Hygiene is a concept that in turn is an important factor in people’s health. For this reason and in a general way we will begin by defining this concept that, as the RAE (2019) says, refers to the “part of medicine that aims to preserve health and prevent diseases” Therefore, we can say that Hygiene is made up of all actions that positively influence people’s health (Lizandra, 2016).
Hygiene is present at all times of our day and in any of the contexts. But especially, we are going to focus on hygiene in the first cycle of early childhood education.
At this time, the role of the family as the primary educational agent comes into play. Being able to say that the family is an ecosystem unit, that is, a daily space where networks of support, trust, mutuality and solidarity are established (Estupiñán and Hérnandez, 2007; Muaze, 2016). Therefore, it is a primary training source, which is responsible for protecting, caring for, training and humanizing (Lizandra, 2016).
Once children grow up, they stop spending so much time with their family to spend it in other contexts, so they must learn autonomous hygiene habits.
According to Pikler, care is about a confluence that offers the child a relationship and quality care and the possibility of exercising their autonomous activity, protected and valued by the adult, in a safe environment.
When children are very young and unable to fend for themselves, they need constant care and attention. They require an adult to wash, change, groom themselves. etc.
One of these moments of hygiene is the change of diaper, at this time the relationship of the child with the adult is very important, we must think about what the child needs at all times. It will be necessary to use a close, respectful and affable language, you also have to anticipate and always give an explanation about what we do and why we do it (Escuela Infantil La Lluna, 2020).
As the children grow up, they are incorporated to the next educational agent after the family, the school. It is necessary that there is a coordination between these two contexts for the correct development of the students. In this context, children are becoming more and more autonomous, and after two years (depending on the rhythm of each child) they are able to wash their hands, teeth, bathe, go to the bathroom alone, clean themselves, etc.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, in Early Childhood Education, in the first cycle, that is, 0-3 year old students, are becoming more autonomous, since one of the objectives of the 0-3 year stage is “ progressively acquire autonomy in normal activities ”. Specifically, we are going to focus on specific hygiene objectives, of which we can highlight the following (Santiago; Arribas, 2016):
- Promote a correct habit of personal hygiene.
- Involve the child in a pleasant way in his own hygiene.
- Increase the autonomy of your personal hygiene.
- Get started in the care of personal items related to hygiene.
Finally, we would like to talk about the importance of hygiene today. The pandemic we are going through forces us to be more strict with hygiene, we must make children aware of the importance of washing their hands with soap, not abusing hydroalcoholic gel, and not touching things or putting anything in their mouth .
With regard to hygiene and the coronavirus, the WHO (2020), reveals the following indications on the recommended measures for opening schools, where the new hygiene habits that we have to face every day are established:
- The importance of hygiene and cleanliness of the environment to limit exposure to the virus.
- Inform and raise awareness about the importance of hand washing, respiratory hygiene, the mandatory or not of masks, which should be provided to everyone who needs it.
- Finally, a schedule must be created for frequent hand washing, leaving hydroalcoholic gel or soap at the disposal of the educational community, as well as clean water in school facilities.
References
Luna, E. I. (2020). El momento del cambio de pañal. Aula de Infantil, 13-15.
Rodríguez, Y. S., & Peñalver, I. A. (2016). Autonomía personal y salud infantil. Madrid: EDITORIAL SÍNTESIS, S. A.
Moreno-Acero, I, Leyva-Townsend, P., y Parra-Moreno, C. (2019). La familia, primer ámbito de educación cívica. Civilizar: Ciencias Sociales y Humanas, 19(37), 43-54. doi: 10.22518/usergioa/jour/ccsh/2019.2/a26. Recuperado de: https://revistas.usergioarboleda.edu.co/index.php/ccsh/article/view/V19n37a06/1194
Lizandra, A. (2016). La higiene en educación infantil. Los talleres como recurso didáctico (p.4). Universitat Jaume I. Recuperado de http://repositori.uji.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10234/162225/TFG__Lizandra_Mac%C3%ADas%2c_Alba.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
OMS (2020). Consideraciones para las medidas de salud pública relativas a las escuelas en el contexto de la COVID-19. Recuperado el 18-11-2020 de https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/332107/WHO-2019-nCoV-Adjusting_PH_measures-Schools-2020.1-spa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Real Academia Española (2019). Definición higiene. Recuperado el 18-11-2020 de https://dle.rae.es/higiene
Authorship
Sheila Hormachea, Coral Sánchez y Carmen Santos, 2020.