Philosophical Analysis

Theoretical Analysis of Early Childhood Care and Development Assessment

Descriptive Title Early Childhood Care and Development Assessment is the product of a carefully conducted survey of Filipino children aged 0 to 5 years and 11 months, from rural and urban areas all over the country. The ECCD Assessment will guide the identification of children who may not be growing at the desired pace and extend guidance to the parent or caregiver. It is important because it enables caregivers and child development workers to monitor a child’s growth and development in specific aspects and help identify children at risk for development delays.

Situation in which it operates or is implemented The ECCD Assessment is designed for use by caregivers, Day Care Workers, Barangay Health Workers and Volunteers who provide services for children ages. The first six years compromise the most crucial stage in a child’s life. It is therefore the best time to monitor his/her growth and development. The best time to administer the assessment is when the child feels comfortable and relaxed.

Legal Basis The Early Child Care and Development Act (Rep. Act. 8980) is a deliberately policy approach to address the fragmentation, gaps and inefficiencies of the current ECCD situation in the country. It provides a coherent and comprehensive national policy for the implementation of ECCD. It provides for the institutionalization of a national system for early childhood care and development for children.

Rationale and Objectives The general objective of the ECCD Assessment is focus on the over-all care and development of Filipino children during their most critical stage of growth and development. This is to ensure their rights to survival, protection, development and participation. Specifically the ECCD focus on five areas namely: 1. Advancement of Children’s growth and development 2. Partnership with families and local government 3. Human resource Development 4. Program Management and Administration 5. Physical Environment and Safety

Activities, Strategies and Facilities needed or used The ECCD Assessment uses a checklist which will be answer by the respected teacher and parents. Observation is very important in the assessment for accurate results. Activities of children like walking, sitting, climbing and jumping checks the gross motor of a child. Reaching, grasping and writing are used to test the child’s fine motor. Self-help is being test through observing a child’s toileting and dressing. Receptive language, expressive language, cognitive and socio-emotional is being check by observing the child’s ability to understand words spoken and conveying his or her thoughts and feelings. Duration/ Time Frame It is specifically recommended that the monitoring be done every four months based on the following schedule: once a year- for 3 years, 1month to 5 years, 11 months. Target Clientele and People involved The target clientele involves children ages 3-5 years old together with their parents or guardians. The checklist is designed for use by the caregivers, Day care Workers, BHW and all volunteers who provide services for children.

Philosophical Analysis The ECCD is based on the philosophical concept of existentialism. Existentialism comes from the word “existence” which comes from the Latin “existere” meaning “to stand out”. It emphasizes individual responsibility, individual personality, individual existence, and individual freedom and choice. Nature of Man The existentialists see man as not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living. Persons are not only mind, but also feeling – emotions. Man is conscious subject rather than a thing to be predicted or manipulated. This is how the ECCD seeks to develop the child – The concept of development in ECCD is defined as the process of change in which the child comes to master more and more complex levels of moving, thinking, feeling and interacting with people and objects in the environment in which he lives or exists. No child is predictable based on a definite concept. Each child is unique with her own set of thoughts and feelings. But how he thinks and feels is direct result of how he experiences the world as determined by the influences of the people around him.

Nature of Reality Reality according to existentialism is “being in the world”. It is the meaning which man gives to his life as he experiences it. Child development occurs with learning as the child acquires knowledge, skills, habits and values through experience and experimentation, observation, reflection, and/or study and instruction. A child’s reality is his environment as he lives it, as he experiences it with his senses. As he sees it, as he hears it, smells it, tastes it, and feels it. With this knowledge, it is important for the pres-school teacher to provide the best that she can give of herself to her pupils and to allow the child the utmost experience as time and resources make it possible. Nature of Knowledge Knowledge is composed of what exists in an individual’s consciousness and feelings as a result of one’s experiences. The value of knowledge being developed in a child is given substance in the program’s recognition that early childhood, being the period of a child’s life from conception to age eight is the time frame consistent with development psychology’s view of the continuum that children below the age of eight learn best when they have objects they can manipulate; when they have chances to explore and learn from trial-and-error within safe and stimulating environment. It is therefore imperative that the program provide for mentoring that will maximize the

potentials of a child at a time when he is most receptive to the acquisition of knowledge. Nature of Value One gives one’s meaning through action; life has no value unless one gives it value. The child is of great value. This is recognized by the ECCD program. That the child is valuable is shown in the principles underlying the ECCD program. Action which is prerequisite of value is apparent on the recognition the both the child’s physical growth and the child’s intellectual, emotional, and social growth are crucial in the child’s overall development. The program recognizes the fact that young children need care and nurturing. They need attention to their health and nutrition, their evolving emotional and social abilities, as well as their minds.

Psychological Analysis The psychological analysis of Early Childhood Care and Development Assessment is based on the Behavioral Theory wherein it focuses on the study of observable and measurable behavior. It does not give much attention to the mind and thought processes occurring in the mind of the learner but the change of behavior occurred. Because according to this theory, learning occurs if there is a change in behavior. The primary concern of the ECCDA is to monitor the child’s growth and development at a particular stage and to identify children who are experiencing developmental delays. It focuses on the different aspect of a child, its physical (weight, height, body build, gross-motor skill etc.), social (if the child can imitate, can follow simple direction, and can play), emotional (if the child shows temper, tantrums, joy, affection etc.), mental (if the child can recognized letters, numbers, shapes, etc.) and speech. It is believed that every child’s growth and development follows definite and predictable patterns of behaviors. There are orderly patterns of physical, motor, social, emotional, speech and intellectual development, so every stage there are developmental tasks to be achieved by the child. Early foundation of a child is critical because during this stage the complex behavior and structure is laid and built in a child’s lifetime.

The ECCDA has a great significance in determining child’s growth and development at a particular stage and child’s performance in school. Another is the identification of children with developmental lag and if there are children who experiences developmental lag the teacher will make certain measures to help the child. Preschool children undergo a rapid growth and development their mind is like a sponge they can absorb a lot of information easily. They acquire learning through the use of their senses, through imitation/modeling and repetition of activities, for example teaching the sound each letter of the alphabet which follows the Law of exercise. So the learner is passive receptor of information, a follower and listener. The behavior of the child is molded and shape by the outside force which is environmental particularly at home and school. At this stage, the child is not aware of some behavior whether good or bad, right or wrong because their critical thinking skills is not fully develop. On the other hand, the teacher is the sole authority in the classroom. She is the source of knowledge and determines what is correct and wrong.

Sociological Analysis Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) refers not only to what is happening within the child, but also to the care that child requires in order to thrive. For a child to develop and learn in a healthy and normal way, it is important not only to meet the basic needs for protection, food and health care, but also to meet the basic needs for interaction and stimulation, affection, security, and learning through exploration and discovery. Children do not just grow in size. They develop, evolve, and mature, mastering ever more complex understandings of the people, objects and challenges in their environment. There is a general pattern or sequence for development that is true of most children. However, the rate, character, and quality of development vary from child to child depending on cultural influences existing in the social context. The social context in which a child’s development occurs is essentially the physical environment. Everything that the individual can conceive—even everything he observes that is capable of expression—is not individual but social in origin. It is a sort of baggage that the individual receives from society. Thus certain beliefs are specific to certain environments; they are what allow the group to exist—its bond, its basic reason for being. It is these

beliefs that provide the basis in each individual for the development of ideas. Individual behavior is merely an expression of the community. An individual’s most personal experiences—those related exclusively to the details of his intimate and emotional life, although they may be inscribed in his memory as being part of his own past—can, in fact, only be formulated and specified, and, indeed, can only exist to points of reference supplied by society. To successfully contribute to the development of a child requires study of the environment or environments in which he grows up. Otherwise, there is no way of knowing with any precision what he owes to this environment and what is a product of spontaneous development. It is rather probable, in any case, that nature and environment do not simply make separate contributions which are then combined; more likely, each one serves to bring out the child’s potentialities. Intelligence becomes objective when it becomes socialized. Society’s intervention is one moment in the child’s psychic development—a moment brought about by an intellectual decision on his part, for he has become persuaded, after repeated experiments, that the totally personal viewpoints is beset with insurmountable problems.

A child is a social being from the infancy. All the same, a child depends on his human environment for his means of subsistence and for the satisfaction of his every need. And this objective state of affairs has immediate repercussions which determine the direction of his mental development. The earliest useful relationships of the child are not his relationships with the physical world, which when they do appear are purely playful in character; they are his human relationships, relationships of comprehension whose necessary implement is the means of expression—his primary significant others—family—parents, siblings, his secondary significant others—friends, classmates, peers. This is why even if the child is still an infant, he cannot be described as a conscious member of society, he is nonetheless a being totally geared toward society from the very start. The child’s ties to his environment are ties established through immersion in the situations in which he is or could be involved and in whatever motivates these situations. As he grows older, the environments affecting him will increase in number and undergo transformations. And as he grows from one age to the next, it will be increasingly possible for him to choose environments more or less according to his preferences. Some will be natural environments like the family, other social environments like the profession. Yet other

environments will be chosen on more trivial grounds – entertainment, for instance. Each environment will offer him an opportunity to enrich or change his personality. The study of such different environments is thus necessary if we are to gain a better knowledge of the individual child. In the application therefore the concepts of ECCD, it is important for the teacher to discover the influences surrounding each and every child. This will explain the varying attitudes and behavior of each and how they are to be dealt with individually. It will be impossible for the teacher not to compare one child with the other, but it should not temp her to judge one as being more or less than the other. In all presumptions and suppositions of a child, the teacher should always go back to the definition of ECCD, that, for a child to develop and learn in a healthy and normal way, it is important not only to meet the basic needs for protection, food and health care, but also to meet the basic needs for interaction and stimulation, affection, security, and learning through exploration and discovery.

Proposal for the Improvement of the ECCDA Program

Rationale The Rationale of the ECCD Assessment is focused in the over-all care and diagnosis of Filipino children during their most critical stage of growth and development. This is to ensure their rights to survival, protection, development, and participation. Specifically, the ECCD focuses on five areas namely: 1. Advancement of children’s growth and development 2. Partnership with families and local government 3. Human Resource Development 4. Program Management and Administration 5. Physical environment and Safety

Situational Analysis: Weakness of the Program as Implemented After thorough analysis of the program, the following weak points are noted; to wit: • Lack of Evaluation of Implementation. In reality, not all concerned government agencies understand the value and the underlying principle in the conceptualization of the ECCD Program. There is no

means of monitoring if directions and activities are followed conscientiously or if care providers and teachers are trained appropriately regarding assessment skills. At the same time, only children enrolled at Day Care Centers are catered by this program while those who are not registered to this institution have no access to the assessment.

• The tool is limited only to diagnosis and assessment. The device is truly helpful in monitoring growth and development, yet, it does not include instructions about what to do in cases abnormalities are noted.

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Grouping of developmental milestones is general. Though skills are clustered according to different domains of growth and development, they are not arranged according to age. Some of activities that are being accomplished appear to be not age-appropriate since care providers and Day Care Workers are expected to administer all items listed in the checklist. This means that they are assessing even developmental milestones that are not probable to be exhibited by a child.

Objectives The modifications aim to: • Improve the approach of assessing growth and development of children, • Harness the competence and confidence of care providers and Day Care Workers resulting to their enhanced knowledge, skills, and attitude and • Extend the program to a broader subject, employing all children below six years old. Target Clients The target clientele are children aged 3-5 years old with their parents and guardians. ECCD Assessment is being implemented and accomplished by trained caregivers, Day care Workers, Barangay health workers and all volunteers who provide services for children. Strategies to Remedy Weaknesses Basing from the aforementioned weaknesses of the program, the following strategies are worth mentioning: • Concerned agencies should have a thorough evaluation on the implementation of the project. Comprehensive training for care providers should be organized regularly in order to harness their

assessment skills. This program should employ every child and not only to those enrolled in Day care Workers. • The program should include concrete instruction on what to do in cases abnormalities are noted. Systematic referral system for agencies concerned should be constructed to aid care providers and Day Care Workers address these irregularities. • Items in the checklist should be age-specific. Administered activities should be organized and categorized according to a specific age where milestones are expected to be exhibited by a child. Though this, it will be easier for the people involved in a child’s care to assess growth and development as well as signs of delay. Budgetary Requirements The ECCD Assessment uses the appropriate and valid ECCD checklist which is being answered by the parents and guardians. Time table The above cited strategies should be given sufficient consideration and be implemented within a school year.

Conclusion With scrupulous analysis of the aforementioned information, it is safe to construe that the ECCD program is necessary for the thrust of the government to promote a child-friendly country. It is a way of promoting and maintaining the optimum condition of Filipino children. It is useful in adding care providers and Day Care Workers in assessing Children’s growth and

Development

including

delays.

The

ECCD

Assessment

is

comprehensive and satisfactory yet there are still aspects of it that need improvement. Children below six years old are in their most decisive stages in their lives. Whatever concepts parents and care providers who are in direct supervision to a child’s input to him have a great impact to the child’s future. Competence and confidence of care providers and Day Care Workers are paramount in the proper implementation of the program.

Republic of the Philippines Mariano Marcos State University Laoag City

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements In the Subject Ed. F. 201 Foundations of Education

Presented to: Anabelle Felipe Ph. D. Professor

Presented by: Carolyn E. Agatep

Republic of the Philippines Mariano Marcos State University Laoag City

In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements In the Subject ECED 214

Presented to: Prof. Marina T. Felipe

Presented by: Carolyn E. Agatep