Three reasons we should all take the time to listen to young children.

If you have been with us for a while, you probably have noticed a recurrent theme around the importance of listening to young children and entering their fascinating thinking. 

Today, let’s highlight three reasons why we should all listen to young children, parents, grandparents, educators, and more generally, whoever has a chance to interact with a young child, even if just once. 

Listening to young children is fun and refreshing

A picture of cups with plastic bears sorted by colors, except one, a green bear with other read bear. A quote says "Tell me about the green bear with the red bear". The other quote says " He does not want to listen!"
The surprising joy of listening to young children

Let’s start with a light reason that could be an excellent motivation to start listening to young children for people who may not have had a chance yet to enter into a child’s “river of thought”*: it can bring a big smile on the face of the most serious human being. 

I told you about Rosie’s story, sorting bears and leaving out one who did not want to listen”. Someone could have been tempted just to pick up the misplaced bear and move it to the “right” container, but would have missed a good giggle (and much more, see reason #2).

Another story comes from Paul, Rosie‘s brother, when he was 2 or 3 years old, raised in a bilingual French American household. At some point, he got into trucks and knew the names of all of them: loader, excavator, backhoe, etc. Except for the garbage truck, which he would call a poubelle truck. A cute juxtaposition of a French noun and an American noun, a mixture of languages so common among bilingual children, which could have been perceived as a wrong term without further understanding of Paul’s background. For him, it made sense! He knew the word poubelle, which means trash, and the word truck, tada, here comes a poubelle truck.

A collage of three pictures, showing Maurice, a wooden puppet, wondering how to climb up a step. The text says Maurice cannot quite yet climb up the step to go to the Land of Seven Colors. But observing Maurice, it is obvious he does want to take the step! With the guidance of a "more knowledgeable other", Maurice can take the step
Maurice, and the Zone of Proximal Development

Listening to young children gives us clues on how we can extend their learning further

Continuing with Rosie‘s story, the misplacement of the green bear could have been seen as an issue with sorting skills, but prompting Rosie clarified that the misplacement was just related to her endless imagination. Listening to young children allows us to assess where the child is in their learning journey so they can be guided toward the next step. This underscores the pivotal role of early childhood educators, as well as parents, grandparents, and other family members, in empowering children’s learning. The more we understand where they are in their developmental journey, who they are as a young child, the better we can guide them to explore their world further.

We have previously talked about Vygotsky and the “Zone of Proximal Development”, where the child can reach the next step with some guidance. Back then, we took the example of Maurice, one of the Fellows from Rosie’s imaginary world who keeps us grounded into those magic years of early childhood, willing to climb a step to explore the Land of Seven Colors. Observing Maurice showed that he was ready to take the step with the guidance of a “more knowledgeable other”. Another comprehensible example often used to explain the concept is to envision someone gently holding a child’s back biking for the first time until they can be “let go”.

Listening to a child’s thinking opens a plethora of new learning pathways in all domains of development.

Building relationships

Listening to young children contributes to building a solid relationship with them and hence, is an investment in our future

We can all get busy with our lives, but showing our children that we are willing to take the time to slow down and listen to them is a simple, yet significant contributor to building a solid relationship with them. 

Tell me what you are doing. What was your favorite part of your day at school? My day at work was stressful, it is good to be home and cuddle with you.

Which book should we read tonight? What story would you like to hear? 

Hey, want to hear a funny thing I did today?

Remember, these signs of interest and the strong relationship you are building are not just for now. They are an investment for the future, a bond that will pay dividends for years to come. Rosie’s early years are gone, but our bonds are not. 

We will continue to elevate the power of listening to young children, whether they go through joyful, or dark, times. Please do not hesitate to share your experiences with listening to young children with us, either through the comment section or the contact form. What else would you add to the list?

As always, thank you so much for being here, and see you next week!

* Ginsburg, H. (1997). Entering the child’s mind: The clinical interview in psychological research and practice. Cambridge University Press.

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