Innovative practices in Bulgaria
Sharing innovations for improving local self-government
Equal Start for Every Child
"Zdravetz" Children's Nursery School 56
Background
What should we do when children from the Nursery School require special care and lots of attention? Children whose behaviour we do not understand or whose suffering we cannot bear? Today Nursery School in Bulgaria is a place where all children and all the rest teachers and adults are learning to communicate with different people. Soon all those institutions which isolated children and adults with special problems will be gone. We will have to handle the problems in regular nurseries, where we tend to stand away from problems like diseases, violence, physical limitations, inappropriate parent care.
What should we do when children from the Nursery School require special care and lots of attention? Children whose behaviour we do not understand or whose suffering we cannot bear? Today Nursery School in Bulgaria is a place where all children and all the rest teachers and adults are learning to communicate with different people. Soon all those institutions which isolated children and adults with special problems will be gone. We will have to handle the problems in regular nurseries, where we tend to stand away from problems like diseases, violence, physical limitations, inappropriate parent care.
Practice
A project team of pedagogues, psychologists, social workers, and parents are learning how to work together, to be useful to each other, to exchange professional and personal experience for finding the best professional solutions and overcoming their prejudices in providing children the best environment. The process lasted for two years before the project launch. The time was necessary to enable the team to hand over the experience and skills to teachers to work with children with various problems. Teachers will have to learn to search for help and find a common language with relevant institutions and professionals. The process would be extremely hard, because very often institutions function in an isolated and mistrustful way to different professions. As a result, when teachers direct parents to different institutions and professionals, parents themselves feel guilty and embarrassed to have children with specific difficulties. The project team has focused efforts on changing this attitude and have partly succeeded so far. For the change to happen, the team started several training modules: - The first module of the program is to advise teachers and start them talking about their problems and embarrassments, doubts and disappointment of their profession. Each one of them can receive special care and support from the team. - The second module is to introduce psychological aspect of problems to teachers, theories of human development, which explains partly children s behaviour nowadays. - The third module is organizing discussions on practical cases and roleplaying: teachers play different roles of a child, parent, social worker, psychologist, director. The various roles and experience help their cooperative work and make it easier to understand children.
A project team of pedagogues, psychologists, social workers, and parents are learning how to work together, to be useful to each other, to exchange professional and personal experience for finding the best professional solutions and overcoming their prejudices in providing children the best environment. The process lasted for two years before the project launch. The time was necessary to enable the team to hand over the experience and skills to teachers to work with children with various problems. Teachers will have to learn to search for help and find a common language with relevant institutions and professionals. The process would be extremely hard, because very often institutions function in an isolated and mistrustful way to different professions. As a result, when teachers direct parents to different institutions and professionals, parents themselves feel guilty and embarrassed to have children with specific difficulties. The project team has focused efforts on changing this attitude and have partly succeeded so far. For the change to happen, the team started several training modules: - The first module of the program is to advise teachers and start them talking about their problems and embarrassments, doubts and disappointment of their profession. Each one of them can receive special care and support from the team. - The second module is to introduce psychological aspect of problems to teachers, theories of human development, which explains partly children s behaviour nowadays. - The third module is organizing discussions on practical cases and roleplaying: teachers play different roles of a child, parent, social worker, psychologist, director. The various roles and experience help their cooperative work and make it easier to understand children.
Results
As a result of the project a consulting office has been created for parents. They ask different questions, which could be summarised in general as ambitions for development, both personal and of their children. The project team is trying to expand its work and to attract more co-workers through training of other teams and initiating new projects.
As a result of the project a consulting office has been created for parents. They ask different questions, which could be summarised in general as ambitions for development, both personal and of their children. The project team is trying to expand its work and to attract more co-workers through training of other teams and initiating new projects.
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