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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

EDUCATING CHILDREN UP TO THREE YEARS OF AGE IN THE NARRATIONS OF TODAY’S
PARENTS

DUŠAN KOSTRUB,

ŠTEFÁNIA FERKOVÁ,

PETER

OSTRADICKÝ,

MARTINA TOMÁNKOVÁ

Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Education

Račianska 59, 813 34 Bratislava, Slovak Republic
email:

kostrub@fedu.uniba.sk,

ferkova@fedu.uniba.sk,

ostradicky1@uniba.sk ,

draskovicov3@uniba.sk

This publication originated as part of the project: KEGA No. 070UK-4/2016 Concept
of early childhood education.

Abstract: The paper presents the results of a long-term qualitative examination of early
childhood educating and childcare (ECEC). It is ten years of targeted research, with
the KEGA grant scheme no. 070UK-4/2016 which enables to reveal different levels of
educational practice, and the fact that educational practice needs to be supported by
pedagogical science. The research sample consisted of more than 110 subjects -
parents, educators (caregivers) and children. Research tools applied, were focus group,
interview and observation, via which massive research material was analyzed. The
most important finding of research is the need for scientific support in this area,
because the caregiver has no support in the current literature. Love, boundaries,
consistency, and time prove to be important critical points in the process of bringing
up (educating) a child in an early childhood education and childcare facility, providing
care up to 3 years of the child

age, and educating in the family.

Keywords: educating, children up to the age of 3, parenting, ,,The Act of day nursery
care centres“, qualitative research

1 Introduction

Children up to the age of 3 are thinking, moving, sentient and
interactive human beings. At present, we still have little
understanding of the child's mental development in the early
years. However, one of the domains of current pedagogy should
be to focus on optimum upbringing and early childhood
education, taking into account the whole spectrum of their
development, so that they can later fully integrate into society.

The changing conception of the world has set in motion a change
in our understanding of what knowledge is, and how we get to
know. Science no longer acts as an island of objectivity in the
sea of cultural relativity. Multiplicity of opinions is a newer
phenomenon in our cultural space and one of the new roles of
the scientist is to find and interpret the unifying features in the
intersubjective thinking subjects, as co-creators of contemporary
worlds (D. Kostrub 2016). We present the results of the research
in which we decided to apply a purely qualitative methodology,
because we realize that there is no universal model of a parent's
or caregiver's behavior and we fully accept, that every parent and
caregiver has a distinctive mental model, that is also applied in
early education of children. In the first part of the paper, we
present a view on ECEC from the perspective of various Slovak
and foreign authors, because of our theoretical definition. In the
next part of the study, we focus on the main results of the long-
term qualitative study of ECEC.

2 The role of an educator (parent, caregiver) in supporting a
child's emotional and social development at an early age

From the psychology point of view, the early age of a child
includes a newborn period, of up to one month, a period of
infant, from one month to one year, and a toddler period, from
one year to three years of age. Each of these periods is specific
in terms of the child's biological, cognitive, emotional, or social
development. The period of a newborn is short, in terms of the
length of other developmental periods, and is also characterized
as a child's adaptation period, when the child adapts to new
environmental conditions. The infant's period, which lasts about
one year, is characterized not only by rapid biological
development, but also by changes in other areas related to the
perception of external stimuli, the development of cognitive
processes, or the development of speech. From the point of view
of the subject matter and the topic of the study, it is of immense
importance for the infant period to be a period of deepening the
relationship with the closest person, the relationship with the

mother. As stated by M. Mahler (in M. Vágnerová, 2000), the
period between 3 and 6 months is also called the symbiotic
phase, which means a close connection between the child and the
mother. The mother is accepted as a significant source of the
child's satisfaction. Later, at the age of 6 and 9 months, the child
begins to differentiate familiar and unfamiliar people, where fear
of strangers and unfamiliar situations also emerges. This is
understood as separation anxiety. As reported by S. Nolen-
Hoeksema, B.L. Fredrickson, G.R. Loftus and W.A. Wagenaar
(2012), another period of separation anxiety reaches a peak
between the 14th and 18th month, and then gradually fades
away. Among the professional public, in the context described
above, there is a fairly often discussed theory of child attachment
to the mother, which is definitely related to the early childhood
period of the child. Most child attachment theories are based on
the original study of psychoanalyst J. Bowlby (1973, in S.
Nolen-Hoeksema, B. L. Fredrickson, GR Loftus, WA Wagenaar,
2012), which was implemented on the basis of the behavior of
babies and young children separated from mothers during
weekly ECEC centres, or in hospital. Based on his research, J.
Bowlby concludes that failure to establish a strong attachment to
one or more primary persons in early childhood, is related to the
inability to establish close personal relationships in adulthood. J.
Bowlby's work was followed by his co-worker M. Ainsworth,
who has developed a theory of child attachment styles at about
12 to 18 months of age. Based on the behavior of the children,
she divided them into three groups - securely attached,
insecurely attached and avoidant, insecurely a attached and
ambivalent (M. D. Ainsworth, M. C. Blehar, E. Waters, S. Wall,
1978, more in S. Nolen-Hoeksem, B. L. Fredrickson, G. R.
Loftus, W.A. Wagenaar, 2012). A more recent study by K.
Howard, A. Martin, L. J. Berlin and J. Brooks-Gunn (2011),
examined associations between early mother-child separation
and subsequent maternal parenting behaviors and children’s
outcomes in a sample of 2080 families who participated in the
Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, the vast
majority of whom were poor. Multiple regression models
revealed that, controlling for baseline family and maternal
characteristics and indicators of family instability, the
occurrence of a mother-child separation of a week or longer
within the first two years of life was related to higher levels of
child negativity (at age 3) and aggression (at ages 3 and 5). The
effect of separation on child aggression at age 5 was mediated by
aggression at age 3, suggesting that the effects of separation on
children’s aggressive behavior are early and persistent.

According to J. Langmeier and D. Krejčířová (2006), the belief
that a child at an early age must have the opportunity to establish
a lasting, uninterrupted relationship with its mother during this
period, if its personal and social development is to continue as
satisfactory, is based on the assumption called the critical or
sensitive period of the child. However, there are current
psychologists who reject such an absolute definition of critical
period and believe that the first year of life is important, but at
the same time, there is no reason to believe that later
relationships are not possible, or that further child development
is necessarily irreparably damaged.

R. Winston and R. Chicot (2016) report that, during the first two
years of the child's age, children undergo huge brain
development, growth and neuron pruning. The brain
development of infants (as well as their social, emotional and
cognitive development) depends on a loving bond or attachment
relationship with a primary caregiver, usually a parent. There is
increasing evidence from the fields of development psychology,
neurobiology and animal epigenetic studies that neglect, parental
inconsistency and a lack of love can lead to long-term mental
health problems, as well as to reduced overall potential and
happiness. In this paper, the authors consider the

evidence for

this claim across several disciplines and conclude that, the
support of babies and their parents in the first two

years of life,

to be a crucial aim of public health groups in the community.

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