PROPER CHILD PROJECT

 Infancy and early childhood are remarkable periods of human development. Why? It is because they are the bedrocks of child's cognitive, emotional, social, and physical developments. If the infancy and early childhood stages of a child are inundated with challenges, especially health-related challenges, the developmental stages of that child will suffer severe setbacks. The following factors can adversely affect the infancy and early childhood development of a child: a. If the parents of the child are poor, there would be limited access to resources, good residential environment, healthcare delivery facilities, education, and poor nutrition. All these factors can adversely affect infancy and early life development of a child. The reason is that poverty causes malnutrition and malnutrition causes low weight of the child at birth. This leads to impaired cognitive development. b. If the pregnant mother is addicted to tobacco, alcohol, the exposure of these substances to the child can ...

 The importance of primary school education cannot be gainsaid either on the score of moral or design. Primary schools play a pivotal role in child's development, helping the pupils develop healthy habits. Below are the ways primary schools can contribute to the prevention of bad habits in pupils: a. According to psychologists Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory and Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, children learn by observing and imitating others in their environments. Therefore, primary school teachers and staff should model behaviours such as respect, empathy, kindness, and responsibility for the pupils to emulate.  b. Teachers should encourage the pupils to see challenges as nothing but opportunities for growth and learning. c. Primary schools should incorporate self-regulation, emotional regulation, time management, problem-solving, and the ability to finish given tasks under specific time frames into schools' curriculum. d. Primary schools should embark on reg...

 Continued from previous one... 19. Refusal to share: This is another bad habit found in children. It refers to a child's unwillingness, reluctance, and lack of interest, to share his/her belongings (toys, biscuits, ice creams, and time) with others. Most children are not empathic at their early developmental stages. They exhibit the traits of possessiveness and hatred of destitution. That means, they hate to be in lack or shortage of things that make them comfortable and happy. They want to keep whatever they have. That is why they do not want to give out anything that belongs to them to anybody, not even their parents, or the person who bought those things for them. Once the item gets into their hands, it permanently remains with them until they finish eating it or making use of it. They fear to give out anything to anybody so that it doesn't finish or get spoilt or get lost. Besides, all children live by observing. Hence, if there is any family member who does not share foo...

 Continued from previous one... 16. Stealing: Stealing is another bad habit found in children and adults. It is the act of taking something which belongs to another person without his/ her knowledge, consent, and permission, with the intent of keeping, possessing, or making use of that material permanently at one's advantage. The bad habit of stealing thrives mostly on the fulcrum of dishonesty. Most dishonest people can steal! Children steal both at homes and at schools. At homes, they may steal pieces of meat from the parents' pots of soup and stew. They may also steal their parents' and siblings' money at homes. In the indigent homes where parents cannot feed the children very satisfactorily, the children may end up stealing the remaining food in the kitchen which should have been shared equitably amongst all of them upon their parents' return to the homes. They steal the food because the portion shared to them earlier did not satisfy them. In the neighbourhood, ...

Continued from previous one... 13. Procrastination:  An English aphorism said that "Procrastination is the thief of time. "  It therefore means that procrastination steals time, resources, achievements, and successful future. Procrastination is one of the bad habits found in both children and adults everywhere in the world. What is the meaning of procrastination? It is the habit of delaying or putting off or deferring or postponing a task, engagement, or decision, often leading to a feeling of guilt, stress, and lost productivity. Procrastination involves intentionally postponing tasks or works even after knowing too well that such postponement will bring negative consequences. It means deferring to tomorrow what we should have done today because we want to procure an unnecessary comfort and leisure to the body, or give an attention and time to what we should have discarded and thrown overboard into the sea of forgetfulness. Procrastination is the bane of achievement and fulf...

 Continued from previous one...   10. Disobedience: Disobedience is common to all mankind irrespective of age. Children are human beings too. Children's disobedience to parents, guardians, and caregivers, can begin to manifest at different age brackets and ways. During the under-listed developmental stages in children, they manifest disobedience:  a. At infancy age (6-12 months): Infants may begin to manifest disobedience to parents and authority at infantile age by refusing to obey simple instructions from parents, guardians, and caregivers. As they develop further, both physically and cognitively, they tend to assert their own independence by flagrantly rejecting parental advice and guidance and throwing caution overboard.  b. At toddlerhood age (1-3 years): The children manifest disobedience once they feel that they are unable to have their own ways. They display tantrums and defy instructions. For example, if the mother or teacher tells the child to pick up his/ ...

 Continued from previous one... 7. Nose Picking:  This is one of the 23 bad habits found in children, and in adults. It is believed that high mucus concentration and boredom lead children to nose picking. Apart from the shame and social stigma attached to the practice of nose picking, it has many other disadvantages. Nose picking is associated with contracting a SARS-Cov-2 infection. It is recommended that healthcare delivery facilities be provided to create awareness by way of educational sessions or implementing recommendations against nose picking in infection prevention guidelines. Researchers in The Netherlands have found out that habitual nose picking is associated with an increased risk of contracting the corona virus. Nose picking can increase a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's and dementia by introducing bacteria into the brain. It does not, however, affect the sense of smell because the nasal cavity where the olfactory nerves are located is too high up to re...

 Continued from previous one... 5. Teeth- grinding: Teeth-grinding or Bruxism is a distasteful behaviour in both children and adults. It takes place in children when they are in stress and in a deep sleep. Some causes of teeth-grinding are misalignment (disarrangement) of teeth in the upper and lower jaws, teething period in children, and pains in the mouth. Many teeth-grinding children outgrow the habit once the baby teeth (milk teeth) have fallen down. Other ones continue in the habit till teenage and adolescence, and even adulthood. Adults who engage in teeth-grinding usually make nasty noise while teeth-grinding. Therefore, it means that an adult who is teeth-grinding may have learnt the bad habit at childhood and persisted in it tenaciously till adulthood. To eradicate teeth-grinding, the following steps should be taken: 1. Talk to the child if he/ she is matured enough to understand you. Tell him/ her that teeth-grinding is not an acceptable conduct to the modern society. You...

 There are so many bad habits which kids learn and grow up with into adulthood. These habits can be dangerous to the children's physical, cognitive, emotional, and social developments. They can become worse if there is no timely intervention measures to eradicate them. When parents, guardians, and caretakers fail to recognize and appropriately address these bad habits early enough, they become teething problems to tackle in future. Many of these bad habits are resilient like hydras such that they follow children into adulthood, old age, and death. The following are the major bad habits in kids: 1. Sucking of thumb 2. Biting of finger nails 3. Licking and biting of lips 4. Nose picking 5. Hail pulling 6. Teeth grinding 7. Touching of private parts 8. Excessive screen time 9. Bad eating habit 10. Lying 11. Using bad words 12. Talking back to parents and others 13. Bad Table Manners 14. Tantrums (uncontrollable anger) 15. Procrastination 16. Complaining 17. Disobedience 18. Bedtime de...

   Child abandonment means the act of relinguishing total responsibility, interests, and claims over one's own child by a parent, with the intent of having nothing at all to do with that child permanently. According to UNICEF, abandoned children are those deprived of their family in accordance with Article 20 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these are the children who are temporarily or permanently deprived of their family environment in connection with the death of parents, because parents refuse them, or due to relocation, or because of any other factor. Child abandonment is a major issue affecting children from all parts of the world. What are the causes of child abandonment? They are as follows: 1. Poverty and economic hardship cause child abandonment above every other factor that causes it. Due to lack of food, access to inclusive education, jobs, and medical delivery facilities, many parents abandon their children, especially in the poverty-stricken developi...