How to Support Children’s Education

Education is a fundamental right for every child, regardless of their country, culture or family circumstances. Upholding this right requires an appreciation of children’s diverse experiences, and a deep knowledge of how they learn.

Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky developed a socio-cultural learning theory. He believed that cognitive development and learning advance when a teacher acts as more of a facilitator to help children achieve skills or understandings just beyond their current capabilities.

Child Development

Educators who want to support children’s learning must understand child development. They must have a grasp on the developmental milestones for each age group, as described by resources like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This requires knowledge of general cognitive development and learning, subject-matter content knowledge and skills for specific subjects such as language and literacy and mathematics, and social and emotional development and health. Each of these domains interacts with and influences the others.

For example, a child’s implicit theories about how the world works can influence his or her understanding of math concepts. Moreover, understanding the interrelationships of these domains is critical for educators to develop activities that foster children’s learning. This chapter focuses on two core subject areas, language and literacy.

Social & Emotional Development

The ability to understand and regulate one’s emotions, build self-esteem and confidence, and establish positive relationships is essential to children’s social-emotional development. It is also central to their success in classroom learning.

Children develop these skills through healthy, supportive interactions with their parents/primary caregivers and educators. These interactions should be guided by an appreciation for each child’s unique temperament, as well as the family and community context in which they live.

In the classroom, promote social-emotional development by providing plenty of opportunities for cooperative play and activities that encourage sharing, taking turns, and empathy. In addition, model positive social interactions and emotional regulation, as children learn best by observing adults.

Cognitive Development

Children’s cognitive development is a complex interplay of nature and nurture. It involves changing the way we think, and how we understand and solve problems in the world. It also includes learning new things and building on existing knowledge.

One major theory of cognitive development is Piaget’s stage-dependent theory. This is a theory of how a child’s thinking changes throughout different developmental stages, and explains why some aspects of children’s thoughts change in gradual and continuous ways, while others change in sudden and discontinuous ways.

Activities that support cognitive development include hands-on experimentation, classification tasks, and logic games. It is also helpful to teach children about egocentrism and other social-emotional skills. For example, try using a “Wonder Wall” where children can post questions about the world around them.

Language & Literacy Development

The relationship between language and literacy development is crucial. Language lays the foundation for reading, and literacy helps children make connections between written words and the meanings they convey.

Language and literacy are closely linked, and researchers have found that a child’s oral vocabulary is highly predictive of their eventual reading skills. Language and literacy also promote cognitive development, encouraging problem-solving skills and enabling them to better connect stories they read with their own experiences.

Children enrolled in The Nest Schools Global Gull Dual Language Program gain the advantage of bilingual fluency at an early age, which fosters cultural sensitivity and provides a solid foundation for academic success. This dual language education also boosts cognitive development and encourages a lifelong love of learning.

Physical Development

Physical development relates to a child’s ability to use large and small muscles. Children also learn to manage self-care activities such as eating, drinking and toileting.

Babies and young children develop incipient theories about how people, other living things and objects operate by observing their environments, engaging in interactions with adults and peers, and actively exploring and playing. These theories are the foundation for future learning and life.

Educators arrange firsthand, meaningful experiences that support children’s observation, exploration, interaction and play. These include science experiments and construction projects, reading, storytelling and music-making experiences that promote vocabulary, imagination and the capacity for musical rhythm. They also arrange interactive experiences that introduce children to new cultures, languages and customs that broaden their understanding of the world.

How to Support Children’s Education
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