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Parenting
How Important Really Are
The Preschool Years
by Garima Gupta
 It
is an established fact now that the first five years of a child’s life
are the most important ones. It is the time when his personality and
intelligence level are determined. The child’s brain is a lot more
active and alert than an adults is, forever grasping new skills,
language and methods. Recent Brain research shows that an infant is born
with over 100 billion neurons. These neurons last us a lifetime, since
no more neurons are created later. During the early life, the neurons
form ‘connections’ which is basically the wiring of the brain. This
wiring determines the maximum potential of an adult individual. The
number of these ‘connections’, or synapses, can vary as much as 25%
depending on the early experiences a child goes through. This is also
known as ‘use it or lose it’ principle of the brain. That is, the more
your child uses the brain to understand and grasp new experiences, more
neurons would be used to make the pathways of intelligence. The rest of
the neurons are lost forever. It is therefore, important , that parents
and teachers recognize the critical importance of these years and
stimulate the child accordingly.
Stimulation, however, does not means incessant bombardment of random
information on the child, which is invariably done in the later years.
So, don’t assume that a 4 year old who knows the capitals and flags of
all countries is necessarily a future genius. Stimulation, at this
stage, means exposing your child to different environments, letting him
be, and answering his questions in all honesty and detail. He’ll pick up
more this way than through a parental monologue. So, You tell him that
while monsters don’t really exist, aliens might, and dinosaurs did.
He’ll understand as much as he needs to. Do not generalize all 4
wheelers as cars. A 3 year old can differentiate between different
models and makes of cars, if he has been given the information first.
Taking your child out to the zoo, the planetarium, the park, to a
relatives’ place for summers, to different cities and cultures is a far
greater teacher than LKG-UKG combine. Just because she won’t remember
that specific trip ten years hence doesn’t mean that she will gain
nothing from it. The idea here is to provide the kid with varied
environments and letting her pick up the information lying around.
Meeting and living with relatives and friends also serve a very
important purpose. The child realizes that everyone is different, as she
observes that grandma drinks tea without sugar, grandpa uses a stick,
and her aunt ties up her hair differently than mom. Do not attempt to
recreate your home’s environment when you are visiting another place,
the differences in menu and taste, in bed and in chair will teach your
child about the different textures of life.
Importance of early years is also emphasized by the science of
psychology. Dr. Eric Berne, the father of transactional analysis,
believed that a child is influenced most by her parents in the early
years of life, before her ‘social birth’ . The ‘recordings’ of feelings
and conclusions made in these years are always available to the
individual for replay later. By the time a child starts school, she is
already exposed to all possible admiration and admonishment of the
parent, and later parental communication is only a reinforcement of the
feelings and judgments made earlier. This points to the need of a young
child to be loved and caressed, and not just cared for. In this sense, a
nanny or crèche can never take place of parents with time available for
their kids.
So Preschool is indeed a precious time in your child’s life. Do not
shrug it off as something that he’s not going to remember later, and
therefore unimportant. Parents and Teachers, working together, can
create an environment in which a child can bloom to his or her full
potential in later life.
March 5, 2006
Top
| Parenting
The Week of March 5, 2006
Tackling Al-Qaeda: Key lies in
Pushtunistan by Rajinder Puri
The Great American Circus Rolls On ... by
Usha Kakkar
United States President's Historic Visit
to India by Dr. Subhash Kapila
The Great American Circus Rolls On ...
by Usha Kakkar
US History - Lesser Known
Facts, Analogies & Surmises Part 4 by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
What UN Reform could be suitable for the
New World Order? by TA Ramesh
Morarji Desai: A Statesman Par Excellence
by Syed Muzammiluddin
A dialogue with the Canadian Poet
Aurora Antonovic by Dr. Amitabh Mitra
How Important Really
Are The Preschool Years by Garima Gupta
Snow or Gold A Story by
Suniti Chandra Mishra
Love's Grandeur A Story by Amita Sinha
Kids Fighting by Michael Grose
Kiwi Trivia by Neha Girotra
Interior Design Trends in India by
Rekha I Nambiar
Hamburger in America by Manjula Waldron
The Power of Mantra and Prayer by Arya
Bhushan
Memoirs About My Father by Ashok
Rastogi
Daring to Divorce Shuriah Niazi
Women on Track by Ambujam Anantharaman
Reading Between the Numbers by Kaushiki
Rao
Pop Culture and Pizza by Neeta Lal
Drama to Cope with Trauma by Mehru
Jaffer
One Woman Against the Tide : A feature
on Indrani Sinha
Tough Woman in Tough Land: A feature on
Nusrat Ara from Pakistan
Impact of Mars as per Bhrigu Nadi System by
Dr. Shanker Adawal
Kaikeyi: Ram Ke Mangeela Banvas by
Satya Chaitanya
The Cartographic Deficit in Indic
Publishing! by Shreerãm Vidyãrthî
Is George Bush Anti Islam? by Usha
Kakkar
United Colors of Indo-US Bonhomie by
Usha Kakkar
Tale of Two Countries by Usha Kakkar
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