3 Qualities in An Educator that Impact Your Child Positively
These qualities can directly affect your child’s personality …
As an advocate for children and an experienced and veteran early childhood educator, I strongly believe that the early years (a period between infancy and age 8) are the most critical years in a child’s brain development.
Early experiences will lay the foundation for your child’s development and dictate the kind of adult they will grow up to be. Whether your child will be confident, able to problem solve, make friends, feel empathy etc. is routed in their early experiences.
Hence, the role of the educator, especially during the early years, can make a monumental difference in shaping a child. Outside the family, the teacher is indisputably the most important figure in your child’s life. They take on multiple avatars — a facilitator, a role model, a friend, to name a few.
Especially in today’s highly digitised education world, it is all the more important for educators to emotionally connect with children. As a parent, it’s also key for you to understand the transformational role and responsibility that a teacher can hold. This can hopefully help you pick the right educator for your child. Research says that the teacher is the number one factor in a student’s ability to learn.
Today, the role of a teacher has expanded to account for a catalyst that will majorly facilitate your child’s cognitive, social and emotional development. As Judith Taack Lanier, a Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University rightly points out,
“Teaching differs from the old “show-and-tell” practices as much as modern medical techniques differ from practices such as applying leeches and bloodletting.”
So, let’s understand the key qualities in an early childhood educator that can impact your child’s learning and growth:
1. Is emotionally connected:
The hallmark of a phenomenal teacher is that they are emotionally connected to children in their care and are passionate about children’s thinking and natural curiosities. From a warm, caring and informed teacher, your child will learn naturally and in a joyous way.
The educator’s role has expanded to create an environment that allows children to construct their own knowledge through play — an environment where children can investigate and explore their own curiosities. This can mean learning about shapes, sizes, balance and weight all while building with blocks or learning about plants by planting and nurturing their own plant.
Even if you think back to your childhood or school days, you will recall the teacher whom you liked and who liked you — someone who participated in your joys and connected with you. An emotionally connected teacher can go on to define your child’s attitude towards learning.
2. Is informed on child development
It is key for early childhood educators to be well-versed in child development. Only then can they plan for developmentally appropriate experiences for children.
Educators who cater to early childhood must provide materials, experiences and an environment that matches children’s natural tendencies. Development cannot be rushed. Nature has put a process in place, and children must not be pushed to do tasks that are not in sync with their natural development.
Today, more than ever, unrealistic academic demands are being placed on young children. Expecting children as young as three and four-year-olds to sit and write letters, numbers, or a five-year-old to spell is developmentally inappropriate.
On the other hand, we know positive childhood experiences will have long-term effects and make your child not only open to everlasting learning but also give them the ability to deal with later challenges.
The right teacher will give young children the time and space to explore and learn through self-directed play. An authentic educator knows that they are shaping minds for the future.
3. Engages with families of the children
Again, we know from research that involved and engaged families impact children’s learning. It is important for families to feel welcomed and be treated as equal partners in their children’s learning journey.
Teachers need to communicate and be open to understanding each child’s unique family dynamics (especially now due to the pandemic). Often, a child’s experiences at home experiences play out in the classroom. Lack of sleep, death of a pet, parent arguments etc. will impact the child’s mood, temperament and ability to engage in the classroom.
Also, teachers need to be able to showcase each child’s learning through stories that can be shared with parents. They allow parents to participate in their child’s development in a larger social context of the classroom and encourage conversations at home.
Conclusion:
An educator’s role in your child’s growth and development in the early years is key. Teachers can and do make all the difference!
Emotionally-connected and well-informed educators who genuinely engage with families will lay the foundations for lifelong learning and all-round development of children.
That’s also why we, at Learning Matters, are dedicating this entire month to highlighting educators’ impact and responsibilities while also throwing light on their challenges and fears.
