There is no doubt that childhood can be regarded as one of the most important time of all people. As a result, it is very necessary for us to put sufficient attention and efforts on how to care children correctly and healthy. The main purpose of this essay is to concentrate more on research and analysis about how to establish and maintain a safe and healthy environment for children. In order to establish and maintain a safe and healthy learning environment, it is imperative to maintain and observe certain rules and regulations.
Teachers can provide a safe environment to reduce injuries and promote safety. I believe that practicing eating a healthy and nutritious food or snack and daily sports activities can prevent diseases caused by viruses and bacteria. Caring for pre-schoolers and school-age children is a useful and satisfactory job. Children grow and develop at such a fast pace that there are always new and exciting things happening! One of the ways children learn is to explore their environment in a very hands-on manner.
Specific practices The first effective imitative is to create an environment in a way that promotes safety and close monitoring of children. The purpose of this practice is to help children make choices and prevent harmful incidents. To achieve this, it is important to make sure that each facility and equipment is safe. Specific descriptions and examples are presented as follow. Healthy and balanced dietary In the Guide of National Quality Standards (Australia Children’s Education ; Care Quality Authority, 2017), it mentioned that the healthy dietary of food and drink should be nutritious and appropriate for each child.
Each child’s health should be cared and supported in the school. Childhood is a significant stage in a person’s life, the dietary in this stage affects many aspects in the child’s future life. At this stage, children often have weak immunity system, inappropriate choice on the food and drink might cause the irreparably harms on the children’s health. Before preparing the food and drink for children, it is important to acknowledge that the allergens of each child to avoid the potential risks. Other than making sure the harmless food and drink prepared for children, healthy and balanced dietary should be emphasized. Providing continuing nutritious and appropriate dietary is important for the physical growth for children.
In addition, it should be ensured that each child intakes sufficient nutrition on the daily base. However, some children have the difference preference on food and they often prefer to eat junk food rather than eat the foods that are good for their health. Therefore, the educators should pay more attention on making sure each child could intake sufficient necessary nutrition. Some children always have the good appetite, so the educators should monitor that they do not overtake foods to avoid the problem of obesity. Some children do not have much interest in eating, so the educators should pay attention that the children have eaten sufficient health food to avoid the problem of malnutrition.
Finally, many children do not like to drink water but some other soft drinks, but drinking water is very important for children’s health. Therefore, educator should make sure that each child drinks sufficient water on the daily base. Some health snacks could be provided to children on the specific time each day, and sugars and chocolate could be limited for children to make sure their teeth’s health. Therefore, the preparation of the children’s dietary should be paid more attention to make sure each child has sufficient nutrition to support their physical growth.
Choosing safe materials and equipment It also be mentioned in the Guild of National Quality Standards (Australia Children’s Education ; Care Quality Authority, 2017) that the facilities and equipment should be designed or adapted to ensure the access and the participation of each children. sThe furniture used for children should be matched with their heights. It will cause the safety risks if the facilities are too high for children to reach. Therefore, lowering the material is very important for children. However, it will also case safety risks if the furniture is too low for children. They often ignore the facilities that are not in their ranges of visibility, so they might be stumbled over by the low facilities.
Besides, the materials should also be chosen carefully. The builder should make sure the material will not contain any harmful texture for children. The designers of children’s furniture should also pay attention on avoiding sharp edges, which could cause safety risks for children. In the other word, the furniture or facilities for children should have round edges and harmless materials. Finally, the colors of furniture should also be chosen carefully.
The designers should make sure the facilities should be easy to see and be distinguished from the background color. This is to make sure that children could avoid running into the furniture when they are running or chasing in the room. For other facilities and equipment that children use every day such as tableware should be ensured that the materials are harmless. As the weak immunity of children, they are more likely to be infected by the virus on the tableware that have close contact with them. It has been mentioned in Stay Healthy (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2012) that the infection control is very important.
Therefore, it should make sure that the tableware of children should be disinfected all the time to reduce the possibilities of health risks of children. Establishing regulations of materials obtaining and returning In the Guild of National Quality Standards (Australian Children’s Education ; Care Quality Authority, 2017), it mentioned that sustainable practices should be embedded to make sure the safe physical environment. The role of educator in childhood education should be assumed as a manager who are responsible for the health and safety of children (Karen K., 2017). Additionally, establishing regulations of books or toys obtaining and returning is also very important to create tidy environment to reduce the possibilities of risks and help children to build the good mobility. If there is no regulation for children to obey, the environment could be very messy, which could cause the high possibilities of tipping over for children.
Besides, regulations could help children to build the sense of order. For example, when a toy is borrowed by a child, other children can only play with the toy after the child return the toy to the container or under the agreement to play the toy together of the children. Therefore, the regulations could also be established to reduce the risks of the argument and fight among children. Therefore, it is very important to establish the regulations. Setting monitoring system in childcare In addition, the another effective practice is to watching everything in the school, and listening is also an important part of this practice. Educators’ ears are a valuable asset in helping to maintain a safe and healthy environment.
Listening can help us identify when children have a social event that may turn into a danger, either because they are arguing or because they are having fun and they have not considered making safe choices. By listening, teachers may be able to identify situations that may be a safety issue, such as when a toy is used in an unsafe manner, when someone opens a door or cabinet, and when the tap is turned on. In addition to listening to the warning signs in the environment, you should also listen to hints that a child or a group of children may be in an unsafe situation, such as the voice of a child who is becoming depressed. Listening is especially important when teachers work with people with disabilities who affect them.
Some children can’t verbally seek help from adults like other children, but they can make a voice to express their feelings and needs. To read these children’s tips, teachers must listen carefully while observing the situation so that teachers can take appropriate steps to ensure the safety, health, comfort, and learning of each child. A good rule of thumb is that when you come in contact with body fluids, you should wash your hands, such as eating, drinking, changing diapers, using the bathroom, wiping your child’s nose, smoking, or potentially harmful substances such as detergents, chemicals, and animals. Dirt on outdoor game equipment, or raw food, before you come in contact with something you or your child can eat, such as food or drugs. Conclusion It is very significant to make sure the safety of the educational environment for children, so four practices have been presented in this essay as the advices for the childhood educators including healthy and balanced dietary, choosing safe materials and equipment, establishing regulations of materials obtaining and returning and setting monitoring system in school. The practises have been pointed mainly based on three references including Guide to the National Quality Standard from Australia Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority, Staying Healthy from National Health and Medical Research Council, and The Business of Child Care from Karen Kearns.
