Parent
Many parents that I speak with often tell me how much child development knowledge they lacked during their child’s first few years. At that time, most parents are too busy simply adapting to their new life style caring for a human other than themselves. This process takes time, as we all know, but what a lot of parents don’t know is the unrealistic expectations that are too commonly being put on these children at extremely young ages.
One of the most frequent responses I get from parents is that if they had known more about developmentally-appropriate behaviour for each age, they would have parented better, stayed calmer, yelled less and most likely would have had happier children. Understanding what is developmentally expected can make those early years of parenting that much easier. Expecting too much from these little people usually results in frustrated children and disappointed parents.
Once a parent learns about appropriate behaviour for each age, they usually become surprised at just how smart, talented, and well behaved their little ones really are.
Teachers
Similar to parents, there are many teachers who might also need some guidance when it comes to understanding developmental milestones. When teachers become inundated with curriculum and lesson plans, unfortunately many times, developmental milestones begin to fall behind. This often leads to a similar dilemma where students become frustrated and teachers become disappointed.
Once teachers are given more knowledge and guidance for each developmental age, their job becomes easier and the students benefit greatly.
Parents, Teachers and Children
In both situations, this is where one of the helpful features of the iCare childcare software program really comes into play for parents, teachers and most importantly, the children: iCare’s journaling feature.
In the next few pieces, I will walk you through iCare’s childcare software program where journaling categories are set up by age to help illustrate child development milestones and what to really expect at each age group. For parents and teachers, this childcare software is guiding them through each stage of development for a better understanding of child behavior, and therefore, more realistic expectations and better learning outcomes for the children.
Many daycare and early childhood learning centers have had remarkable results from using a childcare software program and it is easy to see why. Having developmental specialists at your side through this childcare software program helps give teachers and parents the confidence they need to foster growth and development for each individual child.
