Early Childhood Education And Child Welfare (Vol-II An Old and Rare Book )

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It gives me immense pleasure to writs this preface for this Compendium of research studies in Human Development. Marriage and Family Relationships and Early Childhood Education.

Justification of the need for such a publication of a compilation of research studies in these areas, in our country, is not hard to seek. Published empirical data on the psychological development of the Indian child, the dynamics of family relationships, the processes and practices of early childhood education is so sparce that the oft repeated statement "there is a glaring dearth of research data on the Indian child and family" becomes a wellworn cliche. The few books on the Indian child published by National Institutes and University Departments are geared more towards demographic studies and child welfare than theory and research related to child development and family dynamics. On the one hand we complain about our exclusive reliance on Western studies which are irrelevant in our cultural context, on the other hand, access to our own researches is highly restricted, especially since there is no professional journal in child development in our country. I hope that this and other similar attempts to compile and publish existing research studies will serve to meet, at least partially, the need of students and research workers in the field.

While some of the material has already been published in widely circulated journals, most of the research studies unfortunately are neatly bound only to decorate the dusty shelves of a musty library, till a rare reader, paintsakingly removes the volume from its shelf to thumb through its yellowed pages. Since 1960 more than a 100 research studies have been completed in the Department of Child Development of the Faculty of Home Science, M. S. Uni versity of Baroda. Some of these have been funded projects through National and International agencies, Ford Foundation, PL 480. U.G.C., ICSSR, NCERT, Planning Commission, Health and Family Planning Ministry, Department of Social Welfare, The Post-graduate Council of the M. S. University of Baroda etc. But a bulk of these studies have been carried out through the masters dissertation work. The research work in the masters program has yielded a rich fund of empirical data due to two major reasons (a) most of the projects have been planned and executed as group projects (sequential or simultaneous) touching different facets of a centralized theme, hence yielding indepth data and a more comprehensive coverage of a problem. (b) Sixty percent weightage is given to research work in our masters degree program and hence students take it very seriously and invest a great deal of time and effort on their studies.

The pleasure in being with children and watching them grow, develop, and toarn have probably kindled light and laughter in many dark and dull moments for adults. But, inspite of the fascination and enticement children have remained enigma and the developmental and learning process a perplexity. Understanding the child and the variegated patterns of environmental interactions and their impact on the growing organism developing into fullfledged adult has kept many social scientists on their toes!

Researchers in human development have concerned themselves with numerous areas of the study of children and their families. Especially, the child as a unit of inquiry has been studied in relation to various settings, behavioural and developmental patterns and myriads of viewpoints. The topics of research in Child Development have been as varied and complex as the developmental processes of human beings. It has been an endeavour to encompass various aspects beginning with the processes of physical growth, intelligence, cognition, socialization and the various aspects of affective and emotional development; leading to studies on creativity, language, learning, memory, the educational process and so on and so forth. In fact listing of the aspects of human growth and developmental processes that have been concern of researchers may go on ad infinitum. The researchers in the field have thus covered a wide spectrum and there have been phases when certain aspects have been considered more vital, more demanding of speculation and attention, than others. Controversies, have often led to varying stance by protogonists of specific view points; leading to the awareness of the fact that there are no simple solutions, not many definite answers and a wide range of knowledge that lies unknown or at the best is mere speculation.

The researches conducted in the Child Development Department, Faculty of Home Science, M. S. University of Baroda have been no exception to this phenomena. Infact the interdisciplinary and integrative nature of the depart mental programme has enabled us to dabble' (our paint brush) into many areas. The painting on the canvas that thus emerges is an intermingling of colours and juxtapositions of designs, which sometimes gives a clear and a vivid picture. Sometimes it's hazy and frankly many a times we have wondered and asked more questions as to what we are exactly viewing. It has indeed been a fumbling but fascinating process.

**Contents and Sample Pages**