Juliet Mickelburgh suggests achievable strategies to help children reach their full potential…
In 1955, Dr Seuss wrote the wonderful lines “A person’s a person, no matter how small” in Horton Hears a Who. Each child in our early years settings and Reception classes is a person, full of potential to grow and learn, and to become an independent lifelong learner, no matter how small they are now. So, how can we help them to fulfil this potential?
The environment within which children learn is often referred to as the ‘third educator’ – a place where they can continue learning experiences in the absence of an adult. So it’s worth looking at this carefully when considering independent learning.
How does the environment help to facilitate independent learning? Does it provide a range of developmentally appropriate resources that allow children to make choices about their play and learning? Are there different kinds of places to be, open and spacious, enclosed and small?
One key way to facilitate independent learning is by enabling children to transport resources from one place to another. They are much more imaginative than we are, so while we might think the spoons are most useful on the shelf near the play dough, they could have a much better use for them with the small-world figures.
Providing opportunities to carry bags and recycled tubs, or to push trolleys to relocate resources, enables children to act for themselves and think outside the box.
It’s also important that resources are well organised, and children know where to find them and where to return them to. Is there a place where children can independently display any projects – 2D or 3D?
Don’t forget the old trick of getting down low so you can take a child’s eye view of your provision: what do they see, what can they reach, where can they go?
Having effective routines that children can carry out themselves promotes independence. During the pandemic, settings have adapted their routines as parents and carers have not been entering early years learning spaces. This has meant children have had to manage the emotional and practical side of this.
Establishing a simple arrival routine, and communicating it clearly to children, making it their own, has helped many settings to ease the daily ‘goodbye’ moment.
At Tapestry, we have heard from many users explaining that their children embraced the independence their new arrival routines offered them – everything from finding their peg and changing their shoes to taking their coat off and putting it on.
How do the words you say support children’s independent learning? Research has shown that praise develops a desire to please the adult while encouragement provides feedback and promotes independence.
Reflect on the way you and your team speak with children as they play, and remember your facial expressions and gestures are part of the language that you use.
Think aloud with the children, point out the things that worked or what they kept going with, so they begin to make connections about why and how they achieved something. Ask them what they think, invite their curiosity. And sometimes sit quietly with them and do some silent thinking together.
Children have many learning tools up their sleeves. Watching is one of them, rising to the occasion is another. Think about how you can help children to learn from each other. Notice how they observe one another and then have a go themselves, copying actions.
Use self-talk to explore this with children, commenting on how another child tried something in a particular way and wondering how they did it. Model asking an adult or child for help with something.
Suggest to children that they ask another child rather than an adult – for example, if they need help with knotting some string, you can point them in the direction of a child who can tie knots.
Fostering an environment where learning is shared not only nurtures independence, it can also strengthen the children’s sense of community.
Metacognitive skills, such as planning, thinking, problem solving and evaluating, allow very young children to guide and make decisions about their learning.
Executive function skills enable children to take in information, filter it, make choices, stay focused and plan.
These skills are supported by your environment and the developmentally appropriate resources you have accessible for children to select from. Children also need to know how to use the environment as they develop.
How does your provision encourage children to engage independently in more complex experiences as they progress? The role of the adult is key here, too. You may be working with a child to overcome a problem or learn a new skill together, gradually withdrawing your supervision as they become more proficient.
Perhaps you are modelling the use of self-talk to encourage thinking processes, supporting the development of the language they can use to talk about their thinking. As you encourage them, whether verbally or with gestures and facial expressions, you will be helping them to make connections and to recognise how they achieved something.
Supporting these skills requires working with each child as an individual, responding to their strengths and noticing when they are ready for the next step. Knowing your children is really important (find out more in Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System).
Dr Mine Conkbayir defines self-regulation as “one’s ability to manage one’s own emotional responses and consequent behaviour and knowing how to control those big, overwhelming feelings such as anger or fear, in order to get on with the serious business of play, building relationships and learning”.
In order to learn self-regulation, babies and children need the support of adults through co-regulation – to guide them through their emotions, introducing strategies that can be learned and used again.
In your setting, think about the resources, space, time and strategies you offer babies and children to help them learn self-regulation. As practitioners we have so many opportunities to support each child on the road to being an independent learner, and to becoming the small, and marvellous, person they are.
Juliet Mickelburgh is education adviser at Tapestry (tapestry.info), the online learning journal, and a former primary school teacher. She also writes for the Foundation Stage Forum.
