Part two of a series on educational enrichment explores why labeling children should always be avoided.
What is Labeling in Educational Enrichment?
What is labeling in educational enrichment? People have a tendency to categorize things and people. When this works is to help us to process information; However, where children are concerned sometimes this causes labeling to come up. What’s labeling?
Well, let’s look at a fairly typical family, though slightly different from the standard ‘nuclear family.” In this scenario, we will have two parents and three children, two girls and one boy. Let’s call them Alex, Emily, and Abigal. One of the parents, we’ll call her Olivia, is talking to her friends on the phone and says “Alex is the smart one of the family.” Even at a young age, children can infer things. By saying this, she has planted a subconscious association in her other two children’s minds that they are not smart. As your Mesa preschool, we find it best to avoid this sort of thing.
Early Childhood Education and Watching What We Say
There is a theory in the early childhood education industry that sometimes labels can stick from childhood all the way up and create unhappiness and anxiety. To label a child with terms such as “remedial” or “gifted” can often cause the child to act differently than they would without a label attached. In the case of a teacher, studies have shown that teachers behave differently with a labeled child, treating a “gifted” child differently than other children.
While it is important to determine what learning style children learn best at, the child also must be assessed to see if they’re learning from the method. The key is to let children learn at the pace that’s best for them, with only a bit of help in the areas that they struggle in. That is all a part of a well planned educational enrichment program.
This concludes part one of our series on educational enrichment. Be sure to read part one and part three as well.
Kid’s Corner Preschool & Childcare
2051 W. Guadalupe Rd .#15
Mesa AZ 85202
(480) 267-9419
kidscorneraz.com
