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Early Child Development

Early Childhood Development (ECD), a project of Rays of Hope, recently held a training session for care-givers who look after pre-school children at private crèches in Alexandra.

Christy Bennet, Project Leader of ECD, outlines how the project works. “There are many crèches in Alex that fall outside the government-managed system for the care of children. These crèches are run by care-givers who range from qualified teachers to women who simply want to help the community. Currently, ECD assists twelve pre-schools, but we are planning to increase that number to eighteen in the short term. The number of children attending these crèches varies from ten to over seventy-five, so several hundred children are involved in our programme.” Children have specific needs in terms of their stimulation and long-term development, so it is essential that crèches are able to offer particular services. Care-givers also need to be aware of developmental deficits and physical defects; in many cases, if detected early, these problems can be addressed and rectified, and the children given a better chance to learn. The recent training session focused on four specific areas of expertise, and thus contributed to the skill set of the care-givers and teachers. “The workshop on Saturday, April 9, was the second since the project commenced. There were several participants from each of six crèches; topics discussed were deficits that might affect learning, simple tools to be able to identify a problem, and when to suggest that the parents take the child for medical help. An eye specialist was on hand to assist teachers in the area of vision defects whilst the problems associated with impaired hearing were also discussed. Christy explained that academics for the children were discussed; from the baby room to the learning goals for the older children. Learning starts with reading to, and playing with, babies in order to stimulate their brains and accelerate small and large muscle development. The teachers were given lesson plans and ideas for the classroom to enable them to teach their three to six year. The day was a great success. “It was a fun environment and the participants gained valuable knowledge and insight; there was also a lot of networking and interaction between the various crèches that will stand them all in good stead in the future,” said Christy.

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