Importance of Early Childhood Education and Care: An Essay

This essay delves into the crucial role of early childhood teachers in fostering children's overall development. It explores key characteristics such as passion, patience, and creativity, essential for effective teaching. The essay emphasizes the importance of interpersonal communication and developing a positive self as vital practices in early childhood settings. Effective communication strategies, including positive body language and cooperative learning, are discussed, along with the significance of teachers cultivating a positive attitude through motivational resources and active listening. The essay concludes by reiterating the importance of these characteristics and practices in promoting the well-being of children and enhancing the professional careers of educators.

Early Childhood Education and Care

Early childhood education and care
It can be said that early childhood teachers have an important role in children life.
Teachers are the one who offers guidance to the children and also they are responsible for their
overall development. In this essay, the discussion will be made on the concept related to early
childhood education and care. This paper will highlight the key professional characteristics of the
teachers and also the practices that are selected for the task are effective interpersonal
communication and developing a positive self.
There are different characteristics of the early childhood teachers and it is important to
possess the basic characteristics as it helps in maintaining the overall development of the
children. One of the characteristics is Passion. It is important for teachers to be passionate
towards the work of the children as it can be said that to take care of the children is the tough job.
There are many days when the teaching feels difficult for the teachers but in this case, the
teachers should have a passion for educating the younger children. Therefore, it can be stated
that Passion is one of the important characteristics that should be possessed in the early
childhood teachers (Oberle, Domitrovich, Meyers & Weissberg, 2016).
Patience is an important characteristic that should be present in a teacher. With a passion
for teaching, the teachers should also have patience. The classroom has different students with
various developmental skills. For younger children, patience is necessary or the overall
development of the children. But for this patience is one of the important characteristics that
should be present in a teacher as it helps to keep the environment of the classroom balanced. The
preschool teachers need patience to control and manage the activities of the children (Bierman &
Motamedi, 2015).
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Early childhood education and care
Creativity is also the important in the classroom as it helps to enhance the fun projects for
the students. The students require creativity and it is the responsibility of the teachers to teach the
fun games and to organize the activities. If the teacher does not possess the characteristic of
creativity then it would be difficult to enhance the skills of the students. Creativity should be
there in the teachers as it helps to make the learning fun for the student and also exciting for the
preschool class students (Flook, Goldberg, Pinger & Davidson, 2015).
It can also be said that there are various different practices that are important to be
considered by the teachers as it helps in managing and controlling the overall activities in
relation to the students. The two practices that should be considered by the teachers are effective
interpersonal communication and developing the positive self. These two are the practices that
are essential to be implemented in the early childhood settings (Dunst & Espe-Sherwindt, 2016).
Communication is the process through which different ideas, opinions and facts are
shared from one person to the other. It is basically exchanging the information among the people
through symbols, signs and also behavior. It can also be stated as the two way process of
reaching the mutual understanding in which two more than two participants interact and
exchange the information with each other. Effective interpersonal communication is important
practice that should be considered by the teachers as it positively impacts their professional life.
Interpersonal communication skills help the teachers to communicate effectively with the
students. The communication can take place in the form of verbal, non-verbal and also through
gestures or different postures. These practices should be considered as it helps in developing the
skills of the teachers (Shapiro et al., 2015).Effective communication can enhance teacher’s
professionalism as it has been analyzed that if teacher communicates in a proper manner then
they will attract the attention of the students which is one of the positive impacts that can help in
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Early childhood education and care
attaining the growth on the professional platform. By satisfying the children, the scope of growth
for the teachers enhances and also it assists in creating professional attitude of the teachers.
In relation to the effective interpersonal communication, one of the strategies that should
be used to implement these practices in early childhood settings is to use positive body language.
At the time of effective interpersonal communication, the teachers should use the strategy of
positive body language in which they should present themselves with a smile on the face and
with confidence. The teachers should emphasize on communicating with the children with
positive body language as it will help in creating positive image of the teacher in front of
children. By communicating with the children the teachers can boost their interpersonal
communication skill if they represent themselves with a positive body language. The next
strategy that should be considered by the teachers is cooperative learning (Britto et al., 2017).
To implement effective communication the teachers should enhance the interaction
among the students. This strategy will help in enhancing the relations with the students and will
also boost the diversity value. It is the best technique that helps to enhance learning skills and
social skills of the teachers. There are different strategies that should be considered by the
teachers as it will to boost teacher’s professionalism. In this the early childhood teachers can
make the groups of the small children that will create interest towards the different activities and
also it will enhance the skills of the teacher to manage the children. The early childhood teachers
should also emphasize on field trips as it will help the teachers to communicate effectively with
the students. Therefore, it can be said that these are the teaching strategies that should be
considered by the teachers so that the positive impact can be seen on the professional career of
the teachers (Baines, Blatchford & Kutnick, 2016).
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Early childhood education and care
The next practice that should be considered by the teachers is “developing a positive
self”. This is one of the best practices that can help the teachers to maintain effective
communication with children, parents and colleagues. If the teachers are positive towards the
work then it would be easy for the children, parents and colleagues to easily connect with them
in relation to the overall work. Practice of developing a positive sense can assist the teachers at
the time of communicating with the parents or the children. It is analyzed that if the teacher is
positive then they will focus on giving effective solutions to the problems and also they will be
able to solve the queries of the parents in a smart manner (McNamara & Moreton, 2016).
It is the responsibility of the teachers to generate the positive attitude so that they can
develop the basic skills which are necessary for their growth. Teachers have an essential role in
nurturing the student’s dignity and image and it can only be done if developing a positive sense
practice is considered. For implementing the practice related with a positive self it has been seen
that teachers should focus on considering the different strategies so that it could be easy to
maintain the flow of effective communication with children, parents, supervisors and colleagues
(Murray, McFarland-Piazza & Harrison, 2015).
One of the effective strategies relates with seeing motivational movies. The teachers
should see the motivational movies so that they can develop positive self and it will also guide
them to effectively communicate with children, parents, supervisors and colleagues. It will help
to guide them to consider the right actions that are beneficial for their image. They should see
inspirational movies so that it could be easy to create a positive attitude which can help them to
communicate with the other individuals in a positive manner. It will help to enhance the
connections with the children and will also positively impact their professional career as they
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Early childhood education and care
will learn to solve the issues or the problems with the positive attitude (Passey & Samways,
2016).
By considering this strategy, it could be easy for teachers to improve their behavior and
attitude towards the different activities that are present around the surroundings. The next
strategy can relate with listening to the queries of children, parents, supervisors and colleagues. It
is necessary to listen to the queries with patience so that the flow of communication can be
enhanced and also it will assist in finding the corrective solutions to the issues (Kirschner, P.
2015).
By listening to the voice of children, parents, supervisors and colleagues can offer an
opportunity to the teacher to enhance professionalism career. This strategy is beneficial for the
teachers as it creates positive mindset and helps them to grow into positive individuals. So, these
are the strategies that should be considered by the teachers so that it could be easy to maintain
effective communication with children, parents, supervisors and colleagues which will lead to
enhancement in the professional career of the teachers (Muijs & Reynolds, 2017).
It is concluded that it is important for the early childhood teachers to possess the basic
characteristics such as passion, patience and creativity. If these basic characteristics are
possessed by them then it can help them to attain the positive outcome and they can maintain the
wellness of the children. So, these are the basic characteristics that should be present in the early
childhood teachers. Also, the teachers should consider the different practices such as
interpersonal communication and developing a positive self as these will help to bring
improvisation in the wellness of the children.
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Early childhood education and care
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