Teachable Moments

The following is the first in a series of guest blogger posts by Robin Carmody and Yana Lapaix of the Early Childhood Education Department at Bay State College. Robin is the program chair of the department and Yana Lapaix teaches several courses on the education and development of young children. Their series will focus on advice for parents and professionals working with young children.

Teachable Moments

Despite all the idealized images of young children, the hassles and power struggles that occur during a regular day may sometimes create quite challenging situations. This often leads adults to think that the ultimate task is to keep every interaction as planned out and controlled as possible. There is often a lack of balance, where there is either too little or too much discipline – as so commonly documented in the popular Super Nanny episodes. There are a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to understanding the competencies of young children. When we speak of teachable moments, we are actually reversing the perspective and approaching children on their eye level, in their world. Instead of just following an agenda, such as diapering and feeding, we should apply a Buddhist’s perspective and only do that action by living in the moment, e.g. walk when you walk, eat when you eat etc. Rather then hurrying through these moments to quickly get to the next thing on our list, we should remain in the situation and take in all information, just as children do. Make eye contact, reciprocate a smile, involve them in the task and you will be surprised to see how cooperative even “difficult children” can be. In these moments, children learn because they are emotionally involved, and they feel valued, and their motivation is naturally there.

One very important aspect that we can learn here is that young children actually are extremely gifted to learn from every opportunity – especially those that happen in interactions. As research tells us, even young infants are surprisingly competent in creating and modifying their interactions, and so rather than looking at the technical goals that we often prioritize, we may need to focus more on the one on one attention, being there “in the moment”, that children need so much. It may sometimes feel hard, because our habits often blur our vision, and we think that giving this individual attention is too draining. In reality though, these are the moments when we really connect, and the learning experience may be mutual.