Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/caring-for-the-well-being-of-ece-professionals/5023916/
Anyone who has flown has heard a flight attendant say some version of this caution: In case it becomes necessary to use oxygen masks and you are traveling with a small child, put on your own mask first, and then put on your child’s. Think about that for a moment. As parents or caregivers, our natural instinct in a crisis is to immediately protect the children we are with. But losing oxygen, even briefly, can impact our physical responses and ability to think clearly. If we cannot function at full capacity, we actually put those in our care at higher risk! We must be at our best to respond fully and appropriately to the needs of those around us.
Readers of Exchange know how important early childhood care and education professionals are to young children and their families. In particular, they impact the quality of the environments, relationships, and experiences of young children each and every day, and contribute to the healthy growth, development, and learning that impacts them well into the future (Lally & Mangione, 2008; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000; Tronick, 2007; Vandell, Belsky, Burchinal, Steinberg, Vandergrift, & NICHD, 2010). Key to the role of the ECE professional ...