Our favourite texts 2023 from the kindergarten booklets
Arriving, growing in and mastering the transition to primary school: the four special editions «Chindsgi at last», «Well settled in», «Almost grown up» and «Goodbye Chindsgi!» are dedicated to the topics that particularly concern parents and teachers. We hope you enjoy reading the excerpts from our best-of articles 2023. You will find the link to the full article at the end of each issue.
1. finally Chindsgi
«Parents should do one thing above all: talk to their child a lot»
Developmental psychologist Moritz Daum knows what is needed for good language development and explains what parents should look out for in a multilingual upbringing.
Mr Daum, many children have a new language experience in kindergarten when they come into contact with High German. The question of whether teachers should speak this instead of dialect is a controversial one. What do you think?
Children should feel comfortable in kindergarten. They will do so if the teacher feels the same way. If the teacher feels most comfortable with Swiss German, they should speak dialect. It is certainly not wrong to sensitise the children to High German, perhaps by choosing it as the language of instruction once a week. But I don't think it's a good idea to tell teachers what to do. And: children who speak dialect also come into contact with High German outside of kindergarten, be it through songs, television, audio books or being read to.
Multilingualism harbours no risk for development. This theory has long been disproved.
Moritz Daum, developmental psychologist
Click here for the full interview.
My invisible friend
Mikael Krogerus remembers his imaginary companion through his kindergarten years and why it was so important to him.
When I started kindergarten, I had two problems. I hardly spoke any German (my family is Swedish-speaking and we had only recently moved). And I didn't know any of the other children. But luckily I wasn't alone. Because I had my invisible friend with me: Lupidi.
I don't know where he came from or why he had that name. But he was there. Lupidi wasn't an incredibly inspiring guy; he wasn't a good protector or a brave go-getter either. But he was the one with whom I replayed the decisive scenes of the day on the way home.
For a long time, I thought I would be completely different when I grew up.
I would never have thought that only different layers of experiences accumulate, like shells around a core, but that the inside remains unchanged: a four-year-old who goes alone to a new place where he knows no one. Accompanied by an invisible friend.
Click here for the full column.
2. well settled in
How can my child become self-confident?
We all long to be accepted and loved unconditionally - it forms the basis of our self-confidence. This is how a child develops this important building block for a happy life.
The seeds of our self-confidence are sown in our early childhood. The first years of a person's development are so important because it is during this time that their brain structure, with all its neuronal networks and connections, is formed. The experiences we have with our close caregivers during this early developmental phase are deeply engraved in our brain.
If recognition is linked to a certain condition, the child realises that it is only valuable if it behaves in a certain way.
Parents are not to blame for everything
Parents are not always to blame, says German paediatrician Herbert Renz-Polster. «Blaming the parents has been the business model of psychology for the last 100 years, which has sought to explain every drama and every injury to people through their mother's behaviour,» he says. Parents are particularly vulnerable: they believe that everything that goes wrong with children is their fault. Wrongly so! «Parenting takes place within a system.»
Today's parents are doing really well.
Herbert Renz-Polster, paediatrician
According to Renz-Polster, parents are neither the all-powerful «course setters» nor the magicians who teach their children the tricks of life, but are part of a whole, which also includes the children themselves, their relatives, friends, school, clubs and even society as a whole. Today's parents are actually doing a really good job.
Children should be told every day that they are loved from the bottom of their hearts.
Margarete Killer-Rietschel, psychologist
Click here for the full article.
«Don't hit!» Self-control for children
Slowing yourself down and not expressing your emotions impulsively: This has to be learnt. Dealing with one's feelings and developing this inner control are important topics in kindergarten.
Impulse control develops over time. However, children can be supported in developing their potential for self-control and delaying needs. In order for children to train their impulse control, they need the guidance of adults.
What seems like defiance to parents is often due to the immaturity of the child's brain.
They are often not yet able to formulate their needs, impressions and feelings, so they react emotionally and physically rather than in a linguistically controlled manner. It is therefore important that parents verbalise what the child is feeling. And that's not all: «If parents verbalise their own impressions and feelings as often as possible, their children learn a lot about how to access their own emotions,» says Moritz Daum. The professor of developmental psychology is researching the question of how people become social actors in the first place and is investigating, among other things, the influence of spoken language on development.
Click here for the full article.
3. almost big
«We parents do less wrong than we think»
Educator and psychologist Sarah Zanoni calls for more serenity in parenting and reveals how mums and dads can keep a clear head even in stressful situations.
Mrs Zanoni, in which situations are parents particularly stressed?
These can be very different situations. Many people are challenged to reconcile work and family life, and a lot is demanded of mums and dads today. These are often moments when the child has a need and cannot express it properly verbally. They are tired or hungry but don't say so, instead whingeing or starting arguments with their siblings. The parents' adrenalin levels rise. The solution is often obvious.
What is your personal favourite mantra from your book?
There are a few. To name one: «Children learn to make good decisions by making decisions, not by following rules.» This sentence comes from the American author Alfie Kohn and it also reflects my attitude: children should also be allowed to make their own decisions.
We should react when our inner traffic light changes from green to orange and not just when it turns red.
Sarah Zanoni
However, this does not mean that children are allowed to decide everything and ultimately determine everyday family life. But we know from research that children and young people who are allowed to have a say have much better social behaviour. They are more involved in the community and handle things more carefully. One example: If we buy a new sofa as a family and the children are allowed to give their opinion on what they like and what is important to them, they are more likely to take better care of the sofa later on.
Click here for the full interview.
Me, you, us - this is how my child becomes socially competent
By the second year of kindergarten, most boys and girls are able to empathise with other children. Nevertheless, social interaction needs to be practised. How to support your child in making friends and resolving conflicts constructively.
Social skills include a range of abilities that help us to form relationships and live together in a community. The Curriculum 21 sets out which of these should be particularly promoted in kindergarten and later at school throughout Switzerland.
Children pick up important skills in everyday life, even if they are not explicitly taught.
Accordingly, children should gradually learn to abide by rules, to empathise and understand others, to show consideration, to formulate and assert their own needs, but also to wait sometimes, to deal with frustration when it arises, to regulate emotions and to resolve conflicts. Children should discover how they can take responsibility for their own actions and assess their abilities and skills.
Click here for the full text.
4. goodbye Chindsgi!
«Children cannot develop beyond their potential»
Paediatrician Oskar Jenni says that every child is unique and develops at their own pace. We should recognise the differences instead of seeing them as disruptive.
Mr Jenni, «every child is different». What exactly do development experts mean by such a statement?
What I mean by this is that every child is unique and has many different facets. These are not all equally pronounced in the individual child and develop at different speeds. For example, a first-grader's cognitive skills may already be at the level of an eight-year-old, but their social behaviour may be that of a young kindergarten child.
Why do children develop so differently?
Diversity is the result of a complex interplay between the genetic make-up and the environment. The predispositions determine the maximum developmental potential that a child can realise under favourable living conditions. If the environmental conditions are unfavourable - for example, if the parents are mentally ill - then in some circumstances only the lower limit range will be exploited. In principle, children cannot develop beyond their individual development potential.
Active encouragement by parents impairs the child's willingness to learn.
Click here for the full interview.
Convey confidence instead of overrating grades
After starting primary school, a child will receive their first grades at some point. The significance of these depends not least on the attitude of the parents.
It is up to us adults to decide how the children feel about their report cards and whether we make the report card and grades the measure of all things school-related.
Let's be clear right away: we should definitely not do that! Because grades and reports are no good as a basis for motivating children to learn at school. Children are motivated to learn because it is human nature, especially at a young age.
Particularly in the first years of school, support must take centre stage - always, in fact.
Children also learn at school because the environment wants them to, because they learn at school and, last but not least, because it is often fun. It is therefore one of the main tasks of the school and of us teachers to support the children, to encourage them in their learning, to challenge them and to help them progress.
Click here for the fullarticle.
