Forge emotional bond with kids in childhood: Experts

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, September 24

While discussing whether to make children in early years “To write or not to”, most of the school heads drew conclusion that focus should not on making them write. The reason behind the conclusion is that a child is not physically prepared for writing at least till the age of five.

Focus should instead be on letting children play, interact and help them develop cognitive skills through learning playfully and establishing emotional bond with teachers.

The discussion took place as part of the Early Childhood Conference organised by Indus World School as heads of several play way schools participated and expressed their views.

Shilpy Gill, principal, Indus World School, said instead of focusing on writing early on, it is better to focus on more important cognitive skills during the early phase of childhood.

Encourage children

Balie Kler, principal, Little Pumpkins Playway School, said it is important that children are taught to express themselves. “It is important that children are taught and encouraged to speak and express themselves in order to make them learn how to convince and communicate well as they grow up,” she said. Sharing that mere marks are not the only indication for talent, she said that she scored only 46 per cent in class X, but she was doing very well in extra-curricular activities and sports, and all those skills she learnt and her school principal later gauging her talent had encouraged her to carry on that way.

Emotional connect with kids

Kler further said teachers must build an emotional connect with the children. “Teachers need to be more than mothers and build that strong emotional connect with children,” she said. Gauri Chhabra, principal, Drishti Jain Public School, also said it is important to build “emotional edifice” right from the beginning because emotional skills, emotional quotient, how they behave in teams, how they interact with the society, are more important skills than individual and academic grades. “Even in the corporate world, when hiring, these skills are more important than individual achievement,” she said.