How Do We Help Children Feel Safe and Ready to Learn?

Anne Rifkin-Graboi, PhD

Head Infancy & Early Childhood Research

Centre for Research in Child Development

National Institute of Education

Does Everyone Want to Learn?

Humans Expect to Learn Throughout Their Entire Lives!

Unlike many other species, human brains develop at least into their late 20’s. Human brains show longer courses of development than even “closely related”

animals like chimpanzees.

Miller et al (2012). Proc Natl Acad,109(41):16480-5.

Still, different environmental input can lead to different types of learning. “Blue Sky” environments encourage . . .

Book-smart versus Street-smart Learning

Art by Michaela Bruntraeger

Growing Up Slowly versus Quickly

“Blue Skies”

How Can We Encourage “Sunny Sky” Development?

“Blue Skies”

Notice

Interpretation of Signal & Need

Context & Developmental Stage

Timely Response

Noticing Small Signals is Important Too

Image from GUSTO. GUSTO is a collaborative study involving National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS), National University Hospital (NUH). and Kandang Kerbau Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).

Children Need to Feel Loved and Safe

• Children need caregivers (even if they say they don’t)• “Playing/snuggling/special time”

Helps children know it is “okay” to need securityIs funLets children know you are there for themLets allows children to be more ready to listen/work at other times

• Children value your opinions• Joint Participation: Share in joy, work, relationships• Acknowledge Feelings

Children Like to Share Feelings of Joy

• Remind children of future opportunities for joy

• Help them understand others’ feelings

• Promote eye contact• Enjoy the shared experience, even

if it is “silly”

Image from the NRF funded NRF2016-SOL001-003 , NIE SPACE study

Children Need Support

• Don’t always have knowledge of how things work

• Don’t always remember “simple” associations or rules

New activities

Set clear expectations and reminders

Reinforce positive behavior

• Memory continues to develop into teenage years.

• Not just being stubborn, without memory hard to plan,

obey, and predict the future

• Understand they perceive time differently

• Life is exciting!

Children Like to Do Things on Their Own

Their “job” is to become independent• Not “naughty” to want to do things on own• Don’t sweat the small stuff• Pick your battles• Recognize accomplishments

Moran, G. (2009). "Mini-MBQS-V Revised Mini-MBQS 25 Item for Video Coding." The Selected Works of Greg Moran. from http://works.bepress.com/gregmoran/49

Behaviors that are similar to those in very sensitive caregivers include responding to distress even when doing something else, noticing the child’s interests and building on them, understanding the child’s emotional and regulatory abilities, and accepting that the child’s behavior and wishes may be different than one’s own.

Behaviors that are very dissimilar (unlike) those in very sensitive caregivers include “tuning out” from the situation, being intrusive and actively opposing the child’s (reasonable) wishes, being harsh or cruel, and behaving in a way that is out-of-synch with regards to the child’s pace or emotional state.

Researchers can use coding systems to assess responsive and sensitive caregiving. They look for behaviors that are “like” and “unlike” very sensitive caregivers.

Why Does this Kind of Caregiving Signal “Sunny Skies”?

(Challenging) New

ExperienceBehavior

Communication (Crying, Talking) & Support

Psychological (Concentration, Internal Feelings)Hard for Young Children

Scaffolding & Comfort

Involvement in New Experience and “Enriching” Brain

Development

It helps children explore new ideas and situations and this can change the brain

(Challenging) New

ExperienceBehavior

Communication (Crying, Talking) & Support

Physiological Stress Response

Psychological (Concentration, Internal Feelings)

By Anatomography - en:Anatomography (setting page of this image), CC BY-SA 2.1 jp, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44645924

BruceBlaus. When using this image in external sources it can be cited as:Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]

Neural Changes

Scary New

Experience

It helps keep children from experiencing high levels of stress that can change the brain in other ways

In Times of Threat, the Balance between Comfort and Exploration Needs Changes

ThreatNo Threat

The Way Children Manage A Separation Challenge Relates to Caregiving Experience

Regular Exposure to Caregiving that is. . .

Upon reunion with the caregiver in question. . .

Reunion Behavior Referred to as

Sensitive & Responsive Seeks comfort, is comforted, returns to full exploration

Secure Attachment

Inconsistent Seeks comfort but doesn’t fully allow comfort, continues to focus on caregiver rather than exploration

Resistant/Ambivalent Attachment

Rejecting Does not seek comfort, does not fully/richly explore

Avoidant Attachment

Frightening Exhibits odd conflict behavior and/or notably dazed behavior

Disorganized/Disoriented Attachment

Patterns refer to behavior in a strandardizedlaboratory procedure, “The Strange Situation.”

What is the Evidence that Feelings of Security Matter to Learning?

“Adaptation in the Preschool Period: The Emergence of the Coherent Personality” Chapter 7 of Sroufe, Egeland, Carlson, & Collins (2005) The Development of the Person

Teachers’ Descriptors of Students related to Attachment Patterns

1 Mean to other children, kept things that didn’t belong to her. The most dishonest preschooler I have ever met. Mean lying– everything is hers.

2 Ideal kid, good looking, OK. Well-coordinated agile, competent. Very solid kid. Vulnerable to life changes, positive and negative.

3 Play with yellow truck. Trouble dealing with stress. Confusing- OK outwardly, yet sad and prone to self-recrimination/guild. Falling down in dramatic scene- an actor.

4 Bright but impulsive and tense. Frustrated, easily in play situations, inconsiderate of children. Holding “gun” saying it is his.

5 Very mad, “I hate myself!” An unhappy and angry kid. Terrible self-concept. Angry, unhappy.

6 Happy rising star in the group– looked better all the time. Agile, coordinated, jumping around room. Shy, but gutsy with care group.

7 Spunky sleeper- more powerful than meets the eye. Competent, quiet, So funny, cute, elf-like.

8 So mean- lack of respect for humans. Angry, mean, playing with cars. Out of control, trying to do better.

9 “High”– difficult to settle and difficult to concentrate. High (hyper). An operator– popular and fast (very elusive).

1 Mean to other children, kept things that didn’t belong to her. The most dishonest preschooler I have ever met. Mean lying– everything is hers.

2 Ideal kid, good looking, OK. Well-coordinated agile, competent. Very solid kid. Vulnerable to life changes, positive and negative.

3 Play with yellow truck. Trouble dealing with stress. Confusing- OK outwardly, yet sad and prone to self-recrimination/guilt. Falling down in dramatic scene- an actor.

4 Bright but impulsive and tense. Frustrated, easily in play situations, inconsiderate of children. Holding “gun” saying it is his.

5 Very mad, “I hate myself!” An unhappy and angry kid. Terrible self-concept. Angry, unhappy.

6 Happy rising star in the group– looked better all the time. Agile, coordinated, jumping around room. Shy, but gutsy with care group.

7 Spunky sleeper- more powerful than meets the eye. Competent, quiet, So funny, cute, elf-like.

8 So mean- lack of respect for humans. Angry, mean, playing with cars. Out of control, trying to do better.

9 “High”– difficult to settle and difficult to concentrate. High (hyper). An operator– popular and fast (very elusive).

Social Competence(“Friendships”)

Externalizing (“Attention/Aggression”)

Internalizing (“Mood/Anxiety”)

Externalizing (“Attention/Aggression”)

Internalizing (“Mood/Anxiety”)

Composite studies with thousands of children find these attachment patterns related to

Caveats and Considerations

Development is like Train Tracks and Tree Branches

Image by: https://www.roscalen.com/signals/Shrewsbury/index.htm

You can always switch tracks, but it’s harder to do so the farther you go in any direction.Similar to sentiments expressed by e.g., Professors John Bowlby and Alan Sroufe

Not All Children Are Equally Sensitive to the Environment

Biological Sensitivity to Context // Differential Susceptibility to Context

Negative to Positive Environment

Low S Group

Wel

l Be

ing

Ellis, B. J., et al. (2011). "Differential susceptibility to the environment: an evolutionary--neurodevelopmental theory." Dev Psychopathol 23(1): 7-28.

The Overall Experience Matters

• Stress, social support, nutrition, sleep, excercize, health, developmental stage (and hormones), life changes• For the Child• For the Caregiver

• Behavior is unlikely to be the result of one specific thing–while research predicts at a group level, people are individuals with complex histories, strengths, and challenges

• We must know our children’s contexts• No caregiving is perfect

Just like plants need nurture to grow, any individualized care and concern is a HUGE advantage for any child.

Try not to think about how you may have limited a child’s growth, but rather how important you are to growth’s very existence.

Panel Discussion

Book Recommendations by NLB

Session 3: How do we help children feel safe and ready to learn?

Infants, toddlers, and caregivers: a curriculum of respectful,

responsive, relationship-based care and

educationby Janet Gonzalez-Mena

Coaching Parents of Vulnerable Infants by Mary

Dozier & Kristin Bernard

Aroha’s Way by Craig Phillips

MENDAKI Alliance

Preschool Professionals

MAPP

▪ A network of professionals and educators from the preschool sector.

▪ A platform to build your capacity as preschool

professionals/educatorso Sharing and exchanging of educational resources and best practices

o Keeping to date with the social trends and needs of the MM community

o Teachers training and parent workshops

o Participate in research or studies

o Actively support MENDAKI’s school-ready programmes and initiatives

Come & Register @ http://bit.ly/MAPPMember

Feedback

Please scan the QR code or visit:

https://bit.ly/MENDAKISYMPOSIUMFEEDBACK