THE PRE-SCHOOL CHILD

Te Ao Hou, April 1956, Page 61

THE PRE-SCHOOL CHILD The first 5 years of a child's life are very important. He learns to do everything within that 5 years to fit himself for the community life at school. When he is 18 months old he begins to leave his baby ways behind and from then on until he is 5 years old we refer to him as the pre-school child. During this period he learns to walk well, to run, to skip, to jump, to climb and to explore. He learns to talk well, to dress and undress himself, to play games with other children and to imitate the things he sees other people doing. Home Environment: It is very important at this stage of a child's life that he has a good home environment. The mother's attitude to the child is of prime importance. There is a psychological link between mother and child from the very moment of birth—a link that can be substantially strengthened by breast feeding as far as it is practicable. The attitude of the mother to the child, even before birth, may well have a marked effect upon the child's sense of security. If pregnancy was not welcome by the mother, her child may come into the world under a distinct handicap, that of being an unwanted child. Subsequent adjustment may not be as satisfactory as she imagines it to be. The love that every child needs is affection combined with wisdom—a wisdom that will show itself in a watchful concern for the child's well being throughout childhood to late adolescence. It can be summed up as the kind of love found in a warm family life where all members—father, mother and children—are in a proper relationship the one to the other. This relationship is more difficult to obtain where the child is unwanted or where one parent becomes unwilling to share with the child the love which he or she formerly alone received from the other parent. Love and Wise Management: The little children of today are to be the grown people of a few years hence. In their hands lies the destiny of their people, country and of the whole world and its future. If that destiny is to be a high one they must go out from their homes with a healthy mind and a healthy body. They must be given their good start, that gift precious beyond all price. Nowhere, can that start be given better than in