Young children are bound to experience several transitions throughout their childhood. The early years mark the beginning of these changes in children's lives and therefore require sensitive and strategic management of these transition periods by key actors. As a potential early childhood educator, you are expected to think critically about how different transitions are experienced by children and their families, the impact they have on their development and learning, and the role that home, school and societies play in facilitating easier learning. and healthier transition phases. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Disclaimer: When discussing personal experiences, pseudonyms have been used to maintain the anonymity of the children involved in the situation. Transitions are defined as important events and/or processes that occur during particular periods and turning points during life. Usually, they are associated with changes in a person's appearance, activity, status, roles and relationships, as well as associated changes in the use of physical and social space, and/or changes in contact with beliefs , cultural discourses and practices, especially where they are linked to changes in the context and in some cases in the dominant language". Transitions include major psychosocial and cultural changes with cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions. These depend “on the nature and causes of the transitions, on the vulnerability or resilience of the people affected and on the degree of change and continuity of the experiences involved”. The term rites of passage was developed by anthropologist Arnold van Gennep. Van Gennep explored the ceremonial stages that mark a person's life and influence their identity: from childbirth to puberty, marriage, parenthood and death. He also explored seasonal celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, and the harvest, among others. In these rites, van Gennep identifies three phases/phases: separation, liminality and reaggregation/incorporation. Separation occurs when an individual or group dissociates from their previous lives and identities. Liminality refers to the period between two states: one in which one dissociates from previous lives and identities and one in which one enters a new state, i.e. reaggregation. With incorporation, the individual or group is readmitted into society with their new status. When they experience transitions, children leave their sense of identity behind. In the new place/situation, they begin to experience new things, are faced with new physical, social and behavioral changes and experience new challenges and new expectations. Urie Bronfenbrenner defines children's entry to school as an ecological transition. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory examines the child's development "in the context of a system of relationships that shapes his or her environment." Bronfenbrenner defines complex layers of the environment. Each layer of the environment has an effect on children's development. The interactions children have with their family/community and social landscape help in their development. Any changes in one of the layers will affect the other layers. The environmental layers/structures are the microsystem, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macrosystem and the chronosystem. The microsystem is the layer closest to the child. Contains the structures with which the child has direct contact. It involves the relationships and interactions that children have with their surroundings. These structures include the family, school, neighborhood, and child care environment. Existsa two-way influence as the child can influence how the environment behaves and vice versa. These relationships have the greatest impact on a child. The mesosystem is a layer that provides the connection between the structures of the children's microsystem. Some examples include the child's relationship with his teachers, church, etc. The exosystem is the larger social system. The structures of this layer impact the development of children through interactions with certain structures of the microsystem. An example is the parents' workplace. Even if the child is not directly involved in this level, anything positive or negative that happens affects him. The macrosystem is the outermost layer of the child's environment. This layer consists of cultural values, customs and laws. Any change in the macrosystem has an effect on other levels. The chronosystem encompasses the dimension of time in relation to children's environments. Elements within this system can be internal physiological changes as the child grows, or external changes – death in the family. As the child grows, he will react differently to changes in the environment. Any changes within any of these systems can affect how children experience a transition. This theoryIn his theory, Bourdieu argues that cultural capital is the foundation of social life. His concept of cultural capital denotes a repertoire of symbolic elements. Some of which may be skills, tastes, clothing, material possessions, mannerisms, and posture, among others. These are collected by being part of a society/social class. “Sharing a similar form of cultural capital with others…creates a sense of collective identity and group standing.” Pierre Bourdieu also talks about Habitus. This includes the physical embodiment of cultural capital, or habits, skills, and dispositions that are acquired through life experience. Habitus also explains a person's personal taste for cultural objects such as clothing, food, and the arts, among others. All of these characteristics influence whether children experience a transition positively or negatively. During the first years of life, children experience a series of transitions. From the day they are born, babies begin to experience a series of physical transitions such as from drinking milk to liquid food to solid food, from lying down to sitting up, from crawling to walking to running, from wearing a diaper to using the potty , among others. Another important transition that children experience is starting a daycare, daycare, preschool, and finally school. Children may also experience other transitions such as moving from one country to another or from one location to another. This could result in children transferring schools. Illness or hospitalization in the family is also a transition that children experience as it can cause major changes in their lives. Financial problems in the family and a change in the professional career of parents/guardians also cause a transition for children who may have to attend clubs before or after school. Abuse or neglect can force children to change their living situation, which is quite a big transition for children. The birth and death of a family member is also a transition that children may experience. During the teaching practice experience of recent years, Eva had just lost her father. This was quite a difficult transition for her as she was very close to her father. Her mother helped Eva with this transition by trying to keep her father's memory alive. In the bag ofschool had a photo of her father to help her remember him. Eva's mother also took her to a therapist to help her deal with the situation. At first, Eva found it quite difficult to remember her father, but after a while it became a little easier to talk to him. Change in family structure is one of the major transitions a child can experience. In my experience with children, Julia and Ben only stayed half an hour after school until their father picked them up from school. Since last summer, the father cannot legally see his children without the mother's presence and can no longer pick them up from school. Because of this situation, Julia and Ben are abandoned at the Breakfast club at seven in the morning and have to stay at the Klabb 3-4 or until 3:30 in the afternoon, when their grandmother comes to pick them up after work, or until 6 in the morning. evening, when their mother comes to pick them up. Another transition that children experience is the change in an educator or in the person who takes care of them. Throughout my experience with children, I have experienced this transition, the children having to go from having their KGEs do their activities to me becoming the primary educator in the classroom. I think the children found this transition quite difficult especially when the teaching practice took place at the beginning of the year. At first the children tended to be more challenging (until they got used to my presence in the classroom). Throughout the experience, the children still asked for their KGE – Where is it? Why did she leave class? What was he doing? among others. One of the main transition experiences that children experience is the morning transition when the whole family gets ready to go to work or school. In this case study, the Sanchez family is preparing to go to school. This family is made up of a 6 month old baby, Arturo; 3-year-old twin brothers, Ricardo and Raymond; and mother, Renya. The twins have just been enrolled in the Las Cruces Head Start program. Ricardo and Raymond are getting dressed for school and Raymond can't find his shoes. Arturo is given a book and placed on a blanket until his mother helps him find the book. However, Artur wants his mother's attention so he falls, starting to kick and cry loudly. Once Raymond's shoes are found, the mother ties the boys' shoes and kisses them goodbye. Ricardo doesn't want to go to school and clings to his mother's leg. Renya assures him that Maria will take them to school and pick them up after lunch. The twins leave the house and their mother goes to give Arturo breakfast and change his diaper. In this difficult morning passage, children are learning to express their feelings and needs through their behavior. Children need ongoing support from adults to help them manage their feelings, impulses and attention. Having a clear understanding of how children develop would help adults better understand what children experience “during transition and set achievable expectations based on their developmental stage.” How children are prepared to experience these different transitions – physically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively, among other areas, will determine how children experience the different transitions they go through each day. These transitions that children experience can be classified into two: vertical and horizontal transitions. . Vertical transitions include key changes from one state to another, often associated with “upward” shifts. An example of this can be when children change classes/schools from nursery to primary school and from grade 3 to grade 4. Horizontal transitions occur on adaily. Many children experience a series of transitions on a daily basis, such as going from home to school and back home. They often organize a series of activities/events between school and home. In recent years, children's horizontal transitions have increased as most children attend a before-school program and an after-school afternoon program. When attending these groups before or after school, children can move from a homogeneous group (all the same age) to a heterogeneous group (with different ages in the same class). This implies that children encounter at least two different social systems in addition to their families and friends during a school day. Children have to adapt each time to the different situations they encounter. There are four main levels that influence transitions: personal level, interactional level, contextual level and socio-cultural level. A person's individual traits and characteristics influence children in their transitions. Such traits include how resilient the child is and how persevering the child is, his or her attitude towards school, whether the child is, among other things, introverted or extroverted. The child's social skills, such as the ability to play, listen, take turns, among other things, also influence the transition of the child's experience. If children are not developmentally ready to experience transitions, they will experience a difficult transition. Vertical and Horizontal Transitions The interactional level that influences transitions includes parents' attitudes toward school and learning. If parents/guardians have a positive attitude towards starting school or learning, the child will view school positively. If parents/guardians view school and learning negatively, the child may view school negatively. The same goes with the brother. How a child's siblings view school can influence how the child views school. Having positive relationships in the classroom, both with peers and educators, will help your child's transition to school. The contextual level that influences transitions includes any transition activities organized by the school. Communication between school and family members before children enter school and once they enter school also influences children's transition. Cooperation between parents, school and community can also influence how the child experiences the transition. At a socio-cultural level include the school's disposition to celebrate the diverse diversity of children. If the school does not celebrate the different cultures and diversity of children, they may experience a difficult transition. The school's ability to cater for different ethnic groups and linguistic minorities will also influence the transition children experience. Throughout their lives, children experience vertical and horizontal transitions. Vertical transitions include key changes from one state to another, often associated with “upward” shifts. An example of this can be when children change classes/schools, from nursery to primary school and from grade 3 to grade 4. Horizontal transitions occur on a daily basis. . Many children experience a series of transitions on a daily basis, such as going from home to school and back home. They often organize a series of activities/events between school and home. In recent years, children's horizontal transitions have increased as most children attend a before-school program and an after-school afternoon program. This implies that children encounter at least two different social systems in addition to their families and friends during oneschool day. Children have to adapt to the different situations they encounter every time. School readiness is defined by three interconnected dimensions: how ready children are for school, how ready children are for school, and how ready families are for school. “Children, schools and families are considered ready when they have acquired the skills and abilities needed to interface with other dimensions and support smooth transitions.” The first dimension, ready children, focuses on their development and learning. This dimension refers to what children are expected to know and be able to do to enter school ready and willing to learn, thus enabling a successful transition. For schools, success refers to literacy and numeracy, following directions, working with peers, and engaging in diverse activities. These skills are correlated between different areas of learning: “physical well-being, motor development; social and emotional development; approaches to learning; language development; general cognition and culture; spiritual and moral development; appreciation for diversity and national pride.” The second dimension, “ready schools,” focuses on the school itself. This dimension is divided into two: strategies that the school uses to encourage and support gradual transitions; and promote learning for all children. Such schools are ready to welcome children and create a smooth transition, creating continuity of experience between the different experiences that children have, for example, from the beginning of the year to primary school. This includes the quality of the school environment, i.e. sufficient time dedicated to learning; good and adequate supply of books and teaching; effective pedagogical practices, teaching and skills. The “ready family” dimension focuses primarily on the attitudes of parents and caregivers in their children's learning, development and transition to school. Support from parents/guardians and stimulating home environments for children will help them at school. “Parental educational goals, beliefs, attitudes and commitment are considered crucial to academic success.” To ensure that children experience smooth transitions, you need to ensure that there is continuity of experiences for children. Policies, procedures and practices should “promote consistency in key relationships, linkage within and between contexts, retention and transfer of relevant information (with parental consent) and close involvement of parents and relevant professionals”. The continuity of the experience between one setting and another is also important. This is related to learning experiences, relationships, and physical differences, some of which include class sizes and child-to-adult rations. Having clear policies and procedures will ensure that parents, children, schools and staff all share the same views and goals for supporting children in their transitions. A developmentally appropriate curriculum will also make the transition easier for children. Schools and educators need to work together by creating a variety of strategies to help make the transition easy for children. A welcoming environment can help ease the transition for children. The educator can organize home visits to get to know the children and understand what they like and what they don't like. Schools and educators can create a questionnaire and interview with parents to learn about the children and their background. With the consent of the parents, before entering school, the educator can visit the child in the previous facility andobtain the child's portfolio from the previous facility to know the children and their different needs. Visiting their previous environment can help with continuity of experience as similarities can be adopted from the old environment (whether preschool or home) to the new environment. A home corner can also help ease the transition as children are constantly reminded of their family and home. Another strategy that can be used is to give children something that reminds them of home, such as a toy, a blanket, a pacifier, a photograph of a family member or a pet. Before the first day, the school can organize an activity for parents and children. When I was entering freshman year, the school I was starting at created an activity day for me and my parents. I remember my mother coming to school with me, meeting my teacher and seeing my class. During this day, the teacher created a series of games to help us make friends with the children in class. I feel like this day really helped me transition from my old school to this new school. Another strategy I saw implemented during a practical teaching experience was to visit a first-year class with their KGE. The children had a specific day where they visited the Year 1 classrooms in their school towards the end of Kinder 2. The children spent a few hours in the classroom to see what happens in Year 1 and understand the procedures that take place in the classroom Throughout the year, parents can be invited into the classroom to help out with various activities. You can create a variety of activities to help children understand different cultures in the classroom and to help all children feel included in the classroom. Having a nice, welcoming environment will make the transition easier for them. Graduation day can be organized for children when they finish one year and move on to the next. This serves as a rite of passage to celebrate the previous year and begin the new one. To facilitate transitions, the key worker system can be used. When using this system, each child and their family are assigned a specific person who is responsible for connecting the families and the children. The key worker can make home visits before the child starts attending school or centre. This can help the key worker assess and understand the needs of the child and their family. The key worker can help support children in their transition to school by working closely with parents to help children settle into the centre. It is also important that the key worker understands children's cultural differences and knows key words in the child's main language. Maintain contact with family and child during the beginning and end of the day. The key person should ensure that the horizontal transitions that children experience during their daily routine are planned sensibly. Key workers can monitor the curriculum available to the child for depth, relevance to the child and balance. The key person is the bridge between home and school environment. Similar to the key worker system is the buddy system approach. Each child can be assigned a friend, which can be a previous friend the child had in a previous environment or a new friend, to ease the transition. These approaches fit well with Bowlby's attachment theory. The child forms a bond with their key worker/friend. They feel safe and secure during the transition, which makes the transition more:.