What Makes a Perfect Early Childhood Educator?

So, you’ve considered enrolling in our online government funded childcare courses? It’s a lot of work being an early childhood educator and there’s a lot of responsibility riding on your shoulders. You’ll be responsible for a big part of their first experiences such as teaching them wrong from right and early communication methods. It’s not for everyone – but if it’s something you’re really passionate about, then read on and learn some basic traits that make fantastic early childhood educators.

1.     Patience

Patience is one of the most crucial traits of an early childhood educator. Since you’ll be dealing with young children daily who will be loud, energetic and, in the beginning, potentially have bad manners – you must be infinitely patient with them. Something you will almost definitely be faced with is children who just don’t know how to cope with things yet – resulting in tantrums.

Patience and tolerance will go hand in hand, which is why during your online government-funded childcare course you will learn strategies on how to better hone these qualities and apply them in educator situations you may find yourself in once you begin your career or during your placement. Similarly, you will be required to always give the children the time of day when they have an issue and may approach you – this is something you should be prepared for.

2.     Liveliness

Keeping up with the young excitement and liveliness of a child requires an equal amount of liveliness on your behalf. The seemingly infinite amount of energy they’ll have to bounce off the walls will require not only patience but a similar level of energy from you to deal with them.

You’ll also need a high level of energy to keep them occupied and interested throughout the days as their attention spans will be quite small and they’ll react to exciting things and visuals a lot more effectively compared to dull things. That’s one of the reasons vibrant colours are so helpful in an early childhood education as it grabs their attention easily.

3.     Physical energy

Another point to consider is that many of the activities you’ll be hosting may require physical properties such as stamina. Whether it’s helping the kids out in the yard, lifting items around indoors or even dancing around with them to let their energy out, these physical activities can become quite exhausting. This is why it’s important to keep up your wellness and physical strength to ensure you’re ready for anything and don’t get burnt out yourself.

4.     Understanding their language

Children don’t communicate in the same way that adults do and that’s part of what you’ll be teaching them. But it won’t happen overnight, so you must be able to understand and communicate with them on their level. Sometimes it won’t even be with words so you’ll have to read their body language and try to decipher what the issue may be. It’s important to kneel down to their level as it makes them feel more comfortable rather than you towering over them.

This is also where having patience will play a part as you’ll need a lot of it at times – the issue may not always be apparent at first so it’s up to you to try and make the child feel comfortable enough to express themselves further or suggest possibilities. There may have been something that occurred earlier that may explain a sudden mood drop or tantrum.

5.     Communicating with adults

Communication is a key factor as you can tell and it doesn’t just stop with the children, but must also continue to their parents as well. As an early childhood educator, you’ll be responsible for a large part of their early learning, but you must be able to effectively communicate to the parents how their child is doing and what areas need to be concentrated on at home to further their learning experience. Young children are constantly learning and absorbing new things in the world around them so their education doesn’t pause when they go home.

Are you looking for government-funded online childcare courses in Werribee?

Being an early childhood educator is no small feat, but South West Training Services can help you develop the skills you need to follow your dreams. Whether you’re studying our diploma or certificate III course, you can enjoy a quality, remote learning experience.

South West Training Services is a community-centric institution that welcomes students from all walks of life. If you would like to learn more, then please don’t hesitate to give us a call on (03) 9748 9233 or fill out our online contact so we can get back to you as soon as possible.