EARLY CHILDHOOD2 Introduction Early childhood is a human development stage which a child is aged three years. At this stage children become more aware of their physical stages of growth children experience from age three onwards. Except when a child has a disability of some kind, all children adapt to different stages of development at a closer pace if not the same. However different cultures have unique ways in which children are nurtured morally, emotionally, and intellectually. Parents are the first and most important teachers to their children. From a young age the children learn their language, environment, their culture and the world around them from the parent and close family members. Family culture is the first thing that a child learns from an early age and it involves various activities that the family engages in different occasions. Different families and cultures have different ways in which they express themselves around the world. Family cultures helps in developing a child’s way of life approach which as a result becomes a lifestyle which they can be identified with even into adulthood. Cultural values include how people express themselves in tangibles ways such dressing, language, music, food, furniture, and games. The culture also includes customs that the family engages in and values that the family uses to express themselves. These customs may include individual’s roles in the family, special days for celebrations and holidays, ways of communication and how people care. The values include beliefs or the reasons for doing various things such as attitude towards time and money, definition of achievement, and understanding the nature of the world that we live. Children imitate what their parents and the community does and therefore some habits do not require serious one on one training but just observation. Actions such as greetings are mostly imitated and a child only needs to understand the different ways of greeting different people according to age or other relevant issues such as religion or socioeconomic status.
EARLY CHILDHOOD3 The benefits of exploring diverse cultures and languages in childhood are to help the child fully understand the diversity in people’s activities and lifestyle around the world. The child’s needs to understand that people within the community or a certain geographical area, may share the same resources but have diversity in culture. A good example is where you find a region where there are different religions such as Christians and Muslins. These categories of people worship on different ways, dress differently but the children attend the same schools and buy goods from the same shopping center. They also benefit from the same government funds such as infrastructure and healthcare. Exploring diverse cultures and languages in early childhood helps the child to develop confidence and life skills required during their development. The child is able to identify themselves with a certain lifestyles, community or region. Children also develop characters which they can be identified with even with less communication. A person from a different culture is able to identify another because of the presentation they have based on culture. Culture also promotes creativity among the individuals in the community. Children learn new games, and languages from those of different culture. Early childhood education is the foundation of a child’s journey in academics. Every other education level depends on the success of early childhood education because that is the level which the child is introduced to quality knowledge. Children adapt to education in diverse individual ways which need to be monitored, improved, and nurtured to create a strong foundation. Young children learn quickly through activities and songs. Songs are easy to master as they are sang repeatedly and therefore making the lessons more interesting and easy to understand. In early childhood education teachers use songs to create interest in the lesson that they want the children to be engaged in. The importance of the songs in early childhood
EARLY CHILDHOOD4 education is that they are universal and hence they can be used by different cultures. Songs are also used to express joyful or sad moments, they are also used during celebration events such birthdays or government ceremonies. Exposure to music in childhood education helps the child to speak more clearly and to develop a larger vocabulary. Children are also able to strengthen their social and emotional skills because the songs also include expression terminologies and actions that enable the child to bring out their real self. Music help in developing motor skills in children as it is seen that when they are engaged in music they are able to connect the body with the brain. Music also helps in mental organization for the children. Through singing they learn how to differentiate tones of music and hence being able to memorize the music. Children also learn how to develop musical skills such as clapping to the beating and singing to the tune. Learning using music should be practiced both at school and at home to help develop the actual growth in skills. Singing involves a lot of creativity and through it children can identify their talents and personalities. With proper guidance they can develop goals that will enable them to identify and grow their skills. Music also helps in developing stronger bonds between the children and the parents. Music makes it easy to mix learning with play which makes lessons very interesting and children look forward to attending the learning sessions. Learning music together creates a strong bond between the parent and the child. That way the parent and the child get to have more time of being together and are able to understand each other’s personality through songs. Parents and the teachers should ensure that the children are in a safe music environment. Music presented to children should have an appropriate language and actions that a parent should not be embarrassed while using the music language and terms to sing.
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EARLY CHILDHOOD5 Children can also be taught to sing in other languages where they will be able to learn new languages. Words may also mean the same in different language and hence the children will be able to learn the diversity of language.
EARLY CHILDHOOD6 Reference Beth Hatcher, Joyce Nuner Baylor, (2012). Kindergarten Readiness and Preschools: Teachers’ and Parents’ Beliefs Within and Across Programs.https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ997132.pdf Black,M.M., Walker,S.P., Fernald,L.C., Andersen,C.T., DiGirolamo,A.M., Lu,C., … Grantham-McGregor,S. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age: science through the life course.The Lancet,389(10064), 77-90. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(16)31389-7 CourtneyAckerman, (2018)What is Self-Expression and How to Foster It? https://positivepsychology.com/self-expression/ D. V. M. Bishop, (2014). Ten questions about terminology for children with unexplained language problems.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1460-6984.12101 Emilson,A. & Johansson,E. (2018). Values in Nordic Early Childhood Education: Democracy and the Child’s Perspective.International Handbook of Early Childhood Education, 929-954. doi:10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_48 HelenAdam, CarolineBarratt-Pugh, YvonneHaig, (2019). Portray cultures other than ours”: How children’s literature is being used to support the diversity goals of the Australian Early Years Learning Framework.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13384-019-00302-w Kamile Geist, Eugene A. Geist, Kathleen Kuznik, (2012). The Patterns of Music: Young Children Learning Mathematics through Beat, Rhythm, and Melody.
EARLY CHILDHOOD7 https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/desilvlp/docs/Patterns%20of%20Music%20- %20NAEYC.pdf Neil T. Millington, (2011).Using Songs Effectively to Teach English to Young Learners. http://www.leia.org/LEiA/LEiA%20VOLUMES/Download/LEiA_V2_I1_2011/LEiA_V2I1A11_M illington.pdf Redshaw,J., Suddendorf,T., Neldner,K., Wilks,M., Tomaselli,K., Mushin,I., & Nielsen,M. (2018). Young Children From Three Diverse Cultures Spontaneously and Consistently Prepare for Alternative Future Possibilities.Child Development,90(1), 51-61. doi:10.1111/cdev.13084 Sonia Guillaume,Natacha Michelin,Elodie Amrani,Brigitte Benier,Xavier Durrmeyer,Sandra Lescure,Charlotte Bony,Claude Danan,Olivier Baud,Pierre-Henri Jarreau,Elodie Zana-Taïeb,Laurence Caeymae, (2013). Parents’ expectations of staff in the early bonding process with their premature babies in the intensive care setting: a qualitative multicenter study with 60 parents.https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471- 2431-13-18