Early Childhood Education and Dolls: an Integrated Approach
From nursery classes, dolls can bring necessary and integrated changes in a tiny tot in many ways. Grabbing a certificate from a certified and authentic teacher training institute will never fail to inform you that and train you accordingly.
Early childhood care and education revolves around children growth and development. The development is holistic indicating that it is not only bookish knowledge that they will receive. They need to learn social skills too.
During primary teacher training, you will come to know that playing house let the children learn kindness and practice cooperation. They find the dolls to be their babies and act in a way to take care of them. This instils helping behaviours in them.
What do children learn?
Putting the doll to bed, feeding it time to time etc activities initiate routine behaviour in them. They learn the importance of sticking to a strict routine and become disciplined.
Research activists in child psychology conclude that pro-social behaviours prepare the base of wholesome academic success. The nurturing skills also develop in the children of primary or pre-primary classes.
Being the caregiver of a doll teaches the child how to take care of anything. It is expected and seen too that children who are involved in these activities during the early years of their lives, grow up with these values engraved on them.
Aspirants like you who undergo teacher training in this way, learn to engage the learners in the learning process involving dolls. These children, when grow up, contribute more to the development of community along with small sectors like classroom, home etc.
The skills of care and nurture prepare the little ones for empathetic behaviours also. It makes them aware of the feelings and emotions of others around them.
Playing with doll in the classroom makes them take to role playing also. Due to this they are capable to realise how the other participants are motivated. The role play technique moves them toward perspective taking skill growth too.
What are the teachers’ activities?
As for you, the teacher of these early learners, you can realise their frustration and emotions even before they can communicate verbally. These children experience frustration as they don’t know how to express their feelings and demands as they are not aware of the ways to communicate.
Being empathetic does not make the child a soft target. Instead it makes them capable of combating bullying, a menace that is increasing at high rates.
During the early phase of education, practice of oral language is also stimulated. Conversational skills and elf care skills are two more benefits that these children avail from playing with doll. The foundation of literacy is also thus laid.
What’s more that the children learn here is diversity and the readiness to accept that. A class may represent a diverse cultural and ethnic background, so do dolls.
The different features, colour of skin and hair etc make them realise that people can come from different strata and all of them need to be a part of the system.
Sense of belonging and feeling of inclusion are two things that are instilled in children from playing with dolls. They get the teaching that all identities are validated.
When children are going through primary education, nursery teaching or early education, the trainers often focus only on the academic skills those are discrete in nature. Creativity, thinking ability, capability to memorise and identify etc requisites of in-depth sophisticated learning are built in the children when dolls are made a part of their learning.
From simple behavioural development to ability to solve complex problems, early childhood education with dolls has immense potential and possibilities for a child.
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