Thinking, Feeling, Believing

We rarely hear about all the important and excessively wonderful work that is done for children by adults in early childhood settings. This is not to say that bad things don’t happen, but I venture to guess that there are many more positive scenarios than negative ones.

“The Mind, Heart, and Soul of Early Childhood Education” emerges from the fact that excellence in the care and education of young children is rooted in the caregiver’s ability and motivation to THINK ALL THE TIME and continue learning about young children and how they grow and learn.

Caregivers also need to recognize that their FEELINGS about the children in their care, need to be examined on a moment-to-moment basis. Adults need to connect with children throughout every scenario that occurs. Caregivers must BELIEVE that the children, parents, and community they serve are critically important to the process of lifelong learning that grows from positive consistency, caring, respect, and knowledge.

0-4 Year Olds:

A daycare center that serves children 0-4 years old is a wonderland of development. It’s all there!! Walk from one room to the other or observe young to older and just marvel at the growth and development that is happening. It’s just amazing! From infants, totally dependent on the adult caregivers to the ‘big kids’ who are conversing, asking questions, advancing their small and large motor skills, thinking on their own and putting their imagination and creativity into first gear. And the ‘inbetweeners’ 6 months to 3 years who are in the throws of trying to figure out who they are in relationship to the rest of ‘their’ world (actually we never stop doing that, but it’s at it’s height during these ‘wonder’ years).

Erik Erickson’s 8 Stages of  Psychosocial Development chart is a good beginning and a necessary resource for all early childhood caregivers and educators. View chart here.

What do we think about and what do we need to know when caring for the youngest children? It is critical to know that these little ones are human beings that are unique and learning every moment of every day. We need to feel their emotional reactions as they explore their environment. Everything stimulates learning and reaction. Every movement, every vocal utterance, every focal point is a learning opportunity. In order to encourage positive and happy development and growth, caregivers need to connect with the child’s thinking, feeling and beliefs. Infants have all of these!

 If a very young child is crying and a caregiver says and believes that the child is crying for no reason, (that is something that should never be uttered by a caregiver.) Children cry, especially at a very young age, for a variety of reasons. We may not understand what the reasons are, but they are real. Maybe it’s hunger, or feeling discomfort, or wanting to be held and cuddled, or just expressing themselves through their new found ‘voice’. What ever it is, it’s real and you must believe that child so that you can attend to that feeling in a positive and helpful fashion.

As the infant develops, other sounds will emerge-coos, grunts, ‘raspberries’, squeaks, repetitive sounds that eventually turn into the most important words you want to hear: mama, dada, hi, bye, and that precious first smile and first real laugh! If the caregiver doesn’t cherish all of these developments and BELIEVE the child is purposefully becoming closer to adulthood, then the child is not going to be encouraged to keep on experimenting and discovering who they are and what they can accomplish.

If you celebrate almost everything that developing children do, you recognize them as accomplishments. This is true for typical and atypical children. How critical is it that adults purposefully engage young children with thoughts and actions that are positive and nurturing? It is what we must do if we want to call ourselves excellent caregivers and educators.