TABLE
OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Research Hypothesis
1.6 Significance of the Study
1.7 Scope of the Study
1.8 Limitation of the Study
1.9 Definition of Terms
chapter two
Literature review
2.0 Introduction
2.1 Concept of Early Childhood Care and
Education (ECCE)
2.2 Early Child Care Development
2.3 Concept, Nature and Attitudes of Caregivers
in Early Childhood Education
2.4 Concept, Nature and Functions of
School Climate
2.5 The Objectives of the National Policy on
Pre-Primary Education
2.6 Early Child Care, Characteristics and Education
2.7 Parental Role and Attitude in Early Childhood
Development
2.8 Summary of the Review
CHAPTER
THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Population
3.3 Sample and Sampling Technique
3.4 Instrumentation
3.5 Administration of Instrument
3.6 Procedure for Data Analysis
CHAPTER
FOUR
DATA
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Presentation of Demographic Data.
4.2 Analysis of Data Gathered of Research
Questions and According to Respondents' Responses to Questionnaires.
4.3 Testing of Hypotheses
4.4 Summary of Findings.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Summary of the Study
5.2 Conclusions
5.3 Recommendations
5.4
Recommendations
5.5
Suggestions for Further
Research
QUESTIONNAIRE
REFERENCE
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to
the Study
The quality of
life for a child and the contributions the child makes to the society as an
adult can be traced back to the first few years of life. From birth until about
five years old, a child undergoes tremendous growth and change. If this period
of life includes support for growth in cognition, language, motor skills,
adaptive skills and social-emotional functioning, the child is more likely to
succeed in school and later contribute meaningfully to the society. A good
early childhood care and education provides the intervention programmes that
support children’s survival growth, development and learning including health,
nutrition and hygiene, cognitive, social, physical and emotional development
from birth to entry into primary school in formal, informal and non-formal
settings (UNESCO, 2007).
Anyakogu (2005),
states that the primary location for early childhood education and development
is the home. This is because, the home is the first contact the child had in
order to interact effectively with both parents and siblings. The home is a
place, where learning begins for the child. A place the child learns how to
respect parents and to imitate and recognize people around him. Traditionally,
the responsibility for child care in Nigeria as elsewhere in Africa rests on
the extended family and the wider community. These members of the society
contribute to the upbringing of the child, providing him or her with a wide
range of stimulating interactions that will affect the child’s development
positively, especially in psycho-social terms.
In recent decades,
rapid urbanization has increasingly eroded this traditional pattern of the
child care. Hodges (2001) observed that “’for the approximately one third of
families who now live in the cities, the mutual support that was a prominent
nature of rural life has given way to situation where each household is to a
large extent responsible on its own for the care of children”. Living in cities
implies that many mothers are engaged outside the home or otherwise for most part
of the day and this has implication for child upbringing in the family
(Adeleke, 2006). This is because, many parents’ love and burning desires for
paid job and monetary reward, in order to make the family more comfortable and
to meet up with the payment of other home bills, have taken over parents’ love
and care for their children. This has caused many parents to leave their
children at the hand of immature house-helps and nannies, hence poor growth and
development of the child in the society and the school.
Parental roles in
early childhood development are varied. The quality of care given to young
children affects their development. Parents and in particular mothers, are
responsible for feeding, hygiene in the house as well as the response to
illness in young children. For babies, mothers breast milk offer the best and
most complete food. Breast milk provides babies with antibodies, which help to
keep off the risk of illness (Leon, 2005). Parents especially mothers who are
engaged in routine jobs, do not have time to feed the baby with adequate breast
milk. Also, due to education and civilization, most mothers believe that
feeding the baby with breast milk will affect their breasts and thereby making
them to look older than their ages. Therefore, they fail to feed their babies
with the breast milk within the required period. This has caused most children
to have poor growth and social development, and by extension, poor academic
achievement in school.
Monde (2002)
claims that the early introduction of other liquids and solids if prepared in
unhygienic conditions increases the likelihood of infection, often resulting in
potentially life threatening conditions like diarrhea. Exclusive breast feeding
in the first six months of life is enough to support the growth and development
of babies and this should be complemented with high quality foods until about
24 months of age to sustain the rate of growth. Adequate care and nutrition
lays a solid foundation for proper early childhood development. This is because
proper nutrition aids brain growth necessary for intellectual, cognitive as
well as psycho-motor development in the child.
The home serves as
the take-off point of this development. The child who is usually helpless
depends on maternal stimulation for the development of proper physical and
physiological functioning. This includes toileting, feeding and bathing (Ayo,
2000). Toileting, bathing and feeding
training for the baby in the early life of the child is very crucial and
necessary for the child’s later years of life. Not only that, this builds
proper confidence in the child in the larger society. This can only be made
possible if parents, especially mothers are available and have time to take
their responsibilities at this crucial time of the child’s development and
growth.
The mother is the
first important person in a baby’s world. How she behaves to the child is
crucial in establishing a feeling of comfort and security. According to Esu
(2000), “insufficiency of maternal care is detrimental to development during
the early years as the child grows. It is the responsibility of both parents to
lead children through the early years, providing them with adequate nutrition,
stimulation, good values, and good health habits. It is also a parental role to
teach children the language of their immediate environment. They should help
children to communicate with the family and with their peers (Amadi and Amadi,
2007). This is because, if children are taught how to communicate with family
members and peers at the early age or stage, it help them to acquire or learn
good behaviours and positive social adjustment in the society and at school
even when they grow up as adolescents and adults. For instance, they would
learn how to respect the older members of the society in terms of greeting,
making requests etc.
Children learn at
different times. Often by the time a child is twelve months, he or she can
pronounce a few words, and by the time the child is five or six years, he/she
can communicate very well. It is the duty of parents and the home to ensure
language development, especially in the early years while the school reinforces
this later (Ayodeji, 2004). This is because, by the time parents teach their
children how to speak good languages that are acceptable in the society and
avoiding the bad languages that are frowned at by the society, they become good
members of the society that would grow and maintain a decent society or family
structure.
Language
acquisition is critical as it establishes personal and group identity. It is
also a basis for social interactions and for the development of cognitive
processes. Since parents have a special interest in their children, it should
be maximized for their best interests especially in the home, in an atmosphere
of conduciveness. This is because a conducive environment stimulates cognitive,
affective and psychomotor development of the child (Ofo, 2006).
A necessity for
early childhood care and development; ignorance of the law, they say is not an
admissible excuse. Thus, ignorance on the part of parents in the upbringing of
their children is unacceptable, as it may affect children’s growth and
development negatively. This corroborates the observation of Ogbonna (2000)
which says that “where there is ignorance of the needs of the child at the
different stages of development, there is bound to occur practices which are
detrimental to the child’s personality development”. Therefore, this calls for
early childhood cares in order to develop the total child.
Times are changing
and parents should be dynamic enough to move according to the times. There was
a time when everyone in the whole community took care of the child who does not
even belong to them. That time is gone. A child is now for most part of early
childhood, left in the care of parents who must be knowledgeable enough to
handle them. Parents therefore, should acquire the right methods of child
upbringing, whether traditional or modern. Parents should be made to understand
that harshness to children often breeds delinquency and thick skin which may
manifest later in the lives of these children (Adeduro, 2008).
The idea of not
“sparing the rod” so as not to “spoil the child’ should be exercised with
caution, as Ogbonna (2000) rightly observes, it “may prove too harsh and
disastrous for the child’s moral and other aspects of personality development”.
Parents should learn to direct the lives of children towards positive
development. they should learn to inculcate in their children, the correct
attitude towards moral and ethical values. This will help them to have the
required discipline for living in a society like ours. Parents are
indispensable in early childhood development because this stage of development
affects the later stages depending on how they are brought up by parents. So,
early childhood development sets the tone for adult living (Ofo, 2006).
The family is the
first point of call of a child. Here, the child experiences the first social
interactions, learn his or her first language and develops relevant attitudes
to life. The implication therefore is that the child is first a product of his
or her family and how the child relates to the larger society depends on the
experiences made available to him or her in the family. Parents being the
closest allies in early childhood, it is important that for positive and
meaningful development of the child, parents must be properly “schooled” and
experienced in the art of child upbringing (Adeleke, 2003).
1.2 Statement of
the Problem
The problem
inherent in the parental academic achievement and development of children at
the early childhood level cannot be overemphasized because parents are the
first teachers of their children. Unfortunately these days, some parents play
negative roles in the upbringing of their children.
The ages 0–08
years require proper parental care and education in all ramifications. If
appropriate, correct care and education are not given to the children at this
stage, it will lead to children’s acquisition of negative characters devoid of
decent society’s expectations. Some parents love their jobs than their
children. Such parents have little or no time to stay with their children,
nurture and interact with them to know their feelings. To the family they
belong, their environment, other people, the school etc.
There were cases
where minor injuries at home generated to complications due to lack of parental
care and love. There were cases where children would either told their parents
to come back to pick them in schools or sometimes would preferred to remain in
the school rather than go home with their parents.
Some parents
cannot define the role of parents from the role of school, until such children
are sent home for either unkept hair, teeth, uniform, socks etc that the
parents would know what to do. All these factors have contributed to the
down-ward performance of children from most families.
The above problems
gave rise to this study as it aim to examine parental roles on early childhood
education and its development in Lagos State.
1.3 Purpose of the
Study
This study seeks
to ascertain the relationship between parental roles and early childhood
education and development.
The specific
objectives include:
1. To assess the role of parents in early
childhood care education.
2. To find out whether there is any significant
difference in the academic performance of children who are reared by parents
and those reared by non-parents.
3. To find out whether there is any
significant gender difference in the academic performance of children reared by
intact parent.
4. To find out the difference between the
academic performance of children brought up by intact parents and those brought
up by single parents.
1.4 Research
Questions
1. To what extent do parental roles affect
children’s academic performance?
2. Will there be any significant difference
between the academic performance of children reared by parents and those reared
by non-parents?
3. Will there be any significant gender
difference in the academic performance of children reared by intact parent?
4. Will there be any significant difference
between the academic performance of children who were brought up by intact
parents and those brought up by single parents?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
1. There is no significant relationship
between parental role and children’s academic performance.
2. There is no significant difference
between the academic performance of children reared by intact parents and those
reared by single parents.
3. There is no significant gender difference
in the academic performance of children reared by intact parents.
4. There is no significant difference
between the academic performance of children reared by their parents and those
reared by non-parent.
1.6 Significance
of the Study
It is a general
belief that early childhood education is of great importance, because it is the
foundation for other levels of education, just as a well laid foundation is the
strength of the structure. However, the recommendations and findings of this
work would be beneficial to the following:
Children:
Children from home where there is love, care and interaction easily discover
themselves which aided their social and academic development.
Parents:
They will be able to know that early love, care and good nurture on children
breeds responsible leaders of tomorrow, which wealth, position cannot
compensate.
Teachers:
The teacher will be able to see themselves as both parents and teachers and
learn to be more dynamic in handling the children taken into consideration
their various educational and socio-economic background.
School authority:
The school will learn to be accommodating, counsel parents from time to time
when the need be, so that both the school and parents will be able to
communicate and work together toward the children development.
The government:
The government will be able to put in place policy and encouragement that will
avail them the special educational technique on early childhood education.
1.7 Scope of the
Study
This study will
cover 5 (five) nursery schools in Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos State.
1.8 Limitation of
the Study
In this study,
timeframe, finance and other logistics would be considerable constraints to the
completion of this work.
1.9 Definition of
Terms
Parental Role: This
term refers to the functions or activities laid by parents towards the
upbringing and education of the children and wards.
Attitude: A
predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a
certain idea, object, person, or situation.
Childcare
Practices: Is the totality of care given to a child
from conception to adolescent.
Practitioners: The
term refers to all ECD education and training development practitioners. This
encompasses the whole spectrum of ECD educators, trainers, facilitators,
lecturers, caregivers, development officers, etc, including those qualified by
their experience, and who are involved in providing services in homes, centres,
and schools.
Care: Refers
to the behaviours and practices of a caregiver.
Cognitive: Refers
to changes in the individuals thought, intelligence, and language.
Development: The
pattern of movement of change that begins at conception and continues through
the early childhood of the child which include cognitive, biological and
socioemotional processes.
Early Childhood: Refers
to children between zero and eight years of age (0 – 8 years).
Early Childhood
Education (ECE): Is education given in an educational
institution to children from birth to eight years old.
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