ABSTRACT
In an ideal situation, preschoolers ought to have a very good and loving relationship with their parents and caregivers, so they can develop a healthy personality but unfortunately many of these children find it difficult having good relationship with them being that parents and caregiver lack a clearer understanding of their roles. These preschoolers, lack confidence and self-esteem and there is an obvious delay in their cognitive reasoning and capacity. Therefore, it was of utmost importance to carry out a research to investigate the role of parents and caregivers in fostering cognitive and social emotional development in preschool children in Egor Local Government Area, Edo state.
To guide the study four (4) research questions were drawn which are: do parents have an influence in fostering cognitive and social-emotional development in preschool children, do caregivers have an influence in fostering cognitive and social emotional development in children, to what extent do preschool children necessarily need the influence of parents and caregivers for their cognitive and social-emotional development, what strategies can parents and caregivers employ to positively foster cognitive and social-emotional development of preschool children?
In conducting the study, a descriptive survey research design was used and the sampling technique was the simple random sampling technique. The population of the study consisted of preschool caregivers and parents in nursery schools in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. The sample size of the study were fifty (50) parents and caregivers drawn from 10 nursery schools in Egor. Structured questionnaires were used to elicit responses from the respondents. The data collected from respondents was analyzed using the mean and standard deviation.
The result of this findings revealed that: parents and caregivers can employ strategies like having quality interaction daily with the preschool children, supporting their interest and play, ensuring they are healthy, understanding their developmental milestones and modeling appropriate behaviours in fostering cognitive and social emotional development in preschool children. It was therefore recommended that the Federal Government of Nigeria should be effective in implementing strategies not just a policy on paper as it relates to adequate funds for quality caregivers, supply of facilities and learning materials and monitoring of Early Childhood and Care Development programs.
