Childcare in Society Setting

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Childcare refers to the attention accorded the children in their early stages of development with the sole purpose of monitoring and supervising them. Childcare often goes by the title early childhood education relating to the fact that in the process of offering care, knowledge and understanding are imparted on the child as a part of development.

Typically in our society setting, this early childhood care is the role of the parents or the legal guardians. Other cases exist however where the role is taken up by the extended family or the child grows up in an orphanage. The process of child development requires understanding of the child, the families they hail from and the community they grow in. this way the interrelation of all the three and how they impact early childhood development is established therefore painting a clear picture of the impingement of varying any one of them.

The mode of learning in the early years of a child is considered a determinant in their emotional as well as psychological well being. These experiences are shaped by the natural attributes of the individual children coupled with environments they grow in. The lives of children in their early years revolves around interaction with their families, then as they grow they join child care services where they are exposed to school rules, the larger community which has standards and set out norms.

The community set up also includes the geographical appearance of the surroundings as well as the political climate of the region, and finally the cultural orientations of the community and surrounding communities. This particular research lays emphasis on children from low income earning families; these children attend a pre-kindergarten center (Deanna, 2002).

Early childhood services are mainly programs designed to influence the child’s development in preparation to joining elementary school. As much as these programs are offered in a school setting today, the focus is on activities and experiences geared towards positively shaping the child’s life.

These services are offered in centers known as preschool and pre-kindergarten which offer early childhood education. These centers understand that the process of learning in young children is through play and so the learning is modified into interactive activities. In these centers, teachers who are caring adults take care of the children and offer guidance thus providing an environment that is safe, fostering and exhilarating.

In search of the best early childhood service centers for their children, parents consider the ones with well spelt out goals and philosophy and which has a schedule that covers all aspects of development in children. Learning takes place in well structured schedules which take in focus the nature of the young minds of the children which are bound to have a short concentration span.

Meals and snacks are offered in these centers and are well balanced for the health of the growing children. The education aspect mainly concentrates in language development and elementary math. Learning is mainly in form of activities and play where the teachers issue instructions and guides the children following a laid down schedule. These activities are performed either individually, small-group or large-groups.

The teachers carefully follow the progress of each individual child and actively involve the parents and guardians by keeping them informed. In this setup the children are exposed to an environment where they are required to interact socially with individuals who are not members of their family, children of probably different cultural orientations, children from different social classes and teachers with various modes of administering instructions.

They are also bound by the rules of that particular organization and tasks are performed according to schedule as opposed to learning their abilities naturally (Deanna, 2002).

The community surrounding the early childhood center plays a vital role in shaping the norms and standards governing the kindergarten. The community happens to be a generally low socioeconomic class. Most of the parents are low income earners who struggle to provide decent education for their children due to lack of both finances and know-how on the right preparation for their children for their advanced stages of education.

Approximately half of the children are brought up in single parent families and survive on a very low livelihood. One in every five children is from a household where the parent has no reliable source of income. In this community the rate of job mobility is eminent. This causes the families to move too resulting in many children having inconsistent school sessions as well as confusing their lives.

The family set ups are also a major player in the nature of the community. The recent past has seen changes in the family set ups following massive cases of divorce, separation, rising cases of single parenthood as well as step parenthood. The number of working hours has gone up meaning that the parents are separated from their children longer now.

Quite a number of the children in the community are not indigenous; the result is a mix of different cultures which also extends to the schools. With many families always on the move to new neighborhoods, people have realized that a good way to make friends with the neighbors is through the children.

Most children especially aged 5-10 years play with the neighboring children and through them the parents come to meet and foster a good relationship. Despite the streets in the neighborhood being generally unsafe the kids still play out on the streets. Most parents are against this though. With the low levels of safety in the neighborhood, most parents have developed an aspect of ‘stranger danger’ hence find it hard to allow just a stranger to interact with their children.

A common scenario too is spotting adults come out pubs drunk signifying the high level of alcoholism in the neighborhood. Most people use public transport which is considered very poor. This has worked as a hindrance when it comes to parents sending their children away from their locality for school or otherwise. With the increase in population, playing areas are also becoming limited for the children hence limiting their learning experiences (Edwards, 2005).

A combination of these various aspects determines the kind of experience a young child is going to have. From the child’s individual natural attributes coupled with the ones gathered from interactions with the parents or guardian and other family members as well as the neighborhood and the early childhood care they attend, the young child develops and learns through these experiences.

Every person in the family however has their role in the development of the child, and a breakdown in the family structure therefore has adverse effects on the way the child develops. In cases of separation and divorce the child lack the parental figure of the other partner as well as failing to experience the love that comes with a family that lives happily (Bowman, 1994).

The constant commotions that mar such relationships have been said to affect the child emotionally and psychologically thus impairing the learning and development of the child. An abusive marriage is also likely to be accompanied by abuse on the children too. Studies have shown a significant relation between likelihood of mental conditions and childhood abuse.

Where the child is brought up in a single parent family which is in a majority of the cases the mother, the child lacks the fatherly love. The gender of the child comes into play here since it is common knowledge that male children bond with their fathers and learn the masculine abilities by engaging in activities that are physical with the father.

Girls born and brought up in single parent families also have a higher chance becoming single parents too. Where the child is a step child, there are high possibilities of abuse by the other children in the family as well as the step parent. Such a child’s learning experiences are limited since the child doesn’t freely engage in play and is emotionally stressed.

This also manifests itself later in school as it can register academically in form of poor results. Another aspect in the family is if the child is born in a family of the same gender or mixed. Same gender family, that is a case where all the siblings are of the same sex, leads to some growing tendencies that are inclined towards the common attributes of that gender.

The nature of the job the parents have impacts on the development of the child. Parents who work regular hours have time with children in the morning and evenings after the children spend the day in the preschool. These parents can be said to have time to spend time with their children and exercise parenting. Children from such families therefore learn faster and do well in school (Ungerer, 2009).

In the neighborhood though, a majority of the parents work for many hours according to the trends in the recent past. This leaves very limited hours for spending with the children. Such children are therefore mostly with either the house help or are in the preschool. The parents in the neighborhood have a tendency of switching jobs.

This job mobility has meant families relocate to new neighborhoods every now and then. This causes a state of confusion in the child. This is due to inconsistency in the schools in which they attend as well as having to adapt to new neighborhood every now and then.

With quite a number of children being of different ethnicity and cultural background, the challenge comes in when the preschool has to design programs meant to take into consideration different cultures and languages. The child is also faced with the challenge of breaking the cultural and linguistic barrier and form social ties with these children. The mix up of these cultures may not work to assist the child as the confusion may slow down the process of development (Edgar, 2002).

According to Bowman, (1994), it is important to note that culture may determine what kind of things the child takes note of as well as how they categorize various objects. A mix up in the cultures may therefore make some children seem to exhibit a learning disability whereas it is the inclinations in culture that force the child to learn specific aspects.

Cultural stereotypes can result in the child being a victim of scorn and ridicule. General assumptions made on the child especially at preschool can downplay the child’s ideas and the way of thinking. The teacher for example may tend to take firm stands on their cultural belief whenever confronted with a difference of ideas based on culture thus bringing out the cultural bound and naive narrow-mindedness.

In a secure neighborhood parents feel safe to send their children out to play with the neighbors. Such children are bound to learn a lot of experiences through play which form a major part of the learning process in children. In an unsafe environment however, socialization is limited since parents prefer if the kids play indoors. This also limits the level of friendship between the neighbors.

Where the kids go out to play in the streets in such unsafe settings, they are likely to adapt some antisocial practices which usually for the activities in most unsafe neighborhoods. Living a low social class neighborhood implies that various social malpractices become an all too familiar occurrence.

Children are able to spot adults engaging in negative tendencies like drinking alcohol, drug dealing, crime and prostitution. These tendencies grow in a child as they become familiar with the recurrent practices. Children are restricted in movement owing to a combination of factors like poor public transport, the parents being too busy to travel with them, poverty which does not allow families to go on holidays and lack of enough funds to send the children to schools in other regions (Ungerer, 2009).

Having a clear picture of the situation, it is clear that the process of the children development is a combination of several factors that come into play. These are correlative in a way and each affect the other and so changing one of them means a reasonable amount of changes in the child’s development process. The children have their own inborn attributes that they genetically inherit, they also have the qualities that come with belonging to a certain culture and which are known to be facts.

An example is the fact that people of Asian descent have a higher IQ and those of African descent has a higher athletic ability to perform physical tasks. These should be taken into consideration when handling the children during their learning experiences and play. This mostly applies to the experience in the kindergarten where children are paired to perform particular tasks by the teachers.

The teacher should understand the various innate abilities in the different children and be able to pair them accordingly as well as avoid stereotypic comments that kill the children’s morale. These attributes could however in the right manner be brought out to teach each other and foster an environment where socialization behaviour prevail. Such an intelligent ability to use the disparities in individual attributes in a wise manner proves a helpful aid in the process of development.

Other innate attributes that might of importance are those that result from behavior and tendencies of the parents, an example is a mother who took nicotine during pregnancy gives birth to children who have sleep problems in their early stages of life. A parent should be able to understand the child’s behaviour early in life and be able to tell that there is a difference in the child’s manner of living and actions and therefore be in a position to act accordingly.

Parents who were exposed to drug taking are likely to have their children born with certain anomalies which range from mental to physical. A parent might be tempted to punish the child whenever such tendencies come into play whereas they should take time and review their history and seek medical advice.

Another example is of children who were exposed to a lot of television in their early years who then tend to have unhealthy behavioral dispositions as they grow and this peak at adolescent. It is therefore advisable to understand the level of risk associated with exposure to television in the development of the child. Television watching should be regulated starting in the early stages of a child’s life. The restriction should be in terms of the duration and time for watching and the materials that the children are watching.

As Edgar, (2002) clearly put it, a parent who understands this knows that the child is not supposed to choose what they watch but the parent should choose the right programs because they understand the child’s stages of development. Constant commotions in the families have adverse effect on the child’s development. It is however important to note that in such a poor neighborhood it is several factors that combine to lead to such a situation.

Placing the children in day care centers which are far from home and which operate for long hours could work to reduce the children’s exposure to the family’s commotions, but this comes at a higher price which a majority of the parents are not in apposition to afford.

The structure of the workplace also plays a major role in separating the time the families spend with each other and the children and this works in fueling arguments in relationships. The situation the children are left in can only be termed as a toxic environment (Edwards, 2005).

The situation in the kindergarten is a little different from the family set up. Here the children are bound to the rules and schedule. The teachers take up the role of the parents and are usually adults who are trained in the area early childhood care. In the early childhood centers the experiences are more educational than at home.

The institutional rules bind the children as they engage in learning activities and this have proven a more effective method to improve their ability to listen and follow instructions on top of improving literacy. Factors that surround their social life in the kindergarten include a mix of the cultures as well as the issue of the teacher’s personal attributes forcing them to treat the children in a bias manner (Bowman, 1994).

If the differences in the worlds these children hail from bring about a disparity in the experiences, beliefs as well as custom practices which the teachers must not at all brush off for this would bar them from offering an effective curriculum that fully takes care of each child’s needs and abilities.

The issue of poverty in the community means the parents are also poorly educated, their socialization is low and they have cases of anti social conducts that are linked to lack of control. The size of the families in the poor neighborhood are generally large which results in limitations in time to give each child ample attention. Children only have access to poor quality childcare services that have poor resources too.

A look at the wider community shows that there exist little or no policies that have worked towards improving the situation. The level of insecurity is high, the families still survive on low income abusive jobs, the schools are short of resources, and ethnicity is still evident among other social ills.

The policy makers should understand that living in a community marred with all the antisocial tendencies as well as low quality livelihood is the reason the children result in poor developmental experiences as opposed to the problems experienced at home of say abusive families, single parenthood, cultural diversity, low paying jobs.

Policies that ensure that the neighborhoods lived in harmony have links socially, have good schools, kindergarten, the parents have social support groups, and the law makers and other support agencies teamed up for the betterment of the community. This would include including the community members in making the laws and decisions that pertain to their lives (Edwards, 2005).

In conclusion, the process of the children development is experiential and forms their learning methodology. As the children learn these experiences in the early childhood centers, the various factors come into play to affect their development process. These are their personal attributes, the close family members, and the community surrounding them and the childcare center and the policies in place to govern the community.

It is clear that it’s almost impossible to single out each of these factors and the manner in which they affect the children development process since they are all interwoven in a way that each affects the other and together they have an impact on the children. Improving the wider community will ensure benefits trickle down to the children and hence ensure they lead a socially functional life.

References

Bowman, B. (1994). Cultural Diversity and Academic Achievement, Chicago, Illinois: N.C.R.E.L Urban Education Program.

Deanna, M. (2002.) Enrollment in Early Childhood Education Program. National Center for Education Statistics. Web.

Edgar, D. (2002) Fixing the Foundations: Early Childhood Development & Education, 5(2). 12-17.

Edwards, B. (2005). Does it take a village? Investigations of Neighborhood Influences on Young Children’s Development in Australia. 15(2), 8-10.

Ungerer, J. (2009). Ann Research on Children, Families and Communities. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.

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Childcare in Society Setting

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