Socialization among groups--Observation at the museum

Many times when I speak with individuals about the importance of providing certain experiences to your infant/toddler people say... oh she is too young. Unfortunately most of the comments come from one group.


Yesterday I took my son to a museum and I observed the interactions between different cultural groups. It was rather interesting. A Black woman with her 6 year old daughter, a White woman with her 5 year old son. I paint this picture to demonstrate a point.

There were a few children in the area we were in. As I interacted with my son there were 2 other parents with their children playing in the water. The Black mother was focused on her cell phone. The White mother was in her own world. I was interacting with my son asking him which item he wanted to play with.

Outings are an opportunity for your child and you to socialize but also a time for you to interact with your child within another environment; do not consistently interrupt they play time as you want to see what she does.

The little boy had a truck my son wanted to play with and my son was trying to take the truck, I explained to him that the little boy was taking a turn and I guided Ajani to another toy. The boy's mother offered Ajani another toy as well but I was able to distract him for a moment.


The Asian family was interacting with their children (ages: 2, 3, 12 months old); Ajani sat next to one of the children and the father told the son to say "hi" Ajani and I told Ajani say "hi" and they both did.

This is an example of socialization, too many times as our children get older they only interact with their immediate family or their own cultural group. As the children move on to higher grades even college socialization is a major challenge, I know because I've recently spoken to several young people in college and they said one of the biggest challenges was socialization, not knowing how to interact with other cultural groups because growing up they remained around their own cultural group.

Please keep this in mind they next time you take your child out to a family/child friendly outing with other parents and children your child's age.

 

Social Emotional School Readiness

First 2000 days-Social emotional school readiness

It is getting close to beginning of the school year. You are looking for childcare it maybe a provider mother (small setting in a home) or a center base environment or  a baby sitter. Quality care is very important  and it begins with the caregiver being  trained in infant/toddler care and child development. The ages of  0-3 are the most critical years  brain development and this period should be nurtured. It is very important for young children to have developmental toys, they must be allowed to explore . Their care giver must understand what are social emotional school readiness skills and how to help an infant/toddler develop those skills. You as the parent or primary care giver must also help the child at home .  It does not take a long time to teach these skills. Here are the skills :

·         Confidence- A sense of control and mastery of one’s body, behavior and the world; the child sense that she is more likely than not to succeed at what she undertakes, and that adults will be helpful.

·         Curiosity- The sense that finding out about things is positive and leads to pleasure

·         Intentionality- The wish and capacity to have an impact and to act upon that with persistence (this is clearly related to a sense of competence of being effective).

·         Self-control- The ability to engage with others based on the sense of being understood by and understanding others

·         Capacity to communicate- The wish and ability to verbally exchange ideas, feelings and concepts with others. This is related to a sense of trust in others and of pleasure in engaging with others, including adults.

·         Co-cooperativeness-The ability to balance one’s own needs with others in a group activity.

Children who lack these skills before they get to school will   have a difficult time catching up. Development is a process that occurs in stages and when a stage is missed it is very hard to revert to it.
  As a parent it is very important that you are aware of what your infant/toddler needs for school. You should be educating yourself also. There are many things that you can do at  home to your infant/toddler to develop the social emotion school readiness skills.
You should try not to have more than one caregiver for your infant/toddler because positive relationship is a what helps to build a healthy brain

Culture - socialization

It is very important that you expose yourself and your infant/toddler to different cultures.

This is a great event that I  usually attend and I will be going on Sunday. Check it out.

www.shinnecocknation.org/powwow

Hakame! Welcome to The Shinnecock Indian Nation, a continuously self-governing tribe residing along the shores of Eastern Long Island for thousands of years

Emotional Development

Emotional development for  child under 3 years old- The refers to the child's ability to recognize, express and manage their feelings and to understand and respond to the feelings of others. A child needs to  express a full range of emotions -from joy to sadness to frustration and anger, in a  healthy and appropriate ways , this is called self regulation this process begins in infancy and as you guide the child they will get better by the time they are three years old.
How your child feels about herself-  whether she likes herself and thinks that she can succeed at what she tries is a major part of emotional development.

Socil emotionl development 18-36 mos

Your toddler should be able to establish a relationship with other adults other than her family members or her primary care giver. That is one of the reason why you should have one baby sitter for the child or try to have the infant in the same daycare for at least the first three years. Continuity of care helps toddlers  learn how to build relationships. It makes them feel safe .

They will begin to imitate adult activities like sweeping, moping , wiping up spills  and reading. You must have these  materials available  for your toddler in order for her to get the  experience. All these experiences are pre-writing skills ,fine motor development .

In order for a child to be ready for  writing her fine muscles must be developed and that time and experience. Allowing your infant/toddler to wipe up spills develops her wrist muscles, using a broom (buy a small boom) allows the  infant/toddler to develop her finger muscles and arm muscles, sweeping also helps with eye hand coordination. These skills are need for school.

Concepts-- The alphabet

 Young children learn through repetition and practice. Introducing concepts to your baby early allows her time to process them and there is no pressure therefore learning becomes fun. My 23 month old grandson has been listening to the alphabet song  for  a while, on TV (educational DVD and age appropriate TV programs), and CDS  when he reads he calls everything P . We made him a P from card board and gave it to him.

The letter P is now a part of his play items he is able to not only say it but feel it ,see it  ,observe the shape etc. You  should not introduce the alphabet to children in order. By having the letter to manipulate the form of the letter will be imprinted in section of the brain that controls written language.

Making decisions

Your child is able to make decisions at an early age but you must be in tune with your child in order to give her the opportunity to make decisions. A good example is during feeding time you give your child a mean and she pushes it away although she had it before. You should try something else because your child is communication to you that she  is not in the mood for  that meal. This is called "being in tune".