Afetividade e autoestima na educação infantil: uma relação possível

Abstract

This study on affectivity in Childrens Education assumes that the teachers affectivity granted to the child is of paramount importance for the childs intellectual, psychological and social development. It also assumes that self-esteem interferes directly in how the child stands before her/his group of socialization determining whether the child is well accepted or not. We intend to analyze how affective relationships between adults and children contribute to the building of self-esteem in a 4 year old child attending an educational institution. Based on some theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, Wallon, and some of their followers, when affectivity is approached, it is shown that the child is not only cognition. In addition to cognition there is the constant relationship with the environment and with others driven to the acquisition of skills required to achieve integral growth. The teacher, mediator of this process, should care for the quality of the relationships between adult and children, seeking to perform the positive building of selfesteem. In order to better understand the phenomena linked to affectivity, a case study was carried out at a Child Education institution in the city of Contagem. The subject was a 4 year old child who was not showing any interest in the activities. She despised other childrens works and on top of it considered herself unable to perform the proposed activities. The three teachers who worked with the child along the year in which the survey took place were interviewed and asked to answer a questionnaire as well. The child was observed in collective situations, and some interventions were made directly towards her seeking to demonstrate affection for and confidence in her. Based on the research we gathered that although school insists on separating reason and emotion, the child is an inseparable social being and needs other beings to make herself human. Therefore, depending on the relationship established with the child within the Child Education institution, the adult can help her to either become positively aware of herself or strengthen a negative image of herself. In the classroom, regarding the performance of the acceptance of the other, the space of the emotions is at the center. Therefore, it is noticeable that the affective and cognitive factors exert a decisive influence on the behavior and the images built by each child on herself, contributing to the construction of his/her identity and selfesteem.