Learning

Early Childhood Learning Uncovered: Expert Tips For A Strong Start!

Answered by Team ParentCircle

Early childhood educator Padma Srinath shares her insights on preschool learning, social skills, language development, and effective home tutoring for young children. She also gives tips for working parents on fostering creativity and balancing screen time to support holistic child development.

• Q. My 3-year-old had just started preschool. While I do enjoy teaching her, I don't have a lot of time (working from home and taking care of our daughter hasn't been easy). Given the situation, I would like to know how we can use this time to teach skills to our preschooler. Is there any activity we shouldn't miss? Also, can you suggest some resources that my daughter can use to self-learn?
  Archana, Bengaluru

You are in the same situation as many others. Timings of working mothers clash with the time that is good for a child as well. Because you have used the term self-learn, I must tell you there are plenty of options. Provide your child with a set of blocks (around 50 to 60 pieces of assorted shapes and sizes), a home-play situation (e.g., toy kitchen set), puppets, animals, creative music-making toys, appropriate puzzles, and homemade play dough. These are all excellent ways to keep your child occupied. Anything that engages her hands and legs, such as a tricycle would greatly help her.

It's also important to tell your child that you have some office-related responsibilities and that you'll play with her after finishing your work. But make sure you and your child spend at least an hour a day doing shared activities. Also, talk to her a lot and share whatever you can, even when you're working.

Critical things your child should do every day include:

• Large muscle and small muscle activities
• Chatting
• Listening to a story (narrated or read, or better, both)

Q. I have heard that developing social skills during early childhood is important. How do I develop my daughter's communication skills? My child is 2.5 years old. She connects with the extended family virtually regularly, but we try to limit it because we don't want to give her too much screen time.
Deepa, Bhopal

You are right. Social skills are very important right from infancy. What is important for you to know is that young children under 3 years can be happy with their parents and neighbors. Stuffed toys can be of great help as can puppets. If there's a pet at home, even better. Please narrate a lot of age-appropriate stories to your child, this will bring alive the characters and alleviate the situation to an extent. Choose regular activities like feeding stray animals, crows, and so on, this will keep the sense of inclusivity alive. Pretend play is good, too. Be her friend for an hour or so. Let her dress up, let her play with her toys making them her social group with whom she sings, jumps, and so on. You can keep your child virtually connected with your extended family, but limit it to a few minutes daily. Be present during such interactions and make sure it is a two-way communication between your child and the person on the other end.

Q. My 3-year-old is very interested in science. He wants to know why oil floats on water, why things fall, and so on. And he loves math. He can add, subtract, multiply, and divide mentally. However, he isn't keen on activities such as coloring, crafts, or social interactions. (He has taken after his father, who prefers math and science to anything else.) Can I let my son be? Or should I continuously make efforts to get him interested in other activities?
Fiona, Delhi

While it's great that your child has an inquiring mind and is fascinated by numbers and computation, children also need other skills for holistic development. Read stories that have math- or science-related approaches, but are stories all the same. Help your child explore the social aspects of these stories, and bring in a bit of history or geography. Ask him to create his own story that involves people, places, and cultural elements. Also, he must indulge in large and small muscle activities, and socialize by participating in group games.

How can you use his strengths to get him interested in other activities? For social skills, consider having his friends over and getting him involved in a fun science activity or Lego team-building games. You can also talk to your son about the physics behind kicking a ball or bouncing a ball to get him to play ball, make him do arts and crafts around science and math, try to interlink hopscotch and simple math and introduce lots of wooden block play, 3D construction projects and DIY activities like complex origami. Arvind Gupta has some excellent stuff online for free (http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/).

I would suggest you refrain from speaking too much in his presence about his accomplishments in math and science. A child loves to hear praise from his parents. But when it's overdone, he won't participate in other activities. So, while you appreciate his science and math skills, encourage his social skills as well.

Q. My 3-year-old enjoys listening to stories when I narrate them in our mother tongue, Malayalam. But when I read out English storybooks to him, he loses interest. I think this is because he is unfamiliar with the English language. Should we start talking to him in English, in addition to Malayalam? Before he starts kindergarten, should he be reasonably comfortable with English?
Parshu, Mumbai

Language is absorbed by a child and accepted when they can make sense of what is being said. It doesn't begin with a long string of words read together from a book. Being multilingual is great for brain development. Talk and share stories in your mother tongue, as he is most comfortable with it. It helps in comprehension, imagination, and critical thinking.

To introduce English, start with simple interactions such as, "Come, let's have dinner", "Please bring me my handbag", and "Wow, what a lovely painting you have made!" Replace some of the Malayalam words with English ones in a story. For example, instead of "Ammachi yenda paraiyunnu?", you can say "What is Ammachi" saying? Say something in your mother tongue and repeat it in English. Have them respond in English when you read a story in Malayalam.

You can also get a few bilingual books, and read the stories in Malayalam and then in English. Compliment your child in English. More than speaking to him in English, if he hears people at home conversing in English, he will pick up the language. Your son is just 3 years old, don't stress over school demands.

Q. I am excited about home-tutoring my 2.5-year-old. But I have a few queries. How much time in a day should I devote to teaching and how much time should I set aside for free play? Can I use videos to teach? If so, how much screen time should I allow my daughter? What are the things she needs to learn before kindergarten?
Sakshi, Chennai

First of all, it's lovely to hear that you're excited about home tutoring! Here are the answers to your questions. First, I wonder at the phrase, teaching a child. We engage with our children and incidentally, they learn from experience. There's no fixed time, learning is a continuum. Free play is the best content for a child's multifaceted learning.

At 2.5 years, stories, songs, dance, picture books, rhymes, hand and physical activities for large and small muscle engagement, doing household tasks (e.g., setting a table or bringing vegetables for mama/papa to cut), and playing with parents are all excellent activities. You can also help your child work on her listening, vocabulary, and numeracy skills. My suggestion would be to let your child's interests lead you. As for screen time, I think it is best discussed with your child's pediatrician.

Q. My 3.5-year-old refuses to sit down to learn or read. How can I get him to show interest in learning?
Vineet, Kolkata

Every child, a 3.5-year-old as well, is learning all the time! If you express amazement when your child displays his learning, learning will enthuse him. This learning can be anything, putting his footwear in place, finding daddy's glasses, bringing three tomatoes from the fridge, and so on. Many children learn on the move, though the idea of a designated space is good. Show him how we have specific spaces for certain activities, a kitchen for cooking, a dining table for eating, shelves for books, and so on.

Congratulate him with a hug and exclaim with joy when he sits down to learn, even if for a few seconds. Make sure everyone in the family praises him. However, I insist that learning doesn't occur at a specific time or place. Play and listening offer far more learning content than a structured syllabus. Observe your child and let learning be child-led before it's decided by an adult.

Also Read:

Early Play Skills In Infancy And Its Importance

The Benefits Of Play In Early Childhood Development

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