IMPORTANCE OF SOCIALISATION IN EARLY YEARS
“The wider the range of possibilities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experience.”
–Loris Malaguzzi
Socialization is a process essential for the well being of humans irrespective of age and hence it’s a life long process. For a happy sustenance, easy work environment, peaceful childhood and funny play time and effective development and harmonious life, socialisation plays an important role. Socialisation is not just about making friends but it’s more than that. It is also being able to work in peers, handle things in the society by interacting with the respective people or departments by oneself, ability to understand others’ emotions and to respect that, respect own self and much more. Hence, socialisation is a very broad perspective and a thing that you can’t skip as irrelevant.
Socialisation neverthless being a life long process, it should be cultivated from the early years as the socialisation is of different phases and the first phase is necessary for functioning of the second and the skills you acquire from second phase is indispensable for the next and so on. Hence, it’s very much important to cultivate a habit of socialisation since early childhood.
Socialisation is important for kids as this plays an important role in nurturing for the development of other aspects of the overall growth of the kids. We bring up kids to be tomorrow’s responsible citizens and moreover independent good humans with a clear mind, humble heart and adorable character. Humans being social beings it’s necessary to be able to function well as members of the social environment and community. Socialisation activities and lessons given to them since childhood helps them in this. If not, socialisation efforts from a later point makes them struggle a lot and also probably won’t help them to be as much effective as those who had a fertile ground for better interactions and socialisation in their early years.
Socialisation in early years helps kids be better prepared to the school environment which can easily be understood from a comparitive analysis of kids who did preschooling and those who did not. Schooling expect kids to have necessary listening skills which is part of requirement that kids be attentive in class. Socialisation not just develop in the speaking and interacting skills but also the patience and interest to listen to others. Listening is a good quality and it’s a bliss to be a good listener. What this world actually lacks is good listeners. Let’s carve out some good listeners for future.
Friendships might last longer or shorter. But friends or companions are necessary in every stage of life. Anybody can be your friend. Irrespective of any boundaries and distinctons, being able to make good friends with individuals is a quality which is made possible through socialisation. Hence socialisation is again necessary to make good friendships.
Socialisation also gives a vent out to reduce the anxiety and depression in children and parents. Depression and anxieties are common to all age groups including early years. Socialisation is the medicine to such maladies.
Four Types of Socialisation are Primary socialisation, Anticipatory socialisation, Professional or Developmental socialisaton and Re-Socialisation. Primary socialisation is the first and foremost phase and is crucial because because a strong foundation laid in this phase can only make possible further constructive development of socialisation in the following phases. Moreover primary socialisation has to begin from the early childhood. Family and preschools help in this phase and remember this phase is indispensable and highly crucial. In the later phases, they learn to identify people of their kind, to get in to groups of their vibes as in anticipatory phase; and to make use of skills acquired from anticipatory and primary phases and combine those skills with the requisite skills at present and interact in the study or work environment professionally; and in a later stage when one realizes that there’s a need to jump to a different group realising one’s own choice to change as part of enlightenments to have a change of way of life which calls for abandoning old ways and perceptions and accepting new people, groups and ideas and cultures which is to re-socialize.
Now let’s move in to the most important part- that is how to encourage socialisation in early childhood :
- Help cultivate good social skills by engaging them in activities by preschools online and offline. Since the pressing times have resorted us to online classes, online conferences with classmates and teachers, online recitation of poems, elocutions etc are possible options of socialisation and in developing social skills in kids. Hello Kids is providing such platforms and Founder Pritam Agarwal says socialisation in kids cannot be procrastinated for anything.
- Encourage your kids to play with neighbouring kids or kids among relatives of same age groups. Pandemic has reduced chances of that and has increased risk of playing with kids from outside home. Parents can substitute the roles for the time being and allow them to have online gaming with friends for a stipulated duration.
- Taking kids along for social gatherings and make them in touch with your relatives, cousins and friends and encourage them to build a healthy relation with all of them from early years. Pandemic has obviously obstructed physical meetings and gatherings however parents must ensure that kids do not lose their touch with all of them by video conferencing with relatives and friends including the kids. Encourage the kids to recite the new poem they learnt and a new story they heard in class to the grandparents or relatives be it in a video call.
- Take kids to group activities or children’s clubs for better socialisation. Online children’s club can be made by coordinating with kids of residence association or classes or cousins and relatives. Parents can look in to it and take initiative to organise activities for them and monitor it. Preschools can also do the same.
To enable the kids to be good social beings, to help them climb up the stairs in to their aspired goals, moreover make them capable to sense others emotions and be a breeze to them, behave in an acceptable and respectable way simultaneously satisfying one’s self choices and prespectives and doing justice to humanity, let’s train kids to socialise from their early years.
See Also: How to run a Play School Successfully?
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