BT July 2019

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verbally ridiculed for an incorrect answer, or being pushed to
deliver one right answer under a high pressure, or has to put
up with a fast paced environment, it creates a tremendous
amount of stress on the child. Learning is about gaining
knowledge and experiences, it is not about memorising the
right answer to score in an examination.
Daisy Ng
EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
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How can a preschool contribute towards
developing better self confidence in little ones? ~
Prolonged high pressure learning environment does not build
confidence in a child. The child is led to believe there would
be only one right answer, and may not believe in his own
ability to provide a solution.
In a nutshell, developing confidence in a child starts from
building the child from within and allowing the child
the personal space yet supportive environment to learn
through errors.
A child who is self-confident is often a happy child, someone
who feels good in his own skin, secure in his environment
where he has a relatively good grasp of what’s going on and
developing his natural abilities at a suitably stimulating pace.
I believe a child has a natural happy state. I often advise
parents to start off from the premise of building a child, not
break a child. When anything is broken, there are cracks and
fragments. These are where confidence slips through. This is
not how we build a child to be self-confident.
How can we build a child in a preschool environment? Well,
the responsibility falls on both the school and parents.
Children are work-in-progress, there are bound to be
trials, errors and mistakes. It is important to provide a safe
environment for them; i) to indulge their natural curiosity to
learn, ii) to be brave to explore new options, iii) where, when
mistakes are made, they will not be punished harshly.
A child is developing his social skills, learning to play with
another child (also a work-in-progress) and learning the
rules of social norms. When a child makes a mistake, correct
positively and firmly so the child knows right from wrong and
has a chance to improve.
I coined the phrase ‘playschool’ and started the first
playschool because I believe in early learning and learning
through play. I believe that children are naturally curious
about the world and want to learn more. We focus on
cultivating the right skills and attitude to build a confident
learner for life.
Extending from this simple philosophy of exploratory
learning is to allow the child to learn at his own pace.
Sometimes the child gets it right immediately, sometimes
the child may need a few more tries. The key is not to
impose a binary right and wrong answer. In a hostile
learning environment where a child is physically punished,
4 BabyTalk | July 2019