Child Development at Early Age
children
Seeing, guiding, and directing child’s early development is always a pleasant experience as well as stressful. It is pleasant because of children amusing behavior when interacting with the environment and their parents. But it is also very stressful because we do indeed aware that this is a critical period in child development that determines their intelligence, attitudes and behavior in the future. This is happening to me as a father of three years old and very active boy. Children at this age love to explore the environment and try something new. They tend to make the home as a playground which of course will make the home looks like a ‘war zone’. Instead of being strict and forbidding him, I have chosen another way. I tried to make the home environment not only as a place to play but also as a place to learn. For example I attached the wall with various images (animals, vehicles, common object, etc.) with its names in two languages (Bahasa Indonesia, English) so he can play on those objects, guessing names and learn to remember as well. For toys, I try to give toys that help my son to develop his imagination and creativity so I prefer buying my kids toys like puzzles, blocks, Lego or anything that requires assembly process before playing it. And the last, I give my son time to play with peers only in the afternoon which simply teach him about time management. One of the most played games is soccer. I love this game because this game introduces and teach how to socialize and coordinate with peers. I hope what I do matching to what activity suggested by Piaget for the child development during the preoperational stages.
Oke… tanpa disadari cara “bermain dan belajar” orangtua lebih banyak berpihak pada sudut pandang orangtua. Sah2 saja kalo dirumah banyak buku2 cerita, puzzle, leggo tapi mesti diingat bahwa kecerdasan tidak hanya membangun otak kiri dengan logika, bahasa, matematik. karena ada 8 kecerdasan (multiple intelligence)yang berkembang pada tiap anak dan itu berbeda pada tiap anak. Ada baiknya anak juga dikenalkan dan bermain dengan “alam” yang sesungguhnya, melihatnya mekarnya bunga, melihat kerbau membajak sawah, bersepeda, panjat pohon, bermain musik dan kegiatan2 lain yang juga merangsang otak kanan untuk terus berkembang. Lebih arif juga untuk memberikan pilihan kepada anak, selanjutnya qta arahkan untuk mencapai yang terbaik dari setiap pilihan anak-anak…. Good Daddy….