Gender Stereotype

According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a gender stereotype “is a generalized view or preconception about attributes or characteristics that are or ought to be possessed by women and men or the roles that are or should be performed by men and women”. A gender stereotype is therefore harmful when it limits the capacity of women and men to develop their personal attributes or professional skills and to take decisions about their lives and plans.

Gender is… the socially constructed identity associated with the concepts of masculinity and femininity as distinct from solely relating to biological sex. Therefore, it can be understood as predominantly associated with learned characteristics defined by social and cultural norms and values. Though it is frequently misunderstood, gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for a person based on their sex. ‘Sex’, on the other hand, refers to the biological determinants – chromosomes and genitalia – that distinguish males and females. 

When we talk about gender stereotypes, we are referring to the socially accepted ideas of what is appropriate for a boy or a girl based on their sex. While gender is often discussed as exclusively masculine or feminine, it should be recognized that gender identity exists across a continuum. Although it may seem harmless, labelling attributes and behaviours as inherently masculine or feminine can flow on to influence the work and roles that are considered to be ‘normal’ for each gender. Examples of socialized gender roles are that women are assumed to be better suited to carer roles, such as nurses and teachers, and are expected to take on domestic duties, and that men are believed to make better leaders and often seen as the natural ‘breadwinners’. These gender roles and stereotypes are reinforced through a number of societal channels – toys, sports and games, clothes, books, the . 

Gender Identity Development in Children

There are many ways parents can promote healthy gender development in children. It helps to understand gender identity and how it forms.

What’s the difference between gender and sex?

Being a boy or a girl, for most children, is something that feels very natural. At birth, babies are assigned male or female based on physical characteristics. This refers to the “sex” or “assigned gender” of the child. Meanwhile, “gender identity” refers to an internal sense people have of who they are that comes from an interaction of biological traits, developmental influences, and environmental conditions. This may be male, female, somewhere in between, a combination of both or neither.

Self-recognition of gender identity develops over time, much the same way a child’s physical body does. Most children’s asserted gender identity aligns with their assigned gender (sex). However, for some children, the match between their assigned gender and gender identity is not so clear.

How does gender identity development in children?

Gender identity typically develops in stages:

• Around age two: Children become conscious of the physical differences between boys and girls.
• Before their third birthday: Most children can easily label themselves as either a boy or a girl.
• By age four: Most children have a stable sense of their gender identity.

During this same time of life, children learn gender role behavior—that is, do­ing “things that boys do” or “things that girls do.” However, cross-gender preferences and play are a normal part of gender development and exploration regardless of their future gender identity.

The point is that all children tend to develop a clearer view of themselves and their gender over time. At any point, research suggests that children who assert a gender-diverse identity know their gender as clearly and consistently as their developmentally matched peers and benefit from the same level of support, love, and social acceptance.

What parents can do:

All children need the opportunity to explore different gender roles and different styles of play. Parents can make sure their young child’s environment reflects diversity in gender roles and encourages opportunities for everyone. Some ideas would be to offer: 

• Children’s books or puzzles showing men and women in non-stereotypical and diverse gender roles (stay-at-home dads, working moms, male nurses, and female police officers, for example).
• A wide range of toys for your child to choose from, including baby dolls, toy vehicles, action figures, blocks, etc.
• By age six, most children spend most of their playtime with members of their own sex and may gravitate towards sports and other activities that are associated with their gender. It is important to allow children to make choices regarding friend groups, sports, and other activities they get involved in. It is also a good idea to check in with your child to learn about their preferences and to make sure they feel included without teasing or bullying.

How do children typically express their gender identity?

In addition to their choices of toys, games, and sports, children typically express their gender identity in the following ways:

• Clothing or hairstyle
• Preferred name or nickname
• Social behavior that reflects varying degrees of aggression, dominance, dependency, and gentleness.
• Manner and style of behavior and physical gestures and other nonverbal actions identified as masculine or feminine.
• Social relationships, including the gender of friends, and the people he or she decides to imitate.

While a child’s gender-specific behavior (i.e. gender expression) at any time seems to be influenced by exposure to stereotypes and their identification with the people in their lives, the internal sense of being a girl, boy, in between or something else (i.e. gender identity) cannot be changed.

How have gender stereotypes changed over time?

Our expectations of “what girls do” and “what boys do” have changed. Many female athletes excel at their sports. Girls increasingly pursue subjects traditionally thought of as “masculine.” There are many famous male chefs, artists, and musicians―fields traditionally thought of as “feminine.” Over time, society has recognized that stereotypes of “masculine” and “feminine” activities and behaviors are inaccurate and limiting to a child’s development. Such interests also do not determine or influence one’s gender identity. Furthermore, our ability to predict who a child is based on early preferences is not very accurate and may be harmful if it leads to shame or attempts at suppressing their skills, talents, and genuine self.

Still, when a child’s interests and abilities are different from what society expects, they may be subjected to discrimination and bullying. It is natural for parents to have gender-based expectations for their children and to want to protect them from criticism and exclusion. Instead of pushing children to conform to these pressures and to limit themselves, parents can play an important role in advocating for safe spaces where their children can feel comfortable and good about themselves.

If your child doesn’t excel in sports or even have an interest in them, for example, there will still be many other opportunities and areas in which he or she can thrive. Regardless of gender identity, each child has his or her own strengths that may not always conform to society’s or your own expectations, but they will still be a source of current and future success.

Remember

Gender development is a normal process for all children. Some children will exhibit variations―similar to all areas of human health and behavior. However, all children need support, love, and care from family, school, and society, which fosters growth into happy and healthy adults.

‘HOW EARLY DO CHILDREN ACQUIRE GENDER CONCEPTS AND EXHIBIT PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION?

The first few years of life and into adolescence have been the focus of much theorizing and empirical research on gender development. Major questions have arisen about the timeline of gender development, and resolving these issues is central to understanding processes underlying gender development. In this section, we discuss two key aspects of gender development. First, the earliest emergence of gender understanding and behaviors provides insights about the origins of sex differences and the prominence of gender as a social category, and so it is not surprising that these topics have been highlighted in contemporary research on gender development. Second, because of the far-ranging implications on human social interactions, we review research evidence concerning the emergence of gender prejudice and discrimination.

Do Infants Understand and Use Gender?

A major issue that has driven research is whether children’s basic understanding of gender identity motivates and organizes the development of gender-typed behaviors, an idea proposed by “self-socialization” theories of gender development. Self-socialization perspectives posit that children actively seek information about what gender means and how it applies to them and that an understanding of gender categories motivates behavior such that, in essence, they socialize themselves. In contrast, others have argued that gender understanding must not play an important role in the emergence of gendered behaviors because some gender-typed behaviors emerge before age two, presumably earlier than children’s understanding or identification with gender. The evidence needed to resolve this controversy concerns whether behavior becomes increasingly gender typed with the onset of basic gender understanding, and recent findings have extended our knowledge of these fundamental issues. 

When do children begin to recognize that there are two types of people—males and females—and when are they able to link this information to other qualities to form basic stereotypes? A related question is, when do children recognize their sex? Infants as young as three to four months of age distinguish between categories of female and male faces, as demonstrated in habituation and preferential looking paradigms. By about six months, infants can discriminate faces and voices by sex, habituate to faces of both sexes, and make inter-modal associations between faces and voices. By 10 months, infants can form stereotypical associations between faces of women and men and gender-typed objects (e.g., a scarf, a hammer), suggesting that they can form primitive stereotypes. Infants’ early associative networks about the sexes may not carry the same conceptual or affective associations that characterize those of older children or adults, although the nature of these associations has yet to be examined in any depth.

When Do Children Develop Stereotypes?

Developmental researchers have identified that rudimentary stereotypes develop by about two years of age, and many children develop basic stereotypes by age three. Children first show an understanding of sex differences associated with adult possessions (e.g., shirt and tie), physical appearance, roles, toys, and activities, and recognize some abstract associations with gender (e.g., hardness as male; softness as female). 

Children develop stereotypes about physical aggression at an early age, and by age 4½, children believe that girls show more relational aggression than boys. Interestingly, even when researchers examine children’s spontaneous associations about boys and girls, a consistent pattern is found from preschool through fourth/fifth grade: girls are seen as nice, wearing dresses, and liking dolls, and boys are seen as having short hair, playing active games, and being rough.

As children grow older, the range of stereotypes about sports, occupations, school tasks, and adult roles expands, and the nature of the associations becomes more sophisticated. Specifically, early in childhood, children make vertical associations between the category label (“girls,” “boys”) and qualities (e.g., “boys like trucks”). They appear slower to make horizontal inferences (e.g., recognizing that trucks and airplanes are associated with being “masculine”), which tends to appear around age eight. For instance, when told about an unfamiliar sex-unspecified child who likes trucks, older children but not younger ones predict that the child also likes playing with airplanes. The concreteness of gendered items influences the ability of younger children to make these property-to-property inferences. In contrast, adults often rely on individuating information rather than the person’s sex to make similar types of judgments. The difficulty that children have with these judgments suggests that they may not understand within-sex individual differences.

CONCLUSIONS

Children’s gender development unfolds over long time frames of average or normative change, over shorter time frames such as the emergence of relatively stable individual preferences in with whom or with what to play during the early school years, and over much shorter time frames—micro timescales—such as when an individual child selects an outfit to wear or carries on an interaction with a peer over a toy. In the present review, we illustrated each of these time frames in terms of a few specific current, and sometimes controversial, topics in the field of gender development.

First, we took the long view, examining normative changes from infancy through middle adolescence in key aspects of children’s beliefs and behaviors regarding gender distinctions. In this way, we were able to speak to the question of temporal ordering of different elements of gender development and, thereby, analyze certain controversies within the field about how early children understand gender distinctions and how that understanding relates to behavior. Moreover, the analysis of temporal ordering helps generate hypotheses for future research about what indications of gender prejudice, such as in group favoritism, might represent for young children who can understand gender stereotypes but not necessarily status inequities between the sexes.

Normative trends involve only averages across individuals; they do not, however, inform us about whether there are stable individual differences in expressions of gender typing. Whether there are continuities in individual gender typing over time has been another important but controversial topic in gender development. For instance, identifying stability in sex segregation would suggest that individual children vary in their preferences and that sex segregation is not simply due to situational variability or normative constraints as had previously been assumed. Thus, in the second section, we reviewed studies of longitudinal change within individuals over shorter periods. We discovered that there is more stability in sex segregation and gender-typed activities and preferences than previously thought. However, future research must determine how long stability exists and over which periods of development.

Another advantage of normative trends is that they indicate at what points developmentally it would be useful to search for stable individual differences, such as after periods of rapid change, as when children first enter preschool. In the third section, we described a new tool for taking advantage of such opportunities. Dynamic systems theory provides a coherent set of principles and methods for examining change over differing time frames. Socialization, cognitive, and biological processes can be explored over multiple time frames using techniques that focus on temporal patterning of behavior. Dynamic systems theory complements existing theories by providing more nuanced views of gender at different timescales. For instance, sex segregation exhibits both variability and stability from a dynamic perspective. Particularly intriguing is the potential for small-scale patterns to provide insights into large-scale patterns. For systems that exhibit self-similarity, a pattern that appears at a micro-level time frame mimics the pattern found at a more macro level time frame. Considering similarity across timescales is an idea that, in our view, has no counterpart in developmental research or theorizing.

Developmental research on gender has primarily focused attention on the longer timescales to assess normative developmental patterning. Less attention has been focused on shorter timescales to explore individual patterns and stability of behavior, and very little has been done to explore gender development in terms of micro timescales. We hope our review has made it clear that comprehensive explanations of gender need to consider each of these timescale perspectives.

CHILD REARING

Child Rearing Practices & Styles

The term child-rearing practices simply means the way parents go about raising their children. How you raise Baby will depend on many influences which can include how you were raised as a child, cultural and religious beliefs, your knowledge and understanding of how to support Baby’s happiness, learning and development through his/her childhood and adolescence years and your willingness to accept Baby as a unique little being who will always need to be loved.’

From the beginnings of human history, documenting child-rearing practices was considered an important way to understand the socialization practices of society. In the Indian context where there are wide ranges of differences, documentation of this information is even more relevant since it adds to the knowledge based on the socialization practices of a country. 

According to Silver-stein (1991), “growing children should be provided opportunities for the realization of his potentialities with love and affection, socially acceptable behavior such as toilet training, eating, sleeping and social etiquette’s are taught at an early age as soon as the child starts comprehending few verbal expressions.” 

Types of Parents in Child Rearing

1.Indulgent Parents

Indulgent parents make few attempts to direct their children’s behavior. They avoid confrontation with their children and allow their children to make most decisions for themselves. Indulgent parents also tend to be particularly responsive to their children’s needs. According to Nancy Darling, Ph. D., in the article “Parenting Style and Its Correlates,” children brought up by indulgent parents have more behavior problems and lower grades, but tend to have higher self-esteem.

2.Authoritarian Parents

Authoritarian parents believe their children’s behavior should be controlled as much as possible. They set firm rules for their children and make sure they understand the consequences of breaking the rules. For example, according to an article in Social Work Research by Jeffrey Shears and colleagues, authoritarian parents agree more than others with the statement: “The most important thing to teach children is absolute obedience to whoever is the authority.” In an article in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Machteld Hoeve and colleagues say children of authoritarian parents have a higher than normal likelihood of getting into trouble.

3.Authoritative Parents

Authoritative parents balance setting clear boundaries for their children and encouraging their children to think for themselves. They are warm and understanding of their children’s needs, however, they do not let their children get away with breaking the rules. According to Gwen Dewar, Ph. D., in an article in Parenting Science, children of authoritative parents have a higher chance of being independent, well-behaved, and successful later in life.

CHILD REARING PRACTICE IN EARLY YEARS

Proper child rearing is very important since it influences development and behavior of children. Child rearing is the process of taking care of and raising children. If it is not done properly due to ignorance and poverty, it may result into innumerable problems for the family and the society. Child-rearing practices are related to child’s upbringing and it is imperative for every parent to give proper attention to it since it affects a child’s adequate growth and development. Improper diet, unsanitary or poorly ventilated house, inadequate sleep, unguided or badly planned play activities, lack of medical care, etc. may become hindrance in natural growth and progress. 

The child’s diet is especially significant in its effect upon physical growth. Malnutrition affects the child’s physical growth. It is a problem commonly seen in the rural area. The kind of diet the child receives is more important than the amount of food he eats. A child becomes a “human” being by living with other human being. The earliest years are most crucial in the development of personality, adjustment, and the emotional-social relationship. Without the environment, the child could not even maintain himself at birth. Hence it is the environment in which the child grows and it can accelerate or retard the child’s motor, physical, mental, social and emotional development. A supportive home environment is one where parents are sensitive and responsive to the developmental needs of the child. Both heredity and environment plays important role in the life of any individual. 

Environment has a profound influence on the growth and development of the child. Even with good heredity, normal development does not come automatically to men. Both before and after birth, heredity potentialities can unfold only if the environment, he is largely helpless in coping with it and needs a great deal of help from his parents. “Many psychologists believe that the first six years of a person’s life are the most important. They emphasize effect of physical conditions and cultural pattern of home on the type of attitudes and the behavior which are being developed in the child. The manner in which parents satisfy the child’s needs, their attitudes towards him, and the environment also influence their behavior. Gradually, the child learns to react in more or less to the patterns of behavior that are peculiar to the culture into which he has been born. 

Several studies have been made of the effects upon the child of the culture in which he is reared. The differences that exist in behavior of children reared in different cultures seem to be the result of the culture themselves rather than of the native constitution of the individuals. Both biological inheritance and acculturation exerts a potent influence upon an individual’s integrated personality. The kind of personality an individual eventually acquires is rooted in ways in which he develops physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially during the childhood” (Crow & Crow, 1956). 

The first group in the experience of a child is his mother. Mother occupies key role in child-rearing practices. She represents the whole world to her infant. She has a major role in rearing children. She along with other family members provides proper environment for the proper growth and development of children. Environment here includes nutrition, sanitation, health etc.. Mother is sensitive and responsive to the needs of the child and organizes the environment for the child. Mother’s sensitivity and responsibility are the key factors that determine further growth and development of child. She needs to properly organize the physical and temporal environment for the child’s social and emotional well-being.  

Mother is the most important person in a baby’s life for both his/her physical as well as his/her psychological care and growth. The mother-infant relationship is the most vital formative relationship for the child. From the very first moment of life, a child begins interacting with his/her mother. Thus, mother’s health, her education, her beliefs and attitudes regarding child rearing are important milestones on the road of child’s health right from the pregnancy period. She is required to play the main role in promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of a child. 

There are three major aspects of child-rearing- 

(i) Child care 

(ii) Child discipline 

(iii) General Child rearing attitude. 

(i) Child Care: Child care includes feeding, weaning, toilet training and bed-habit training etc.. Mothers are crucial for the development of children. Hence, it is imperative, that a mother should know when her child can be trained to use toilet, be able to eat meals, play alone, etc.. As a child grows and begins to walk around in a faltering manner, he starts to pull down anything that is within his reach and as a mother a woman has to cope patiently with the phase of child development. 

The care a child receives is directly dependent on the knowledge, perception, abilities, skills and motivation of the mother. Mother’s involvement is the key factor in child’s emotional development. She should respond to child vocalization. She has to speak to the child and teach the words and praise when needed, embrace, hug and express that she has affection towards him. 

(ii) Child Discipline: Discipline is the process of teaching children what type of behavior is acceptable and what type of behavior is not acceptable. In other words, discipline teaches a child to follow rules. Discipline may involve both punishment and rewards. There may be some children who are disrespectful and do not listen to their parents. There may be some who listen, but defy or deliberately disobey. The discipline techniques which parents choose may depend on the type of inappropriate behavior the child displays, child’s age, child’s temperament and parental style. 

A few techniques may be followed by parents to encourage child for his/her good behavior. If the child does not follow instructions, time outs often work better with younger kids for whom separation from parents is truly seen as a deprivation. This time out discipline can work when the child is old enough to understand the purpose of time out.

Physical punishments like to open hand, spanking, are common but not recommended since it may result to make children more aggressive and violent and may harm a child. The techniques are such to fit well with the child’s temperament. Before disciplining the child, the parents must know whether the child really understands what the parents expect him to do. 

“Many believe that physical punishment, when used appropriately, can be effective form of discipline, despite the studies which show such punishment to be associated with unwanted behavioral outcomes” 

Discipline plays an important part in child-rearing. It helps the child to develop an understanding of right and wrong behavior. It is necessary for molding the character, personality, talents and emotional and physical well-being of the child. Parental involvement becomes necessary. Hence, a proper guidance of the parents to the children becomes essential so that they grow, develop and respond to life in a positive way, gain control over emotions, learn self-discipline, solve problems, gain independence and positively interact with their peers. 

(iii) General Child Rearing Attitude: “Attitude depends upon the affective relationship between the mother and the child. There are three types of discipline techniques i.e., power assertion, love withdrawal, and induction”. 

“The children are born and live in a society which is an organized collectivity of interacting people whose activities become centered on a set of common goals, and who share common beliefs, attitudes, and modes of action. The culture of society also influences his development. The infant is introduced to culture by the way his mother feeds him, weans him, and manages his toilet training and takes care, etc. In other words, the culture acquired during infancy may have long-enduring effects upon an individual.” 

“It is commonly observed that the majority of the infants and young children in the country do not receive the required rich environment and stimulation at home for the natural growth and development which may be due to ignorance and poverty. The farm-women mothers are facing many problems due to which they tend to take very little care of their little ones. Parents, particularly in rural areas, are often ignorant about appropriate child-rearing practices. There exists a gap between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’. Hence, it becomes imperative to identify these gaps, particularly related to mother-care during pregnancy, breast-feeding, child feeding, weaning, toilet training, health care, education, etc.”. 

PLAY 

Play is as important in the life of a child as are food, clothing, and shelter. The child plays from inner necessity. He plays hard and works at playing. The play is a great source of learning. Social, intellectual and emotional growth of the child finds expression in his play activities. It helps the child to work off excess energy. It gives his growing muscles stretching and flexing which they require. It allows him to exercise. As child grows, he learns to play. For him, play is a serious business life as through it he tests his abilities, repeats his accomplishments and learns ways of expressing himself. He also discharges his emotions.  

Play also helps him learn to get along with age-mates. Through identification, it helps him learn social role. It teaches him the attitudes towards social groups and institutions that will need to acquire for democratic living. Before the child enters school, the number of his companions is limited. At school, he meets many new playmates. He finds himself wanting their friendship and approval to win them. He soon realizes that he must learn to share games and toys, to take turns, to give and take. Play permits the child to express his emotional problems without danger of unpleasant consequences. 

Play is an important activity for the development of children. According to the experts, parents (both father and mother) should be conscious that appropriate toys must be given to a child according to his age, as the child grows up he/she must be trained to keep the toys at proper place with love and affection rather than scolding or diverting the attention of the child. The mother should be involved herself in play of the child for cognitive and motor development of a child and when a child plays she should keep attention on his/her activity. 

Mead (1934) believed that “the self is a social product arising from relations with other people. When children learn to attach meaning to the behaviour, they step outside of themselves. Once children can think about themselves the same way they might think about someone else, they begin to gain a sense of self. The process of forming the self, according to Mead (1934), occurs in three distinct stages. 

The first is imitation. In this stage, children copy the behaviour of adults without understanding it. During the play stage, children imitate the roles of others like doctor, teacher, firefighter, race-car driver and so on. In doll play, little children frequently talk to the doll in both loving and scolding tones as if they are parents and then answer for the doll the way a child answers his parents. This shifting of one role to another builds children’s ability to give the same meanings to their thoughts and actions that other members of society give them is another important step in the building of a self. During Mead’s (1934) third, the game stage they must learn what is expected not just by one other person but by a whole group. By this stage, children have gained a social identity.”

EDUCATION 

“Every mother wants to make sure that her child gets a good education. It is an important part of child rearing. Mother has the potential to play the most important role of educator in a child’s early life and as child gets older she is still at the heart of her child’s education. This principle applies to father, and other constant role models in the child’s home environment, yet most frequently it is the mother who plays the main role. The home is the nest where the child rests, eats, sleeps, plays and is constantly learning. 

Child’s first task in life is to seek love of their care givers, and especially the main care giver at home, who is mostly the mother. When mother loves her children, she is automatically playing the role of being at the heart of her children’s education. Mother will most often be the first to notice if there is a change in her child’s humor after a day at school. If a child becomes more withdrawn, this can be because something is happening at school that has made his/her go into protective mode. Mother is at the heart of sensing both the good and the challenging aspects of her children’s education.” 

The earliest years of a child’s life are the key to predicting ultimate success in school and life. Recent research findings pointing to the importance of the first three years in brain development have serious implications for education. These early learning experiences are crucial determining factors for emotional and intellectual development and will ultimately affect how a child will perform in school. 

“Neurological development is largely a result of the learning that takes place starting at birth and during the earliest years of life. Scientists now believe that a young child’s brain needs certain types of stimulation to develop properly. Without that stimulation, certain types of learning will not be possible when the child enters school. Loving, talking, and with the appropriate stimulation, neural pathways are developed that can enhance a child’s emotional, social, and intellectual abilities. The more these neural connections are stimulated during this early window of opportunity, the stronger they become (Bradley, 1998).” 

It is so important that everyone who has contact with infants including parents, grandparents, and caregivers provides these children with lots of touching, loving, talking, singing and education to help them develop to their full potential. Education is the road that the children follow to reach their full potential in life. Early childhood education received at home, in pre-school, in a daycare center, or elsewhere, can affect a child’s physical, mental, and emotional development. It can also increase elsewhere and can affect a child’s physical, mental, and emotional development. Early education can increase cognitive skills in children. 

As children move from infants to young adults, they go through distinct periods of development. During each stage of development, environmental circumstances, and exchanges with key individuals within that environment have a significant influence on how each child benefits from each developmental event. During each stage growth and development occur in the primary domains including physical, intellectual, and language and socio-emotional. Each child is unique and parents must learn to understand, respect, support, and encourage the unique characteristics and abilities of each child. 

During the 2-5 year age period, rapid physical and intellectual development takes place. The child starts interacting cooperatively. He needs constant supervision and guidance. These early years form perhaps the most crucial period in a person’s life when the rate of development is very high and foundations are laid for cumulative lifelong learning and human development. Not only the child needs adequate nutrients and social interaction but also a stimulating environment for his overall development.  

Barnett (2008) reviewed the research regarding the short-and long- term effects of preschool education on young children’s learning and development and found that “a well-designed preschool education programs produced long-term improvements in school success, including higher achievement test scores, lower rates of grade repetition and higher educational attainment. The strongest evidence suggests that economically disadvantaged children reap long term benefits from preschool. He recommended the policymakers not to depart from preschool education models that had proven highly effective.” 

Many studies reveal that children exposed to positive and stimulating experiences as young children develop enhanced learning capabilities. 

Children who attend preschool or other early education programs: 

• have enhanced cognitive, verbal, and social development, which is maintained into the first few years of school, 

• have significantly higher IQ’s, 

• enter school better prepared to learn, 

• are less likely to exhibit later delinquency and antisocial behavior, 

• tend to demonstrate higher levels of school achievement and better social adjustment, 

• are less likely to have to repeat a grade or be placed in special classes. There can be long-term benefits from quality early childhood education. 

PRESCHOOL CHILD

What defines a preschooler?

A child of 3 or 4 is considered a preschooler. So whether or not your child is attending a formal preschool program, he is no longer a toddler. Preschoolers are different from toddlers in that they are developing basic life skills, independence, and knowledge that they will need as they enter their school years.

PLAY PATTERN OF PRESCHOOL CHILD

Preschool years are often termed as the ‘try age’. This period is ideal for learning new skills. Much learning takes place by observing and doing and development of preschoolers can be stimulated both by providing opportunity for children to learn on their own in play and by interacting in which the adults deliberately teaches some thing. The play activities should ideally include free play, organized (group) play, physical activities and play ground activities using play apparatus (Seth and Ahuja, 1995). Play and play materials are part of the basic needs of all preschool children. Various theories and empirical findings constantly signify the great potential that play has in directing preschoolers learn to interact and adapt to their environment.

Imaginative play allows preschool children to act out real life situations that they may not understand and by solving these problems they gain a sense of satisfaction and power over their own small world. Feeling of independence and confidence the two very important emotions are also developed. Providing children with opportunities to solve both physical and mental problems also encourages development of their cognitive skills.

Children progress through solitary and parallel play and then begin to play in group situations and it is in these group situations that the children learn to give and receive, and to share and cooperate with their peers thus developing their ability to form relationship with others. It is also helpful in the development of vocabulary and concept formation, visual motor integration and satisfies the exploratory drive.  

Dunn and Herming (1992) reveal the influence of gender in guiding the play preferences of young children. They reported that boys display more functional/solitary functional play (fantasy play and more originality) than girls, who exhibit more constructive play (playing with concrete objects). There is a strong gender differentiation in both the choice of play material as well as the games. Play is ascribed different meanings in different ecological and social settings.

The availability of physical space and play materials can make a lot of difference. When children have more interactions with adults and the adults exhibit more participative behaviour, then children engage in less of unoccupied and solitary play (both are types of non social play) and are able to learn various concepts easily. The present study was designed to gather information on the play pattern of young children in the preschool setting. 

Analysis of the play pattern included covering of aspects such as the nature of play material available, the nature of play activities exhibited by these children and the nature and extent of adult supervision involved. Studies in the past have overlooked the influence of preschool setting in shaping the play behaviour of the young children. Researches have been confined to the play activities in open spaces and mainly deal with the play behaviour of children in their middle and late childhood, focusing little on the activities of preschoolers, especially within the confines of the preschool.

TYPES OF PLAYS FOR PRESCHOOLER

Play is essential to preschooler development. Different kinds of play help preschoolers develop and learn in many different ways:

• Dramatic and pretend play: preschoolers use games like dress-ups to act out confusing or scary scenarios, try out different roles, and explore emotions.

• Messy play: play with paints, water, sand or dirt is a great outlet for children’s emotions and helps to develop senses like touch and smell. Children also enjoy exploring different textures, smells, colours and so on.

• Physical play: jumping, running, kicking balls and climbing over playground equipment develops coordination and balance. It also helps preschoolers test the limits of their physical abilities.

• Songs, books, riddles and silly rhymes: this help to improve your child’s language and vocabulary. You’ll get to see the funny side of your preschooler’s personality through these activities.

• Sorting games: activities like sorting blocks, buttons, or pegs help to build basic math and numeracy skills – just make sure to pack away small objects after play to avoid choking hazards.

• Outdoor play: jumping in puddles, looking at insects, running down hills, and lying in the grass are good for physical health, development, and self-confidence. These activities also give children the chance to explore the natural environment.

• Simple board games: these kinds of games give preschoolers a chance to learn about taking turns, following the rules, counting, and playing fair. Although turn-taking can be a challenge for children, with practice your child can learn to enjoy this type of play.

• Rough-and-tumble play: this kind of play gives preschoolers the chance to test out strength, space, and social relationships. But the play is meant to be fun – if a child is being bullied, forced, or hurt, it doesn’t play anymore. You can teach your child that when another child says ‘stop’, the game needs to end.

The Importance of Play in Preschool

Play in preschool presents young learners with a means to understand and process how the world works around them. Best of all, play comes naturally to children as they begin to explore their surroundings. Examination and discovery helps play to essentially become the work of a child from which they derive positive, educational growing experiences. Adults and teachers, who can structure a setting that will encourage play, also succeed in creating a place where cooperative social interactions and individual educational developments are introduced, practiced, and learned. Preschoolers who discover through play strengthen their proficiency in areas such as language and vocabulary, imagination and creativity, gross and fine motor skills, as well as, problem-solving and mathematical concepts.

Play in preschool promotes the development of strong language and vocabulary skills. Children learn a significant amount just by listening to instructions, stories, or typical conversations between others. By repeating words and sentences to engage in a discussion, it supports the discovery of new vocabulary terms and their meanings. With practice and participation, children begin to understand how language and vocabulary can facilitate communication, express feelings, and improve dialogues within a group.

Imagination and creativity can also be strengthened through organized play in preschool. Arts, crafts, and dramatic play sessions are ways to encourage and support open-ended creative expression. Simply handing children a blank piece of paper and a few crayons or setting the stage for some pretend play scenarios can be inspiring. By supplying the necessary tools and making suggestions for opportunities to expand their imaginations, helps young learners to develop a sense of independence, self-confidence, and feelings of accomplishment.

Also, preschool play builds both gross and fine motor skills. Whether playing inside with lancers and sensory bins or outside with balls and ride-on, children are strengthening their muscles big and small. Using tiny hand muscles to hold a jump rope or large leg muscles to run around, children are building these skills without even knowing it. Furthermore, encouraging preschoolers to challenge themselves physically, whether it is balancing on a narrow beam or jumping about a chalk-drawn hopscotch board, motor development is supported through numerous types of play.

Problem-solving skills and mathematical concepts are also enriched through play activities in preschool. Building block work, puzzles, and games can introduce a variety of challenges that require the need for problem-solving, as well as, create situations that foster early lessons in the subject of math. Providing circumstances that concern areas of balance, weight, shape, and size, children start to engage in decision-making thought processes that can enhance educational curriculum through play.

Activities such as arts and crafts, building and block discovery, and dramatic performances are a few play ideas that will benefit in progressing the minds and muscles of toddlers. Play in preschool can build social, emotional, and language development. Whether choosing a preschool program that is home-based or classroom driven, incorporating play within the curriculum is essential for children to grow and develop. Selecting an educational setting where the importance of play is recognized will give early learners the most opportunities to learn.

Encourage Physical Activity for Preschoolers

To make sure your child gets his daily dose of active play, try:

• Tag or chase: For variety, hop, waddle, or dance instead of running
• Catch or kickball (experiment with balls of different sizes and textures)
• Swimming or other water play, such as running in a sprinkler or washing the car
• Riding a tricycle or scooter
• Crawling through a cardboard-box tunnel
• Dancing: Add scarves or ribbons to make it more exciting
• Indoor obstacle course: Build one together using sofa cushions, hula hoops (to jump in and out of), chairs lined up to form a tunnel or balance beam, etc.

Development between 30 and 60 months

Each child grows and develops at his or her own rate — displaying developmental landmarks at different times. The table below shows characteristics that children between the ages of 2 and 5 will typically display as they grow and develop. For each type of development (such as physical, communication, etc.), younger children’s characteristics are at the top of each list, older children’s are at the bottom.

Physical

Characteristics

• Gaining strength and coordination
• Increasing control of hands and use of fingers
• Laces shoes
• Buttons and zips clothes
• Kicks/bounces/catches a ball
• Hammers nails
• Dresses self and ties shoes
• Uses toilet independently
• Paints and draws
• Cuts with scissors
• Threads beads
• Jumps/hops/skips

What can adults do?

• Provide children with appropriate materials for encouraging small muscle development such as crayons, paint brushes, scissors, puzzles, blocks, beads and play dough.
• Provide children with appropriate materials for large muscle development such as balls, tricycles and balance beams.
• Limit television time — help children learn to enjoy being active.
• Create an environment inside and outside the home that encourages physical activity.
• Plan family trips to local parks.

Thinking and learning

Characteristics

• Curiosity
• Cause and effect experimentation
• Recognizes letters and numbers
• Develops an awareness of alike/different
• Develops an awareness of time
• Recognizes colors, shapes and textures
• Develops preference for right or left hand
• Memory skills increase
• Hands-on learning

What can adults do?

• Ask children open-ended questions (“How did you put that puzzle together?”).
• Provide opportunities for children to experiment (e.g., mix blue, red, and yellow water; play “sink or float” with cork, rocks, feathers and other objects).
• Display a traditional clock in children’s bedrooms; chart chil- dren’s daily time schedule and post it on the refrigerator.
• Using old scraps of fabric, create a quilt with different tex- tures, colors and shapes.
• Make a memory game with cardboard and animal stickers or old pieces of wrapping paper.
• Encourage children to talk about the past (“Tell me about your day, today. What did you do? Who did you play with?”).

Expressing feelings

Characteristics

• Affectionate
• Developing a sense of humor
• Easily encouraged/discouraged
• Demonstrates intense feelings of fear, joy, anger, love
• May show off and demand attention

What can adults do?

• Help children identify and label their emotions verbally (e.g., “You look like you are feeling sad today; did something happen at school?”).
• Encourage children to talk about their feelings, recognizing that it is an opportunity to promote closeness with children.
• Carefully observe, listen and respond to children’s emotions.
• Provide baby dolls, puppets, and stuffed animals that children can use in emotional pretend play (e.g., comforting a crying baby doll; pretend argument between stuffed animals).

Awareness of self and others

Characteristics

• Displays independence Engages in pretend play
• Displays self-control
• Shares and takes turns
• Develops friendships
• Shows respect for others’ things
• Learning first and last name, address, phone number, age, sex

What can adults do?

• Provide opportunities for children to work independently and in small groups (e.g., encourage siblings to do a puzzle together; establish individual quiet time with books).
• Create environments that support pretend play.
• Assign children simple chores such as watering plants, checking the mail, dusting bookshelves and cleaning up their toys.

Communication

Characteristics

• Asks why/what/who/how come
• Possesses a rapidly expanding vocabulary
• Engages in more complicated conversations
• Enjoys making up/telling stories
• Matches letters with those in own name
• Seeks to write name
• Displays musical knowledge
• Improves listening skills
• Uses sentences with correct grammar
• Able to verbally resolve conflicts with other children

What can adults do?

• Encourage children to ask questions.
• Engage in conversations with children such as during dinner time and at bedtime.
• Provide children opportunities to practice copying their name.
• Provide children access to musical instruments such as homemade shakers, drums and bells.

Conclusion

The preschool years are an active time for young children — their independence and initiative enable them to explore their world in new ways. Parents and teachers have the important task of giving children numerous and varied opportunities to promote their development during the preschool years, including physical development, thinking and learning, expressing feelings, awareness of self and others, and communication. Using the suggestions that have been offered will help to foster a positive, creative environment in which children can thrive.

REFERENCES – (WEB-LINKS)

https://www.iberdrola.com/social-commitment/gender-stereotypes-women

https://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/gradeschool/Pages/Gender-Identity-and-Gender-Confusion-In-Children.aspx

https://www.bondwithbaby.com/child-rearing-practices#:~:text=Child%20Rearing%20Practices%20%26%20Styles,-The%20term%20child&text=As%20theory%20goes%20(pioneered%20by,as%20Authoritarian%2C%20Permissive%20and%20Authoritative.

https://www.hellomotherhood.com/article/248805-what-are-child-rearing-practices/

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/98469/6/06_chpater%201.pdf

http://krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JHE/JHE-18-0-000-000-2005-Web/JHE-18-1-000-000-2005-Abst-PDF/JHE-18-1-021-025-2005-1225-Dhingra-R/JHE-18-1-021-025-2005-1225-Dhingra-R-Full-Text.pdf

https://raisingchildren.net.au/preschoolers/play-learning/getting-play-started/preschoolers-at-play

The Importance of Play in Preschool

https://extension2.missouri.edu/gh6122