Maryum suggests the following tips.

1. Where to Begin

• Really get to know the child
• Talk to the child about what they are doing
• Parallel play with the child

2. Methods used to help a shy child

• Read books to your class/at home based on characters that overcame shyness
• Pair children together or in small groups
• Spark interaction
• Praise another child’s friendly action in the presence of the shy one
• Reward friendly behaviors
• Show empathy and understanding

Maryum was born in England and grew up in South West London, graduating from City University, London with a 1st Class Honours degree in Business Computing Systems. Shortly after graduating she moved to the UAE in 2007 where she took an interest in Early Childhood Education by supporting a new Nursery business start-up in 2012 and taking on the role of Nursery Deputy Manager.

She then pursued her career in early childhood education by moving onto a new nursery group, taking on the role of Nursery Principle in a British Nursery in Dubai for over 8 years. In 2018 she was then offered an incredible and exciting opportunity to join BEST Education Group, in their project to head the first Finnish ECEC nursery in the UAE. Joining Best Education Group as Senior Nursery Development Manager her role involved working with Best Education senior team through stages of each project including academic planning, curriculum development, nursery design and layout, procurement, policies and procedures, marketing, recruitment and training and liaising with ministry officials.

After successfully establishing the first branch of Best Kidz Nurseries licensed by the Ministry of Education as the first nursery under the Finnish Early Childhood Education and Care curriculum in the UAE, Maryum continues to work with Best Education Group to develop and expand the brand and group of nurseries and continue her passion for Finnish Early Years education.

hi my name is maryum nawaz
I’m the nursery principal at best kids
nursery in Dubai please subscribe for
more educational videos and leave your
comments below thank you today we’ll be
talking about how to help shy children
it’s very important at the beginning to
first understand that brand new
environment might be really difficult
for us as adults as well as children to
get used to so we really need to see and
observe a child’s personality to see if
they are naturally geared towards being
shy or if they lack the skills so where
do we begin now it’s very important for
the teacher and educator to really get
to know the child at the very beginning
when they start nursery really
understand their personality what their
likes and dislikes are and really show
affection towards the child the other
important thing is to really get down
and play with the child parallel play is
very important and it can really help
you to get to know the child
individually and show affection towards
them so methods to use that will really
help you in the classroom to do with shy
children one great method is to read
books about a shy character this will
help you and the child connect with
children and in an environments where
children are very shy
you can then reflect back at the story
once the story is over and talk about
the character and how they overcame
shyness this is a great way for children
to understand this emotion number two
pairing children together or in small
groups really help shy children to
overcome their shyness pairing a child
together with a really confident child
and a shy child will help them overcome
and observe behaviors of the really
confident child this will allow them
then to open up to the confident child
and allow the confident child to then
guide that child into the classroom and
into areas where they might not feel
comfortable pairing children in small
groups really helps as well where they
can for example play a game together and
really kind of open up number three is
praising
a really friendly action of a child in
front of the shy one now when you have a
group of children you’ll see definitely
a distinction between children that are
really confident and children that are
tend to be a bit timid what what really
helps is when you do really praise a
child that really does show friendly
actions in front of the shy one so that
they will be motivated to do the same
and to open up a bit more
number four spark interaction when you
see the child child playing in a group
you can spark interaction by going next
to them and prompting words and giving
them words to speak for example if you
see a child with another child and
they’re not interacting you can always
prompt them with words and help them go
forward for example look Isabella wants
to pee let doctor what she wants to play
today in front of the shy child so they
feel a bit more confident and they are
given the words so that they can take it
further the next time they’re playing
number five reward friendly behaviors a
great way to really motivate a shy child
is really to reward them when you see
signs of them coming out of their shell
for example if you see that they’re
sharing a toy with another child well
done Tommy that’s great so really kind
of reward that friendly behavior so it
really motivates that child to do it
again and do it better the next time oh
that’s great Isabella you’re playing
really well with Tommy that way the
child then really feels like he’s doing
something really good and he tries to
then come out of his shell than being
timid in the classroom number six is
showing empathy and understanding really
connecting with the child and making
them feel like you really understand
their environment and their situation
and really connecting with them helps
them to overcome this and build the
skill in shyness that they really need
showing empathy through educators is
very very important because it helps a
child to connect with the educator and
really build those skills that they need
in order to overcome the shyness so here
are some tips that you can use in the
classroom and we really help you to
understand shy children how to overcome
their shyness
don’t label children as shy if you label
them they will then go back in their
shell avoid using the word shy in front
of them or in front of other children
because it does really affect them in a
way also showing warmth towards that
child is very important you need to show
a lot of warmth and empathy to the child
it will help that child in connect with
the educator and feel really comfortable
in the environment we do have to
understand going into a brand new
environment out of their home
environment is very difficult on anyone
it can be very difficult on adults and
it can be very difficult in children
especially so giving that warmth and
really connecting with the child will
help them be comfortable in a new
environment another thing that helps
also is to give the child space and time
don’t force a child if you’re in circle
time for example and you box the
question to children you going around to
that shy child but they haven’t answered
it’s okay you can move on to the next
child don’t put the child in a spot
where they feel uncomfortable I hope
this video has really helped you the
tips that I’ve discussed you can take
them away to the classroom as educators
and really see how you can use these in
your environment as well as for parents
that can use these tips at home to help
they’re shy children thank you for
watching and happy parenting