Sooner or later a child enters a period in which the surrounding environment will change. Usually, it has to do with the fact that the child has grown and parents have to return to their jobs. There comes a question of how to organize a child – is it necessary to prepare him or her for the changed environment, is it vital to send him or her to kindergarten?
Kindergarten – is in form a model of adult society. If you decided that your kid is ready for it then, first of all, you should consider how to help him or her to adapt to a completely new environment.
For developing psychological stability of a child the adaptation period is extremely important because children under 3 can experience fear of strangers and new forms of communication. These fears are one of the causes for challenged adaptation to pre-school institution. Often fear of new people and situations in the kindergarten leads to the fact that the child becomes more excited, sensitive, whining, he is getting sick more often, because stress reduces protective forces of the nature.
Adaptation is – a form of organism for getting used to new environment, and for the child kindergarten is new, unknown environment and new relationships. Adaptation includes wide spectrum of individual reactions. Their nature depends on psycho-physiological and personal peculiarities of the child, on relations inside the family and on conditions of stay at a pre-school institution. Which means that every child has his own timely and emotional period for adaptation.
Up to 3 years of age the parent is a partner in a game, role model and he satisfies the need of a child to experience positive attention and cooperation. That is why the child does not feel the need to communicate with mates. A lot of kids during the period of adaptation become whiny, aggressive, closed for communication, anxious. This is attributed to the fact that none of the basic needs is satisfied – the need of safety and protection. Strong bonding with parents and their unexpected disappearance raise protest. The child is left alone for the first time without relatives in unfamiliar environment and he is worried whether he will be “accepted in a group”. In a family he is the center of attention, but in kindergarten he is one of many, similar to others. This brakes his stereotypes, it requires psychological reconstruction, change in behavior, learning new skills. It requires help from adults: parents and teachers. How is it possible to make this process less painful?
Aiming at adapting kids aged up to 3 to the daily stay regime (kindergarten) we created “Groups for early development” and hold joint sessions with kids and their mothers twice per week for 2 hours.
The classes are aimed at child’s adaptation to the world outside the home walls, to introducing rules of social behavior, to forming norms of discipline and communication. More than that group activities provide an opportunity to learn how to communicate with each other, to learn gaming activities. Gradually, the sense of fear of loosing ground fades away in the child as well as in parents.
Parents together with their child attend activities and for them it is also a very important moment – they are offered an opportunity to learn more about their child and have a consulting session with specialists regarding the issues of challenges in behavior, socialization, learning activities, relationships and other processes.
Moreover for parents it is a wonderful opportunity to meet new people. Owing to such activities a lot of our mothers made friends and continue communication – visit each other and celebrate birthdays of their kids.