Personal hygiene is the care that every human being requires to keep the body in a positive and healthy state. Moreover, personal hygiene is understood as actions by which people attend to out cleanliness and our appearance. Taking care of hygiene is a big responsibility, and each person has to take care of his own. Because of this, the family is the first nucleus where the child learns to know about hygiene and cleanliness habits.
Hygiene has an essential place in our lives, and thanks to it we create good health habits and prevent diseases. For this reason, it is important and necessary that children are taught personal hygiene tasks from a very early age, with the aim of making this personal cleanliness a fixed moment in their daily live. Furthermore, by acquiring some habits of hygiene, it Will help them to know their own body and to give them security and a sense of independence.
The World Health Organization (1999) gives a very relevant and appropriate definition of Health Education in our society: “Health education comprises consciously created learning opportunities that involve a form of communication aimed at improving health literacy, including improving people´s knowledge of health and developing personal skills leading to individual and community health.
Related to our field, Early Childhood Education, at this stage health education is a major axis for the formation of students.
Likewise, Gómez (2002) emphasizes that in the moment of elaborating educational programs that are dedicated to health, it is essential that teachers take advantage of daily moments to learn and reflect on health.
To this end, schools should put this topic first, since many illnesses require adequate hygiene habits for the health of the person and, furthermore, for their contagion.
Authorship
Elena Pérez Bengochea y Naiara Ruisoto Lavín, 2020.
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.