This post will deal with the unique challenges of teaching children with immaturity issues. For the past several years early childhood professionals have noticed a massive upsurge in immaturity issues with the children arriving on our doorstep. This post will not deal with the causes of this upsurge. I have already written a post on that subject. However, in dealing with the task of teaching these children the underlying causes must also be addressed. Therefore, I will briefly touch on these underlying causes.
The Immaturity Issue
The immaturity issue has to be one of the hottest topics among childcare professionals today. It has become such an issue that many longtime childcare professionals have contemplated early retirement. It is becoming increasingly difficult with each passing year to bring up the children to the standards of children just a few years ago. Couple this with the push in elementary schools to attain higher standards, and we have a train wreck coming very soon. Kindergarten teachers are already feeling the strain of trying to deal with such a wide range of maturity levels in their classrooms, and they have only begun to feel the effects of what the early childhood community has been dealing with for the past couple of years.
The Causes
As I said in my opening paragraph, I will touch briefly on the underlying causes of this immaturity because it plays heavily in the strategies necessary to deal with it. Societal changes and parenting styles prevalent today are the largest factors in this upsurge. However, before I discuss those I want to touch on a couple of other factors that compound the two big ones. The first one is inadequate nutrition. Many people do not realize that inadequate nutrition gravely affects brain development. No one in our country today would argue that our children are not eating well. The picky eating has become so rampant, I do not think many children even know what a vegetable looks like. Some children's diets are so poor, they have the brain development of children from third world countries. It is no coincidence that the unbelievable surge in obesity and picky-eating is coinciding with the upsurge in immaturity. The second one is the overuse of technology for babysitting purposes. I have seen parents hand two year olds a smart phone to keep them entertained. Really people? Number one, why in the world would you hand such an expensive piece of equipment to a two year old? The answer to that question stems completely from the two large factors. It is immature parents or overindulgent parents.
The Idealistic View of Childhood
Our society today pushes an idealistic view of childhood that is going to completely destroy us if we do not stop it. This view started in the 1980s and is responsible for the generation of completely immature parents we have today. Many, but not all, of the young parents today were raised to believe the world completely revolves around them. We as a society expected these children to magically become responsible adults when they had children. It did not happen. These parents are so self-absorbed it is pathetic. However, this philosophy still marches on among the parents who are older. They are raising another generation of children who will not magically become adults when they have children. It scares me to think what the generation of children raised by the immature generation will become. I hopes it scares you, too.
Self-help Skills
What do we do? Unfortunately for us, we the early childhood community are on the front lines of this train wreck as it happens. However, do not lose hope. Each child that comes to us can be a child that helps to change the course of this catastrophe. It takes an enormous amount of hard work and patience, but we can turn the tide with this upcoming generation. Number one, we have to work diligently on developing self-help skills in the children. This needs to be an even higher priority than academic skills. An immature child that is smart is still an immature child, and that will gravely effect what can be accomplished academically in the child's future. For example, a four year old child that is still not pottytrained, will have severe social and emotional issues if allowed to hit kindergarten that way. It does not matter if that child can quote all the presidents in order or already be reading. The lack of maturity will affect everything. Another example, is a four year old that throws excessive temper tantrums when he/she does not get his/her way. That will affect how that child learns. We also need to include teaching appropriate eating habits in the category of self-help skills. When we tackle all of it at the same time, it actually works to compound for the good. Children that eat better are actually less likely to throw temper tantrums and hissy fits. This is because they are getting better nutrition, but it is also because they are learning to deal with a situation that they do not necessarily like. As I said, it takes an ENORMOUS amount of hard work to get these immature children heading in the right direction. I want to make sure you have no delusions about that. Provide children with routines and structure that puts a heavy emphasis on the children becoming self-sufficient in pottying, picking up after themselves, participating in the daily chores of their lives, etc. Teach the children how to get along in social settings and how to control their emotions. Make sure the children get adequate rest, which can have as big a detrimental effect as lack of nutrition. Basically make sure in your setting, that child receives all the instruction necessary for development because it can no longer be taken for granted that the child will get that instruction anywhere else.
Go Slow with the Academics
In the beginning, academic skills need to be introduced to immature children in very small doses. As I have stated in earlier posts dealing with individual instruction, I always start children academically at the very same spot whether they are two years old or four years old. How fast we proceed through the material depends entirely on that child's maturity level. I will always put a heavier emphasis on social and emotional issues until those issues begin to resolve themselves. However, in the background of all that, I still do teach academic concepts at a slowed pace. When the maturity catches up to the academic level, I let the child proceed at a much faster clip. It is important to maintain this slowed down exposure to academic concepts while focusing on the social and emotional issues, or the child will be miserably behind in academic concepts by the time he/she hits kindergarten. This is not an either/or situation. Every child needs both.
A Well-designed Environment
The previous paragraph dealt with the direct instruction aspect of academic concepts. However, the other side of that coin involves providing rich opportunities for that child to learn through his/her play. An environment that contains many open-ended toys such as blocks, puzzles, etc. will provide an immature child with experiences necessary to help close the academic gap. However, many of these children come to us with no idea how to play. When we give these children blocks, they throw them at each other instead of building with them. When we set puzzles in front of these children, they will dump them out and then throw the pieces at each other. A rich environment will not in and of itself help. You, the childcare provider, will have to teach these children how to interact with the environment in an appropriate manner.
This is Hard, Hard Work
At this point, you may feel completely overwhelmed with the amount of work that must go on simultaneously in order to pull up immature children to where they need to be. It is no easy task. There are no shortcuts. Keep your chin up, and persevere. If you do not, what will become of us as a society. We have the most thankless job on the planet. However, when our Father in heaven starts handing out rewards, the childcare providers will get enormous crowns!!
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
No comments:
Post a Comment