AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
activities to the child, to show it something new everyday. They
have the sincere joy of every child's progress, every smile, do
not hesitate to praise, encourage and support. They provide
scaffolding for the child to follow. They are helpful to the child
and know that this is how the child learns. What it can do with
the help of a caregiver, will gradually become something it will
be able to do by itself (the zone of actual and proximal
development). For example, it doesn't matter whether it can paint
or model from plasticine. What matters, is being happy,
recognizing and learning something new. It does not matter that
it gets dirty, because it recognizes new materials and uses them.
We note that a positive relationship with the child is a
prerequisite, and at the same time, a property of a good and
responsible caregiver. It is the concern for a child, an interest in
making a child happy, by means of a targeted professional
activity (trhough play). By this, the child will learn to be
independent and become happy when autonomous. Security and
safety are also important. The rules and rituals introduced in the
facilities provide the child/children with security and safety. A
parent understands love differently from a caregiver. The
caregiver makes the child happy through educational activities
during the day, by teaching it to be relatively independent. A
parent can only understand love from that emotional side. Or
that he will let it do everything, and perhaps the parent considers
it a manifestation of love. And when a caregiver does not do it,
the parent may be judging that he/she does not like his child.
Should the caregiver love the entrusted child/children, should
they like it/them? The profession of a caregiver in ECEC
facilities up to three years of age, is clearly feminized. There is a
single man in Bratislava who not a caregiver, but a director. We
note that experts as well as caregivers consider it beneficial to
see men and children interact on special occasions. And here we
can see a thin line of understanding love. When a man-caregiver
says he likes children, that he loves them, the parent can
understand it differently. In our opinion, a caregiver, man or
woman, should have a professional approach, be responsible, be
playful, creative.
Respect for the child's personality, boundaries and rules in the
child's educating in the family
Based on the analyzed research data, we identified 4 approaches
of parents to the phenomenon of respecting the child's
personality:
1.
Respect the child within the boundaries.
2.
Respect the child - be benevolent towards it.
3.
Respect the child and want to be respected.
4.
Respect that the child/infant needs a mother.
Rules are closely related to boundaries. In our opinion,
compliance with the rules can be understood as a kind of
prevention aimed at not exceeding the boundaries of education.
We believe that consistent compliance, with the rules established
by common agreement, can be of benefit to the child not only
because it must not do something, but also because pleasant
things or experiences are repeated in the same way. Based on the
obtained qualitative data, we identified 3 groups of parents to the
phenomenon of education boundaries:
1.
Parents considering the rules in education as important.
2.
Parents classifying rules in terms of important and less
important.
3.
Parents considering the rules unnecessary, but safety is of
high importance for them.
When we try to answer the question of how parents understand
the boundary phenomenon, or how they apply it in education, we
consider it important to divide their views into groups. Based on
the data obtained, we identified three groups of parents:
1.
Parents considering it important to give the child
boundaries via educating.
2.
Parents choosing boundaries in education, based on the
character of the child.
3.
Parents not perceiving boundaries in education as
important.
Collaboration of family and early childhood education and care
facilities providing care up to the third year of the child's age
We identify that communication is an essential critical
phenomenon in family and facility collaboration. Parents
approach the collaboration differently. Some are interested in
how their child thrived during their time in the facility, others
not as much. But still, caregivers' superiors require active
communication and collaboration with parents. We note that
caregivers are seeking for a way to cooperate with the parent.
Oftentimes, parents do not attach seriousness to some aspects of
education. The most effective strategy, identified by the
caregivers, is to highlight the success of the child. Parents are
surprised how come the child is doing things “right” in the
facility and not at home. Importance lies in the fact that the child
spends a substantial part of the day in the facility where, the
caregiver actively engages the child, perhaps more than the
parent. We assume, that the fundamental phenomenon,
complicating the educating in the family, is consistency in
parenting and the time enabling the parents to be consistent.
Caregivers are consistent in their work and have a child-only
time. Parents know how it should be theoretically, they are
interested in the subject matter, they talk to friends about it, they
do study various materials on the Internet, but still, the problem
is consistency. They have no time. We note that active family
educating (active time with the child) is often minimized for
every parent-child interaction. Experts, as well as caregivers,
warn of the need for active time spent by parents and children. In
everyday life, education is part of all other activities, because
education is life. The child observes the parent and their
surroundings, and also learns what a parent might not even
realize. The child mimics the behavior of the parents, as well as
the behavior of the caregivers. It brings the family-inspired
designs to the children's society (class). It is necessary to set
aside active time, respectively. It means to talk to the child and
teach it to think critically.
It often happens, that the child transfers patterns of negative
rolemodels to the play activities. In such a case, the caregiver
seeks to divert the child's attention by another activity, and/or
uses the strength of the group and the positive patterns, that the
child identifies (with) and then applies itself.
We note that for more serious problems, such as child
aggression, family and facility cooperation is of high
importance. The parent often finds it very difficult to accept that
something is wrong especially, when the child behaves
differently at home. It happens that the parent does not take the
words/advice of the caregivers seriously, and hardly ever
believes them. The parent often refuses the recommendations of
a professional and only when a more serious problem arises,
he/she will seek the help of a psychologist, etc. We note that the
reflection of the child's behavior is a reflection of the family's
educational situation, of the recognized or undeclared patterns.
"This means that the behavior of the child is the mirror of that
particular parent. The parent has a problem with accepting, or
not accepting, realizeing it, or not realizing. Unless there is a
truly established diagnosis, it is important for the staff of the
facility to explain to the parent why it considers it important that
the child is to be examined, because only by examination the
diagnosis can be confirmed or not. The caregiver should protect
the other children in the group. When a child gets sick or has
health problems, and the morning filter confirms it, the child
cannot remain in the group until he / she has a proof of his / her
health condition from the pediatrician. When an aggressive child
threatens other children in the group, he / she may, in extreme
cases, be excluded from the group. It depends on the operating
rules, that the parents are obliged to sign and accept. However,
we note that the staff is in every case, trying to work with
parents and solve the problem.
Parallels of educating in an ECEC facility, providing care up to
the third year of the child's age and family educating
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