A Parent's Journey of Discovery: Developing Childhood Social Skills in Early Years

By Zina Karimi

Today's rapidly advancing biological science frontier warns parents that by increasing the evidence of the importance of the prenatal and postnatal years, it will make your children's health foundations more important. For example, the child's laughter and happiness with parents are known as important tools in relation to social skills that can be a gift from parents to a happy child.

It is the parents who are responsible for shaping the child's personality. They are the ones who teach the necessary social skills and are effective in shaping the individual and social personality of the child to make him a successful person. Family has the most important impact on children's learning experience. In every language, understanding and perception in this world on what the child sees and learn are important because in the later stages of life, the child will say, "What I saw, what I heard, and what I understood laid the foundation of my personality to make good choices in life."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638745594

Book preview

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A Parent's Journey of Discovery

Developing Childhood Social Skills in Early Years

Zina Karimi

ISBN 978-1-63874-558-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63874-559-4 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Zina Karimi

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Dear Readers

Chapter 1

Chapter 2: Germany

Chapter 3: Iran

Chapter 4: Sweden

Chapter 5: Conclusion

References

To every child

Wherever you are

And my loving grandchildren

Aiden and Giselle

Dear Readers

Early childhood systems and child and youth welfare services around the world stress the value of early education and care from birth to kindergarten. However, the dynamics of cultural influence and tendencies affect the child's readiness in school. The process of school readiness is the skill formation and mastery that is essential for cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional competencies. Learning the essential skills help children to develop academic, social, and emotional successes in later life.

Social skills are the skills we use every day to interact and communicate with others. The nature of the child's social patterns is influenced by what they learn at home. Learning social skills is one of the basic needs of children and adolescents because kids are born into a social environment of a home; at the same time, many aspects of social skills can be an innate part of the child's development and allowing them to have an instinctive approach toward socialization.

Psychologists suggest that social skills are recognized as behaviors an individual exhibits in a social situation. Therefore, it is important for parents to become increasingly aware that improving social skills in children can and should be taught. Family environment can play a crucial part in improving the social skills of a child; it is important, however, for kids to know how to act with others and have a better understanding of how others feel. They are much more likely to feel connected to other people and form a positive bond.

This book is written about social thinking—one of the most important factors in understanding the social skills of young humans from the words of their parents in three different countries, Germany, Iran, and Sweden, with three different cultures. As a German teacher stated,

Children become social by imitating us. A child's relationship with parents will be the blueprint for all other relationships that follow to develop social skills to grow and have a better life, in addition to developing individual characteristics, and a better empathy with those around them. We should remember that their large part of education takes place in relation to other people and gaining experience in the classroom and later in society. By learning social skills at home and at school children and adolescents should understand that social skills are far more than the ability to empathize and communicate with others. They are crucial to be succeeding in school and later in life. Some kids may not achieve this and have a better understanding of their self-confidence, self-esteem, unless they are being supported by their parents and the education system they live in.

Chapter 1

Early childhood is one of the most crucial periods of socialization in life as it is a process that begins shortly after birth in which the child builds the complex skills based on basic skills. As we've learned from research, during this stage, the cognitive, emotional, and social domains of development are built. The infant stages of a child's life are really the determining factors in which a child sets out to become socialized. From the moment a couple decides to bring a child into this world, they need to understand the importance of supporting children in developing necessary tools to stimulate early learning and development for the transition into healthy adulthood.

I am writing this book because I have significant insight about a topic. I am curious and enthusiastic and have interesting real-life insights in the form of face-to-face interviews that I've conducted over the years and around the world. In these interviews, I speak with parents who tell us how they have adapted a more social integration of their children in the community they live in and utilize the initial development of social competency within their households. The essence of my recorded conversation with these parents consists mostly of the quality of social competence as a universal concern for parents and teachers. That, along with how one can educate children when it comes to understanding the society and its language, is how social skills have become increasingly important to the future of a child.

I have dedicated three whole years to this pursuit. I traveled to the United States and Iran to visit my family, worked for preschools centers in Germany, along with a trip to Sweden to learn about Swedish early care and education. I spoke to these parents out in the streets, though some preferred to respond back by email. My pursuit wasn't for any statistical analysis, more so interested in what parents had to say. What I received in return was of great interest. These parents were duly concerned about the abilities of our future generations as well as how new ideas could be conceptualized in different cultures and around the world.

Research tells us that positive connections at home are conducive to any number of desired developmental outcomes. Parents are fully responsible for the sheer definition of their child. What happens in their early days plays out in the future. Educating children on the major skills of life in every culture represents the beliefs, behaviors, adaptation, expectations of a particular society, and other characteristics common to the members of that community. I experienced this diversity firsthand when I moved to the United States. From a culture that prohibited making eye contact with male teachers, I found myself in an environment where the teacher claimed it was