When to begin teaching the Good Habits to kids?
Monday, August 17, 2015
Parents often find it an uphill task to "train" the kids. When it comes to teaching the kids about health and hygiene, it is even more difficult with a simple reason of being "not so interesting" of tasks for the kids. So, what to do ? How to approach ?
One golden rule that I have seen my parents adopting, that is, "The earlier, the better!" Who doesn't want his/her kid potty trained before other kids? Can't blame them. But then How soon we begin ?
Let me take a detour to development of human psychology as explained by Erikson, and combine it with kid's "milestones of learning" to find the answers of "when" and "how".
Without getting into much details, here is the solution:
2 - 3 years
- By the age of 2 to 2.5 years, kids will be responding to the mother/the primary care taker's verbal instructions. Psychological development-wise, sense of autonomy is still developing and weather I can do this or I can't do this....to do or not to do, in its primitive form...is the part of daily crisis.
- This is the right time when kid should learn from the mother about basic things like:
- "Don't pick your nose", "Don't eat this, it's a toy!" or "It's not right to lick your fingers".
- Remember, at all ages, appreciation works wonders. "Good Job !" "Good Boy/Girl !" will produce nice results.
3-4 Years
- Coinsiding with further lingual development, is the one and a half to two years, till about age of four years, when a kid can speak in sentences, the period by which all the basic health habits should be imparted to kids.
- The hygienic virtues are also learned during play dates, baby sittings and pre-school by observing other kids, but it can go both ways. A good baby sitter or pre-school instructor will play an important role in this regard.
4 - 5 Years
- From 3.5 to 4 years of age, kids now have the core values well established when it comes to health and hygiene.
- The mode of teaching should be differentiating "right" actions from "wrong" actions.
- Such as "It is not right to eat with dirty hands!" "It is wrong to not to brush the teeth before sleeping!" "We don't eat the cookie from the floor!", "This is the proper way to wash hands!!" These kind of instructions will often result in self-initiation of all personal hygiene. In some cases, the kid will be driven by the fear of getting sick and medicine during this age.
Kids often reach this milestone early if the previous years were handled properly by parents.
5 Years onwards...
Post 5 years of age is more about "nature" than mere "nurture" as all the kid very much as a well established virtue. If it is not, a more practical approach (combining reward, sense of right and wrong along with fear) should be taken which vary from case to case.
To be noted that, from this age, influence of kids of similar age, and the neighbourhood will increase. A rebellious spike can also be observed. Understanding the kid's psychological and cognitive development during the years of early development certainly helps.
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