Help

I've always worked with toddlers (age 1-2). I love this age; they are funny, sweet and they change so much! This is the year children start to talk, so a lot of the day is teaching them how to communicate and use words properly. When children don't know the word to express themselves they will typically scream. This has always been a sort of pet peeve of mine so I spend a lot of the day teaching children to use their words. Other than 'No' I believe the most important word in a child's vocabulary is 'help'.

When a child brings me a container of crayons to open, or their jacket I always say, "help me, help me," then I open the container or put the jacket on or whatever the situation is that causes a child to need help. I had one little boy who every time he wanted a particular toy that was hanging on a hook, he would go over to it, put his hand on it, wave and move it around and scream. My co-teacher and I would always go over to him and say, "say help me or help please," then get the toy for him. One day his dad came in to drop him off and asked me if we had taught him to say 'help.' I explained to him what he did with the toy and how we would encourage him to say 'help.' The dad said thank you and told me how the child had been saying it at home and how it made things a lot easier.

For some reason as we get older we stop asking for help whether it be because of pride, we're taught not to ask for it or our need to be independent. However, I believe it's always all right to ask for help. There will always be times when we need help because there will always be things that take more than one person to do or more explanation is needed in order to understand something. My own child as she has gone through school has had teachers who get mad if help is asked for. They seem to have somewhere along the way forgotten about the teach part of teacher and that asking for help is part of a child's job in order to learn. I have always taught the children that I work with to say 'help me,' or 'help please,' because I think this is a self-help skill that will help children accomplish many things in life and one that is important that they have.