After feeding time, Ke plays with the infants and trains their motor skills using a toy she has invented.
“Say Gan En* to Mum and Dad!”
Ke Xiu Yuan said to a baby boy while guiding him to put his palms together to express gratitude to his parents before they headed off to work.
Ke is an infant educarer at Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool’s infant care centre. Early every morning before 7am, Ke and her colleague, Kuan, are already at the infant care centre waiting for parents to drop off their children. They are two of the four infant educarers at the PreSchool. Their other two colleagues arrive later to work the second shift, which runs from 10am to 7pm.
* ”Gan En” (感恩) means “thank you with gratitude”
Ke takes the body temperature of a young child before letting him into the infant care room.
After 7am, infants/toddlers aged 18 months and below begin to arrive at the centre with their parents. It is quite easy for the parents to hand their children over to the teachers. Hardly any of the children cry when their parents turn and walk away, an indication of the strong level of comfort and sense of security they feel with the teachers.
A patient, loving and creative infant care teacher
“Infant educarers”, or more commonly known as “early childhood development teachers”, play an important role in a society where most married couples (with babies or toddlers) have to work in order to bring in dual income—they need someone reliable to look after their little ones. To ensure that each infant feels physically and emotionally secure in the absence of their parents, an infant educarer needs to possess several qualities, such as patience, compassion, a positive personality, good communication skills, and most importantly, a love for children.
Ke Xiu Yuan, who hails from China, obtained her infant care certificate in Singapore in 2013 and has more than 10 years of experience taking care of young children. She has served for 5 years at Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool. As a mother of three adult children in their twenties, Ke was the caregiver of all her children in the past. She finds that she likes interacting with children below 18 months the most.
“I like them the most when they are between 2 to 18 months old, because this is when they are ‘purest’, and their smiles can keep me happy the whole day,” said Ke when asked why she has chosen her profession.
Her love for children is obvious from the way she interacts with the infants and from the creative toys and innovative teaching aids she personally makes for them. She hand-made many of the learning aids in the infant care room.
The water bag filled with flowers is a toy made by Ke to stimulate infants’ curiosity. She will encourage the little ones to identify the items in the bag.
As a certified infant care teacher, Ke has a good knowledge and understanding of the different stages of infant development. She does not only bathe and feed them, but also guides and assists them in their development to ensure that they do not lag behind.
“She not only cares for the infants, but also takes the initiative to ensure that they are learning, and that their time at the centre is not wasted,” said Audrey Koh, the principal of Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool.
Young children need to be guided to develop their linguistic, cognitive, physical, and social skills. Whenever Ke notices any infants not meeting their developmental milestones, she will take extra effort to do certain exercises and activities with them to enhance their development.
As a resourceful person and someone who truly believes in and practises environment protection, Ke makes the toys and learning aids for the infants using recyclables. These items are intended for training the infants’ motor skills and stimulating their cognitive development.
Ke also integrates Tzu Chi’s humanistic while guiding the young children to develop their language ability.
“The language that she uses is not only child-appropriate, but very gentle, too. And very often, she uses Jing Si Aphorisms to guide the children, so she doesn't underestimate their learning (ability). She feels that by doing so, she is planting a seed in them. We do not know when the seed will sprout, but it is a very good start for the kids,” shared Audrey Koh.
Lending others a helping hand when needed
It is bathing time for the infants at around 11am, and the teachers take turns to bathe the infants one by one. While an infant is being bathed, Ke and her other colleagues look after the rest who are waiting for their turn to bathe. Feeding time follows soon after that.
Each infant care teacher has to feed two to three infants at the same time.
Ke is adored by her colleagues due to her positive attitude, easy-going personality and her willingness to give and contribute. Infant care is a very tiring job, however, in a work environment where everyone helps each other, it makes life a bit easier for all.
“What I admire about her is that she never complains about being tired, even though sometimes, I can tell that she is already very tired,” shared Tracia Ang, a colleague of Ke.
Ke also willingly shares the workload of her colleagues and would cover for a colleague when the latter is occupied with a particular child. Besides, she does not mind working extra hours, because she sees herself not only as a staff of Tzu Chi, but also a certified Tzu Chi volunteer (i.e. a commissioner).
“She is not a calculating person. She contributes her efforts quietly by arriving earlier than expected and working overtime when teachers go on leave. We are all very thankful to her, and we are happy to work together with her,” added Tracia.
Ke works together with her colleagues to attend to the different needs of nine infants under their care. Tracia Ang (first teacher from the right) is part of the infant care team.
Earning the trust of parents
Ke believes in the importance of establishing a trusting relationship with the infants and their family in order to provide the best care and guidance for the little ones. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Ng, who sent their eldest son to Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool when he was 15 months old, now also send their second son, Coen, to the childcare centre.
“We were already very familiar with Ke when we started bringing Coen here, because our eldest son was previously under her care. We saw how she patiently (and lovingly) guided him to assimilate into the environment by hugging and comforting him whenever he started crying. We like the love and patience she showed to our eldest son and now, to our second baby. We are very happy to see our kids growing up in such a loving environment,” shared the happy and satisfied couple.
Ke also takes photos and videos of each infant’s “first times” to show to the parents. By doing so, she hopes to keep the latter up to date about the progress of their child, so that they will not miss out the key milestones of the latter’s development while away at work.
“She often shows us video clips of Coen, such as the first time he turned over. And she will update us on any new movements or behaviours of our baby, and asks us if we notice any differences at home,” shared Isaac.
As a very loving and attentive teacher, Ke also wins the hearts of baby Jiew Kah’s parents. Jiew Kah’s father, Chai Kian Choi, said, “Ke would record the progress of each child every day and share with us any new developments she sees in Jiew Kah. We really appreciate being kept informed about his growth at the centre.”
Both Chai and his wife, Khor Chooi Kim, feel totally at ease with entrusting their son to Ke, and they like how Ke and the other infant care teachers instill positive values, such as gratitude and frugality in the little ones despite their tender age.
“Now Jiew Kah can already put his palms together to express gratitude, and we’ve also noticed that many of the children here can do the same. You probably won’t see that in other infant care centres or preschools,” said Khor.
Passion and dedication for infant care
With her passion and love for infants, Ke not only enjoys her job as an infant educarer, but also has a deep knowledge and understanding of the needs of children at such a tender and vulnerable age.
“It’s about giving them a sense of security, because at their age, infants are highly dependent on their parents. So we, as infant educarers, need to develop a similar bonding with the infants and gain their trust,” said Ke.
As the educarers consistently interact with the infants and try their best to find out what they need when they are upset or throwing tantrums, the latter will be able to feel their motherly love and thus form strong bonds with them.
Ke also acknowledges the difficulties and challenges an infant educarer faces at work, mainly due to the fact that the children they are looking after are too young to be able to express themselves and are unable to fully understand what the adults are saying. Ke’s solution to this is to be a role model for them, because young children learn through imitation—they will do what the adults are doing. Hence, leading by example is the most direct way of teaching them.
“We cannot expect all the children to develop at equal speed, be it sitting, crawling, standing or walking. We have to be very clear about the developmental stage of each child and use suitable methods to guide and strengthen their physical development when they are ready,” shared Ke.
When asked about the greatest challenge in taking care of infants, Ke replied, “The biggest challenge is emotional management, be it dealing with the emotions of a child or managing my own emotions. When a child gets emotional, you need to find ways to understand his or her needs, and our emotions can be affected by theirs.”
What keeps Ke going in the field of infant care all these years despite the hardships and challenges she faces, is seeing the infants under her care meeting every milestone and the trust she has gained from parents. This is evident from the many positive feedbacks and testimonials she has received.
The teachings of Dharma Master Cheng Yen have also been very helpful to her. Ke practises the Dharma she learns from the Master by calming herself down in the face of any problems that arise before slowly trying to resolve them.
Winning the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer Award
In recognition of Ke’s dedication towards the infant care profession, Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool nominated Ke as a candidate for the Early Childhood Development Award (ECDA) for Excellence. The entire PreSchool was very supportive of Ke, which touched her deeply as the election process for the award required the cooperation of other staff. Nevertheless, Ke kept an open mind about it and never expected to win the award.
In July this year, the PreSchool received an email from the ECDA Awards Secretariat informing them that Ke had been awarded the “Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer Award”. Everyone was thrilled by the good news, as it was the first time a teacher from the childcare centre had ever received such an honour.
Ke (4th from the left) poses for a group photo with fellow colleagues after receiving the Outstanding Early Childhood Educarer Award at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre on 13th September 2019. Standing next to her is the CEO of Tzu Chi Singapore, Mr Low Swee She. (Photo by Teh Siau Ching)
“This award has given me more confidence and motivation to do better, but what matters most to me is seeing the young children growing up happily and healthily under our care. And I intend to work as an infant educarer until the day I can no longer work,” said Ke.
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