Here's my interview with Trevor Mattea from New Books in Education in which we discuss the importance of giving full vs. fractured attention, responding to a crying child, play objects and the importance of play -- and a whole lot more! If you'd like to hear about other upcoming interviews, events and workshops, join my list by signing up at the bottom of this page.
When we sit back and observe babies, we notice how tenacious they can be. They accept a certain degree of struggle when they play and don’t give up as quickly as adults might assume. This tenacity can diminish, however, when adults routinely move in to help at the first sign of struggle. A young baby is lying on her tummy stretching to reach a play object that is just beyond her grasp. Because she’s not crawling yet, she can’t move toward the object. We might observe this baby and think to ourselves that she is struggling (woe for the baby!) or we can observe that she is trying to figure out how to reach the object – she is trying to problem-solve, just as a scientist would. As a results-oriented adult, it can be difficult to watch and not hand the object to the baby. After all, if she’s reaching for the object, isn’t the goal to actually grasp it? You might feel incredibly impatient and frustrated. But what if, for the baby, the joy of movement – of stretching and reaching toward the object, articulating her fingers and stretching her legs and toes – is just as important as [...]