Praising Positivity!
Here at Gymboree Play & Music Cheam, we love to create a positive Play & Learn environment for your little one. From our colourful playfloor and equipment, to our smiling Gymbos,fun themes and our bubble fun, we love to make your little ones smile!
As teachers, we recognise how important praise and positivity is in a learning environment, particularly where play is involved. Using a technique called ‘positive reinforcement’ we praise your little ones for actions such as tidying, sharing and celebrate their learning achievements; whether that’s pushing and walking with the Airlog in Level 3 classes, developing speech in Level 4, or recognising colours in Level 5. You’ll hear use verbal cues ‘fantastic work!’, ‘brilliant tidying’; we will reward little ones with rides on the Airlog, Gymbo kisses and we’ll clap and use your little one’s names in the class to show them they are a valued individual. Often when children see their peers being praised too they make a mental note to copy their friends! Positivity is infectious after all! 🙂
So how can this help at home? As we praise your little ones in class for their learning, they recognise this as a good thing and are encouraged to repeat the action. It gives them a sense of their strengths, independence and confidence in their actions. It could be at home that you praise little ones for trying a new food, sharing their toys or speaking a new word. Whilst we recognise that it is impossible and potentially detrimental to ignore all negative actions and behaviours, the idea is to really focus on the positive actions and traits more than anything to help them grow as little people!
