Child psychology, the visa to pre-school teaching

Ajith PERERA

Skills are as important a book knowledge and that should be developed through life skills subjects. Children should be made aware of the need of the good physical and mental health for education and social well being. Teacher and the parents should know that children need to listen to children’s songs, stories an poems for mental growth. Balanced diets especially with grains, green vegetables and fruits make the little ones strong. They need to be made aware that mental and physical health is a treasure.

Though these are broader areas, if the teacher works with the parents collectively while using her knowledge on child psychology, she can do wonders in her teaching and guiding her children. Teacher can encourage parents to organize health program such as making herbal porridge at least twice a week in the pre-school. Children should be brought closer to healthy natural food rather than fast food that make them sick at the end.

Learning situations

Teacher should be the organizer of the learning situations. Whatever she does with her children and wherever she is with her children she should make it a learning situation for her kids. She too should also be like a hen who keeps her chicks under her wings and around her organizes a lot of learning situations. Children need to know more and more. They have questions one after the other. Clever teacher has answers for all their questions. The only support she has is her montessori education and knowledge on child psychology. Otherwise she will have to deviate from their questioning.

That must not be done because the children have the right to know. The teacher is in the garden with her kids to teach them a rhyme. One sees a squirrel and shows the others too an all enjoy how the squirrel eats a fruit. If the teacher asks the children not to look at the squirrel but listen to her song, children prefer to see what the squirrel is doing.

Clever teacher should stop teaching her rhyme for a moment and ask all the kids to see how the squirrel sits an eats the fruit. She can create a wonderful learning situation. Children should know how animals behave an also they should be nature friendly and nature lovers. Later when every child is satisfied, the teacher can start teaching the rhyme.

Pre-school teacher who deals with the children who are different to each other should read more on child psychology without limiting her knowledge to what she learnt during her training. She has to up date her knowledge on profession to render a yeoman service to the nation.