EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT

Lesson 12: Early childhood Education Center

Objectives of Early Childhood Education center

1. To develop good physique, adequate muscular coordination and basic motor skills in the child: The ECE centre should provide activities for the development of large muscles as well as fine muscle coordination. Suitable out-door equipment for climbing, jumping, sliding, swinging, pedaling, etc should be provided. Through all these activities, children master the basic motor skills involving the large muscles. Similarly, it should also provide a lot of activities like tearing, cutting, pasting, drawing, painting, threading beads, etc. for the development of fine muscle co-ordination.
2. To develop good health habits and to build up basic skills necessary for personal adjustment: The ECE center should aim to develop good health habits and to build up basic skills necessary for personal adjustment such as dressing themselves, toileting, eating etc. In an ECE center, the children are taken to toilet and for washing hands at regular intervals. The children are encouraged to do their own work and be self-reliant.
3. To develop desirable social attitudes and manners: To develop desirable social attitudes and manners, ECE center should encourage healthy group participation by making the child sensitive to the rights and privileges of being a member of a social group and to encourage him to co-operate, share and take care of the property belonging to him as well as others.
4. To develop emotional maturity and guide the child to express, understand, accept his feelings and emotions: ECE center should help to develop emotional maturity by guiding the child to express, understand, accept and control his feelings and emotions. A child has very less emotional control when he comes to school. He often has temper tantrums, he can hardly wait for his turn. He is often unable to take a ‘No’. But by proper and careful handling by the teacher, he gains better emotional control by the time he leaves the school.
5. To encourage aesthetic appreciation in the child: To encourage aesthetic appreciation in the child. There may be many beautiful things around in the environment but unless the child’s attention is drawn to these they do not notice them. Children should be encouraged to appreciate beauty in the environment such as pretty flowers, colourful butterflies or a beautiful view.
6. To stimulate intellectual curiosity in the child concerning his environment: The child should understand the world in which he lives. A stimulating environment will help him to foster new interests through opportunities to explore, investigate and experiment. A young child is very curious and always asks questions. Unless his questions are answered his curiosity is not satisfied. A child can take in many things if they are properly explained to him. At the same time, the child should be encouraged to investigate, experiment and draw his own conclusions rather than remain satisfied with readymade answers.
7. To encourage creative self expression in the child: With the help of painting, music, drama or puppetry a child is encouraged to express himself in the school. He is helped to work on his own and create objects that are of his choice. The pent-up emotions, stress and strain are expressed by the child through such activities.
8. To develop the ability to express his thoughts and feelings in a fluent and clear speech: ECE center should help the child to develop the ability to express his thoughts and feelings in fluent, correct and clear speech. The language development of a child depends to a great extent on the opportunities he gets to use language or listen to correct speech. Through story-book reading, free conversation, puppet play, etc., new words are introduced to the children and these new words are used again and again till they become a part of their active vocabulary. The child is encouraged to talk in a group, describe his experiences and join on-the-spot story-making activity. It leads not only to the development of vocabulary but also develops correct and clear speech.