Be the voice for children 🤍

The perspective of early childhood education is rapidly evolving, pushed by increasing technology integration into classrooms and homes. While some educators and parents promote the benefits of digital tools for young learners, others express concerns about the potential issues. This blog post will explore the multifaceted impact of technology on early learning, examining both the advantages and the challenges it presents. Also, I recommend some useful practices to get the best out of technology in learning. In my experience as a kindergarten teacher, there are a lot of learning opportunities and experiences for children. Technology is here with us and there is no way to return it. Teachers and parents need to get on that train to drive and explore the world of good resources available for us to use and at the same time discard what is not useful to us. The Role of Technology in Early Learning Technology has become an important key of modern education, offering a range of tools designe...

Language development in children is a fascinating journey that shapes their ability to communicate, understand the world around them, and build relationships. As parents and educators, our role in fostering this development is crucial. In this blog post, we will explore the importance of children’s language development, study into theories surrounding it, examine research results and recommendations, and offer practical recommendations for parents and early childhood educators. Understanding Language Development Language development begins at birth and progresses rapidly in the early years of life. Children learn language through exposure, interaction, and imitation. They start by babbling, and making sounds, and eventually, through observation and practice, they acquire vocabulary, grammar, and communication skills. Theories of Language Development Several theories shed light on how children acquire language. Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, also known as the Development...

As parents, early childhood educators, and caregivers we wish with all our hearts to see our children thriving and developing healthful in all ages, aspects, and stages of their lives. We want our work wonderfully done! That's when we refer to the holistic development approach. The holistic development approach means that we focus on all aspects of the development of children, not just their academic performance. The holistic development of a child refers to the overall growth and progress of a child in various aspects of their life, including physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral domains. It recognizes that children are complex beings, and their development is interconnected and interdependent across these different areas. Areas connected to the holistic development The areas connected to holistic development are described separately for understanding, but it is essential to keep thinking about the child as a whole and how the experiences that encourage development a...

Sensory stimulation connects the use of the senses of visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), tactile (touching), gustatory (tasting), and olfactory (smelling). The use of the senses has been demonstrated that promote and encourage learning, brain development, and growth during the early years. The lack of sensory stimulation can be detrimental to the development of babies and young children. This damage persists during adulthood. There are a lot of activities that stimulate the senses creating brain connections that are discussed and recommended in this blog post. Sensory stimulation and sensory play demand to be done constantly as the child develops and grows to obtain the best benefit in the short and long term. What is sensory stimulation? Sensory stimulation is the input one person receives when one or more of the senses are influenced, activated, or as the concept itself, stimulated. Sensory stimulation theory states that effective learning appears when the senses are stimulated...

People can point out many and many reasons to justify the origin of a conflict. Frequently we can hear about a strong or harsh tone of voice, a defiant attitude to communicate, offensive facial gestures, and so on. One of them could be a motive to begin violent communication. The mental state of the person is a potentially sensitive element here. What is Nonviolent Communication (NVC)? Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is a valuable approach to encourage support among communication and human connection developed by  Marshall Rosenberg . The approach is grounded in Gandhi's principle of non-violence. Practicing NVC allows us to learn to hear our needs and the needs of others emphasizing deep listening and being compassionate and empathetic. NVC is powerfully transformative and often seen as a spiritual practice to develop skills for helping families and communities and contribute to the well-being of all of us. NVC includes the clarification of what we observe, the emotions we are...

In my last post Encouraging creative activities for young children , I discussed how creativity benefits child development, growth, and learning. I shared some tips for parents and caregivers to encourage arts for children in-home activities, including exposure to materials and art supplies and the encouragement for children to arts respecting their muse and vision. I also recommended some suggestions for how to approach a quality conversation avoiding pressure, fomenting appreciation, and respect for other people's works and art expressions, and lastly, when children gain that appreciation and respect, I suggested encouraging their interest in arts by planning a visit to a museum, an art school, gallery, or a studio to see different art exhibitions. In this post, I want to concentrate on useful tips to introduce children to drawing, painting, and photography. In my experience, these forms of art are very interesting for children and they love to practice them. There are other area...

During this pandemic time due to COVID-19, having our children at home and looking constantly for on-hand activities to keep them busy and entertained and at the same time contributing to their development and learning is not an easy task. Many parents may feel stressed, tired, and maybe guilty because of these feelings. But you are not alone. There are a lot of parents and caregivers feeling the same as you are! Electronic devices are one of the most used tools during this time not just for gaming and entertainment, but for the new modalities in education, referring to virtual, online, and remote learning. Experts urge parents and caregivers to limit the usage hours of phones, computers, tablets, and video games because of the increment in sedentary behavior, health conditions, and obesity. Even, though it's recommended to limit the usage to a maximum of two hours per day for children and teens, for young children, ages 2 to 5, the recommended limit is one hour per day. From the h...

During the global health crisis of COVID-19, the new norm of learning make some children feel scared, stressed, and confused when facing new challenges and changes. Let’s review some characteristics to differentiate long-distance, virtual, and online learning.

Lindsay Zoeller and her organization The Chicago Family Tutor help families to develop strong higher-order thinking skills such as goal setting, problem-solving, and critical thinking, as well as time management, organization, and self-regulation to improve the children’s performance at school. During this time, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced families to alter their lifestyles and learn new work-at-home practices and support their children's education. This process has not been easy for many parents and families who lack the support, time, and knowledge systems necessary to fulfill these new responsibilities. However, as beneficial, what if the family and children have a tutoring service, effective strategies, and training for children and parents that could be provided online? In the next questions, Lindsay explains how their strategies, approach, advice, and practices have helped hundreds of children to achieve consistently at school. Q: Could you explain more about your own ed...

We learn about the sufferings that most diverse people live. Being oppressed and discriminated against because of skin color, or for being a woman, or gay, old, poor, or atheist results in damages to the individual. Many people believe and promote prejudices and biases against their family members, including their children. These practices contribute to the spread of hate crimes, offenses, oppression, microaggressions, and discrimination.

Teaching respect for our differences and acceptance of our identities promotes diversity in our children's lives. Including families is an essential part to be successful in supporting children to accept, understand, and value our diverse world.

For all new early childhood professionals, I have this message for you! After living all kinds of experiences of knowledge, today you reached one more step in your professional education.  When you began several years ago, you thought about your goals and desires and how you were going to contribute to the early childhood field, children, families, and colleagues.

In the last decades, we saw radical changes in kindergarten classrooms. Classroom activities are focusing more on literacy and math than learning through play, exploration, body movements, and using their imagination. This results in children linked in an early childhood curriculum far from supporting their healthy development, adding an increment of academic pressure and stress.

All people can point to adults who influenced and brought joy (or sorrow) to their lives as children. We remember that person who connected with us by giving us some advice, a toy, playing games, or satisfying our needs, emotionally and physically, accepting and respecting who we were just to make us happy.

Respect for cultural diversity is pointed out internationally and nationally as a basic requirement of professional practice in early childhood education (ECE). Early childhood educators require to be intercultural competent because of the changing demographics and diversity in our countries and for the possibilities of growing professionally in other jobs and roles in the early childhood field in other countries.

As advocates for children’s well-being and development, professionals in the early childhood field have the commitment to protect children respecting what they need to develop and achieve their full potential. One way is fulfilling children’s needs by providing love, care, understanding, adequate nutrition, and medical care, accessible and available high-quality education, and full opportunity to play and learn.

The early childhood field consists of professionals who share and learn together with passion. Seeing groups of educators sharing their professional experiences and supporting each other is not new, sometimes it is seen by themselves as irrelevant, and it happens very often. What most of them do not realize is how beneficial is the impact of what they share and how powerful in the improvement of performance and practice it offers.

As we move forward to our professional goals developing effective communication and collaboration skills helps us to be better persons and professionals. Practicing collaboration and communication demonstrate and develops our abilities and strengths as leaders and advocates on behalf of children and families. Collaboration is a fundamental key to achieving our goals!