What’s on Our Families’ Minds?
Safety is still number one. It’s a big headline with growing ramifications. Families used to look at safety through the lenses of climbing structures and materials, school philosophy and discipline policies. They wanted their children to be treated kindly and not come home with splinters. Now that has all changed. Now families are concerned with Covid and other illness policies, and social/emotional growth components in a program.
Covid and illness policy encompass masking (when necessary), emphasis on hand washing, sterilizing toys and classroom, air flow inside, or air purifiers. There is lots of concern about food and water safety. Families are looking for a clear policy about when a child is deemed sick enough to stay/go home and how long after illness they must stay at home. They want to see policies about temperature taking and covid testing.
The other piece of what’s on families’ minds is their child’s social and emotional growth. Because most of the children now in preschool were covid babies, many are facing less experience in socializing and more one-on-one to get their needs met. That is to say, when parents were home during the pandemic, their children had much more one-on-one time with adults and many fewer experiences with children other than siblings or close friends/family. Often pods were adult heavy, including other family members who focused lots of adult attention on young children. Children also experienced more screen time than any other generation and less outdoor time.
Another piece of the covid experience for children was that they were exposed to the emotions surrounding the pandemic their families were feeling. In many homes there was an underlying feeling of fear and the unknown, unspoken often, but undeniably there. We know from research that stress and living in a stressed environment has chemical ramifications in brain development and the amount of cortisol and other chemicals in the body. Fight or flight reactions from the reptilian part of the brain kick in, often automatically. Now picture these influences impacting a young child as they go back to preschool/care programs.
Therefore, families are concerned about how programs work with the emotional reactions of their children. How do they work with conflicts, issues of not wanting to share or building friendships? What do programs have to offer in the way of guidance for children and for families? Does your program have parent meetings to discuss class issues and family concerns? Do educators have necessary training to understand and work with challenging situations? Is your program philosophy developed and clear around safety issues both physical and social and emotional?
As we face a new world, our programs must reflect the new times. How do we best meet the needs of children and families now? What do we need to meet the current times? Are we up for the challenge?
This article is part of our Newsletter 2024 Issue 1. See all articles.
