The healthy nutrition of the kindergarten child from the point of view of the teachers

Abstract

Kindergarten is one of the basic educational stages for children under the age of five, in order to obtain integrated educational opportunities in general; In order to enhance their growth (physical, health, intellectual, psychological, emotional, and social), so that they are ready for the next school stage. The personality of the child and his preparation for the later stages depends primarily on the kindergarten teacher, whose role comes to teach him the most important skills of daily life, including how to choose healthy foods that are beneficial to the body while he is inclined to eat. The process of educating the kindergarten teacher in the field of healthy nutrition for the child is one of the educational goals that societies seek, and the aim of it is to help the child diversify in eating foods, develop good healthy habits for him, and help him understand the reasons for choosing different foods. Hence, we understand that the kindergarten teacher has a major role in recognizing the healthy nutritional characteristics that each child possesses, and for that, the researcher has set two goals through which it is possible to reach the degree of healthy nutrition possessed by kindergarten children, which are as follows: -1 The viewpoint of the teachers towards the degree of healthy nutrition prevailing in the kindergarten child. 2- The differences in the teachers’ point of view towards healthy nutrition for kindergarten children according to a variable of the presence of children (married women with children, married without children). For achieving the objectives of the research, the researcher resorted to withdrawing a sample consisting of (147) female teachers who are married only and who are dependents to the Baghdad Education Directorate in Rusafa First. A scale consisting of (22) items, and after the psychometric characteristics of its items were extracted, it became composed of (20) items. After analyzing the answers of the parameters, the results of the research showed the following: 1- Kindergarten children enjoy a normal level of healthy nutrition from the point of view of their teachers. 2- There is no effect of the variable of children's presence among married kindergarten teachers on their point of view about the degree of healthy nutrition prevailing among kindergarten children. The researcher also presented a set of recommendations and suggestions appropriate to the results of her research. Keywords: healthy nutrition, kindergarten child, kindergarten teacher.