WHEN IT IS WORTH IT...

I happened to visit a women's forum on one of the Azerbaijani websites, on which young mums who take an interest in the early development of their three and four-year-olds discussed where to send their toddlers to help them to familiarize themselves with the outside world. And they did not mean kindergartens, specialized children's groups or other educational establishments for young children.  It seems that there were only a couple of centres of this nature in Azerbaijan, whereas in neighbouring Russia, the choice is quite wide: there are development centres for babies, centres for the development of movement, centres that teach reading and maths, centres for aesthetic development and so on. In short, the choice is wide and there are a large number of child psychologists, so they will give you advice on what areas of interest your child should be involved in and what you should focus on in bringing them up.

In our country, unfortunately, there is no such abundance yet and, in economic terms, this is most likely the result of an absence of demand for these sorts of facilities for children. And sending children to the already existing children's centres will be far too expensive for their parents. So many parents, even if they are interested, clearly cannot afford this kind of development for their children.  But the very fact that parents are asking these types of questions is a good sign because this means that soon we too will boast numerous different kinds of children's educational centres for early development. If there is demand, there will be supply and prices, too, might start coming down.

For example, a member of the Mamochka forum opened this topic by asking the following question: "Tell us please where you take your kids for their development? Is there anything for children older than 3? What do they do during classes and how much are the classes? I would appreciate any information." There were various replies. But after reading just a few, it became clear to me that only a minority of mums and dads have any idea about what the early development of their kids means. And there turned out to be only four children's clubs in Baku, leave alone the provinces. "So what should we do? Start developing our children by ourselves, or it is still better to entrust them to specialists?"

Step by step

Latifa Allahverdiyeva, child psychologist at one of the centres for children's early-stage education in Baku, said in conversation with R+ that not all parents pay due attention to the question of child development in the first few years of life. "There are words and expressions which are clear to everyone but which resist exact definition. The notion of 'early development' belongs precisely to that group. Everyone knows what development is. And you don't have to explain what 'early' means either. But what is 'early development'? Why is it early? Is it necessary? Should one deprive one's child of childhood? And so on.... This gives rise to many questions, debates and objections."

The psychologist said that every child is unique and develops at a unique pace, realizes his or her potential gradually, step by step... Different functions emerge in different children in different ways.  This too is widely known. But, certainly, there are norms for every age: when and how the child should be able to sit, stand, walk, run, draw, read, write...

"All these norms are supposed to indicate to teachers and parents a deadline for the development of this or that ability and at which age its absence is still a norm. If a function does not develop by the target age, we talk about delayed development. This usually happens when the child is ill, when it does not receive sufficient attention from adults or when no one nurses him or her. But as soon as you start paying even a little attention to a baby, play with it, tell it something, show pictures or read books, it begins to develop, becomes more intelligent, grows and matures right before your eyes. The baby becomes interested in everything, it starts to ask you to play or learn with him more. And if you do not merely play or read, but use any of the various and well-known methodologies for early development, teach the child something - naturally through playing, not by putting the child behind a pupil's desk - the child begins to develop even faster and more intensively. Its speech becomes dramatically different from the speech of its peers and even from his or her own speech just a short while before. The child begins to surprise the parents with his or her intelligence, good memory, ingenuity or creative streak in character. The child starts to develop faster than he or she would do if no one had cared about his or her development. Precisely this is what we call a child's "early development".

Making a child's daily life meaningful

Many psychologists insist that this kind of development is not early, but just well-paced in modern times; that traditional pedagogical science, which is based on the experience of past centuries, lags behind modern methods; and that human potential is much greater than previously believed.  However, we know that even traditional norms have changed greatly in the last 20-30 years. Who is surprised by a 5-year-old who can read these days? And just a few decades ago, almost all children were still unable to read when they began elementary school. The point is that classical pedagogy lags behind innovators in its norms for starting formal education, so the child begins to learn just when the development of the brain is already complete. This happens by the age of 7 years. In this case, the child really encounters difficulties absorbing what his school curriculum offers him. Then he has a difficult time learning counting, reading, and writing. Later this translates into difficulties with all school subjects.

This makes it possible to give another definition of the term "early development" - it means the intensive development of a child's potential at an early age (from 0 to 2-3 years). Naturally, the traditional "nursery school-elementary school" methods cannot be applied at such an early age. This is something completely different: a specially designed environment in which the baby or the toddler finds interesting and unusual objects which it can observe and interact with using all his senses - all kinds of toys which are made from the most basic materials but which generate many visual, audio or other stimuli. The physical activity of the child should not be limited, instead, it should be encouraged by specially designed corners of the child's room, which enable it to better master movement, better realize the body's potential, be more adroit, stronger, more robust and feel more secure. Parents can make special toys which best suit their child's interests and are hard to find in toy stores. There should be books in large type face, with big pictures. Toy cubes with letters or, better yet, with combinations of letters, which the child can play with, with mum's help. There should be walks in the street, excursions, conversations, reading of books and many other things. Early development is the mother's active involvement in the child's development in the early years of life. It is a continuous process, painstaking work that requires permanent "involvement" in the child's life, permanent inventiveness and creativity. Early development is the parent's desire to fill the child's humdrum daily life with the joy of learning and creativity.

Before you start with your baby

The most important thing here, however, is not to set a goal to bring up a prodigy or a genius. There is a risk that you will overburden the child. And if you start demonstrating his talents to others, you will spoil the child's character. In addition, you should not switch from one fashionable methodology to another. Young children are conservative by nature, they get used to their way of life quickly and a change in the way of life is always slightly traumatic. If the parents frequently change their views on the development and upbringing of the child, they might cause psychological damage. Parents should be critical in choosing a methodology. They should not believe anything blindly and without a second thought. There may be a component in any methodology which will not suit the child. Despite the fact that parents are not professionals, only they know what is beneficial for their child and what is not.

A limited number of educational aids should be used to develop your child. There is no need to keep buying new developing games or toys. It is better to take full advantage of one toy or aid than to develop the child using dozens of games or aids. The child will not be able to fully use the potential of any of them and will become confused.

"You should try to speak more to your child. Speak about everything - at home, when travelling by underground, when walking: an adult's speech is more important than any training method manual.  You should not try to cover all the topics at once or choose very difficult topics. Teach your child to acquire knowledge independently and give him or her freedom of creativity in this process. Rejoice at every success of your child, even if it is the smallest attempt to show his or her abilities, especially if it is for the first time. Do not go into one specific direction, for example, reading, maths, music or physical training at the expense of all others. It is much more important for the child to develop in all directions than to break a record in one particular area. That is why it is important that the parents work on their children with the help of specialists who will always help and advise on how to make the child's life full of purpose and diversity," Ms. Allahverdiyeva concluded.