Technology has changed modern society. In fact no society can be called modern if it does not embrace technology at its core. Data is said to be the new oil for these societies. From child birth to covid vaccines for adults, technology is everywhere and wherever technology has not stepped in till yet, like religion or may be our dreams, the day is not far when technology will be utilised here as well.
Daycare as a concept came into the society when both the parents started to work and the family became nuclear. When we were small there was no concept of daycare in India because the families were joint families and the children could be left with anyone for the day to be taken care of while one or both the parents worked. The trend is more so in metro cities where necessarily both the parents are working full day and the family is nuclear, and since no parent is willing to sacrifice his/her job the need for day care arises as most of the young couples are migrants into these big cities and hence do not have their parents to live with them.
When a child spends most of the time in daycare it tends to become his second home and hence he/she can be exposed to a lot of learning and growth. Modern day daycares are realising this and therefore tend to value add to the child in terms of mental and physical growth by various activities and initiatives.
Psychological counselling is the start point as it tends to differentiate each child in terms of his/her natural abilities and thereby chart a path that is individualistic for each kid. Generally the kids are treated as a lot in today’s schools and the same treatment is meted out to everyone. This restricts the growth of the core areas of the child while pushing him to a path that everyone is taking. Isn’t this visible in the kota factories of today, where the suicide rates are the maximum in the country.
The choice of nutrition is different for each child as this depends on the various inherited physical factors along with gender. A nutritionist can identify the right diet for each child and proper supplements can be provided with the main meals so that any areas of deficiency are identified and taken care of before they start to impact the normal growth of the child. The physical attributes, at a later stage, will play a vital role in the success of the individual and looking back, at that time, course correction will not be possible.
A modern day care center is well equipped with various indoor physical activity machines like agility ladders, splash pools, climbing pegs. These are required for the muscular growth of the child and burning of energy which otherwise will be spent in digital gadgets. These are safe, for all ages and designed to minimise risk to the child in case he/she falls from it or tends to become experimental with them. It will not be possible for most of the homes to have these kind of indoor equipment’s installed inside their homes due to paucity of space and the costs involved.
Live stream of the day care child’s activities are available on apps, and therefore modern day moms can be satisfied that their children are engaged and busy, while they are at the day care plus, they have a visual on all the activities that the child participates in during the day. This is possible only due to modern telecom technology and its affordability in India due to large consumer base we have in terms of our population.
Various interactive platforms are available today to the child for exposure and step by step learning. These are supplements to the information the day care teacher or the teacher in the pre-primary school imparts as these software’s respond to the input generated by the child in terms of songs, colors, pictures and videos. They aren’t serially programmed i.e. basis the input each child will give, the software will throw up different options of interest and like. While yes, we need to restrict screen time but in that restricted time modern technology presents a variety of learning options like digital encyclopaedia’s and material on topics like English and maths but with a story based approach so that the presentation is both interesting and informative.
So overall development of the child happens today in a modern care facility with special emphasis on well researched growth areas specific to the child.
