Child Development

As children develop from infants to teens and then on to adults, they go through a series of developmental stages that are important to all aspects of who they become. The role of the parents is to provide encouragement, support, and access to activities that enable the child to progress at their development or learning.

We have all heard that "A parent is their child's first teacher", they also should remain their child's best teacher throughout their life. Parenting as a coach, the parent exposes a child to age-appropriate challenges to encourage development as well as to experiences that will allow the child to explore on their own and learn from interacting with their environment. Child Development specialists have learned that from birth children are goal directed to experiment and learn from every experience.

Child Development experts have taken the concept of scaffolding from the building trades. Just as scaffolding is put up to support the structure of the building as it is being built and gradually taken down as the building is able to stand on its own, a parent needs to provide the necessary support for a child to allow them to safely and productively explore and learn from their environment. As the child matures and develops mastery the scaffolding is removed or changed to allow the child to become more independent. If the child is not quite ready, the support is reinstated and then gradually withdrawn once again.

Our hope is to provide parents with the knowledge and guidelines and tools to provide the support, guidance and learning experiences necessary for their child to grow and develop according to his/her unique development.

Magelssen Home Page: http://www.fosston.k12.mn.us/page/2502

Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE): https://sites.google.com/a/isd601.org/ecfe/