Day care can prove to be a definite advantage in the lives of many families. There are significant opportunities for learning in daycare and among those is the opportunity to develop and enhance social skills. Many parents with children in daycare report that their children are much better adjusted socially than children not in daycare. One of the reasons for this is that children are able to enhance their social learning through play by learning sharing, cooperation, negotiation and listening skills.
The best opportunities for learning in children come through everyday experiences. Due to the fact that children are naturally active, curious and eager to try new things, day care presents a solid opportunities for cultivating those natural tendencies. When playing with others children are able to learn about themselves as well as others. A quality preschool curriculum will help to build learning opportunities directly into your child’s play so that development and learning take place naturally.
In fact, the benefits to learning crucial social skills in day care can be so important many parents elect to place their children in day care for those benefits alone, regardless of whether care is actually needed or not. Day care can often present the opportunity to develop social skills that simply are not present at home. This can be particularly true in the case of only children. When children are provided with the opportunity to play and learn with other children their own age, they often develop social skills at a much more rapid rate. These are social skills that will prove to be invaluable when the child begins schools, as well as later on in life.
Socialization is something that we often are not consciously aware of, and yet it is something that we experience in virtually every aspect of our lives. Our people skills and manners are all a result of our socialization and socialization is something that begins at a very early age. When children learn how to interact with their own peers and adults it allows them to be more self-confident, particularly in regards to how they interact with others as they grow.
In a day care setting, children receive the benefit of daily exposure to other children. This allows them the critical opportunity of learning important skills of playing together and sharing. In addition, children who are in day care are also typically exposed to the opportunity to learn about various ethnicities, cultures and socioeconomic background. By comparison, children who stay at home frequently have far less interaction with other children, unless deliberate steps are taken to ensure socialization through play dates, classes, trips to the zoo, park, etc. Even children who remain at home with other siblings do not benefit from the exposure to other diversities. In some instances, this type of isolation can result in a child being introverted or shy, or at the very least experiencing difficulty in interacting with other children when they do enter school.
While it is only natural for children to experience some reluctance when they must leave their parent for the first time to go to day care, most parents will find that with a bit of time it becomes easier. To help ease the process along, many parents find it helpful to visit the day care center they are consider with their child a few times prior to leaving him or her there the first time.
Although it is possible to learn socialization skills at any age in life, it does become much harder the older one becomes. School-age children who are not properly socialized must endure the agonizing separation from their parent when they enter school for the first time; something that is often more pronounced. Day care offers ample opportunities for children to become well-acquainted with the world around them, while also developing a healthy adjustment to being away from their parents for a period of time each day.
When searching for a day care center for your child, to help make the adjustment process easier, it is often a good idea to ask about the specific program or curriculum the center uses to assist in the teaching of socialization skills. You may be pleasantly surprised to find the center you are considering has a program in place that will help your child in learning social skills that are critical to their overall development and which will help them to become self-confident and capable of easily interacting with people as they grow older.
