From March to October 2020, children were not been able to attend nursery in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic and the measures that the UAE government have put in place to limit its spread. Although these measures were essential, children across Dubai were missing out on important socialisation skills. With nurseries now open again, is it safe to send your child and what are the risks if you choose to keep your child at home? We take you through the importance of socialisation and how sending your child to nursery is essential for this development,
How Does Socialisation Help with Early Childhood Development?
The first few years in a child’s life are filled with curiosity, wonder, joy, and other emotions as they begin to experience new feelings. These years are more crucial than you think – this is the time when your child grows on a social and emotional level.
Modern studies show that children need more than just nurturing for their brains and bodies. Social development is important too. Some of the benefits of socialising young children is:
- Increases self-belief in children. When a child makes new friends at social gatherings, it boosts their confidence to a significant extent.
- Facilitates children to build positive emotional connections and friendship bonds – something which proves useful throughout their lives.
- Helps children empathise with others. While playing with other children, they get to know that other people have feelings too. With varied interactions, they learn how different actions can affect changes to human behaviour.
- Encourages children to share. Children who grow up with little social interaction can tend to become self-centred. Socialising with other children helps them learn how to share and cooperate; if they don’t learn this in the early years, they can be more prone to exhibit selfish behaviour as an adult With socialising, they recognise that other children have similar needs and desires, and slowly learn to share items and wait for their turn. Over time, they share toys, rides, space, and even an adult’s attention.
- Makes them tolerant. By socialising with children belonging to other cultures and children experiencing various disabilities, they become accepting of everyone and treat them equally.
What Safety Precautions are Nurseries in Dubai Taking to Keep Children Safe During the Pandemic?
When nurseries in Dubai go back there will be a number of changes implemented at Emirates British Nursery in line with directives from the UAE Ministry of Education. Children will be in class ‘bubbles’ with a reduced number of children in each class and they will remain within their class throughout the day. This eliminates unnecessary contact with other children. Due to the large sizes of Emirates British Nurseries, children will still get the stimulation of multiple themed rooms that are dedicated to every class, as well as time to play outside, while all play equipment is sterilised between use of each class.
There will be staggered drop-off and collection times and only one dedicated care giver will be able to drop off their child each day to decrease potential crossover and congestion. No support and maintenance service staff will be permitted to enter the nursery when children and staff are present.
Along with ongoing sterilisation, daily health checks and a designated trained health and safety official employed to ensure all procedures are being followed, children can safely socialise with their class and have minimum contact with other children, staff or parents. Every new procedure will be carried out in a way to reduce any stress for the children.
To find out more about our COVID procedures please see our COVID Precautions information page.
Should I Send My Child to Nursery in Dubai?
Time with other children is a crucial part of growing up and it is how children develop and learn about cooperation, friendship, and trust. Thanks to the COVID 19 coronavirus pandemic and the measures that The Ministry of Education have put in place to limit its spread, many children in Dubai have had limited social contact for many months. With the safety precautions taken by Emirates British Nursery and the state-of-the-art facilities we offer, children can socialise safely and enjoyably without missing out on this crucial development phase in their life. Contact us today about enrolling your child at one of four nurseries in Dubai: Dubai Silicon Oasis, The Villa, Dubai Motor City or Mirdif.
