Thinking mindfully towards children!

This photo of January 2022, is of a child looking at the photos on display, where children and parents were welcomed in my work place. I do not recall the details of what this child might have been looking at or interested in! This photo reminded me one of the usual experiences when toddlers and pre-school children visited the room. They moved about in the room drawn by different displays and toys in the room. 

This photo reminded me of the room where families came for conversation about their children. 

As child moved about uninhibited in the room and seemed to engage meaningfully most of the times, parents had an opportunity to get an insight about the Child's Corner at home that we often talked about in parent's meetings from 2000. 

A home is also a place for children. Most of the arrangements and order in the rooms are oriented towards adult friendly conveniences. Children  during the infancy, toddler year and pre-school years seek for experiences at home that can give them an exploratory experience to grow in their understanding and play pathway in their learning journey. This learning journey can be enhanced if a child has a space dedicated for him or her with toys, books, craft materials, and a physical setting with a low table and chair for a child to feel comfortable and inviting to engage. A shelf accessible for child to use to store items of interest that he or she gathers will give a child a sense of belonging to the home. The wall can have a white board for scribbling and a bulletin board to display the scribbling or drawing a child does or to display phots of activities a child would have been part of. When such a space, the Child's Corner exists in home a child is drawn towards such a space. It is a place where the siblings spend time exploring and communicating. It also becomes a family corner where parents can also join in with children in promoting their exploratory journey by being engaged to lead them on ! 

It was during the last 30 years of my clinical work, I realised that a room in the work place where parents and children are welcomed can also be made similar to a Child's Corner at home for the child to feel less uncomfortable by the hospital ambience. 

The impressions we create in a child's mind through the environment surrounding them at home or a day care or a pre-school or a hospital consultation room ought to have the ambience of a child friendly setting. The current setting which modern hospital rooms offer to suit the convince of medical professionals appear alien to what a child is naturally comfortable with.

I have a desire to see class rooms accordingly modified to give a child friendly look. During 198-6 to 1997, when Anna and I lived in Chennai, our interactions enabled five schools to adapt the Kindergarten class rooms to seat children in low tables and chairs in groups of four. Such an interactive environment made difference in developing a social ambience which children at that stage needed. This led to using a more child friendly performance audit rather than use the usual grading system for their learning appraisal. 

I sense that parents need help and support to think more practically to make their homes child friendly with a Child's corner !

M.C.Mathew(text and photo)