HEALTH AND SAFETY

Healthy is a state of body and mind-well functioning which affords man ability to strive toward his both functional objectives and cultural desired goals(Balog,1978).This situation includes freedom from illness, ability to function and fitness.

Safety is a state in which hazards and conditions leading to physical, psychological or material harm controlled in order to preserve the health and wellbeing of individual’s and community at large.

Links between health and safety

Healthy and safety according to Maslow’s Needs theory, healthy is one of the fundamental needs of human being just like the psychological needs (Maslow,1968). Consequently, safety can be viewed as prerequisite for maintaining and improving the health and welfare of a population.

Environment

• Physical

• Social
• Cultural
• Technological  
                                                 Safety healthy and welfare status 
  
• Economical
• organizational

Behavior

• individual
• collective

The healthy and welfare of a population is determined mainly by environment conditions or exhibited behaviors .The effects of behavioral and environmental determinants on health and well-being is often a function of the level of safety attained.

The importance of health and safety to children development

Improvement of positive social relationships between children. A child can interact with peers a situation which can provide the context for social learning and problem solving including in cooperation and turn taking. Also this holistic relationship provides a room for security and trust that enable a child to explore and flourish in group care.

It helps parents and caregivers to recognize the sign of stress to the children and take appropriate action to adapt to the children’s needs. This is done through various ways such as observation, having knowledge on child development and respect for each child’s temperament, interests and capabilities so as to ensure children development.

It helps to reduce children diseases: This is done through vaccination to diseases such as polio and provision of balanced diet which is safe and suitable to their age at a specific time. Also the availability of safe space for quiet and active play, sleeping and spaces to interact one another and with individual caregiver, this situation reduces diseases and stimulates child development.

Ensuring the unique learning abilities: This involves planning appropriate activities for children, how to use daily routine to bond with children and to provide cognitive stimulation through conversation, interaction and responsive relationships due to a conducive health and safety hence child development.

Improvement of independence and confidence; this is a result of health and safe environment children experience .Children can play safely and freely also can explore various things which improve cognitive skills through giving out their ideas and cooperate with others and participate in activities which stimulate growth and development.

Parent and teacher cooperation

A parent is a caregiver of offspring in their species. In human, a parent is a caretaker of a child, where ‘child’ refer to offspring not necessary age. However being a parent does not necessary mean that you biologically passed your genetics to a child .For a person being a parent, is supposed to be responsible for either social, physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual of a child.

A teacher is a professional person who helps others to acquire knowledge, competence, values and skills.

And cooperation is a process or instances of working and acting together for a particular purpose or benefit.

In order for children to achieve success , school need the support from parents (Hepworth berger ,1991) .From the time of birth the child is constantly learning things .The parents is the child’s primary teacher until the child inter school , usually at the age of five , when a second teacher introduce to the child . From the point on the child has two primary teachers offering training and guidance. If a child is getting mixed messages from home and school, the child will soon be confused and begin to doubt one of the teachers. However, if the parents are involved in the school, and take an active parents area involved in the school, and take an active part in their child’s education, the child will receive a consistence massage that school is important.

Ways for improving parents and teachers cooperation

Communication: This is a key in building cooperation. Teachers are supposed to have open lines of communication established with the parent or guardians of children. This situation establishes trust and serves as a constant reminder that the parents are a team for children care and development.

Involving parents and teachers in special events: There are various scattering special events throughout the year, by giving parents plenty of advance notice about dates and schedules can provide opportunity for them to cooperate. Events such as birthday and holiday parties, child-centered showcases, and parents and teachers appreciation days are also fun ways to improve their cooperation.

The importance of parents and teachers cooperation in child development

Parent and teacher cooperation is very crucial in child development education and co-curriculum activities especially in the course of normal child development (Hurt & Risley , 1995) as follows;

It provides opportunity for both parents and teachers to better understand with what occurs within both environments, that is home and school. By having more contacts with parents, teachers learn more about children needs and habits. It also helps teachers to understand the child’s special needs and their daily life behavior so as to ensure the overall child development.

Improvement of children’s emotional and psychological wellbeing: The relationship and cooperation between parents and teachers build a greater self-esteem to children than those who do not, as they likely to experience mental health problems which including depression and anxiety things which deteriorate their development. Also a social environment may influence a child’s health by adapting appropriate ways for child development.

It build a collaborative environment in educational decisions and learning activities (Pianta et al., 1999): The environment provide a wider range of learning process for a child by considering individual differences of children for example problems like deaf, sight problem and mental retardation. So parents and teacher cooperation, if they work effectively even other children with problems can learn like other normal children.

Increasing the continuity to care for children: It is due to the fact that, teachers are the ones who are responsible for child’s care adjustment and its assessment. Moreover the association emerged between home and school may lead continuity of the child behavior. This is because the continuity is more relevant to the child’s adjustment at the early stage of development and school experience.

High quality of family-school connection facilitates children’s development in all aspects such as emotionally and behavioral, by providing for a bi-directional exchange of information that helps align parents’ and teachers’ goals. So the quality of parent and teacher cooperation influences the child behavior and this in-turn affects the whole system of learning of a child.

It increase a great value on education, if parents and teachers are involved and interested in their children’s daily experiences, they attribute the child-care and educational value to their children’s development. As a result nowadays, parents allocate a great value to their children’s education, due to new awareness of the educational needs of children.

CONCLUSION

For child development, parental education is the best predictor of their readiness to get involved in the life and work of their children .This is especially to the case of most mothers who spend a lot of time for health and safety of children more often than father, without regarding the area in which the families live is urban or suburban. All parents are important for their children’s education as well health and safety.