Exploring the local environment fosters interaction with the community. Social Health & Discipline Guide It takes time for children to learn skills that support behaviours for success in learning and sharing social space with others Understanding Child Development In a Waldorf School, our work is primarily informed by an understanding of each child’s developmental stages, needs, and individual concepts. In this way, the teacher works with the child’s innate process of learning through imitation and strives to model the behaviours that are worthy of imitation. The main types of development in terms of milestones are physical, cognitive, language and social/emotional. All are equally important and are rapidly occurring in young children. Children develop at different rates. In the kindergarten we are covering the age range of 3.8 to 6 years. Examples of Emotional/Social development 3-4 yrs: Better able to control emotions, self-conscious emotions, like shame, guilt, embarrassment, envy. Forms first friendships, ability to play with others improves, Child often can’t distinguish between fantasy and reality, plays role of parent in play, imagines that many unfamiliar images may be monsters. 5-6 yrs: Likes to sing, dance and act, wants to please their friends, more likely to agree to rules, but also demanding, shows more independence, able to distinguish fantasy from reality; better able to read social cues and to interpret, predict and influence others’ emotional reactions. 20
WALDORF ACADEMY KINDERGARTEN HANDBOOK 2020-2021
