POLISH PRESCHOOL TEACHERS' VIEWS ON HARDENING CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Preschool age is considered the most significant period of human development. During this time, many morphological, psychological and motor functions of the child are rapidly expanding and maturing. It is the age when the foundations for the child's health are being established and reinforced. The morbidity rates of preschoolers in Poland remain relatively high regardless of the successes of preventive medicine. Diseases of the upper respiratory tract due to a common cold still dominate in the disease structure. Accordingly, hardening may become a prime way of boosting the immunity of a child's system. Hardening is nothing more than reinforcing the immunological system by training its reactions to different circumstances. So far, there have been no studies in Poland concerning hardening of children in preschool age neither in the kindergarten nor at home. In the European literature, numerous works on the topic have appeared, especially in Norway, Great Britain, Latvia or Belarus. In Poland, this kind approach to natural body forces tends to be neglected. That is why examining the level of knowledge and opinions on hardening, as well as the used methods were set as the primary aim of the research. We were looking for answers to the following research questions: What methods of hardening the child’s body could be used in kindergartens in Poland. We assume that teachers as the persons responsible for the child's upbringing and development process ought to strengthen children’s body so that cold and temperature fluctuations do not affect them in a significant way and also enhance their resistance to diseases. The study was conducted in the year 2018 in the city of Biała Podlaska, Lublin Province, and comprised teachers of the selected kindergartens. It used the method of a diagnostic survey and involved a polling technique. The tool for collecting data was a poll questionnaire containing questions on health education and hardening.

The analysis of the obtained results regarding the opinions of teachers of pre-school education shows that a vast majority of them were in favour of introducing health hardening to children in kindergartens to reduce respiratory diseases and increase their immunological immunity.

The study was pilot research, and it was the first stage of the project entitled 'Pedagogic aspects of hardening children in the preschool age in Poland and abroad', whose purpose is to implement the chosen methods of hardening the body to kindergartens.