Why Your Child’s Daycare Needs a Child Psychologist

According to UNICEF, as a child’s brain develops, the quality of early experiences makes a critical difference. It either provides strong or weak foundations for learning, health and behaviour throughout life. It is the time when most of the physical and mental changes occur in a child, more than any other stage of life.

Sometimes they might have a condition that affects their learning, which they might not know about themselves, and they need someone who can understand this without having to verbalise it. Hence, it is very important to ensure that they are provided with the best possible environment for holistic growth. Preschools provide children with a safe and comfortable space to learn in a high-quality facility and have a smooth transition into primary schooling. But teams at the best preschools and daycares know that you need a trained health professional or child psychologist who has studied human behaviour and is an expert in the ways children think, feel, behave and learn.

So, one of the best daycare schools in South Bopal, Ahmedabad, is here to share why having a child psychologist is a must for any day care.

Conducts assessments

Child psychologists are trained to empower children to make sense of what happens in their minds and lives. They help children in a way that they understand. Hence, experts in the best preschool near Bopal, Ahmedabad conduct psychological assessments or tests to get a better understanding of a child’s developing mind. The tests reveal specific strengths and weaknesses of the child, positive and negative stimuli, environmental problems, along with all the other factors that influence the child’s learning process. With this they can also develop an individualised treatment plan for different children in order to help them learn a little better.

Now, when it comes to psychological assessment, most of the parents conjure an image of their children lying on a couch, talking about their feelings to a person who is taking notes across from them. But this is not the case. This assessment is a series of measures that is different for every child. It helps the expert to provide information on how the child learns the best.

Special attention to emotions

Childhood depression, anxiety or stress is a thing. Though the idea of a little child getting stressed may be difficult to fathom as people consider this age as the happiest phase. Others think that such young children lack the developmental maturity to experience the core cognitions associated with depression. The study, conducted by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), found that between 2016 and 2020, the number of children ages 3-17 years diagnosed with anxiety grew by 29% and those with depression by 27%. The age group of preschoolers falls under this category.

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The Power of Play-Based Learning in Preschool

When it comes to their children, Indian parents do not leave any stone unturned. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, Indian parents spend the most time helping their children with homework. All over India, 95% of parents help their children with their studies. This shows how most Indian parents bury their heads in textbooks to work on the endless projects given by the school to their kids, instead of the kid learning through new projects.

Choosing a preschool or a children’s play centre where rote learning or memorising is encouraged to get good grades or to get into good primary is perhaps not the best idea. This will just lead to preschoolers with poor learning skills.

So how exactly should you encourage healthy learning patterns in children? Play-based learning is the answer! Play means an enjoyable activity for children, with no end goal. In simple terms, play-based learning means children learning through playing like hiding, building, searching, games etc. Given the importance of play, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, also recognizes play as a right of every child.

Little Wings, one of the best play schools and preschools in South Bopal, emphasises play-based learning to lay the foundation for a child’s holistic growth & development.

Communication skills

While playing, children talk and listen to others, which polishes their communication skills and enhances their vocabulary. In these early years of education, when teachers in children’s play centres encourage conversation in a natural way, it can be especially effective as young children receive information and connect it with what they already know or with what they have just learned. Even singing or playing word games with their classmates can help the preschoolers increase their vocabulary and become more confident

Sometimes children play alone and talk with their toys or narrate an imaginary story while playing. “Hey my train is about to leave the station, cho-cho,” or something to that effect is what you might have overheard your child say. When they enact these multiple sides of the conversation, it encourages communication growth.

Motor skills

Young children have more than 600 muscles in their body and they actively use these muscles while climbing, running, playing ball games, jumping, throwing and dancing. Play based learning helps children enhance their hand-eye coordination, control over their muscles and helps them become more flexible.

On the one hand, activities like running, skipping, jumping, help children develop strong gross motor skills, activities like colouring and painting help them develop fine motor skills. When you see your child playing on a slide in the preschool or hopping on a monkey bar, it may seem like they are just enjoying themselves. However, their little body is doing a lot of work and strengthening their muscles. It makes children physically active from a very early stage.

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