Making a living by doing what brings genuine pleasure is not the happiness that every mother desires for her child.
To make this dream come true, it is important to understand in time what will become a favorite thing for a baby. How to do this, tells our expert Leila Sazontova, the author of the site for developmental kits Oyster.
Who the child will be, mom and dad begin to discuss almost before his birth. Centers for early development and acquaintance with professions are opening, they even create specialized kindergartens – for example, in Belgorod there is a kindergarten where children are taught the intricacies of the doctor’s profession.
But nowhere else you will find recommendations on the age range, that is, when is it more correct to start introducing the child to the professions. In addition, the methods used in kindergartens and schools often turn out to be outdated and in no way correspond to the surrounding reality. Agree, in 1992, the choice and prospects were completely different. And the methods have not been updated since then.
However, the presence of modern methods is also not a successful acquaintance and choice of profession. The facts speak for themselves: not so long ago, Lyubov Dukhanina, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science, said that 30% of Russian schoolchildren do not understand what they would like to do in the future. According to her, every third child lacks in-depth knowledge of the subject, and 50% complain that they do not have time to do what they love.
This means that the time has come when each parent will have to independently decide for themselves the issue of early acquaintance with professions and make conversations with a toddler and an older child about professions as fascinating and visual as possible.
Specialists in child development say that the first decision about what to do in life is made by a child in preschool age. It can be a desire to play only with toy cars or a sudden “When I grow up, I will be a doctor, like a mother.” All these moments should be noticed and kindled a spark of interest in the baby, discussed together.
Early acquaintance with professions not only broadens the child’s horizons, but also develops in him such important qualities as the ability to soft socialization and the ability to take care of any work. Children, in whom these values are brought up, growing up, know how to invest strength and efforts in their work and truly love what they do. And this, you see, is already an excellent reason to start getting to know the professions right now.
Whoever owns the information owns the world. This rule also applies in the case of acquaintance of children with professions. Every day we come across a variety of professionals: doctors and teachers, waiters and salespeople, drivers and TV presenters. Keep in mind that you cannot speak negatively about them or treat them disrespectfully. What if you ruin the young genius of medicine with such an attitude?
It is important to constantly develop the horizons of the child. It’s one thing when his knowledge in this area is limited: astronauts fly into space, doctors treat people, and teachers teach. And it is completely different when children are well-versed in this matter. When they know that astronauts fly into space, but astronomers, astrophysicists and astrobiologists also study space; when they know that there are many specialties of doctors, pharmacists, biologists; when they know that apart from teachers there are also coaches, coaches, tutors … Then it is much easier for a child to understand what he likes in life and what he wants to do.
Kids are introduced to professions in the form of a game and as unobtrusively as possible. This not only helps to understand the world of professions, but it is also great fun. Play is the most productive form of cognition from birth to adolescence. Fortunately, modern kids have a lot of opportunities for this. They can not only play as a cook or teacher, but also use modern technologies in the game.
Here are some practical tips on how best to do it:
1. On a walk, in transport, in a store – wherever you are with a child, observe those who work. What are people doing at the construction site, what the doctor asks about at the reception, how the janitor sweeps the yard … Talk about it. Do not forget to respond respectfully to any work.
2. Read and talk with your child about professions. And after the conversation, you can even draw a representative of the profession. And in the process, mention the details: what the doctor is wearing, what is the importance of the work of a rescuer, etc.
3. Tell your child about your work, how you enjoy it, and how it is useful to society. Tell him about how your day is being built, who your colleagues are, and your professional plans. It seems to many parents that children do not need such details, but in fact, even toddlers are very grateful to such adult revelations.
In many large cities, the so-called cities of professions have become very popular in recent years. Adults are not allowed into the play area, there are only children and employees. During the day, children can be teachers, firefighters, hairdressers, postmen … And with the money they earn (or rather, their game equivalents), you can go to a cafe where children also work. Studying the world of professions with a child, it is possible and necessary to consolidate and expand the knowledge gained. This can be done in various ways, for example, using special play sets.
Imagine this situation: a child suddenly announces that he wants to become a doctor. And instead of answering the question “What kind of doctor?” gets lost and doesn’t know what to say. Why? Yes, just in his head there is simply no idea that one can dream of becoming a dentist, a therapist, a traumatologist, and even a radiologist! And your task as a parent is to tell him about it.
And here kits for professions come to the rescue. Applying a plaster cast to the bone model will explain why bones break and how to protect them. A stethoscope will help you figure out where the heart is and what the pulse is talking about. Making and installing a filling on an artificial jaw will be an excellent occasion to talk with your child about how to properly protect your teeth. And with the help of virtual reality glasses, which are also included in the set, you can do the impossible: take a walk inside the vessels and find out how the blood flows. And so the child will feel like a real specialist, and at the same time he will find out what each of the specialists deals with, and will play great.
For children, this is a good opportunity to learn the profession from the inside, to feel like an adult and responsible. And for parents, this is an assistant: after all, it is better to see once than hear a hundred times.
For older children, there are various board games for early career guidance. They help parents to build a conversation on equal terms about the future of their child, to understand what he really likes.