The thesis contains theoretical and practical elements of the annual project on the topic of identity development in kindergarten age. It was carried out during the recognition year of the training and subsequently submitted to the Fachschule für Sozialpädagogik in order to obtain the title "Staatlich anerkannte Erzieherin".
Table of Contents
What does identity mean?
1. Justification of the restriction of the subject
2. What is identity?
What the lexicon says about it
What is finding identity?
3. How can identity development be promoted?
Promotion through contact with peers
Promotion by increasing self-esteem
Promotion through attractive framework conditions
4. Course of identity development
Stages of development of self-perception
5. Definition of important terms
Self-perception
Self-concept/self-image
Self-esteem
Objective
Main objective
I-competence
Social competence
Material competence
The project
1. Preliminary course of the project
2. Execution of individual project steps
First step
Second step
Third step
What does identity mean?
1. Justification of the restriction of the subject
The topic of identity could be extended at will. However, since I have chosen a time frame of 4 months for my project, it is necessary to limit the topic in order to be able to deal intensively and in detail with individual aspects.
At the beginning, I would like to give the children a basic understanding of their body. They should gain an insight into the function of the human body. "The ego is above all a physical one" is a quote from Sigmund Freud, which makes it clear that the body is of decisive importance for the development of identity. The first experiences the children have, they make with the body.1
In addition to the body, of course, the psyche also plays an essential role in the development of identity. The children should learn what basic moods there are and how they can deal with them. This should also help to be able to communicate better with each other by the children learning to express their feelings verbally.
"Living and acting independently means being aware of oneself. This also means being able to regulate one's own feelings, to be aware of one's own abilities and possibilities and to be able to think and judge independently. This includes expressing your own needs and opinions and taking on tasks yourself. This gives the children the opportunity to experience themselves as self-effective." 2
Being able to express feelings means recognizing oneself and being able to enter into a relationship with others. The topic of feelings also occupies an essential place in the development of identity and so I decided to include the topic in my project as well. Due to the time constraints, I will limit this project step by only absorbing the main feelings, these are grief, love and anger.
However, if the children's interest is directed to other moods in the course of the project, I will of course respond to this and remain flexible in the implementation.
The child's environment also plays a decisive role in personal development. The transition to kindergarten gives the children an insight into the areas of life of other children and their families. New friendships are made and new environments are learned. The children find that other people often have a completely different lifestyle and different interests than they do. This also raises questions that affect one's own person. When filling in profiles with the children, it was often not possible for the "new" kindergarten children to answer questions that related to themselves. Questions like "what do you like to eat" or "what do you like to play with" were often answered with "I don't know". The project is intended to serve the children to recognize their own needs and peculiarities and also to be able to express them.
But not only people in the environment, but also the environment itself should be looked at more closely. What is there in our city that interests us? The children should see themselves as part of a community and feel that they have a permanent place in it. This security helps to consolidate the children's identity development so that they can understand that they are part of something and, moreover, an independent personality.
The final project step will focus more on the differences and similarities among the children. After we have got to know the children as individuals in the course of the past, the children are now to be supported in drawing comparisons. It should come down to discovering similarities, but also to tolerating the differences and assuming that everyone is something special and is accepted as such.
2. What is identity?
What the lexicon says about it
" Complete equality or agreement; in psychology, the distinctiveness and uniqueness of a person experienced by him as his specific way of behavior, thinking and experiencing through all personal changes ." 3
What is finding identity?
" Die Übernahme der biologischen und psychosozialen Rolle. The conscious experience of ego-identity is, according to Erikson, "a feeling of being-at-home-in-his-body. A knowledge of where you are going and the security of recognizing those whose judgment you value." Finding identity takes place, after it is consciously reflected, from "outside to inside". Finding a identity depends on role models and mission statements."4
3. How can identity development be promoted?
If one looks at the course of the identity development, it becomes clear that the development depends very much on the reactions of the caregivers and is by no means consolidated in the first years of life. Since the kindergarten teacher also becomes an important and permanent caregiver, she is also jointly responsible for healthy development during the time of kindergarten attendance.
In order to gain a feeling for his own ability to act and thus build up a positive self-image, a child needs the experience that the educator responds to his needs and signals and takes them seriously. Shows a child e.g. by posture that it does not want physical contact at the moment, for example does not want to cuddle, the kindergarten teacher must absolutely accept this and make it clear to the child that his wish is respected. Only in this way is it possible for the child to experience that his own needs are recognized and are of importance.
Furthermore, it is necessary that the kindergarten teacher offers the child the opportunity to explore his environment as independently as possible and allows him to have his own experiences. The kindergarten teacher conveys confidence in the child's abilities and confirms his desire for independence by clearly showing: "You can do that. I trust in your abilities".
In the beginning, it may seem tedious and even inconclusive in some situations when children try something whose result we already know and perhaps also feel the urge to intervene to speed up the process. For example, a child deals with a puzzle and tries out a piece in different positions. We observe this and immediately recognize that the corresponding part can not fit there and want to show the child where it really belongs. If the kindergarten teacher intervenes here and anticipates the result, it deprives the child of the opportunity to make this experience himself and also gives the impression that "you are too small for that, you can't do it right". If such experiences accumulate, the child grows the feeling of not being able to do anything on his own and of always being dependent on help. Stern even describes this process as a "robbery of feelings"5. However, if the child experiences confidence by perhaps encouraging him to continue searching, the confidence in his own abilities is strengthened and thus a positive self-image is developed. If children are allowed a wide range of possibilities for action and experiences, they experience control over their learning and doing. Messages from caregivers that concern the actions of the children should therefore always be related to the specific situation, never to the entire personality of the child. Even in conflict situations, it should always be clear that the corresponding behavior now leads to consequence, but the child is not punished because of his personality. Here it is necessary that the kindergarten teacher designates exactly how it comes to a certain consequence and that it is exclusively about the undesirable behavior, but never about the child itself. It should always be clear "I don't like what you just did, but I still like you".
Children with a migration background are faced with a particularly difficult situation here, if different processes and rules prevail in kindergarten than in the home environment and these may also be evaluated negatively.
Therefore, every child, regardless of their origin, should be taught that they are valued and respected in their individual way.
Also, the language used by the educator should be closely examined. So irony and sarcasm are out of place in any case. Children cannot handle this type of communication and do not see any difference between irony and serious statements. Ironically occupied statements can lead to uncertainty in the children and should therefore be avoided at all costs.
Infants and toddlers capture important parts of their self-image and self-esteem from the behaviour of their caregivers under the following aspects6:
- which of their behaviour are considered appropriate
- how to react to their signals
- how these are accepted
- how they can communicate their needs so successfully that they are satisfied
- what feelings they are allowed to show and to what extent
Promotion through contact with peers
In kindergarten, it is possible for the children to meet their peers in the game and thus form their self-image in a different way. Children who have a similar level of development offer children the opportunity to be perceived in a similar way as they do themselves. Comparable competencies are opposed to each other and thus offer equal interaction partners. In this way, even toddlers become aware of their own abilities and achievements. In the game with peers, the child has a variety of opportunities to learn about himself.
Role-playing, for example, offers the child the opportunity to slip into other roles and thus learn who he is and who would like to be. Different motives can be tried out, comparisons with others are possible, as well as to distinguish themselves from them.
Promotion by increasing self-esteem
A healthy self-esteem is one of the basic prerequisites for consolidating one's own identity. Several factors contribute to healthy development.
a) Unconditional love: I am loved as I am
b) The conviction to be competent: I can do something
c) Stable values and moral concepts: That's right, that's wrong
d) Realistic basic picture: These are my strengths and weaknesses 7
Promotion through attractive framework conditions
After admission to kindergarten, the children should have a permanent caregiver to whom they can orient themselves. In some institutions, the system of assigning each child a care educator is used, which provides a special orientation for their children. Especially in open institutions, where the children are not tied to a single group room, this system seems to make sense, since the children also have a kind of "anchor" in the complexity of a large open institution, someone to whom they can always turn.
In general, with regard to the personnel key, it should be said that the shift work of the employees should also be planned as far as possible in such a way that the respective responsible kindergarten teachers do not change within the daily routine, so that the child does not have to constantly, in the worst case several times a day, adjust to a new caregiver. If this is not possible due to the structure or other conditions, it is of particular importance that the kindergarten teacher, who takes over the service in the daily routine, devotes herself in the same way, especially to the new children and conveys to them that she is also available for problems or needs.
The exchange among colleagues is also of great importance here, so there should be time for a short exchange about special incidents, especially during the shift change.
4. Course of identity development
Daniel Stern, American psychologist and psychiatrist, presents one of the most up-to-date theories on the subject of identity development. He says that every child has a subjective sense of identity from birth, which develops through interaction with others. If a child's smile is responded to with a smile from the caregiver, the child eventually realizes that there is a difference between him and the environment. The self-image of the child is influenced by his caregivers, who form his self-image. For example, toddlers try to read from the mother's facial expression whether her behavior is good or bad, until, after enough experience has been gained, it is able to create its own self-image that differs from that of the others.
A development towards one's own self-image can be observed by holding a mirror in front of children. It can now be observed whether the child reaches for the mirror, or is looking for a person behind it, or grabs himself in his own face, i.e. recognizes himself in it. On average, children between the 15th and 20th month of life are able to recognize themselves as their own person in the mirror. If you paint a colored spot on their noses, they wipe it away and do not grab the mirror.
The linguistic advances also consolidate the image of one's own personality on this level. The child begins to speak of himself, albeit initially in the third person ("Anna drink!"). In addition, it identifies objects as belonging ("My doll!"). The word "no" is also often one of the first words, which distinguishes the child from others. In the course of the 2nd year of life, it becomes increasingly important for the child to carry out independent actions and to take things into his own hands, whereby self-esteem can be significantly strengthened, provided that the adult promotes this behavior.
When they reach the age of 3, children are able to assign themselves to a group for the first time, especially those of their own gender. They recognize in themselves characteristics and abilities and form an autobiographical memory. They recognize themselves as a person with special characteristics and their own life story with a future and past.
The theory of Marton Dornes provides further information on the development of self-perception:
Stages of development of self-perception
(after Martin Dorne's "Der kompetente Säugling", Frankfurt am Main 1993, p.80f.)
0 to 2 months: The emerging sense of self
The infant, with the help of innate abilities and also through learning, establishes a connection between perceptions of different sensory organs. A first feeling of order arises.
2-3 to 7-9 months: The core self-sensation
The infant now realizes that he himself is separated from other people, even if the perceived limits are preserved. It is possible to enter into a relationship with others without losing the feeling for one's own self.
[...]
1 1 http://www.kindergarten-heute.de/beitraege/fachbeitraege/psychologie_html?k_onl_struktur=729518&einzelbeitrag=1220680&archivansicht=1
2 Orientation plan BaWü: http://www.km-bw.de/servlet/PB/-s/stm5c3qpfn4rgw1gvnzmizfv1g7ktad/menu/1182964/index.html?ROOT=1182956
3 http://www.wissen.de/wde/generator/wissen/ressorts/bildung/index,page=1127176.html
4 Büchin-Wilhelm, Irmgard: Fachbegriffe für Erzieherinnen und Erzieher, 4th edition 2005, Stuttgart
5 Stern 2000, p. 299
6 Lally 1996, p.143
7 Lorenz, Waltraud: Parents' evening kindergarten Parsberg, 2001
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