When Enid Elliot was a caregiver for a two-month-old baby, she would talk to the girl to explain everything she did while she changed the baby's diapers.
After a few weeks the baby started to shift and move so it would be easier for Elliot to change her.
"It was really a very powerful moment to realize," Elliot said.
Elliot told the story during a childcare forum held Saturday at NBCC Miramichi where over 220 participants gathered for the seminar to hear Elliot and other presenters discuss childcare education.
As many tables as could fit filled the gymnasium and every chair around them was full, with more people seated on benches overlooking the gym floor.
Some of the forum's topics included cooking and making books with toddlers, books for infants and toddlers, infant and toddler inclusion, and practical ways to improve indoor and outdoor air quality and reduce energy consumption in infant and toddler environments.
Elliot, a long-time childhood educator, addressed the group in the keynote presentation and said space provided for children helps them connect with the outside world.
"Children are eager to explore and understand the world."
A common theme throughout her presentation was communities, which Elliot said are based on shared values and rooted in relationships.
"In our work with babies, relationships abound."
It is communities that help guide a baby's development, she said.
"The relationships are the glue that binds it together."
People do better when they're in situations where they are confident, Elliot said, and asked why people put babies in strollers so they can't move or make them try to write their own name when they can't even hold a pencil properly.
"What's the rush?"
Elliot said caregivers are not robots and emotions enter into relationships.
"We cannot be perfect."
After the presentation, Dixie Mitchell, one of the forum coordinators, said communities don't focus on toddlers enough. "We never have in the past."
Elliot agreed and said they are often overlooked in communities and need someone to provide a voice for them.
"They really are our youngest citizens."
As the early learning and childcare coordinator for the New Brunswick Association for Community Living, Mitchell said the forum is not just a one day thing, because participants can use it as a place to gather and connect.
"This is used as a springboard."
The resources are out there when they go back to work and on site support can help them put the theory into practice, she said.
"It's not as if they walk out this door and wonder how the changes can be made."
No comments:
Post a Comment