Providing for the Preschooler’s Developmental Needs

1. Providing for the Preschooler’s Developmental Needs Chapter 18 Page 419

2. Physical Needs • No longer completely dependent • Better able to help themselves • Adults must help • Child and adult work as a team

3. Meeting Nutritional Needs • Children grow at different rates • Energy output varies month to month • May be more interested in foods prepared different ways • But also may want junk foods

4. You Are What You Eat • What you eat affects how you grow • Growth slows in preschool years • Children are more prone to diseases when nutritional needs are not met • Slower recovery when ill • Nutritious foods are needed for brain growth • General alertness affected by persons diet

5. Basic Food Choices • Follow the Food Guide Pyramid (page 422 figure 18-3) • Serving sizes slightly larger than 2 year olds • Milk servings remain constant • Parents vary diets according to child’s growth rate • Snacks should provide nutrients not just calories

6. Food Attitudes Are Learned • Food attitudes may last a lifetime • Offering a variety in a pleasant atmosphere • May go through phase where they eat or drink only one thing, it will pass • Never use food as a reward or punishment

7. Preventing Eating Problems • Children prefer mild flavors and aromas over strong ones • EX. Spinach leaves a bitter after taste in child’s mouth but not adults

8. Food That Looks Good • May influence child • Attractive, different sizes, shapes, colors, textures, and temperatures • Plates should have some empty space • Full plates may feel like too much before they start • Enjoy foods prepared especially for them

9. Separate Rather Than Combination Foods • Eaten separately rather than when foods are combined • If taste one food they don’t like they won’t eat the salad or casserole • Will accept mixes of fruits more than veggies

10. Foods Served at Acceptable Temperatures • Don’t like extreme temperatures • Can burn mouth • Hot foods can be cooled by ice cubes • Cold foods eaten slowly because of brain freeze

11. Foods Prepared in Different Ways • May not like cooked carrots but will eat raw • Salad dressing that isn’t too tangy may make veggies easier to eat • Dressings from yogurt help meet calcium needs

12. New Foods in Small Amounts • Food in small amounts to see how they like it • Help with food allergies and intolerances

13. Easy-to-Eat Foods • Bite-sized and finger foods • Messy foods and spoons may not be as handy

14. Make Meals Fun • Enjoy helping prepare food • Learn about colors, shapes, tastes, aromas, textures, and appliances names • Learn food terms like cut, boil, poach • Teaches math, measurements, numbers, temperatures • Science by rising, baking, freezing, boiling

15. Meals should be a time to relax, share, and have fun • Set example by taking turns talking, and watching table manners

16. Selecting the Right Clothes • Protect body from harsh weather, scrapes, cuts • Fit • Give the active child freedom to move • Fit by size not age • Size same for boys or girls

17. Fabric & Construction Features • Need good quality • Grow mainly in length of arms and legs • Wide hems to be let out • Kimono or raglan sleeves for growth • Adjustable shoulder straps • Floppy headwear can prevent them from seeing

18. Self-dressing Features • Can dress themselves with little help • Toys can help them practice snap, buttons, zippers, etc

19. Shoes & Socks • Grow one show size every four months • Sock size corresponds to shoe size • Make sure they each fit properly

20. Clothes & Self-concept • Expresses personality • Can make some choices about clothes • Choose color, or type etc

21. Handling Sleep & Toileting Problems • Routines are in place • Sleep needs are individual • Give up naps • Sleep 10 hours at night • Bedtime ritual is still wanted • Fear of dark and monster still exist • Toilet accidents occur once in a while

22. Toileting • Adults may need to remind children to go to the bathroom from time to time • Time is the major cure for bedtime accidents • Enuresis – any instance of involuntary • (accidental) urination by a child over 3 years of age • Some caused by deep sleep, afraid to get up in dark, too much liquid at bedtime

23. Providing Needed Space & Furnishings • Want to be on their own more • More toys and belongings • Able to safely reach and return things • Want a space of their own • Screen, cabinet, or drawer

24. Learning Responsibility • Need storage space for them that is easy to use • Plan storage so they can hang or put away by themselves

25. Intellectual Needs • May be enrolled in special programs • At home and play groups are still the most important places for learning • While shopping a child can do: • Observe attributes of item • Classify items • Learn number skills • learn language skills in naming and describing items

26. Learning Through Observing • Must learn through observing by seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting • Compare – to see how objects and people are alike • Contrast – to see how objects and people are different

27. Television Watching • Observe by watching television • Attractive characters, animation, movement, repetition and sounds cause children to observe • Passive observing – watching another’s actions without responding • Is not the same as learning • TV doesn’t require a response

28. Children need more time to digest an idea than a few seconds a television image may provide • Television should not be used as a baby sitter • Watch with an adult and build upon the learning concepts

29. Learning Through Problem Solving • Problem solving – noting a problem, observing and questioning what you see, and solving the problem • Use mental and action-oriented problem solving skills • Mental depends on skill like classifying, reversing, and arranging

30. Transformation – sequence of changes by which one state is changed to another • Knowing about transformation is another basic skill • EX. Water to ice, caterpillar to butterfly

31. How Adults Can Help Preschoolers Solve Problems • Can sort items • Classifying is more difficult • Adults can help by reviewing what are all the foods that we bought in boxes • Classify items by shape, color, size

32. Terms • Class – a group of items that have an attribute in common • Class complement – in classifying, any object that does not belong within the class being considered • Reversals – mentally doing and undoing an action

33. Helping Children Put Items in Order • Ex. Line up from shortest to tallest • Restrict number of items • Make the differences in the items easy to see • See page 436, figure 18-16

34. Helping Children with Reversals • Before mentally doing reversals they need to do some physical reversals • Reversals must be experienced not taught • For Ex. A child pouring water from one container to another • See page 437, figure 18-18

35. Helping Children with Transformation • Transformations happen all the time in the natural world • Adults should point them out • Look at the family photo album • See page 437 figure18-19

36. Learning Through Symbolizing • Intellectual needs are met as children begin to think in terms of symbols or signs • Child pretending is a form of symbolism • Pretending peaks in the preschool years

37. Using Symbols in Art • Ideas come before the product is made • Play materials may or may not be like the real world, but they symbolize the real world to them

38. Using Symbols in Language • Words are highly abstract • Need more time to deal with their world using less abstract forms of symbols • Must arrive at their own meaning • Problem solving in the real world give a practical reason for learning • Divergent thinking is more often developed through rich, everyday experiences

39. Children need time to deal with real world • Some children feel stress as a result of formal lessons

40. Terms • Divergent thinking – coming up with different possible ideas • Convergent thinking – coming up with only one right answer or way to do a task

41. Learn Through Motor Skills • Learn as they move their body through space • Learn as they manipulate objects • Almost in constant motion • They learn gross-motor through play and play activities • Fine-motor skills are enjoyed too, puzzles, small wooden beads, pegboards, etc

42. Learning Through Language • Learn from what they hear • Articulation of sounds, vocabulary, and grammar • Adults need to be the best language models possible • Daily chances to speak with adults • Language needs to be a part of all activities

43. Television & Reading • Monitor types and amount of television • Studies show if they watch 5 hours or less in a week they will do better in school • Reading to children every day increases language learning • Helps expand concepts

44. Computers and Learning • Learning about technology • Like computers; • Part of their everyday world • Children are in control as they work on the computer • Computer is patient and permits repetition

45. Excellent software programs with good format for children • Interactive stories, etc • Adults should be on hand at first to handle any questions

46. Social-Emotional Needs • Through successes and mistakes they test their skills • Firmness and fairness must be the adult’s rule if the child’s self concept is to remain healthy

47. Discipline: Helping with Initiative and Mistakes • Define themselves in terms of what they can do • Children try any activities • Active ones are curious • Do things on impulse • When successful, they need to hear positive statements

48. Learn more by their own attempts than by having adults do it for them • Given freedom to try • Even dream up new activities not presently covered by the rules

49. Limits • Reasonable limits • For safety purposes and prepare them for the real world • Disciplined in a loving, yet firm way

50. Honest Communication • Being honest helps children build trust • Need to know adults make mistakes and good up too