Getting into educating young children, one must fully realize that teaching skills and knowledge on the specific subject are not enough for success. It demands understanding specific groups of students’ psychology as well. Children up to the age of 8 are especially vulnerable as they are only starting to learn about the things that surround them. The psychological approach is extremely vital at this point because first years in education define their further future at school and later at the university. Understanding a child’s development, how and why it unfolds in a certain way may help teachers through the educating process.
First of all, it is important to treat a child as a whole person, meaning that all his skills are important, as one depends on another. The connection between their mind and health at this point is very close: according to Meadows (2017), the development is biologically, socially and individually at the same time. Therefore, is important to positively influence all three areas. Instilling confidence in young students instead of pushing them and therefore scaring them off will contribute to their interest in school. Moreover, this approach significantly contributes to a child’s mental and physical health, as one highly depends on the other.
Understanding psychological research and theories are vital for the teachers. Insights in children’s inner development may help practitioners to find the most effective approaches to all the aspects of their challenging and difficult job of educating children. Psychology gives teachers a sense of perspective, which makes it easier for them to understand their young students (Castle & Buckler, 2018, p.6). Children up until they reach the age of eight have a very specific thought process. According to Turner (2017), their way of thinking “has several distinguishing characteristics: it is fluid, unstable, intensely realistic, irreversible and egocentric” (p.22). That means at this stage children are both highly perceptive to things and vulnerable at the same time. Studying certain books or articles on child psychology will help teachers see the way their students think and help them find the right attitude towards them in the classroom.
There also has to be an individual approach to children, because all of them are different, some even have special needs. As Lawes and Eddy (2017) claim, teachers must remember that there are several sets of influences that shape a child into an individual. Not only school is a defining factor for young students: their upbringing, people that surround them and the quality of life contribute to children’s psychology. Research shows that “developing individual is always a part of the social situation” (Veresov & Fleer, 2016, p.6). Taking these things into account will be of significant help for childhood educators to create the necessary learning conditions for all the young students in their class.
Teaching children is harder than most people think. It is not only about making the process as fun as possible, singing songs and playing games during classes. It is also closely intertwined with child psychology and the knowledge of it. Implementing a psychological approach to education makes the process more smooth and effective in terms of building children’s attitudes towards school and studying in general. If teachers devote more time to studying the connection between this science and learning and understand children’s development at an early age, the educational process will benefit from it greatly.
References
Castle, P., & Buckler, S. (2018). Psychology for teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Lawes, J. S., & Eddy, C. T. (2017). Understanding children: An introduction to psychology for African teachers. New York, NY. Routledge.
Meadows, S. (2017). Understanding child development: psychological perspective and applications. New York, NY. Routledge.
Turner, J. (2017). Psychology for the classroom. New York, NY. Routledge.
Veresov, N., & Fleer, M. (2016). Perezhivanie as a theoretical concept for researching young children’s development. Mind, culture, and activity, 23(4), 325-335.