THE PRE-SCHOOL CHILD

According to Bornstein(2012) said that whether he/ she is of two and a half, three, four or five years old is one who needs space to be vigorous, alone and or part of an active group for his happiness, concern and self expression. He/ she need material which is appropriate to his/her size, idea and feelings.

He/she needs an understanding adult to help him/her to explore manually and verbally and to learn the lessons of life from both people and objects. During the preschool years children have a rapid physical, mental and social growth. They gather information and from them into patterns of knowledge that become integrated with their life.

Parenting

Is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, financial and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood.

Therefore, parenting practices around the world share major goals: ensuring children’s health and safety, preparing children for life as productive adults and transmitting cultural values. A high-quality parent-child relationship is critical for healthy development (Trawich, 2014).

 

Feeding patterns

According to Bornstein (2012) said that, feeding is a primary event in the life of an infant and young child. It is the focus of attentions for parents and other care givers and a source of social interaction through verbal and non verbal communication.

The eating experience provides not only sustenance but also an opportunity for learning. It affects not only children’s physical growth and health but also their psychological and emotional development.

The essential components of feeding behavior in young children are the relationship between the child and the firs care giver. The first three years of life are particular challenge because a child’s feeding abilities and needs change with motor, cognitive and social development.

A parent can establish a healthy eating pattern by offering cut-up vegetables or fruits as snacks instead of sweets or crackers by replacing fast food, ,meals with microwavable meals that contain less fat by using low fat milk instead of whole milk, offering frits or water to drink instead of high calorie drinks such as juice.

The importance of feeding patterns in physical, social, cognitive and emotional development of a child

The benefit of feeding pattern to the development of a child is endless but the following are few conclusion made by researchers to prove my points.

Physical development: Children requires a varieties of nutrient dense foods such as fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fresh meat and fresh fish and adequate calorie in order to grow and develop properly adequate supplies of protein which are necessary to support rapidly developing muscles and body tissue. Lack of protein nutrition in the child body lead to malnutrition (Johnston and Halocha, 2010). Malnutrition when is chronic, can stunt physical growth and affect brain development. An adequate calcium intake promotes optimal borne density which will assist teen growth and reduce the risk of bone loss in later life.

Cognitive development: Foods rich lead to disorders such anemia, which can lead to diminish physical and cognitive functioning. In iron are needed so as to develop a child cognitively. Inadequate irons nutrients in the body (Devadas and Jaya, 2005).

Social development: In the first stage from birth to three months of self-regulation and organization, the child integrates. In the second three to seven months the infant and parent from an attachment that allows them to communicate with other and infant develops basic trust and self-soothing behavior. In the third stage from six to thirty six months the child gradual separates emotionally from the parent and discovers sense of independence or autonomy making use of developing motor and language skills to control the environment and establish independent feeding(Bronfenbrenner,2010).

With participation in family meals, social component of feeding expands. The child begins to mimic eating choices, patterns and behavior modeled by family members. The structure of family meals sets limits for the child as she or he achieves independent feeding skills. The accessibility of particular food, modeling, media exposure and feeding interactions shape a child’s eating behavior and food preferences.

Emotional development: Children eat whatever comes to their eyes but parents and caregivers are advised to give their children not only the food which has a good taste but also foods which attract them. This helps them to develop emotional skills such as anger, happiness and sadness. When a child sees attractive food tends to develop emotionally feelings which make a child to imagine that the certain food is so sweet and delicious as a result a child starts to salivate.

The caregivers behaviors and child’s temperament influences the feed relationship. The parents who allows her infant to determine timing, amount and pacing of a meal helps her infant develop self –regulation and secure attachment .The parent who allows her child to explore the environment while providing structure and appropriate limit helps her child develop motor and social skills. The effective parent adjusts and respond appropriately to her child’s temperament can affect how a child approaches and respond to a new food and to a parent feeding pattern (Trawich, 2014).

 

Learning activities

Learning is the great means for adjustment among human beings. It is the process by which the individual acquires knowledge, attitudes and habits that are necessary to meet the demands of life. Therefore, learning is the process which registers growth. Effectiveness of learning can be ensured by paying attention to those of its aspects, namely needs, readiness, situation and interaction (Bornstein, 2012).

Functions of learning activities on pre-school child, aiming at the all-round development of the child physical, social, emotional and intellectual

Developing good health habits: In well-planned learning activities children are taking to the toilet at regular intervals and trained for washing hands before and after meals, as the first step towards habit formation. Children learn through informal talks, songs, stories, dramatization and puppetry the need for developing proper health habits of regular elimination, brushing their teeth, taking a bath, combing their hair and being neat and tidy always (Devadas and Jaya, 2005).

Providing for the child’s physical wellbeing: In offers space for free movement , it provides chances for activities such as climbing, jumping, sliding, swinging and pedaling for practicing bodily control and mastering the basic motor skills involving the large muscles. Also numerous activities for coordination and concentration such as threading leads, painting, drawing, cutting and posting. These facilitate the development for muscular coordination (Devadas and Jaya, 2005).

Promoting emotional growth: Every child needs affection, approval, acceptance and emotional maturity can be developed by guiding the child to express, understand, accept and control his feelings and emotions. Development of emotions has two aspects namely (a)providing opportunities for the development of positive emotions such as trust, love, security and sense of accomplishment and (b)channelizing the negative emotions such as fear and anger. All of these can be minimize by be close with child taking with them slowly in good manner and be loved with them (Bornstein, 2012).

Catering for social development: Providing materials which enable the children to enjoy sharing and playing together. It teaches a child their rights and privileges in doing a member of a social group and encourages them to take care of the property belongs to others. The preschool helps children to work in groups and conform to the group demands. Responsibility and other desirable social attitudes and good manners are cultivated through the relationship with the group and with adult (Johnston and Halocha, 2010).

Stimulating aesthetic appreciation: These are numerous beautiful objects in the environment. Nature has bested beauty all around children’s attention should be drawn to those. For instance, children in the pre-school can be helped to appreciate beauty in the pretty flowers, colorful butterflies, moving clouds, whispering tress and growing plants (Bornstein, 2012).

Cognitive growth: Teaching equipments and materials which are challenging and stimulating , by allowing each child to understand the world in which she or he loners , and by fostering new interests through opportunity to explore, investigate and experiment. A young child is very curious, his or her questions must be answered directly to satisfy his curiosity (Bornstein, 2012).

 

Others factors that influencing child Development

Genetic Influence: Hereditary influences are polygenic and multifactorial, with multiple genes coacting with environment. Genetic bases for developmental disorders reflect, in most cases, extreme variations on a continuum that includes normal variation. Genetic effects increase likelihood that certain characteristics will occur (Bornstein, 2012).

Parenting styles: The concept of parenting style has influenced greatly this line of thinking. It is meant to describe normal variants not deviant styles (abusive or neglectful styles). Parenting is a complex activity that includes many specific behaviors that work individually and together to influence child outcome (Devadas and Jaya, 2005).

Parental Education: Large, positive associations between parental schooling levels and children’s achievement and behavior are among the most substantial and replicated results from developmental studies to children. Parental education levels are strongly associated with the home literacy environment, parental teaching style, and investment in variety of resource that promote learning (Devadas and Jaya, 2005).

Family Structure: On average, children raised by single parent have lower levels of social and academic well-being than do children from intact marriage. However, these outcomes derive largely from the socioeconomic realities of single parenthood;

• Lower income
• Less parental time.

Rather than from any direct effects of living only with one parent (Bornstein, 2012).

Conclusion

Therefore learning activities and feeding patterns are important for the development in all aspects of domains as social, emotional, cognitive and physical. Parents and care givers are advised to develop quite their children so as to develop, learning activities such as brushing teeth, coloring, counting numbers, and play different games as well as to teach them and give them proper nutrition so as to develop. Also increase of availability of fresh food especially fruits and vegetables. Community should participate enhance and force on child feeding patters and learning activities so as to promote the development of a child.