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The benefits of play for children

January 8, 2024
95

HOW DOES PLAY HELP CHILDREN GROW?

Play helps children grow and change in four ways:

  • physically
  • mentally
  • socially
  • emotionally

PLAY AND PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT When children play, they learn to use their muscles. Gross motor play involves large muscles. Fine motor play involves the use of smaller muscles.

  • Large muscles like those in the arms and legs get stronger and work better as children run, jump, and climb.
  • The small muscles of the fingers and toes become more controlled.
    • Babies hold on with all their hands.
    • 4-year-olds can easily pick up small pieces.

Balance ability comes with practicing walking along curbs, climbing trees and monkey bars, and playing hopscotch. When parts of the body work together so that the entire body moves smoothly and performs a task, this is called coordination. Children have a lot of energy. They need plenty of opportunities to play physically to burn off energy, then they sleep and eat better, so they will continue to grow. At all ages, motor coordination capacity depends on how much physical activity children do daily.

Music and movement

Music and the emotional and social development of the child

Including music in children’s activities helps children’s development which unites the two hemispheres of the brain. Music and emotions develop in the limbic system. Music provokes all types of feelings and emotions, being a tool that allows children to understand and express what they feel and at the same time strengthens bonds of trust. Music and its importance in the development of children’s body expression.

Body movement is closely linked to the world of sounds. Music stimulates the senses and balance, strengthening children’s muscles. When dancing they adapt their own movements and rhythms, acquiring greater coordination and spatial sense.

in RESOURCES

Why is Good Nutrition Important for Our Children?

January 8, 2024
117

Food is decisive for proper functioning of the body, good growth, optimal learning capacity and the prevention of diseases.

The effects of malnutrition in early childhood can be devastating and long-lasting. A healthy and balanced diet is essential for children’s health.

A varied and healthy diet always goes hand in hand with physical activity. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that children do 1 hour a day of some type of activity. Schools and childcare centers such as group and home daycare centers have activities in their curriculum where children have different physical activities.

It is important that parents share some activity during the time that their children are away from school or from their childcare providers, whether it is riding a bicycle, playing in the park, skating, swimming, dancing or soccer.

It is important to include foods that provide energy and everything necessary that a healthy child needs: foods with energy, carbohydrates, fats and protein. We must avoid juices, soft drinks, chocolates and candies or fried foods and greasy foods.

Serve foods by sizes and portions for different ages. Nutrition for children is based on the same ideas as nutrition for adults. We all need the same types of elements, such as vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein and fat. All of them together are called nutrients.

Children need different amounts of specific nutrients depending on their ages:

For 2 year old children:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ¼ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 groups of food of ½ ounce
  • Blue group: Dairy ½ cup
  • Orange group: 1 ounce

For children 3-4 years old:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ½ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 food group of ½ ounce
  • Blue group: Dairy ½ – ¾ cup
  • Orange group: 1 ½ cup

For children 5-8 years old:

  • Green group: vegetables and fruits combine 2 food groups ¾ cup
  • Yellow group: combine 4 food groups of 1 ounce
  • Blue Group: Dairy 1 cup
  • Orange group: 2 ounces

Courtesy of Precious Moment Child Care

Reference: https://www.mayoclinic.org/

in RESOURCES

Oral language: where it all begins

September 28, 2023
152

Children are language learners by virtue of being born and living in society. They build linguistic knowledge to the extent that they use language to interact with other people, the objects in their environment, and understand what surrounds them. (Halliday, 1975).03

The first manifestations of speech, such as stammering, are part of oral language. That initial babble is the response of the infant to the adult when they try to have a communication encounter. It all starts when they have their parents by their side or someone who communicates with them. It is extremely important that through oral language, the adult: speaks to them, sings, and explains the world around them; that is, it translates the physical world into words. At this stage, your voice can be “understood and heard”, even if they don’t have the adult language code. As the child grows, they acquire more vocabulary and their thoughts, ideas and forms of expression become more complex. Finally, oral language reveals children’s knowledge about language functions, their intersection skills and what they know about the world around them. (Owoki & Goodman, 2002).

The best way to enrich the sound world of childhood is by talking to them, singing, and reading to them. These three forms of stimuli complement each other, each serving a special role in language development. It is a simple way to tell if your child is listening, when parents talk to their baby, preparing them to verbally explore the world around them. The sound of words is very important, as it will be the stimulus to develop the ability to speak.

From the first moment, we adults talk to our newborns because we are sure that they understand us, that this is how we communicate. According to Vigotsky (1978), oral language plays a central role in mental processes and in the internalization of the cultural process. It reveals childrens functions, their interaction skills and what they know about the world around them. (Owoki & Goodman, 2002).

The role of the educator goes beyond educating the child, it is to promote appropriate practices for language development. We begin by fulfilling the responsibility of listening to the voice of children, and children must feel our voice. Through their conversations and actions, children expand and refine their linguistic and conceptual knowledge. To the extent that an educator listens to them talk and speaks to them, they can understand their thoughts and intentions.

Children learn as a result of social interaction and transform the language and actions of their social experience into tools for thought. The social experience of interaction with the educator and with children’s literature allowed them to incorporate a way of expressing their feelings orally. It is exposed, then, that experiences with oral language through children’s literature is the motivation that impulses learning.

Tips for good language in children.

Therefore, you should review these tips on how to stimulate language in young children.

We present a series of recommendations to stimulate the baby’s oral language: take advantage of everyday situations to stimulate language: at meals, in the bathroom, at games, going to daycare and school, in the park… the time to stimulate language never ends.

Ramos, A. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://alcanza.uprrp.edu/

Courtesy of Precious Moment Child Care

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