Unit 7: Caring for Elementary School Children
The school-age child is taking giant steps toward maturity. For the first time a large part of their lives is separate from parents and child care providers. They will spend half of their waking hours in the classroom and school yard.
While anxious to please the adults in their lives, school-age children are even more concerned with acceptance and approval by their new peer group.
Their peer group will have an important influence on their interests, behaviours and values.
Young school-age children are usually interested in real life tasks and activities. Pretend and fantasy play can lessen considerably. School-age children want to make “real” cakes, take “real” photographs, and create “real” collections of treasured items.
Child development is influenced by:
- Genetics (inherited features)
- Environment (cultural and family related child rearing practices, political views, economic status, physical living environment, friends, community, etc.)
- Temperament (individual nature of the child)
Child care settings and child care providers are part of the environment and have a large impact on the child’s development.
Child care providers work with three major areas of child development and with basic assumptions about development.
Three major areas of development:
- Physical – body, movement, motor skills (small and large)
- Social/Emotional – interaction, relationships, feelings, self-esteem
- Cognitive – intellectual, thinking , problem-solving skills, learning, language
Basic assumptions about child development:
- There are basic needs common to all human beings. Children need to feel loved, secure, accepted, encouraged. They also need a sense of accomplishment and a chance to learn and explore.
- Development occurs in stages and in a predictable sequence.
- Children are not all alike. Normal development includes broad individual variations.
- Children have a perspective all their own. They see and understand the world differently than adults. Therefore, to understand children and their behaviour, adults must observe them carefully, take them seriously, and try to see the world from their perspective.
- Children learn through play.
- Children are dependent on the adults in their lives. To understand the child, it is helpful to know about the personal, social, and cultural characteristics of their family members.
- Each theory of human development and behaviour is based on a particular set of assumptions and values. It is important to identify the theoretical perspective being used to explain a child’s development and behaviour.
Source: Elizabeth Jones, Teaching Adults: An Active Learning Approach, NAEYC, 1986.
Learning about each child’s characteristic (temperament, preferences, family life, culture, etc.) and the stage of his or her development helps adults enormously in providing an environment that fosters trust, security and comfort. Adults, who take the time to offer developmentally appropriate verbal explanations and guidance, help children to gain confidence, competence and social problem-solving skills.