Parents of preschoolers know that finding quality child care services is crucial. It brings great peace of mind to parents to know that their child is adjusting well at the daycare center. Though for many parents, there are still a lot of worrying questions about what could go wrong and whether or not their child will be truly happy at the daycare.
As a parent, one of the biggest concerns during the beginning of your child’s time at daycare is finding ways to know if he or she is happy. You can use these signs that children show you to determine whether or not he/she is comfortable and adjusting well to their new environment.
How does one know how their child is adjusting at the daycare? As a parent, one will sometimes suffer from anxiety and feel stress having to leave one’s child in another person’s care. But you’ll rest easy knowing your child is adjusting well if you know what to look for.
Making the child comfortable at the daycare is the ultimate goal of the parents and the school. The parents in specific do a lot of research and legwork to ascertain that the child gets the best daycare experience.
Parenting and daycare
Making the child feel safe and comfortable while they’re away from home is one of the main goals of parents who send their little ones off to daycare or a nanny or some other form of childcare. Parents in particular take lots of time researching options available before ultimately deciding on what will be the best environment for their children.
Parents who choose daycare for their children want the learning experience to be as natural and nurturing as possible. The parents do a lot of homework and legwork to ensure that their child is getting the best care in an environment where all children can thrive. The ultimate goal is to have each child grow and develop optimally in a safe and clean setting.
Though it is generally easy for children to adjust to a new environment, there are times when this does not hold. Parents must pay extra attention to their child’s behavior and signs to know with more certainty how they feel about being in a new place. In being too young to express, or comprehend these conflicting emotions, it is the parents’ job to recognize these signs and then act accordingly.
A child being away from both parents can be demanding, especially since they roam around with their friends all day and only return home at the end of the day. Fortunately, this gives you more time with your other children while they’re away so it’s a win-win situation. That said, there are some things to keep an eye out for that might mean your child isn’t entirely comfortable at the daycare center and will help identify if it’s too much pressure on them or if something else is causing them discomfort.
Here are a few tips that parents can use to tell if the daycare where their children are attending is making them feel comfortable and happy.
How excited is the child to go to the daycare
As parents, we all know the feeling of watching our children rush off to school with their faces pressed up against the window like snails leaving their shells. As we watch them dissolve from our sight, it’s natural to wonder how they adapt to a new environment and make friends. There are always going to be sleepless nights when you first put your child into daycare so don’t feel down if your child needs some time to adjust. Ever seen a snail hatch out of its shell before? I imagine it looks rather similar to how your child will look as he or she makes those first few leaps into their new friendships at daycare.
A child’s first day at a new daycare can be an exciting one, but it can also be difficult if they don’t know anyone there. The best way to deal with this introduction is by giving your child some time after school to get used to their surroundings and take in all the different kinds of people around them. They may want to spend a few weeks there getting settled in before spending their entire day at the facility, as that could feel overwhelming. Realize, however, that this stage will pass and they will begin to embrace the care of others while being away from you.
If the child is not excited to go to daycare after just a couple of weeks, it may mean that they’d rather join another daycare in your area. This negative feeling usually coincides with excessive crying as you try getting them ready for the day, or simply don’t want to go at all. It’s important to talk with your child about the issue, and see how they feel. If the child still seems unenthusiastic, it means they aren’t happy where they’ve currently enrolled anymore and need a new place.
Reluctant and unhappy child
When children are not happy with their daycare providers, they will usually start giving subtle hints that they are not satisfied. If the mild hints don’t work, some children might try to go directly to their parents or guardians in an attempt to bring about change. If the child has been acting differently and families who have had the pleasure of knowing them before this time do not know why one possibility could be that something is causing the child to lose interest in his or her daycare program because he or she is not as satisfied as they were previously when they attended it.
The child will stay unhappy even at home and might do so a lot more now than they usually do. Be aware that this isn’t your child’s normal behavior so normally something is going wrong at the daycare.
Regressive development of the child
Childhood is a tenacious time in youth. They are curious and want to try their hands at everything and are learning new information at an exponential rate. This is one of their ways of finding out, using trial-and-error, what works best for them as they develop key skills enabling them to learn in this very detailed way. When you see that the child has started applying these fundamentals they have learned flawlessly by now, it is, unfortunately, a sign that they are truly feeling uncomfortable; it might even be a sign of them rebelling because parents often push their children too hard sometimes through too much structure or too many rules imposed on them from an early age.
Regressive behavior (or regression to other behaviors) is often a sign that a child hasn’t been fully engaged with the adults and/or children around him. Children who are bored or frustrated in their environments may not want to engage anymore and give up on their environment.
Starts ignoring the parents
If you have a child who suddenly starts to ignore you or starts leaving you out of conversations, this is a red flag from your child who wants to make sure that you are appropriately listening in on what she thinks is important. If parents are not able to pick up the subtle hints their children may be giving them, they may find themselves slowly distancing themselves from the things they desire to hear. Not listening, running away, or spending time alone – no parent likes to see these kinds of signs from their child. As a concerned parent, try to gauge these behaviors and think about what might be causing them.
Communicating with your child
Every child is unique and deserves to be treated as such. There’s no one-size-fits-all when dealing with little ones, so make sure you don’t rush your child into conclusions they’re not quite ready to make just because other kids may have reacted differently.
Children have special needs so don’t strain yourself beyond reason by trying to make them feel too special. Things will fall into place naturally if you give them some time. The truth is that above all, your children need the love and attention from their parents but they won’t always let you know what they want – they learn by observing and mimicking them. So it’s always good to be patient with your child and don’t expect them to be on your level immediately after joining a new place. There could also be a language barrier at times so take it easy. Communicating with your child is important in this case.
Child care is a big responsibility for any parent, particularly if one doesn’t get the chance to be around their child often. Often parents want to know that their child is happy and growing well – this can present a challenge but there are some simple solutions such as speaking with the administration at his or her daycare to determine whether the curriculum they have enforces all the developmental milestones he or she needs.
To provide parents with a firm guarantee that their child is being taken care of properly while they are away, good daycare schools in Gurgaon make sure that they are always following the latest badged and vetted techniques when it comes down to reassuring quality.