In the 1980s, paediatrics experts gradually shifted their focus from simply focusing on children's diseases to children's growth and development, and put forward the concept of early childhood development. Through in-depth research on children's early growth and development, it is found that nurturing care is a very important process, which is the foundation of children's health.
In September 2021, the Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2021-2030) was issued. In order to promote the comprehensive development of children, the field of "children and families" was added, emphasizing the important role of family care and family education in the growth of children. Family is the first classroom for children's growth, and parents are the first responsible person for children's growth.
Zhu Zonghan, a researcher of the Capital Institute of Pediatrics and former director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, is a leading figure in China's child health care work. He has been engaged in pediatric research for more than 60 years, and is the first person to put forward the concept of "natural upbringing", advocating learning and nurturing, and learning and playing.
Recently, the column "A lesson for parents" of Sina parenting interviewed Mr. Zhu Zonghan on the high frequency issues in parenting, from the basic requirements of natural parenting to how to scientifically guide children's eating, moving and sleeping, to the extracurricular class choices that parents care about.
Picture: Zhu Zonghan Visits Sina Children's Studio What is natural nurture?
Heredity endows every child with a variety of potential. The key is whether parents can find the child's potential and create conditions for the child to play its potential. An important potential is early learning. All abilities of children are learned by themselves, not taught by parents.
Zhu gave a vivid example. The process of learning to speak fully reflects "nature" and "nurture", that is, the interaction between genetic mechanisms and environmental mechanisms. Every child has the potential to speak because of heredity. They all have good language centers, sound speech generating organs, good visual and audio perception, and so on. This is the basis that nature gives children to learn language. What each child learns to say depends on the nurture and language environment. If children live in China, they will learn to speak Chinese. If they live in Britain, they will learn to speak English; Similarly speaking in Chinese, children in the south speak with a southern accent, while children in the north speak with a northern accent. These are all manifestations of the environmental mechanism.
The above examples show that, on the one hand, the laws of nature endow children with the potential for growth, and they can learn to exercise and speak at a certain age; On the other hand, it is the role of upbringing, which determines what kind of sports children learn and what kind of words they learn to say. Natural upbringing requires parents to fully understand the synergistic mechanism of heredity and environment. In the process of upbringing, they should not only follow the natural laws of children's growth and development, discover their growth potential, but also actively create a good environment and conditions for children's growth and development, These constitute the basic principles of natural breeding.
How to be a qualified novice parent?
Teacher Zhu Zonghan specifically mentioned that children's early play is very important, and also pointed out the need for parents to accompany. Play is the "important work" of children, and parents' companionship includes two aspects, one is life companionship, the other is play companionship. Two very important concepts in natural upbringing are to find and respond to the expression of children's needs at any time, and to integrate learning elements into the process of upbringing, which is completed by formal parents in the process of accompanying children.
In the practice of nurturing care, parents give full play to the role of role models, such as good behavior habits, growth oriented thinking mode, positive and optimistic attitude towards life, tolerant and magnanimous good quality, which will make children feel positive attitude towards life and way of doing things.
What are the manifestations of a positive parenting attitude?
1. Discover and affirm every advantage and progress of children in the process of growth;
2. See children's differences as opportunities for their development rather than shortcomings to overcome;
3. From emphasizing the shortcomings shown to emphasizing the potential for growth;
4. Think of setbacks in growth as experience rather than failure;
5. Encourage progress, not perfection. The more attention you pay to the shortcomings, the more shortcomings you have. The more advantages you cultivate, the more advantages you have.
Photo: Zhu Zonghan Visits Sina Children's Studio More live broadcast points:
1. The growth and development of infants and young children is an important part of children's health, laying an important foundation for the health and development of children throughout their lives;
2. Children have the potential and talent to learn, but early learning is not equal to early education. In early learning, children's active acquisition is far more than passive teaching. Parents should pay attention to cultivating and encouraging children's interest in learning, and create a good environment for them to learn independently;
3. The basic requirements of competent parents: responsibility, emotion, time, company, attitude, and pressure relief;
4. Each child is unique. While following the general growth and development rules, there will also be individual differences. Parents should pay attention to the development progress of children and record the growth curve regularly. Do a good job of "eating", "moving" and "sleeping";
5. The best way to promote children's early learning is to integrate parenting and learning together, that is, fostering, playing, and reading;
6. The management methods for children's snacks: 1. Make category selection and choose healthy snacks; 2. Control the eating time of snacks, preferably between two meals; 3. Control the consumption of snacks, not excessive;
7. Vitamin D is an indispensable key nutrient for baby development. It is recommended to supplement vitamin D from 2 weeks after birth, and adopt the method of AD supplementation;
8. Parents should pay attention to three points when choosing extracurricular classes for their children. First of all, I have an understanding of the teaching content and methods of extracurricular classes; Secondly, respect children's interests and wishes; Third, observe the learning effect;
9. Early play and sports can not only promote children's growth and development, but also promote children's cognitive and psychological development. It is suggested that parents aged 3-6 should take their children to exercise for 2 hours at moderate intensity every day to minimize sedentary activities;
The 0-6 Encyclopedia of Natural Nurturing, edited by Zhu Zonghan, gives parents the most professional and effective guidance in the process of childcare from the aspects of nutrition feeding, life care, play sports, health management and other practical childcare operations. Help parents bear the responsibility of raising children, so that children can grow up healthily in happiness; Let parents have more confidence, less pressure, more successful experience and less detours; Let the family have more happiness and joy and less worry and conflict. (This book has been published by China Population Publishing House)
