Source Manoj Kumar

New Delhi: To converse about the appropriate approaches and policies regarding Early Childhood Education, Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development (CECED) organized a special lecture by Prof Kathy Sylva at India International Centre, New Delhi. The lecture titled ‘Teaching Parents of Preschool Children to Support Learning at Home’ aimed to highlight the involvement and contributions of parents in the early years of their children. Along with Professor Kathy Sylva from the Department of Education, Oxford University, CECED members and several invited experts shared some deep-seated thoughts on Early Childhood Education and Development. The fact based studies on early education have identified and asserted an association between parental engagement and children’s later academic achievement at school. It is suggested by Prof Sylva that learning activities at home involving parents and children strengthens and ensures overall development of the child and better academic results. It therefore becomes apparent and important to induce parents to training aimed at enhancing the home learning environments of preschool children.

Talking about two intervention studies in her special lecture, Prof. Kathy Sylva talked elaborately on the importance of home learning environment and shared some insights about the use of a parent app in England and its impact on the development of children.     

This lecture has focused upon two interventions that are designed for incorporating parental skills related to enhance learning at early childhood level and thus to augment this wakefulness. One features an app sent to parents’ phones with short film clips of parents playing games with their children aimed at increasing concentration. The other is a series of workshops and resources offered to parents, designed to make home learning activities helpful and enjoyable. The future directions for ECED research were recommended along with the discussions about the limitations of these studies in the country.

‘If our endpoint is that we want outcomes in children, we want them to have the joy of learning. Then, we must through whatever process we are taking them through, and this applies to both teachers and children, we need to be able to demonstrate how that impact is there on children. This is the most convincing way of getting people, whether it is teachers or parents to be really convinced with something if we can show it with the children. So that demonstration is very keen’ said Prof. Venita Kaul, Founding Director, CECED, Ambedkar University Delhi who was also the Chair for the lecture session.