children’s development that requires specialized developmentally appropriate activities offered to children in the early care and education setting. In addition, teachers should recognize and respect the diversity of children and families in the early care and education program (Malaret, 20009).

But the most important thing is that, teacher should also understand the problems among young children through an increased awareness of problems of young children and recognize the importance of environment and relationships of a teacher and the young students. Moreover, the relationship between healthy social and emotional development should be given an emphasis to achieve the success in delivering the knowledge in young children.

The recognized issues that might contribute in preventing the educators in engaging with the young children are the lack of trained personnel, stigma, communication barriers, changing practices, lack of ongoing support to the educators, allocation of limited access to higher education, and the needs for evidence-based models and training approaches. In order to provide quality education on young children, educators must raise their awareness, test new pedagogical approaches, develop cross training initiatives, build collaborative approaches, identify the existing services or programs that might help establish a strong ground in teaching, and involve families and childcare community (Perry, 2006).

Leadership

Teachers are bound to follow the curriculum changes and implement the pedagogical approach. The only problem that may arise in the pedagogical force in leadership is that the teacher should create his new channel of communication to satisfy the new curriculum approach. Moreover, teachers as a leader, has administrative work which contributes in the weak interactions of the teacher to the young children. Their advocacy to deliver the education is important to create and sustain the high quality education. As a matter of fact, to support the duties performed by the teachers, they are also a main contributor of learning outcomes in the community and at the same time, teachers are also asking for the collaboration of the community in fostering the early childhood education. The concept of a teacher in leading the young children towards education came from their educational experiences and therefore, supports the learning and development, and ensuring ongoing academic success in elementary school (Graduate School of Education, 2006 and Shonkoff, 2009).

Conclusion

The continuous development of the relationship between an educator and the young children is a good indication that there is a great connection in accessing the knowledge in a way that the children find it meaningful. The educators serve as the second-parent and they should handle the young children in a unique way. The educators should develop their own approach in childhood education as the beginning of another pedagogical innovation in collaboration with the environment and in community

References:

Graduate School of Education, 2006. Toward a Unified System of Early Childhood Teacher Education and Professional Development: Conversations with Stakeholders. [Online] Available at: http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/TowardAUnifiedSystem.pdf. [Accessed 13 Jan 2010].

Malaret, J., 2009. Early Childhood Education (ECE). [Online] Available at: http://www.scc.losrios.edu/Documents/catalog/programs/ECE.pdf. [Accessed 13 Jan 2010].

NSCDC, 2007. The Science of Early Childhood Development: Closing the Gap Between What We Know and What We Do, National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. [Online] Available at: http://www.whiteearthchildcare.com/pdf%20links/Science_Early_Childhood_Development.pdf. [Accessed 13 Jan 2010].

Perry, D., 2006. Infusing Mental Health Services and Supports in Early Childhood Settings. [Online] Available at: www.in.gov/isdh/files/IN-ECCS.ppt. [Accessed 13 Jan 2010].

Shonkoff, J., 2009. Investment in Early Childhood Development Lays the Foundation for a Prosperous and Sustainable Society. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. [Online] Available at: http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/pages/PDF/ShonkoffANGxp.pdf. [Accessed 13 Jan 2010].