What role does socialization play in early childhood education?

What role does socialization play in early childhood education?

What is Socialization in Early Childhood Education?

The definition of socialization involves learning values, beliefs, and behaviors, and the rules that must be followed for a better coexistence, developing feelings that help in the idea of collectivity. 

So, when we’re talking about socialization, we’re talking about learning. And we know that children start their learning process when they are still small and cuddly babies.

Yeah! Children begin to learn when they are babies, when they discover touching objects, tasting food, looking at colors, and responding to sounds.

This process is improved in early childhood education when socialization plays the role of helping to develop linguistic, cognitive, pedagogical, and emotional skills. Read more

How important is socialization for children?

Socialization in early childhood education is of fundamental importance for the evolution of the child in the face of different everyday situations. 

We often imagine that children are beings who do not know how to interact, however, they are in constant learning and perform their interactions in the most diverse ways. 

Watching children socialize, whether at school or in another environment where they feel safe to do so, allows the adults around them to guide their behavior to help overcome their difficulties. 

The importance of the school in this process grants autonomy to the little ones, and they start to see the world as a wide space of opportunities to interact with other people. 

They begin to recognize when there is a real incentive to socialize at this stage of life. The family’s presence as a supporter of the child in the school environment generates a significant improvement in learning.

How to develop socialization activities in the school environment?

The first thing to think about when we talk about socialization is that the child will start his school life, and this will generate changes that need to be accompanied by all those involved in this process. 

The school environment must provide children with well-planned spaces for the development of social practices for this age group. 

The creation of a space that facilitates this behavior generates confidence in the child to explore the possibilities. 

In this way, the environment also educates the child, to encourage him/her in adventures that he/she has already learned that can be carried out there.

Early childhood education is the child’s first step outside of family life, without the physical presence of the family at all times of the day. Thus, this environment must continue to be welcoming, however, in an expanded and safe way. 

We must think that education takes place at all times and environments designed for children must offer security, not only for them but for parents and guardians who, upon leaving, are sure that the child is protected and cared for. 

Therefore, as a socialization environment, the school must contain intentional spaces for pedagogical practices, where children learn to share, help, and be helped.

It is precisely this welcome that the school environment offers to the child that makes everything around him/her become a great curiosity and pleasure in learning and he/she is there with all his/her classmates and teachers.

In early childhood education, one of the great pillars is affection, so when children are introduced to the school environment, they must feel part of it, just as they feel part of their family in their home. 

This affection is easily noticed when the child creates bonds with his/her colleagues and his/her teachers in order to want to be in that environment designed for him/her. 

Speaking of teachers, they are fundamental parts of the process, as they will mediate the good relationship of the little ones with their colleagues, with the environment around them, and with their learning, to establish physical, emotional, and cognitive care in this process.  

In conclusion, socialization in early childhood education fosters crucial skills such as communication, cooperation, and empathy, shaping the foundation for lifelong learning and social development.