Early Childhood Education

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

UNIT.1 Nature, Aims and Objectives of Pre-school Education

Objective

 To enable the students understand the nature, aims and objectives of Early
Childhood Education.
 To acquaint with different recommendation.
 To understand the characteristics of Pre-school Education.

Structure

1.0. Nature of Early Childhood Care Education

1.1. Aims and objectives of Pre-school Education

1.1.1The Secondary Education Committee (1952-53) on objectives of Preschool Education.

1.1.2 Child Care Committee (1963-64).

1.1.3. Indian Education Commission (1964-66).

1.1.4. Report of the study group.

1.1.5 Objectives of Pre-school Education.

1.1.6 Characteristics of Pre-school Education.

1.1.7 Significant Reasons for Preschool Education.

1.0. Nature
The National Early childhood care and education (ECCE) Policy reaffirms the Commitment
of the Govt. of India to provide integrated services for holistic development of all children
along the contiuam, from the prenatal period to six years of age. The policy lays down the
way forward for a comprehensive approach towards ensuring a sound foundation with
focus on early learning for every Indian child.

The 11th five year plan has acknowledged the importance of Early Childhood Care
Education as the stage that lays the foundation for lifelong development and the realisation
of a child’s full potential and directs that “all children be provided at least one year
preschool Education in the age group of 3-6 years”.

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Under Article 21A through 86th Amendment of the constitution, free and compulsory
education to children in the age group of 6-14 has become a fundamental right, In addition
to this, in Article 45 of the directive principles, early childhood care and Education for
children up to the age of 6 years has been recommended.

Early childhood care and education is necessary as readiness for formal education.
Today there is universal demand for early childhood education in the whole world.

National Policy in Education (NPE) 1986 has given a great deal of importance to
ECCE. Emphasizing the holistic nature of early childhood programme, it has extended ECCE
to include the component of ‘Care’ i.e. Early Childhood care and Education (ECCE). The
main elements of care are health and nutrition. ECCE requires that young children to be
provided care opportunities and experiences that lead to their all round development-
physical, mental, social and emotional and school readiness.

NPE has viewed ECCE as an important input in the strategy of human resource
development. it has highlighted the need of community involvement in ECCE as well as the
need to establish a linkage between integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and
(ECCE) programme at all level.

In the public sector integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is the world’s
largest programme imparting ECCE. Prior to the Universalisation of ICDS and its
subsequent expansion uncovered areas were attempted to be covered by pre-primary
system within the ambit of the primary school system.

1.1. Aims and objectives of Pre School Education

National curriculum framework (2005) emphasized two years of pre-schooling and
considered ECCE as significant for holistic development of the child, as a preparation for
schooling and as a support service for woman and girls. It advocated play based
developmentally appropriate curriculum.
National plan of action for children (2005) included universalisation of ECCE as one of the
goals. It specified care, protection and development oppertunities for children below 3
years and integrated care and development and preschool learning opportunities for 3-6
years old.

Pre-primary education is the education that a child receive before entering school at
the age five or six. Actually it starts even before the birth of a child. It therefore includes
prenatal education, prenatal and post-natal care also. It includes formal as well as non
formal education i.e. education imparted in a school as well at outside. Pre-primary
education in its broader sense may be divided into the following four parts;

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1. Pre-primary education from conception to birth.

2. Pre-primary education from birth to two and a half year.

3. From a two and half to four years.

4. From four to five or six years.

India has a wealth of traditional practices in ECCE that date back almost 5000 years.
The value of ECCE lies in the recognition and acceptance that ECCE is a vital development
need of all children ECCE must be the first step in the educational ladder and should be part
of EFA.

 ECCE in five year plans of India

Varying degree of emphasis in ECCE; voluntary efforts to strengthening of ICDS
from 1st to 10th plan.
 11th Five year plan (2007-2012) -Development of children at the centre stage of the
plan commitment to pre solving with varying options.
 ECCE in National policies and programmes (NPE on 1986)
Emphasized need for play based and joyful ECCE.
Warned against formal teaching of the 3R’s (Reading, Writing and Arithmetic)
Right of children to free and compulsory education Act 2009.

According to the sargent report (1944), the main objectives of education at the pre primary
stage should be to give young children social experience rather than formal instruction.

 To develop understanding of foundations of pre-school education.

 Growth and development in early childhood (0-6 yrs) development of skills to
manage an early childhood care and education centers.
 Provide guidance / knowledge for working effectively with parents and
communities for education of pre. School children.
 To gain knowledge and develop skills and attitude required for working with young.
 To appreciate the health and nutritional needs of young children and to be able to
evaluate a diet as regards nutritional adequacy.
 To be able to identify common childhood illness takes care of the sick child and take
preventive measures.

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1 .1.1. The Secondary education Commission (1952-53) on Objectives of Pre School

Education.
Introducing the child to the joys of learning through companionship and recreational
activities.

 Providing oppertunities for developing proper habits of life, cleanness and healthy
modes of living.
 Cultivation of social habits so necessary for a community life.

1.1.2. Child Care Committee (1963-64)

Under the chairperson of Smt.B.Tarabai, listed the following objectives of
Preschool.
1. Taking very great care of the physical development of the child in the very early
years in terms of health, nutrition, posture and capacities for activities.
2. Developing habits of cleanliness in the pre-school child at home as well as in the
school.
3. Providing adequate nourishment in kind and quantity for growth of vigorous
healthy bodies.
4. Providing facilities for training and exercise in personal cleanliness and hygienic
habits.
5. Providing play ground activities and hand work activities necessary to develop all
the skills of the child to deal with the environment.
6. Providing oppertunities for the emotional development of the child.
7. Providing oppertunities for developing, good behaviour patterns.
8. Providing suitable environment for the development of the senses on which depend
the total mental life and the psychological health of the child.

1.1.3 Indian Education Commission (1964-66)

1. To develop in the child good health habits and to build up basic skills, necessary for
personal adjustment such as dressing toilet habits, eating, washing, cleaning etc.;
2. To develop desirable social attitudes and manners and to encourage healthy group
participation, making the child sensitive to the rights and privileges of others;
3. To develop emotional maturity by guiding the child to express, understand, accept
and control his feelings and emotions;
4. To encourage aesthetic appreciation;
5. To stimulate the beginning of intellectual curiosity concerning the environment and
to help him understand the world in which he lives; and to foster new interests
through oppertunities to explore investigate and experiments;
6. To encourage independence and creativity by providing the child with sufficient
oppertunities for self expression.

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7. To develop the child’s ability to express his thoughts and feelings in fluent, correct
and clear speech; and

8. To develop in the child a good physique adequate coordination and basic motor
skills.

1.1.4 Report of the study group 1972:

The study group was appointed jointly by the Ministry of Education and the Department of
social welfare (which was a part of the ministry of law and social welfare). The group
consisted of 13 members including the chair person Smt. Mina Swaminathan, Sri J.P.Naik
was the member secretary of the group.

The group made several recommendations on the development of the pre-school child.

1. To promote child health through periodic health care so as to reduce child mortality
and morbidity and offer protection against communicable diseases;
2. To promote optimum nutritional standards during the formative years of the child’s
life to enable him to develop his innate physical and mental potentialities to the full;
3. To promote a proper climate and to adopt measures for the healthy and balanced
growth of the social and emotional aspects for the child’s personality;
4. To reduce educational disparities by providing planned environmental stimulation
aimed at supporting development of the cognitive abilities of the child;
5. To build readiness in the child for school learning and thus to help combat wastage
and stagnation in the first two years of primary schools;
6. To promote an environment of security, love and acceptance and to help the child to
build up desirable attitude, values and behaviors;
7. To protect the child against the social and mental hazards of an unfavorable social
environment ; and
8. To create community awareness of the needs of the pre-school child and to elicit
and build community environment and participation in the programme.

1.1.5 The Objectives of Pre School Education

However followings are the objectives of pre-school education.

 Development of good physique which includes ;

a. Development of motor skills.
b. Development and coordination of the muscles.
 Training in hygienic and healthy habits such as dressing, toilet habits, eating,
washing, cleaning etc.
 Learning to share things with others and waits for one’s turn.

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 Learning desirable social manners and etiquettes.

 Learning to express, understand and control one’s feelings.
 Stimulating the child’s curiosity about his environment and satisfying it.
 Learning concepts relating to numbers.
 Expanding knowledge for the solution of problems.
 Understanding physical phenomenon.
 Understanding social phenomenon.
 Developing vocabulary.
 Developing concepts of right and wrong.
 Developing appreciation of beauty in the environment i.e. flowers, birds, butterflies,
pictures, music, dance and scenes etc.
 Developing school readiness.
 Expressing creative expression.
 Developing self reliance.
 Encouraging children to participate in conversational activities.
 Developing healthy habits in the child and necessary skills for personal adjustment
like putting on clothes, eating on his own, observing cleanliness etc.
 Developing good social attitudes among children so that they can participate in
games and other activities and be sensitive to the rights and privileges of others.
 To sharpen children’s aesthetic sense.
 To give oppertunities for self expression which encourage them to be independent
and creative?

 To develop in children the competence to express their views and feelings

spontaneously, clearly and accurately.

1.1.6. Characteristics of Children at the ECE Stages

 Each and every child is unique.
 There is a define pattern of a Child’s development
 A Child’s development is influenced by her/his heredity, environment and nature.
 Children generally learn by practice and repetition.
 Children are self-centred .They see everything from their own point of view.
 There are individual differences in children. We should accept the right of every
child to learn in her/his own pace and style.
 Children mostly learn by imitation.
 Children are very active and energetic. They cannot sit still for a long time.
 Children are motivated when give oppertunities and encouragement.
 Children have curiosity and eagerness to learn and take interest in new things.

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 Abstract thinking is not yet developed at this stage, therefore they learn from
concrete experiences.
 Children develop and learn better by actively discovering their environment and
experimenting with it, rather than by rote learning.
 They learn best through activities and play.
 Their attention span is short they cannot concentrate on one activity for a long time.
 They take more interest in small groups activities.
 They like repetition.

1.1.7 Significant Reasons for Pre School Education

1. Brain Development is highest during the first four years of life. The brain is
forming important neural path to help develop the child’s ability to perform and
function and learn well. Children are able to learn at a rapid rate and want and need
to learn new information.
2. Going hand in hand with brain development is structure. Structure is vital for the
young preschooler and the child thrives in a loving, structured environment with
stimulating colours, sounds, textures, classroom layout, varying activities and books.
3. Social skills are next on the list and they are important to learn at this age
rather than waiting until kinder garden age or later social skills such as learning
how to listen, nice talks, brave talks, taking turns, acceptance of multi-cultural
differences, apologies when to say pleas and thank you, how to speak in a group
helping each other, learning compassion and empathy.There are so many
opportunities for a child to develop social skills.
4. Academic are now being emphasized more than in past years because there is
more research substantiality that a child is able to learn and perform more than
what we used to expect. Also, there are more academic in the preschool curriculum
now because the schools expect a child entering kindergarten to know what once
used to be taught in kindergarten.
5. Pre-school is important the needed space it gives as a parent to work or have
time to pursue interests, hobbies friends as an adult in the adult world. As a parent
one still needs to grow and learn and give the community if that is something you
enjoy doing. The child needs this time away from his parents and home to learn
about the world, about people, about accepting others, making new friends. Children
learn trust and independence when given opportunities to do things on his /her
own or with a group, the child is learning important work attributes that are
necessary in his future.

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According to Miss Grace Owen, the aims of pre-primary schools are:-

1. To provide healthy external conditions for the children like light, sun shine, space
and fresh air.
2. To organize a happy healthy and regular life for the children as well as continuous
medical supervision.
3. To assist each child to form for himself wholesome personal habits.
4. To give opportunity for imagination and for the development of many interests as
well as skills of various kinds.
5. To give experiences of community life on a small scale where children of similar
as well as varying ages work and play with one another.
6. To achieve a real unit with home life.

Self Evaluation

Q1.Explain Objectives of Preschool Education according to NCF (2005).

Q2.Why should Pre-school Education to be promoted?
Q3.What is the statement of Indian Education Committee regarding Pre-school
Education?
Q4.What Child Care Committee states on objectives of Pre-school?

Notes on:
1. 5 important points on objectives of Pre-school Education.
2. Characteristics of children at ECCE stages.

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1.2 Contribution of the following great Educators to Pre School

Objectives

1. To make understanding of the students regarding the role of great Educationists in

the field of early childhood Education.
2. To know the works of great Educators.
3. To inculcate inspiration from great Educators for work of children at Pre-school
stage.

Structure

1. 2.1. Rousseau (1712-1778 A.D)

1. 2.4. John Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)

1.2.5. Frederich August Froebel (1782-1852). The play way method.

1. 2.6. Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

1.2.7. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

1.2.8. Rabindra Nath Tagore (1861-1941)

1.2.9. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950)

Education before the primary stage is given in nursery schools. The qualities in culcated
during childhood, shape the entire personality. So it should be our Endeavour to create
healthy habits in children that they may get success in future life in order to :

 Develop understanding of the students regarding the role of great educators in the
field of early childhood education.
 Acquaint them with the work of great eastern education for the promotion of early
childhood education in India.
 Take inspiration from the great educators to work for the cause of care and
education of the preschool child.

Followings are the great Educators:-

1. Rousseau (1712-1778 A.D)

2. John Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
3. Frederich August Froebel (1782-1852). The play way method.
4. Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
5. Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
6. Rabindra Nath Tagore (1861-1941)
7. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950)

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1,2.1. ROUSSEAU (1712-1778A.D)

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was born in Geneva (June 28) but become famous as
a ‘French’ political philosopher and educationist. His philosophy of education has been
called naturalism. His novel Emile was the most significant book on education after Plato’s
Republic, and his other work had a profound impact on political theory and practice, he
contends that all the ills and miseries of civilization are due to departure from “Nature.”
“Return to Nature” was his slogan to cure the world of ills and miseries. According to
Rousseau ‘God makes all things good, man meddles with them and they become evil.’
According to him education means, “Natural development of organs and powers of the
child”. Without understanding the natural needs of the child useful education for the child
cannot be provided. Rousseau has outlined his scheme of education in his book Emile.

Pre-school Education:

Rousseau expressed his views on education including pre-school education in his book
Emile. The text is divided in to five books; the first three are dedicated to the child Emile.
The fourth to an exploration of the adolescent, and the fifth to outlining the education of his
female counterpart, as well as to Emile’s domestic and civic life.

1. Part one Book deals with the education of infants.

2. Part two with childhood.
3. Part three with preadolescent.
4. Part four with adolescence.
5. Part five with education of girls.

Education at Infancy according to Rousseau:

The Child is active in nature, and never seen inactive. He should not force to do any work. It
is not good to form any habits in children. Child begins to play with whatever he gets; he
throws it and sometimes puts in his mouth. So his environment should be such that his
natural activity is not obstructed toys should be natural. Tiny branches, leaves and fruits
should be his toys. In the beginning, it is necessary to give knowledge of words suitable for
natural ideas. Teaching of speaking or stress on speaking before the proper time is not
useful. Child should be given full freedom and proper environment for his natural activities.

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1.2.2. Educational Theories of Rousseau.

1. Philosophy. ‘God makes all things good’

2. Functions of Education, ‘Plants are fashioned by cultivation, man by education’.

3. Aims of Education, to establish harmony in ‘nature’, ‘man’ and ‘objects’ to leave a

complete life. Children should be given only one knowledge and that knowledge is
knowledge of duty.

4. Education through doing- Education should be practical rather than oral.

5. Self Education-The mind can comprehend a thing according to its own capacity.
Learning anything by understanding, it becomes our own.

6. Teaching through objects, Never substitute symbols for the object unless it is
impossible to show the things itself.

7. Child Centred Education, John Adams used the phrase ‘Child Centre’ and later on it was
accepted as a chief characteristics of Naturalism. According to it the child should be the
centre of education and education should develop his undeveloped natural instincts.

8. Play-way in Education, work or plays are all one to him, his, games are his work, he
knows no differences.

9. Naturalism and Curriculum, Naturalism is indifferent towards subject teaching. It is

concerned with nature only.

a. It does not give any importance to subject teaching. It considers natural and
harmonious development of child’s innate powers important.

b. it favours utilitarian education. It includes only utilitarian subjects and subjects

related with life.

c. it is opposed to bookish knowledge. It gives special importance to educational

activities and arts and crafts.

10. Teaching Method, Accordingly to him children should be educated through activities
only. The basis of method of teaching in naturalism is psychological in a way and according
to the principles of child psychology.

11. Heuristic Method let him not taught science but let him discover it.

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12. Role of the Teacher, place of the teacher is secondary. Presence of the teacher has
been considered necessary but his interference should be minimum. To maintain suitability
of environment from time to time is also the responsibility of the teacher. Teacher should
possess individual, social, psychological and human virtues so that he is able to know the
abilities and aptitudes of children.

13. Discipline. ‘Leave child alone’ children, too, will have to bear the consequences, if
they will commit mistakes in their actions. No need to impose any discipline on children.

14. Naturalism and school organization. There should be flexible organization based on
liberal and free atmosphere and natural laws. Nature itself is a school. Rosseau has
recommended organizing Schools according to the nature of children. Different schools
curriculum and teaching methods should be provided for the 4 stages.

15. Bookish knowledge. Negative education is against bookish knowledge; knowledge

imparted through books is not real but artificial and imaginary. Children should be given so
much freedom and facilities that they discover real knowledge themselves through direct
contact with nature.

16. Progressiveness, Rousseau has classified education in three groups of teaching –

individual teaching, behavior teaching and natural teaching .

17. Physical Education. “All wickedness comes from weakness. The child is only naughty,
because he is weak; make him strong and will be good”.

18. Vocational Education, “It is clear (The art of Carpenter) and useful, it may be carried
on at home it gives enough exercises, it calls for skill and industry, and while fashioning
articles for everyday use, there is scope for elegance and taste. ”

19. Women Education, Woman’s education, must be planned in relation to man.

20. Education through Rural and National Environment, “Cities are the graves of
human species.”

1.2.3.Contribution of Rousseau as a whole

 Educational system based on activities advocated by Pestalozzi may be said to be

the contribution of Emile.
 Child should be given opportunities for natural work by keeping him free from old
social traditions.
 The basis of early education of the child is conceptual knowledge.

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 Education is not preparation for life but life itself. Dewey was accepted this
principle.
 Rousseau anticipated modern Heuristic method when he declared child as a
discover.
 He stress on the ‘Concrete’ led to “learning by doing”.
 His conceptions of freedom, growth, interests and activity are
noteworthy in education theory and practice.
 The interests of the child change with intelligence. So education according to the
stage of development of the child should be provided.
 It is primarily due to Rousseau that the need of sense training and physical activities
in the earlier development of the child has been recognized in the modern system of
education.
 ‘Cramming’ blunts the intelligence of the child. So instead of emphasizing cramming,
it is necessary to give education to the child on the basis of individual difference by
paying attention to his curiosity and interest.
 Language should be taught through conversation.
 Rousseau’s Doctrine of education found some place in France.
 Scientific and sociologic tendencies in education ushered in because of Rousseau’s
influence. New methods of teaching and child study movement began.
 Salvation of man is only in simple living for the development of personality-family
affection necessary.

1.2.4 John Henrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827)

Pestalozzi was a Swiss Pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified
Romanticism in his approach. His motto was “Learning by head, hand and heart”. He was
known as father of Education’ he saw teaching as a subject worth studying in its own right
and he is therefore known as the father of pedagogy. He caused education to become a
separate branch of knowledge, alongside politics and other recognized areas of knowledge.
He started his own school at Burgdorf to carry out his educational experiments.

Pestalozzi advocated education of the poor and emphasized teaching methods

designed to strengthen the student’s own abilities. Pestalozzi’s method become widely
accepted and most of his principles have been absorbed into modern elementary
education.

Contributions to Education

His initial influence on the development of thinking about pedagogy owes much a book he
published on 1801 “How Gertrude Teachers her Children”

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 In 1780 published anonymously in “Die Empherides” a series of aphorisms entitled

The Evening Hours of a Hermit.
 “Leonard and Gertrude” four volumes of story from his own experiences he
published (1781, 1783, 1785, 1787).
 In 1803 Pestalozzi published three elementary books: The ABC of sense perception
lessons on the observation of Number Relations and The Mother’s Book. This book
contains some exercises for preschool children. It gives a systematic psychological
theory of his educational method.
 In 1813 “The Swan Song”.
 In 1818 “His letters on Early Education”.

Educational Contributions for Preschool-Children

Pestalozzi’s Philosophy of education was based on a four-sphere concept of life and the
premise that human nature was essentially good. The first three “Exterior” spheres- home
and family, vocational and individual self determination and state and nation-recognized
the family, the utility of individuality and the applicability of the parent-child relationship
to society a whole in the development of a child’s character, attitude toward learning and
sense of duty. The last ‘Exterior’ sphere-inner sense-posited that education, having
provided a means of satisfying, one’s basis needs results in inner please and a keen belief in
God.

Pestalozzi inspired by the work of French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, developed
an educational method based on the natural world and the senses. Pestalozzi established
schools in Switzerland and Germany to educate children and train teachers, School should
resemble secure and loving home.

Pestalozzi’s approach had massive influence on education.

 The interests and needs of the child.

 A childcentred approach to teaching.
 Active rather than passive participation in the learning experience.
 The child having direct experience of the world and the use of natural objects in
teaching .
 Aims of Education, Education is “The Natural, progressive and harmonious
development of all the powers and capacities of human being”.
 Methods of Instruction, Pestalozzi remarked, “I wish to psychologise education”. He
advocated the child should be studied thoroughly and thereafter appropriate
methods of instruction should be used,

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 The use of the senses in training pupils in observation and judgment.

 Education which puts emphasis on how things are taught as well as what is taught.
 Cooperation between the school and the home and between parents and teachers
 Sense perception or ‘Anschuung’. He was a firm believer in the value of sense
perception.
 Nature as an Educator. Pestalozzi remarked, “Nature teaches better than man”
 Discipline, Pestalozzi forced nothing upon students from without. He guided them
to control them. He gave them his love and affection.
 Learning which is cross curricular and includes a varied school life.

1.2.5. Frederich August Froebel (1782-1852): The Play way method.

Frederich Wilhelm August Froebel created the concept of “Kindergarten” and developed
educational toys known as Froebel gifts. He was born in Oberweiback, a village in south
Germany. Shortly after Froebel’s birth his mother’s health began to fail, she died when he
was nine months old; profoundly influencing his life in 1792, Froebel went to live in the
small town of stadt-llm with his uncle, a gentle and affectionate man. At the age of 15,
Froebel who loved nature, become the apprenticeship and study mathematics and botany
in Jena. From 1802 to 1805, he worked as a land surveyor.

He began as an educator in 1805 at the musterschule (a secondary School) in frank fart

where he learned about Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi’s ideas. He later worked with
Pestalozzi’s in Switzerland where his ideas further developed; from 1806 Froebel was the
live-in teacher for a Frankfurt noble family’s three sons. He lived with the three children
from 1808 to 1810 at Pestalozzi’s institute in Yverdon-Les-Bains in Switzerland.

Froebel’s Carrier in Education

In 1811, Froebel once again went back to school in Gottingen and Berlin, eventually leaving
without earning a certificate. He became a teacher at the Plamannsche schule(school) in
Berlin, a boarding school for boys, and at the time also a pedagogical and patriotic centre.

In 1816, Froebel established a small school at Griesheim which later on was shifted to
klilhav. In this school, Froebel developed his own principles and methods of instruction.
After passing through several vicissitudes, this school became a successful institution in a
period of ten years. ‘Play’ and ‘art work’ were the chief features of the school.

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Contribution of Froebel

In 1826 he published his main literacy work, “The Education of Man” (Die
Menschenerziehung). In this he says, “the true method of education consists in
considering the mind of the child as a whole in which all the parts work together to
produce harmonious unity”.

From 1831 to 1836, Froebel once again lived in Switzerland. In 1831 he founded an
educational institute in war tense: further from 1835 to 1836 he headed the orphanage in
Burgdorf where he published the magazine ‘Features of Human Education’. After this he
started many schools in Germany.

Froebel’s Work

He dedicated himself almost exclusively to preschool child education and began

manufacturing playing materials in Bad Blankenburg. In 1837 he founded a care, playing
and activity institute for small children in Bad Blankenburg. In 1840 he coined the word
Kindergarten for the play and activity Institute he had founded for young children, together
with Wilhelm Middendorf and Heinrich Langethal.

He designed the educational play materials known as Froebel Gifts, or Frobelgaben which
included geometric building blocks and pattern activity blocks. Froebel’s great insight was
to recognize the importance of the activity of the child in learning. He introduced the
concept of “Free work” into pedagogy and established the “Game” as the typical from that
life took in childhood, and also game’s educational worth. Activities in the first
kindergarten included singing, dancing, gardening and self directed play with the Froebel
gifts. A songbook that he published- ‘Mutter-Und Koselie Der’ to introduce the young child
in the adult world.

Last part of his Life.

Froebel died on 21 June 1852 in Marienthal, now a constituent community of Schwerin. His
views were not accepted by German Government it forbade him from establishing any
school. This was a great shock and he could not long survive.

Froebel’s Educational Philosophy and Principles

 Froebel believed that humans are essentially productive and creative and fulfillment
comes through developing these in harmony with God and the world. As a result,
Froebel sought to encourage the creation of educational environments that involved
practical work and the direct use of materials.

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 He wanted to develop the qualities of cooperation, tolerance and understanding in

children through teaching. He wanted that the education of the child should be
planned according to his natural aptitudes interests and activities.
 Kindergarten was the first organized early childhood educational method. As a keen
observer of nature and humanity, Froebel approached human education from both a
biological and a spiritual perspective. His innovations includes multiple intelligences
(different learning styles), play based child centered, holistic education, parent
involvement/ training, educational paper folding, use of music, games and
movement activities for education.
 Play is Engine of Real learning.
He includes that play is not idle behavior but a biological imperative to discover
how things work. It is pleasurable activity, but biologically purposeful.
 According to Froebel “The True method of Education Consists in considering the
mind of the child as a living whole in which all the parts work together to produce
harmonious unity”.
 Principles of Development Froebel asserts, “Each individual must develop from
within, self active and free, in accordance with the internal law”.
 Creativeness of Childhood, Froebel proposed a new concept of childhood. He
stressed that childhood is not merely a preparation for adulthood. Childhood is a
value in itself and possesses it own creation.
 Play and Activity, play is the purest, most important activity of man at his stage, it
gives, therefore, Joy, Freedom, Contentment, inner rest and peace with the world, it
holds the source of all that is good”.
 Freedom to the child the child should be educated in free atmosphere, freedom
means obedience to self imposed law.
 Importance of song he advised songs, gestures and construction as the chief means
of stimulating the imagination of the child.
 Role of the Teacher The Teacher is like the gardener who carefully nurses and
protects children in order to secure their full and free development along most
desirable lines. The educators by his efforts assist the educand who is developing
according to the law of his nature.

Froebel’s Kindergarten-

In 1837 Froebel founded his own school and called it “Kindergarten” or “Children’s Garden”
kindergarten was a new word created by him to express his vision for early childhood.
“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone
and glorious when seen in the community of peers”.

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Frobel’s labeled his approach to education as “self activity”. This idea allows the child to
lead by his or her own interests and to freely explore them. The teacher’s role, therefore,
was to be a guide rather than lecture.

Froebel’s Kindergarten is designed:

To meet each child’s need for

 Physical activity
 The development of sensory awareness and physical dexterity.
 Creative expression
 Exploration of ideas and concepts
 The pleasure of singing
 The experience living among others
 Satisfaction of the soul.

Froebel’s school featured games, play, songs, stories and crafts to stimulate imagination
and develop physical and motor skills.

The materials were divided into two categories:

Gifts: were objects that were fixed in form such as blocks. The purpose was that in playing
with the object the child would learn the concept represented by the object.

Occupations: allowed more freedom and consisted of things that children could shape and
manipulate such as clay, sand, beads and string.

He gave children:

 respect for their intellectual and emotional abilities and development.

 in the classroom (symbolically viewed as an extension of a flourishing garden.)
 and that which he needed most as a child.

Objective of the Kindergarten: In the words of Froebel, “The objective of a kindergarten

is to give the children employment in agreement with their whole nature, to strengthen
their bodies to exercise their senses, to engage their awakening mind and through their
senses to make them acquainted with nature and their fellow creatures.

Environment of the Kindergarten:-It is to be that of freedom, play and joy- an

environment which fosters self expression. There are to be no books or fixed intellectual
tasks for children, but training in expression is to be given in three ways:-songs,
movements and construction. These three are to go together. When a story is told or read,
it is expressed in song, dramatized in movement and gesture and illustrated by
construction from blocks, paper, clay or drawing. Thus the child’s imagination and thought

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are encouraged and stimulated by concrete means. His hands and limbs his eyes and other
senses are trained.

Kindergarten and educational principles:

1. Self Activity as a process by which the individual realizes his own nature and builds up
his own world and then unites and harmonizes the two. Some important points regarding
activity:

i). It should not be vague.

ii). It should be a sublimated activity.

iii). Social atmosphere is essential in order to secure meaningful activities.

iv) . Self activity may take the form either of work or of play.

Play. According to Froebel play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man at this stage. “It
gives, therefore, joy, freedom, contentment, inner rest and peace with the world. It holds
the source of all that is good”.

Songs, gestures and construction according to him there is a organic relationship

between songs, gestures and construction. He regarded these as three coordinate forms of
expression in the child.

Positive Discipline Teacher has to avoid external restraint and bodily punishment. The
child should be made to realize the discipline depends upon his love for orders, good will
and mutual understanding.

Curriculum: He expressed this in term of activities with some divisions of the curriculum:-

i) Manual Work ii) Religion and religious instruction. iii) Natural Science and Mathematics
iv) Language v) Arts and objects of art.

Froebel’s Gift:

Froebel prepared his Gifts, which form the basis of all modern kindergarten. All of these
gifts was accompanied and cheered by appropriate songs and music. The activities
suggested by these gifts are called occupations. The gifts are given to the child in a certain
order. The gradation and order elements of gifts are determined by the principle of
development. The gifts are 20 in number.

First Gift: it consists of a string of rainbow colored woolen balls, by the aid of which ideas
of color, from size and motion were formed by the children. The occupation consists in
rolling them about in play.

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Second Gift: It is a solid cube; cylinder, wooden ball, stick and string are used to impart
ideas of from, size, sound and movement. The child observes that the cylinder is both stable
and movable and that it harmonies both the qualities in one.

Third Gift: it contains eight cubes of equal size, forming, when properly combined, one
perfect cube. Properly applied, the combinations of these supply the child with ideas of
division into halves, quarters and eights. This gives way to a limited extent, be used
incidentally to teach these letters of the alphabets which do not involve the use of curves. It
may teach the whole by careful arrangements, but the real rounding of the alphabetical
letters is a later development.

Fourth Gift: it consists of the large cubes divided into eight oblong prisms in each of which
the length is twice the breadth and the breadth is twice the thickness. This helps the child
to construct different kinds of buildings and patterns when combined with the third gift.

Fifth Gift: It is very much like the third gift. It consists of a large cube divided into twenty-
seven small cubes, three of when are again divided diagonally into haves and three into
quarters. Child can construct many beautiful forms and patterns by combining the third ,
fourth and fifth gifts.

Sixth Gifts: this is also similar to gift four. There is a large cube divided into eighteen whole
and nine small oblong blocks. Still further designs in forms and construction may be made
by the child. It is also useful in teaching numbers.

Seventh Gift: It is also a set of square and triangular tablets made of fine wood in two
colors. It provides material for several exercises in geometrical forms and mosaic work.

Other gifts consists of materials, such as performing paper cuttings, threading of beds, mat
making embroidery, basket making, wire work, drawing and modeling.

Contribution of Frobel to Education:

Froebel was the first to recognize that significant brain development occurs between birth
and age 3. His method combines an awareness of human physiology and the recognition
that we, at our essence are creative beings. Once early childhood educations become widely
adopted, it was the natural starting point for innovations that followed.

Frobel applied spherical philosophy to education and it, rather than empirical
observation, guided his work, Mind and matter. Although opposites are both subject to
the same law of nature in which god, the third element is imminent.

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1. In relation to the child it was a unity, diversity and individually- Each child is
spontaneously represent this elements a process he referred to as all-sided, self
activity.
His statement is that “Play is the self-active representation of the inner from inner
necessity”.
2. Teaching should follow nature. The task of the teacher was to provide the
conditions for growth without intervening too much in the learning process.
Froebel presented these ideas in his 1826 book “The Education of Man”.
3. Education through Play: he introduced play-way in the activities of the school.
Teach children through songs, movements, gestures, dramatization, handwork, etc.
In 1843, he published a book entitled Mother’s songs, Games and stories. This was
his most popular book; as the title suggests, it described action songs and finger
plays (together with their musical notion) wood cut illustrations, and guidance on
how to present the songs as well as the meanings that could be derived from them.
4. Women Education: Froebel’s observations of mother are singing to their children.
He wanted to help women educate their infants more effectively as a prerequisite
for a better society. According to Froebel, entrust the education at pre-primary or
pre-basic stage to women teachers who are considered to be more suited for this
task of instruction at this stage.
5. Stress on Pre-Primary or Nursery Education “Until the education of nursery years
was reformed nothing solid and worthy could be achieved”. The importance of
education at the early stage now we find it and a large number of schools catering
to the needs of such children.
6. Principles of play way method: Growth and development of the child through play,
self activity self expression through play, spontaneity, freedom, happiness and joy
in play activities, unity, aesthetic appreciation, creativeness, drawing out, discipline
through love, sense training, principle of concrete to abstract are some of the
principles.

1.2.6. Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

The most admired educator Maria Montessori was a doctor by qualification and profession
at the start of her Carrier. When she was in the University of Rome’s psychiatric clinic saw
large number children with learning disabilities, placed there for lack of other options.
Treatment of these children touched her, and she began to read everything she could find
on the education of the children with such disabilities. She disagreed with Rousseau’s idea
of unstructured education in the wilds of nature, she liked his ideas of developing the
senses before abstract learning taken place. She also studied the work of Pestalozzi and
Froebel and adapted them to her own use.

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Educational Interest

She was convinced that it was neither education nor medicine that would improve their
lives. She was speaking at conferences about the need to educate children with learning
disabilities, and proposed a school along with Froebel’s line. She found herself appointed
director of a teacher training institute that was a pioneer in the field of special education in
Italy.

Pulling her ideas from Froebel and others, Montessori experimented with teaching
materials and activities, succeeding so well that her 8 year-old so-called “defectives”
eventually did as well as or better than those labeled ‘normal ’ in state examinations for
reading and writing.

Montessori worked as a professor of Anthropology in the University of Rome from 1900 to

1917. She supervised the word of mentally different children and took a keen interest in
their education also. Montessori developed the principle that was also to inform her
general educational programme: first the education of the senses, then the education of
intellect. Maria Montessori developed a teaching programme that enabled ‘defective’
Children to read and write she thought to teach skills not by having children repeatedly try
it, but by developing exercises that prepare them. These exercises would then be repeated:
looking becomes reading; touching becomes writing.

Maria Montessori had the chance to rest her programme and ideas with the
establishment of the first Casadei Bambini (Children’s house or house hold) in Rome in
1907. This house and that followed are designed to provide a good environment for
children to live and learn. An emphasis was placed on self determination and self
realization. Self realization through independent activity, the concern with attitude and the
focus on the educator as the keeper of the environment.

Maria Montessori was born on August 31, 1870, in the provincial town of Chiravalle,
Italy, to middle class, well educated parents. Montessori becomes the first female doctor in
Italy. As a doctor, Montessori chooses pediatrics and psychiatry as her specialties.

Montessori began to conceptualize her own method of applying their educational

theories, which she tested through hands on scientific observation of students at the
Orthopedic School. Montessori found the resulting improvement in student’s development
remarkable. She spread her research findings in speeches throughout Europe, also using
her platform to advocate for women’s and children’s rights.

Montessori works in India

She come to India in 1939 and remained up to 1946. She spend her time in training
teachers for small children according to her method in Madras, she developed a program

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called Education for Peace. Her work with the programme earned her two Nobel Peace
Prize nominations. Montessori returned to Holland in 1951 and died on May 6, 1952.
Montessori teaching methods continue the “Follow the Child” all over the world now.

Montessori Education: “Montessori is a method of education that is based on self directed

activity, hands on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms Children make
creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the teacher offer age
appropriate activities to guide the process. Children work in groups and individually to
discover and explore knowledge of the world and develop their maximum potential”.

The learning process according to Montessori:

There are 3 stages of learning:

1. Introduction to a concept (by a lesson, a reading, a lecture).

2. Processing the information and developing an understanding of the meaning
through work, experimentation, creation, this gives the child a real ability to learn
and remember what he/she has learned. This is the most important stage since it
puts emphasis on the concepts of developing, experimenting, creating and
transforming.
3. “Knowing”, processing the information demonstrated by the ability to teach or
explain to others, or to express easily.

Some important educational views:

 Emphasis is on our children becoming whole balanced and healthy individuals.

 Children have the natural ability to learn everything they need full, happy and
productive lives.
 Seek to understand each person’s uniqueness.
 Ultimate goal is to develop and innate love of learning, varied interests, and
openness to view new ideas.
 Guide our children individually at their own pace through a wide range of learning
skills.
 Children learn from all kinds of experiences, including success and failures.

Philosophy of Education according to Montessori:

 Children are natural learners: Montessori saw that children under went
extraordinary transformations in overall happiness, self confidence, and self
discipline when they were allowed to follow their innate needs. The work of a child
therefore was fundamentally different to that of the adult: that the child worked for
the joy of the process rather than for the end.

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 Children learn through their senses: children built on their physical experiences of
the world through their senses and that by carefully designing interesting materials
which the children were drawn to experiment with.
 Children need freedom: Montessori saw freedom as the single most important factor
in allowing children to develop as spontaneous, creative individuals.
 Teachers according to Montessori: Teachers educated in the Montessori method
bring distinctive skills, called a “directress” by Montessori method, and (mostly
women) and sometimes known as a “guide”. Montessori teachers play many roles as
she directs guides her students.
 Skilled Observer: Teacher comes to know each student’s interests, learning style and
temperament. He understands the student’s developmental needs and is receptive
to her “sensitive periods”.
 Creative Facilitators: the teacher serves as a resource as students go about their
work. As students progress, the teacher modifies the classroom environment,
adjusting the learning materials to meet the student’s changing needs.
 Character Builder: Teacher’s models values such as empathy, compassion and
acceptance of individual differences. He encourages the students to be courteous
kind. And he brings students together in collaborative activities to foster team work,
responsibility, self discipline and respect.
 As a Gardener: she thinks that teacher should care for the child like a gardener who
cares for the plants so that natural growth of the child is properly guided and aided
in the process of unfolding itself.
 Provision of suitable environment: The directress should allow the child to grow
according to his own inner law. Her business to provide for suitable environment.
She should provide children with appropriate opportunities to think for them.
 Teacher as a Doctor-cum-Scientists-cum-Missionary: According to Montessori the
directress should be partly doctor, partly scientist and completely religious. Like a
doctor she should avoid scolding or suppressing the patient in order to avoid worse
situations. Like a scientist she should wait patiently for the results and should
conduct experiments with her materials. Like a religious body she should be there to
serve the child.

Publication of Madam Montessori:

1. The Discovery of the Child

2. Education for a new child
3. To educate Human Potential
4. The secret of child hood
5. The child peace and education
6. Reconstruction in education

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7. The absorbent mind

8. What you should know about your child?
9. Child training
10. The Montessori Method.

Children’s House:

The first school started by Montessori in 1907 was called a ‘Children’s House’. It provides
all the requirements of a good family house.

A children’s house has many rooms: 1. Study room 2. Common room 3. Lunch room 4. Rest
room 5. Room for mental work 6. Gymnasium 7. Bathroom and 8. Laboratory.

The environment of the house specifically designed to help children between ages of
2½ to 6 years to develop their own pace, choosing their own activities from the Montessori
materials which are displayed in an ordered and accessible way. She tables, chairs etc are
specially made for the children. The children keep the didactic apparatus in the cup boards
and things in little drawers. Based on her observation, Montessori implemented a number
of practices. She replaced the heavy furniture with child-sized tables and chairs light
enough for the children to move, and placed child sized materials on low, accessible selves.

The black boards are fixed in the walls on which the children draw or paste pictures
of different kinds according to their own interests. The children were provided with
flowers, toys, pictures indoor games etc. the lunch room contains low tables, chairs, spoons,
knives, tumblers etc. In the drawing room, the children are provided with their own little
shelf, where they keep their soap and towel for washing.

Montessori expanded the range of practical activities such as sweeping and personal
care to include a wide variety of exercises for care of the environment and the self,
including flower arranging, hand washing, gymnastics, and care of pets and cooking. She
also included large open air sections in the classroom encouraging children to come and go
as they please the room’s different areas and lessons.

The children house also contains a pedometer and weighing machine to keep a
record of the height and weight of the students.

Besides, Didactic apparatus is used to provide sensory training, motor training and
for teaching language and arithmetic.

Educational Method: According to Montessori called for free activity within a “Prepared
Environment”, meaning and educational environment tailored to basic human
characteristics, to the specific characteristics of children at different ages, and to the
individual personalities of each child. The function of the environment is to help and allow

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the child to develop independence in all areas according to his or her inner psychological
directives.

Montessori Material: appropriate to the age of the children, environment should exhibit
the following characteristics.

 An arrangement that facilitates movements and activity.

 Beauty and harmony, cleanness of environment.
 Construction in proportion to the child and his/her needs.
 Limitation of materials so that only material that supports the child’s development
is included.
 Order.
 Nature in the classroom and outside the classroom.

Sensitive period: as observed by Montessori is special sensitivity to particular stimuli

during this time which she called as “Sensitive Periods.” She identified the following
periods and durations for this.

 Acquisition of language- birth to around 6 years old.

 Interests in small objects- from around 18 month to 3 years old.
 Order- from around 1 to 3 years old.
 Sensory refinement- from birth to around 4 years old.
 Social behavior- from around 2½ to 4 years old.

Normalization: Montessori observed in children from 3 to 6 years old a psychological

state which she termed ‘normalization.’ Normalization arises from concentration and focus
on activity which serves the child’s development needs, and is characterized by the ability
to concentrate as well as “spontaneous discipline, continuous and happy work, social
sentiments of helps and sympathy for others”.

‘Montessori divided different planes according to the age and psychological

development in relation to the child’.

Exercises mostly provided in children’s house are:

i) Exercises in practical life.

ii) Exercises for sense training
iii) Exercises for teaching language and Arithmetic
The children require in doing the following activities:-

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Practical life Skill/Motor Discipline

Development
 Sweeping rooms  Walking  Control himself
 Clean and dust  Sitting land  Own efforts
furniture’s  Holding objects  Goodness
 Arrangements  Care of own body  Expected to learn
 Dressingand washing  Gardening goodness
 House hold duties  Manual work  Truthfulness
 Comb their hair  Walk in straight line  Build up of own
 Brush teeth  Rhythmic effort
 Cut the nails movements
 Balancing properly
Didactic Approach & Montessori:

The word ‘Didactic means to convey instruction and information (learning) as well as
pleasure. In other words, didactic denotes learning with pleasure. The didactic apparatus’,
implies that apparatus (concrete materials) which is educate the young children in such a
way that learning becomes joyful.

Terms and concepts in Montessori Method:

Sr.No Terms & Details

Concepts
1. Individual Self motivated learning used in Montessori schools that consists of a series
learning of educational tasks that are chosen by the students.
2. Kinesiology The study of the mechanics of human body movement.
3. Magnet A programme in public school systems that offers specialized methods of
Programme teaching and curriculum to students representing a cross section of the
community.
4. Manipulators Concrete objects such as beads, rods and blocks that are used by students
during Montessori lessons in order to encourage sensory learning and self
discovery.
5. Montessori An educational system developed by Maria Montessori in 1907 that uses
Method independent, self correcting activities to develop and advance a student’s
natural ability and intellect.
6. Montessori Any public or private special education pre-k, K-1,2 or other learning
schools institution that offers Montessori based curriculum to the students.
7. Progressive The belief that the goal of education is to help people become more free
Approach thinking innovators who can improve society through positive reform.
8. Sensory Teaching using interactions and activities designed to apply and develop
Learning the senses.

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9. Traditional The belief that the goal of education is to prepare to fulfill necessary tasks
Learning in society through subject-based instruction focused on competition and
evaluation.
10. Whole Class The traditional subject based pedagogy of mass instruction used in most
learning public school systems in the united states.

Process of Learning: There are 3 stages of learning:

Stage- I. Introduction to a concept by means of a lecture, lesson, something read in a book

etc.

Stage- II. Processing in information, developing an understanding of the concept through

work experimentation creation.

Stage-III. “Knowing” to processing an understanding of demonstrated by the ability to pass

a test with confidence to teach another, or to express with ease.

Principles of Didactic Apparatus: This apparatus intended to translate Montessori’s

principles of educational philosophy into actions followings are some principles.

Development of the child from within, individual differences among children, Auto
education or self education, sense training, motor training, freedom or library, learning by
doing, self discipline, individual teaching, excluding fairy tales.

Didactic apparatus primarily for use with normal children aged from 3 to 6 years, which is
“auto regulative” freedom for physical activity, at very early development.

Forms of Didactic Apparatus:

i) Didactic Apparatus for sensory training.

ii) Didactic Apparatus for teaching language and Arithmetic.

Sensory Apparatus:

Purpose Apparatus
1. For perception of size  Series of wooden cylinder varying in height
only in diameter only or in both dimensions
block varying regularly in size and rods of
varying length.
2. For perception of color  Pink cubes, brown prisms, green and
alternatively red and blue rods and colored

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tablets etc.
3. For preparation of form  Geometrical insets in metal wood a chest of
drawers containing plane in sets series of
cards on which are pasted geometrical forms
in paper.
4. For discrimination in “weight”  Tablets of wood similar in size but different in
weight.
5. For discrimination in ‘Touch’  Rectangular tablet with rough and smooth
surfaces.
6. For discrimination in ‘Sound’  Cylindrical boxes containing different
substances.
Didactic Apparatus for Teaching language and Arithmetic, with-

 Two sloping desks and various iron insets.

 Cards on which are pasted sandpaper letters.
 Two alphabets of colored card board and of different sizes.
 A series of cards on which are pasted sand paper figures (1,2,3 etc)
 A series of large cards bearing the same figures in smooth paper for the
enumeration of numbers above ten.
 Two boxes with small sticks for counting.
 The volume of drawing belonging especially to the methods and colour pencils.
 The frames for lacing, buttoning etc which are used motor education of hand.

Details application of Didactic Apparatus:

1. Three sets of colored insets.

2. Three sets of solid in graduated size, consisting of: pink cubes, brown prisms rods
(a) colored green (b) colored alternatively red and blue.
3. Various geometric solids.
4. Rectangular boards with rough and smooth surfaces.
5. A collection of various stuffs and materials.
6. Small wooden tables of different weights.
7. Two boxes, each containing sixty four colored tablets.
8. A chest of drawers containing plane insets.
9. Three series of cards on which are pasted geometrical forms in paper.
10. A collection of cylindrical closed boxes (sounds).
11. A double series of musical bells: wooden boards on which are painted the lines used
in music; small wooden discs for the notes.

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Procedure of use of materials:

The use of the material employed involves three stages.

i. Association of the sensory perception with the name “this is red” .
ii. Recognition of the object, “Give me Thread”.
Iii. Recalling the name of the object “what is this”?.
Child handles the materials, by repeating the process, with all that included in
different sets. The exercise trains the sense of sight and teaches the child to note the
different dimensions.

The apparatus is self corrective, training in a particular sense, motor training and learning
by doing activities.

Didactic Exercise for Teaching 3Rs is Reading, Writing Arithmetic. After sensory training
children are taught reading, writing and arithmetic. In Montessori system, writing starts
before reading. For this purpose she depends upon the psychological principle of “Transfer
of Training”. In her words, preparatory movement could be converted and reduced to a
mechanism by means of repeated exercise, not in the work itself, but in that which
prepares for it.

However, Montessori’s Educational Thought and Practices brings followings merits among
the children:

 Scientific base of the method.

 Individual teaching.
 Freedom for children.
 Education through sense training
 Unique method of reading and writing
 Learning through living
 Social values
 Reverence for small children

Demerits:

 Mechanical and artificial nature of the didactic apparatus.

 More emphasis on biological aspects and less on psychological.
 Belief in transfer of training.
 Neglect of the training of imagination
 Lack of suitable trained teachers
 Expensive material.
 Very little scope for correlation and projects.

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1.2.7.Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Gandhiji’s contribution to Indian education is best known through his scheme of new
education called NAI-TALIM or Basis Education. In addition, Gandhiji had also realized the
vital importance of educating children below 7 years of age, which in opinion is an
important stage in the growth and development of the individual. Gandhiji focus on
education for children of 7 years which is called pre basic education.

Pre basic education:

Pre basic education is the “education of children under 7 for a development of all their
faculties conducted by the school teachers in cooperation with the parents and the
community in schools and at homes”.

Essentials of pre basic education according to Gandhiji are –

 Home is the first center of child’s education and learning.

 The teacher and parents should cooperate in carrying out the education of young
children.
 Preschool education must not be expensive so that it can reach the majority of child
population.
 A child has to be active, creative and playful and has to learn things through the
medium of play.
 An attempt should be made to develop self efficiency in children.

According to Gandhiji above mentioned ideas of Pre-school education, the first experiment
in pre-basic education was started in 1945 in the village of seva gram, Wardha in
Maharastra state.

Gandhi’s principles:

Mahatma followed as well as preached the following principles throughout his life:

 Truth
 Non violence
 Vegetarianism
 Brahmacharya
 Simplicity
 Faith in God

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The programme of instruction in a pre basic school is geared to the needs of the following 4
groups:

 Stage I- Conception to birth

 Stage-II-Birth to 2½ years
 Stage III-2½ years to 4 years
 Stage IV-4 years to 7 years

In first two stages education involves both mother and child. Opportunities are
provided to the mothers to learn more about new trends and scientific methods of
child rearing health and hygiene and mother craft. Children were given custodial
care and medical attention.

The children from 2½ years to 4 years are provided to play or group activities.
Children need to be given full freedom to act, to move about and to choose their own
activities teacher must supervise and guide the child.

The children after 4 years can participate in definite purposeful activities such as
cleaning the class room, watering plants, washing vessels, measuring and weighing tins,
bringing water, drawing and painting and other similar activities. Teacher must
understand likes and dislikes of the child.

Gandhiji’s view on other aspect of early childhood education:

 Concept of Education: According to Gandhi, good education is that which

stimulates the spiritual, intellectual and physical facilities of the children.
 Curriculum: Curriculum is to be craft centered and activity centered. He pointed
out through craft, children understand concrete life situation. Craft is to be
taught not merely for productive work but for developing the intellectual
capacities of the children.
 Methods and approaches: Correlation is an important method of basic
education. It is the technique which binds education with child’s life.
 Books: He discouraged the use of many books, especially books with formal
writings. Especially the first year in primary school should be completely
without books and the teacher should use oral method to save the child from
“Tyranny of words”
 Role of teachers: Teacher has to play the role of a mother. She has to nurture
the child, live with him and bring him to the level of greater maturity.
 Religious Education: He emphasized classical principles of ethics and maturity
in general rather than religious teaching.

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Gandhiji’s Views on Education:

“By Education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in child and man-body mind and
spirit. Literacy is not the end of education or even the beginning”, M.K.Gandhi (Harijan: July
31, 1937)

As such education becomes the basis of personality development in all dimensions-- moral,
mental and emotional. Education means, “To nourish” “To bring up” and “To raise”. This
means educating a child or drawing out what is ingrained in child or to lead out of darkness
into light,

According to Gandhiji: “Character cannot be built with mortar and stone. It cannot be
built by hands other than your own”.

- Gandhiji in Ceylon by Mahadev Deasi.P.89

“Basic education links the children, whether of cities or of village, to all that is best and
lasting in India”.

- Constructive programme; its meaning and place.

“Is not education the art of drawing out full manhood of the children under training”.

- Young India, 12-3-1925.

Mahatma Gandhi explained the concept of basic education through a series of articles in
his Harijan Magazine in 1937. In the conference of Wardha after a detailed discussion about
Gandhiji’s articles the scheme of Basic Education took shape under the leadership of Dr.
Zakir Hussain. Following were the resolutions:

1. Free and compulsory education should be given to all children for a period of seven
years.
2. The medium of instruction should be the mother tongue.
3. The process of education should be centered round form of manual production
work in the shape of a craft.
4. This education should be self supporting to some extent.

Gandhiji’s Publication on Education:

1. My experiments with Truth (Autobiography)

2. Basic Education
3. Towards Need Education
4. True Education
5. To the students

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6. Task Before Indian Students

7. India of My Dreams
8. Medium of Instruction
9. Tasks Fore India
10. Harijan

Gandhiji’s Views on Education:

The Basic Philosophy of Gandhiji:

 True education is all round development of the faculties best attained through
action. It bases itself on the fact that knowledge and understanding develop in
relation to problems set right by action.
 Education must be concrete and inter connected, not abstract or given in isolated
sections. Concrete education allows the learner to manipulate problems or sets of
problems and study their relationships, character and artistic sense. It allows the
mind, heart, hand eyes to work simultaneously in a correlated manner, resulting in a
harmonious and well balanced personality.
 Education must be imparted in the child’s mother tongue and organically connected
with the child’s social and cultural environment.

Aim and Goals according to Gandhiji:

 All boys and girls in India should grow up to seek truth and peace.
 All children should grow up as citizens in a new social order, based on cooperative
work and with the understanding of their rights, responsibilities and obligation in
such a society.
 Every individual child should have full opportunity for balanced and harmonious
development and should acquire the capacity of self reliance in every aspect of a
clean, healthy and cultured life, together with an understanding of the social,
political and moral implications of such a life.
 Each individual must develop “a scientific attitude of mind” it means a clean
intellectual curiosity to know “how” and “why” of things the patience detachment to
test all phenomena, all ideas and all traditions by the standards of truth.

Religious Education: fundamental principles of ethics are common to all religions. These
should certainly be taught to the children.

Education and Character: what is education without character. What is character without
elementary purity.

Education through craft: whole process of education to be imparted through some

handicraft or industry

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Teaching of Craft: Handicrafts are to be taught not merely for production work but for
developing the intellect of the pupils.

Value of Dignity of labor Manual work will have to be the very centre of the whole thing.
Useful manual labor, intelligently performed is the means par intelligence for developing
the intellect.

1.2.8. Rabindra Nath Tagore (1961-1941)

Rabindranath Tagore was a poet and a saint who had through his imagination and in sight,
realized the universal soul in himself and in nature. He believed that this realization was
the goal of education. He believed that every human being is one who has potentialities of
progressing towards the super human being, the universal soul. His conception of the
Universal soul before clear imprint of the Gita and Upanishadic philosophies.

Rabindranath Tagore was born on 7th May 1861 in the Jorasanko Mansion in Calcutta.
Rabindranath Tagore was a philosopher, poet, dramatist, teacher essayist and painter of
outstanding repute. His philosophy of life was based on the ideals of dedication, patriotism
and naturalism. Although he was an ideal philosopher, but the thoughts of naturalism,
pragmatism and individualism are also reflected in his philosophy.

Rabindranath Tagore believed that the aim of education is self realization. Principles of
self education: Self education based on self realization is as permanent as that of
education. What is most important in this is that the students must have faith in him and in
the universal self underlying his own individual self.

Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for literature
for “Gitanjali”, his book of poem. As a humanist, Universalist, Internationalist and strident
antinationalist he denounced the British Raj and advocated independence from Britain.

As an Educationist Tagore visiting Santa Barbara in 1917, conceived a new type of

university, he sought to make “Santiniketan” the connecting thread between India and
world.

Aims of Education according to Tagore:

1. Self Realization: Spiritualism is the essence of humanism. Manifestation of personality

depends upon the self realization and spiritual knowledge of individuals.

2. Intellectual Development: He emphasized greatly the Intellectual Development of the

children. By intellectual development he means development of imagination, creative, free
thinking, constant curiosity and alertness of the mind-child should be free to adopt his own
way learning which will lead to all round development.

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3. Physical Development: He gave much importance to sound and healthy physique, Yoga,
Games, Sports are prescribed in Santiniketan as an integral part of the education system.

4. Love of Humanity: Tagore held that education can teach people to realize oneness of the
globe. Education for international understanding and universal brotherhood is another
important aim of his education.

5. Freedom: Freedom is considered as an integral aspect of human development. Education

is a man making process; it explores the innate power that exists within the man. It
provides utmost to the individual for his all round development.

6. Correlation of objects: Correlation with God, man and nature. A peaceful world is only
possible when correlation between man and nature will be established.

7. Mother tongue is the medium of Instruction: Language is the true vehicle of self
expression. Man can freely express his thought in his mother tongue. He empharized
mother tongue to child’s education.

8. Moral and spiritual development: Moral and spiritual education is more important than
bookish knowledge for an integral development of human personality.

9. Social Development: According to Tagore “Brahma” the supreme soul manifests himself
through men and other creatures. Since He is the source of all human-being and creatures,
so all are equal. He said “Service to man is service to God”. All should develop social
relationship and fellow feeling from the beginnings of one’s life.

Tagore pointed out the great significance of the school environment in the life of children
whose mind, like the tree, has the power to gather food and nourishment from its
surroundings. The cultural atmosphere in Santiniketan keeps the mind sensitive to rich
racial inheritance, glorious traditions and concentrated wisdom of ages.

In India Rabindranath Tagore created a form of authentic education which he believed was
more true to the needs children growing up in rural India than conventional didactic
schooling. The Ideal school according to Rabindranath Tagore located at a distance of about
100 miles from Calcutta. Later, this school become “Santiniketan” and grew into “Visva
Bharati”.

Children minds are sensitive to the influences of the world. The subconscious minds
are active always imbibing some lessons, and realizing the joy of knowing. On December
22, 1901 Rabindranath Tagore started a school at Santiniketan named “Brahma
Charyasrama” modified on the lines of the ancient Gurukul system. Later it was renamed
Visva Bharati, it’s symbolic meaning being defined by Tagore as “where the world makes a

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home in a nest”. The aim of this educational institute was the quest for truth, blending the
methods of learning of the East and West.

According to Tagore the followings are the characteristics, he introduced in his school:-

 Should be situated in natural surroundings.

 There should prevail the nature’s own beauty with her varied gifts of colours and
dance, flowers and fruits with the joy of her morning and the peace of her starry
nights.
 Providing with ancient “Tapovana” forest school, where He has read in ‘Upanishad’.
 Spiritual training for the children, children for cultivation of love of nature and
sympathy with all living creatures.
 Providing children the atmosphere of freedom.
 Impart knowledge to children through mother tongue.
 Should provide manual labor.
 Well equipped library.
 Educate children by providing an environment of living aspiration, based upon
living, contact between teacher and the taught.
 Community school with no caste and creed.
 School should teach crafts like sewing, book binding, weaving etc.
 Drawing, Art and music as an integral part of curriculum.
 Adequate opportunities for children’s choosing their hobbies and occupations.

Tagore popularly known as Gurudev was a great artist won the Nobel Prize for -literature
and he utilized the entire amount of this award $8000 for the upkeep of his famous school
“Santiniketan” at Bolepur in 1901. His literature towards his special poets were-

 Shiksar Herpher (our education and its Incongruities)

 Shiksha Samasya (The problem of education)
 Abarana (Culture or Covering)
 Dharmasiksha (Religious Education)
 Hindu Visvavidyalay (Hindu University)
 Strishiksha (women Education)
 Shikhar Bahan (Vehicle of Education)
 My School
 Shiksar Vikiran (Diffusion of Education)
 Ashramer Siksha(Education in Ashram)
 Bodher Sadhana (Education of the feelings)
 Several convocation Addresses.

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1.2.9. SHRI AUROBINDO GHOSH (1872-1950)

Aurobindo Ghosh was an idealistic and his philosophy based on Vedantic Philosophy of
Upanishad. He maintains that the kind of education, we need in our country, is an education
“proper to the Indian soul and need and temperament and culture that we are in quest of,
not indeed something faithful merely to the past, but to the developing soul of India, to her
future need to the greatness of her coming self creation, to her eternal spirit”.

Sri Aurobindo’s (1956) concept of education is not only acquiring information, but “The
acquiring of various kinds of information,” he points out “is only one and not the chief of
the means and necessities of education: its central aim is the building of powers of the
human mind and spirit”.

Sri Aurobindo wrote a series of articles on education in the “Karma Yogin during 1909-10
under the title”.

 A system of National Education

 The National value of Art.
 A preface to National Education.
 The synthesis of Yoga-A Book.

He points out that the question is not between modernism and antiquity, but between an
imported civilisation and the greater possibilities of the Indian mind and nature, not
between present and past but between present and the future.

Aims of Education according to Sri Aurobindo Ghosh

 Education should in accordance with the needs of our real modern life. Education
should create dynamic citizen so that they are able to meet the needs of modern
complex life.
 Physical development and holiness as the chief aim of education.
 To train all the senses hearing, speaking, listening, touching, smelling and testing.
According to him these senses can be fully trained when nerve, chitta and manas
pure.
 To achieve mental development of the child. This mental development means the
enhancement of all mental faculties namely- Memory, Thinking, reasoning,
imagination and discrimination etc to which education should develop them fully
and harmoniously.
 The development of morality: Without moral and emotional development only,
mental development becomes harmful to human process. Heart of a child should be
so developed as to show extreme love, sympathy and consideration for all loving
beings. Teacher should be a role model to his children.

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 Development of conscience is another important aim of education that needs to

develop by the help of teacher. Conscience has four level, Chitta, Manas, Intelligence
and knowledge.
 To promote spiritual development. According to Sri Aurobindo every human being
has some fragment of divine existence within himself and education can scan it from
each individual with its full extent-

Curriculum Transaction:

 Curriculum should be in such a way which child find as interesting.

 It should include entire subjects which promote mental and spiritual development.
 It should motivate children towards the attainment of knowledge of the whole
world.
 It should contain creativity of life and constructive capacities.

Curriculum for different stages of Education:-

 At Primary Stage: Mother tongue, English, French, Literature, National history, Art
Painting, General science, Social Studies and Arithmetic.
 At Secondary Stage: Mother tongue, English, French, Literature, Arithmetic, Art,
Chemistry, Physics, Botany, Physiology, Health education and social studies.
 At University Stage: Indian and western Philosophy, History of Civilization, English
Literature, French, Sociology, Psychology, History, Chemistry, Physics, Botany.
 At Vocational Level: Art, Painting, Photography Sculptural, Drawing, Type, Cottage
industry, mechanical and electrical engineering and nursing etc.

Principles of Teaching According to Sri Aurobindo

1. True teaching is nothing can be taught. The teacher is not an instructor or task master;
he is a helper and a guide. His business is to suggest and not to impose.

2. Second principle is that the mind has to be consulted in its own growth. The idea of
hammering the child into the shape desired by the parent or teacher is a barbarous and
ignorant superstition. The mind has to be consulted in its growth. Sri Aurobindo wrote, “It
is wrong and not be ignored and mutilated”.

3. The Third Principle of Teaching is to work from the near to the far, from the known to
the unknown. Man’s nature is molded by his soul’s past, his heredity and his environment.
The past is the foundation, the present is the material and future is the aim and each must
find its due and natural place in any national system of education.

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Functions of Education:

1. To bring out the real man.

2. To build the powers of the human mind and spirit, i.e. the evoking of knowledge
character and culture.
3. To enable the individual to establish a clear continuity between the past present and
the future.
4. To enable the individual to establish right relations with life.

School According to Sri Aurobindo:

His philosophy of education aims at modify the school curricula, maximizing the learning
modalities, helping the child to achieve his potentiality at his own pace and level and
devote his time to discover himself.

The type of schooling visualized by Sri Aurobindo is seen as aiming to bridge the gap
between the child’s life at school and that at home. In the present system of education,
there is a need to example initiatives which are rooted in Indian tradition, seek alternatives
in curriculum teaching learning for measuring success, involve children in the process of
learning and focus on learning from the another and not from authoritative pedagogue.

Discipline: Children should be provided with a free environment so that they are able to
gain more and more knowledge by their own efforts. According to him any retained and
imposed environment stunt, the growth and natural development. He propagated the
concept of self discipline which was the cure of impressionistic discipline.

Aurobindo’s Vision on Education: “The supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of
logical reasoning nor the affirmations of creedal statement, but fruits of the soul’s inner
experience”- Sri Aurobindo.

Integral Education & Sri Aurobindo

Integral Education that inspires the children to develop five essential aspects of
personality such as the physical, the vital, the mental, the Psychic, and the spiritual. Integral
education is conceived as a process of organic growth and the way in which various
faculties could be developed and integrated.

According to Sri Aurobindo, “Integral education is that which helps to bring out to
full advantage, makes ready for the full purpose of life and scope of all that is in the
individual man, which at the same time helps him to enter into his right relation with life,
mind and soul of the people to which he belongs and with the great total life mind and soul
of humanity of which he himself is a unit and his people or nation, a separate and yet in
separable member”.

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Self Evaluation

Q1.Contribution of Rousseau to Pre-school Education-Explain.

Q2.Play way Method is an ideal method, how?

Q3.M.Montessori and Froebel’s Preschool Education – Define the similarities and

differences.

Q4.Explain Froebel’s Gift. Evaluate their importance.

Q5.What is the common approach derived by Montessori?

Q6.What is the main features of Montessori Method?

Q7. Give the main features of Basic Education.

Q8.Tagore’s philosophy in Preschool Education – Explain.

Q9.What are the views of Gandhiji on Education?

Q10.What is Children’s house? Who was the founder of it? Explain the characteristics?

Q11.Who has started Integral Education and what are the principles behind this?

Write notes on:-

1. 4 Books written by Tagore.

2. 4 Principles of kindergarten.
3. Give Tagore’s views in Pre-primary Education.
4. “Let us live for children” who said this? Why did he say so?
5. Where did Montessori perform her experiments?
6. What is Integral Education?
7. State the main principles of learning started by Tagore.
8. Describe any one Gift of Froebel.
9. Didactic apparatus.
10. What are the main characteristics of Ideal school?

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UNIT II

Stages and Principles of Child Development

2.0. Stages and Principles of child Development from conception to early childhood.

Objectives:

 Meaning and nature of development.

 Significant Characteristics of Growth and Development.
 Stages of development from Conception to early childhood.

Structure

2.0. Meaning and Nature of Development

2.1. Principles of child development.

2.2. Factors influencing growth and development.

2.3. Stages of growth and development.

2.4. Characteristics during Early Childhood.

2.5. Educational Planning for Early Childhood.

2.0. Meaning and Nature of Development

“Growth” & “Development” interchangeable. In reality they are different through they are
inseparable. Growth refers to quantitative and quantitative changes –increases in size and
structure. Development, by contrast, refers to qualitative and quantitative changes. It may
be defined as a progressive series of orderly, coherent changes. “Progressive” signifies that
the changes are directional, that they lead forward rather than backward. “Orderly” and
“Coherent” suggest that there is a definite relationship between the changes taking place.

Holistic development sees the child in the round, as a whole person- Physically,
emotionally, intellectually, socially, morally, culturally and spiritually. Developmental
norms are sometimes called milestones- they define the recognised pattern of development

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that children are expected to follow. Each child develops in a unique way; however using
norms helps In understanding these general patterns of development while recognizing the
wide variation between individuals.

2.1. Principles of Child Development

Although children develop at different rates and therefore, the nation of inter individual
differences exists, a single child can show more rapid change in some developmental areas
than in others; thus intra individual differences also exist. Regardless of the perspective,
there are certain principles of development that apply to all children.

These includes:-

 Development progresses in a step-by-step fashion. It is orderly sequential and

proceeds from the simple to complex.
 Rates of Development vary among children as well as among developmental areas in
a single child.
 Development is characterized by increasing specificity of functions (differentiation)
as well as integration.

Each child has his own rate of development. To divide entire life span into some
specific stages is artificial; because development is a gradual and continuous process. Still
psychologists, for convenience, have been trying to classify the life span of human beings;
Elizabeth B. Hurlock has given the following classification:

Table-1

Stage Period & Age

1. Prenatal Period Conception to birth
2. Infancy From ninth week to approximately 2 years
3.Babyhood From ninth week to approximately 2 years
4. Child hood From 2 years to puberty
a. Early Childhood Extending upon the sixth year
b. Later Childhood From seventh year to eleven or twelve years

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5. Adolescence From 11-12 years to age of 21 years.

a. pre-adolescence Eleventh or twelfth year to the age fourteen year.
b. Early-adolescence From pre adolescence to the age of sixteen or seventeen.
c. Late adolescence From early adolescence to twenty or twenty one year .
6. Adult hood Twenty first years onwards.
Shortly we may divide the entire life span into four major stages as:

1. Infancy : From birth to two years.

2. Childhood : From two years to 11 or 12 years.
3. Adolescence : From eleven or twelve years to twenty or twenty one years.
4. Adulthood : From twenty or twenty one year’s onwards.

Each of these stages of development can be studied with respect to the followings aspects:

 Physical development
 Mental or intellectual development.
 Social development
 Emotional development
 Moral development

Child development has been a subject of deep interest since the earliest days of
psychological theory. Numerous psychologists and psychiatrists have put forth their own
theories but perhaps none has been as influential as Erik Erikson. A student of Sigmud
Frued, Erikson divided human development into eight stages. Five of which take place
during childhood.

Erikson believed that a sense of competence motivates behaviours and actions. Each stage
in Erikson’s theory is concerned with becoming competent in an area of life. According to
Erikson psychological development, occurs through different stages which are mentioned
as follows;

Stage Period Characteristics

Stage-1 Birth-1 year Trust vs. Mistrust
Stage-2 Early Childhood Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt.
Stage-3 Preschool yrs Initiative vs. Guilt
Stage-4 Early school years 5 -11 yrs Industry vs. Inferiority
Stage-5 Adolescence period Identity vs. Confusion
Stage-6 Early adulthood Intimacy vs. Isolation
Stage-7 Adulthood Generatively vs. Stagnation
Stage-8 Old age Integrity vs. Despair

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Views of Psychologists:

 Crow and Crow (1973) defined that “growth refers to structural and psychological
changes while development refers to growth as well changes in behavior”.
 “Development does not consist merely of adding inches to one’s height or improving
one’s ability. Instead development is a complex process of integrating many
structures and functions” (Anderson, 1950)
 “Development means a progressive series of changes that occur in an orderly
predictable pattern as a result of maturation and experience” (Hurlock, 1959).

Child development according to Elizabeth B. Hurlock, “Development of human being is a

continuous process from conception to birth”:

1. Prenatal Conception to birth Development is rapid mainly physiological

Period
2.Infancy Birth to 10-14 days Newborn, adjust to new environment,
outside mothers body. Growth is at a
standstill.
3. Babyhood 2 week to 2 years Baby learns to control his/her muscle, so
can becomes increasingly self reliance
independent
4. Childhood 2 years to Adolescence Starts to learn
Early Childhood (2-6 years) -To make social adjustment
Late Childhood (6-13 years) -School age socialization
5. Puberty 11-16 years Transformed into an adult body

Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980) developmental stages of Piaget a Swiss educator observed

children. He lived for about 50 years and wrote more than 20 books on the various aspects
of development. He pointed out 4 stages of development.

Table Piaget’s Classification

Stage Period Characteristics

1. Sensory motor stage Birth to 2 years Manipulation of objects in
the environment
2. Pre. Operational stage Between 2 to 6 years Child begins to acquire
vocabulary
3. Concrete operational Between age of 6 and 11 or Child learns to add, subtract,
stage 12 multiply & divide
4.Formal operational stage Between 11 or 12 to 14-15 Child begins to think
years logically

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The entire development is influenced by the important factors as heredity and

Environment.

Different characteristics of each stage of human growth and development:

Human development is the basic fact of human existence and each person develop
uniquely. It occurs in an orderly sequence involving physical, cognitive and emotional
development.

2.2. Factors influencing Growth and Development

A. Internal factors- These are within the individual are called includes:-

i. Heredity factors
ii. Biological and constitutional factors
iii. Intelligence
iv. Emotional factors
v. Social factors

B. External Factors- influence the growth and development of the child. The external
factors which impact development are:

i. Environmental influences on the fetus.

ii. Environmental influences after birth

C. Dimension of Development.

Social Physical Cognitive

Development Development Development

Development of Spiritual
Aesthetic Child Development
Development

Language Emotional Development of

Development Development Creative expression

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Major Dimensions of Development:

Human Development is often studied by the developmental psychologists separated as 3

domains-

(i) Biosocial (ii) Cognitive and (iii) psychosocial domain

Domain Description
Biosocial The part of human development that includes physical growth and
development as well as the family, community and cultural factors that
affect growth and development
Cognitive Includes all the mental process through which the individual thinks,
learns and communicates, plus the institutions involved in learning and
community.
Psychosocial Includes emotions, personality characteristics and relationship with
other people as well as cultural influences

2.3. Stages of Growth and Development:

(Physical, Social, Emotional and Intelligence) Life begins with conception in the mother’s
womb. This period is called Pre-natal period. The time before the fetus come out from the
womb is known as antenatal period. The post natal starts immediately after the child
contacts the environment.

Prenatal Period: Prenatal period has six important characteristics-

 The hereditary endowment is fixed which serves for later development

 Favorable environmental conditions in the mother’s body can foster the
development of hereditary potentials.
 The sex of the newly created individuals is fixed at the time of conception by
hereditary endowment.
 Greater growth and development take place during this period than at any other
period in entire life.
 The prenatal period is a time when environmental or psychological hazards can
have a marked effect on the pattern of later development.
 Attitudes towards newly individual have an effect on the normal development.

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Infancy (Birth to 3 years)

1. Infancy begins with birth and extends to two years. It is the stage of rapid
development.
2. During the first two weeks are neonates. They have usually wrinkled blocky red skin
and a large head. The sleep for about 18 to 22 hours a day.
3. During six months age infants can discriminate between faces of parents and
strangers, and colours.
4. By the age of nine months, a baby can sleep.
5. By one year of age, babies can associate sounds and say dada, mama or bye-bye.
6. At the age of two years, baby cooperates with others especially adults and latter
with his playmates.
7. Parents have a profound influence in shaping their children’s personality.

Early Childhood (3-6 years)

This is a period from 3 to 6 years. This period is labeled by parents the toy age, problem or
troublesome age, as the pre-school age: and by the psychologists as the pre-gang age, the
explorative or initiative age.

2.4. Characteristics during Early Childhood

A. Physical Development:

1. Physical growth is at a slow rate.

2. The average annual height is three inches, by the age of six, the average child
measured 46.6 inches.
3. The average annual increase in weight is 3 to 5 pounds. At the age of six, children
weight approximately seven times as much as they did at birth.
4. The arms and legs lengthen and the hands and feet grow bigger.
5. The muscles become larger, stronger and heavier.
6. The baby teeth begin to be replaced by permanent teeth.
7. The child in pre-school stage develops a variety of motor skills like walking, running,
jumping, hopping and climbing.

B. Social development:

1. Early childhood is named as pre-gang age, the time when children are learning the
foundations of social behavior.
2. Children have one or more favorite playmates with which they communicate their
feelings, emotions and interests.

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3. Children identify themselves with the group by imitating a person whom they
admire.
4. Children develop inter personal and sex appropriate relationships with others.
5. Feelings of autonomy develops in children. They begin to explore their environment
independently .
6. Social environment expands beyond home.

C. Emotional Development:

1. Emotions are spontaneous.

2. Emotions are expressed in relation to concrete objects.
3. Child shifts his emotions very rapidly. Emotions are temporary.
4. Emotional expressions are intense irrespective of the intensity of the stimulus.
5. Children fail to hide their emotions but express them through different activities
such as crying, nail biting, thumb-sucking, and speech difficulties.

D. Intellectual Development:

1. Child enters into Piaget’s second stage of development-pre operational stage. The
child begins to think symbolically.
2. Child develops the perception of size, shape, colour, time and distance.
3. Memory increases rapidly.
4. Creativity and imagination begin to grow.
5. Thinking and reasoning develop in relation to concrete materials.
6. Span of attention and interest in exploring the environment increases.

2.5.Educational Planning for Early Childhood:

This is a stage for formal schooling followings points may be helpful for planning
kindergarten education for children-

1. Peal and Lambert (1962) found that bilingual (two languages) children had higher
cognitive abilities than monolingual children. So it is essential in school to introduce
another language along with mother tongue.
2. Listening radio and television can be an aid in learning correct pronunciation.
3. Teaching-learning process should follow play way method instead of rigid syllabus.
4. Physical development of children should be concentrated upon for the activities like
playing games, simple physical exercises for hand, foot, eye hand coordination etc
are to be practiced.
5. Children in preschool interact more with their peers than do home raised children.
6. Creativity, activities like singing, dancing, recitation, art activities, including
painting, cutting and pasting various shapes.

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Self Evaluation

Q1. What are the factors affecting Growth and Development?

Q2.What is the characteristics of Early Childhood?

Q3.Write on stages of development according to Jean Piaget.

Q4. Explain the major characteristics of social development during Early Childhood.

Notes on:

1. Educational Planning for Early Childhood.

2. Principles of Development.

3. Intellectual development at Early Childhood.

Principles of Development
2.6.Principles of Development:

Objectives:

 To understand the meaning of development growth and maturation.

 To understand principles of development
 Distinction between development growth and maturation.

Structure:

2.6. Principles of Development

2.6.1. Difference between Growth and Development

2.6.2. Principle of Development and their educational implication

2.6.3. Some general Implication

Human development is a lifelong process of physical behavioral, cognitive and emotional

growth and change. It describes the growth of the human throughout the life span from
conception to death. A lot of charges take place at various stages of life. Childhood
adolescence and adulthood. Throughout the stages, each individual develops attitudes,
values and guide choices relationships and understanding.

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All aspects of human growth and development include physical, emotional, social,
intellectual perceptual and personality development.

‘Growth’ and ‘Development’ are often used inter changeably in terminologies. But both are
different from each other.

2.6.1.Differences between Growth and Development:

Growth Development
1. Growth is physical changes in 1. Development is over all and progressive
organism. changes in the organism.
2. Growth is cellular 2. Development is organizational.
3. Growth is change in shape, form, 3. Development is structural and functional
structure and size of the body changes in body.
4.Growth stops at maturation 4. Development continues till death
5. Growth is a part of development 5. development includes growth
6.Growth is quantitative in nature 6. development is qualitative in nature

Maturation

This means simply changes, which take place as a result of physical growth of Biological
change, rather than those, which takes place through experience. Major development in
early childhood is the result of maturation learning to walk, talk etc are the example of
maturation. It provides the base for the future development.

There are two kinds of behavior.

Kinds of behavior

Phylogenetic Ontogenetic

Phylogenetic Behaviors:

It refers to those behaviors which are common to human species like walking, talking etc.
later more development results from experience.

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Ontogenetic Behaviors:

It refers to those behaviors which are individually learned on an individual time table.

A child who is not taught to walk will nevertheless begin to do so when strength and ability
permit, it is a natural consequence of human maturation. But a child, who is capable of the
physical skill necessary to swing a racket or write a word will not be able to do so unless
shown how.

Physical skills can be taught much more quickly and easily to a child, who is at appropriate
development level.

2.6.2Principles of Development and their Educational Implications:

Development is governed by certain principles:-

1) Development is the product of heredity and environment: Research studies and

investigations have revealed the fact that development is a product of heredity and
environment. An individual inherits many physical, mental and personal qualities
from his ancestors but those qualities are greatly influenced by the environment.
As presents or teachers are unable to control and change the heredity, they should
provide suitable environment for the child, so that there will be proper
development.

2. Development is a continuous Process: Development is a continuous process that

takes place at a slow and regular pace. Though for convenience the entire life span
is divided into certain stages, one cannot notice any clear-cut distinction between
two consecutive stages. Nothing happens all on a sudden. For example we cannot
say exactly when a child has developed the power of speech.

Teachers must be very particular about the fact that development is gradual and
continuous. They should not accept a child to achieve something suddenly, rather
they should encourage the gradual achievement and success of the child.

3. Development of various traits are correlates: it is clear from research findings

that various traits are correlated. If a child is having a high IQ, he will generally, have
good physique; and the backward children generally, have various physical
handicaps.

As the development of various traits is correlated, the school should provide

different curricular and co curricular activities so that there will be development in
all aspects of the children.

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4. Development proceeds from general to specific:

Development occurs from mass activity to differentiation. The newly born baby, at
first moves his body as a whole. The gradually he/she make finer movements. The
baby also produces some general babbling sounds first; and then gradually learns to
speak specific words. Teacher should take into consideration this principle of
development while teaching.

5. Developments Follow a pattern:

Development takes place in a sequential order; it is a step-by-step process. The

physical development follows two sequences:

(i) Cephalo-Caudal Sequence- The body grows from head region downwards. That
means the distant part of the body from the head, the late is its growth.

(ii). Proximo-distal sequence- the growth process from the central part of the
peripheral parts of the body, i.e. the spinal cord develops first and then the outward
development takes place.

If the teacher finds any abnormality in the pattern of development in any child, the
case should immediately be referred to the specialist.

6. Rates of development of different aspects are different:

Different parts of the body and different mental aspects develop at different rates.
For example, the brain attains its maximum size around the age of six to eight years;
the hands and legs attain their maximum size and strength by sixteen to twenty
years; general intelligence reaches the peak between sixteen to eighteen years and
so on.

The school should provide learning materials and activities that will facilitate the
development of different aspects at the proper time.

7. Development can be predicated:

The rate of development of each child is approximately constant throughout. So it is

possible to predict the development of any particular aspect of any child at any
particular time.

If the teacher has the knowledge of the rate of development of a particular child he
can easily control the behaviour of the child.

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8. Rate of Development is not even throughout:

During infancy and early years both the physical and mental growth are more rapid
than during the later years of life. The school should realize the importance of the
early years of the child’s life. The preschool and early school years should be
provided with enjoyable and productive experiences, which will facilitate the
learning as well as the development of the child.

9. Individual difference in development:

Each child has his own rate of development. There is wide range of differences
among the individuals in the development of various physical and mental aspects.
The teacher should take into consideration the individual differences while
preparing instructional materials and providing other activities in school.

10. Revision is a feature of development:

When a child passes from one stage to the next, he sometimes reverts back to the
earlier behavior. This happens due to the lack of mastery over the new behaviors.
Such simple deviations from the normal behaviour should be considered as usual
and should not be seriously in the school.

11. Spiral and non linear development:

This principle implies that the development of the child is not in a straight line
(linear) but is in the form of a cork-screw (spiral). He advances in his development
in one period but takes rest in the following period. This enables him to consolidate
his development.

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12. Principle of struggle:

While the child is developing up towards maturity there are conflicting impulses
and demands. The child struggles against these in his striving for maturity.

13. Indigenous Motivation is the principle of Development:

Child matures in his capacities of doing, thinking and feeling. He has an impulse to
put them to use and he does it whole heartedly. This has been described by Jersild
as “Indigenous Motivation”.

14. Anticipation is the principle of Development:

The child in his/her process of development also uses his capacity of self repair. He
modifies his behavior and even habits keeping in view what is going ‘to become’ in
future. Thus he consciously anticipates his future direction of development.

15. Interrelation is the principle of development:

It is observed that the growth and development in various aspects like physical,
mental, social etc are inter related and independent. Growth and development of the
child in one aspect leads to the development in other aspects as well.

2.6.3. Some General Educational Implications:

The educational implication of each of the principles of development has been
mentioned above. The general educational implications can be summarized below.

1. Development and learning are closely related:

Development determines how learning should proceed. If the child is forced to learn
a material when he has not developed to the stage to learn the particular material,
the learning becomes superficial.
2. Physical growth and maturation prepares the stage on which learning occurs:
The materials an individual’s learns, the speed with which he learns it; and the
ability to retain it, all depend on physical growth and maturation.
3. The teacher, with a knowledge of child development becomes more practical and
understanding. He knows what to expect from a child at a particular stage.
4. Knowledge of growth and development helps teachers and administrators to plan
the curriculum and select the effective methods of teaching for children.
5. Knowledge of development aids the teachers to access learning readiness, because
readiness is a product of both training and maturation.
6. As development is a product of heredity and environment, both the factors should
be taken into consideration for taking any decision about the child.

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7. Emphasis on Doing: ‘Doing’ helps in the development of mental, physical and social
skills.
8. Different modes of Teaching Learning: Singing songs and learning rhymes,
drawing pictures and reading stories help the child’s mind to grow at the pre
primary, primary and middle stages.
9. Due recognition: For proper development, all children need adequate praise and
recognition for their work.
10. Aspects of satisfaction of curiosity: Children are curious to learn and respond
with interest to new things.
11. Need for a pragmatic Outlook- Every stage of growth has its possibilities and
limitations. Teachers and parents should not place under demands on the child.
Such demands lead to mental tension for the child.
12. Observation: Observation of children leads to better understanding on thr part of
parents and teachers.

Self Evaluation:

1. Describe how development is different from growth?

2. Explain the principles of development and their educational implication.
3. “Development is a continuous process” how?
4. Write Notes on:
(i). Development proceeds from General to Specific.
(ii). Meaning of Development, growth and Maturation.
(iii). As a teacher, what educational facilities you may provide to pre primary
education of children for mental development?

Heart Rate at various Development Levels Levels of Maturities

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2.7. Needs of children from conception to Pre-School Stage:

Objectives

 To understand the basic needs of the children(0-3years)

 To understand the importance of the needs
 To understand the psychological needs of the children
 To find out the Educational Implications of the needs

Structure:

2.7 Needs of the Children from conception to 3 years

2.8 Child’s basic needs and categorization

2.9. Physiological needs

2.10 Emotional needs and Educational Implication

2.11. Social needs and their satisfaction

2.12. Intellectual needs

2.7. Understands the need of the child- It is easy for parents to identify their child’s
needs: physical-nutrition, food, warm clothes when it is cold, bedtime, at a reasonable hour.
However a child’s mental and emotional needs may not be as obvious. Good mental health
allows children to think clearly, develop socially and learn new skills. Additionally, good
friends and encouraging words from adults are all important for helping children develop
self confidence, high self esteem and a healthy emotional outlook on life.

From 0-3 Years:

 Protection from physical danger

 Adequate nutrition and health care
 Appropriate immunizations
 An adult with whom to form an attachment.
 An adult who can understand and respond to their signals
 Things to look at, touch, hear, smell, taste
 Opportunities to explore their world
 Appropriate language stimulation.
 Support in acquiring new motor, language and thinking skills.
 A chance to develop some independence
 Help in learning how to control their own behavior.

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 Opportunities to begin to learn to care for themselves.

 Daily opportunities to play with a variety of objects.

Basics for a Child’s Good Physical Health

 Nutritious Food
 Adequate shelter and sleep
 Exercise
 Immunization
 Healthy living environment

Basics for Child’s Good Mental Health

 Unconditional love from family

 Self confidence and high self esteem
 The opportunity to play with other children
 Encouraging teachers and supportive caretakers
 Safe and secure surroundings
 Appropriate guidance and discipline

Give Children Unconditional Love

Love, security and acceptance, should be at the heart of family life.

 Children need to know that your love does not depend on his/her accomplishment.
 Mistakes and defeats should be expected and accepted.
 Confidence grows in a home that is full of unconditional love and affection.

Kids need the basics of life- like food warmth, shelter, clothing protection etc.

Ten things kids need most are

i. Meeting their everyday needs.

ii. Feel safe and secure
iii. Love and hugs
iv. Plenty of praise
v. Smiles
vi. Talking
vii. Listening
viii. Learn new things
ix. Take care of their feelings
x. Rewards and special treats.

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Why “basic needs of children” important?

 They contribute to positive/optimal growth and development of children.

 Meeting children’s needs does not spoil them. Rather it teaches them that they are
valued, helps them to develop trust, decreases stress and distress in the child,
assists them in proceeding down a more optimal developmental trajectory, and
decreases the likely hood of development and behavioral problems (e.g. Brown,
2000: Dunn 2 Kontos, 1997).

2.8. Children’s needs may be broadly categorized into the followings:

1. Physiological Needs
2. Emotional Needs
3. Social Needs
4. Intellectual Needs

There are 7 psychological needs of the children

1. Attention
2. Respect
3. Acceptance
4. Belonging
5. Love
6. Achievement
7. Friendship

1. Attention: Be attentive to the child. If ignore him he will behave negatively.

2. Acceptance: A Child is happy when he/she is accepted by his parents. Hence it is to be

accepted to your child unconditionally.

3. Respect: A child needs to have self respect and to be self-respected. Praise your child
whenever he does something right to boost his self confidence.

4. Belonging: Everyone hopes to be part of a group. It is the same with your child. He
wants to have a place in a group. If he is rejected or bypassed it will affect his healthy
development.

5. Love: the emotional support and the love of his parents stimulate the child’s mental and
physical growth-shower him/her with love and tender care.

6. Achievement: it is the motive of your child to learn something and to achieve success.
Provide positive reinforcement in his quest for knowledge.

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7. Friendship: it is natural for a child to make friends. Encourage your child to socialize so
that he learns to get along with others in a normal and healthy situation.

All the above psychological needs promote a positive impact on the growth of the child.

2.9. Physiological needs of a child:

According to Maslow, a child’s first need is physiological. Children need food, water, clean
air and a safe, warm place to sleep. Parents and Teachers may meet these needs.

 Make time to meet these needs in a “family” (small or big family may be)
 Set the breakfast table together the night before.
 Plan a healthy menu about nutrition.
 Keep the air in your home clean. Avoid your child to cigarette smoking excessive
dust and toxic fumes.
 Teach your child to be responsible for his/her own physiological needs overtime.

Teachers Should Know:

 Children cannot learn when hungry.

 Allow the children to drink water as needed.
 Create a warm and inviting classroom environment.
 Provide students the opportunity to design and keep up the classroom environment.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:

Abraham Maslow in Psychology derived the human needs in one hierarchy of needs
represented as pyramid with the more basic needs at the bottom.

Self
Actualization

Esteem

Love/belonging

Safety

Physiological

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2.10.Emotional needs and the Educational Implications

Everyone has emotional needs, but sometimes we are not sure about our child’s emotional
needs. By looking at our child’s behavior we can be more in tune with his emotional needs
and a good way to start is by looking at his personality. It is very difficult to decide which
are the top most emotional needs at the child? However some are listed below:-

1. Accepted
2. Believed in
3. Cared about
4. Forgiven
5. Loved
6. Safe
7. Supported
8. Trusted
9. Understood
10. Valued
 Fulfilling a Child’s attention needs attention needs is a key competent in building a
strong self image and helps the parent teachers bond.
 Children should need some freedom, they don’t need punishment.
 Love is one of the most important needs for a happy childhood. Loving atmosphere,
makes the child to feel secure.
 A child must be given full attention. Use a gentle caring voice to describe the feelings
and situations you see.

2.11.Social Needs and Their Satisfaction:

Belongingness is an important social need of the children. Social needs of the child-

 It is his need to learn to cooperate with others in work and in play.

 Acceptance by their group is important. If they feel they are being left out, they
may indulge in anti social activities.
 Various clubs, societies and teams help to give children a sense of belongingness.
In the school it should be ensured by the teachers.
 Discipline in the school should be social. Students need to understand the
necessity of observing rules and regulations through their participation in group
activities.
 Children need independence, but they also need control and discipline, both of
which come through self realization.

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2.12.Intellectual Needs:
A child learns at his/her own pace, so everyone can be successful. Instead to provide a rich
environment of learning materials, stories, art, music, games and fun-filled activities are to
encourage intellectual growth. Children need opportunities for self expression. They feel
very happy when they feel free to speak. Children have a need to learn and to develop their
abilities.

Teacher has a major role in meeting intellectual needs of the children. The school
programmes and the methods of teaching must be geared to their felt needs. Children may
be encouraged to explore their environment. They may be allowed to experiment through
simple things. They may be provided time to read independently.

Self Evaluation:

1. What are the physiological needs of a child?

2. How the needs are categorized?
3. Explain the educational Implications of Emotional Needs.
4. Write a brief note on Intellectual and Emotional needs of the child.

Notes on:

1. Seven psychological needs

2. Maslow’s physiological needs

3 Emotional needs and Educational Implication

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2.13. Principles of development According to Piaget:

Jean Piaget (1952-1980) was a Swiss developmental psychologist. He developed one of the
most comprehensive theories of cognitive development. He developed genetic
epistemology a concept which refers to study of developmental changes in the process of
knowing and in the organization of knowledge. According to him cognitive development
means how knowledge is acquired and developed through successive stages and at various
age levels.

Mental Process: in Piaget’s theory all cognition takes place due to three processes. They
are:

 Assimilation means the fitting of new information into previously established

cognitive structure (schemes)
 Accommodation means the alteration of existing cognitive structures (schemes) in
response to new information.
 Equilibrium means optimal level of intellectual functioning taking place when
there is a balance between assimilation and accommodation. The cognitive
structure changes from one stage to another by the process of equilibration,
maintaining balance between the child and his changing environment.

These 3 processes together facilitate adaptation is an ongoing process:

 Adaptation is an inborn tendency to adjust to the demands of environment through

assimilation and accommodation.
 Organization the process by which children combine existing schemes into new
and more complex intellectual structure.

2.13.1.Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget (1970) suggested that children throughout the world proceed through a series of
four stages in a fixed order. Cognitive development progress through:-

Four Stages:

 Sensory motor stage (Birth to 2 years)

 Pre operational stage (2 years to 7 years)
 Concrete operational stage (7 to 12 years)
 Formal operational stage (12 onward)

1. Sensory Motor-Stage (0-2 years)

 Learning through 5 senses

 Development of initiative behaviours
 Development of symbolic knowledge

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 Develops object permanence

 The beginning of goal directed actions
 Imitation.

2. Pre operational stages (2-7years)

According to Piaget, the pre operational stage is a period from 2 to 7 years of age which is
characterized by language development. During this stage the child requires the ability to
form mental images of objects and events; and thus begin to think symbolically. This stage
is further subdivided into two:

(a) Pre conceptual Phase (2 to 4 years)

(b) The Intuitive Phase (4 to 7 years)
(a) Pre conceptual Phase (2 to 4 years): During this period the child develops the
ability to identify and classify objects.

 Semiotic function- ability to use symbols

 One way logic
 Differed Imitation
 Symbolic Play
 Transductive Reasoning: Child reasons from the particular to the particular.
 Ego Centrism: Child cannot think beyond his own view.
 Animistic Thinking: Children attribute human feelings and motives to non-
living objects.

(b) Intuitive Phase (4-7 years): the child in the intuitive sub stage lacks
understanding of relational terms and ability to sterilize objects.

3. Concrete Operational Stage (7 to 12 years):

According to Piaget, the concrete operational period from 7 to 12 years is characterized by

logical thinking and loss of egocentrism. ‘Hands on’ thinking, identity Compensation,
Reversibility, classification serrations’ are important features of this stage-

 Inductive-deductive Reasoning- The child begins to think in terms of a set of

interrelated principles rather than single bits of knowledge.
 Flexibility in Thinking- The child sheds his egocentrism and is able to take view
points of others.
 Understanding the Principle of Conversation: The child develops the ability to
conserve both in terms of quantity and number of objects.
 Classification and Serialization: Child develops the ability to classify objects and
develops the understanding of relational terms and also the ability of serialization.

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 Reversibility of Thought: At this stage the child learns to carry a thought backward
and forward in time.

4. Formal Operational Stage:

The important features of this stage are:-

 Abstract Thinking-Child uses symbolism in the process of thought and learns to

deal with abstraction by logical thinking.
 Hypothetical Reasoning: Systematic assumption of possible solutions
(hypothesis) is derived by the child for the problem.
 Problem Solving: Individual follows the systematic approach in solving the
problems. He/she formulates multiple hypotheses and a number of alternate
solutions.
 Transfer of Knowledge: The individual is able to transfer his learnt knowledge
from one situation to another.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage Age Range Major Characteristics

Sensorimotor Birth to 2 year Development of object permanence,
development of motor skills, little or no
capacity for symbolic representation.
Pre operational 2 to 7 years Development of Language and symbolic
thinking, egocentric, thinking.
Concrete Operational 7 to 12 years Development of conservation, mastery of
concept reversibility.
Formal operational 12 to adult hood Development of logical and abstract thinking.

2.13.2Some Educational Implications of Piaget’s View

 Read events and concrete objects play an important role in learning.
 In early years of the child if he is not allowed a fairly wide sensory and motor
experience in, his development is retarded.
 Children should be treated as children.
 Children should be made active.
 Children like to find out by themselves, by their own spontaneous activity.
 Children learn speedily if we provide concrete material to them.
 It provides a broad developmental perspective to the educator for building a
curriculum for the preschool children.
 A teacher should arouse curiosity of the child through planned activities.

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Self Evaluation:

1. Explain the stages of development of Piaget.

2. Which is the concrete operational stage of a child and what are the characteristics?
3. What is the meaning of cognitive development?
Notes on

1. Preoperational stage

2. Formal Operational stage

3. Educational views

4. Characteristics during sensory motor stage of the child

Aspects of Development
Objectives

 Physical & Motor.

 Emotional development
 Social Intellectual
 Moral and Aesthetic.

Structure

2.13.3. Physical and Motor Development

2.13.4. Emotional Development

2.13.5. Social Intellectual Development

2.13.6. Moral and Aesthetic Development

2.13.7 Aesthetic Development

2.13.3. Physical & Motor Development

Children begin developing at birth and continue to adulthood. The successful completion of
developmental milestones helps the child reach full potential.

A child develops rapidly in this stage. This period brings dramatic changes in body and
brain of the child. It supports the motor, perceptual and intellectual capacities. The

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language begins with the first intimate ties with others. Infancy spans the first year of the
child and todler hood, the second year. The period of childhood takes place between 2 to 11
year.

During Infancy the physical growth is most rapid. There is noticeable change in the
size and shape of the child. At birth the average weight of an infant is 6.3 pounds and height
is 18 inches. At the end of the second year, he is about 32 to 34 inches high and of a
considerable weight. During this period the child learns to crawl, stand and walk. He can
have the feelings of pain, temperature and pressure due to the development of sense
organs.

During Early childhood, the growth is even. Through it is rapid, it is not as

remarkable as in infancy. From age 2 to 6 year, the body becomes longer and learner.
During this period the child grow in average, 3 or 4 inches in height per year. Motor skills
start refining and children become more self- controlled and self sufficient. Thought and
language increases and sense of morality becomes evident. The arms and legs lengthen out,
the lower part of the face grow rapidly. During this time there is sufficient motor
development. The child is able to perform motor activities as balancing, climbing and
throwing a ball. This is the best period when child can be trained in different motor skills.
The young child is happy to repeat a n activity involving his muscles.

During Middle Childhood (6-11 years)

During this period children learn about wider world and experience new responses.
Improved athletic abilities, participation in organized games with rules, more logical
thought process mastery of basic literacy skills and advances in self understanding.

During this period the child appears more like an adult. The arms and legs grow faster than
the trunk and the child appears tall and thin. Child loses milk teeth and permanent teeth
begin to appear. Muscular coordination is further refined.

During Adolescence (11-18 years)

The second stage in which child develops very rapidly after infancy is adolescence. This
period initiates the transition to adulthood. Puberty leads to an adult sized body and sexual
maturation.

Motor Development: defined as the development of strength speed and accuracy in the
use if muscular parts of the body such as arms eyes, legs and neck muscles. Motor
development is closely related with emotional, mental physical and social development.

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Development of Large Gross Muscle Coordination:

It implies developing control over the movement of large muscles of the body such as
thighs, legs, arms etc. This helps later in life, particular in activities like sports, dancing,
gymnastics, dramatics etc.

Gross Motor skills Broadly fall into different categories: (1) the first category includes those
motor activities which are directed through efficient management of the body (balancing ,
climbing, gymnastic type of activities). (2). The second category of activity relate to trial of
strength and speed like a ball or bat catching, kicking throwing etc. (3). The third category
lay stress on rhymn. These lead to skills like dancing. (4). Development of fine muscle
coordination: This means developing control over movement of finer muscles, particularly
finger and wrist muscles and eye hand coordination. Creative art or writing are the
examples.

Classification of Motor Skills of Childhood:

Hand Skills Leg Skills

I. Self feeding skill i. Climbing

II. Self bathing skill ii. Cycling
III. Self dressing skill iii. Dancing
IV. Self combing self grooming iv. Hopping, Jumping, Skipping.
V. Ball throwing and catching v. Running
VI. Writing skill vi. Swimming
VII. Copying skill
VIII. Block making and creating skills.

Motor development Characteristics

(3 years child)

1. Manipulates play materials

2. Alternates feet going upstairs’
3. Rides a tricycle
4. Counts to three
5. Feeds self with little spilling.
6. Throws objects over heads.
7. Fashions objects with clay.
8. Stands on one foot.
9. Jumps upward.

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(4 years Child)

1. Skips on one feet

2. Laces shoes
3. Dresses and undress
4. Cuts on lines with scissors
5. Runs broad jumps
6. Saws with handsaw
7. Throws over head with less body participation.

(5 years Child)

1. Ties shoe laces

2. Skips on alternate feet
3. Draws Recognizable figures
4. Picks up small items skillfully
5. Draw alphabet letters

(6 years Child)

1. Engages in all five year activities but with more skill and feelings
2. Throws and catches ball.
3. Climbs up rope swings.
4. Builds blocks, shoulder height with lighter touch.
5. Cuts pastes, models and colors skillfully
6. Builds crude items in workshop.

2.13.4. Emotional development

The world ‘emotion’ is derived from a Latin word ‘emovere’ which means the stirred up or
the excited state of body and mind. P.T. young defined emotion as “an acute stimulation of
the individual as a whole, psychological in origin, involving behavior, conscious experience
and visceral functioning”. The definition makes it quite clear that emotion is an intense
experience which moves individual to action. It causes psychological and bodily changes
and provokes behavior. There are two types of emotions; the pleasant emotions, such as
joy, happiness, affection etc; and the unpleasant emotions such as fear, anger and jealousy
etc. An emotion always is aroused by a certain stimuli which may be any event, object or
people and continues so long as the stimulus continues.

Garrison is of the opinion that the “Infant is poorly endowed emotionally. But the infant
sometimes shows behaviors that they seem to have an emotional quality”. According to

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Watson emotion of fear, anger and love can be identified even in very young infants.
However, the emotions of infants are uncoordinated, undifferentiated, diffused and gross”.
As the infant advances in years various emotions begin to differentiate.

The emotional element is present in infants it can be seen from crying and vigorous
movements of the child’s body parts. As the child develops and passes to higher stage of
life, the emotional pattern can be determined with increasing precision and accuracy. In the
process of emotional, development, the child gradually evolves definite patterns of reaction
to stimuli that cause emotional reaction.

Emotional Development in Childhood:

This development in childhood is influenced by family, peers, school and community. A

specific pattern of behavior is formed regarding adults and peers with whom the child
comes into contact. Environment of school and home influence the emotional development
of the child.

The atmosphere in both school and home should be as free as possible, so that the
child could freely manifest and express his/her emotions. Repression of emotions leads to
control in expression of emotions and it is dangerous for the development of the child.

Milestones of Emotional Development:

Age Emotional expressiveness Emotional understanding

0-6 months  Social smile emerges.  Detects emotions by
 Laughter appears. matching the caregiver’s
 Expressions of happiness increase feeling tone in face to face
when interacting with familiar people. communication.
 Emotional expressions gradually
become well organized patterns that
are meaning fully related to
environment events.
7-12 months  Anger and fear increase in frequently  Detects the meaning of
and intensity. others emotional signals.
 Uses caregiver as a secure base.  Engages in social referencing.
 Regulates emotion by approaching or
retreating from stimulation.
1-2 years  Self conscious emotions emerge but  Begins to appreciate that
depend on monitoring and others emotional relations
encouragement of adults. may differ from one’s own
 Begins to use language to assist with  Acquires a vocabulary of
emotional self regulation. emotional terms.
 Display empathy.
3-6 years  Self conscious emotions are clearly  Understanding causes,

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linked to self evaluation. consequences and behavioral

 As representation and language signs of emotion improves in
improve uses active strategies for accuracy and complexity.
regulating emotions.  As language develops
 Begins to confirm emotional display empathy becomes more,
rules, can pose a positive emotion he effective.
or she does not feel.
7-11 years  Self conscious emotions are integrated  Can reconcile conflicting cues
with inner standards of excellence and when explaining offer’s
good behavior. emotions.
 Uses internal strategies for engaging in  Is aware that people can have
emotional self-regulation, shifts mixed feelings and that their
adaptively between problem- centered expressions may not reflect
and emotion- Centered coping . their true feelings.
 Conformity to and conscious  Empathy increases as
awareness of emotional display rules emotional understanding
improve. improves.

2.13.5. Social Intellectual Development:

“it can be defined as the progressive improvement through directed activity, of the
individual in the comprehension of social heritage and the formation of flexible conduct
patterns of reasonable conformity with this heritage ”- FF powers

According to the above definition,

social development as the progressive
improvement has been emphasized. An
individual is not passive and static.
He/she becomes the active member of
the group by his/her interest and desires.
Social development involves learning the
values, knowledge and skills that enable
children to relate to others effectively
and to contribute in positive ways in
family, school and community. He
experiences a large number of
interpersonal relationships and tries to
adopt to socially accepted behavior patterns. Family, friends, society and culture directly or
indirectly pass this learning to the children. Children build a sense about themselves and
their social roles, through their relationships with others.

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Social development is the progressive development by means of which, the child

maintains order and system in his/her relation with others in the community. During
different stages of development, social circumstances, relations with others and
expectations undergo constant change.

Social Development of Infancy (2 to 6 years):

Child’s social development takes place gradually with her/his age. Early childhood is
named as pre-gang age, the time when children are learning the foundations of social
behavior.

 Children have one or more favorite playmates with which they communicate their
feelings, emotions and interests.
 Children identify themselves with the group by imitating a person whom they
admire.
 Children develop inter personal and sex-appropriate relationships with others.
 Feeling of autonomy develops in children. They begin to explore their environment
independently.
 Social environment expands beyond home

Social development at childhood:

At this age children go to school and social development of this period is influenced by
schools atmosphere. During this period, the child is away from home for a considerable
part of the day. So in schools, teachers, peers environment of schools affect’s the social
development of the child.

During this period:

 Child develops social behavior necessary to adjust with others.

 Child becomes an active member of a peer group.
 Child believes in group loyalty and tries to confirm to the rules and values
maintained by the group.
 Boys and girls make individual groups, because their interests, habits and desires
become differentiated.
 Children develop group consciousness and they become less selfish, self centred and
aggressive but cooperative and outgoing.

Intellectual Development:
This development comprehends the development of intellect, mental capabilities,
imagination, thinking, emotion and other mental processes. Functions of brain(to know, to
experience and to make decisions), play an important role in the intellectual development.

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Intellectual development refers to development in the ability to adopt behaviour to

environmental conditions as the individual strives to achieve increasingly conscious goals
and purposes.

Intellectual development includes:

 Sensory Impulse or “Sensation”.

 The interpretation of sensations or “Perception” includes the power to build upon
perceptual material.
 The ability to recall the experience with the help of “memory”
 The highest form of mental/ intellectual development is “reasoning”.

During Infancy, mental development is also very rapid and remarkable. Skinner includes
the abilities in memory, imagination, language perception, conception, intelligence and
problem solving under mental abilities. The child at the time of birth, has certain
perceptual abilities visual, auditory and gustatory. The more elaborate perceptual skills
develop during the first year. Light and sound has remarkable effects on the child. During
the second year there is rapid progress in both receptive and productive language learning.
The child is able to understand some words and can use a few words to express his
feelings. Child can imitate, discriminate and recognize. At the early childhood stage:-

 Child enters into Piaget’s second stage of cognitive development-pre operational

stage. The child begins to think symbolically.
 Child develops the perception of size, shape color, time and distance.
 Memory increases rapidly.
 Creating and imagination begin to grow
 Thinking and reasoning develop in relation to concrete materials.
 Span of attention and interest in exploring the environment increase.

Intellectual Development in Childhood:

During the early childhood, the child’s behavior begins to show evidences of functioning of
those mental traits that will serve him/her in the later life. The child is aware of thrust,
hunger, sleep, temperature and other bodily needs. The child becomes more demanding
and more selective. The child is capable of logical thinking. Child’s speech becomes
increasingly socialized and communicative. Vocabulary increases remarkably.

During Later Childhood:

 Children enter into Piaget’s concrete operational stage of intellectual development.

 Child has a very short span of attention.

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 6-7 years child learns poems and songs. He/she is interested in stories and believes
in fairies and witches. Age of 9-12 years child turns into a realist. He wants realism
in the stories. Rote memory continues to be good and the child learns with great
ease.
 6-7 year old child can form concepts of concrete objects. Abstract concepts are still
vague.
 Child’s logical thinking increases.

Middle Childhood focuses in the following characteristics of intellectual development.

1. Curiosity it increases in the childhood, as the child is no longer contended with the
passive methods.

2. Play It is in the concrete form that helps in the development of psychomotor skills.

3. Creative Tendencies the child manifests an instinctive creative tendencies that

positively incline his/her in making new friends and playing or working creatively.

4. Solving Problems the child take special delight in solving puzzles and various kinds of
problems. The intellectual development becomes more complex and abstract in the
adolescence and adulthood.

2.13.6.Moral and Aesthetic development:

Moral concepts are specific in the beginning and are related to particular situations. The
child is able to distinguish between rights and wrong in simple situations. The word
‘Moral’ has been derived from a Latin word ‘Mores’ which means manners, customs,
and folkways. So moral behavior refers to behavior in conformity with moral code of
the society.

The infant is quite unable to think efficiently. He is unable to distinguish between what
is good and what is bad; because he has no conscience and no scale of values. He
performs some wrong acts unintentionally due to his ignorance, and inability to
distinguish between good and bad acts. Hurlock is of the view that since the child has no
conscience it is of no value to teach him moral behavior and moral concepts.

According to Frued, “The moral developments proceeds when the individuals selfish
desires are repressed and replaced by the values of important socialization as the
primary force behind the moral development”.

Piaget(1965) focused on the individual’s construction, construal, and interpretation of

morality from a social cognitive and social, emotional perspective.

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According to “Lawrence Kohlberg, young children at this age base their morality on a
punishment and obedience orientation. Kohlberg believed that young children behave
morally because they fear authority and try to avoid punishment”.

He felt that moral development was a slow process and evolved overtime, he has
explained six stages of development.

Pre Conventional Level: The child of first and basic level, the conventional level, in
concerned with avoiding punishment and getting needs met. This level has two stages;
and applies the children up to 10 year of age.

(1). Punishment Obedience Stage: Children obey rules because they are told to do so, by
an authority figure (Parent or Teacher) and they fear punishment if they do not follow
rules.

(2). Individual, instrumentation and Exchange Stage: Child follows the rules if there is a
known benefit to him or her. Children at this stage are very concerned with what is fair.

Conventional Level: This level broadens the scope of human wants and needs.
Children in this level are concerned about being accepted by others and living up to
their expectations. This stage begins around age 10 but lasts well into adulthood.

(3). “Good boy & Good Girl”, Interpersonal Conformity Stage- Children do the right
things because it is good for the family, peer group, team, school or institutions. They
understand the concepts of trust, loyalty and gratitude, morality is acting in accordance
to what the social group says is right and moral.

(4). Law and order or Social System and Conscience stage: Children and adults at this
stage abide by the rules of the society in which they live. These laws and rules become
the back bone for all right and wrong actions. Children and adults feel compelled to do
their duty and show respect for authority.

Post Conventional Level: some teenagers and adults move beyond conventional
morality and enter morality based on reason, examining the relative values and
opinions of the groups with which they interact.

(5). Social Contact and individual Rights stage: individual in this stage understand that
codes of conduct are relative to their social group.

(6). The principled conscience or the universal ethical principles stage: Individuals
examine the validity of society’s laws and govern themselves by what they consider to
be universal moral principles. Usually involving equal rights and respect. They obeys
rules that fall in line with these universal principles.

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During Childhood Period:

The moral concepts are specific in the beginning and are related to particular situations.
The child is able to distinguish between right and wrong in simple situations. But when
the child is about 8 or 9 years old he develops more generalized moral concepts
towards the 11 or 12 year the moral concept of the child oriented towards authority,
law, duty and maintaining the status quo. But the moral values of the child go on
changing as he encounters with more and more people.

School Programme for developing Moral Values of Various Kinds:

1. Celebration of National values.

2. Social service programmes.
3. Emphasis on the unity of religion harmony among communities and national
integration.
4. Development of scientific temper.
5. Community prayer in the school.
6. Health and cleanliness programmes.
7. Socially useful productive programmes.
8. Citizenship training programmes.
9. Cultural and recreational programmes.
10. Student self-government in schools.
11. Introduction of information technology.
12. International understanding.
13. Appropriate teaching learning situation.

The teachers and educators, the supervisors and administrators and above all the parents
must try their best to promote value oriented education.

Phases of Moral Development:

Moral development takes place in two distinct phases:

(1) Development of Moral behavior (2) Development of Moral Concept

(1)Development of Moral behavior: children can learn to behave in a socially approved

manner through trial and error through direct teaching or through identification. Out of
these 3 direct teaching and identification are not only the best methods but also the most
widely used.

Trial and Error Learning:

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Children learn to behave in a socially approved way by trial and error, they do so by trying
out one pattern of behavior to see of it conforms to social standards and wins social
approval for them.

Direct Teaching:

Children must first learn to make correct specific response in specific situations. If the
objective aspects of different situations are similar children transfer the patterns of
behavior they have learned in one situation to other similar situations. On the other hand,
when these objective aspects are different, children will fail to see how, what they learned
in one situation applies to another situation.

Identification: when children identify with people they admire they imitate the patterns of
behavior they observe in these people. Identification as a source of learning moral behavior
becomes increasingly important as children grow older and rebel against discipline in the
home and school.

(2) Development of Moral Concepts: The second phase of moral concepts consists of the
learning of moral concepts or the principles of right and wrong in an abstract verbal form.

Preschool children are in capable of abstract thinking; they define “good behaviour”
of specific acts such as “obeying mother” or “helping others” and “bad behavior” in terms of
not doing these things. At the age of 8 or 9 year, the concepts of the children become more
generalized. They realize for example that “Stealing is Wrong” rather than that is “wrong to
steal a ball”. Moral concepts reflect social values are known as “moral values”. The moral
values of children are not static, they tend to change as they associate with more people
and with people whose values differ from those they have learned at home.

2.13.7. Aesthetic Development:

Aesthetic is the awareness and appreciation of pleasant sensory experiences including the
ability to perceive, respond and sensitive to one’s natural environment. The way children
learn in their early years is important and will indirectly influence on their later
development and learning and to bring children’s potential to the maximum, they must be
given the opportunities to explore and experiment in the different areas of learning and
aesthetic learning is one of them.

Aesthetic is connected with beauty and the study of beauty. It can stimulate
children’s senses in the so form of music, dance and drama.

Stimulating environment created for such activities will enhance children’s learning
and thinking. Providing opportunities to the children, express their thoughts, ideas and
feelings freely through art, music, drama not only enable the children to express things

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creatively. It also fosters the development of other domain such as physical, cognitive,
language and social.

Aesthetic Development in Children:

Possible categories to observe

 Children’s drawing or painting.

 Structures created with blocks, logos and other materials.
 Pretend play/ social dramatic play/playing roles in pretend play.
 Play-doe creations/creations made with art supplies.
 Child tells imaginative story/acting out stories with dolls, animals or other toys/
using language for creating and sustaining plots/story, reenactment.
 Having an imaginary friend.
 Creating music/dance/playing musical instrument.
 Coming up with creative solutions to novel problems.
 Creating humor/playing with words.
 Making up games.

Aesthetic can refer to a wide range of responses and abilities. As mostly broadly defined, it
is the awareness and appreciation of pleasant sensory experiences. More narrowly it
means the ability to critically evaluate works of art according to criteria that are defined by
the culture. Commonly and in this article aesthetic refers to the love of beauty, to criteria
for judging beauty and to individual taste.

“Aesthetic perception involves the capacity to respond to the uniqueness, the

singular quality of things- to value individual integrity and to reject the cliché and the
stereotype” (Ross, 1981, P.158).

Preschool Programs will provide children with opportunities:

 Exhibit curiosity about an exposure how materials function and affect the senses.
 Create (imagine, experiment, plan, make evaluate, refine and present/ exhibit)
works that express or represent experiences, ideas, feelings.
 Represent
 Engage in musical and creative movement activities.
 Describe or respond to their own creative work or creative work of others.

Education in Grades K-1,2 Students

 Create(imagine, experiment, plan, make, evaluate, refine, exhibits) art work, that
express ideas,

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 Perform(select, analyze, interpret rehearse, evaluates refine and represent)

 Respond (select analyze, interpret)
 Understand and use materials.
 Understand the importance of art.
 Identify representative works and recognize the characteristics of art, music, dance,
theatres dramas etc.
 develop sufficient mastery of at least one art from to be able to purpose further
study
 Seek arts experiences and participate in the artistic life of the school and
community.

Some suggested Experiences:

a) Role Play: This is an informal acting out of a situation, problem, story or scene.
Teacher is the leader and guide the whole play and setting the stage.
b) Finger play: these are most familiar to early childhood teachers and include songs,
chants and rhymes that are recited and acted out.
c) Story building and storytelling: story telling is common for children in everyday life.
As children’s stories are heard they develop a repertoire of vocabulary and ideas to
communicate with others. Elaboration by parents, teachers and other children
continues to build on creative thinking and problem solving.
d) Puppetry: Puppets encourage expression of ideas and provide an opportunity to
observe and evaluate the behavior of attracted puppets, and enjoy thinking that the
puppet may, in fact be real.
e) Best Practices: Early childhood educators are urged to consider the best practice
recommendations in the discipline of “creative dramatics”
 Provide time for children to play in settings with costumes, masks and
puppets
 Create a story
 Collect and organize easy use a collection of finger plays like five little
monkeys, going on a bear hunt, I know an old lady who shallows a fly ,
Ten in the bed etc.
 Create play opportunities.
 Using puppets, dramatize situations.
f) Music: Making music provides children with opportunities to express their feelings,
investigate rhythm, develop and understanding of their bodies in space, explore
movement and strength and experience concepts such as loud and soft, fast and
slow, and high and low. Music and movement can foster the development of
listening skills, promote oral language, strengthen auditory discrimination and
provide countless opportunities for problem solving.

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Aims of Aesthetic Education:

1) To create interest about art among children.

2) To create respect for work among children and thereby make them self dependent.
3) To create conditions so that children can work according to their aptitudes.
4) To enable children to work in a free atmosphere.
5) To create interest in them for decoration
6) To help children in making toys and assist teachers in the teaching of preparing
material aids.

Some Activities provided to children

1. Collecting stamps, coins, flowers, leaves, roots stones and coloured glasses.
2. Making albums of the colored wings of different birds.
3. Moving freely in the open atmosphere and to examine the sky, green grass etc very
closely.
4. Collecting waste materials like paper, clothes, wood. etc making toys out of this
material.
5. Preparing painting and placing them in albums.
6. Preparing models
7. Listening to music
8. Composing songs and chorus songs
9. Singing songs and chorus songs.

Clay work in childhood

Clay work helps children to create and express themselves. Children have a natural
tendency to be creative and if they are not given any opportunity to create anything they
become dull. They should be encouraged to realize their potential.

It is necessary that pre-primary classes’ children are allowed to do clay work. They should
be taught how to use earth can take but also permit them to prepare designs for the
purpose of their self expression. Children should be asked to prepare different designs both
by hand and in moulds. Special care should be taken, so that articles made by children are
inexpensive, beautiful and useful.

 Children should be given freedom to work.

 Their works should be occasionally supervised and suggestions could be given.
 Teacher must exhibit the work done under his supervision.
 Children should be provided with proper environment where to take their own
decision and work according to their tastes.
 Child should be permitted to imitate and use his imagination in clay modeling.

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 Precautions to be taken for them.

Self Evaluation

1. A moral development of a child starts from home- define?

2. How can you give opportunities to the child to flourish aesthetic development of the
child?
3. What type of school programmes you will keep for development of moral values?
4. A child is very much interested in music dance drama- what kind of activities you
can provide in school for his/her?

Nature and importance of Language Development

Objectives

 To enable the children to understand the importance of Language development

 To understand Language skill development
 To understand components of language development

Structure:

2.13.8. Nature and Importance of Language development

2.13.9. Language development in children

2.13.10. Listening skills development

2.13.11 Language development Chart

2.13.8. Nature and importance of Language Development

Language development supports the child’s ability to communicate, and express and
understand feelings. It also supports thinking and problem solving and developing and
maintaining relationships. Learning to understand, use and enjoy language is the critical
first step in Literacy and the basis for learning to write.

Language is an important skill that allows a person to communicate. A child begins

to develop language even before she can use words, as seen by a baby who cries to get her
needs meet. Language development is important to a child in order to adequately exchange
information with others in a meaningful way.

2.13.9. Language development in Children

It is the best way to encourage the child’s speech and language development is to talk
together frequently and naturally.

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 Talking with the baby- When the baby starts babbling babble back with similar
sounds. This keeps the talking going and is great fun.
 Responding to the baby- when you tune in and respond to your child, it encourages
him to communicate.
 Every day talking- Talk to the baby even if she/he doesn’t understand. From the
time your child starts telling stories, encourage the baby to talk about things in the
past and in the future.
 Introducing new words- It is important for children to be continually exposed to lots
of different words in lots of different contexts. This help them learn the meaning and
function of words in their world.
 Reading with the baby- Read aloud with the child and point towords as you say
them. Talk about the pictures, use a variety of books. Books with interesting pictures
are a great focus for talking. Road aloud with your child and point to words as you
say them.
 Following your Child’s Lead- if the child starts conversation through talking, gesture
or behaviour, respond to it, making sure you stick to the topic your child started.
Repeat and build on what your child says.

Functions of Language

Language permits the communication of information from one generation to the other.
Broadly speaking language performs the following functions:-

1. Language helps to communicate ideas to others.

2. Language helps in the formation of concepts.
3. Language helps in the analysis of complex wholes.
4. Language helps to focus attention on ideas which would otherwise be difficult to
keep in mind.

2.13.10.Listening Skills Development:

Listening skills involve a lengthy process; it is developed through the reproduction of
sounds, their musical quality and rhythm. Imitation plays an important role in developing
listening skills.

Acquiring Listening Skills

(1) Increase in Vocabulary

(2) Helpful in the development of oral expression

(3) Helpful in the development of reading skills.

(4) Helpful in the development of writing skills.

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Aims of developing Listening Skills

1) To develop the habit of knowing what others say

2) To teach proper pronunciation
3) To develop the modulation of voice
4) To develop the habit of understanding spoken language
5) To develop interest in learning language
6) To develop interest in literature
7) To develop interest in exchange of idea
8) To develop the skill in understanding the ideas and attitudes, and attitudes of the
speakers,

Components of Language development:

 Communication, which involves combination of several cognitively learnt

behaviours and skills.
 Phonology, implies the ability to produce specific sounds for specific words, speech
development which refers to
 Semantic Refers, to the correct use of the words (vocabulary) to express specific
thoughts.
 Grammar- Consists of two main parts the first one is syntax.
 Syntax is the appropriate use of grammar to make sentences. It is the rules by
which words are arranged into sentences and the second one is morphology. It the
use of grammatical markers (indicating tense, case, person etc) and other meanings.
 Pragmatics: it defines the ability to communicate effectively with the skills that go
beyond and the basic understanding of the words and the rules of grammar. It
demands child’s awareness of the social aspects associated with effective
communication such as –
i. Relationship with the partner one is conversing with.
ii. Social context in which the conversation is taking place.
iii. The environment at large.

2.13.11. Language Development Chart:

Age Typical Language development

6 months  Vocalization
 Responds to his name
 Responds to human voice without visual cues by turning head and eyes
 Responding appropriately to friendly and angry tones

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12  Uses one more words with meaning

months  Understanding simple introduction, especially if vocal or physical cues are
given.
 Practices inflection
 Is aware of the social values of speech.
18  Has vocabulary of approximately of 5-20 words.
months  Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns
 Some echolalia (repeating words phrase over and over)
 Is able to follow simple commands
 Much jargon with emotional content

24 months

 Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings.

 Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on
under,
 Combines words into a short sentences-largely noun verb combinations (mean)
length of sentences is of 1-2 words.
 Approximately 2/3 of what child says be intelligible vocabulary of 150-300 words
 Rhythm and fluency often poor.
 Volume and pitch of voice not yet well controlled.
 Can use two pronouns correctly
 My and mine are beginning to-emerge
 Responds to such commands as “Show me your eyes, (nose, mouth, ear)”

36 months

 Use pronouns, I, You, me correctly

 Is using some plurals and past tenses.
 Know at least 3 prepositions, usually in, on, under.
 Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name.
 Handles 3 words sentences easily.
 Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words.
 About 90% of what child says should be intelligible.
 Verbs begin to pre dominate
 Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities.
 Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason.
 Able to reason out such questions as “what must you do when you are sleepy,
hungry, cool or thirsty”.
 Should be able to give sex, name, age

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 Should not be excepted to answer all questions even though he understands what is
expected.

48 months / 3 years of age

 Knows names of familiar animals

 Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their
meaning which given commands
 Names common objects in picture books and magazines.
 Knows one or more colours
 Can repeat 4 digits when they are slowly
 Can use repeat words of four syllables.
 Demonstrates understanding of over and under.
 Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities.
 Understands such concepts as longer, larger when a contrast is presented.
 Readily follows simple commands even thought the stimulus objects are not in sight.
 Much repetitions of words, phrases, syllables and even sounds

60 Months/ 5 year of age

 Can use many descriptive words spontaneously both adjectives and adverbs.
 Knows common opposites: big- little, hard- soft, heavy-light etc.
 Has number concept of 4 or more
 Can count to ten
 Speech should be completely intelligible in spite of articulation problems.
 Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words.
 Should be able to follow three commands given without-interruptions.
 Should know his age.
 Should have simple time concepts morning afternoon, night, day later after, while.
 Tomorrow, yesterday, today
 Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct.

6 years of age

 He/she should be mastered: f, v.sh, zn, th, etc.

 He should have concepts of 7
 Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful.
 Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing
relationships.
 Between objects and happenings.

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7 years of age

 Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r voice less, th, ch.wh and the soft g as
George.
 Should handle opposite analogies easily, girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-
sharp, short-long, sweet-sour etc.
 Understands such terms as: alike, different beginning and end etc.
 Should be able to tell time to quarter hour.
 Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words.

8 years of age

 Can relate rather involved accounts of events many of which occurred at some time
in the past.
 Complex and compound sentences should be used easily.
 Should be few lapses in grammatical constrictions - tense, pronouns, plurals.
 Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions.
 Control of rate, pitch and volume are generally well and appropriately established.
 Can carry on conversation at rather adult level.
 Follows fairly complex directions with repetition.
 Has well developed time and number concepts.

Self Evaluation

Q.1. What are the major areas in language Development?

Q.2. How you develop the listening skill of a 3 year old child?
Q.3. Which activities are related with language development?

Notes on

1. Components of Language development

2. Language Development at 3 years
3. Functions of Language

2.14.Nature and Importance of Developing Number and Geometrical Concepts

Objectives:

 To understand the nature and Importance of number and geometrical concept

 To understand the concept formation
 To develop geometrical concepts among children

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Structure:

2.14. Nature, Importance of developing number concept

2.14.1. Promoting children about Numbers and their operations

2.14.2. Principles of Concept formation

2.14.3. Learning about geometry concept formation

2.14.4. Development of geometric concept

Starkey (1992) showed that “very young children could represent numerical quantities
without the use of language. Even more importantly, they could understand that addition
increases the numerosity of the set of items or objects, while subtraction does the
opposite”.

According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000)” children develop

number sense and “learn mathematical concepts through everyday activities, sorting
(putting toys away or groceries away), reasoning (comparing and building with blocks)
representing (drawing to record ideas) recognizing patterns (talking about daily routines,
repeating, nursery rhymes, and reading predictable books, following directions(singing
motion songs such as ‘Hockey Pockey’), and using special visualization (working with
puzzles).

Math and number awareness involves a variety of skills, including (1) Numeral
identification (recognizing all 10 numerals from 0 through 9 and knowing each numeral’s
name), (2) Counting, (3) one to one correspondence, (4) counting on (5) patterning
recognition and creation: and sorting and classifying.

Importance of Strong Math and Number skills:

 Basic mathematics and number concepts utilized on a preschool or kindergarten

classroom set the foundation for learning more advanced math concepts. Early
exposure to math and number activities will promote child’s comfort with these
skills. Also additional opportunities to practice these skills will increase child’s
confidence when working with math and number concepts and will lead him to
believe he is “Good at Math”. If a child does not become comfortable with math and
number concepts at a young age, child will lack confidence in his abilities and may
become hesitant as more advanced math concepts are introduced. When this
happens, he may default to believing he is “Bad at Math”. As children grow they
learn abstract concepts like goodness, honesty and kindness etc,
 The process of concepts consists of the following elements:

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(1) Experience (exploration)

(2) Abstraction. It implies the process of discovering the common elements in a large
number of situations.
(3) Generalization
(4) Analysis
 Children learn important math skills through their play and routine, and need to
experience a lot of doing and saying, using concrete materials that they can
manipulate to learn math in the early years.
 When children learn basic math concepts early on, they generally have more
positive attitudes and way more confidence with mathematics later in school. Since
problem solving is key to being able to do all other aspects of mathematics, we need
to be sure to provide plenty of opportunities for problem solving and not be too
quick to help when they can figure things out of themselves.

Learning about Numbers and Operations:

It includes:-

 Counting
 One-on-One Correspondence
 How Many?
 More/less
 Rank order-(first, Second, Third)
 Recognizing Numerals
 Grouping
 Fractions as part of the whole (half, one fourth)

2.14.1.Promoting children about Numbers and their operations through following

Activities:
 Promote the concept of one-to-one correspondence through kinesthetic learning.
Combine the assignment of each number word with the physical act of either
moving, touching with a finger or at pointing at the object it represents.
 Provide activities that allow the child to easily see and physically do with objects.
 Use comparison words.
 Read books about numbers and counting-extend the learning with related activities.
 Use words that indicate order (first, second, third)
 Encourage children to compare quantities.
 Provide plenty of materials with numerals alongside the number written out and
corresponding objects, that add up to the number.
 Add telephones menus, money and other items with number.
 Talk about prices, addresses and time.

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 Invite the child to group or sort objects and materials, during art, science or other
activities.
 Sing songs and finger plays that include numbers.
 Play board games
 Use numbers as you talk with children about what they are doing.

2.14.2.Principles of Concept formation

Followings are the principles.

1) Likeness and differences among things and ideas etc.

2) Cognizance (understanding), the attributes (qualities)
3) Correct terminology
4) Proper sequence
5) Analysis
6) Generalization
7) Self discovery
8) Use
9) Independent evaluation

Some activities for formation of Concepts

Concept Activity Experience

1. Formation of number concept 1. Number rhymes
2. Number games
3. Number Puzzles
2. Formation of time concept 1. Time perception cards
2. Improvise clock
3. Formation of color concept 1. Rhyme and songs
2. Dramatization
3. Experiences with cards clothes and objects
4. Formation of temperature concept 1. Activities with improvised thermometer
2. Simple experiments
5. Formation of concept of physical 1. Sand play
environment 2. Water play
6. Formation of concept of social 1. Celebration of functions
environment 2. Celebration of festivals

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Methods of Teaching

1. Direct Method (2) Teaching Aid (3) self Discovery

2.14.3.Learning about Geometry concept formation

Geometry learning about shapes and space and includes the followings elements:

 Shape
 Size
 Position in shape
 Direction
 Movement
 Spatial relations

2.14.4.To develop the geometrical concepts in the child followings can be done:
 Include toys and materials with different shapes and talks about what they are
called and the elements of different shapes.
 Have children cut items into shapes (Paper, folder )
 Provide nesting toys and other materials that fit into each other.
 Provide large card board boxes for the children to crawl in and out of
 Use positional words (in, next over, under)
 Play body games (Pat-a-cake)
 Provide standard measuring tools like rulers clocks, tape measures, measuring
cups and spoons, strings and other materials such as ribbons
 Provide nesting toys
 Use measurement words and talk about relative amounts
 Encourage children to compare
 Invite children to estimate things
 Make picture and word recipes for children to follow.

Measurement is another basic concept of mathematics

 Describing how long, tall, heavy, big something is

 How long something takes
 How much space something takes up
 Comparing and using tools for measurement.

Putting math into Daily activities

 Play clean up games that involve sorting by shape, size and color.
 Add telephones, menus money and other items with numbers on them to your
dramatic area.

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 Talk about prices, addresses and time.

 Use comparison and sorting in art activities
 Provide empty containers of various shapes for making sculptures and other
creations.
 Provide measuring cups and spoons as well as many sizes for sand and water play.
 Include books about number concepts in your reading area.
 Play percussion games that emphasize patterns.
 Use a timer for games or cooking.
 Have children look for natural patterns in nature.
 Have children collect items for sorting and classifying.

Activities provided relating to the concept of volume

1. Explaining the concepts through demonstration of vessels of different sizes

containing water,
2. Discussing shapes of various vessels and containers.
3. Showing the differences in volume by pouring water in them or from one to another.
4. Repeating exercises sometimes by using sand cereals etc in place of water.

“Self Evaluation

Q1.What are the important criteria in developing Geometrical and number concepts?e

Q2Explain the activities, which promote children about numbers and their operations.

Q3.How to develop geometrical concepts among the children?

Q4.How can you develop Mathematics in daily activities of the children?

Short Notes on:

1. Concept Formation

2. Activities in concept formation

3. Development of Mathematical activities in children

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Sense experience, Aesthetic and creative experiences:

Objectives:

 To enable the children to provided different kinds of experiments for creative and
aesthetic development
 To enable the students develop skills of making different kinds of equipment needed
to develop creative and aesthetic sense among children.

Structure.

2.14.5 Meaning of Aesthetic experiences

2.14.6 Sensory experiences for a baby
2.14.7. Aesthetic Experiences
2.14.8 Creative Experiences
2.14.5 Meaning:
Aesthetic experiences emphasize doing things for the pure joy of it. Young children benefit
from aesthetic experiences. Children are fascinated by beauty. They love nature and enjoy
creating looking at and talking about art. They express their feelings through language ,
song, expressive movements music and dance for more openly than adults. Although
children respond differently to sensory experiences, these experiences can be therapeutic,
improve motor skills, raise awareness of how worls works and contribute to language
acquisition.

Exploration from Birth:

When babies first interact, they don’t have words to describe what they encounter. But
they do absorb information through their senses. A new born also begins to to hear sounds
in the womb and can distinguish her/his mother’s voice from other voices at birth. She can
differentiate between sweet and sour test, will gravitate towards more pleasant smells and
is comforted by warmth and soft touch.

2.14.6. Some examples of how could articulate a sensory experiences for a baby
Touch-Pouring water (Hot & Cold)

Sight- see the bird in the sky

Smell- smell of flower

Taste-sour, sweet

Sound-different sounds

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Sensory activities for babies:

 Sensory play- Through soft blanket and variety of objects for child to touch.
 Water scoping- playing with water is a favorite activities,
 Bean Bowl Exploration- Fill a large bowl or shallow tub with dry beans, rice, sand or
wheat berries, babies enjoy to shifting these materials with finger
 Tearing and feeling wet paper
The simple ingredients of paper, water and a large sensory activities for preschool
and kindergarten children.
 Water bead exploration- play experiences for small children
 Cloud dough exploration: dough is a combination of flour, oil, water etc. damp
sand. Replace the flour with rice flour.

There are number of sensory play for early childhood children.

Rachelle Doorely is an artist and mother of two. She published children’s creativity blog,
(Thinker, Lab, and com) Anambah of familiar play activities developed by her the sense of
experiences among small children. Followings are some of the sensory/ sense of
experiences of the children (fig.1-6).

Fig1.

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Fig.2.

Fig.3

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Fig.4

Fig.5.

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Fig.6.

2.14.7.Aesthetic Experiences
Generally aesthetic experience can be defined as a special state of mind that is qualitatively
different from the everyday experience. Aesthetic experience is also closely related to
Maslow’s concept of peak experience (Maslow 1968). In this experience, attention is fully
engaged and focused on a particular object, while the object is seen as detached from its
every day purpose and usefulness.

Aesthetics can refer to a wide range of responses and abilities. As most broadly
defined, it is the awareness and perception of pleasant sensory experiences. Aesthetics
refers to the love of beauty, criteria for judging beauty and to individual tasted (Stephanie
Feeney and Eva Moravcik). Aesthetic experiences with visual arts, poetry and storytelling
as integral to language and literacy learning are presented.

Some Ideas of Aesthetic Experiences

 Think nature-For example study a leaf, look at the veins, the colour, the colour
inside, those colours, shape within the shape, microspic line, textures, and look for
pattern.
 Become an object- Help children identify with and see the wonder in objects by
pretending to that objects. Facilitate use of the senses by asking children to sound,

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feel, look, possibly smell or even taste like on every day object. For example say
children to become on orange what shape would they be?
 Go shopping- Showing the colors of the vegetables, storing, packaging, smell
through boxes.
 Eat Dinner- Aesthetic manners, use table, pick the table cloth, spoons fold napkin
feel the texture of food etc.
 Take a walk- study the dirt beneath the feet, listen the sounds of your steps, smell
the air, feel the temperature, touch, smell, see and respond to trees, grass, mud,
sand, rocks
 Sit in the sun-or wind or shade
Feel and taste cold, air, cloud, etc
 Watch the rain
 Look out of the window
 Examine your body
 Listen to music

According to Feeney and Moravik (1987:8) distinguish between two approaches in art
and education. The first refer to as studio-oriented. This approach places emphasis on the
followings:.

Some short of aesthetic experiences:-

 Jump and run- get lost in the moment, feel every muscle, try to hear heat beat.
 Experience silence-close your eyes and listen to the sound of nothing can you hear
it.
 Water a plant- notice color changes, watch the water as it slashes off leaves and is
sucked into mud.
 Wash your hands- awaken the senses to the feel of cold water, the foam of the soap,
smell aroma.
 Study your favorite object- Build a tower, work slowly, feel the wooden blocks in
your hand, keep it balanced.
 Watch a bird fly- or dog run, or horse jump or turtle crawl.
 Take a train ride- a boat ride, bicycle ride, a bus ride, a car trip, smell and taste the
air feel vibrations and speed, take in the colors as they pass by.

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Objective and Cognitive skills Development activities:

Objectives Activities
(3 to 4 years age) 1. Children to match blocks of same shape
1. Enable the learner to match and color.
object/picture 2. Asking the children to sort out leads of
2. Similar from a set of objects/pictures. different shapes and colors.
(age 4-6 years)

1. Children to identify object/picture/design 1. Preparing strips of 5 pictures ask children

different from a set of to locate different and identical.
2. find a particular shape in a given picture 2.Making visual cards making strips
3.Identify a word 3. Using alphabets.
4. Identify names 4.Name cards
(sense of Hearing)  Children may asked to recite
 To discriminate between various different rhymes involving sounds of
common sounds in the environment. animals
 To locate direction easily with the  Filling the empty boxes with marbles,
help of a sound. pebbles sands etc and make sound
 To identify a familiar object from the boxes
sound easily.  Identifying different sounds made
Sense of Touch  Making small sound
 Identify and distinguish between soft Provide opportunity to handle and
and hard and rough smooth manipulate different objects in the
 Classify and put in order rough and environment.
smooth surfaces and soft and hard.  Give 3 or more touch cards and
objects of different textures and
taking them to arrange them in order
from rough to smooth.
There are three basic ways to provide young children develop mentally appropriate
aesthetic experiences in the early childhood program (Althouse Johnson, Mitchell, 2003)

1. Provide many opportunities to create art.

2. Provide many opportunities to look at and talk about art.

3. Help children become aware of art in their everyday lives.

2.14.8. Creative Experiences

According to Guilford, “creatively sometimes refers to creative potential, sometimes to
creative production and sometimes to creative productivity”. Creativity is the ability to
produce ideas, objects or problems, solutions that are novel, appropriate and useful.

Creativity refers to the phenomenon where by something new is created, which has some
kind of some subjective value.

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Early childhood experiences- Enhancement of creative learning centers for children with
set up tips and teaching strategies different assessment suggestions and resourceful ideas,
support creative experiences for children.

 Arts and crafts

 Building blocks
 Language and listening
 Out doors
 Pretend play
 Puzzles and games
 Science and nature

Family Involvement- Everyone benefits when families are involved in their children
learning.

Teachers Encourage Creativity

James D. Moran III, Dean of the college of Human Ecology at the University of Tennessee,
suggests that teachers: -

 Emphasize process rather than product.

 Provide a classroom environment that allows children to explore and play without
undue restraints.
 Adapt to children’s ideas rather than trying to structure the children’s ideas to
adults. Accept unusual ideas from children.
 Use creative, problem solving in all parts of the curriculum.
 Use the problems that naturally occur in everyday life.
 Use creative, problem solving in all parts of the curriculum.
 Allow time for children to explore all possibilities, moving from popular to more
original ideas.
Making creativity part of Every Day (Activities)

 Read stories
 Laugh together
 Use voices for the characters in the books you read out loud.
 Join the tea parties in housekeeping corner during imaginative play.
 Modify the house keeping/dress up corner into the home of the three bears.
 Bride towers or bridges with wooden blocks add cardboard tubes or craps to
change the possibilities.
 Invite puppets to talk with children and help them learn new songs and finger plays.
 Change the classroom furniture’s arrangement to encourage spaces with new
purposes and functions.
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 Have a picnic style snack on the floor instead of at the usual table.
 Move book into a private reading corner made from an appliance box.
 Use common everyday objects to new uses.

UNIT-III

Elementary Principles of Nutrition

Objectives:

 To acquaint the students with the importance of food and nutrition.

 To make understand the students the classification of the food
 As per requirement of the body.
 To understand the healthy and balanced food.
Structure:
3.0. Importance and Requirements
3.1. Importance of nutrition & requirement
3.1.1. Classification of food as per the requirement of Body
3.1.2. Healthy balanced diet.
3.1.3. Balanced diet for children.
3.1.4. Problems caused by not eating balanced diet.

3.0. Importance and Requirements.

Good Nutrition In the early years is vital. Children’s early experiences of food play an
important part in shaping later eating habits and good eating habits support healthy
growth and development. Nutrition includes nutrient requirement, mode of intake of food
and its utilization in the body. A preschool child must be provided with nourishing food so
as to develop his body and strength.
Food components which provide nourishments to the body are called nutrients.

A verity of food stuff according to their nutritive values is required in definite quantities for
a particular person for his or her proper growth. In case the person is not provided with
this diet, there will be malnutrition in the body.

Our body normally requires 6 types of food materials for its normal growth and
maintenance. These are Carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins and water.
These food materials are required in different quantities for discharging different functions
of the body. As per the statement given by Sir Stanly Davidson and others, a normal
human body is composed of different materials:-

Carbohydrates - 1.5%

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Protein -17.0%

Fats -13.8%
Water -61.6%

Minerals -6.1%
A major portion of body is water.

In order to maintain proper state of nutrition the diets must contain sufficient of all the
nutritive factors (nutrients) which the body requires.

There are 3 classes of these, namely energy giving, constructive and protective.
3.1. Importance of nutrition & requirement

 Energy giving foods- Supply the body with the materials which it needs to produce
heat, muscular work and to keep going the basic activities of the life such as heart
beat and respiration.
 Constructive foods- These are rich in nutrients out of which the body is
constructed. The predominant materials composing the soft parts of the body- the
muscles, brain, liver, intestines etc is protein a substance of a complex structure
whose essential element is nitrogen.
 Protective foods- Arouse from the fact that disorganized growth and bodily
function and actual disease where found to result from deficiencies of the protective
factors in the diet. These are so far as is known at present the mineral elements and
the vitamins & all foods which contain relatively large amounts of these nutrients
are known as protective.
With few exceptions, all foods are in some measures energy-giving, constructive and
protective. Example:- milk is not only the best of constructive but also, it is best in
the protective class and a good source of energy.
Why Nutrition is Important?

 Nutrition is a process which includes taking food into stomach, its digestion and
assimilation.
 Nutrition varies with age, sex and types of occupation.
 Adequate nutritional diet is called balanced diet.
 Some diseases are caused by nutritionally poor diet.
 Poverty and ignorance are the major causes of under nutrition or malnutrition.

3.1.1. Classification of food as per the requirement of Body:

1. Energy giving foods:

The following classes of foods serve as source of energy:-

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a. Sources of Carbohydrates b. Sources of Fat c. Sources of Proteins

Sugars starches Butter Vegetables
Sugar flour Cooking fat Pulses
Honey bread Vegetable oils Peas
Treacle cake Margarine Beans
Syrup pastry Dripping Lentils
Jam cereals Cheese Nuts
(rice, potatoes) Bacon
Porridge
Protein can derived both from animal and vegetable sources. That from animal sources is
more valuable and more readily assimilated that from vegetable sources.
2. Constructive foods

I. Sources of animal protein

II. Sources of vegetable protein
III. Sources of minerals-

Calcium Phosphate Iron

Milk Milk Eggs

Cheese cheese Liver
Egg Egg Oat Meal
Fish whole meal flour
Meat Green Vegetables
3. Protective Foods
a. Sources of minerals (as given above)
b. Sources of vitamins
Vitamin A Vitamin B Vitamin C Vitamin D

Fish liver oils pork orange fish liver oils

Fat fish (Rohi, Vakura) pulses tomatoes fat fish

Milk whole meal, other fresh milk

Butter flour fruits butter

Cheese Oat Meal potatoes cheese

Egg yellow milk fresh vegetables egg

Green vegetables Chese vitaminised

And fruits margarine

Tomatoes

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vitaminised margarine

Food values available in regular Diet

A complete or balanced diet may be defined as the one which contains all the nutrients in
the correct amount. It is also defined as the one which contains different types of food in
such quantities and proportions that the need for calories, minerals, vitamins and other
nutrients is adequately met and a small provision is made for extra nutrients to with stand
short duration of leanness.
Eating habits are generally acquired during the early years of childhood. For this
reason it is very important that healthy eating is encouraged from an early age.

Eating foods in the proportions suggested In the table below will help children and
teenagers to obtain all the nutrients they require to support the high level of growth and
development that their bodies experiences.

3.1.2. A healthy balanced diet.

Food groups Examples Quantity

 Bread other cereals and  Bread, pasta, rice  These should be
potatoes breakfast cereals and the main part of
 Fruit & vegetables potatoes. every meal (1/3rd
(fresh, frozen and  Orange, apple of meal)
canned) bananas, carrot peas,  These should be
 Milk and dairy foods. tomatoes. main part of every
 Meat, fish and  Milk cheese yogurt meal and at least 5
alternatives and mages, frats servings should be
 Foods containing fats  Chicken beans, meat, consumed a day.
and foods containing eggs & fish  One or two serving
sugar  Crisps fizzy, drinks a day.
sweets, butter cakes  Should be
and biscuits consumed only in
moderation

Daily Meals- 3 main meals a day should be encouraged, with healthy between –meal,
snacks as needed.

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Breakfast- It is particularly important for children to have breakfast. Breakfast improves

children’s ability to concentrate in class and means they are less likely to snack on high
fat/high sugar foods later in the morning.

Lunch: School lunch time has recently been an area of nutritional concern following
research that children were not making healthy choices at lunch time and that school meals
were not meeting their nutritional requirements.
Prior 1980, a school meal was accepted to provide one third of the child’s daily
requirement of protein energy and some vitamins and minerals.

After more than twenty years without guidelines, compulsory nutritional standards of
school lunches were again introduced by the government in 2001.

Evening Meals- Evening meals should also be based upon the principles of a healthy
balanced diet.

Changes that can lead to a healthier diet for adolescents include:-

 Eating more fruits and vegetables.

 Replacing crisp, cake, pastries, biscuits with more bread/ bread products such as tea
cakes, fruit buns, bread sticks.
 Reducing consumption of soft drinks or squash which are high in sugar.
 Drinking more meals.
 Using meat reduced fat sausages and burgers to replace fatty meat and meat
products.
 Eating less fried foods.
 Eating more foods containing iron .etc
 Balanced diet for children up to 12 years age.

3.1.3.Balanced Diet for children up to 12 years of age (in gms)

Food Items 1-3 years 4-6 years 7-9 years 10-12 years
Cereals 175 270 420 180
Pulses 35 35 45 45
Leafy vegetables 40 50 50 50
Other vegetables 20 30 50 50
Roots and tubers 10 20 30 30
Milk 300 250 250 250
Oil and Fat 15 25 40 35
Sugar or Jaggery 30 40 45 45
Fruit 50 50 50 50

Balanced Diet: Calories Requirements

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The Indian Council of Medical Research has suggested the calories needed for different
groups as under:-

Calorie Requirements
Age group Type of work Net Calories

Children

a) 1-3 years 1200

b) 4-6 years 1500

c) 7-9 years 1800

d) 10-12 years 2100

Adolescent
Boys 13-15 years 2500

16-18 years 2850

Girls 13-15 years 2100

16-18 years 2200

Adults
Male -sedentary work 2400
-Moderate work 2800
-Heavy work 3900
Female -Sedentary work 2000
-moderate work 2900
-Pregnancy 2700
-Lactation 2750

Balanced Diet for Adolescent Boys and Girls in gms.

Sl.No. Item Below 13-18 years Girls 13-18 years

Veg Non Veg Veg Non Veg
1. Cereals 450 450 350 350
2. Pulses 70 50 70 50
3. Green Leafy vegetables 100 100 150 150
4. Other Vegetables 75 75 75 75
5. Roots and Tubers 100 100 75 75
6. Fruits 30 30 30 30
7. Fats & oils 45 50 35 40
8. Meat & fish - 30 - 30

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9. Eggs - 30 - 30
10. Sugar & Jaggery 40 40 - 30
11. Ground Nuts 50 50
Principles of Diet Planning:

Diet planning should be the use of right type of food at the right time in the right manner
and right quantity as there is individual differences regarding food habits in the family,
there are certain principles to be followed:

1. Principles of nourishment.
2. Principles of selection of food item from board categories.
3. Principle of age ie diet for an infant will be different from that of a child.
4. Principle of sex which implies that there may be slight variations for a few food
items according to sex requirement.
5. Number of calories depends on the type of work involved, light work, heavy work
and intellectual work.
6. Principle of flexibility, diet is determined by climatic and seasonal factors.
7. Principle of regularity in taking food.

3.1.4. Problems caused by not eating Balanced Diet or not Eating well
1. Diarrhea
2. Ringing or buzzing in the ears
3. Headache
4. Bleeding or redness of the gums.
5. Nose bleeding
6. Stomach discomfort
7. Dryness or Cracking of the skin
8. Fits or convulsions in small children
9. Palpitation (heavy pulsing of the heart)
10. Anxiety (nerve worry) and various mental or nerve problems.
11. Liver disease
12. Frequent infections.

Self Evaluation
Q.1.Why Nutrition is important and what are the Requirements

Q.2. Define protective food.

Q.3. what is balanced Diet for Children up to 12 years.

Q.4. Problems caused by not eating balanced Diet.

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Under Nutrition & malnutrition

Objectives:
Meaning & nature of malnutrition under nutrition remedial measures to overcome
malnutrition

Structure:

3.2 Under Nutrition & it’s Result.

3.2.1 Cause of Malnutrition and Under Nutrition
3.2.2 Prevention to Malnutrition (6 months to 5 years)
3.2.3 Symptoms of Malnutrition

“When individuals are undernourished, they can no longer maintain natural bodily
capacities”.

Proper nutrition is very important to maintain a healthy body and mind. The body requires
of 40 essential nutrients to function properly, including vitamins minerals, amino acids,
protein and carbohydrates. Human must consume a certain amount of calories each day in
order to maintain a productive and energetic life style.

Malnutrition when a person’s diet has an imbalance of the essential nutrient that the
body needs to remain healthy. This imbalance in nutrients can weaken the person’s
immune system and body and make them more susceptible to illness. Malnutrition can also
cause delays in a child’s physical and mental development.
Malnutrition is often divided into two different types, under malnutrition and over
nutrition. These two different types vary by what the person is consuming, how it is
influencing their bodies.

3.2 Under Nutrition & it’s result

1. Under Nutrition occurs when a person consumes a diet that does not meet the necessary
requirements for the amount of essential nutrients or calories a person needs to remain
healthy.

 This occurs when people are not eating enough food, or when the food they are
eating does not contain well balanced nutrients. WHO estimates that one out of
every three people is suffering from a deficiency in one or more essential nutrients.
 There are 3 common deficiencies that people suffer from, Lack of Vitamin A in diet
is a large problem which results in many cases of blindness in children early year.
 Deficiency in iron cause a person to become anemic which can result in fatigue
increased risk of infection and increased risk of hemorrhaging during childbirth.
 Iodine deficiency is also very common, with one-third of the human population
suffering from a lack of Iodine. It is important for proper function of thyroid gland
which is responsible for producing hormones that manage the body’s metabolic

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rate. A lack of iodine can cause stunted growth, mental delays and the creation of
goiters, which the base of the neck become swollen.

Over Nutrition

Over nutrition occurs when a person consumes a diet that exceeds the necessary
requirements for the amount of essential nutrients.

In most cases, people who suffer from over nutrition gain excess weight and this can cause
many serious problems to the human body. It can also lead to increased risk of developing
heart disease, stroke, type2 diabetes and even some cancers.

Specific Deficiency:

Specific deficiency is a type of malnutrition that results from a diet that contains negligible
or none at all of a specific nutrient and leads to specific deficiency symptoms.

3.2.1 Causes of Malnutrition and under malnutrition

Immediate causes:-

 Poor diets meals may be low in quantity, nutrient density/eaten infrequently

infants get in sufficient breast milk.
 Disease
 Irregular meal times.
 Random lunching and snacks.

Underlying causes

 Unhygienic living conditions

 Family food insecurity

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Figure Causal framework for child’s malnutrition

Premature death ) Outcome

) Exposure
/Outcome

Child and maternal underweight

) Immediate Causes

Inadequate dietary intake Disease

) Underlying Causes
Household food Maternal Health Service access
security /Childcare /healthy Environment

Knowledge and attitude

Quantity/Quality of actual resource-human economic

organizational-and how they are controlled

Political, cultural, religious, economic and social systems Basic causes

(including women’s status and children’s right)

Potential resources: nature technology, people

Adopted from UNICEF (1990)

 In adequate care of household members

 Inadequate food services.

Basic causes

 Poverty
 Lack of information, political & economic insecurity
 War
 Lack of resources at all levels

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Other causes

 Worry or psychological disturbance, parental coercion

 Digestive problem or disease
 Inadequate rest
 Wrong example set by others
 Excessive activity interfering with meals.

3.2.2. Prevention to malnutrition children aged 6 months to 5 years.

 Breast milk remain important
 By the age of 6 months children need to start family foods
 Rich in energy and nutrients, and not watery. Porridge meals, groundnuts, beans
vegetables and fruits and animal food
 Be started one at a time
 Not be too papery, salty and sugary
 Be prepared hygienically. Animal milk should be boiled.
 Be soft and easy to eat
 At six months give meal 2-3 times a day increasing to 4 times a day by the age of one
year- avoid giving sugary or salty snacks.

3.2.3. Symptoms of Malnutrition

(a) Physical Conditions

i. Bad postures
ii. Laziness
iii. Easily fatigued
iv. Susceptibility to diseases
v. Tale and charmless face
vi. Drowsiness
vii. Under weight

(b). Mental Condition

i. Gloomy nature
ii. Look at enthusiasm
iii. Forgetful memory
iv. Lack of concentration
v. Slow comprehension
vi. Irritability

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Self Evaluation

Q.1. Explain causes of under nutrition

Q.2. what are the results of under nutrition?

Q.3. what are the symptoms of Malnutrition?

Q.4. How to prevent malnutrition in children aged 6 months to 5 years aged.

3.2.4.Deficiencies and problems of Malnutrition among children

1. Failure of the child to grow or gain weight.
2. Slowness in talking, thinking or walking
3. Thin arms and legs
4. Swollen bellies
5. Sadness
6. Lack of energy
7. Swelling of the face feet and hands
8. Often marks sores on the skin.
9. Thinning or loss of hair or loss of its colour or shine.
10. Dryness of eyes and sometimes blindness
11. Loss of appetite
12. Desire to eat dirt
13. Night blindness

The impact of major diseases or Nutritional Status:

Disease Impact of under Impact of infection with regards to

nutrition nutrition
Diarrhea  Increased duration  Malabsorbtion
 Increased severity  Appetite loss
 Increased mortality  Loss of nutrients
Acute  Increased severity  Appetite loss
Respiratory  Increased mortality  Metabolic effects resulting in
infection muscle breakdown
Measles  Increased duration  Appetite loss
 Increased severity  Decreased availability of vitamin A
 Increased mortality  Reduced immune function
 Fever
 Muscle breakdown
Malaria  Some evidence of  Iron deficiency leading to anemia
increased severity in  Impaired faetal development, low
deficiencies of Vitamin birth weight and growth faltering.
A & Zinc

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3.2.5Effects of under nutrition at Different Ages

Malnutrition not only impacts growth in the short term but can also limit total bone
growth.

Cognitive Implications

Malnutrition negatively effects brain development causing delays in motor and cognitive
development such as:

 Attention deficit disorder

 Impaired school performance
 Decreased IQ Scores
 Memory Deficiencies
 Learning disabilities
 Reduced social skills
 Reduced language development
 Reduced problem solving abilities
 Muscle function
 Cardio respiratory function

Effects for the mother

 Intrauterine growth retardation

 Increased prenatal mortality and infection
 Increased maternal morbidity and mortality
 Hemorrhage and uterine dysfunction
 Impaired immune system
 Insufficient iron in breast milk

For the child

 Low birth weight

 Less iron reserves
 Impaired mental development
 Impaired psychomotor function
 Impaired affective relationships
 Impaired neurotransmitter function
 Impaired reproductive function
 Lower blood transport to the tissue.

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3.2.6. Preventive action may be taken

 Increasing iron taken
Iron supplement
Iron rich diets
 Infection control
Public health
Measures to control hook worm infection malaria and sahistosomiasis
 Improving nutritional status
Control of major nutrient deficiencies
Infection prevention
 A prevention action-
Treatment of thyroid hormone before
Conception and during the neonatal period
Increasing iodine intakes.

Some Healthy Eating Habits may be planned

1. Having food at fixed hours

2. Eating a balanced diet.
3. Eating green vegetables everyday
4. Washing hands before eating
5. Eating slowly and not hurriedly
6. Washing vegetables and fruits before eating
7. Taking boiled water when pure water is not readily available
8. Not eating over cooked food.
9. Not eating food items exposed to dust and flies.
10. Not taking contaminated food by house flies and cockroaches
11. Not taking any food items of food kept open in the market.
12. Not over eating.
13. Not under eating.

Self Evaluation:

Q1 Explain the deficiencies and problems of Malnutrition among children.

Q2. Describe the impact of diseases like Diarrhea, Measles and Malaria in regards to
nutrition.

Q3.Explain effects of under nutrition for the child.

Q4. What healthy eating habits may be planned for children?

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3.3.School health programme -Ministry of Health & Family

Child Welfare and Health

School Health Programme is a program for school health service under National Rural
Health Mission which has been necessitated and lunched in fulfilling the vision of NRHM to
provide effective health care to population throughout the country. It also focuses on
effective integration of health concerns through decentralized management at district with
determinant of health like sanitation, hygiene nutrition safe drinking water, gender and
social concern.

“School health programme is defined as the school procedures that contribute to the
maintenance and improvement of the health of pupils and school personnel including
health services, healthful living and health education”

Why school Health Programme?

Good health supports successful learning as much as successful learning supports health.
Research again indicates that healthy children

 have higher daily school attendance

 learn better
 take full advantage of every opportunity to learn and thus achieve higher academic
excellence tend to maximize social relationship and interactions at school and at
home, thus improving their chances of balanced development.

Education increases children’s opportunities to keep healthy. Acquisition of health related

knowledge, attitudes, skills and practices empower children to:

 Pursue healthy life now, and in the futures

 Work as agents of change for the improved health for their families and
communities.
 Gain self reliance, develop positive self esteem and self assertiveness.

3.3.1.Objective of School Health Programme:

 Early detection and care of students with health problems.
 Development of healthy attitudes and healthy behaviors by students.
 Ensure a healthy environment for children at school.
 Prevention of communicable diseases at school.

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‘National Curriculum Frame work for School Education’ formulated by the NCERT 2000
envisages the following objectives

 Develop desirable understanding, attitudes and practices with regard to health,

nutrition and sanitation.
 Help the learners develop awareness about the health and sanitation at the
community level.
 It should enable the students to improve health status of the self family and
community.
 Promote healthful living.
 Develop an awareness of the new problems like HIV/AIDS
 It should enable the adolescents to understand the specific problems of this stage,
 It should enable to the students to understand the nature of population dynamics
and its implications for health.
 It should determine the health status of the learner through health examination.
 It should provide wholesome school environment.
 It should include suitable learning activities on health matters.
 It should provide for appropriate guidance and counseling on health matters,
 It should enable the students to understand sex matters during adolescence,
 It should enable the learners to study suitable self instructional material in this
regard according to age groups.

School Health Foundation of India has the following objectives of action:

1. Developing schools in India as Health Promoting schools.

2. Implementing comprehensive school health programme(CSHSP) in schools.
3. Promotion of research and development in the field of school health and student
well being.
4. Creation of awareness among school children about healthy living.
5. Enhancement of the skills of school teachers in handling health and development
problems among children.
6. To promote life skill education and personal development in schools.
7. To provide guidance for the establishment and maintenance of Health clubs in
schools.
8. Provision of preventive Health services to schools.
9. To identify and correct psychosocial problems among school children, including
substance abuse.
10. To provide guidance and counseling services to children with special problems.
11. Promotion of Educational Research.
12. To develop and distribute health education materials and media to schools

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13. To co-operate with governments and health agencies in the formulation,

implementation and evaluation of school health policies and programmes.

Rationale of school Health programme

 The school health programme is the only public sector programme specifically
focused on school aged children. Its main focus is to
 Address the health needs of the children(both physical and mental)
 Provides for nutrition intervention
 Yoga facilities and counseling.

3.3.2.Components of school Health Program

A. Health Service Provision:

1. Screening, health care and referral

 Screening of general health, assessment of Anemia/Nutritional status, visual

acuity, hearing problems, dental check up, common skin conditions, heart
defects physical disabilities, learning disorders, behavior problems.
 Basic medicine kit will be provided to take care of common ailments
prevalent among young school going children.
 Referral cards for priority services for district/ sub district hospitals.

2. Immunization

 As per national schedule

 Fixed day activity
 Copied with education about the issue.

3. Micronutrients (vitamin A & IFA) management

 Weekly supervised distribution of iron folate tablets coupled with education

about the issue.
 Administration of Vitamin A in needy cases.

4. De worming

 As per national guidelines

 Biannually supervised schedule
 Prior IEC
 Siblings of students also to be covered.

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5. Health promoting Schools

 Counseling services
 Regular practice of yoga, physical education, health education
 Peer leaders as health education
 Adolescent health education-existing in few places.
 Linkages with the out of school children.
 Health clubs, health cabinets
 First aid room/ corners or clinics
B. Capacity Building
C. Monitoring & Evaluation
D. Mid Day Meal

3.3.3.The essential elements of school health are:

 Health related school policies: it include children of all communities, encourage
healthy life styles, address, and priority public health problems and promote
collaboration among teachers.
 Provision of Safe (Physically and Psycho-Socially) and supportive environment to
ensure healthy development of students and provide a healthy learning
environment. Provision of nutrition relieves the hunger of the child coming from
deprived circumstances and provision of safe water and adequate sanitation,
reinforces hygiene behavior.
 Health hygiene and nutrition education: that focuses upon the development of age
appropriate knowledge, attitudes, values and life skills needed to establish lifelong
healthy practices, Besides, the school environment must provide opportunities to
practice the acquired healthy behavior in order to reduce the vulnerability of youth
and teachers to common health risks. For example mid-day-school meal
programme, sanitary toilets/ latrines with full water supply etc.
 School-based health and nutrition services: these are equitable, simple, sustainable,
safe and familiar and address problems that are prevalent and recognized as
important within the community Midday School Meals .

Characteristics of school health programme:

According to EB Joh the following characteristics of the school Health Programme -

1. Health education is an integral part of the general education of all students and an
integral part of the school curriculum.

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2. Health needs of the learners is the starting point providing experiences that enable
them to develop their abilities for action towards improved individual and group
health.
3. Health programme should give consideration to students needs as they relate to
dental, medical, nutritional and psychiatric activity.
4. It is not confined to learners only but is also extends beyond the school and college
to the home and the community and into adult life
5. School health programme needs to be supplemented by community agencies.
6. The conduct of total school health programme requires the talent of many health
and education personnel, working together in a cooperative manner to achieve
common goals.
7. Group action is important in motivating the learners to solve his/their health
problems.
8. Special methods of evaluation would be needed to find out the adequacy of health
education.
9. For providing the required personnel, materials and equipment to achieve the goals
of health education, adequate financial support is necessary.

3.3.4.School Health: Outcomes & Responsibilities

This framework outlines the major interventions proposed under the school health
programme and defines the respective roles and responsibilities of the department of
Health and Family welfare and department of Education and between health care providers
and teacher.

Intervention Expected outcomes Activities Responsibilitie

s
Health and Health promotion and Health education in the Teachers
Nutrition prevention of health curriculum
Education risks, decreases in both
under nutrition and
obesity.
Education on Comfort with bodily Health education formal non Teachers
“growing up changes High Self curricular assisted by some
issues” esteem improved help health care
seeking behavior providers NGOs.

Improved knowledge in Non formal health education

Education on these issues resulting in Organization of schools activities Teachers health
sexual and improved help seeking care providers
reproductive behavior NGOs
Health issues Teachers school
administration
Health Early detection and Annual or one in six months Jointly by

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Screening management of common health check up includes: teachers and

problems of eye  Height/weight record health care
problems, especially  Vision checkup providers:
refractive errors hearing  Hearing checkup necessary
problems, disabilities  Disability identification equipment and
including learning  Dental problem supplies to be
disabilities and  Skin problems provided by
behavioral problems  Cardiac problem health
department
Nutrition and Improved nutrition  Health education on Teachers
Anemia prevention and nutrition Teacher and
Management treatment of anemia  Midday meal school
leading to: programmes administration
 Improved general  IFA tablets
health and future administration Teacher with
reproductive  Periodic De worming supplies and
health (6 monthly) counseling from
 Better scholastic  Vitamin A supplements the health
performance for the department
Immunization Protection from tetanus Periodic sessions Health care’s
(T.T) at 10 & providers could
16 years to be linked to
biannually
screening
Referral Improved access to  Information provision Teacher
linkage with health services about services Teacher &
health especially referral of the  Planned visits to referral Health
services and school health screening centers on scheduled day institution
local remedial Access to first contact  Availability of first Aid kit Teacher with
actions curative services in the and basic first contact provision of kit
school drugs with manuals at from the health
each school- one for department
Remedial measures for every 250 students Coordination
many problems  Provision of spectacles with blinder
identified during hearing aids, disability control hearing
screening equipments etc. disability and
other disability
programme of
health and social
justice
departments.
Orientation Capacity building in  Orientations sessions Department of
Training of implementation  Communications skills education
Teachers  Elements of health, supports by
hygiene and nutrition department of

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education Health
 Creating safe and Department of
supportive environment Health provides
 How to screen common each school with
illness a tool kit for
 Dosages and side effect of implementing
medicine the school health
 Follow up on referrals programme.
 Documentation and
reporting

Health Promoting Schools Focus on

 Caring for one self and others

 Making healthy decision and talking control over life’s circumstances
 Creating conditions that are conducive to health(through policies services, physical/
Social conditions)
 Building capacities for peace, shelter education food income a stable ecosystem,
equity, social, justice sustainable development.
 Preventing leading causes of death, diseases and disability: helminthes tobacco use,
HIV/AIDS/STDs sedentary, lifestyle, drugs and alcohol, violence awl injuries,
unhealthy nutrition.
 Influencing health related behaviors: knowledge belief, skills, attitudes, values, and
support.

However school health service can be achieved through a comprehensive school health
programme comprising the following activities:

1. Health appraisal of school children and school personnel.

2. Cooperation with the home and the community
3. Healthful school environment.
4. Preventions of communicable diseases:
5. Nutritional services
6. First aid and emergency care.
7. Psychological services.
8. Use of school health records
9. Remedial measures and follow up
10. Health instruction.

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3.4.1.Aids their importance preparation and use:

The audio visual aids are also called instructional materials, audio literally means “hearing”
and “visual” means that which is found by seeing. So all such aids which endeavor to make
the knowledge clear to us through our sense are called “Audio Visual Aids” or Instrumental
Materials.

According to Burton “These are sensory objectives and images which stimulates and
emphasis on learning process”

The learning situations as real as possible and gives us firsthand knowledge through the
organs of hearing and seeing. Therefore any device which can be used to make the learning
experience more concrete and effective, more realistic and dynamic can be considered as
audio visual materials.

Objective of Teaching Aids

1. To enhance teachers skills which help to make teaching learning process effective.
2. Make learner active in the classroom
3. Communicate them according to their capabilities
4. Develop lesson plan and build interest
5. To make students good observer
6. Develop easy and understandable learning material.
7. Follow child centered learning process
8. Involve intimation in objectives
9. To create interest indifferent groups
10. To make teaching process more effective

3.4.2.Significant of Aids in the Pre School and Primary School Education:

The first few years of a child’s life are the most impressionable years and the learning
experiences provided during these years in or outside schools and other institutional
arrangement have a predominant influence on the future behavior pattern of the child.

Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and manipulating things in this environment tell the
child what the world is like.

Sensory experiences of all kinds contribute to strengthen and enrich the child’s perception.
Toys, building, blocks, card games, puzzles as well as audio visual aids such as pictures,
carts, maps, globes diagrams, flannel graphs, sound recordings which are basically
materials of sight and sound after a variety of experiences which stimulate the senses and
promote self activity in children.

Audio-visual aids reinforce the spoken or the written words with concrete images and thus
provide rich perceptual experiences which are the basis of learning.

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3.4.3. Various types of Audio Visual Aids

The various categories of audio visual materials and equipment, both traditional and
modern may be classified as follows:

A. Visual Aids or Non Projected AIDs.

1. Pictures or illustrations
2. Photographs
3. Flash cards or strips
4. Posters
5. Charts
6. Diagrams
7. Maps
8. Graphs
9. Comic strips or books
10. Picture books
11. Exhibitions
B. Projected Aids
1. Motion picture films 8mm.16mm.
2. Slides
3. Film strips
4. Transparencies for overhead projectors
C. Audio Aids.
1. Radio
2. Recordings, Tapes, Discs
3. Wacky talky
4. Music system
D. Three Dimensional Aids
1. Models 2. Objects 3. Specimen 4. Mockups 5. Dioramas

6. Puppets 7. Mobiles 8. Planetarium

E. Display Boards.
1. Blackboard or Chalk Board
2. Panel Board
3. Bulletin Board
4. Peg Board
F. New Media
1. Television- Open circuit television, Closed circuit television
2. Video recorder
3. Teaching machines
4. Computers

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5. Language laboratory
G. Others
1. Audio visual kits
2. Displays and exhibition
3. Programmed learning materials
H. Audio Visual Equipments
1. Motion picture projectors
2. Slide projectors
3. Overhead projectors
4. Tape recorders-real type, cassette type
5. Film strip projector
6. Opaque projectors, Epidiascope, episcopes
7. Video recorder
8. Television

Use of Aids and their preparation

The use of audio-visual aids in teaching has increased in the past few years due to
technological advancement. According to studies when teachers use learning aids, students
show interest and get more stimulate. Follows are some importance of audio visual aids in
teaching and learning process.

1. To show the interior things: through photographs, films, models etc.

2. To present historic materials: through photographic records, events, people and
places.
3. To give information about large and complicated machine: TV programmes,
photographs, films charts etc can help in such situation.
4. To present exotic materials: photography painting diagrams, projectors,
transparency, models etc.
5. To present information about in accessible places.
6. To summarizes a series of observation.
7. To present information about microscopic materials.

3.4.4. Preparation and use of Health promoting materials at school level.

1. Health Posters- Posters depicting washing of bodies about various diseases like
plague, malaria etc. and about food, sleep and exercise each poster should be
prepared with educative values behind each disease.
2. Health Book- Each child should be asked to maintain a health book. One important
health rule should be pasted and contain his health records.

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3. Health club: Health club should be organized in schools. Weekly or monthly

programme may be chalked out with school red cross society.
4. Radio- Special programme relating to health may be organized.
5. Flame graph- Different cut out drawing or photos should be placed in it.
6. Models and Demonstrations- About caring of different diseases and their
precautions.
7. Story Telling- Good story tellers (teachers) in order to motivate the children.
8. Group discussion- To share ideas and needs and problems which affect health could
be discussed
9. Mother and child health muting- Especially important for pregnant women and
mothers of small children be well-informed about their own and their babies’ health
needs. Regular visit to health centers are opportunities for both checkups and
learning.
10. Health Records- Health record of child should be properly, regularly maintained
11. Healthy environment- Attempt should be made to make classrooms and the school
building very attractive and conductive to health.
12. Film and film strips- Well made health films and film strips are very useful for the
teaching of health education.
13. Excursion and Trips- “Seeing believes is true saying. Excursions to good
dispensaries, water supply centre etc may be planned for health educational
purposes”.
14. A village health committee- a group of able interested persons can be chosen from
the village to help plan and lead activities relating to the well being of the
community.

Self Evaluations:

Q1.What is the objectives of Teaching Aids?

Q2. Explain the significance of Aids in the pre-school and primary school education.

Q3. Describe the different kinds of Aids.

Q4. Which are projected Aids?

Notes on:-

Q1.Give a brief notes on preparation of Aids.

Q2. Use of health promoting materials at school level.

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Unit IV

Activities of various Agencies

Objectives:

 To acquaint the students with various agencies in the field of early childhood
education and their role.
 To understand the work being done in the field of early childhood education and
care by international and organization.

Structure:

4.0. Different Agencies

4.1. UNICEF in India

4.1.1. Country Programme Action Plan

4.1.2. The Millennium Development Goals for 2015

4.2. WHO

4.3. CARE

4.4. Red Cross

4.4.1. Seven fundamental principles of Red cross

4.5. India near Association for Pre-school Education

4.6. Integrated child development services (ICDS)

4.6.1. Under child welfare, 4.6.2.Child welfare

4.0.Different Agencies:
Different agencies are playing a vital role in the area of preschool education which is stated
below:-

1. UNICEF
2. WHO
3. CARE
4. REDCROSS
5. IAPE
6. ICDS
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UNICEF –the United Nations children’s fund is fully committed to working with the Govt. of
India to ensure that each child born in this vast and complex country gets the best start in
life, thrives and develops to her/his full potential. The organization began the work in India
1994 with three staff members and established an office at Delhi three years later,
currently it advocates for the rights of India’s Children in 16 states.

India has also progressively increased its contribution to UNICEF. UNICEF’s goal is
to advance the rights of the children, adolescents and women for survival, growth,
development, participation and protection by reducing in equities based on caste, ethnicity,
gender poverty, region or religion. UNICEF utilizes a multi pronged approach to addressing
pressing issues of health, nutrition, sanitation, education and child protection. It aims to
involve families and community members in understanding their contribution to ensure
their children.

4.1.UNICEF in India
UNICEF, India recognizes that the health, hygiene, nutrition, education protection
and social development of children are all connected. Targeting efforts for them at all
stages of their growth-infant and mother, child and adolescent, children not only survive
but thrive too.

A. Child survival Growth and Development-

1. Reproductive and child Health-
 Maternal Health
 Neonatal Health
 Immunization
 Polio
2. Child Development and Nutrition
 Women Nutrition
 Infant and young child feeding
 Micronutrient Nutrition
 Stunting
3. Water sanitation and hygiene
 Eliminate open Defecation
B. Protective and Learning Environment
1. Quality Education
 RTE & CFSS
 Teacher Education
 Gender and Inclusion
 Early Childhood Education

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2. Child Protection
 Child protection systems
 Violence against children
3. Wash in Schools
 Gender segregated functional toilets in schools
 Hand washing with soaps in schools before mid-day meals.
 Clean India-Clean Schools
C. Adolescent Empowerment-
1. Protecting Adolescents violence prevention and Responses
2. Empowering Adolescents
 Secondary education
 Child marriage
3. Adolescents Health & Nutrition
 Adolescents Health
 Adolescents Nutrition
D. Evidence Based Policy influencing & Advocacy
1. Advancing Evidence Based inclusive policies-
 Data and evidence for policy and equity focused programming.
 Strengthening Evaluation capacity and knowledge management
 Planning and monitoring of child rights and equity through
Decentralized Governance
 Promotion of social inclusion and social protection.

Some Projects Implemented by Unicef-

1. Nutrition, Health Education and environmental sanitation.

2. Primary education curriculum Renewal (PECR)
3. Developmental Activities in Community Education and Participation (DACEP)
4. Children’s Media Laboratory (CML)
5. Early Childhood Education (ECE)
6. Comprehensive Access to Primary Education
7. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)
8. Assistance to Child Development wings of the National Institute of Public
Cooperation and Child Development (ACDWNIPCC).

4.4.1.Country programme Action Plan 2013- 2017

CPAP between Govt. of India and UNICEF:- The programmatic objectives and strategies of
the programme which aims to be, relevant to the rapidly changing context in India and
what added value UNICEF can bring

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 Aligned to national priorities as enshrined in the Govt.’s 12 th five year plan

approach on “Faster, sustainable and more inclusive growth”.
 Convergent in its approach: so that all programmes work together to achieve
outcomes for children and women throughout their life cycle.
 Effective and equitable by taking informed decisions so as to reach the most
marginalized and the vulnerable.

Country Programme 2013-17, is based on the acknowledgement that children and

women faced multiple deprivations at different stages of their life, and that
multidimensional problems need multi pronged, inter sectoral solutions.

Our vision for India is one where every woman is empowered to make positive decisions
for themselves and their children. Healthy, well informed mothers give birth to healthy
well nourished children. Children who have the potential to grow and develop to their
fullest potential, learn in a nurturing and protected environment and become productive
and empowered citizens that can transform India.

The empowerment and participation of adolescent girls and boys is one of the key
outcomes of the 2013-2017, Programme of cooperation. Through this, adolescents will
know their rights and how to protect themselves from risks and vulnerabilities and duty
bearers will have capacity and knowledge to create protective environment free from
gender based violence.

UNICEF-in 2000, September 189 countries including India signed the United Nations
Millennium Declaration, committing to eradicate extreme poverty in all its form by 2015.
To help track progress towards these commitment, a set of time bound and quantified goals
and targets called the millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed.

4.1.2.The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015

 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
 Achieve universal primary education
 Provide gender equality and empower women.
 Reduce child mortality
 Improves maternal Health
 Combat HIV/AIDS. Malaria and other diseases
 Ensure environment sustainability
 Develop a global partnership for development.

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Goal Achieve Universal Primary Education

Net enrolment ratio in primary education (% both sexes) : 94.2

Percentage of pupil starting grade 1 and reach grade 5(% both sexes) : 73.0
Progress is evident in universalizing primary education and India is likely to achieve this
MDG. Enrolment and completion rates of girls in primary schools have improved and are
catching up with those of boys as are elementary completion rates in light of the Right of
Children to free and compulsory Education Act (RTE) the challenges are now are the
quality of education.

4.2.WHO (World Health Organization

About WHO

WHO began when our constitution came into force on 7 th April 1948 - A date now we
celebrate every year as world health day. Now more than 7000 people are working in 150
country offices in 6 regional offices and at headquarters in Geneva.

The main role of WHO is to direct and coordinate international health within the United
Nations system. WHO works under the following areas:

 Health system
 Promoting health through the life course
 Non communicable diseases
 Communicable diseases
 Corporate services
 Preparedness, surveillance and response

4.2.1 Responsibilities and functions of WHO

WHO’s responsibilities and functions include assisting Governments in strengthening
health services establishing and maintaining administrative and technical services such as
epidemiological and statistical services, stimulating the eradication of diseases, improving
nutrition housing sanitation, working conditions and other aspects of environmental
hygiene, promoting cooperation among scientific and professional groups, proposing
international conventions and agreements on health matters, conducting research
developing international stands for food, and biological and pharmaceutical products and
developing an informed public opinion among all peoples on matters of health.

WHO operations are carried out by three distinct components: the world Health Assembly
(WHA), the executive board, and the secretariat.

WHO has initiated a number of projects in India for the children welfare.

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In India

 Increasing availability of community and reproductive services.

 Implementing low cost and eco- friendly farming techniques.
 Improving access to drinking water and basic sanitary needs.
 Creating local savings and credit groups for women.
 Decreasing child malnutrition through kitchen gardens,

Nepal

 Achieving social and economic empowerment for women, poor families.

 Conserving and managing natural resources.
 Decreasing child malnutrition through kitchen garden.
 Providing workshop and health education programme.

The millennium Declaration includes measurable target to be achieved by 2015. Areas are:-

 Nutrition
 Access to safe water
 Material and child health
 Infectious diseases control
 Access to essential medicines

The world health assembly is the supreme-decision making body and it meets annually,
with participation of ministers of health from its 191 numbers nations. In a real sense, the
WHO is an International health cooperative that monitors the state of the world’s health
and takes steps to improve the health status of individual countries and of the world
community.

The executive board, composed of thirty two individuals chosen on the basis of their
scientific and professional qualifications meets between the assembly sessions. It
implements the decisions and policies of the assembly.

The secretariat is headed by the director general who is elected by the assembly
upon the nomination of the board. The HQ of WHO is Geneva the Director general however
shares responsibilities with six regional Directors, in turn, chosen by members states of
their respective regions.

4.3.CARE: Cooperative for Assistance and Relief for Every where

CARE in India grow out of a vision of ending poverty and social injustice, and it has been
working for over 68 years. CARE came to India in June 1946 when one of its co-founder,

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Lincoln Clark, signed the CARE Basic Agreement in New Delhi at the office of foreign Affairs.
CARE has been providing nutrients food for the beneficiaries of Integrated Child
Development Service (ICDS) on the request of GOI since 1982. CARE supported the
government’s ICDS in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. CARE India has been working extensively in
different parts of India, it work with grass root initiatives, state and district Governments,
communities and individual from all over the country As of new it is present in 14 states of
India with Head Office at Delhi.

CARE India through well formulated and compressive programmes, aims to achieve the
long term commitments to key population groups programmes are on Health, Education,
Live hood, Disaster response and preparedness are innovative in their approach

Education is the key to empowering women and girls who help, bring about social equally
CARE works to help girls complete primary education and access formal schools through
accelerated learning methodology and provide academic support to enhance quality
learning. CARE helps, nurture leadership skills amongst girls and offer alternative
education opportunities for women and girls who have never been enrolled or have
dropped out early from school.

Health Programme: CARE India works in close collaboration with state and central
Government and other partner organizations to secure accessible and quality maternal and
child health care among marginalized communities. It works towards identifying the root
causes of health care challenges, provide innovative solutions and help implement, secure
and quality health care services in India. It believes that a healthy mother and a healthy
baby is the route to a productive, developed Nation. Live hood Programs: CARE through
this promotes microfinance self help groups, capacity building and small business. It also
fosters linkage between community, collectives and financial instructions. CARE also
focuses on improving the literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills to promote
sustainable live hood.

4.3.1.Disaster Preparedness Programme:

CARE India works towards providing immediate relief & assists in the rehabilitation
process of the affected communities in the aftermath of any calamity. Communities’ build
their capacity to better cope with recover from disasters it’s goal is to build resilience
among the community and various state holders in case of disaster.

Objectives:

 Addressing the immediate needs of the most marginalized population affected by

disasters while recognizing people’s fundamental right to a life with dignity.
 Understanding the underlying causes of vulnerability
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 Enhancing capacities to cope with disasters and adapt to climate change.

 Integration of disaster risk reduction into ongoing programmes.
4.4.RED CROSS
The Indian Red Cross is a voluntary humanitarian organization having a network of
over 700 branches throughout the country, providing relief in times of
disaster/emergencies and promoted health and care of the vulnerable people and
committees. It is a leading member of the largest independent humanitarian organization
in the world. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement has three main
components, the International committee of Red Cross (ICRC), 187 National societies and
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

During the First World War in 1914, India had no organization for relief services to
the affected soldiers except a branch of the St. John Ambulance Association and by a joint
committee of British Red Cross. Later a branch of the same committee was started to
undertake the much needed relief services in collaboration with the St John Ambulance
Association in aid of the soldiers as well as civilian sufferers of the horrors of that great
war. On 7th June 1920, fifty members were formally nominated to constitute the Indian Red
Cross Society and the first Managing Hailey as Chairman.

Indian Red Cross society has partnership with National Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, St John Ambulance, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Movement (IFRC), International committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) multinational firms,
individuals and others in supporting IRCS activities.

4.4.1.Seven Fundamental Principles of Red Cross

1. Humanity
2. Impartiality
3. Neutrality
4. Independence
5. Voluntary service
6. Unity
7. Universality

Programme and Activities:

 Red Cross promotes the Humanitarian Values which encourage respect for other
human beings and a willingness to work together to find solutions to problems.
 Disaster Response continues to represent the largest portion of ICRS work with
assistances to millions of people annually ranging from refuges to victims of natural
disasters.

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 Red Cross devotes more attention to Disaster Preparedness activities. This makes
Red Cross societies and communities more aware.
 Health and Community Care has become a cornerstone of humanitarian assistance
and accounts for a large part of Red Cross spending. Through these programmes, the
Red Cross aims to enable communities to reduce their vulnerability to disease and
prepare, for and respond to public health crisis.
 Capacity building programmes and activities include: Management and volunteer
training, improving branch structures, planning, fund raising and gender equity,
creating the opportunities for Red Cross Societies to network.
 Other Major Activities includes: hospital services, blood bank, HIV/AIDS
programmes, home for disabled servicemen, vocational training centers, tracing
activities, maternity, child and family welfare, nursing, junior Red Cross Activities,
preparedness and prevention of communicable and infectious diseases, relief
operation in fire, Railway and other accidents and events.

4.5. Indian Association for Preschool Education:

The Indian Association for Preschool Education (IAPE), a national voluntary non-profit
organization was established In 1964, with the intention of bringing together professionals
in the field of early, childhood education and child development, in the interest of the
young child.

IAPE is a committed Organization working towards quality in early childhood education.

Through our programmes we empower concerned adults towards creating a joyful
childhood for each child. It is believed that any childhood programme must promote all
rounds, total, integrated and balanced development of the child in a harmonious
environment through appropriate learning experiences.

Different programmes like Workshops, Refresher Courses, Conferences, Seminars,

Consultancy, Publication, Advocacy and Networking etc are to be taken for this.

4.6.Integrated child Development Services (ICDS)

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in India is the world’s targeted early
childhood programme and Odisha has around 71000 sanctioned centers which provide the
services throughout the state. ICDS was launched in 1975 with the following objectives:

A. Improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age group of 0-6 years;
B. Lay the foundation for proper psychological physical and social development of the
child;
C. Reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity malnutrition;
D. Achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation amongst the various
departments to promote child development;

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E. Enhance the capability of the mother/care giver to look after the normal health and
nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

ICDS Beneficiaries and Services

To achieve the above objectives, a package of six integrated services is provided in a

comprehensive manner to meet the multi dimensional and interrelated needs of the
children. The Anganwadi Centre forms the focal point for the delivery of these services.

Services Target Group Service Provided by

Supplementary Children below 6 years and pregnant Et (AWW)
nutrition lactating women
Immunization Children below 6 years and pregnant ANM/MO
women (PW)
Health checkup Children below 6 years and pregnant Et ANM/MO/ANM
Lactating women
Referral services Children below 6 years and pregnant Et AWW/ANM/MO/A
Lactating women WW
Pre-school education Children 3-6 years AWW
Nutrition and Health Adolescent Girls and Women (15-45 years) AWW/ANM/ASHA
Education

The department of women and Child Development Department has a composite

Directorate and is divided in to 13 sections. The department has an elaborate field
formation with the district social welfare officer (DWWO) to assist the collector in each
district and a sub-divisional school welfare officer (SSWO) in every sub-division. Besides
there are social educational organizers (SEOs) and lady social educational organizers
(LSEOs) at the block level who assist the Block Administration in implementing the social
welfare programmes. In the district each ICDS project is headed by Child Development
Project Officer (CDPO). The project is further divided into 5-6 sectors. Each sector is
headed by a supervisor, who oversees the work of 20-25 Anganwadi centers (AWC)
functioning at the village level.

The Department has six statutory bodies via (a) State Commission for women (SCW)
(b) State Council for child welfare (SCCW) (c) State Social Welfare Board (SSWAB)
(d)Mahila Vikas Samabaya Nigam (MVSN)(e) State Commissioner for Persons Disability
(SCPD)and (f) State Commissioner for Protection of Child Rights(SCPCR).

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4.6.1. Under Child welfare –Following Schemes are taken up:

 Integrated child Development Services
 Supplementary Nutrition Programme
 Nutrition and Health Education
 Health Checkup.
 Immunisation
 Referral Services
 Mamata Diwas-VHND
 Pustikar Diwas
 Pre-school Education
 Growth monitoring a promotion
 WHO growth standards
 Mother Et Child Protection Card.
 Infant and Young Child Feeding
 Nutrition Operation Plan
 Integrated Child Protection Scheme

Under Women Welfare

 Mamata
 Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) SABLA
 Kishori Sakti Nana
 Adolescent Anemia Control Programme
 Mission shakti
 Swadhar shelter home
 Ujjawala
 Short stay home
 Working Women’s Hostel
 Mahila a Shishu Desk
 Anti-Trafficking
 Protection of Women for Domestic Violence
 Prohibition of Child Marriage

All the above projects are carried out under ICDS

Under Disability Welfare

 Vocational Training Centers for PWDS

 Scheme for Special Children
 Scholarship to children with special needs

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 Care and protection of specific children

 Gharaunda
 Rehabilitation of cured leprosy patients
 Scheme for Assistance to disabled persons for purchase/fitting of aids and
appliances
 Bhima Bhoi Bhinnakshyama Samarthya Abhiyan (BBSA)
 Appellate Medical Board
 Rice to persons with 75% disability

Under Social Security

 National Social Assistance Programme

 Indira Gandhi National Old age pension
 Indira Gandhi National Widow pension
 Indira Gandhi Disabled Pension
 National Family Benefit Scheme
 Annapurna
 Madhu Babu Pension Yojna

4.6.2. CHILD WELFARE

Nutrition and Health Education

Nutrition and health education (NHED) forms one of the key elements of the ICDS
programmes women in the age group of 15-45 years should be given information on their
health, nutrition and developmental needs. These are imparted through counseling
sessions during home visits, fixed immunization days. VHND (Mamal Diwas), mothers
meetings, Gram Sabha and during the panchayat meetings in the community.

Health Checkup-It Includes:-

A. Anti natal Care of all pregnant women

B. Post-natal care of nursing mothers and care of the new born
C. Care of children less than 6 years of age.

Various health Services provided to the children by Anganwadi worker include the
followings- Regular, Health checkups, recording of weight, management of malnutrition,
treatment of diarrhea, deworming and distribution of medicines particularly on Village
Health & Nutrition Day.

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Immunization

Immunization of infants and children against six vaccine preventable diseases protect
children from poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertusis, tetanus, tubeeculosis and measles. These
are major preventable causes child mortality, disability, morbidity and related
malnutrition.

Referral Services:

During health check-ups, home visits and growth monitoring, sick or malnourished
children at risk pregnant women and neonates in need of prompt medical attention are
provided referral services through ICDS. The AWWs are also oriented to detect disabilities
in young children and all such cases are referred to the Medical officers.

Mamata Diwas-VHND

It is joint initiative to strengthen the ongoing Mother and Child Health Services by the
department of health and family welfare and DWCD. This is held through AWCs once in a
month either Tuesday or Friday to provide the followings service.

 Health promotion of adolescent girls

 Antenatal and post natal care of pregnant women & lactating mother.
 Promotion of infant and young child feeding practices
 Growth monitoring of children up to 6 years.
 Identification, referral and follow up malnourished children.
 Management of common childhood illness.
 Family welfare services
 Counseling on health promotion

Pre School Education

Preschool education is a crucial component of the package of services envisaged under the
ICDS scheme. It aims at Universalisation and qualitative improvement of primary
education, by providing the child with the necessary preparation for primary school,
especially in remote and socioeconomically backward areas. It brings young child together
at the Anganwadi centers, where different activities relating to physical, cognitive, social,
emotional, creative development of children are facilitated by the Anganwadi workers. All
children aged 3-6 years come under the ambit of preschool education.

Training

The AWWs usually have a middle school or high school qualification. They are given 3
months basic training in various areas related to her work. In addition she receives regular

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monthly continuing education from project level, ICDS and health functionaries and also
undergoes refresher courses of varying durations from time to time.

The training of AWWs and supervisors in different states are run by state
Government, various academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations including
Indian council for child welfare.

The programmes of health functionaries in the ICDs blocks are coordinated by the
central technical committee on health and Nutrition (CTC) at the all India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Self Evaluation

Q1.Which agencies are taking role in Pre–school Education in India?

Q2. UNICEF is the most committed Organization and utilize a multi pronged approach,
how?

Q3. What Projects are implemented by UNICEF?

Q4. What are the responsibilities and functions of WHO?

Q5. Which are the most prominent works guided by CARE?

Q6. Explain about Red Cross and the programmes and activities of this.

Q7. What is the role strategies of ICDS?

Q8. Different schemes undertaken by ICDS – briefly.

Q9. What is Disaster Preparedness Programme?

Q10. Which schemes are taken up under Child welfare?

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UNIT-V

Organization of Preschool Centres

Objective:

 To enable the students understanding the methodology of preschool centers

 To acquaint the students with the working of Anganwadi’s Balwadi and day care
centers.
 Types of pre-primary schools.
 To acquaint the student with the programme of pre-school education as out lined in
the NPE.

Structure:

5.0. Pre-school centre

5.1. Types of Pre-school centre

5.1.1. Something best in Pre-school

5.1.2. Different Areas of learning in Pre-school

5.2. Methodologies of Pre-school

5.2.1. Organization of Pre-schools

5.2.2 Different types of Crèches and day-care centres

5.3. Building and Equipments

5.0. Pre-School Centers

The pre-school centers and pre-school education do not form a integral part of the
notional system of education. Kinder villa has operated and managed children’s nurseries,
daycare centers, elementary schools and early learning centers since 1990 in Canada, India
and the UAE.

In 2002, original article 45 relating to provision for the free and compulsory education for
children are amended. The amended Article states, “Provision for early childhood care and
education to children below the age of six years”. The state shall endeavor to provide early
childhood care and education for children until they complete the age of six years.

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There is wide variety of preschool centers in India. A variety of programmes of pre-

school centers are organized. There is no single nomenclature and methodology of early
school education.

For example KLAY schools are a chain of high ended preparatory schools catering to
preschools and providing day- care and after school services. KLAY schools are set up by
founding years- A multi platform education services organization. It is the best play school
in India caters to an age group of 1-10 years. It is believed that children’s minds in their
formative years are like clay (name is inspired by this) and need to be provided the right
environment to flourish.

Generally different types of programmes of preschool centers are organized

throughout India. Child care programme, child education, Day care centers crèches,
Anganwadi, etc are organized with giving emphasis on the health and nutrition of the
preschool child. These pre-schools also look after the material care. Pre primary schools
are basically concerned with the education of children of the age group of 2½ or 3 to 5 or 6.

Pre-primary schools have been opened under different names. Among the
important names are:

1.Abhinaba Bal Shala, 2. Bal Kunj 3. Bal Leela Mandir 4. Balkan Ki wadi 5. Bal Mandir. 6. Bal
Seva Sadan. 7. Bal Udyan 8. Bal Vidya Pitha 9. Bal Vihar 10. Children’s Garden 11. Garden
School 12. Happy Home, 13. Kindergarten 14. Kishore sadan 15. Montessori 16. Nursery
Play Way. 17. Pre-elementary 18. Pre-Basic, 19. Sishu Kendra 20. Sishu Mandir, 21. Sishu
Niketan, 22. Sishu Sadan

Day care for children is now available at safe and secure schools that offer care and also
academics of for children. Day care is also about having the best lessons for kids via an
interactive syllabus. While children imbibe the academic skills it is also good to add new
skills with environment lessons, gardening and social skills with field trips and picnics.

Some people get confused between a pre-school and day care center. These both are
two different entities, often used interchangeably. A day care is a facility for the kids to
spend their day time where in kids comes to attend a school like atmosphere and learn and
acquire skills and knowledge.

Types of Pre School Centres

Reggio Emilla, Montessori, Waldorf… the preschool options. We have to go through a range
of pre-school. Philosophies and programmes. (By Anne Zachry)

1. Montessori- The comprehensive program developed by physician and educator

Maria Montessori takes a developmental approach to learning. All teachers must

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have an early childhood undergraduate or graduate degree and Montessori

certification. The Montessori approach emphasizes nature, creativity and hands on
learning with gentle guidance provided by the teachers. The goal of the Montessori
method is to develop child’s senses, Character, practical life skills and academic
ability.
2. Waldrof- This approach is based on the teaching of Austrian writer of Rudolf
Steiner. Waldrof preschools strive to nurture a child’s spirit soul and body and to
focus on the child’s interests. It involves creative hands on group learning with a
focus on rhythmic repetition in a supportive environment. This approach strives to
generate a strong inner enthusiasm for learning and develop children’s innate
abilities and talents. Instruction is teacher-directed and every teacher must be
Waldrof certified.
3. Reggio Emilia : Reggio Emilia schools formed in Italy in 1940 and today many
school in the united state embrace this philosophy. The approach encourages
exploration and focuses on the importance of community and self expression. Open
ended and child-led, students learn through Art projects and activities that reflect
their ideas and interests. There is no formal curriculum teacher training or
credentialing because Reggio Emilia is not a set method, but an educational theory
and practice.
4. High Scope: the high scope curriculum uses a carefully designed approach called
active participatory learning. Children learn actively by having hands on
experiences with their surroundings, and learning is supported through consistent
daily routines and well organized classrooms. It takes an academic start with
planned experiences in the basic subjects of math, reading and science. It is based on
past and current child development research.
5. Bank Street: this development approach is based on the educational philosophy of
John Deway -the focus is on a child’s mental, social, emotional and physical growth
in this programme the child is an active learner and gains knowledge about the
world through experience. Students set the learning pace, and the teacher serves as
a guide. Comparable to play based learning, this approach teaches lessons through
hands on activities, such as building blocks, puzzles, clay and dramatic play.
6. Parent Co-Ops: This is the approach where parents are to be directly involved with
their children’s school experience, consider a cooperative pre-school. Parents are
actively involved with their little one’s education on a daily basis and work closely
with the classroom teachers. This hands on approach allows parents and children
to learn together in a nurturing environment with a focus on teaching preschools
how to corporate and resolve conflicts.(copyright @ 2013 meredith corporation)

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Different play school centers offer different things for the children:

There are different types of preschool centers to choose from which deciding where
to send your child. There are centers that focus mostly on childcare, where others are more
focused on getting your child ready for school. Other centers allow the children to grow
through play based learning.

5.1.1. Something we should look for in the best preschool

Play based learning- preschoolers are too young to learn by the traditional method of
teaching. Instead you should find a pre-school center that teaches children through play
based learning.

Some pre-school centers implement this way of teaching is by setting up specific learning
sections in a classroom that will help a child explore, discover, and learn in different areas.
These learning centers set up will allow children to learn independence, encourage
involvement and help develop social skills.

5.1.2. Different Areas of Learning that preschool Centers offer:

 Literacy and language

 Math concepts and numbers
 Arts and crafts
 Puzzles and games
 Science
 Drama and imaginative play
 Music and movement
 Physical activity

Knowledgeable and Experience staff: choose a preschool center that employs teachers
who are credentialed and have the relevant experience for taking care of, and teaching your
child.

Secure and Safe Environment: from a security point of view, make sure that preschool
center of your choice is equipped to keep the child free from any harm. Entry access to the
center is limited to only those who are supposed to be there. Whether parents must use a
swipe card to get in, buzz a desk for entrance, or use a touch screen and finger printing, in
order to access entry to the day care.

In term of safety, make sure the preschool centres which you choose can in order to keep
your child as safe and healthy as possible, germ free surroundings. Some preschool centres
choose rubber flooring- the same type that is used in modern hospitals- which cannot grow
bacteria and doesn’t require chemicals for cleaning.

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5.2.Methodology of Pre-school Centers and programmes

I. Integrated Child development Services (ICDS),
II. Scheme of assistance to voluntary organizations for conducting early childhood
education (ECE) centers.
III. Anganwadi , Balwadi and day care centers run by voluntary agencies with Govt.
assistance.
IV. Pre-primary schools run by the State Governments, Municipal Corporations and
other agencies.
V. Maternal and child health services through primary health centres and sub-centres
and other agencies.
5.2.1. Organization of different Pre School centers
1. Anganwadi: An Anganwadi means a “Country and shelter”. It is a child care centre
located within a village or some slum area. The centre is run by an Anganwadi
worker (AWW)and assisted by a helper. AWW provides a direct link to children and
mothers under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

Functions of Anganwadis: these provide the following types of services.

I. Preschool education to the age group of 3 to 6.

II. Nutrition and health education to mother.

Organization: there are about 7.5 lakh Anganwadi’s without 3,80.00.000 (3.8 cores)
children. About 80% of workers are trained in Child maternal care. A supervisor looks after
about 20 Anganwadi Centres. Anganwadi centres also provide basic health care system.
Basic health care activities include contraceptive counseling and supply, nutrition,
education and supplementation, as well as pre school activities. As many as 13.3 lakh
Anganwadi and Mini Anganwadi centres (AWCs/Mini AWCs) are operational out of 13.7
lakh sanctioned as on dt. 31.1.2013.

These centres provide supplementary nutrition, non-formal pre-school education, nutrition

and health education, immunization, Health checkup and referral services, of which later 3
services are provided in convergence with public health system.

Function: These basic works of Anganwadi workers is extremely important and needs to
be carried out in the most efficient manner. They need to provide care for newborn babies
as well as ensure that all children below the age of 6 years are immunized or received
vaccinations. AWWs schooling community support and active participation in executing the
programme, to conduct regular quick surveys of all families, organize pre school activities.
Provide health and nutrition education to families especially pregnant women as to how to
breast feeding practices etc, motivating families to adopt family planning, educating
parents about child growth and Development assist in the implementation and execution of

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Kishori Sakti Yojna (KSY), identify disabilities in children, to educate teenage girls and
parents by arranging social awareness programme.

Balwadi : generally pre-school located in rural areas are called Balwadis. A Balwadi means
a “Garden of Children”. In other words a Balwadi is a place where in a safe, secure and
congenial environment rich with varied toys and equipment, children of the age group 2½-
6 years receive education and training. Usually a woman called a “Balsevika” or a
“Balsevak” or a “Pre-school teacher” looks after the growth and development of children.

 To enable the child to learn and practice the basic principles of healthful living
 To promote the physical growth, motor development coordination of large and finer
muscles of the child.
 To promote the intellectual, language and aesthetic development of the child.

Vivekananda Kendra

“Balwadi” is very important part of education system in Vivekananda Kendra which is pre-
school concept and specially designed for children of rural areas. It is based on play-way
method. Children are provided very meaningful game through that they can easily learn
basic concept of math, science and language. Also carrying out some cultural activities
which join child to their roots. Also provide mid-day food which simple but nutritious.

5.2.2. Crèches/ Daycare centers for children

A crèche, day care or nursery is a child care centre where babies and young children are
cared for in safe and stimulating surroundings.

Crèches mostly cater to the children of parents with full time or part time jobs. With
the increase in the number of nuclear families and working parents, crèches and daycare
centers is being used by many parents.

Objectives of the scheme.

 Providing day care services to children (0-5 years) of parents whose monthly
income does not exceed Rs.1800 per month and are mainly casual, migrant
agricultural and construction workers.
 Providing above mentioned services to children whose mothers are in capacitated
on account of sickness/communicable diseases.
 The services provided under the scheme are:
(a) Sleeping and day care facilities.
(b) Supplementary nutrition, immunization, medicines and recreation.

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5.2.3. Different types of crèches and day care centers:

 Private day care chains. These are run by the some management in more than one
location or operate as franchises. Standard rules and regulations are followed
uniformly all across the centers. Teachers or supervisors take care of the babies
with the help of assistants, nannies or ayahs (maids).
 Private or stand-alone nurseries: These are run either by an individual or groups
of individuals. They do not have any branches or other centers. Teachers or
supervisors take care of the babies with the help of ayahs or nannies.
 Home based crèches: The care taker runs a crèche at her own home, usually it’s
only one or two people handles the babies home based crèche usually have a limited
amount of seats.
 Day care centers attached to Independent schools: These may be a combined
play school or regular school with older children. They generally have qualified
professionals to take care of the babies along with ayahs.
 Work place crèches: some companies offer the options of workplace crèches. This
option helps working mums to provide care for the baby in the same premises while
they are at work. These are quite uncommon in India but some organizations are
now offering this set ups.

Self Evaluation

Q1.What is Pre-school Centre?

Q2. What are the differences between day-care and pre-school centre?

Q3. How to organize one Pre-school Centre?

Q4. As a teacher how you can plan for a pre-school centre?

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5.3. Building and Equipments: Physical structure and facilities:

Play school is generally meant for the children with play and activity based programme.
Adequate space would imply not only sufficient space for free movement but also
appropriate in terms of safety, sanitation, light and ventilation.

Location of the Building:

 It should be located at a site which is easily accessible to the children.

 If children have to walk it should be within ½ to 1 km radius of the locality to
which it is category.
 Safe from hazards like heavy traffic, ponds, ditches, nallahs and pollution etc.
 There should be direct approach road.
 For the parents to bring their children.
 For the school transport.
 For the delivery of supplies etc.
 Close to/ adjacent to a primary school.
 Preschool may be away from distracting noises of traffic.
 Pre-school may be located in ground areas.

Play Areas

Play space-outdoors

A. Essential

i. A minimum of 15X 20/30 sq mts of play space be provided for a group of 30

children.
ii. Place should ensure safety of children i.e. prevent children from running out and
getting hurt from grievous injury.
iii. The play area may include both paved and cemented as well as Kachcha/ Grass
covered ground surfaces.
iv. Slopes and steps leading to small sections that are at a slightly higher level then the
rest of the play area may be provided for specific activities like climbing, sliding etc.
v. Provision for a variety of activities like running, jumping, climbing cycling, sand
water play gardening etc. may be made
vi. A lot of flowers and shrubs may be placed along the boundaries to make the place
look colorful and attractive
vii. A tree to hang swings may be useful.

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Play space Indoor

1. A minimum indoor space (room size) 5X7=35 sq mts for a group of 30 children must
be provided.
2. Every pre-school in addition to class rooms should have a storage space, a toilet a
verandah and cooking facility separately.
3. Room should be well ventilated and have adequate light.
4. Walls should be clean and well plastered. They should have ample space for display
of children’s work and their pictorial material at children’s eye level which may be
approximately 3 to 4 it above the ground.
5. There may be separate science corner, doll corner, books corner, a plant corners.
Which nurtured by the children.
6. Bulletin boards may be provided
7. Windows may be at a low level so that the children can look out.

Facility for Drinking Water:

1. Facility for pure drinking water

2. Provision should be made for washing the glasses/ tumblers after use.

Sanitary facility

 A clean Indian type toilet should be provided with water facilities.

 Soap and towel/clean cloth should be provided.
 Garbage bin should be provided.
 Bathroom fixtures and sinks may be provided at low level so that children can reach
them easily.
 Exhaust fan may be installed in the bathroom.

Sleeping facility

 Some period of rest during the day’s programme may be provided.

 A clean mat or folding cots, mattresses with sheets and pillows may be provided.

Storage spaces

 Storage space should be provided for storing material like paper crayons, teaching
aids etc
 Each child may be provided a locker or a small shelf for personal use, with easy
reach of the child.
 Separate store rooms may be provided for storage of materials and food stuffs.

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5.3.1. Material and Equipment:

Nursery school has adequate equipment to stimulate interest of the children. Suitably
designed and properly placed equipment provides not only enjoyment to children but also
effective and inspirational learning experiences.

Play equipment should stimulate young child’s physical, social, mental and aesthetic
development.

MATERIAL AND EQUIPEMENT

Need for Material

A nursery school should have adequate equipment to stimulate interest of the children.
Right type of equipment goes a long way in making learning a joyful experience. Suitably
designed and properly placed equipment provides not only enjoyment to children but also
effective and inspirational learning experiences. It should invite children spontaneously.

Play equipment that is right for children meets their interests, abilities and needs. It is
wrong to assume that only expensive materials are useful. This is far from truth.
Homemade or school made materials may meet the child’s needs even better than those
bought at great cost.

Eight Types of Equipments

1. Physical Development. Climbing boards, swings, slides, push and pull toys, jungle-
gyms, seesaws, boxes for climbing, wading pools, slates, tricycles and bicycles.
2. Large muscle coordination. Roller skates, tricycles, bicycles, jump ropes, doll
carriages, jungle-gyms, ice-skates, garden, tools, sandbox toys and boxes for
climbing.
3. Small muscle coordination. Scissors, crayons, paints, clay, pencils, small blocks,
pegboards, weaving sets, jacks and balls.
4. Intellectual Development. Records, Picture books, storybooks. TV and radio shows,
puzzles, games, comics and ‘how to’ toys.
5. Creativity. Cost-off clothes and household equipment, dolls, stuffed animals, simple
musical instruments (triangles, bells and toy trains, aeroplanes, trucks and
puppets).
6. Speech Development. Pictures in comics and magazines, story books, radio and T.V.
shows.
7. Social development, anything that can be shared or used in play with other children,
such as, sandboxes, wading pools, make-believe play equipment, balls, swings,
seesaws, jungle-gyms and jump ropes.

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8. Aesthetic Development. Doll house, puppets, consumes of different states, raw clay,
paints, brushes, colored pencils, drawing sheets, plasticize, scissors, baskets, glasses,
dusters etc.

Careful Handling of the Equipment:

1. A teacher has to remain always vigilant so that no accident or unpleasant event

takes place due to careless handling of the equipment.
2. The equipment and the material should be properly maintained.
3. Children should be helped to keep their hands, clothes and surroundings clean.
4. Rubbish of waste cutting should be collected and thrown into the dustbin by the
children themselves so as to keep the activity room or class-room clean.
5. All equipment and material should be handled carefully so that they last longer.
6. Records regarding equipment and materials should be keep up-to date.

5.3.2 Equipment for the Nursery School Recommended by NCERT

‘A Guide for Nursery School Teacher’s published by NCERT in 1978 has listed the
followings’:

Here is a list of equipment required for a nursery school with forty children. There are
some types of equipment which are absolutely necessary for the all round development of
the child. These are listed as essential equipment. There are several other types of
equipment which it is desirable to have if adequate funds are available. These are
mentioned here as desirable.

Out-door Play Equipment (for development of large muscles)

Essential

Name of the Item Quantity

1. Jungle-gym 1
2. Swings 2
3. Tricycles 3
4. Rocking boats 2
5. Two wheeled baby cycle with 1
support 2
6. Scooters 2
7. Rubber balls(large) 2
8. Rubber balls (medium) 6
9. Watering cans

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Desirable

Name of the Item Quantity

1. Pedaling car 1
2. Old tyres hung on a frame 2
3. Large pipe about 8 ft. long cemented -
in the ground for creeping through it.
4. Nesting frames with planks 2
5. Triangular set with planks 1
6. Wading pool or a big tub 1
7. Floating toys- rubber ducks, boats -
8. Pull and push carts 2
For Urban Schools

Essential: A sand pit or a big sand tray where 8 to 10 children can play together. Tumblers,
small buckets for sand play. Different moulds to make pancake, biscuits, etc.100.00

Indoor Play Equipment

Essential: Doll’s corner, 4 or 5 dolls-Rs.20.00. Household articles such as cocking materials,

tea-set, doctor’s set-Rs.15.00. A box full of costumes made out of old dresses, handbags,
shoes, caps. Etc (these may be collected from parents).

Desirable: Doll’s Furniture

1. Bed
2. Chairs
3. Table
The furniture should be such that the children can also use them in their household play.
They should not be too small.

Doll’s corner should be partitioned with a small screen to give.

Building Block corner

Essential
A shelf which building blocks of different sizes and shapes to construct different structures
as given below:
8 Rectangular Planks L20 cm B 10 cm Thickness 2.5 cm
8 small bricks L 15 cm B 7.5 cm,,2.5 cm Thickness 2.5 cm
8 Big bricks L 20 cm B 10 cm,, 5 cm Thickness 5 cm
8 Arches, L 20 cm H 12.5 cm
8 semi circle Radius 10 cm
2 Cylinders Height 15 cm diameter 5 cm
8 Triangles Base 20 cm Height 10 gm

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L W H
21 rectangular Blocks 14 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
8 double rectangular blocks 28 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
Four fold rectangular blocks 56 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
Square blocks 7 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
2 Small pillars 14 cm 3.5 cm 3.5 cm
2 Double pillars 28 cm 3.5 cm 3.5 cm
2 Big cylinders 14 m (diameter) 7 cm
2 small cylinders 14 cm (diameter) 3.5 cm
2 Half roman arches 14 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
8 quarter arcs of a circle 20 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
2 Bridges 14 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
2 Ramps 14 cm 3.5 cm
8 Quarter circles 20 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
2 Elliptical curves 35 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
1 Branch Line 21 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm
1 Crossing 21 cm 7 cm 3.5 cm

The measurement of the box is: length 61 cm, width- 38 cm; height- 26 cm. The children
like to construct roads and play with a variety of small vehicles. The set of building
materials helps the children to have an understanding of some of the traffic rules.

5.3.3.Construction Materials

i. Different types of plastic material which can be fitted together, like multi rooms,
house building sets, etc. there are plenty of these types of material in the market
these dates-costing about Rs.20.00.
ii. Wooden construction toy like Magic Man, Pink Tower, Etc. costing about Rs.5 each.
iii. Picture puzzle trays.

Pictures of animals, buses etc., should be of interest to the children. There should be at least
two trays of puzzles with two or three pieces which can be fitted by very young children.
There may be a few puzzles with four of five pieces for the older group. These materials are
not readily available in the market.

Treading the Beads:

 1 Kilo of small beads of three basic colours: red, blue, yellow

 500 big wooden beads, plastic tread
 6 plastic medium-sized bowls

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Painting, Drawing and clay Plasticize work

 Brush painting for 4 double sided easels where 8 children can work together.
 20 big brushes, No.12
 Different powder colors- 3 basic color, 750 gms each and ten bowls for finger
painting.
 Crayons- 12 boxes of crayons and big sheets of paper
 Clay-Keep a basin full of wet clay ready

Carpentry Tools

Essential

 6 hammers
 Nails
 Pieces of soft wood
 Wooden planks (dismantle a few packing cases and use these planks)

Desirable

 4 small saws
 1 small vise

Play with paper

 (Paper-tearing, pasting, folding and cutting, puppet-making etc.)20. Pairs of scissors

(small and blunt headed)
 Glazed paper
 Tissue paper
 Old Magazines
 Old News Papers
 Gum, Thread
 6 Small stamping machines
 6 or 8 flutes
 4 mouth organs
 6 or 8 pairs or ghungroos (bell)
 4 small drums
 4 pair of manjiras
 1 big drum for teacher’s use
 10 or 12 pairs of big nails

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Desirable

 2 triangles
 1 pair of tabla
 1 dholak
 1 record player
 4 few good records of dance music

Science Equipment

Essential

 2 powerful magnifying glass

 2 brass of powerful magnets

Desirable

 1 balance with different weights- 1 Kg, 500 Gm, 200 gm, f0 gm.
 1 set of measuring cans for measurement of liquids- 1 liter, 500ml, 230 ml, and
100ml.
 1 microscope. 1 binocular, 1 prism, 1 compass

Articles for Cleaning Activities

 6 small brooms
 6 dusting cloths
 6 small buckets
 Tin of vim
 Packet of soap powder

Other Articles Required in School

Essential

 6 small plastic bowls for different handwork activities

 40 plastic plates- for snacks
 40 tumblers-each child should have a separate tumbler, towels- if there are
adequate funds, each child should be given a separate towel
 22 Aprons- can be made out of old shirts.
 Display Boards
 1 First-Aid Box

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Safety Precautions

Basic concern for children necessitates ensuring safety for children:

a) Play space should ensure safety of children i.e. prevent children from running out
and getting hurt from grievous injury.
b) The doors should be light in weight and should not be self locking or swinging type.
c) There should be screens/guard in all the windows.
d) Materials that can harm the children like tools, matches etc. should be stored in
areas inaccessible to children.
e) No toxic colour/paint should be used for play equipment.
f) The equipment should be placed so as to avoid danger of accident or collision and to
permit freedom to movement.
g) The equipment should not have any sharp /jagged corners, jutting hails etc. and
should be of sound construction.
h) Maintenance of outdoor equipment should be regularly attended to, in order to
protect children from injury.
i) Play material should not have any loose parts which children may swallow by
mistake.
j) Any arrangement made by the pre-school for transporting children should be safe,
comfortable and convenient.

Self Evaluation

1. What type of building is needed for a pre-primary school? Explain is main features.
2. Explain the types of material and equipment needed for a pre-primary school.

Writes Notes on:

1. What consideration would you keep in mind while providing a building for a
nursery school?
2. Mention the outdoor equipment needed for nursery school children.
3. Describe the safety measures that you would take in a pre-primary school.

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5.4. Records and Reports:

Objectives

 To enable the students understand the need for maintaining records of various
aspects of child development.
 To acquaint the students with the various types of records and registers
 To enable the students prepare cumulative record card.
 To acquaint the students with the techniques of evaluation.

Need for Records

For efficient management of ECE programmes there is a great need for maintaining
adequate and up to records and registers. These would help in promotion as well as
evaluation of the various aspects of child development. However, two factors may be kept
in view while preparing the records and reports. One, the format of records and reports
should be single. Two, data should be collected from reliable sources and techniques.

Types of Records and Reports

i. Admission records
ii. Personal data sheet of the child
iii. Detailed background information
iv. Records of progress of children in the various development aspects.
v. Children’s work
vi. Teacher’s observations
vii. Teacher’s diary

Registers

1. Attendance Register of
(a) Staff
(b) Children
(c) Stock Register
(d) Staff Register

An Outline of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation ECCE

Area Techniques/Tools of Periodicity

Evaluation
A. Social Personal
Qualities
 Cleanliness  Observation  Day-to-day
 Cooperation  Questionnaire observation by the
 Emotional  Interview teacher
stability  Anecdotal record  Other techniques as

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 Honesty  Rating scale and when needed

 Punctuality  sociometry
 Regularity
 Truthfulness
B. Interests
 Dance  Observation  Day-to-day
 Literacy  Rating Scale observation by the
 Music teacher
 Painting  Organisation of
 Scientific activities and
 Sports/Games observation

c Physical Growth
1. Medical Check-up At least twice a year
2. Using norms by doctors
D. Co-curricular
Activities
 Creative Observation As per school programme
writing
 Computer
 Dance
 Debate
 Quiz
 Scouting

Note: In ECCE, more stress should be laid in the areas of co-scholastic development of the
learners, several pre-primary schools tend to ignore this aspect and they lay more
emphasis on scholastic areas.

5.4.1. A Brief Description of important Techniques and Tools Based in Evaluation in

ECCE Programme.
Anecdotal Record

An anecdotal Record is the observed behavior of a child. It has been defined by Randall as
“a record of some significant item of conduct, a record of an episode in the life of the
student; a word picture of the student in action, something which may be significant about
his personality”.

An anecdotal record is a running description of actual example of behavior of the learner as

observed by the teacher.

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A Specimen of an Anecdotal Record

Name of the school

Name of the learner observed Class_________________

Observer

Date and Place

Objective Description

Comments of the Observer

Place: Play-field

Objective description : I have often found Shyam in the play-field sitting idle.

Place: Library Corner

Objective Description: I have been finding Shyam day after day in the library reading
magazines, yet he never has time to correct error or to work carefully on English
assignments.

Precautions in the Use of Anecdotal Record: we cannot set any limit on the number of
anecdotes to be recorded. It depends upon the time at the disposal of the teachers. The
flowing points should be considered in condition with these records:

1. Anecdotal records supplement other records and should not be considered as

substitutes.
2. The objective description of the behavior should not be mixed up with the
subjective comments.
3. Any significant behavior, be it in the classroom, in the school or outside the school,
should be recorded.
4. Behavior, whether it is favorable, unfavorable or neither favourable nor
unfavorable to the learner, should be recorded .
5. The facts presented in all the anecdotes must be sifted and arranged so that they
may be studied in relation to one another.
6. The record should be regarded as confidential. It should not fall into irresponsible
hands.

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Values and Uses of Anecdotal Records:

1. They provide specific and exact descriptions of personality and minimize

generalizations.
2. They are very helpful in understanding the learner’s behavior in diverse situations.
3. They provide a continuous record.
4. They provide data for the learner to use in self-appraisal.
5. A summary of these records is valuable for forwarding with a learner when he is
transferred from one school to another.
6. The new members of the staff may use these records and acquaint themselves with
the learner’s assets and limitations.
7. These records aid in clinical services.
8. They stimulate teachers to use the records

Interview: an interview is face to face conversation between the learner and the
teacher. This tool enables the teacher to secure some evidence concerning the growth
of interests and change in attitudes, etc. of the learner.

Observation: Taken up separately.

Questionnaire: It consists of a set of written questions to be responded by the learners.

The focus is on obtaining information about the attitude and interests of the learners.
At the ECCE stage, the learner may be asked to write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for each
question/statement.

Rating Scale: By rating is meant the judgment of the teacher about the learner. In rating,
the expression of opinion relating to the trait of a child is systematized.

At the ECCE stage, a learner is usually rated on a 5 point scale: very

Good/Excellent/Average/Good /Needs improvement

It is usually denoted by putting ‘stars’.

Learner Products. The actual products made by the learners provide useful evidence of
their attitudes, interests and skills.

Psychological Tests: Several types of psychological tests are used to measure learner’s
aptitudes and interests, etc.

Sociometry is a method of discovering, describing and evaluating the social status. i.e.
acceptance or rejection of the learner in the group.

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Check list: a check list in evaluation consists of a series of sequential statements used
for recording whether a characteristic is present or absent in the learner. It is used by
the teacher usually in recording observational results.

Observational as a tool of Evaluation:

Introduction: Observation is one of the oldest tools that man has made use of in his
daily life to meet several situations. Even now it is our common experience to notice
that farmers feel the breeze, watch the sky, moon and stars all to determine what the
weather is like to be and what season is approaching so that they undertake
agricultural operation like sowing, etc. accordingly.

The physicians and the psychologists depend heavily on what they observe.
Rousseau’s advice to the educator is “Watch nature long and observe your pupil
carefully before you say a word to him”.

Meaning of Observation:

Following definitions of observation help to understand the meaning of observation. In

the words of good, “observation deals with the overt behavior of persons in
appropriate situations”.

Goode and Hate State. “Observation includes the most casual uncontrolled experiences
as well as most exact film records of laboratory experimentation ”.

“observation has been defined as “measurement without instruments”. In education,

observation is the most commonly employed of all measurement techniques. In the
present as well as in the past, students have been labeled as good, fair or poor in
achievement and lazy or diligent in study, etc. on the basis of observation. Similarly,
teachers have listened to speeches and ranked students 1,2,3 and so on.

Notes: ‘What’, ‘Why’, ‘Whom’, ‘How’ and ‘When’ of observation.

1. What to Observe? Specific activities or units of behavior to observed must be clearly

defined.
2. Why to Observe? The aim of observation should be very clear.
3. Whom to Observe? An appropriate group of learners should be selected in case it is
a research work not related to classroom. In the case of normal teaching, the teacher
observes the learners to have the necessary knowledge about them.
4. Who is to Observe? The teacher of the counsellor must prepare himself for the
observation to be conducted effectively. He must free himself from any bias.
5. How to Observe? Instruments and forms of observations should be prepared
carefully and kept handy.

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6. When to Observe? Specific conditions under which observations are to be made

should be determined scientifically.
5.4.2. Requisite of Good Observation:

The subjective element is very prominent in observation. To eliminate the

subjective element, reliance should be placed or a large number of individual
observations or on the observations made by a large number of observers.

Behavior is a reflection of personality: it must be observed very carefully, intelligently and

scientifically as observation of behavior has been recognized as basic to other techniques.

Characteristics of Good Observation

As a tool good observation is based on:

I. Proper planning III. Proper recording

II. Proper execution IV. Proper interpretation
A. Proper Planning of Observation:
1. Specific activities or units of behavior to be observed must be clearly defined.
2. An appropriate group of subjects should be selected for observation.
3. Scope of observation- whether individual or group-should be decided.
4. The length of each observation period, number of periods and interval between
periods should be decided.
5. The form of recordings should be determined.
6. The instruments to be used should be selected carefully.
7. Physical position of the observer should be demarcated.
8. Proper tools for recording observation should be kept handy.
9. Various terms may be studied carefully.

B. Proper Execution of Observation

An expert execution demands skill and resourcefulness on the part of the investigator.
This depends upon:

i. Proper arrangement of special conditions for the subjects.

ii. Assuring proper physical position for observing.
iii. Focusing attention on the units of behavior on the specific activities under
observation.
iv. Observing discreetly the length and number of periods and intervals decide
upon.

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v. Proper handling of the recording instrument being used.

vi. Utilizing well the training received in terms of expertness.

Devices used in Observation:

i. Check lists
ii. Rating scale
iii. Score cards
iv. Blank form of tally frequencies.
C. Recording of Observation

Generally two methods are employed for recording observation. Which of the two
methods to use depends upon the nature of the activities or behavior of the group to be
observed. The skill of the observer also plays an important role in deciding upon the
method.

The first method is to record the observation simultaneously. It is useful in the sense
that a time-gap may distort facts. However, at times, this may not be feasible when the
action or activity performed is very swift. Moreover, this is likely to distract the
subjects.

Facts may be recorded soon after the observation is over. This is helpful as this does
not distract the mind of the subjects. However the investigator may not be able to recall
facts accurately after the interval of a few minutes.

D. Proper Interpretation :
Records of observation should be interpreted cautiously and judiciously after taking
into consideration various limitations of planning and processes, etc. involved in
observation.

Planning Good, Reliable and Effective Observation:

1. Sampling to be observed should be adequate.

2. Traits to be observed should be defined as accurately as possible.
3. Methods of recording should be simplified.
4. Too many variables may not be observed at a time.
5. Length of observation should be adequate.
6. Length of each observation period, interval between periods and number of periods
should be clearly stated.
7. Conditions of observation should remain constant.
8. Observer should be fully equipped.
9. Interpretations should be carefully made.

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Qualities of a Good Observer

1. Alertness
2. Ability to discriminate
3. Freedom from preconceived notions.
4. Emotional Balances.
5. Good eyesight.
6. Right Perception
7. Good speed of recording.
8. Ability to sift fact from fiction.

Types of Observation

A. Participant Observation
1. The observer becomes more or less a member of the group which is under
observation.
2. The observer plays a dual role, i.e. observer as well as participant.
3. He many assume the role of an attentive listener or a fully fledged participant.
4. It is a flexible type of observation.
5. It gives more reliable results.
6. It is economical and helps in findings out delicate hidden and minute facts.
B. Non Participant Observation
1. The observer takes a position so that his presence does not disturb the movements/
activities of the group.
2. It is very helpful in recordings and studying the behavior of the members of the
group in detail.
3. Non-participant observation is used in the case of abnormal individuals, infants and
children.

Merits or Director or Non-Participant Observation

1. Being a record of the actual behavior of the child. It is more reliable and objective.
2. It is a study of an individual in a natural situation and is therefore more useful than
the restricted study in a test situation.
3. This method can be used with children of all ages; of course, the younger the child,
the easier it is to observe him. This method has been found very useful with shy
children.
4. It can be used with a little training and almost all teachers can use it. It does not
require any special tool or equipment.
5. It can be used in every situation.
6. It is adaptable both to individuals and groups.

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Limitations and demerits

1. Records may not be written with hundred percent accuracy as the observation is
recorded after the actions of the observed. There is some time-lag.
2. The observer may get only a small sample of student behavior. It is very difficult to
observe everything that a student does or says. As far as possible, observations
should be collected from several teachers.
3. It reveals the overt behavior only-behaviour that is expressed and not that is within.

5.4.4.Cumulative Record Card

Meaning of a Cumulative Record Card

A Cumulative record is that card or folder which contains the results of different
assessments held from time to time during the course of study of a learner.

Normally a cumulative record card contains information about the growth and
development of a learner over a period of 3 to 4 years. It provides a comprehensive picture
of the many-sided development of the learners. On basis of this record, a progress report of
the learner may be prepared.

Information Contained in the Cumulative Record Card

(1) Identifying data about the learner---name, etc.

(2) Home background of the learner.
(3) Developmental history-
age of wearing from breast and bottle, age of sitting, standing, etc.
(4) Health of the learner.
(5) Attendance record of the learner.
(6) Physical development of the learner.
(7) Motor development of the learner.
(8) Emotional development of the learner.
(9) Language development of the learner.
(10) Intellectual development of the learner.
(11) Creative expression of the learner.
(for details see indicators of Development of the learners).

Tools of Gathering Information for the Cumulative Record Card

(1). Achievement tests (written , oral, practical) Essay Type. Short Answer. Objective Type.
(2) Anecdotal records. (3) Aptitude tests. (4) Attitudes tests. (5) Personality tests.
(6) Intelligence tests. (7) Interview (8) Observation. (9) Checklist (10) Questionnaire
(11) Autobiographical (12). Projective tests (Doll Play. Sentence completion test. Thematic
Apperception test.) (13) Rating scales. (14). Sociometric tests.

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Report Card

Meaning of a Report Card

A report card is that card which is sent to the parents for acquainting them with the
development and growth of their children.

Specimen of the Report Card

Name of the Child ……………………………………………..Admission No……………………………………

Class…………………………………………………………………..Section……………………………………………..

Session………………………………………………………………Terms………………………………………………..

Attendance………………………………………………………

Term 1 Term 2 Term 3

A. Personality
1. Neatness and Tidiness
2. Self-confidence
3. Concentration Span
4. Response to Directions
B. Socio-Emotional Development
1. Interaction with peers
2. Interaction with teachers
3. Conduct
4. Participation in class activities.
5. Participation in outdoor activities.
C. Motor and Sensory Development
1. Motor Skills
2. Sensory development
3. Postures
4. Cleanliness
D. Cognitive Language Development
1. English
2. Hindi
3. Numbers
4. Environment

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E. Creative Activities
1. Art and craft
2. Music and dance
3. Computers
4. Games
5. Creativity

Grading: Stars may be given to denote the quality of work/ interest of the learners in
different areas. Sometimes the numbers of stars and sometimes the colours of the stars
denote performance.

General Remarks

1. Signature of the class teacher.

2. Signature of the Head.

Basic Indicators for Evaluation

Personality

1. Is the child self-confident?

2. Does the child have concentration span?
3. Is he observant?
4. Is he self-reliant?

Socio-Emotional Development

1. Does the child make friends easily?

2. Does the child enjoy interacting with the teacher?
3. Does the child converse freely?
4. Is the child helpful?
5. Does the child like to share?
6. Does the child enjoy the activities done in the class?
7. Does the child enjoy outdoor activities?

Cognitive Development

1. Are his thoughts sequential?

2. Is he aware of the world around him?
3. Does he recognize different colours?
4. Does he recognize different shapes?

Alphabet

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1. Does the child recognize all the alphabets?

2. Does the child match alphabets to pictures?

Numbers

1. Can the child recognize numbers?

2. Can the child associate numbers to object?
3. Can he count backwards?
4. Can he fill missing numbers?

Language development

1. How does the child express?

2. How does he recite and sing?
3. Does he understand what the teacher says?
4. How well does he listen?
5. Can the child relate the letter to its phonetic sound?
6. How are his writing skills?

Creative Activities

1. Is he good at drawing?
2. Is he good at painting?
3. Does he enjoy puzzles?
4. Does he enjoy indoor games?
5. Is he good at project work?
6. How melodious is he?
7. Does he enjoy outdoor games?
8. How rhythmic is his dancing?
9. Is he aware of his environment?
10. Does he like experiments?

(Graded indicators are used for different stages. Now the trend is to indicate performance
by the number of ‘Stars’)

Self Evaluation

1. What is the need for school records? Mention two types of school records.
2. Prepare an outline of continuous and comprehensive evaluation of ECCE.
3. What is the meaning of an anecdotal record? Prepare a specimen of this card.
4. Discuss observation as a tool of evaluation.
5. What is the meaning of a cumulative record card? What are its main contents? State
the significance of cumulative record card?

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Writes Notes on:

1. What should a cumulative record card be maintained for each child?

2. What are the basic indicators of Evaluation?

5.5. Administrative: Staff and Programmes

Objectives:

 To acquaint the students with the role of Government of India In the field of
early childhood education and care
 To acquaint the students with the role of various autonomous organizations in
the field of early childhood education and care
 To enable the students organize a pre-primary institution.

Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India

The department of Women and Child Development which was made a part of the Ministry
of Welfare in September 1985, was again placed under the Ministry of Human Resource
Development (HRD) in July 1991.

The Ministry has the following two organizations under it:

1. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), New

Delhi.
2. Central Social Welfare Board.

The above mentioned organization is fully funded by the Government and these assist the
Government in implementing many schemes.

Important Activities of the Ministry

Important activities are as under:

(1)Family welfare (2) women and child welfare and coordination of other ministries and
organizations. (3) Cooperation with United Nations Organisation regarding traffic in
women and children. (4) Care of pre-school children. (5) Nutrition feeding of pre-school
children (6) Nutrition education of women. (7) Promotion of voluntary effort in the field of
women and child welfare.(8) Co-ordination of Cooperative Americans Relief Everywhere
(CARE) (9). Planning , research, evaluation etc. (10) Liaison with United nations Children’s
Fund (UNICEF). (11) Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB). (12) national Institute of Public
Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)
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The Central Social Welfare Board New Delhi-110008

The Government of India established the Central Social Welfare Board in 1953 with the
main objective of assisting voluntary agencies in organizing programmes for women and
children. At present the Board assists about 12000 voluntary agencies all over the country.

Important programmes are as under:

1. Integrated Family and Child Welfare project. An important programme supported

by the Board is the integrated Family and Child Welfare Project. The main emphasis
in this programme is on intending the development of the child with that of the
family by providing training to young mothers in home craft and mother craft.
2. Family welfare. The Board has been giving special emphasis on population control.
It has supported numerous family welfare motivational camps.
3. Nutrition Programme. The Board also provides huge grants for implementing the
nutrition programme through the Balwadis and Day-Care Centres for the age of
group of 3-5 years.
4. Hostels for working Girls. The Board gives assistance to voluntary organizations for
running hostels for working women.
5. Holiday Camps for Children. Under this programme grants are sanctioned to
voluntary organizations for organizing camps for children of the age group 10-15
years (9 to 16 years in case of tribal children), belonging to parents whose income is
Rs. 3000/- per annum.
6. Balwadis in Demonstration Projects. The programme was sponsored by the
Government of India in 1964 in selected community Development Blocks. The
responsibility of organizing the Balwadis in these projects has been entrusted to the
Central Social Welfare Board. The Balwadis provide recreational facilities, nutrition
and health education.
7. Integrated Pre-School Project (Urban Neighborhood). The programme was started
in 1961-62. This programme includes organisation of Balwadis, crèches, infant
health centres, ante-natal and post-natal services, nutrition and recreational
activities.
8. Welfare of the Handicapped. Welfare of the handicapped has also been one of the
objectives. Board since its inception. It provides assistance to voluntary
organizations working for the blind, deaf and dump, orthopedically handicapped
and mentally retarded.

National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD)

The National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development is an autonomous

organization under the administrative charge of the Department of Women and Child
Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. It functions
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in its own building at 5, Siri Institutional Area, Hauz Khas, New Delhi. The institute has
three Regional Centres at Bangalore, Guwahati and Lucknow.

Functions. The main functions of the institute are:

i. Research and evaluation studies in public cooperation and child development.

ii. Training of government and voluntary sector personnel engaged in social
development, child development and allied activities.
iii. Dissemination of information pertaining to child development and public
cooperation through documentation and publications.
iv. Technical advice, consultancy to Central and State Governments and other agencies
in promotion and implementation of policies and programmes for child
development and voluntary action.
v. Liaison with international and regional agencies, research institutions, universities
and technical bodies engaged in activities similar to those of the institutes.

Administrative Organisation and Structure: The institute has two main constitutional
bodies, namely, the General Body and the Executive Council. The General Body is
responsible for formulating.

The members of the Board include representatives of voluntary agencies, Members

of Parliament and distinguished social workers. All states are represented on the Board.

There are State Welfare Advisory Boards in almost all states and Union Territories

5.5.1. Role of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

Early Childhood and Care

The National Council of Educational Research and Training, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New
Delhi-16 is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Government of India. It was established on September 1, 1961.

Functions, NCERT functions as an academic advisor to the Ministry. The Union Minister of
Human Resource Development is its President and Education Ministers of all the states and
Union Territories are among its members.

The NCERT formulates the policies and programmes in school education. The NCERT is
fully financed by the Government. It undertakes the following programmes and actions.

1. It conducts aids, promotes and coordinates research in all brandies of school

education.
2. It organizes pre-service and in-service training mainly at an advanced level.

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3. It develops, improves educational techniques, practices and innovations.

4. It collects, compiles and disseminates educational information.
5. It collaborates with international organizations like UNESCO, UNICEF etc.
6. It assists the state level educational institutes and organizations.

NCERT in the Field of Pre-School Education:

The NCERT undertakes a variety of programmes in the area of pre-school education.

Following are the important programmes in this area:

1. Children’s Media Laboratory (CML). This Laboratory has been set up with the
UNICEF assistance. It undertakes the following:
(a) It discovers and develops inexpensive and effective aids of educational value for
children in the age-group 3-8.
(b) It gives assistance to state Governments, Departments of Education to set up
Early Childhood Education Units.
(c) It develops learning and play materials for pre-school children.
(d) It conducts National and State level toy making competitions.
(e) It has developed many picture books, graphic materials, song books, audio and
slide tape programmes on a variety of themes.
2. Training Courses for pre-school Teacher. Many training courses are organized from
time to time for pre-school teachers. A great deal of stress is laid on creative drama,
puppet play, and creative art. The course also aims at acquainting the participants
with the trends in child development and their application to early childhood
education.
3. State Level Course for Pre-school Education Supervisors. Similar courses are
conducted for headmasters, supervisors and teacher education educators.
4. National Seminar on Child Development and Early Childhood. A national seminar on
Child Development and Early Childhood Education was organized in February 1984.
The major areas on which papers were presented were: nutrition for the pre-school
child, problems of young children, learning disabilities, etc.
5. Development Activities in Community Education and Participation. Development
and testing of educational programmes to meet the minimum educational needs of
learners in the age group 3-6, 6-14 and 15-35 have been taken up in 18 states and 2
union territories.
6. Publications. NCERT has brought out three publications on Pre-School education,
namely (i) Early Childhood Care and Education Programme, (ii) Stimulation
Activities for the Young child, and (iii) Child to Child.

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7. Training Film. A training film (still video) on the training of Anganwadi workers in
ECCE has been developed.
8. Toy Making Workshop-Cain-Competitions. In order to develop awareness amongst
teachers about the importance of toys and educational games and the play-way
method of instruction at the pre-primary and early primary stages, the NCERT has
been organizing State-level toy making workshop-cum-competitions followed by a
national-level toy making workshop-cum-competition.
9. Early Childhood Education Programme in Nursery Schools of Delhi. The NCERT had
been engaged in the implementation of the Early Childhood Education (ECE)
programme in some of the schools with nursery/pre-primary sections run by
Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The year 1988-89 was the concluding year of the
programme.
10. House-based Programme in Child Development. As a part of the effort to evolve an
alternative approach to early child hood stimulation, a home-based programme in
child development was tried out in 1989 and 1990 in tribal and urban slum areas in
Orissa. The programme involved developing the required confidence in the older
family members like the mother, father, grandmother, etc. to take up the role of an
educator to enhance the child’s learning. The study covered 65 homes of the
Bhagawatipur tribal area and 100 homes in the urban slums of Bhubaneswar in
Orissa. A home- based instructional package was developed to promote awareness
among parents about their role as potential educators and to develop the necessary
skill In them. The instructional package covered the areas of health, nutrition and
education of children.
11. Early Childhood Education (ECE) project. The NCERT has strengthened the early
childhood education units under the UNICEF, assisted project of ECE,. Operating in
10 states-Bihar, Orissa, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland,
Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
12. Evaluation Studies. NCERT has undertaken a number of studies on pre-primary
education in this context mention may be made of a study that it conducted in 1988-
89 on enrolment and retention in primary grades in relation to pre-school
experience in the states participating in the ECE project.

The Pre-School Staff

Early childhood education provides the foundation for later development. A child at this
stage particularly needs an adult teacher who has the necessary sensitivity, understanding
and skills to handle and stimulate. Young children. Therefore, the personality of the
adult/teacher/ worker is a crucial determinant of an ECE, Programme.

The teacher/worker should be pleasant, energetic and innovative with a basic interest and
concern for children. An ability to interact and communicate meaningfully by being able to

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come down to the level of children is a necessary prerequisite. Skills in creative and
performing arts are additional assets which stand the ECE teacher in good stead.

These characteristics and skills can and should be further reinforced by a well
planned and systematic trainings. This training should be periodic in nature and should
focus on developing in the teacher/worker an understanding of child development and the
skills to conduct activities to foster different aspects of development in children. If we
consider realities of most ECE Programmes in our country we find that an average ECE
group comprises 30 to 40 children. Keeping in mind the need of children for individual
attention it is, therefore, necessary to provide a helper to the teacher/worker.

The helper should not only be able to help bring children to school and assist the
teacher/worker in the day to day implementation of the programme, but also be able to
conduct some of the activities with children, as and when the need arises. Particularly in
view of this expectation it is necessary that the helper be also adequately trained. These
trainings can also be provided on the job itself.

The specifications for staff of ECC centres/ programmes are again delineated
keeping in mind the contextual realities of our country. There are wide variations in quality
of staff availability particularly between rural and urban programmes as well as between
commercial and non commercial programmes. It may be reiterated that training of
functionaries of ECE programmes is very essential particularly keeping in mind the
specialized nature of Early Childhood Education.

Organisations running ECE programmes should ensure that there are regular refresher
courses, workshops, visits to other schools, self evaluation techniques etc. for the teachers
and helpers so that they can update their knowledge and enhance their efficiency.

Staff Structure and Adult Child Ratio

Age Group Adult Child ratio

For 3 to 4 years old 1:25 with the helper

For 4 to 6 years old 1:30 Two units may share a helper

Pre-schools having multi-age group of 3 to 6 years old 1:25 with a helper

(Note: whenever there are disabled children resource teacher has to be provided)

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Desirable

(i) Teacher helper/Attendant

(ii) Chowkidar-cum-gardener
(iii) Typist-cum-accountant
(iv) Sweeper

Qualifications of the Teacher:

Essential: (i) Should have passed Class X with two years training in early childhood
Education or should have passed Class XII with one year training in Early Childhood
Education, (ii) Should not be less that 18 years of age.

(Note : In Case of non-availability of qualified persons the minimum qualifications should

be reduced to Class VIII with short term training supplemented with frequent refresher on-
the-job training ).

Desirable: (i) May be post-graduate or a graduate with specialization in child

development/ECE (ii) Qualification In skills e.g. music, art, etc. (iii) should be 21 years of
age and above.

Qualifications of the Helper:

For the helper, minimum level of education should be VIII standard. (Can be related in rural
areas on grounds of non-availability).

Age for Admission:

There is an increasing tendency today of

Various Programmes

Balwadi Nutrition Programmes

Balwadi Nutrition Programmes (BNP) has been implemented since 1970-71 through five
National-Level voluntary organisations, namely, Central Social welfare

Harijan Samaj Sevak Sangha, Helpers and supplementary feeding to children. About 5600
Balwadis are being run by these organisations. The Children in the age group of three-five
years (about 2.30 lakh) are covered under the programme. Supplementary nutrition
consists of 300 calories and 12-15 grams of proteins per child per day for 270 days in a
year.

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World Food Programme

World food programme (WFP) extends food aid for supplementary nutrition to the
children below six years, present women and nursing mothers under the ‘Project 2206’. A
total of 21.20 lakh beneficiaries (19.08 lakh pre-school children and 2.12 lakh mothers) in
the states of Assam, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are covered. The
plan of operation for WFP Expansion phase V between the Government of India and the
World Food Programme was signed on Ninth November, 1989, for two years (for the same
number of beneficiaries), beginning from First October, 1990.

Special Nutrition Programme (SNP)

This programme was launched in 1970-71 to provide supplementary nutrition to children

below six years of age and to expectant mothers living in rural slums, tribal areas and
backward rural areas. Under this programme, supplementary feeding in given for 300 days
in a year to provide about 300 calories and 10 grams of protein per child per day and about
500 calories and 20 grams of protein to a mother.

Creches and Day-Care Centres

Day nurseries were established in Sweden in 1834, in Norway 1837 and; in U.K. in 1866.
The first infant crèche for the children of working mothers was opened in Parish in 1844.
The first American crèche was established in 1854 in New York.

Denmark Czechoslovakia have developed national system for day-care services. This
system ensures a minimum standard of care for each child in the system.

This history of crèches or day-care services in India is about 50 years old. Creches were
started by the management of various industries as a welfare measure under the ‘Factory
Act of 1948.’ Later on subsequent legislations made it obligatory for the employees of
certain industries employing fifty or more women to provide for crèches. The expenditure
on crèche is a charge on the employees.

Besides industrial establishments, some voluntary organisations and a few departments of

Central Government and Local Bodies have also taken initiative in establishing day-care
centres of crèches in residential colonies. The New Delhi Social Service League aided by the
New Delhi Municipal Committee started in 1948 a crèche for the benefit of the sweeper
women working in private houses. The experiment continued for two years. After its
closure, the NDMC directly organized a crèche for Harijan children at Balmiki Colony.

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The department of personnel of the Central Government of India, made a beginning in 1968
and within three years 14 crèches were opened.

For the benefit of the women working in building industry. There are mobile crèches. ‘The
Mobile Creches’, a pioneering Voluntary agency has done commendable work for the
welfare of the young babies at the construction sites. Presently about 30 crèches of this
type exist in Delhi. An almost equal number of such crèches also exist in Bombay.

This Central Scheme of Crèches Day Care Centers for children of poor working and ailing
women started in 1975 is implemented through voluntary organizations. The Women and
Child Development provides grants to Central Social welfare Board, which in turn, assists
voluntary organization to implement the scheme. Under the scheme, day care services for
the children in the age group of zero to five years are provided. Services include health
care, supplementary nutrition, sleeping facilities, immunization and play and recreation for
children. Two crèche workers pre crèche unit are employed to look after the children.
Recently, the women and Child Development Department has started providing grants
directly to the two National-Level Organization, namely, Indian Council for Child Welfare
and Bharatiya Adimati Sevak Sangh. There is a provision for crèche workers training and
also for institutionalized supervision of crèches. This scheme was started in 1975-76 with
247 crèche units covering 6175 children. The scheme has been expanded and it now covers
12,470 units benefiting over three lakh beneficiaries.

Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood Education Programme (ECE) was launched in the Sixth plan as a distinct
strategy to reduce drop-out rate and improve the rate of retention of children in schools.
ECE is designed to improve children communication (language), cognitive (social,
emotional, intellectual and personality development) skills as a preparation for entry into
primary schools. Under the scheme, Central Assistance is given to voluntary organisations
to run ECE Centers in rural and backward areas. The programme is implemented in nine
educationally backward states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Under the National Policy on Education, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) has
been accorded high-priority. The scheme was transferred to the Department of Women and
Child Development in 1987-88. Since then, it expanded dramatically from 1.100 centres in
1986-87 to 4.300 centers by 1990-1991.

Wheat-Based Supplementary Nutrition Programme

This Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Wheat Based Supplementary Nutrition Programme

(WBN) for pre-school children and nursing and expectant mothers was introduced from

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January, 1986. The idea is to make use of surplus available wheat stock in the
supplementary feeding to improve the nutrition status of children and mothers belonging
to weaker sections. This programme is meant to expand the coverage of supplementary
nutrition feeding services by covering additional beneficiaries. Central Assistance for the
programme compromise supply of free wheat and supportive cost for other ingredients
cocking, transport, etc. Besides, the Central Government also makes available to states
Government additional wheat at issue prices for supplementary nutrition to be paid by
them. The WBN Programme is now sought to be completely aligned with ICDS. The present
coverage is 30 lakh beneficiaries, spread over 16 states and 3 Union Territories. Assistance
to the State Governments is given at the rate of 50 paisa per beneficiary per day for 300
day, in a year.

Balsevika Training Programme

Balsevika Training Programme become operational in 1961-62 to meet the requirements

for trained personal for institutes implementing welfare programmes for children.
Balsevika is a multipurpose field-level worker. She is trained to have a close understanding
of the basic needs of the child. The Balsevika Training Course is of 11 month duration,
conducted through Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) with 100 percent assistance
from the Department of women and Child Development. There are 25 Balsevika Training
Centres in the country and the annual turn-out is 50 Balsevika per Centre.

Toy Bank

‘Toy Bank’ Scheme was launched all over the country on the Universal Children Day, 14
November, 1986. Under the scheme, toys are collected in schools from children and
redistributed among Anganwadis/Balwadis/crèches/day care centres, etc.

National Awards for Child Welfare

The scheme of National Awards for Child Welfare was instituted in 1979, the international
year of the child, as a state’s recognition for voluntary action in the cause of child welfare.
Presently, five awards are given to institutions and three to individuals annually for the
best work done in the field of child welfare the award carries a cash prize of Rs.2 lakh and a
citation for the awardees institution and Rs.30,000 in cash and a citation for an individuals
awardee.

Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project (TTINPII)

This project has been undertaken as State Sector Project in Tamil Nadu with World Bank
Assistance. It covers 316 blocks. The duration of the project is 6 years.

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Right to Education 2009 and Pre-School Training.

By realizing the importance of pre-school learning and early childhood care and its role
improving participation off children in schools, section 11 of the RTE Act, 2009 makes
provision for being engaged with pre-school education. It sates: “with a view to prepare
children above the age of three years for elementary education and to provide early
childhood care and education for all children until they complete the age of six years, the
appropriate Government may make necessary arrangement for providing free pre-school
education to such children”.

Self Evaluation

1. Explain the role of the Ministry of Woman and Child Development, Government of
India in Pre-school education.
2. State the functions of Central Social Welfare Board in Preschool education and care.
3. Explain the role of NCERT in the development of pre-school child.
4. State the staff needed for a pre-school.

Writes Notes on:

1. Balwadi nutrition programme

2. World food programme
3. ISNO
4. Early Childhood Education Programme
5. Toy Bank
6. TTINP
5.6. Roles of Parents, Community and Voluntary Agencies in the Education of
Preschool Children
Objectives:

 To enable the students understand the significance of parent-teacher cooperation in

the education of pre-school child.
 To acquaint the students with the role of the family, the school, neighborhood, the
society and voluntary agencies in the education of the child.

Need for Parent-School Cooperation

Close operation between the parent who is the first teacher and the teacher who is the
second parent is the very foundation on which rests the sound education of the child.
Parents are interested in the welfare of their children. They want their pupils develop
culturally, emotionally, intellectually, morally, physically, socially and spiritually. So is I the
case with the teachers. Hence their harmonious working together can alone bring the
results we want.

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Advantages of Parent-Teacher Cooperation

Parent-Teacher cooperation is helpful to the teachers in the following ways:

1. The teachers acquire maximum understanding about the child by getting relevant
information from the parents.
2. The teachers ensure regular attendance of the child when they are in constant touch
with his parents
3. The teachers impress upon the parents, to provide proper equipment to their child.
4. The teachers stress upon the parents to have respect for the school laws.
5. The teachers motivate the parents to donate funds and gifts to the school.
6. The teachers discuss with parents various ways and means for the proper
development and growth of the child.

Parent-teachers cooperation is also helpful to the parents. Following are some of the
important advantages:

1. The parents acquaint themselves with the progress of their child when they are in
constant touch with the teachers.
2. The parents come to know about problem situations before they become serious
and take corrective and remedial measures.
3. The parents come to know about the work done in school. They may also suggest
better ways of doing things.

It is extremely desirable to have close contacts of parents and teachers especially at the
pre-school stage because the pre-school children are at the stage of habit formation.
Parental cooperation and involvement goes a long way in providing effective pre-school
education.

5.6.1. Role of the School in Parental Cooperation and Their Education

The pre-school should not only help the children but also assist in the education of their
parents. For achieving better condition between the pre-school and the home, it is
necessary that there should be frequent contacts with the parents and the pre-school
teachers.

The pre-school teacher may organize parents, association which could meet and
discuss he needs and problems of the children.

Special lectures of parents on child care and development may be arranged. Pre-
school teacher may visit the homes of children to meet parents and may discuss problems
relating to their food, health, habits and behaviors. Rome visits will also enable the teacher
to acquaint herself with the cultural and social background of the Progress reports

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touching various aspects of life in school-academic, emotional, physical and social etc.,
should be end to parents for their information and appropriate action.

Parents and School Days may be organized. Parents may be taken round the school. Parents
may be shown the actual working of the school, classes and various activities. Children’s
work like calligraphy, charts, models, craft work etc,. May be exhibited for the parents
cultural and sports functions may be organized on the parent’s day.

Light refreshment for the parents may be served if the funds permit.

Major Steps to be taken by the Family for the Development of the Child

Parents should take the following steps for promoting learning of their children:

1. Family environment should be based on love and affection.

2. The parents should develop a feeling of security in the child.
3. They should provide wholesome food, adequate clothing and other necessities of
life.
4. They should choose toys for their children with great care and thought.
5. They should provide suitable picture books.
6. They should pronounce word correctly.
7. Child’s vocabulary should be enriched. While eating, parents can talk about the
names of food articles, types of utensils etc.
8. Mother’s daily conversation with the child should be educative.
9. Parents should speak whole sentences instead of phrases.
10. Parents should encourage the child to speak.
11. Bed-time stories should be interesting and of educative value.
12. Appropriate books for reading should be selected with great care.
13. Children may be encouraged to sing and appreciate music.
14. Children should be motivated to draw pictures etc.
15. Learning games involving feelings, judging distance, arranging objects, pilling and
building should be provided to children.
16. Children should be encouraged to observe natural and scientific phenomena.
Children may be motivated to observe the movements of birds, animals, plants, trees
and insects. A lot of physics, chemistry and biology can be learnt in the play-way
approach.
17. Parents should describe everyday objects and events to their children and ask them
to repeat in their presence also.
18. Tape-recorders where available may be used.
19. Children may be asked to put similar items together and separate unfamiliar items
from the lot.

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20. Parents should cut paper, cloth etc, into different shapes like a circle, square,
triangle etc, and make the child repeat.

School and the Community

The inter-relatedness of the school and the community must be adequately understood in
our country. The school should not be treated as an institution outside the community
around it. There should be a friendly-oriented partnership between the school and the
community. No education programme will be acceptable to the community if does not
given due consideration to the culture and values of the community.

The various institutions in the community such as Panchayat, Mahila Mandals, Youth Clubs
etc, should be involved in different activities of the school.

Attempts should be made to educate parents to develop interest, skills and knowledge in
child care.

A part from cooperating in various programmes of the school, the community can offer
assistance to the school in various areas like the following:

1. Electrification of the school building.

2. White washing and minor repairs of the school building.
3. Construction of compound walls.
4. Provision of sheds for cooking meals.
5. Donations of land for various purposes
6. Painting of black-boards
7. Supply of portraits of national leaders.
8. Supply of stationery and books to the poor students.
9. Supply of uniforms to the poor students
10. Supply of utensils.
11. Supply of play materials.
12. Offering free services by individuals like doctors.

The Society and Education of the Child

Man is a social being by nature. He always seeks happiness and forms many organizations
for this purpose. Society is an organized from these associations of men Society includes
every relationship of man to man. Society is coming together of people the members of
society observe discipline. The sense of living peacefully is essential for the establishment
of society. People aim at satisfying their wants in. society with the cooperation of other
people.

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Society is a great helping factor in education. Man is an intellectual creature. He is not

satisfied only with material food. He needs intellectual food too. Mutual activities in the
society greatly contribute to the acquisition of knowledge.

The more organized, civilized and peaceful a society the more opportunity for meaningful
education.

Educational aims, methods and curricula are influenced by society. The society continually
shapes and modified the individual’s powers and personality. A democratic society
develops democratic attitudes in children. It allows scope for initiative and freedom. On the
other hand a totalitarian society puts heavy restrictions on the child. The Nazi society
crushed individual initiative and enterprise and brought misery for its citizens.

5.6.2. The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Child Development and Education

Merits

Voluntary agencies have been playing an important role in early childhood education and
welfare. As far as child education is concerned, it is by and large, taken care of voluntary
agencies. In the field of child education also, voluntary agencies play a significant role after
getting government grant from the ministry of women and child development, Government
of India and Central Social Welfare Board. The Voluntary agencies came forward to
organize child welfare programmes much before the government initiated such
programmes through its various Five-Year Plans.

Important merits of the programmes of the voluntary agencies are:

1. Supplementary effort: The government has not unable to fulfill constitutional

provisions regarding free and universal primary education. Primary on account of
lack of funds. Voluntary agencies provides funds for pre-school education.
2. Flexibility: The organisation of voluntary agencies is flexible and adaptable.

Demerits

1. Profit Motive: of late if is observed that voluntary agencies tend to undertake child
welfare work with profit motive.
2. Exportation of Staff: The voluntary agencies do not pay adequate remuneration to
the staff working in the field.
3. Fake Organisations: Quite a large number of voluntary agencies in the field of child
education and welfare exist on paper only.
4. Manipulation of Record: Some of the voluntary organizations hardly contribute
money. They manipulate government assistance.

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Some Important Non-Government Child Welfare Organisation

1. Akhil Bharatiya Dayanand Sevashram Sangh, Maharishi Dayanand Bhawan, Ramlila

Maidan, New Delhi
2. All India Boy Scouts Association 7, Jangpura, New Delhi-14
3. All India Federation of the Blind, New Delhi
4. Assam Seva Samiti, Gopinath Bazar, Guwahati, Assam.
5. Bal Niketan Sangh, 62 Pagnis Paga, Indore, Madhya Pradesh
6. Balurghat Nivedita Sevashram, Chakbahani, Balurghat, West Dinajpur, West Bengal.
7. Balwant Rat Mehta Vidya Bhawan, Lajpat Bhawan, New Delhi.
8. Harijan Sewak Sangh, Kingsway Camp, Delhi.
9. Indian Red Cross Society, Golf Link, New Delhi-3.
10. Jagadguru Sri Shivaratheshwars Mahavidhapeetha, Ramanuja Road, Mysore,
Karnataka.
11. Kasturba Gandhi Kanya Gurukulam Vedaranayam, Thanjavur Dist, Tamil Nadu.
12. Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, Kasturba Gram, Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
13. National Association of the Blind, 3 Aurangzeb Lane New Delhi-11.
14. Ram Krishna Mission Ashram, West Bengal.
15. Sati Mata Shikshan Sanstha, Nagpur-25.

SOS (Save our Soul) Children’s Villages of India, New Delhi.

The SOS Village movement began in Indian in 1963 when Prof. Gtneiner visited the then
Prime Minister Pt.Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1964 SOS. Children’s village association was
formed and in 1967, the first village Greenfields was founded near Faridabad, Kalyana, it
has registered societies in 13 states. It is concerned with long term care and rehabilitation
of orphan and destitute children. It is housed in children’s village complexes in family type
homes or single unit family homes. SOS has now constructed 21 children’s villagers. The
pilot project at Greenfields has started a family helper programme for disadvantaged
children in nearby villages. It has started Balwadis, medical service centre and education
for 250 quarry workers children. The SOS also run a foundling home, Udayan, In New Delhi.
The construction of the SOS children’s village was started in March 1967. Twenty family
cottages have been constructed at Greenfields. The 21 children’s Villages in India look after
about 6000 Indian children.

Pedagogical principles behind SOS Children’s Village

1. Children’s village mother takes the role of real mother.

2. The child grows up with ‘Brothers’ and ‘Sisters’ as real brothers and sisters.
3. An atmosphere full of warmth is created in the village.
4. Children attend community schools. They grow up under normal conditions.

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Self Evaluation

1. Explain the need for parent-teacher cooperation in the education of pre-school

child. What are its advantages? What is the role of the school in this aspect?
2. What steps should be parents or the home/family take for the development of the
child?
3. Evaluate role of voluntary agencies in child welfare and education.

Writes Notes on:

1. Ways in which community can help the school.

2. Neighborhood as an influencing factor on child’s development.
3. The society and the education of the child.

5.7. Curriculum and activities at the pre-school stage, Language Environmental

Studies, Creative Arts and Crafts
 To enable the students comprehend the meaning of curriculum at the pre-school
stage.
 To enable the students understand the significance of activities as an integral part of
the curriculum.
 To enable the students organize a variety of activities for the opinion development
of the pre-school children.
 To enable the students to organize activities for language development.
 To enable the students to organize activities for learning natural and social science.

Meaning of Curriculum

In simple words, curriculum includes all the programmes and activities which the school
undertakes for the all round development of the learners. As observed by the Secondary
Education Commission (1952-53), “It includes the totality of experience that a pupil
receives through the manifold activities that go on in the school-in the classroom, library,
laboratory, workshop, playground and in the numerous informal contacts between
teachers and pupils. In this case the whole life of the school becomes the curriculum which
can touch the life of the students at all points and help in the development of balanced
personality”.

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Curriculum at the pre-Primary Stage: Curriculum in terms of Activities

Curriculum at the pre-school stage should be in terms of activities related to the
development of the following basic skills:
1. Physical skills
2. Social skills
3. Skills to use symbols such as language and numbers
4. Constructive skills
5. Play skills
6. Moral skills
The education commission 1964-66 observed, “we can hardly talk about a curriculum of
activities. We agree with the suggestion of the committee on Child Care (1961-62)
appointed by the Central Social Welfare Board that the Programme should consist of the
following activities”
a. Play Activities:
(i) Free play, including educational and constructional toys, indoor games
and outdoor activities in association with children.
(ii) Physical activities involving muscular and limb movement.
(iii) Play involving contact and acquaintance with imitation and experience of
physical, family and social environment.
(iv) Organized play, group activities and directional play.
(v) Playground activities using playground apparatus.
b. Physical training including simple exercises, dance and rhythmic
c. Manual activities and play like gardening simple chores and participation in simple
community efforts.
d. Sensorial education, using natural objects and specially constructed apparatus.
e. Handwork and artistic activities involving the use of finger skills and tools; and
activities like drawing, painting, singing, music and dancing.
f. Learning activities, including language; personal hygiene and health rules;
elementary nature study involving contact with the physical , plant and animal
world; counting etc.
g. Self –service in school, eliminating as far as possible the use of servants and adult
helpers.

Play Activities
The impact of recent developments in Child developmental Psychology upon the nature of
the teaching-learning process has been quite revolutionary. In recent years, advances in
information technology have opened several means of teaching-learning through play-way.
As a matter of fact play activities are as old as the human race itself. In the Harappan
civilization, at Harappa and Mahonjodaro, terracotta toys have been unearthed.

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Nevertheless the recognition of play-way activities as educational media is one of recent

origin. The modern pedagogy envisages a central place for the child.
Educators like Froebel, Montessori and Pestalozzi have appreciated the role of play
activities in the al-round growth and development of the child and promoted the same
through their publications and teaching –learning practices. Other psychologists and
thinkers like Gesell and Piaget have also stresses the role of play in the growth and
development of the child. In India, Giju Bhai has played a significant role in play-way
movement.
The General Assembly of the United Nations on 20th November 1959, Proclaimed
the ‘Declaration of the Rights of the Child’ for focusing the attention of the international
community on happy childhood. The declaration states: “The child shall have full
opportunity for play and recreation which should be directed to the same purpose as
education. The society and the public authorities shall endeavor to promote the enjoyment
of this right.”
Play is of great importance in the life of every child. It is the most effective learning
situation for him. It is an intensely absorbing experience and even more important to the
child than work to the adult. It has been observed that “A child uses play also to make up
for defeats, sufferings and frustrations”. Play is important as a means of contributing to a
happy and creative childhood. The insatiable urge for play among children is an expression
of the energy and vitality and muscular action. A child who plays is a very happy child. Play,
along with the basic needs of nutrition, health, shelter and education is vital to the full
development of the child.

Principles of Selecting and Guiding Play-way Activities

The NCERT in its publication Pre-primary Institutions- Their Supervision has suggested the
following board principles for selecting and organizing activities:

1. There should be a variety of activities for the children in the age-group 3,4 and 5
even through the objectives and behavioural outcomes may be the same. Repetition
of the same activity or imitation of the same model, time and again should be
discouraged.
2. The requirements of the children even of the same age-group should also be
considered in relation to their physical development and social environment.
3. The play-way activities should have the potentialities to provide for free and
intelligent expression.
4. The experience of play should result in happiness for the children and should be
satisfying to them.
5. There should be a free atmosphere for the children to move about.

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6. There should be a good number of group activities. The children should be allowed
to come in contact with a number of companions through various activities and
programmes.
7. The equipment which the children handle and play with, should as far as possible be
drawn from the local environment. This will help the children to have a better
understanding, and make better utilization, of the environment around them.
8. Some of the equipment and activities should be related to progressive changes
happening in the society around them.
9. The individually of each child should be respected to the utmost. Any difficulty
encountered on account of child’s temperament should not be harshly deal with.
The pre-school teacher or the Balsevika should act more as ‘a nursing mother, a
friend and a guide than as a preceptor’.
10. For the age group 4½ to 6 years, some of the activities should be directed to result
in learning experiences conductive to school readiness in the children. Therefore,
such activities should have relationship with the activities to be purchased by the
children later on in Grades I and II. This is necessary so that the children from the
pre-school institutions are able to adjust with the atmosphere of the primary
schools when they join them at the age of 6.

Activity Based Approach: Child-Centred Education

All educators and psychologists consider the child as the ‘hero’ in the drama of education
and as such he should dominate it. He should receive the utmost attention. The call of the
National Policy on Education, 1986, and the modified policy of 1992 is to develop a ‘child-
centred and activity based process of learning’.

Following are the important considerations in making education child-centered and

activity centred and not subject centred:

1. Child is the agent of his own learning. Out of the three components of a teaching-
learning situation- the child, the teacher and the environment, prominent place of
pride should be given to him. He must become the most important agent of learning.
2. Children learn best when they are active.
3. Learning takes place through the continuous interaction of the learner and the
environment.
4. Activity-centred approach is more psychological than logical at the pre-school stage.
5. Sri Aurobindo has observed, “The first principle of true teaching is that nothing can
be taught. The teacher is a helper and guide”.
6. Dewey has said, “Where there is experience, there is living being”.
7. Dewey has also emphasized “Action must proceed knowledge”.

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8. Rousseau has observed, “The child is restless and then curious. Instead of making
the child to stick to his books. I keep him busy in workshop, his hands will work to
the profit of his mind.”
9. Each child is unique. He learns through activity and play.
10. Children are very creative. They need guidance to develop their creativity.
11. The early years need adequate nutrition and health care and this should be attended
to carefully.
12. A stimulating environment is needed at the pre-school stage for stimulating
cognitive growth.
13. A climate for healthy emotional development is needed for creating self-confidence.
14. Activities are needed for promoting various types of practical skills of daily life.

5.7.1 Activities at the Pre School Stage: Art, Music and Clay Work
Free play Activities

In free play the child is free to undertake an activity without any external restraint. He
engages himself spontaneously. It provides opportunities to the child to explore and
express himself. It can take the form of active and passive activities and indoor and outdoor
activities. Following are examples of free play activities:

1. Card-board games, etc

2. Cut-outs
3. Dancing
4. Doll and doll house
5. Dramatics
6. Drawing
7. Excursions
8. Glass toys
9. Listening to the radio and viewing television
10. Painting
11. Pictures and animals birds, etc.
12. Picture Books
13. Picture block puzzles
14. Plastic toys
15. Rubber toys
16. Sand Play
17. Story listening
18. Water-play
19. Wooden toys

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Guided or Structured Activities

Activities which are undertaken usually under the guidance of teachers and parents are
known as guided activities. These are planned activities. Structured activities may be
undertaken by an individual child or in groups. The ‘Gifts of Frobel’ and ‘Montessori
apparatus’, etc. fall under this category. Free activities which are undertaken under the
supervision of teacher may also be placed in this category. There is no water light
compartment. However, balance may be struck in free activities and guided activities.

Outdoor and Indoor Activities

1. Outdoor activities are those activities which are undertaken outside the home or
classroom. These include running, jumping, galloping, climbing, hopping or even
rolling on the grass. They also include outdoor games. In fact outdoor play includes
all types of play outside the home and the classroom.
2. Through outdoor play, the child learns to observe and experience with a
variety of materials such as leaves, flowers, twigs, seeds, pebbles, trees, wooden
boxes, etc. He also learns to cooperate with his peers. He learns the social value of
organizing a group.
3. Indoor activities include all the activities which are done in the home itself. In
fact all the activities mentioned under free-play are covered in the category of
indoor activities.
5.7.1. Language Development Activities
See in previous Chapters

Environmental Studies (Natural and Social Sciences)

Nature study and Science Experience through Environmental Activities

Importance of Nature study and science Experience

The importance of nature study and science experience through environment during the
pre-primary stage is well recognized as a part of the pre-primary school programme. This
leads to the development of structures, practices and ideas suitable for these children. It is
observed that a child from infancy begins to discriminate and generalize about
environmental data. If the children are provided with suitable stimulating science
experiences, abstractions are likely to proceed more readily. Concepts seem to arise out of
actual experiences with the objects and situations. Most children attending pre-schools
recognize the various sensations received by sense organs and organize them into a
framework. They think intuitively and focus their attention on specific objects within their
environments.

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Characteristics of the Child

An understanding of the characteristics of the child enables us to develop programme of

nature study and science suitable to the children at the pre-primary level. Some of the
important research findings are:

1. Children affected by all kinds of environmental phenomena. They try to interpret

these phenomena with different stages of maturity. A good programme should take
advantage of children’s curiosity to initiate effective learning in the class-room.
2. Children love to explore. The words ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ are common in their
vocabulary.
A good environment programme should provide a wide variety of nature study and
science experiences that involve doing learning activities.
3. Children are very energetic. They will often spend lot of time and effort to solve
problems that are important to them.
Hence, programmes should be developed in the form of problems.
4. Children like to work together in planning and carrying out their activities.
Therefore, a good environmental programme should provide suitable group
activities.

Promoting Environmental Education

The objectives of environmental education may be formulated as follows:

1. Building the child’s knowledge about the properties of all objects In his
environment.
2. Providing opportunities to explore the properties of unfamiliar things.
3. Developing the ability to group objects according to their qualitative and
quantitative aspects.
4. Comparing and arranging things according to a given dimension,
5. Fostering curiosity
6. Developing in children creative abilities.
7. Developing in children interactions with other children.

Activities Related to Environment Education

Following types of activities are very useful In providing environmental experience to

children. All these activities are related to daily life of the children:

i. Field trips for observation of the natural phenomenon such as the sunset, clouds,
rainbow, bird nests, bird watching , etc.

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ii. Observation and participation in the local village festivals, folk songs, fold dance,
folk dress, etc.
iii. Room decorations and arrangement of Balwadi equipment.
iv. Creative activities like drawing, painting, music, dramatization, puppetry and crafts.
v. Visits to fairs, markets, historical buildings in the neighbourhood.
vi. Attending public functions and festivals,
vii. Listening to musical programmes
viii. Visiting art galleries etc.

Developing Scientific Concepts

Scientific concepts include the following:

1. Development of concept of time.

2. Development of concept of season.
3. Development of the concept of the human body.
4. Development of living and non-living things.

Organising Activities for the Development of Concept of Time and Season.

1. Various activities should be organized in such a way that the child is able to
distinguish between play time, work time, snack time and rest time, stories time and
song time etc.
2. A child should be made aware of maintaining a balance between the various things.
3. Older children say about 4 or more may be encouraged to arrange their daily
programme by rising early, brushing their teeth before morning breakfast etc.
4. Similarly a child can be given the concept of time by cutting nails periodically.
5. The concept of seasons can be given to children by associating their actual
experiences of feeling warm or cold or wet.
6. Some songs and dramatic activities that may give the knowledge of the numbers and
names of the days in a week, the number of weeks in a month etc, may be planned.

5.7.2Art Education in Pre Primary Schools

Importance of Art Education

Psychological research has clearly demonstrated the importance of art education in the
harmonious development of child’s personality. Art is an essential medium of self-
expression. Several scholars consider art as a means of peace. Art cultivates a sense of
beauty. Besides art provides outlets to the repressed emotions of the child. Different forms
of art like drawing, painting, music, handicrafts etc,. must be encouraged especially at the
pre-primary stage of education.

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Aims of Art Education

The aims of the programmes are:

1. To create interest about art among children.

2. To create respect for work among children and thereby make them self-dependent.
3. To create conditions so that children can work according to their aptitudes.
4. To enable children to work in a free atmosphere.
5. To create interest in them for decoration.
6. To help children in making toys and assist teachers in the teaching of preparing
material aids.

5.7.3 Clay Work in Pre Primary Education

Clay work has its own educational value. It helps children create and express themselves.
Children have a natural tendency to be creative and if they are not given any opportunity to
create anything they become dull. Therefore, they should be encourages to realize their
potential.

It is necessary that in the pre-primary classes children are allowed to do clay work.
They should be taught how to use earth in different forms. This will enable them to learn
not only different forms the earth can take but also permit them to prepare designs for the
purpose of their self expression.

Children should be asked to prepare different designs both by hand and in moulds.
These moulds can be prepared in the classes according to the designs children themselves
have made. They can prepare designs of animals, birds, flowers, vegetables, etc.

The following steps may be followed in this connection.

1. Children should be given freedom to work as they choose.

2. Their work should be occasionally supervised and suggestions given.
3. A teacher must exhibit the work done under his supervision.
4. Positive suggestions should be given to children.
5. Such an environment should be provided as children are able to take their own
decisions and work according to their tastes.
6. A child should be permitted to imitate and use his imagination in clay modeling.

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Equipments for Clay Work:

1. For every child there must be space, i.e. 1 sq. m. and it must be fully lighted.
2. Children should have facilities like raw materials, etc.
3. The floor should be clean.
4. The children should be given boxes to store.
5. Equipments like spade, thrasher, cups, brushes, plaster of paris, etc. and these
should be provided.

Precautions to be Taken

1. Children should not keep earth in their hand for long.

2. Hard earth should be crushed not by hand but with the help of a hammer.
3. After children have done some earth work they should wash their hands and use
Vaseline.
4. If earth on their clothes, they must clean it with the help of a brush.
5. When earth is ready to used, dust should not be permitted to get stored on it.
6. Designs should be bright in shade.
7. Moulds should be covered with wet clothes.
8. The cloth should not be either very wet or very thick.
9. The designs prepared by children should be coloured only when the material is
bright.

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