The early learning years
Dr Sheikh Arshid Ahmad
The early years of toddler are the most significant years for enjoying the life as alongside physical, emotional and mental development also takes place. The all-round developments that emerge in early years of age are the pre-requisites for later successes and developing the cognitive processes in learning at school.
Early education is provided in any of the settings such as Anganwadis, Nursery Schools, Preschools, Preparatory Schools, Kindergartens located in government as well private sector. Vision of preschooling educational sectors is to access the learning opportunities of the babies through funny and enjoyable activities.
The stages where parents enroll their wards are at the age of 3-5 or 4-6 can be ensured that teachers can provide them an ethically supportive, child oriented, stimulating learning environment. It helps an enrolled individual to be potential by creating strong foundations in the learning through play and developmentally appropriate practices.
It also intends to develop healthy attitude, good values, skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, technology, literacy and socio-emotional development. It also ensures smooth transition from preschool to primary school and upper standards thus, enabling children for productive and satisfying life in future.
The toddler is real allurement for a man in this world. They come in the world filled with curiosity about the people, objects, and places they encounter. They take every activity of their beginning in funny and enjoyable ways. Daily routines like feeding, diaper-changing, and bath time offer toddler especially rich opportunities to have fun, connect and bond with loved ones, and figure out how the world works through the eyes of their parents.
Important early learning skills get their start through daily activities and often these activities trespass between the babies and adults. Adults in the family with reading books sitting together with toddlers creates a bridge for the toddlers to learn different things through different communication ways along with some expressions, and gestures, are the ways to lead a solid foundation in literacy and language skills.
Babies live in the loved and nurtured environment by parents and other adults, after leaving this kind of environment the toddlers get enrolled in the different preschool locations. Based on observations the toddlers learn to think and to puzzle out an interesting problem, by using their senses to play and explore the world around them.
The babies who are enrolled in the school before 5 years age, they are reluctant to learn on their own based on their interest. Their memory is not so developed to grasp every direction of the teacher as their every kind of freedom has been snatched and it looks they have been grilled and even forced and involved in the learning activities devoid of fun and excitement, which results into their low performance in the formal classes and other curriculum activities in the class. The babies are pushed to learn concepts before they are ready themselves to learn and their overall development shows number of lacunas or makes them dull in school. In fact, the parents can even make children feel like failures when they are pushed to learn by force.
In recent past, an observation was made that not so long ago, a friend of mine asked me whether he plans to send his toddler at the age of 5 to school. It seems that everybody has admitted his ward at very late stage but the question didn’t surprise me at all. Delaying his ward’s entrance in kindergarten by two years is uncommon by any parent. His plan to admit his ward late wag every body’s tongue and likely suggesting that the ward should have been admitted at the very youngest age 3 to 4 that usually parents do. Something positive I’ve come to see could actually be a positive thing for his academic performance.
At the first sight, when I personally interact with the toddler of my friend, I supposed him to do the nursery paper even he was blank of pre-nursery class. All of a sudden he did the nursery paper with 100 percent marks and it is a mesmerizing moment that in the same classes some of the students weren’t able to attempt the paper 100 percent. This seems as he has prepared thoroughly through teaching skills in the kindergarten but actually this is the case.
After finishing exams I have seen this toddler roaming in the school with LKG books and an idea popped into my mind that his father has made a plan to admit him in the LKG class. Here are a few things I’ve learned from this toddler that he came to me with the LKG books and he started to read the books in a nice way and clearly learnt each and every thing through different angles without a bad stuck.
This has propelled new thought into my mind that why not we admit this ward in the UKG class and interestingly his father has already purchased the books of UKG class and likely to be admitted in the upper grades of kindergarten.
He was interested in the academic aspect of the school very well but neither of us has given any interest or any instruction academically. His parents would have thought that if he went to school, he would be the kid who would get in trouble for not sitting and listening but the scenario has changed differently that the toddler of my friend has geared up in the learning processes of the school very fast and all his instinct cognitive abilities have unfolded.
I think most kids are going to adapt nicely into kindergarten who would have admitted at their late stage ie above age of 4 and have been run as smoothly in academics and enjoying every moment of their life with fun and excitement.
In retrospect, the kids who have been admitted before two years of age no doubt they have shown better performances in academics but their early childhood stage of enjoyment and liberation have been grilled with burden of uninterested activities.
So children who been admitted two years later have developed the social, physical, and rudimentary academic skills. The parents who are showing urgency in admission, they may face big challenges ahead in their life.
As a parent, pay special attention towards your child and encourage him/her with confidence and trust and give them the support that can shoulder their responsibilities in good perspective.
(The author writes on social and other issues. He hails from Kuchmullah Tral)
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