What would you do? So....you're a teacher in a preschool classroom. We'll say that the children are three and four years old. All of them are typically developing and toilet-trained (well, you know, the occasional accident). It's expected that the children feed themselves, put on their own jackets, and help with classroom clean-up such as picking up toys. One child, though, is from a family whose culture values interdependence rather than independence. Her mother feeds, dresses, and cleans up after her to demonstrate her love and involvement with the child. In your classroom at meal time, the child sits at the table and stares at the food because she has never fed herself. When getting ready to go outside, she stands next her jacket hanging in her cubby because she has never dressed herself. At clean up time, she points to the toys on the floor because she has never cleaned up after herself.

How would you, in a respectful and supportive way, negotiate an interdependence vs. independence orientation with the child's mother regarding self-help skills?


Please explain:)