Movement allows children to connect concepts to action and to learn through trial and error. This is how we lead children through self-awareness to the skill of reflection. It is important for them to be allowed to move freely, choosing their own activities and participating in self-directed learning. We are running the risk with our increasingly passive learning environments in preschools, of inhibiting the opportunities for children to learn self-awareness and reflection. We do exercises with children where they learn to isolate individual body parts and coordinate others, building on self-awareness with every move. As a Kindermusik educator, I know the importance of movement and musical experiences for young children and the many benefits of moving. Movement is one of the best ways I know of implementing this with young children. Learning – the ability to reflect and instigate change is an essential part of learning How Do We Assist Self-Reflection in Young Children?Īs mentioned before, for young children to be able to self-reflect, they first need to be self-aware.Metacognition – thinking about thinking.Mindfulness – being present in activities and aware of themselves at every moment.In other words, knowing cognitively which coping strategy to implement so their reaction is in keeping with the circumstance. Self regulation – The ability to respond to circumstances and demands with a range of emotions that are in keeping with appropriate social expectations and flexible enough to allow spontaneous reactions as needed.Improving a child’s ability to self-reflect directly impacts on: When play is accompaniment by self reflection, it leads to deeper learning and understanding. There are factors, however that directly influence a child’s ability for self-reflection and those are their developmental age, and their language ability ( Zelazo, 2004). ![]() Developmental research suggests that “there are age related increases in the highest degree of self-reflection” ( Zelazo, 2004). It needs to be conscious and it needs to happen in relation to an experience.īy reflecting on experiences, children are able to implement change by looking at things differently and then changing how they react to a similar experience. Similar to critical thinking, it can’t be learned or practiced in isolation but needs to be in taught in context. So doesn’t it stand to reason that we could use the ability of self awareness to engage and develop reflection abilities? So What is Reflection?įirst, we need to qualify what we mean by reflection. There are many ways to help a child with self awareness, and although they are still learning, we know that young children (younger than 11 years) are self aware. In order for a child to be able to reflect on an event, they must first be self-aware. There is also something else that is developed simultaneously when having the opportunity for self-reflection and that is the ability to develop symbolic thought and to be able to represent ideas. Robson agreed that children who are given the opportunity to self reflect become better at it over time. But it wasn’t until research in 2010 when the concept that children’s opinions and perspectives were important and they were able to reflect on experience and have a subtle understanding of them that more research opened the possibility that self-reflection was possible in younger children ( Buhler-Neiderberger, 2010). The research of Mario Biggeri (2007) showed that “Children from the age of 11 have been shown to have conceptualising abilities that enable them to reflect on their experiences”. Young children explore their world through movement, using all the senses so it is only logical to use what they already know to promote further skills such as reflective practice” DIANA F CAMERON “Movement allows children to connect concepts to action and to learn through trial and error. Although Robson agrees that observation and reflection go hand in hand, the thought was still that children under the age of 11 years did not have the capacity for self reflection. Later research, as late as 2016 backed up this same view ( Robson, 2016). Historically, it has always been believed that young children (under 11 years) do not have the capacity for self-reflection ( Flavell, 1977). But do they reflect on what they are learning? Is reflection part of their learning process? ![]() At first it is just straight mimicking, but as they grow slightly older (around 3 years), they start to play with those words, forming nonsense words, rhyming words and playing with the language in all sorts of ways which teaches new skills. They practice the words and sounds over and over until they have mastered them. The Art of Reflection: Building a Journaling Habitįor example, when learning to speak, a child observes and copies what they see and hear.
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