By learning to make believe, children can develop the ability to think creatively and improve their empathic skills. While games of make-believe may seem like simplistic childhood activities, they are, in truth, an important part of child development. Parents and teachers can help their children and pupils accomplish this objective by encouraging them to pretend and offering them dress-up clothing or sets to use in their play-time endeavors.
During these early learning years, children must learn that one thing leads to another. This cause-and-effect relationship that seems so basic to adults is often initially difficult for young learners to understand. To help the children under their charge gain an understanding of this relationship, parents and teachers can point out cause-and-effect relationships. For example, if the child comes in wet from playing in the rain, the adult can ask him why he is wet. When the child explains that he is wet because it was raining, the adult can point out that the cause was rain and the effect was the child being wet.
Even though children between the ages of birth and 5 are too young to read by themselves, they can still begin to develop the idea that reading is a pleasurable activity. By teaching children this, adults can set them up for reading success later. To help children reach this objective, teachers and parents can select texts that will be of particular interest to the learners, and engage them in reading-rich activities, such as story time.
Dealing with excessively positive or negative emotions can present a challenge to young learners. These inexperienced children often don't know how to deal with feelings of extreme sadness or happiness in a productive and socially appropriate manner. Parents and teachers can help their children deal with these emotions by modeling good emotional control and explicitly discussing emotions as well as causes of emotions.