Primary school should be a safe place for children. It is the place where they learn for the first time how to make new friends, how to learn and how to focus on a task for a longer period of time, and so on.
Not every child experiences school as a safe place. For example, someone may be excluded by classmates, someone may have to deal with an unsafe home situation that influences their behavior at school, etc.
After following a teaching assistant training, it is your task to recognize signals together with the teacher that a child is not feeling well. This does not always mean that you are also responsible for tackling the problem.
In order to be able to return the child's social security at school and at home, a pedagogical employee is often called in. You can follow a training to become a pedagogical employee at different levels of education. For example, follow this training at the ROC. As a pedagogical employee you are mainly active in childcare after completing the training. You offer children a safe place for the period in which they go to school. It is the first time that the children will learn to play with other children, without their parents around. As a pedagogical employee you help them with this phase in their lives.
A pedagogical employee can also be trained at a university of applied sciences or, for example, at the university. In that case, a pedagogue will mainly focus on tackling behavioral problems. It is important here that the signals of a teacher or teaching assistant are correctly interpreted. Sometimes further research is necessary. Based on the signals that one has received, it is examined what causes a certain type of behavior. Is it a delay in the development of the child? Could the child be bullied? Is something not right in the home situation?
The nice thing about working with children, in whatever role, is that the work remains very challenging. Every day you deal with a different type of problem. Every child is unique and therefore every child needs a different approach. At the same time, the work is very fun and rewarding. You help the child further in its development! In the case of the work of a pedagogue, you also support the parents.
