Basseterre, St. Kitts, June 04, 2013 (SKNIS): The Early Childhood Development Unit (ECDU) recently held a meeting for caregivers to sensitize them on the importance of stimulating young minds with a number of strategies that promote children’s learning abilities at the McKnight Day-care Centre.
Resource Teacher at Early Childhood June Wallace stated that early stimulation should be of the utmost priority to caregivers.
“As Early Childhood Practitioners, as we all are, we must be advocates, we must be supporters for the belief that…there will never be anything more important than the needs of our young children.”
She noted that fueling a child’s mind in the early stage of development will result in an improved thought process and influence learning both as children and as adults. She added that it is also a period in life where the brain is particularly open to new experiences and stressed that the caregivers take advantage of this window of opportunity.
“This period, birth to five plus, especially the period of birth to three years, those are the key times when we have to be sensitive and we have to encourage the children by providing early stimulating activities. If these sensitive periods pass by without the brain receiving any stimulation…learning will be reduced substantially. So you will find that you have children who will not be learning.”
Topics covered included creating an environment conducive to learning, developing appropriate activities to suit the child’s individual needs and helping children to relax which facilitates easier learning.
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