ECDV110 Child Development I: Promoting Children's Positive Sense

Children emerging sense of self: At first children understand that they are unique beings different from others, that is, self-awareness. With time they manage to identify sole attributes such as psychological attributes and abilities which differentiate them from their peers and other people, that is, self concept. In their very early childhood, they acquire language which they use to describe who they are. Early to middle childhood, they are able to connect their past, present and the future. Middle to later elementary age they start comparing themselves with their peers such as in terms of appearance, abilities and achievements. I have noted that children’s growth and development is gradual and takes place differently among different kids. Thus, parents and guardians should allow this process to take place without any negative external influence.

The evolution of self-esteem: Children start self-evaluations at a very young age. They start making judgments in various categories such as academic, social, and competence. The way they evaluate themselves depends on the level of self-awareness and self-concept. As they evaluate self, one will note that these evaluations vary even though they undergo similar developmental sequence. Children who evaluate themselves positively have healthy self-esteem while those who evaluate self negatively develop poor self-esteem. As adults we should provide children with a conducive environment to self-actualize themselves and see themselves as capable people, liked, and worthy. As we interact with them we should acknowledge that our practices influence their self-esteem.

Establishing a positive verbal environment: There are different strategies of doing this. These include behavior reflections, effective praise, shared narratives, conversations, open-ended questions, and paraphrase reflections. Harms, Cryer, Clifford, & Yazejian, (2017) point out that positive verbal environment do not come about consistently or automatically without forethought or intent. The aforementioned verbal strategies can be used for all children irrespective of their language abilities or primary language. Through their respective explanations, I have learnt that adult people who want to establish positive verbal environment need to understand which one works best for their children because they all have different degrees of efficiency.

Verbal strategies that support linguistically diverse children: Apart from the first home language, children should be supported to acquire another second one say English so that they can become dual-language learners (DLL) (Jacoby, & Lesaux, 2017). For speedier and better acquisition of a second language, parents should encourage their kids to speak in their first one as a way of appreciating it. When they see their language being treated with reverence, children feel valued and hence evaluate themselves positively. The process of acquiring a second language, children undergo some stages and the first one is home language use. Research has proven that allowing children to make ideas using their first language increases their chance of comprehending another one. This teaches us that as adults we should drop the assumption that denying children access to their home language and bringing them up with “English language only” promotes speedier acquisition. This is a mistaken belief.       

References

Harms, T., Cryer, D., Clifford, R. M., & Yazejian, N. (2017). Infant/toddler environment rating scale. Teachers College Press.

Jacoby, J. W., & Lesaux, N. K. (2017). Language and literacy instruction in preschool classes that serve Latino dual language learners. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 40, 77-86.