Transitioning a Child To Daycare Essay -- Child Development

When a parent leaves their child off at a daycare, they often wonder why their child who was happy and content before they arrived cries and screams when their parent leaves to go to work. This is a very hard transition for infants, which is why it's our job as infant toddler teachers to make the transition as comfortable and relaxing as possible. The reason children feel this way when their parents leave is because they are in what Piaget calls the sensorimotor stage, and are in the beginning of object permanence meaning that an infant realizes something is their even though they cannot see it. This is very important because, before an infant can experience object permanence often refereed to as separation anxiety, they only think about what is in their view at the time, therefore they think about the present rather than the future. The infant feels like the parent left them with a stranger, and they are not coming back. As a teacher you can help decrease this by communicating with the parents, and allowing the infant to get used to the environment, and asking parents not to s...