Child Care Development - What All Carers Should Know
As longer hours are spent by children in child care facilities, it is important for administrators of these centers to be more diligent in looking into their programs for child care development.
Essential to a child's development are the approaches that a facility takes in his learning.
Aside from the physical factors crucial to his progress, the child must also be emotionally, intellectually, and socially stimulated.
What types of development should be nurtured in child care centers? Child care development comes in various forms.
One is social development, to which child care facilities may greatly contribute if well-planned activities are properly implemented.
When a child is in a day care center, for instance, he is constantly around other children, with whom he plays, works, and eats.
The child also learns how to deal with adults - in this case teachers, volunteers, or caregivers who need to be well-trained in child care development.
When these professionals show care and concern for their wards, the children react positively and would enjoy their stay in child care facilities more.
Child care development in these facilities also comes in the form of emotional maturity.
As children interact with kids of various cultural, ethnic, social, and economic backgrounds, they obtain a deeper understanding of diversity and tolerance for others.
Another form of child care development that can be nurtured are language skills.
Even toddlers learn a lot by uttering seemingly nonsensical words, as these are the first steps to language development.
Children also take to singing naturally, which also helps in their linguistic learning.
Physical activities, a necessary program in almost all child care facilities, contribute to child care development in a variety of ways.
Motor skills, both fine and gross, are enhanced via free play, playground time, and individual work such as painting and playing with puzzles.
Moreover, child care development is at its best when the facility also offers feeding programs.
Balanced diets are essential for child care development because kids need proper nutrition in order to progress optimally.
When they are given nutritious food, they learn better and are less irritable or hyperactive.
There are many instances when child care development is not easily detected at first, but is manifested in the long term.
When there are enough activities to stimulate children's creativity and interactive skills, we can say that the facility satisfactorily fulfills its role in child care development.