Children learn and grow at their own rate. A young child may face difficulties in learning and developing on par with age peers due to many reasons. Today, in India, many children are at risk for a developmental delay or may have a known disability or a health condition which often goes unattended. It is extremely important to identify early these signs of developmental delays and difficulties in children under the age of six years and provide the care and support to help them get back on their development path. Research in early brain development very well supports the fact that early stimulation is the best help for better outcomes for later life. Worldwide, developmental delays and childhood disabilities are increasing exponentially, and many young children are increasingly at risk of significant developmental problems.
Most of the time parents really want to help their children in developing their full potential. Parents do teach their children at home with many activities to build their skills, but many a times they may end up overly involved or under involved in supporting their children’s learning and development due to lack of awareness and proper guidance. This practice may harm more than help as it does not meet the child’s individual developmental needs. Many parents of young children, caregivers, teachers, and administrators working in the early childhood education settings may not be able to identify early signs of developmental delays or learning difficulties in the children they serve due to lack of awareness and often lack knowledge of holistic child development practices and teaching strategies. Teachers and administrators need to have a foundational knowledge of child development and be able to provide activities that promote children’s learning at various ages.
Teachers should be equipped with knowledge and skills to assess the child’s strengths, developmental needs, curriculum planning and implementation, behaviour management strategies and progress monitoring. The lack of teacher and parental awareness about what and how to teach their child according to the child’s age creates many gaps in the child’s development and eventually leads to idiosyncratic development of the child. If these gaps in development are not addressed in the early years, the child may have difficulty in catching up with his or her age peers and also the child may develop secondary disabilities or conditions which may require huge amount of time, effort and financial cost to correct later. In India in particular and in many developing counties in general, there is a need for high quality, comprehensive early childhood care and development training programs for parents which support the holistic development of the child. Many studies have shown that structured parent education and training to help their children at home produces positive changes in children’s learning and behaviour and also changes parental perspective on their child’s development.
CBR Network (South Asia), Bangalore a pioneer organization working in the field of early childhood inclusive education and developmental disabilities in South Asian Countries and mSpark, a mobile based technology platform developed by KritiDev Developmental Solutions, Bengaluru have jointly come up with an app based, home based training and awareness program for parents, teachers, caregivers and other professionals working in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector to help support children’s holistic development and to help them reach their full potential. The training program uses CBR Portage methodology which is based on the original International Portage Early Childhood care and Development Program used widely in over 150 countries across the world as an effective Early Childhood Intervention Program. This course is ideally suited for anyone working and supporting children’s Early years development and education from 0-8 years. Parents, teachers, caregivers, paraprofessionals can benefit from this course. It is especially suited for supporting children with developmental delays, developmental disabilities, children with many other special and diverse needs.
(This article has been written by Suma Sastry, a child counsellor and Special Educator in
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India whose main emphasis is on early childhood inclusive education and early intervention)
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