PARENTS’ GUIDANCE AND ASSISTANCE: AN INTEGRAL PART IN EDUCATIONAL CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT

CHONA B. TOLENTINO

According to John Locke, the human mind at birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate), entirely devoid of any ideas or other mental content. In relation to this, psychologists believe that a range of actions performed by people in the family and community impact child development.

In early childhood development, which comprises areas such as: cognitive, social and emotional, speech and language, fine motor skill, and gross motor skill development, constant practice and consistency is the key. In which parents who act as the first teachers have a great responsibility in nurturing their children holistically. On the other hand, teachers who act as loco parentis contribute meaningfully for further development of the children. As facilitators and enablers of learning, both parents and the teachers must work hand in hand.

With the challenges brought by this pandemic, providing quality education is at stake especially to the kindergarten pupils who are in their vulnerable and formative years of educational development. In order to improve literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning of the learners, teachers were challenged on how to strategize learning and conduct teaching from traditional to the new normal set up.

But how do you deliver quality teaching-learning processes through distance learning if your students are not capable and equipped? How do you relay learning to non-readers and non-numerates learners if they don’t have technological and financial capacity? How do you develop social and emotional learning if learners are under Modular Distance Learning? How would parents guide and assist their children if they themselves are nonreaders and non-numerates? How can working parents aid in the learning sessions of their children? And how do you assess the learners’ outputs authentically?

The following are tips for parents to support their children’s learning: allot study-time; utilize textbooks, Self-Learning Modules, Learning Activity Sheets, and other supplementary materials effectively; ask for a tutor or family member’s assistance; teach them the basics of 3Rs (Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic); use technological-based applications and sites; watch and listen to Television/Radio-based Instructions; enroll to online class; collaborate and follow-up with teachers; encourage children to be independent; and ask for Local Government Unit’s (LGU) assistance.

If all stakeholders work collaboratively and productively, nothing is impossible. After education is a right, not a privilege which must continue against all odds.

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II, SAPANG BIABAS RESETTLEMENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.

TEACHER all,