At the Kovalam beach, near Trivandrum in the state of Kerala, Anna and I watched a spectacular and daring sight of a four years old child sitting close to the tidal waves on the shore! Every time a tidal wave approached him, he stood firm on the sandy ground. We noticed that with each wave some of the sand from under the surface of his bottom was washed away by the water. He supported himself firmly with both his hands behind him, leaning back when the waves embraced him at his nipple level.
His parents were standing behind him fully alert and ready. Twice we noticed that they approached towards him when the waves seemed to reach above his shoulders. But they did not have to give him support. Both his parens are swimmers and this boy was introduced to swimming from his first year onwards.
While standing and watching the turbulence of the sea with its vast expanse, I too wondered whether the parents were wise to leave him like this. What if a big wave dragged him with it! It was a shallow beach and yet..!
It is here I came face to face with an important dimension in child development. Often the commonest feed back young children receive from parents or teachers are injunctions, 'don't do it... you will get hurt'!
A chil's experience is to explore and experience ! It is when there is a first hand experience a child's knowledge base gets expanded. The risk of a behaviour like cycling is falling and injuring! Every behaviour they seek to explore might have a risk! By dissuading them to go through an experience we deny them the strength of an experience to grow in confidence and trust in his or her abilities.
Anna and I returned amazed at the skills of a four year old child in steadying himself against the tidal waves! We marvelled at the attitude of his parents towards child development.
It is the confidence of his parents which gives him his strength!
We can either give a pre-schooler a fear producing injunction of 'No' from exploring or build his confidence by helping him to attempt and attain more than what we think of him!
M.C.Mathew(text nd photo)
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