Early Childhood teachers learn more about theories pertaining to their job |21 November 2014

Teachers of pre-primary, primary 1 and 2 met in a workshop yesterday to learn more about the theoretical part of the concept ‘Play, learn and grow together’, the theme chosen for this year’s Early Childhood week (November 17-22).

Some 30 teachers attended this workshop held at the Seychelles Institute of Teacher Education (SITE) at Mont Fleuri.

It was conducted by Desirée Hermitte, principal counselor in the student welfare section and Dinah Baby, provisional psychologist.

The teachers were divided into groups to clear out any misunderstanding in various stages of development and to talk about what effect maltreatment has on the development of the child and how teachers can help the children.

“Because an infant is completely dependent, the development of trust is based on the dependability and quality of the child’s caregivers. At this point in development, the child is utterly dependent on the adult caregiver for everything – food, love, warmth, safety, nurturing. If a caregiver fails to provide adequate care and love, the child will come to feel that he or she cannot trust or depend on the adults in his or her life. Caregivers who are inconsistent, emotionally unavailable, or rejecting contribute to feelings of mistrust in the children they care for,” explained Mrs Hermitte.

Other topics such as cognitive theory, psychological theory and language development were also discussed.