Ajayi Hannah Olubunmi
Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Title: What parents and teachers know about their preschool children\'s psychological characteristics?
Biography
Biography: Ajayi Hannah Olubunmi
Abstract
Often times, comments such as, 'He/She is too playful', 'Too quiet in class', 'He/She is non-compliant', 'Too stubborn', 'Too aggressive' 'Too rough/clumsy' and all sorts are written in children's progress reports and they were sent home by teachers. At the same time, parents sometimes come to school stating, "My child is too playful/stubborn" and alike. They then call for the child to be disciplined to correct such behaviour. Considering the nature of such interactions that exists between some parents, teachers and the preschool children, this therefore raises questions as do parents or teachers really understand the psychological characteristics of children? Or why do they treat children in such a harsh manner in the guise of discipline? The period between births to five years of a child is a critical time for all round development. It is a sensitive period which if mishandled may result in deficit in personality development. It is against this backdrop that this study is conceived to examine parents and teachers' understanding of children psychological characteristics. Four hundred preschoolers' parents and two hundred and fifty preschool teachers purposively selected were used for the study. Patents-Teachers' Children Psychological Characteristics Perspectives Questionnaire (PTPCPQ) was used for the study. It has three sections, Section A solicited information about the demographic information of the respondents. Section B focused on parents perspectives of children's psychological characteristics which is on 4- Likert scale. Section C focused on preschoolers' teachers perspectives. Data were analyzed using appropriate statistical tools, results presented and recommendations proffered for the appropriate stakeholders
