Early childhood is the age of innocence and vulnerability. It is a period to observe what piques children's interest and giving them the liberty to explore it.
I had a wholesome childhood to a great degree but there is one part of my early childhood which has left a slightly unsettling impact on me. It was a common practice for children of ages ranging from 2 to 4 years old to attend a 'playgroup' in my area. I was also admitted to one near my home but I did not show much enthusiasm for attending it. The main contributing factor for being dispassionate was the condescending attitude and favoritism exercised by teachers there. The age in which I was supposed to feel appreciated and valued, I was neglected by my teachers only because I was not confident enough to actively respond in the class. The time my teachers should have had spent in assisting me to overcome my problems and fears, and encouraging me to further develop the skills I was good at, they spent it on focusing on what I could not do and sidelining me and motivating only the ones who were already excelling.
Adults often think that a child is not wise enough to notice how he is being treated, but in my opinion, this notion is wrong. A child is sensitive and capable of noticing even a marginal shift of attitude towards him. When going through different theorists, I came across Freidrich Froebel's theory and it resonated deep within me. He deduced that a child should be given a sound ground to evolve and should be provided guidance where necessary along with giving him the room to experiment things on his own. According to him, a teacher must lay stress on a child's capacity to do something and appreciate him rather than on what he is unable to do and make him feel terrible. He gave an example that some children know how to play with paints and some are not good at it. That doesn't mean they are incompetent in other fields. They might be good at learning how clay or sand reacts with water. The air and mood of any center should be inspiring and supportive, in contrast to being judgmental and disapproving. He proposed the idea of acquiring understanding through playing with objects, and for this purpose, he introduced play materials like 'wooden cubes' etc, and a new learning system called 'Kindergarten.' To sum up, if adults are inexpert in comprehending that every child has his speed of development and mental capability, then they might not be able to give a child the kind of attention he yearns for.